NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 8: The Challenge of Cleverness
Ryoshu knelt down on the ground then rolled over clutching his head, looking truly miserable. In desperation, he rolled around with his eyes tightly shut, hoping the pain would subside. But all his efforts were in vain as the pain he felt grew increasingly unbearable.
His senses were becoming abnormally sensitive, causing all information Ryoshu received to be greatly magnified many times over. Taking his hearing as an example, normal sounds like the wind or birds chirping that Ryoshu wouldn't normally pay much attention to now felt as if they were being broadcast through a super-loud speaker.
After rolling around and groaning for a while, he had somewhat adjusted to the incomparable pain. But he still couldn't control his limbs and could only move his fingertips.
"Thank God, it's finally over."
This time Ryoshu tried to move with his arm. His hand began to move gently forward and then swayed back and forth very slowly. In his eyes, Ryoshu's arm split into multiple different versions as if a multi-frame mode had been activated.
'This feeling is so strange... this must be the ability of Godspeed Reflexes, huh?'
He thought his eyeballs were about to pop out of their sockets.
And not just his senses, but his brain was also replaying all the old memories buried deep in his subconscious. Ryoshu felt like he was reviewing all of his experiences simultaneously.
'I should have absorbed them one by one... I was too greedy...'
After resting for a moment, Ryoshu's senses returned to normal. Or more accurately, he had grown accustomed to this new sensation where everything became tens of thousands of times clearer and brighter. His eyes could see farther, specifically from here Ryoshu could still see a leaf gently swaying a hundred meters away.
'I never thought I could see that far... have I become a monster? My five senses have truly been upgraded... but it doesn't feel familiar at all.'
Visual acuity seemed like it would be the most noticeable change, but it wasn't. It was Ryoshu's sense of smell and hearing that had improved to the point where he thought he wasn't human anymore.
Every now and then, he could hear the footsteps of grazing animals nearby. Along with that came the smell of mud and wild grass growing thickly around the gate area, rushing straight into his nose almost suffocating him to death.
Ryoshu tried to breathe slowly to regain his composure and stay clearheaded. When he began to walk, his feet experienced sensations he had never noticed before. Each step made him feel as if someone was tickling his feet.
Ryoshu ignored this by trying to forget the existence of those senses. He stepped out onto the grassy area near the gate and fumbled around for a while looking for something.
During his search, he found some mushrooms and various herbs that could be quite useful later. Whatever he picked up, he conveniently stored all of them in his space ring without fear of it getting full.
'Poisonous mushrooms, Forgetfulness Grass, Echidna Flowers... all items that have no meaning until they're combined with other items... But it's strange, I remember that item was somewhere around here? Or has the game changed its location?'
"Oh! Here it is."
Ryoshu picked up a small, pretty four-leaf clover. Even holding it created a strange feeling for him. Every pore on his hand that touched it made Ryoshu feel quite nauseated.
In real life, four-leaf clovers were extremely rare, but thanks to Mana, which had been integrated into Earth several decades ago, normal creatures from before had evolved according to Darwin's theory and become more "exotic and unique."
"Appraisal."
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[Lucky Four-leaf Clover] (A)
Description: Legend has it that whoever finds it will be granted one wish. Is it simply a legend or not?
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"Now that I've found it, I'll tackle my first dungeon challenge in this world!"
He stretched out his hand to open the stone gate. Since the gate was made of stone, Ryoshu struggled quite a bit to lift it even slightly. But shortly after it moved a small distance, he used that momentum and pressed his entire body against the gate.
The gate opened "quickly" and a cave hidden deep underground was revealed. The gloomy and dark atmosphere gradually replaced the sounds of birds and the smell of wild plants. Torches hung on the walls to help explorers see better. He could clearly hear the crackling of burning fire, like a sign that Ryoshu had entered a completely different world. But he knew well that it was just his own silly thought.
Instead of appearing as gates like dungeons in other games, the Temples were integrated right into the desolate places in Earth's geological layers. And that was exactly why monsters could invade Earth because if the challenge wasn't completed after a certain time, the monsters inside would be able to leave the Temple and devastate human lives.
He had been to this place hundreds of times in the game, but experiencing it with realistic graphics like this gave him a feeling that was both fresh and creepy.
The challenge of this temple was simply to solve puzzles and avoid traps. But it wouldn't be easy at all if this was the explorer's first time. And that wasn't the case with him because Ryoshu had memorized all the shortcuts and traps.
'I just don't know if the information I have... is really reliable.'
The Virtual Reality version was said to have quite a few changes compared to the original PC game version. That was also what worried him most. But the reward for completing this challenge was too good to pass up.
'Alright, finish early and head back. Normally I would only take about 10 seconds if I used movement speed exploits with wall-clipping bugs. But if I can only use shortcuts, it should take about 3 minutes to finish, right?'
Ryoshu started to accelerate his run when suddenly there was a sound from the right wall that surprised even himself with how clearly he could hear it.
"God! I almost forgot about it-!"
Whoosh. A sharp arrow suddenly shot straight out from the wall, nearly hitting his face. If not for Ryoshu's Godspeed Reflexes talent, this poisoned arrow would have grazed his cheek.
The arrow was so powerful that even a slight cut on his skin would have killed him instantly. And although Ryoshu had a way to cleanse abnormal status effects from his body, saving it for another time would be much better than making such a stupid mistake.
Ryoshu carefully picked up the poisoned arrow, examining the arrowhead where he saw some strange liquid that he was certain was poison. After examining it, he quickly stored it in his space ring before making any foolish mistakes.
'This might be quite useful in the future.'
Running a bit further, he fumbled around pressing an invisible button on the stone wall and a door suddenly appeared. This was the shortcut to complete this entire challenge.
'Now I just need to go through this tunnel and it's done... I just hope it hasn't changed too much...'
While the challenge looked very easy, before the trick to overcome it was discovered, this used to be one of the most unfairly difficult challenges. Up to hundreds of millions of Players had died here while attempting this challenge.
But one day, a gamer had discovered that invisible button while randomly right-clicking and accidentally pressed the invisible button. And from the next day, one of the game's most challenging puzzle temples became a joke.
'That was the glorious past of this damn Temple...' - Ryoshu grinned smugly because he too had once been a victim of this wretched challenge.
----0w0----
After a few minutes of walking, Ryoshu had reached the end of the challenge. Everything was so easy that he felt almost no emotion at all.
'But soon I won't be able to complete challenges so easily anymore.'
When completing a challenge, a gate would appear and it would connect to the gate at the exit. But that would only apply to normal Temples; if it was the gate of a Hidden Temple, it would close permanently. Therefore, its exit would lead to another random location.
And of course, there would be a Reward Chest too. That had been his goal all along. The higher the rank of the challenge, the better rewards it would give.
'Not to mention there's an additional bonus reward for completing it well... and with this timeframe, I hope I'll receive that reward...'
Ryoshu opened the chest and a series of items appeared before his eyes.
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[You have completed the Challenge of Cleverness!]
Difficulty: A+
-Clear Reward: [Gold Bar] x5, [Protection Necklace] (A)
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'The rewards are quite standard... I'll probably sell those gold bars to make some money, right?' - He stored the five gold bars in his ring along with the necklace without caring much about them.
Then a ring appeared in mid-air and fell into the palm of his hand.
'This ring... I'll deal with it later.'
He immediately put it away without giving it another thought. Ryoshu had taken it hundreds of times and its function wasn't that great, so he didn't even bother to read the description again.
Because Ryoshu knew full well that it wasn't the entire notification yet. And as expected, the next line of notification immediately appeared before him.
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[Because you completed the challenge in 3 minutes 47 seconds, you receive an additional Bonus Reward fitting your excellent performance!]
Rating: S
Note: How did you know about that invisible button?!
-Bonus Reward: [Extra Stat]: [Adaptation] [Seven-year-old Ginseng Root] (A+)
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"3 minutes 47 seconds? Not bad. But... still far from the world record."
The world record for this A+ Temple was 1 minute 30 seconds when a Player used the Speed Run and Wall-Clipping bugs, but he was trying to save game exploits so he couldn't just use them recklessly or Ryoshu would have used them without restraint.
[Alteration: 1 (Unranked)]
'Perfect, exactly what I needed.'
Ryoshu walked up to stand before a statue near the end of the room. It had the shape of a giant eye that looked very frightening. According to the game, this was the symbol of the God of Fear - Phoborias.
"I hope I won't regret what happens next."
He took out the four-leaf clover he had just picked up. Then Ryoshu bit his finger for a long time with nothing coming out.
'Biting my finger to make it bleed is harder than I thought... and quite painful too.'
Ryoshu took a deep breath and tried to hold his finger firmly to prevent pulling it back. Then he bit his finger very hard. The tangy blood began to flow.
At first, Ryoshu didn't feel anything particularly special. But just a moment later, the pain began to hit. And it was his newly enhanced senses that now made the pain nearly ten times worse.
He suppressed the pain and began using his own blood to write strange characters on the statue.
'QWYUOPLKJHGFDZXCVM.'
And then, Ryoshu quickly took out the four-leaf clover, tore it into pieces, and dropped exactly 3 leaves on top of the statue.
[You have received a new temporary effect!]
[All your current stat points will be added to one specific stat of your choice for 1 minute] [You choose Extra Stat: Adaptation]
[Warning: All other stats will temporarily change to 1 to keep you alive]
Suddenly Ryoshu's body went through what seemed like a degenerative process; he became strangely weak. The already dark cave now seemed even gloomier, creating a very uncomfortable feeling. His legs lost almost all strength and collapsed suddenly.
For a moment, Ryoshu could barely clench his fist anymore. The feeling of helplessness now was worse than when he was dumped by his girlfriend. Remembering that made him feel chillingly disgusted. Especially when Ryoshu remembered the photo of her with her new boyfriend on the very night they broke up.
[Adding 89 units to the Extra Stat Alteration!]
"My calculation was pretty spot on."
After the System issued that notification, Ryoshu somehow gradually became accustomed to the feeling of having all his strength stripped away. The speed at which he adapted to it wasn't natural at all.
'Such a strange feeling... adaptation speed more terrifying than monsters...' - He raised both hands in front of his face and clenched and unclenched them. Even the newly enhanced senses that seemed impossible to get used to had now become a part of Ryoshu's body.
[Alteration: 1 (Unranked) → 90 (SS+)]
Immediately afterward, Ryoshu took the remaining leaf piece and put it in his mouth. He chewed it eagerly as if afraid the effect would wear off. But Ryoshu couldn't hide his face that looked as if he had just eaten straw. One of the most terrible things he had ever put in his mouth.
[Secret condition has been fulfilled!]