Chapter 17: I Am the Weak
After finishing his noodles and returning home, the wonderful throbbing in his heart had finally dissipated. Ren Suo calmed down enough to understand what had just happened.
If Ren Suo hadn't guessed incorrectly, it must have been because of the "Key Search System." When he was outside, the person who gave him that throbbing sensation must have been someone who could acquire a key.
Until now, Ren Suo was still unclear which people could produce keys. However, from the examples of Mo Zhaolong and Li Dan, he knew that individuals capable of generating keys were at least stronger than him, an ordinary college student, not particularly athletic. This indicated that the "Armed Seizure" route was practically unfeasible.
Unless he could obtain some better rewards in the game.
Thus, Ren Suo didn't dwell on it and instead continued to progress in the game "If You Are Strong, Climb Ten Thousand Meters." After reaching the checkpoint at 2048 meters, Ren Suo realized his speed had increased significantly. Previously, he could ascend at most 2 meters per minute; now, he could ascend 2 meters in just half a minute.
The prerequisite was that the Truth Seeker kept moving.
At this stage, the platforms on screen weren't as dense as during the first two thousand meters. Ren Suo had already died once. He hadn't used enough force, so the Truth Seeker failed to reach the target platform. With no platform below either, the Truth Seeker plummeted to the bottom of the screen, resulting in a game over. He had to start again from the checkpoint.
Another time, Ren Suo controlled the Truth Seeker to jump. This time, he used too much force and overshot. Just as the Truth Seeker was about to fly past the edge and fall due to slightly overshooting, the stick figure suddenly turned around and grabbed the edge of the platform.
Ren Suo then remembered the Female Seeker had a trait: "Female: Can react quickly in a crisis." But after watching the stick figure for dozens of hours, he'd completely forgotten he was controlling a female character...
When the Truth Seeker had climbed to about 3000 meters, Ren Suo discovered a hidden piece of information: as the direction of the Truth Seeker's movement changed, some white markers on the altitude bar turned gray.
When the Truth Seeker jumped to the left, the marker at 5896 meters would turn gray; when the Truth Seeker jumped to the right, the marker at 6853 meters would turn gray.
This meant there were two diverging paths. The checkpoints on the left path were completely different from those on the right path. Once one path was chosen, the checkpoints of the other path couldn't be activated unless he returned to the checkpoint at 2048 meters.
Ren Suo arbitrarily chose a path. When he reached 4000 meters, his speed increased again; if he moved at full speed, he could climb 5 meters in a minute.
However, the journey became increasingly difficult, and Ren Suo encountered a "trap" for the first time.
It was a gray platform, its color less deep than the others. When the Truth Seeker jumped onto it, the platform suddenly crumbled. Ren Suo instinctively pressed jump again, and the Truth Seeker managed to leap up, just able to grab the edge of another platform, narrowly surviving.
Ren Suo gasped. If I had fallen, those ten hours would have been wasted...
Ten hours!?
Ren Suo looked up and realized it was almost midnight. He quickly took out his phone to order takeout and continued playing. After all, he had only woken up in the afternoon and was still wide awake.
By the time he reached 4500 meters, Ren Suo saw other people.
Other stick figures.
These stick figures didn't move like the Truth Seeker by jumping directly on platforms. Instead, they walked along another path, not displayed on screen, ascending slowly.
The Truth Seeker passed them, but when their paths crossed, these stick figures stopped.
"This is a fully equipped team, and they are discussing you," the game displayed a strange message.
Ren Suo paused for a moment. Seeing they weren't moving, he decided to continue jumping upwards.
The path ahead also had those gray platform traps, but they weren't especially difficult to deal with. However, when he reached 4800 meters, he saw another group of stick figures approaching from behind. Unlike the previous group, these stick figures moved very quickly, whizzing past the Truth Seeker.
Ren Suo saw these stick figures seemed to be on some kind of vehicle, perhaps a car...
"MEOW MEOW MEOW?" Ren Suo exclaimed, dumbfounded. "You can do that?"
Just as Ren Suo wondered if he'd missed a location where he could have obtained such a vehicle, the group of stick figures drove back.
"Need help?" a dialogue box from the stick figures popped up.
Then, the dialogue options Ren Suo had come to expect appeared:
① "No need."
② "No, thanks."
...That was all.
"What kind of options are these!" Ren Suo ranted wildly. "They all mean no!"
However, Ren Suo discovered that selecting a dialogue option didn't execute it immediately. He still had to press [Confirm], and at this point, he could even choose the other option.
So the Truth Seeker said, "No need. No, thanks."
The stick figures' convoy remained stationary. However, as Ren Suo guided the Truth Seeker upward, they also departed.
Finally, at 4 AM, Ren Suo managed to control the Truth Seeker to reach the 5896-meter checkpoint!
Reaching a checkpoint felt like completing a major life goal for Ren Suo, and he relaxed completely.
Interestingly, the checkpoint at 5896 meters was different from the one at 2048 meters. The platform at this checkpoint—which spanned the entire screen, ensuring no one could fall off—was crowded with other stick figures.
This checkpoint had its own unique name: Base Camp.
Those stick figures seemed very surprised to see the Truth Seeker. They gathered around, continuously producing speech bubbles. However, the speech bubbles appeared and vanished so quickly that Ren Suo couldn't read their contents.
Ren Suo put down the controller and went to sleep. He didn't wake up until 11 AM the next day, feeling so hungry he could eat a horse. He hurried downstairs to grab a bowl of noodles to appease his stomach. The lady downstairs saw him and immediately said, "Two large bowls of beef brisket zhajiangmian, right?"
Ren Suo was also a bit surprised by how voracious his appetite had become. Though somewhat of a homebody, he wasn't overweight, yet his appetite had recently skyrocketed.
Returning home to continue "If You Are Strong, Climb Ten Thousand Meters," Ren Suo found that on the large platform at the 5896-meter checkpoint, the stick figures were no longer crowding around the Truth Seeker.
After playing for two days, Ren Suo realized this game seemed to possess a unique kind of magic power. Although the Truth Seeker could only jump, the amount of force and the direction of each jump required skill.
For example, before reaching the platform at the 5896-meter checkpoint, Ren Suo encountered a brittle gray platform directly in his path. If he wanted to ascend safely, he would have had to make a small detour to the right, into unknown territory. However, Ren Suo chose to challenge the gray platform directly. He had the Truth Seeker jump onto it and, just before it shattered, immediately charge another jump, achieving a Double Jump!
The Physical Strength bar was barely enough, but this risky approach was indeed exhilarating!
Now, with the journey more than halfway complete and each jump almost certainly raising his altitude by a meter, Ren Suo was very excited.
Good, I'm going to beat this game today!