Extraordinary Player

Chapter 35: The Final Basic Trial

“Fight! For the treasure chests!

“Oh, wait, I mean, fight! So that I can remain in first place and act cool!

“Ah, no, that’s not right as well. I should fight to become stronger. Yes, to become stronger.”

Qin Guan found that his guess was right: there were indeed multiple maps of trials. Based on the notification from the system, once he cleared the three basic trials in Medium Mode, he could officially activate all the Transcended Gamer’s abilities.

This meant that the body he received after he cleared Jump!! in Medium Mode did not mean that he had become a real Transcended Gamer.

Once he thought about it, he found that the trials were more akin to small tests.

On one hand, the trials allowed all the people to get used to the Transcended Gamers’ unique bodies. They would then get stronger nonstop during the repeats practice, and the trials also trained them in all sorts of abilities.

On the other hand, it was also a filter system. It divided the players into different levels based on their talents and how hard they worked.

“If that’s the case, Jump!! is used to train the players’ mobility and jumping power, and Fruit Cutter is used to train the players’ offensive power and reaction time.

“Then what are the abilities that the final trial will train?”

With some curiosity, Qin Guan entered the final trial in the world in his mind.

It was still a pure white map. However, there were no suspended platforms or hoop-shaped pits this time.

Instead, Qin Guan stood in a huge spherical land. When he looked around, he found that the radius of the sphere was 164 feet. The entire sphere was pale red in color, which made it very eye-catching.

He looked at the goal of the trial.

[Evade]

“Got it. It’s an evasion training this time. Once I clear this trial, I will basically have all my combat abilities unlocked, right?”

Qin Guan pondered over this. Once he cleared the trial, he would be able to run, hit things, and dodge things. He would indeed have quite the comprehensive set of combat abilities…

But he also had a question. “Will the system give me a new item too?”

In the first trial, he chose his body. In the second trial, he chose his weapon. While he felt as if he was trolled, once he got used to it, he felt comfortable with them.

He wondered what the third trial would give him. Would he get to choose the item himself for once?

… Forget it. It was impossible for him to choose the item. Qin Guan had long since become used to the troll system’s unique habits. He just hoped that it would give him an item that was rather presentable.

At this moment, a notification popped up at the bottom left corner of Qin Guan’s field of vision.

[The system has already assigned you the exclusive armor that belongs to the useless person character as you have chosen to go through the trial with the useless person character.]

“Hmm? Exclusive armor that belongs to the useless person character? It sounds really powerful! It’s exclusive!”

While Qin Guan was busy being excited, he heard the sound of something falling on the floor, and he saw a round, wooden pot lid fall in front of him.

“… What.”

He bent down and picked it up. He then observed it and touched it.

‘Hmm… the craftsmanship is very exquisite. The edges are round, and there are no burrs, and the gaps between the boards are very small, so no air will leak out from it. It’s a very good pot lid…

‘… NOT!’ Qin Guan nearly threw the pot lid back down. ‘What I want isn’t a pot lid, but real armor!

‘Even if you gave me a heavily rusted shield or something along the lines of that, I’d tolerate it, but what’s the meaning of giving me a wooden pot lid?! Is this toy even an armor? Huh?!’

Qin Guan even intentionally tapped the pot lid to become certain that the toy was not created by some sacred wood. In the end, it was a normal wooden pot lid made of normal wood…

The only thing that was rather special about it was that there were two words carved on it. [Divine Reflector.]

Qin Guan used his fruit knife to cut it… and it left behind a very clear mark on the pot lid.

“… I am so dead.”

Even though he felt like he had been fooled, Qin Guan soon accepted this fact. After all, it was not the first time since he was trolled by the system.

The only (possibly) good news was that when he held the wooden pot lid in his left hand, it fit quite comfortably, and it was very light and handy.

‘… What a load of bull. Can a piece of wood be heavy now?!’

There was a notification by the system above the [Begin] button.

[Use the shield to reflect, block, and avoid being hit. Try as much as possible to not get hurt.

[The shield has durability. Durability rate will wear down if you block with the shield, but if you reflect the attacks, durability rate will not wear down.

[Your remaining HP and the time you lasted in the trial will determine your final score.]

The rules were very clear. Had to reflect and dodge as much as possible while only blocking when he was forced to do so, because blocking would wear down the shield’s durability.

“Okay. Let’s start.”

Qin Guan held up the wooden pot lid in his left hand and chose to start the trial.

When the three-second countdown began, Qin Guan saw a suspended ball of light appear in the air to his left.

The next moment, that ball of light flew towards him at an incredible speed!

“So… let’s try reflecting it.”

When Qin Guan saw that the ball of light was about to reach him, he quickly swung his left arm outwards, and the pot lid crashed against the ball of light.

However, the scene he imagined in his head—the ball of light being reflected—did not appear. Instead, the wooden pot lid let out a loud crack and shattered into two…

Qin Guan was stunned silent.

[Reflect failed. Block successful. Current durability of wooden shield is 0. Wooden shield has shattered.]

Qin Guan stood dumbfounded in the sphere with his hands empty.

Then, a second red ball of light flew out from behind him and hit the center of his back.

At the upper left corner of his vision was his HP bar, and it dropped straight down to zero.

His score in the trial showed up before him. [0 pts. Time: 0.7s.]

Qin Guan was rendered speechless. “Hey. Aren’t you going overboard? With the first hit, my shield shattered, and with the second hit, I died. No one would design a game like this no matter how hardcore they want it to be…”

Qin Guan was unwilling to give up. He tried again.

This time, he did not look for trouble and try to reflect the attack, because there was a high chance that he would fail, and once he failed, the system would treat his attempt as a block. The problem with that was that this wooden pot lid could only block once…

This meant that Qin Guan could only use his nimble movements and try to avoid the attacks of the balls of light.

While avoiding them, Qin Guan noticed something: the balls of light were in different colors, and delivered different amounts of damage.

The red ball of light could kill him instantly. However, the green, blue, and purple balls of light had different damage. For example, the green ball of light would only take away one-tenth of his HP even if he received the attack head on.

“Hang on, why is it that even though it’s absolutely terrible of them to take away one-tenth of my HP when the weakest green ball hits me, I still feel like I can accept it?”

Qin Guan suddenly noticed that his tolerance for suffering had increased more and more as he went through his ordeals since the discs appeared. He even thought that this concept of the weakest green ball taking away one-tenth of his HP was a very kind act by the system…

Qin Guan lasted for 1.9 seconds on his second attempt before he was struck by numerous balls at once and died on the spot.

In the beginning, Qin Guan thought that the speed of the balls when they charged at him was not fast and he could avoid them, but after the first second, he discovered how wrong he was.

The balls worked on a schedule where they would increase exponentially by the second…

They could also appear anywhere within the sphere that had a radius of 164 feet, and he only had a fraction of a second to react to them, since this was the amount of time required for them to appear and attack.

If that wasn’t enough, every single time nearly one second passed, the number of balls would increase exponentially. When the second second arrived, Qin Guan’s vision was filled with balls of all sorts of colors. He was nearly blinded by them.

“Ah… I should just watch how the pro played.”

Qin Guan quietly opened the battle record.