Chapter 37: I Actually Overtook the Others?
“Darn it! The last trial is so hard!”
Qin Guan was browsing through the forum when he heard Su Xiaoyu wailing in her bedroom.
Two days had passed since the third trial was launched. During them, just like Su Xiaoyu, Qin Guan had been immersed in training and could not get himself out of it even if he tried.
However, something unforeseen happened. Su Xiaoyu was suddenly stuck.
In the previous two trials, she had cleared the Medium Mode of the trial basically on the day it was launched and received her stage clear rewards. It was the case for Jump!!, and it was even more so for Fruit Cutter.
However, up to now, she still had not managed to clear the third trial in Medium Mode.
‘Strange, is the trial so difficult? It doesn’t feel that much different compared to the last two.’
Qin Guan was puzzled.
To his surprise though, Su Xiaoyu was not the only one. All of the others were also stuck at the Medium Mode of the third trial.
Over the past few days, Qin Guan would browse through the forum when he was free and had nothing to do to read about the progress of the best group of people on the ranking board.
His record was still at the top for the previous two ranking boards. The person in second place constantly changed, but there was always a great difference between their scores and Qin Guan’s score.
Whenever the gap shortened a little, as long as Qin Guan was in a good mood, he would clear the map again, and the distance would immediately become even greater…
The competition in the third ranking board was just as fierce. The number one title constantly changed hands, but no matter how many times it was transferred, no one managed to clear Medium Mode.
Even the most talented students in the chat group of the official class Qin Guan belonged to grumbled. [What’s up with this trial? Just what went wrong with my playing?!]
The players in the first page of the ranking board had lasted for around 4.1 seconds the day before. After a night of training, they had managed to last until 4.3 seconds.
They could clear the trial if they lasted five seconds, but no one managed to reach the fifth second.
Forget a whole extra second, those genii all stated that they needed every ounce of their strength to increase even 0.1 second after the fourth second!
Sometimes, skill was not the deciding factor in whether they could renew their highscore, but luck. Those with better luck could increase their highscore by 0.2 seconds, but most of the time, everyone’s luck was simply horrible.
Qin Guan was puzzled, since he felt that things were going very smoothly for him. After training for the last couple days, he felt that he was now very good at reflecting the balls of light.
He did not practice just one single skill, however. Instead, he made sure that his body would instantly move into position and reflect the attacks from all directions no matter what posture he used in the previous moment. He had to also master the different reflection time for the balls of light that traveled at different speeds.
Even though Qin Guan did not intentionally try to score any points, his survival time increased little by little. Soon, he would reach the third second.
Once he could dodge and reflect the balls of light at the same time, his score would definitely jump forward.
That was what puzzled Qin Guan. Why was it that the other people seemed to be progressing slower than him this time even though they were much faster than him in the previous two trials?
Qin Guan clicked a holographic video of the third ranking board, and he instantly understood the reason.
The holographic video he chose belonged to the highest ranked player among all those who had uploaded them. He was number nine in the ranking board, and he played using the athlete character. In the video, he had a thick, black, metal shield to handle the attacks that came at him from all sides.
His defence was composed mainly of dodging and blocking. In the beginning, there were fewer balls of light, and he could dodge them, but later on, when more balls showed up, he could only lift his black shield and take the attacks head on.
However, once he defended for around four seconds, the durability rate of the huge, black, metal shield dropped to zero, and the man became a sitting duck in front of the different colored balls of light.
Qin Guan then looked at the holographic videos in the later pages, and he discovered that they were about the same. Everyone played by defending, and once their shields broke, they died.
Qin Guan wondered whether they were led on the wrong track by the Transcended Gamer who ranked at ninth place or whether they started the trial with the wrong character.
The shield provided by Map of Trials 3 was based on the character they started the game with. For example, since Qin Guan started the game with the useless person character, he was given a wooden pot lid, and those who chose the athlete character were given the heaviest black metal shield.
Qin Guan suddenly realized that these people might have tried to reflect the balls of light, but the shield was simply not easy to use!
Since its weight was much greater than that of the wooden pot lid, their movements were very clumsy when they used it to reflect the balls.
They had it easier when there were fewer balls in the beginning, but once more balls appeared, it was simply impossible for them to reflect them.
They had to have tried to reflect the balls, but found that it was very difficult to use, which was why they decided to give up on it and switched to blocking and evading them.
An increasing number of people used this method to clear the trial on the ranking board, and it led the people who ranked below them on the wrong track as well. Because of that, everyone walked further and further down the wrong path…
Of course, the people who started the game with different characters had different shields. For example, office workers used a medium-sized metallic shield, while students used a round leather shield.
The smaller the shield was, the lower its defense and durability. However, in relation to that, the shield was also more nimble, and it was also easier for them to reflect the balls of light.
However, when compared to Qin Guan’s wooden pot lid, it was much more difficult to reflect the balls of light with the other shields, even with the round leather shield.
The people still had yet to abandon their idea ti clear the trial through dodging. They did not specifically practice reflecting the balls of light like Qin Guan, and it was only normal for them to be stuck at the final second.
‘I see. The design of this trial is ingenious.’
Qin Guan could not help all sorts of emotions that rose within him. The rules of the trial were simple, but in truth, they were filled with traps.
If Qin Guan had not watched the pro’s battle record, he might have been stuck in an even worse predicament than the other players.
‘My reflection training is almost complete. It’s time for me to climb to the top.’
Qin Guan practiced reflecting the balls of light one last time, and he was pretty satisfied with his condition.
This time, he decided to make lasting for as long as possible his goal and began the trial.
At the start, the number of balls was rather small. Qin Guan did not take the risk to reflect them. Instead, with very stable footwork, he avoided all of them.
Soon, the balls of light around him began to increase in number.
The next moment, they charged towards Qin Guan from all directions. He instantly deduced where the weakest spot of the barrage was and positioned himself to reflect the balls. The wooden pot lid immediately sent back a red ball of light!
It flew to the spot Qin Guan had decided upon earlier. It knocked into the other balls of light and created a chain of explosions!
The red ball of light contained very powerful energy. It crushed the other balls of light before finally disappearing. This left a clear path for Qin Guan.
He did not stop once he reflected that ball of light. He then accurately reflected three other balls of light that flew towards him with the wooden pot lid in his hand. One of them was red and the other two were orange. In an instant, they were all sent in the direction of the explosion!
At the same time, Qin Guan leaned forward in that direction!
Countless balls of light exploded when they collided against each other. From the distance, it looked like Qin Guan had been engulfed by explosions. However, when the light disappeared after a moment, not a single hair on his body was touched.
The reflected balls of light had cleared out a space that was enough for him to seek refuge. Once he hid in that spot, he could avoid all the other balls of light.
But that moment of safety was gone in an instant. Qin Guan swung his wooden shield again and reflected another ball of light!