Bab 13: Some People Enjoy Life, Some People Suffer
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Qin Guan and Su Xiaoyu ate breakfast while watching television.
What shocked them was that the morning news was still talking about the discs.
The words chosen for it had been selected very careful. The spokesperson only mentioned that it was an unsolved matter that affected the whole world and that all the scientists were currently looking for a countermeasure. As for the mobile AI, trials, changes in the people's physical attributes, and the other effects brought by the discs, none of them were mentioned.
In truth, from this alone, it could be seen that the countries' views toward this matter were rather conflicting.
They could definitely not hide it. This thing had appeared on every single person's temples, so there was no way that anyone could lock down the news.
However, they did not want to spread this wildly as well for fear of mass panic. Hence, they could only use carefully selected words to placate the public in hopes to make them stop discussing this matter.
But Qin Guan was very puzzled. Could such efforts even placate the public? Soon, the whole world would know that people could get stronger if they cleared the system's trials, righ?
Even though Qin Guan did not know how many players had cleared Medium Mode and gained new bodies, it was a fact that Su Xiaoyu had cleared it the day the map was opened to the public. This meant that the difficulty level of the trial itself was at most moderate.
No matter how bad the others were, they should be able to complete the trial in five, ten, or twenty days at most, unless the map shut down halfway through.
Based on the current situation, there would be more and more players who would clear Medium Mode in the upcoming couple of days. At that time, one out of ten people would have transformed like Su Xiaoyu, and this news would be known to the whole world…
Once they finished breakfast, Su Xiaoyu slung her bag over her shoulder. "I'll go to work now. I should be able to get back early tonight. Remember to wash the dishes."
While clearing the table, Qin Guan said, "I'm going to tutor tonight."
"Right, you did mention that your tutoring session has been rescheduled to tonight." Su Xiaoyu flipped her hair in an elegant motion and opened the door. "That's perfect, I'll make braised pork ribs tonight."
Qin Guan was once again rendered speechless.
He washed the dishes and cleaned the table. Once he finished all his chores, he looked at the time and found that it was not even eight o'clock yet.
He exercised, then picked up his phone to go to his Moments, as was his habit.
He found that the messages in his Moments had gone up to the thousands, and they were all uploading one short video. Qin Guan clicked on it and found that it was a video from his university's basketball court. It seemed to have been recorded at around six in the morning.
A student dressed in a tank top and shorts of an athlete showed off his skills in the basketball court, and his actions were recorded. Right away, the video went trending.
It had to be said that everyone woke up very early… They had started sharing the video in their Moments at around seven in the morning. No matter how one looked at it, this did not seem like the schedule of a university student…
Qin Guan watched the basketball skills displayed in the video and sucked in a sharp breath. It was terrifying and magnificent at the same time…
Dribbling, running, shooting, and dunking. The young man did all the moves in one breath, and while his moves were cool, that was not the main point. The main attention grabbed was his incredible speed!
When the person performed the dribble, he had afterimages, and the height of his jump was off the charts. It was clear that he was not even five feet nine inches tall, but with a simple jump, he managed to perform a dunk.
And it could be seen that he had held back. He was perhaps worried that if he broke the hoop, he would have to pay for repairs…
He was clearly testing the limits of his body. Even though his skills were good, it was clear that while his strength and speed had all increased, he had yet to adapt to using them.
Even so, this was already terrifying.
Everyone in Qin Guan's Moments had liked the video, and a bunch of people commented on it.
[Hey, is that the guy from the Department of Mathematics who's really good at basketball? What's his name? It has just been a few days since I last saw him… Didn't his muscles grow a little too quickly? And what's with that speed?]
[This is the reward you get once you complete Medium Mode! He chose to be an athlete, look at his clothes.]
[What the heck, was it that crazy? We're going to be up against the Department of Mathematics in the basketball match next week! How are we supposed to fight against that? Even if five of us mark him, we still won't be able to stop him!]
[I can only say this: you can also get the body if you work hard now and clear Medium Mode. You can use brute force to win against brute force in these sort of scenarios…]
It was clear that the person in the video was the same as Su Xiaoyu, born talented.
It was also a possibility that he had worked for an entire night and only managed to clear Medium Mode in the morning.
Qin Guan could imagine what was happening. Every single person in the dorms had lain in their bed like a corpse to train, and in the blink of an eye, the next day had arrived…
The world was in a mess.
And everyone seemed to have noticed how to differentiate the people who had completed the tests. Aside from their clothing, there was another key characteristic that set them apart—the disc on their temples.
Once they became their characters, the discs on their temples disappeared.
No, that was the wrong word; they had only been hidden away. With that, it was obvious the people who did not have discs on their temples were definitely players who had cleared Medium Mode and changed into their new bodies.
If they used their real bodies, the discs would still be around.
The appearance of the first batch of genius players stimulated everyone's desire for success. Many people even had their minds wander into the world of the trial during classes and continued training. They worked hard to receive their new bodies sooner.
After all, the players who cleared the stage and those who hadn't were basically two different species now.
Many people in Qin Guan's class chat spoke about this matter, and he could imagine this sort of discussion being held in all corners of the world among all sorts of people with different professions. His university was definitely not the only one.
Qin Guan did not pay too much attention to the changes. To him, the most important thing right then was clearing his own trial.
If the whole world was truly about to be turned upside down, it was obvious that the more powerful a person was, the more advantages they would gain.
It was just like in school. Instead of paying attention to how much other people scored after a test, it was better for him to put that time and energy into correcting his own mistakes.
...
He shut his eyes, and when he opened them, it was noon.
Qin Guan stood up and stretched his back. He noticed that his Friends' circle was no longer the same as it was in the morning. Many were now wailing and crying.
[This trial is too hard! Are those who cleared Medium Mode still humans?!]
[This is the first time I felt that playing a game is so hard. I'm about to give up. Someone come and comfort me, please. Gosh, darn it, stop liking my post! If you like my post, I'm going to blacklist you!]
[After an entire afternoon's worth of effort, I have gained a lot. One of the main things is that my state of my heart has improved a lot. Now… I have decided that I should just settle down and continue studying hard.]
Clearly, most of the people had gained the misconception of being able to clear the challenge as well when they saw the first batch of genius players clear Medium Mode, but, soon, they discovered the harshness of the real world.
To some people, the trial was pure torture. They kept trying and failing, and the key was that they did not know the reason behind their failure. In time, they might even lose their reason for working so hard to clear the stage.
This feeling was not something that came to them straight away, but when they failed at the same platform hundreds or even thousands of times.
By then, some might have already become numb from all the falling.
The trial was not easy. In fact, determination and resolve would only make some people suffer more.
-- Hadiah diterima