Chapter 8: History
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
On the way home, Qin Guan used his terrible phone to surf the net for some information. The trial that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere brought mass panic to the people.
It was indeed very frightening. The moment they closed their eyes, their consciousness would sink into another world, and not only would they be able to go on any adventure they liked in another body in this world, they could return to the real world at any moment they wanted. No matter how they thought about this, this matter could not be explained by science or the knowledge they had about the world.
The intense debates online had not stopped since the appearance of the mobile AI systems. With the trial, they only seemed to become even more intense.
“This is definitely a huge conspiracy! We have to fight against this temptation, including listening to the enchanting words of the mobile AI systems!”
“There is no such thing as a free lunch. There is a high chance that this is one of those brain-in-a-jar thought experiments. We can’t let the masterminds have their wishes fulfilled!”
There was always an audience for conspiracy theories. If some fabricated rumors could gain a wide audience in the past, it was even more at a time when such a strange thing had happened to everyone in the world. It was basically impossible for most people to retain their rationality.
Many people cried out to the public in an attempt to remind other humans to remain alert toward the mobile AI systems and the fact that they could immerse themselves in the worlds in their minds to go through the trials. Among them were many influential people, opinion leaders as well as experts and scholars.
Clearly, this problem that did not fit with any sort of logic and could not be explained with any conventional form of reasoning surpassed even the limits of understanding possessed by experts and scholars.
However, even though there were plenty of people crying out to the others to remain wary of the AIs, their effects were insignificant, because their voices could at most affect only tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people, while the mobile AI systems existed in every single person’s minds. They constantly used different tactics to ‘brainwash’ every human on earth.
When people read the conspiracy theories online, their mobile AI systems would use a completely objective and emotionless voice to denounce them, and it would also point out how ridiculous they sounded with clear reasoning and a clear train of thought. People were simply unable to refute their logic.
Even though mobile AI systems could not explain where they came from, they had plenty to say when it came to refuting various conspiracy theories.
In a situation in which they were uncertain what they should do next, most people chose to quietly attempt the trial. In fact, they even treated it as a new form of entertainment while they waited for the bus, subway, airplane, or while they rested at lunch break…
Whenever they had time, everyone would have their consciousness sink into the trial, and they would jump back and forth between the platforms.
It was actually quite fun, and it was a great way to spend their time.
There was even a group of people online who had already begun sharing their experiences, including how they should start the game, the techniques they should use when they leaped across the platforms, the way they should use their strength, and so on.
Athletes, especially long jump ones, had an exceptionally great first mover advantage in this area…
For the moment though, no one had cleared any of the difficulties, and that included the Novice Mode difficulty level.
This was because even the Novice Mode difficulty became very complex when players reached the later challenges. As of then, someone online claimed that they had managed to reach the seventy-something platform, but it was obvious that they still had a long way to go before they could clear the stage.
However, when Qin Guan considered the fact that the trial had only started around an hour ago, this person’s progress could be considered as extremely fast.
The thought that he himself was only at the fourth platform filled him with despair.
When he returned home, he discovered that his house was exactly the same as it was when he had left it in the morning. Su Xiaoyu had to go to her workplace in the afternoon, so when she came back, it might already be around eight or nine. Hence, Qin Guan could only deal with dinner by himself.
After all, the ‘Death by Overwork Package Deal’ that was dinner plus overtime plus travel reimbursement all wrapped into one combo package had gradually become the norm in modern world companies. Qin Guan strongly suspected that nine-to-five office workers no longer existed in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai.
He washed the dishes that had been immersed in soap water since the morning and did a little housekeeping. In the end, he stuffed a soda can into a trash bag and threw it away before returning to the house to take a bath.
Once he was done, Qin Guan searched for a comfortable position to lie down on the couch in preparation to continue the trial.
This was a good habit he had developed in his gaming life. Every single time before he played games, he would first clean up his surroundings, wash his hands and face, and often even take a bath and change his clothes to ensure that his body and mind were at their best.
Of course, there was another very important reason why he did all this. It was because he hoped that he would appear to be fairer once he washed himself and could pretend to be a Westerner.
His dorm wasn’t too noisy, but his dormmates just had to gather once every few minutes to talk about their progress, and it affected him considerably. At home though, no one bothered him, and he could finally bring out his true abilities.
“So what if it’s difficult? I’m going to prove that some people get first place in whatever they play!”
When he entered the trial grounds, Qin Guan turned into the useless person who was dressed in nothing put a pair of tattered shorts.
The next platform was much easier to reach, so Qin Guan managed to land on it after two tries.
However, when he saw the sixth platform, the difficulty spiked up again. The next platform was shaped like a flight of stairs when seen from the side. The surface facing Qin Guan was a slope, and it was as smooth as a mirror. There was, however, a green, horizontal bar on the slope, and it looked like it was made of a material that he could step on.
“Tsk… so this means that I have to jump so that my feet would land at the correct angle, and the way I put forth my strength must ensure that I step on that green horizontal bar to be considered to have landed on the platform?”
Qin Guan sucked in a sharp breath. The challenge grew in intensity the further he progressed!
It was impossible for him to land at the top of the next platform with a jump because the useless person did not have enough jumping power. He could, however, land on the slope, but if he landed on the mirror, he would definitely slide down. On top of that, if his posture when he stepped on the green bar was wrong, he would not be able to instantly use the momentum to jump again and would simply slide down.
“The conditions are really strict here.”
Qin Guan did not think for too long. Once he understood the principle behind the platform, he did a short run-up and jumped!
And jumped!
And jumped again!
…
After falling around twenty times, Qin Guan sat down on the fifth platform and began to question his life.
While he had visibly improved during the last few jumps, he had only been able to step on the green bar. This had led him to discover that the friction over there was much weaker than what he had imagined.
As to using his momentum to jump again at the instant he stepped on the bar?
He had to commend himself for his imagination, because reality was really harsh.
When he calculated it carefully, he had fallen at least a hundred times since the start of the trial. It could be said that he spent most of his time either falling or about to fall…
Qin Guan did not know how others were doing, but they surely did not suffer as badly as he did…
Right when Qin Guan sank into despair, he suddenly noticed that a small row of words had appeared at the bottom right corner of his vision.
[History]
He chuckled in his heart. ‘Are you trying to tell me that I died too many times so you recorded every single one of them in order for me to reflect on my mistakes? What a caring system I have here…’
Qin Guan clicked the [History] icon, and a small page appeared on the right side of his vision. There were a hundred records there, and each of them corresponded to each time Qin Guan had jumped.