Chapter 136: The Possibilities
--
Ren stayed true to his word.
He called Mikel whenever he could to make him less worried about his state. He didn’t manage to keep his promise of calling every single night, but that was excused given what he faced out here.
Ren was making the most out of this situation. Currently, he’s got the experience boost active, and he was milking it for all of its worth.
Because he had enough necessities before coming here, Ren didn’t have to waste points buying those. Instead, on the very first night, he managed to save up enough points to buy the experience boost and has kept it active ever since.
He even earned enough to start saving up for the more expensive Sky Archon Arts. Nothing else in the store was tempting for him.
Ren hasn’t died yet. Thanks to the Chakra Sensing Technique 1.0, he always managed to find where the sky archon pieces are located, meaning that he ’cleared’ each night just fine.
He was never in a hurry with this. He takes his time and fights through hordes of zombies to gain as many points as he can. He would collect the first four Sky Archon pieces available around him and leave the final piece alone.
Ren would purposefully prolong each ’night,’ forcing him to face growing hordes of zombies with more variants.
He was pressured immensely each night. The longer the night went on, the worse the zombies got. They became stronger, tougher, faster, and a bit smarter.
The variant zombies offer an added challenge and threat to his life. Ren had no inclination to pull back his punches here because he couldn’t afford it.
This trial ground demanded everything out of him, and Ren was loving it.
He had suffered through gangrene and necrosis, but his powerful vitality managed to keep them at bay. His Green Lotus Core Chakra and physique worked double time to prevent his flesh from rotting like the undead do.
Ren threw out punches that impacted the sound barrier left and right. He tore through hordes of zombies like he was some sort of a war god who’s right where he wants to be.
His young chakra network sprouted new roots and branches; his chakra volume increased; the flow was smoother and faster; and it lasts longer than before. He was becoming more like a perpetual motion machine.
One that not even hordes upon hordes of zombies could stop.
Because of this, Ren’s current realm stabilized at the early Marrow Cleansing Stage in just a month. This was because of the 6× training speed. Without it, Ren would’ve had to spend at least half a year to make this much progress if he were outside.
This was the whole reason why Ren prepared meticulously for this event. It did alter the timeline of this world again, slightly, but he doesn’t care anymore.
In the original story, the disappeared children wouldn’t have been contacted until after half a year, and it’s only because someone finally managed to stop procrastinating and used the world system to make a call—exactly just like Ren did, only he did so much earlier because he wasn’t an incompetent asshole.
Also, in the canon timeline, nobody would manage to inherit the Godly Sky Archon’s inheritance at all. They all thought that it was way too difficult because of the setting.
The closer one is to piecing the whole thing together, the harder this trial becomes. At one point, they would even start surrounded with various zombies already.
Undead Sky Archons will also begin to appear much earlier. And they are the most dangerous enemies one could find in here.
The Undead Sky Archons were smart. They can’t speak, but their movement indicates full awareness of their situation. They could fly very fast and are not afraid to use that to their advantage.
Sky Archon Arts were essentially no different from martial arts, just with a different name and terminology. An undead that could fight like a martial artist? That sounds like a fever dream and a nightmare at the same time.
Yet that becomes the truth here.
At some point, he will be mobbed by only Sky Archons. Even in their undead forms, they will test the closest person to their lord’s inheritance to see if they’re really worth it.
The Sky Archon pieces will no longer be in the surroundings; the Undead Sky Archons will have them for safekeeping. Only by killing them would one receive it.
In the canon timeline, this was one of the biggest trials/walls that the hero faced at the start. He will arrive here ’accidentally,’ feeling confident and excited since he just recently had his comeback and was on a swift rise to catch up with other geniuses.
He will think that he will be the one who deserves to know the secrets this place was guarding. He thinks that it’s fated with him since he has been here. But reality will humble him real good here.
This trial ground was essentially used for his character development while also giving him a shortcut to catch up with other geniuses, because he did manage to inherit the Godly Sky Archon’s legacy...barely.
But since Ren was here, how could he possibly let this chance slip away?
So what if this puts him directly in the way of the ’Hero’? This Godly Sky Archon’s legacy wasn’t meant for a ’lucky’ person. It’s meant for the strong.
How could he let some upstart with delusions of grandeur get in his way? So what if he’s the destined ’hero’? Ren had absolutely no desire to worship the ground he stepped on.
He’s here to do his thing. His purpose was much greater than somebody’s whose only real desire was to prove that he wasn’t trash like everybody said he was.
Ren could ensure that he would do right by the godly Sky Archon’s inheritance. Even if Vordt were still alive, he would pick Ren over that guy.
He wouldn’t even apologize for getting in his way. The strong moves forward, the weak stays behind. That’s how it’s always been.
**
More time passes by, and at some point, the crisis everyone felt about the disappearances was completely gone.
Of course, some families are still worried, but since they’re able to check the status of the children through the world system, it isn’t as bad as before.
By now, instead of calling them missing, people just thought that they were in some sort of a boot camp instead. One where their practice speed will be accelerated up to three times.
It’s actually a bit humorous that those who used to comfort themselves, calling themselves lucky for not being taken away like others, were now lamenting the missed opportunity.
Now, they too wanted to get into the same place where the geniuses were taken. Those that made a lot of noise were the ones who just broke through to Pulse Awakening and could’ve qualified as well.
It’s even worse for those who knew somebody weaker than them and was taken. Now, they’re plagued with the idea that, in a year’s time, that friend of theirs will return much stronger and tougher than them.
If only they knew about this ahead of time.
Concerns were raised because of this. More and more people were asking if it’s possible to send more people. They feel like this opportunity should be more accessible to everybody, not just the geniuses. They reasoned that it would be of immense help to human civilization as a whole.
Some even started researching more about the Sky Archons and their arts. There were some who already bought copies of the Sky Archon Arts and sent a copy to their families.
This circulated online, and people couldn’t help but notice that the Sky Archon Arts and Martial Arts were practically the same. The energy they used is different, but they behaved the same.
Some people have tried and actually managed to use the Sky Archon Arts using chakra instead. This meant that it was indeed plausible.
Which brings this to an ever bigger revelation...
The trial grounds were created by a loyal right-hand man who wanted to leave his lord’s legacy behind.
Although it might be far-fetched, people are starting to liken the godly Sky Archon to martial gods.
If this was true, and the legacy of this individual could really be inherited in that place, doesn’t this also mean that the youth in there basically had the highest chance of getting something equivalent to a godly martial art?
Wasn’t it already proven that Sky Archon Arts could be modified very easily into martial arts instead?
If this all happens to be true, then what an immense opportunity this truly was!
The 3× training speed was already mind-boggling; that is something that is not easily accessible to the human world. The best part is that it has no caveats, no side effects, or sacrifices that must be made either. Just be there and train.
They could even double it by killing enough zombies to earn points.
And now, those geniuses also have the closest access to, possibly, godly martial arts too?
How can anybody not be moved by that?
