Show Me the Money

Chapter 168 – Elemental Trial – Metal Forest

In the vast forest of swords, each sword was several meters high with their tips pointing straight, and resonating clanging sounds. Countless silver lights flickered, coldly piercing Fatty’s eyes. The sky, the ground, the entire space gave off a silver gleam.

“First stage of the Elemental Trial, Metal Forest. Starting now.”

With the command from the timeworn voice, the sword forest began to operate. Endless strings of clanging rang out by Fatty’s ears. All of a sudden, a sword light shot up high, then abruptly dived at him like a streak of lightning.

Puff. Without any time to react, the sword pierced through Fatty’s heart and insta-killed him.

Whoosh! A white light flashed. Fatty didn’t reincarnate at the respawn point, but at the spot where he’d first entered the Elemental Mystery Realm.

“Dead. 49 lives left. Preparing to re-enter the trial.”

The same old voice echoed around Fatty.

“Wait, wait!” Fatty hastily shouted. “The trial fails when reaching 50 deaths at one stage or all five stages put together? What’s the standard for passing?”

“Dying over 50 times at one of any stages is deemed failure. The count resets when entering the next stage. As for the standard for passing, no comment. The player is expected to figure it out on their own.”

The voice was ever emotionless before sending Fatty back into the Metal Forest.

“Trial starting now.”

Whoosh. Another sword light shot out from the forest.

Fatty was prepared this time. The instant the sword emerged, he bent his knees and jumped to the side.

Zooom. The sword light flew right past Fatty’s body, sweat falling down his forehead as he flew to the side.

After dodging the first one, Fatty didn’t even get to catch his breath before two more hurled themselves toward him.

“Damn it!” Fatty only had enough time for a short curse before rolling down on the ground, barely managing to dodge the two sword lights.

“This can’t be?” Fatty groaned as he saw four more swords rise to confront him right after the previous two disappeared.

Does the number multiply after each attack? Just as the question appeared in his heart, another eight swords emerged from the forest.

Gravely evading the sword lights with his life on the line, Fatty hastily stormed his brain. What kind of result can be considered as making the standard? Is it holding on for a specific time, or dodging a certain number of swords?

Whichever it is, however, it’s still over the top to make a level 0 character go through this.

Bang! While Fatty was contemplating, a sword light knocked on his chest. Dumbstruck, Fatty mentally prepared to respawn, only to discover that he was still standing there completely fine.

“Why is this?” Fatty remained there dumbly for a bit, then saw another white light coming at him. He was dead and respawned the instant it struck.

“Dead. 48 lives left. Trial starts in 5 minutes. Please prepare.”

The timeworn, emotionless voice timely rang out, rendering Fatty a little helpless. However, Fatty heaved a sigh of relief, knowing he had five minutes to prepare.

“Trial, trial,” Fatty repeated over and over. If it’s a trial, then it definitely won’t keep on slaughtering the challenger without giving them any chance to pass. Then, where is the opportunity?

All of a sudden, Fatty thought of something, and he quickly opened his skill bar.

Indeed, all skills in his skillset had turned gray, except for the Metalwalk skill.

“Metalwalk, Metalwalk. Could it be this trial is all about testing the Movement Art skills?”

Five minutes passed in a blink. This time, Fatty was entirely focused. The instant a sword light about to pierce his body, he activated Metalwalk.

Whoosh. Fatty vanished on the spot. When he appeared again, he was standing one-leg on the tail of the sword light, as if moving on a flying sword.

“Haha, I get it now.” Fatty was overjoyed. So this is the meaning of this trial.

After the first sword passed, two more quickly flew over. Fatty nimbly jumped from the previous sword to a new one. Therefore, the two new swords didn’t damage Fatty in the slightest.

Perhaps due to the trial, there was no limit to using the Metalwalk, letting Fatty utilize the skill as he pleased.

This time, Fatty held on for over twenty minutes until the voice echoed.

“Metal Forest trial is halted temporarily. The player can rest for 28 minutes.

Fatty was teleported back to the entrance of the Mystery Realm, where he panted while catching his breath. To continually make decisions at such a high tempo for almost half an hour, even an iron man would be exhausted.

As far as Fatty was concerned, continuing to evade like this wasn’t a plausible solution either. The Metalwalk skill only helped raise the chance of surviving in the Metal Forest. To pass the trial, there were still more challenges to overcome.

What did I miss? Fatty’s eyes suddenly shone when he recalled the particular sword light that knocked on his chest but didn’t kill him.

All swords were white, but that one was special. Trying hard to remember the specifics about that sword light, Fatty made up his mind on something.

After 28 minutes, Fatty once again set foot in the Metal Forest trial space. Each time he entered, it always started with one sword, giving Fatty time to adjust to the pace.

Jumping on the sword, Fatty paid close attention and quickly spotted a unique sword light. This one was the same shape and speed as the others, but its color was a faint red.

“I’ll risk it!” Fatty shouted under his breath. As the special red ray approached, he didn’t use Metalwalk but directly flung himself at it.

Pfff. When the red sword light hit his body, there was indeed nothing strange happen. But this wasn’t what Fatty wanted, because he expected to figure out what made this sword light different from the others.

While dodging the sword lights, Fatty analyzed the purpose of the red sword. Then, a second of distraction had him killed as several swords hit him at once.

“Dead. 47 lives left. Trial starts in 18 minutes. Please be prepared.”

Fatty had hung on for only over ten minutes this time. Correspondingly, he only had over ten minutes to rest. Just as expected, the longer he lasted, the more time he got to rest.

Without coming to any conclusion for his analysis, Fatty stepped inside the Metal Forest for the fourth time. This time when the red sword light hit him, his eyes caught a glimpse of an object in the corner of his vision. Fatty was so delighted that a sword light caught him off guard and subsequently killed him.

“Dead…”

Ignoring the notification, Fatty quickly open his character’s info. However, the panel is empty without showing any changes.

Fatty slapped his head as something suddenly dawned on him. Harboring excitement, he entered the Metal Forest space anew.

Amidst the many sword lights, the red sword punctually came. Fatty let it hit his body, then immediately activated Metalwalk.

10.

A number clearly showed up in this character interface. Fatty’s lips curved up, and his mouth opened wider and wider until he couldn’t help but burst out into joyous laughter.

So this type of red sword is to deliver exp.

So it seems, the system wouldn’t take away player’s level for no reason. Even though my level was reset to zero after the enhancement, I will be compensated with this kind of BUG¹ mission to level up again. If this is the setting of the Metal Forest, then what about the other four following stages?

Fatty was so delighted that he seemed more spirited when he dodged the sword lights. The more he lasted, the more experience he gained, quickly reaching level 1.

——

The longer Fatty lasted, the more time to rest he was granted. The system must have worried that things would go wrong with the player’s physical health due to a long period of high-tempo operation. After Fatty repeated the Metal Forest trial for a dozen times, the system reminded that he had been online for too long and advised him to log out and rest.

During the trial, Fatty wasn’t allowed to go out or contact the outside world, but he could still log off. Disconnecting at the entrance of the Mystery Realm, Fatty took off his helmet. His whole body was soaked with sweat. Surprisingly, all the activity in-game affected him in real life as well.

No wonder the system alerted the player to log out and rest. Even someone as robust as Fatty was affected by being online for a long time. If it were a fragile person, their body would have broken down long ago.

Fatty took a shower, ate, then enjoyed a satisfying slumber. When he woke up, he felt refreshed and energized again.

Putting on the helmet, Fatty resumed his trial. At this moment, he was already level 10, so the ten exp from each time encountering the red sword fell short of his needs. Moreover, Fatty discovered that the experience he needed to level up was three to five times that before the enhancement.

There are two sides to every coin. Fatty finally learned this the hard way.

“How do I pass this trial?” Fatty muttered to himself. Up until now, he had only been moving outside the forest to dodge the sword lights and hadn’t once entered the sword forest. After pondering hard about it, Fatty concluded that he might need to enter the forest.

Fatty immediately acted on his thought and used the very familiar Metalwalk to teleported inside the forest of swords. Indeed, the moment he got in, his ears were hit by ceaseless clanging noises as almost every big sword began to shake. The sword lights that came forward multiplies several times as well.

“I dodge and dodge again. I ram!” Fatty moving about nimbly amongst the rays of swords. On the occasion when he spotted a red one, he hastily flung himself upon it.

Just as expected, the red swords here gave a higher amount of exp than those outside: 50 exp each. It was still too meager compared to the points he needed to level up. It seemed the experience gained inside the trial space was strictly restricted.

Clank, clank.

Fatty entering the sword forest was like a drop of cold water falling into burning oil. The entire forest frantically resonated. Countless rays of swords exploded like a windstorm and enshrouded Fatty.

All five of the Elemental Movement Arts differed according to their attributes. Metalwalk borrowed the essence of metal to teleport. Along with the burst of sword lights, Fatty’s mental alertness was raised to a new peak, quickly pulling up his dodging frequency by a significant amount.

Cling clang. As Fatty moved about wildly in the forest, the large swords sticking in the ground began to stir threateningly. Finally, with a soft hum, a huge sword rumbled up, then transformed into a ray and hurled itself at Fatty.

Whoosh. Fatty resolutely activated Metalwalk to evade. However, this sword was just the tip of the iceberg. With this sword as the beginning, several huge swords drew themselves out from the ground.

A sword in its original form was much faster than a sword light. Fatty couldn’t see anything before several swords almost impaled him at once. After struggling heroically for several minutes, his chest was ultimately pierced by a sword, and he was teleported out of the trial.

“Survived 6 minutes in the sword formation. Fifty-four more minutes to success.”

The familiar voice suddenly rang out, and Fatty finally understood. So this is how it works.

1. In Chinese gaming, “bug” (the exact English word) can be used to refer to a condition that is extremely favourable to the player.↩