Chapter 102 - The Red Carp

The golden light disappeared from her eyes, forcing her eyes to be blinded for a moment before it adjusted to the whiteness of the room.

Cheng Xiu looked around her in wonder. She was back at the White Room.

Did she fail to clear the Soul Weapon Quest?

[Ding!]

[Player Selafia Veritas's Qi flow composition of the Minor Realm Qi Sensing II has overflowed the Realm Capatcity.

Player Selafia Veritas is forced into a Breakthrough simulation.]

Cheng Xiu gasped at the familiar message. She was getting levelled up.

Cheng Xiu felt like it had been days since she had leveled up, even though it had been only a few hours since her last breakthrough.

A double-door painted in deep red colour appeared on one of the plain walls of the room. There was a single golden fish etched on the door's red surface where the handle should be. The proof that she was at level 2.

Cheng Xiu smiled and waited for the door to fling open as it did the first time around.

The doors burst open to a dark space.

Cheng Xiu loosened her body.

A strong gale began to surround her in the room, dragging Cheng Xiu towards the Red door.

The door closed behind her with a bang.

Cheng Xiu felt hard surface under her feet, and stabilized her footing.

She looked around her.

Everything was in infinite darkness, just like before.

She knew from experience that it was hard for the system to respond to her queries in the Abyss, by choice or by programming, and kept the hundred and some questions that were bursting at the seams to be thrown at the AI.

Cheng Xiu waited for the simulation to begin.

She wondered if it would be the same as last time, with the Red Carp, and her chasing after it.

There was a flash of golden light to her left.

Cheng Xiu immediately turned, curious to see what the thing that created that light was. She hoped that it was the Red Carp.

It wasn't.

Instead, it was a golden pole, with a thin flat surface.

Cheng Xiu had a hunch of what she should do.

Ripples of light appeared around her.

Cheng Xiu stepped back in surprise a large Red Carp burst out from under her feet, and swam away into the dark Abyss.

Cheng Xiu lost her footing and fell of her ass.

She yelped, and muttering, got up.

She sighed, and looked at the golden pole.

She really did have to jump huh? And use the poles as stepping tools?

Cheng Xiu felt like this game was finding new and newer ways to torture her so that she would just yell out in frustration and give up.

Cheng Xiu crouched and sprung herself up onto the pole.

Her right leg landed on the pole surface, but her body started to lean back on its own.

Cheng Xiu flailed her hands and cursed.

It took her a moment to actually gain her momentum.

She slowly placed her other leg's toes on the pole surface, and flailed as her body moved to and fro as she lost her balance briefly.

Cheng Xiu sighed in relief as her footing stabilised.

Cheng Xiu frowned as another godlen pole appeared in front of her.

It really was like the first Breakthrough, just a lot more harder because the amount of space for her feet to land carefully on was very little.

Cheng Xiu looked at the Red Carp that was further away from her than before.

It would seem, the fish also swam faster.

Cheng Xiu realised that she had to be faster than she was in the first Breakthrough despite the fact that the area where her feet could land on had decreased significantly.

Cheng Xiu jumped again, and landed on the second pole.

Her footing slipped and she nearly fell down, but she gripped the pole surface at the last second, and saved herself from her certain doom.

Cheng Xiu hauled herself up and landed safely on the flat surface of the pole again.

She took a deep breath and exhaled as her balance returned to her.

She wanted to know the purpose of this simulation. It could have been anything else but the game Devs decided that jumping around, chasing after fishes was a great way to excite people about the game.

Cheng Xiu shook her head off that kinds of thoughts as another pole appeared in front of her.

Cheng Xiu groaned in frustration. "I am not a frog, why are you making me jump so much?"

[Ding!]

[Your Fish is getting away.]

Cheng Xiu nearly fell off the pole in shock. She had not thought the AI would respond at all.

The words of the AI finally registered in her head.

Cheng Xiu turned her head so fast that she was scared she might have broken something in it.

The golden glow of the fish was barely visible.

Cheng Xiu felt like she was being left behind by something way more important than a glowing fish.

She jumped towards the third pole without a thought, wanting to just reach the Red Carp.

A fourth appeared in front of her.

Cheng Xiu jumped onto it instinctively.

A fifth pole appeared in front of her.

Cheng Xiu jumped onto it, and stood steadily.

She finally realised what she was doing and stopped. She looked down in surprise and nearly lost her balance at the movement.

Cheng Xiu relaxed as she realised that she could do it if she did not think about it too much, which was a mistake that she always made. She always thought too much about everything, and did not think enough about the really important things in her life.

Cheng Xiu shook her head to get such thoughts out of her mind.

Her footing slipped a little at the movement.

Cheng Xiu felt a tingling feeling rise in her sole at that moment. Her heart started to beat rapidly.

She shook her head to get her mind together, and looked towards where the Red Carp should be, but her eyes could not see anything in the distance.

Cheng Xiu took a deep breath to calm her nerves down.

She needed to hurry and run if she wanted to catchup to the Red Carp.

If she remembered correctly about the first simulation, it's ultimate goal was to return to the Red Door.

The Red Door should be the destination of this Carp as well. But if that was so, she needed to get to it before it was too late. If she took too long, the carp would reach the door before she could catch it and she would not be able to advance.

If that was the case, then it would take her twice as long to return to this level simulation to retry. Atleast, she thought that must be the case. After all, the Other World was basically the Primordials in many ways, and she had many experiences about such special level-ups.

Cheng Xiu took a deep breath and leapt forwards.

Her feet landed on the pole.

Another pole appeared.

Trying not to think about it too much, Cheng Xiu jumped towards it's flat surface.

She landed on it, and then crouched when she felt that she would lose her balance.

Another pole appeared.

Cheng Xiu got up to her feet carefully, and jumped onto the pole.

This continued on for sometime. At first, her jumps were hesitant, and doubtful. It slowly turned into clumsy and somewhat stable jumps, though the hesitance in them did not disappear.

Cheng Xiu slipped off many times, and had to get hold of the poles in different ways so that she could remain in the simulation.

Cheng Xiu was sure that if her movements were fast forwarded, she would look like an acrobatic pole dancer more than a gamer trying not to die in a VR simulation.

Her movements became smoother, and with smoother movements came the confidence in her heart to move her faster.

Cheng Xiu hastened her jumps and gained speed by her hundredth jump.

Her speed got so good to the point that Cheng Xiu felt that like she was running more than jumping.

Golden light entered her eyes.

Cheng Xiu realised what that meant and jumped faster.

The Red Carp finally became visible.

Cheng Xiu grinned.

She started to run towards large Red Carp at full speed, unaware that the distance between the poles were gradually becoming larger.

Cheng Xiu gave chase to the glowing Red Carp, her own skill taking on a silver glow.

Her eyes gained a golden light as she neared the carp.

A glowing red door appeared in front of them, floating in the darkness of the abyss.

Cheng Xiu hastened her steps further as the fish started to swim faster as well.

The silver glow on her skin, and the golden glow in her eyes increased as Cheng Xiu stretched out her hand to touch the tail of the creature.

The Red Carp made a desperate attempt to reach the Red Door as the golden hue on its body turned red.

Cheng Xiu grabbed the tail and flung the creature up into the air, and caught it in an embrace.

The Red Carp stilled.

Cheng Xiu laughed in delight, the sound far more melodious than ever.

The two beings glowed golden as the Red Door flew open.