Chapter 27: Clearing Rewards? Continue the Challenge?

The beginner level no longer posed any challenge for Chen Mo. With his overwhelming attributes, even the highest degree of difficulty would be a mere trifle for him. Soon, Chen Mo had already reached the 1000-meter mark; from this point on, the difficulty increased, with ground spikes, walls of fire, walls of ice, and so on.

Previously, Chen Mo would rely on a leaping dash to slip through the gaps in the fire walls, but this time, he unleashed a punch in midair with unmatched authority—Storm Fist! With his forty points of strength and the speed of the storm, a booming blast erupted as his fist drove a gaping hole through the ring of fire, letting him step across with ease.

The ground spikes shot up, aiming at the soles of his feet. Chen Mo, caught up in his own triumph, had momentarily forgotten about them. With a crisp clang, the spikes struck under his foot and snapped instantly. That's right—they broke! The bronze spikes were no match for Chen Mo's defense. His constitution was at thirty points—not quite impenetrable, but certainly enough to render the bronze ineffective.

Chen Mo was a little surprised by the strength of his own defenses, realizing he had underestimated the value of constitution. He dashed forward relentlessly, unstoppable as a deity or demon. Ice walls crumbled under his fists. Ground spikes were kicked aside. He pressed on, charging ahead without pause.

Two thousand meters. Three thousand. Five thousand.

After five thousand meters, the challenge ramped up again, presenting a yawning chasm twenty meters wide. Even with the bonus attributes of a warrior apprentice, it would be impossible to leap that distance. This section was designed to test one's wit: gather vines during the escape, tie them to a boulder found in the previous section, toss the rock across, and glide over; or, as a magic apprentice, use a fireball spell mid-leap, firing at the ground to use the explosion’s recoil as a boost across.

There were countless strategies discussed on the Evolution Forum.

But Chen Mo had not bothered with any of them.

He simply didn’t need to.

Storm Sprint! Roaring wind!

His body soared through the air like a great roc with wings, terrifyingly majestic. Relying on his explosive power, Chen Mo vaulted the twenty-meter pit in a single bound.

On the other side, a barrage of flying fireballs, ice blades, and spears came hurtling toward him. Focusing his mind, Chen Mo mapped every attack instantly in his mind, plotting the optimal path with no hesitation. Every step, every turn, every pause, was calculated with meticulous precision.

It suddenly struck Chen Mo how formidable those first-time clearers must have been. He had an extra two hundred and twenty attribute points, yet those people had passed on their first attempt, without any guides. Were they even human?

He realized that perhaps, even if Zizi had never appeared, there would still be a handful of extraordinary individuals on Earth: Chinese martial artists, Japanese ninjas, European knights, practitioners of black witchcraft—legacies passed down for a thousand years.

Past the five-thousand-meter mark, gold coins began to appear on the path. Each collected coin chimed sweetly. More often than not, these coins were traps; greed could easily lead to death. But Chen Mo’s principle was never to miss a single coin. More than once, he narrowly dodged magical traps thanks to his astonishing reflexes.

Eight thousand meters. Ten thousand.

With his overwhelming attributes, the beginner-level dungeon was utterly trivial.

"Congratulations, you have cleared the beginner difficulty. You can now claim your reward or continue running. The farther you go, the richer your reward. But if you die, you will lose your reward."

"Note: Only your first clear earns a reward."

A test of human nature!

This system was truly insidious! Claim the reward, and it feels unsatisfying; keep running, and a single mistake could mean death and losing everything.

The reward? Or double down?

As Chen Mo hesitated, five black gorillas finally caught up. Furious, they beat their chests, grew even more frenzied, sped up, and charged at him.

Chen Mo was not foolish enough to confront them head-on.

No matter—he kept running!

If he lost this trivial beginner reward, so be it!

He pressed on without a second thought, feet flying, resuming his escape.

After ten thousand meters, the challenge was on a whole other level.

Blades rained from the sky, fire, ice, and wind combined—a triple threat. Each step felt like treading the edge of the abyss. Countless strong contenders, overconfident, had fallen here and missed the clear reward.

Narrowly escaping death again and again, Chen Mo reached fourteen thousand meters, where a fifty-meter chasm awaited him.

To be honest, thirty meters was his limit; with his greatest speed and explosive force, he could only manage a thirty-meter leap. As the abyss yawned before him, inspiration struck—he gathered flames in both hands and cast Fireball downward.

Boom! The surging flames and the force of thermal expansion rebounded, slowing his descent just enough for him to rebound off the force and land precariously on the edge of the opposite platform—barely making it!

But with a crack, the edge splintered, and Chen Mo, along with the boulder, began to plummet.

Damn it, the rock was a trap, too!

Fireball was useless now; the combined weight of himself and the stone was too great. He was about to fall into the abyss—game over.

Suddenly, inspiration struck again.

He was using the Demon King's ID. What if, at the moment of death, he switched to the Little Prince's ID? What would happen?

No time to think—unwilling to lose his reward, Chen Mo immediately switched to the Little Prince.

"Challenge failed. Final score: zero meters. You have two attempts remaining."

Success? Indeed, it was counted as a failed run for the Little Prince, not the Demon King!

Chen Mo turned into a flash of white light, which would normally return him to the starting point.

But Chen Mo forced another ID switch, reverting to Demon King.

The elf girl's eyes spun wildly again, but having fixed this bug last time, she did not crash. Instead, per the preset program, she restored the state to one second prior if an unknown error occurred.

Thus, Chen Mo found himself back at the moment before leaping the fifty-meter pit.

He considered searching for a fifty-meter vine to throw a rock across, but it was impossible: first, fifty meters was too long and the black gorillas were close behind—he had no more than five seconds. Second, even if he found one, he didn’t have the strength to throw a boulder that far.

In haste, he found a five-meter vine, quickly tied a sharp stone to it.

The gorillas were upon him; there was no more time.

He jumped!

Storm Leap—thirty meters, then he began to fall.

Gathering flames in both hands, he fired downward, the heat rebounding, and just as before, he landed on the edge.

But the edge was clearly a trap—it cracked and began to collapse.

As he fell, Chen Mo flung the vine with the sharp stone at the platform’s edge.

Bang! Like a bullet, it embedded itself in the stone.

As the boulder tumbled downward, Chen Mo kicked off it, swung up along the vine, and finally scrambled onto solid ground.

The five black gorillas were already leaping through the air.

No time to catch his breath—Chen Mo resumed his desperate flight.