April Fool's Day Rating

"Once I tear open the day-and-night skies of half a li, three feet of azure light will spin and cleanse the dust~"

Ren Suo, asleep on the sofa, heard his phone ringing beside him. He mumbled, picked it up, glanced at the caller ID, roused himself slightly, suppressed his morning grumpiness, and answered, "Hello, this is Ren Suo."

"Ren Suo, you need to report to the Lianjiang National Security Bureau before two-thirty tomorrow afternoon." Director Ye's voice came from the other end. "Did you just wake up?"

"Yeah..."

"Sigh, young people these days really are something. Sleeping this late, just like my son in middle school..." Director Ye nagged. "Oh, right, remember to go. If you don't, it'll be treated as automatically forfeiting your interview eligibility."

"Forfeiting eligibility?" Ren Suo perked up and sat upright. "What eligibility?"

"It's not stated clearly yet." Director Ye lowered his voice. "But if you pass, you'll probably be transferred directly to the National Security Bureau at the same rank."

"The National Security Bureau!" Ren Suo was startled. "Are the benefits good?"

"I don't know." Director Ye said, "But the base salary is higher than at the neighborhood office, and there are a few more miscellaneous allowances too."

"Then I'm going!" Ren Suo said cheerfully. He had discovered for no reason at all that his official position had gone up a tier—any idiot would be happy. "Is there anything I should watch out for?"

"Nothing in particular. But only you and Li Qingxuan qualified here, so you two should get to know each other." Director Ye's voice carried a strange hint of amusement. "Li Qingxuan's phone number is 14..."

After hanging up on Director Ye, Ren Suo rubbed his face, washed up and brushed his teeth, then realized it was already ten o'clock.

Ten o'clock on April 1st.

On March 28th, he had bought If You're Strong, Climb 10,000 Meters. On the 30th, he had resumed the challenge from Base Camp at an altitude of 5,896 meters, then played through an entire day and night and another day. Finally, at eleven last night, he had gotten the Seeker of the Way to an altitude of ten thousand meters!

The exhaustion of that process went without saying, but the mental strain had been even more crushing. After Base Camp, the game's difficulty had suddenly soared. At first, it was merely that the gaps between platforms were larger, and the platforms varied in width. Occasionally, there were a few gray platforms that shattered at a touch.

But later on, things got brutal...

The background changed directly into snowy mountains and icy waterfalls. Even just standing still, the Seeker of the Way could be caught by a biting Gale Wind and blown away entirely, or blown off her intended landing spot while jumping.

Then there were platforms with a faint bluish tint. Jumping on them made ice spikes burst out instantly—game over. Yet safe platforms were positioned amid the icefall platforms. Sometimes, the only gray platform was among the icefall platforms, with no other safe platforms visible above it. The Seeker of the Way could only jump onto it and immediately jump again, relying on Ren Suo to swiftly change her movement direction so she could land safely.

There was also stormy weather. The screen would turn completely white, making safe platforms impossible to see. In that situation, the Seeker of the Way could only remain in a safe area and wait for the weather to end. Even after the storm subsided, white patches would remain, and only by jumping into them could the Seeker of the Way see what was there.

The game also seemed to have a day-night cycle. It had not mattered much before Base Camp, but afterward, day and night had a definite impact—for example, making it impossible to tell what color a platform was...

The difficulty after Base Camp, compared to the difficulty from sea level, was like the difference between reciting pi forward and reciting it backward...

The most infuriating part was that Ren Suo would occasionally see other stick figures. Naturally, they did not advance by jumping across dangerous platforms like the Seeker of the Way. Instead, they slowly climbed along a gentle path. Whenever they saw the Seeker of the Way, they would stop and ask whether she needed help, while the game, as always, offered two choices: "No, thank you" and "No, thanks."

Through countless deaths and trials, Ren Suo controlled the Seeker of the Way as she climbed to the Advance Camp checkpoint at 6,690 meters, the First Camp checkpoint at 7,200 meters, the Second Camp checkpoint at 7,900 meters, the Third Camp checkpoint at 8,400 meters, the Fourth Camp checkpoint at 9,000 meters, and the Fifth Camp checkpoint at 9,600 meters...

Then, at 11:11 last night, Ren Suo finally got the Seeker of the Way to climb to an altitude of ten thousand meters for the first time, jumping onto that dazzling golden platform!

The next second, he fell asleep on the spot.

His taut body and mind had suddenly relaxed after reaching the final goal, plunging him straight into the deepest rest. He slept for a full eleven hours before the phone woke him, and then...

"Ah, ahhh..." Ren Suo realized he was so hungry that he could barely move. He could only make a call. "Hello... two large bowls of Braised Beef Brisket Noodles with Fried Sauce... Tianlan Garden, Building 233, Room 1506... right upstairs from you."

Luckily, he remembered the number for Jian Kee downstairs. Otherwise, he might really have starved to death at home...

Only then did he remember that he had cleared the game. He hurriedly turned on the console to check his score.

"Mission completed."

"Mission basic objective completed—60 points;"

"Total score: 60 points. Rating: barely passing."

"This mission's score: 60 points (barely passing). Highest mission score: 60 points (barely passing)."

"Would you like to upload this result as the final result? Upon successful upload, you may receive Merit Points and an exclusive reward corresponding to your rating."

"Ratings may only be uploaded once."

"Only 60 points!?" Ren Suo was dumbfounded. Was this game a scam or something? How could there be such a gap in scores?

The mission rating differed slightly from Killer. After uploading its rating, Killer would also notify him that the game had closed, but If You're Strong, Climb 10,000 Meters did not. It seemed purchased games really were different from free ones.

"Because the player received a barely passing rating and met the hidden requirement, you will receive information about this chapter's hidden side quest."

"Killer required a fairly good rating for its hidden requirement, while this game only required a passing grade... Was this game too hard, or just too low-quality..."

"Side quest: Only a strong person watched by others can be called strong. A strong person nobody knows about is merely a pitiful strong person! Let more people witness you reaching the Ten Thousand Meter Peak. The more spectators there are, the higher your score."

Ren Suo nearly spat blood. What the hell? To show off, he had to deliberately find an audience to show off to?!

In those certain novels, whenever someone showed off, there would always be a crowd of godlike passersby at the side explaining everything—from the cause of the Big Bang to circuit analysis principles, from the material of an emperor's chamber pot to what tomorrow's new anime episode would be about.

Even the cutscene CGs in television dramas, movies, animation, and games had a deep, magnetic voice providing unsolicited narration.

It was bad enough that the game had no audience watching him show off, but it still insisted on making him show off. And it was not enough to make him show off—it wanted the player to bring people over too...

"Find people, find people... Where am I supposed to find people..." Ren Suo grumbled. Just then, Jian Kee's delivery arrived, and he went out to collect it. When he returned, he found that the game had automatically loaded a save, returning him to the Fifth Camp at 9,600 meters.

At that moment, five stick figures on the screen were setting out from the Fifth Camp, struggling upward...