Goddess Seen by Mortals (Part 2)

"Is this really the damn game I played!?"

Ren Suo stared in utter bewilderment.

He knew this was the real-world video version of the final result of the game he had played, "If You're Strong, Climb 10,000 Meters," but... wasn't the difference in art style a little too huge?

After all, although "Killer" had also obviously looked like a game at first glance, its character models and building models had at least been extremely close to reality. When Ren Suo watched the video of "Assassin's Bloodstained Banquet," he had recognized it as his game experience with almost no difficulty—even if the character models had slight differences due to realistic lighting and shadows, the clothes were at least the same.

But what about "If You're Strong, Climb 10,000 Meters"?

The character models in the game had been stick figures. Stick figures!

The difference between stick figures and real people was like a gap of tens of millions of miles!

And it wasn't just the characters. The game Ren Suo had played was something like Jump Jump, where he used strength control and reaction speed to make a stick figure leap from one platform to another.

He had never imagined how the game would be made real—were stick figures supposed to hop up ten-thousand-meter steps one by one?

Yet the Little World Game Console slapped him across the face: Idiocy limits your imagination!

During the three-hour highlight reel, the first hour showed the Seeker of the Way moving swiftly across plains, forests, and mountain ranges like an ape swinging and an eagle swooping, at most looking like a jungle traversal expert. But when she entered the snow-covered Haidar Peak region, Ren Suo finally understood what his "Jump Jump" had meant.

Climbing!

Climbing sheer cliffs with no supporting equipment whatsoever!

Even when there was a path, if it was not the shortest route, the Seeker of the Way would simply spread her hands. Her ten fingers were supple as whips and hard as steel, often slipping perfectly into cracks in the rock. She never paused along the way, as though her hands and feet had been coated in superglue.

The Seeker of the Way occasionally encountered people along the shortest route. Seeing her rushing through the mountains in thin clothing, they often stopped to ask whether she needed help. The Seeker of the Way would answer in a hoarse voice, "No need. No, thanks."

Exactly the same as in the game!

And so, the Seeker of the Way reached Haidar Peak Base Camp at 5,896 meters. Dressed thinly, frozen red all over, and having gone several days without sleep or food, she made everyone at Base Camp unconsciously rub their eyes—they had to be seeing things, right?

This was a place where temperatures fell below minus twenty degrees Celsius! Someone dressed like that could probably be dragged away and used as a specimen!

Some tried to stop her, while others brought clothes over. But the Seeker of the Way merely waved them off. After lingering there briefly, she continued toward Haidar Peak!

Ren Suo remembered that in the game, once the altitude reached a certain level, the upper-left corner would display that the Seeker of the Way had received a "Cold Buff." Jumps consumed more stamina, and stamina recovered more slowly.

Ren Suo had thought it was merely a difficulty setting. He had not expected it to be so realistic—wearing only a single layer of clothing above 6,000 meters, without an Oxygen Tank, would naturally produce such effects.

Ren Suo had previously thought the Cold Buff was ridiculously disgusting. Now it seemed the difficulty setting had been too low!

First Camp, 7,200 meters!

Second Camp, 7,900 meters!

Third Camp, 8,400 meters!

Fourth Camp, 9,000 meters!

Almost the entire journey had been free climbing. Seventy degrees counted as a gentle slope, eighty degrees were extremely common, and ninety degrees were a major challenge.

The freezing mountain wind was like steel blades scraping bone, enough to make one shudder just by watching. At night, dark clouds blanketed the sky so thoroughly that one could not see one's own hand, yet the Seeker of the Way still dared to spin and leap across breaks between cliffs. When she encountered unavoidable icefalls and ice pillars, she climbed directly over them. White mist rose where her palms touched the ice—in an environment nearing minus forty degrees Celsius, the Seeker of the Way's skin was practically scorching steel.

Moreover, above 7,000 meters, the Seeker of the Way's climbing became even more dangerous. Icefalls were common on the mountain walls, typical fractured ice tongues. Even climbers walking along mountain paths could have their way blocked by collapsing icefalls, or be struck when ice towers above them shattered. Getting injured above 7,000 meters was manageable if one could hold out until camp. If not, one could only obediently become a coordinate marker.

The Seeker of the Way often had to grab ice pillars to climb upward. Although she looked extremely steady in the video, at elevations above 7,000 meters, she encountered at least five ice pillars per minute that shattered under excessive force. As the comments streamed across the screen, the beautiful and captivating Seeker of the Way would often instantly seize another stable rock or ice pillar and continue climbing!

There had even been one time when three ice pillars she grabbed in succession shattered one after another. It had been incredibly dangerous!

"Fake, right...? She'd die if she were even a little off!"

"If you think it's fake, go watch the previous 54P. This really is Haidar Peak, not a Hollywood set!"

"Just wait. You'll find out whether it's real or not..."

"Ren Nesser's videos keep getting more horrifying. I thought the Immortal Palace Assassin never missing a shot was already insane, but there's something even crazier: climbing ten thousand meters within five days without sleeping, resting, eating, or drinking. Can humans really do something like that!?"

Seeing this, Ren Suo also felt immensely proud. They only saw the Seeker of the Way narrowly surviving again and again, but in reality, it had taken Ren Suo several days and countless deaths to forcibly build this path to completion through his own experience!

He recognized it now. The shattering ice pillars were the platforms in the game that broke upon contact. The dark nights and white fog were environmental effects that reduced visibility. The distant gaps between cliffs were platforms that required exhausting all stamina to leap across!

This was the game experience he had played out!

The Seeker of the Way was reenacting his journey to completion!

...Although quite a few flashy maneuvers had only avoided danger because the female Seeker of the Way's trait, "Can react swiftly when encountering danger," activated, Ren Suo's contribution remained beyond question!

When the Seeker of the Way reached Fourth Camp, she took a slight detour to the sheltered area of the camp and took out an Oxygen Tank, oxygen mask, regulator, and climbing rope left there by the Kamiya People.

"Is she finally going to use tools?"

"No way, how could a goddess need those..."

"Is this the limit of humanity?"

Amid the commenters' confusion, the Seeker of the Way merely carried those items without using them, climbing with only her remaining hand!

Ren Suo froze.

At that moment, he naturally recalled his own actions: in the game's in-app purchase system, he had spent two Merit Points to buy an Oxygen Tank and rope.

In fact, he had spent four Merit Points—because after the first purchase, he had not achieved his desired score, so he replayed it. The second time, he had to buy them again.

Ren Suo had previously wondered how the Oxygen Tank and rope he bought would appear. After all, the Seeker of the Way wore only a single layer of clothing. She could not possibly pull them out from under her armpits, could she? He would not have been surprised if that really happened, but he had never expected the Seeker of the Way to take the equipment from Fourth Camp.

This was a detail that had never appeared in the game.

Next, the Seeker of the Way climbed to Fifth Camp at 9,600 meters and charged toward the Ten Thousand Meter Peak!

Climbing above 9,600 meters became even harder, especially since the Seeker of the Way carried the equipment in one hand and climbed using only one hand and two feet. Although the game had not increased the difficulty because of this, in reality, every movement she made was so perilous that viewers could tremble even through the screen.

It was like certain extreme sports videos filmed from a first-person perspective, where someone courting death stood at the edge of a hanging foothold, with highways and sidewalks hundreds of meters below. The terror of seeing it reflected on one's retina alone was enough to make the human brain's central nervous system feel fear.

Soon, the Seeker of the Way in the video encountered people again—there seemed to be a team of climbers ahead of her that had also chosen to assault the ten-thousand-meter summit at dawn.

In the video, one person could clearly be seen falling behind, resting with thick gloves braced against the mountain wall. The Seeker of the Way walked directly toward him, stood before him, casually opened the Oxygen Tank valve, yanked off his oxygen mask, and stuffed the oxygen mask she was carrying over his face.

At that moment, Ren Suo saw hundreds of comments suddenly flood the screen:

"Thank you for saving my husband!"

"Thank you for saving my son!"

"Thank you for saving my husband!"

"Thank you for saving my son!"

"So she took the Oxygen Tank to save someone!"

"Unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable! How did she know someone was running out of oxygen?"

"So this is what makes her a goddess!"

Huh? The families of the people saved by the Seeker of the Way were watching this video on Giligili too?

Ren Suo had anticipated the Seeker of the Way saving someone—because he was the one who had done it.

In the game, when the Seeker of the Way passed that climbing team, he saw a stick figure with a timer over its head. It only had a few minutes left, and the time was decreasing second by second.

Ren Suo had ignored it before. It was only when he replayed the game for a higher score that he learned he had to give that stick figure a new Oxygen Tank, allowing it to keep moving forward.

After the Seeker of the Way saved the person in the video, he thanked her and continued onward wearing the new Oxygen Tank, while the Seeker of the Way continued climbing upward.

Many people could already see directly from the video that the Seeker of the Way was not far from the summit. Her climbing speed far surpassed walking. Though ice pillars were dangerous and rocks were steep, none of it posed a problem to the nearly inhuman Seeker of the Way.

But for some reason, when only a short distance remained to the summit, the Seeker of the Way stopped on a safe mountain path and untied the rope around her waist.

In the previous 54P, the Seeker of the Way had waited for a full hour. In the highlight reel, however, it was compressed into only a few dozen seconds—the climbing team caught up to her progress.

Then, one of the climbers suddenly stumbled and fell toward the edge of the cliff as though drunk!

His teammates in front and behind could not react in time. Just as he was about to fall at the very moment before success, the Seeker of the Way flung the prepared rope over, catching the falling climber perfectly in its loop!

With another fierce pull, she yanked the climber, who weighed at least eighty kilograms including his equipment, directly to her side!

"That strength is on another level."

"Great strength creates miracles!"

"No wonder she's a goddess!"

Then, with reverent gazes, the climbing team followed in the Seeker of the Way's footsteps and reached the summit of Haijiaer Peak!

The time: April 8, 11:40 AM!

Under the gaze of twelve climbers, a blonde girl who wore no cold-weather clothing, used no Oxygen Tank, ate nothing, rested not at all, and climbed throughout the entire journey as though challenging death, successfully reached the summit of Haidar Peak at an altitude of 10,230 meters!

She stood on the summit cliff, looking at the countless mountains and shifting clouds around the peak, with the world beneath her feet!

Dazzling sunlight fell upon the Seeker of the Way like a coronation. Her thin, grimy face, dirty from not eating or washing, became incomparably radiant at that moment. The unwavering determination that had always shone in her eyes radiated a power that shook people to their core, resonating with every viewer even through the screen!

In an instant, countless comments flooded across the image, repeating the same sentence:

"If You're Strong, Climb 10,000 Meters!"

The two climbers who had just received the Seeker of the Way's help wanted to approach and thank her, only to see a miracle-like scene appear upon this true powerhouse before them.

Even they themselves wondered whether they were in a movie.

Under the sunlight, the Seeker of the Way's wounds and grime instantly vanished. Her thin, withered skin and face filled out again, while her gaze remained just as dazzling.

As though embracing the sky, she spread her arms wide.

Then, her figure became golden light. Her clothes melted into it as well. Before the stunned eyes of the climbing team, she became wind, became lightning, became light, became the only myth, and completely vanished between heaven and earth.