Free Loot~

"Little World, endless fun."

Ren Suo noticed that the system's startup voice seemed to have changed slightly. It used to be crisp and bright, as pleasant as a little girl biting into an apple; now it was much calmer, like a middle-school girl reading a text aloud.

"As long as it doesn't talk in that creepy, ghostly voice..." Ren Suo muttered. He used to like the animation for Thriller Paradise, but every opening began with different people eerily saying, 'Welcome to Thriller Paradise,' scaring him into skipping the opening every time.

Opening the Content Repository, Ren Suo saw the gleaming key and immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

"One-Star Insight Key: Chance of additionally obtaining insight-type rewards +10%."

It was perfectly ordinary, basically the same description as the One-Star Sleep Key. Ren Suo could at least understand sleep-type rewards, but insight-type rewards... what the hell were those?

A fifteen-power eyepiece? An electron microscope with a magnification exceeding three million times?

In any case, none of that had anything to do with Ren Suo—his luck this time was pretty bad, and he hadn't triggered that 10% rare chance.

Ren Suo first went to the bathroom and washed his hands with soap. He even turned off the game controller and carefully wiped it down with an alcohol wipe.

Better safe than sorry. Maybe this Little World Game Console was some immortal treasure, and seeing how sincere he was, it would give him preferential treatment. If licking the console could raise its favorability, Ren Suo would definitely lick it until it shone like it had been waxed.

Nervously, Ren Suo opened the reward chest for If You're Strong, Climb 10,000 Meters—

"You consumed the 'One-Star Insight Key' to open this treasure chest."

"You obtained the skill 'Infinite Stamina.'"

"Infinite Stamina"

"Rank: One-Star ability. Prerequisite: Possess a physical body."

"Effect: After equipping it, the player will possess infinite stamina. Although still limited by the body's maximum physical capacity, the base recovery rate of physical strength will be raised to the maximum limit of upright carbon-based life forms on the third planet of the Solar System, Orion Arm, at the edge of the Milky Way's third spiral arm. All discomfort will also be suppressed to a bearable level."

"Activation: While in the 'Infinite Stamina' state, each second maintained consumes one second of lifespan."

"Note: On the path of pursuing the supreme Great Dao, Seekers of the Way who had undergone near-ascetic cultivation had exhausted the potential of mortal flesh. They represented the limits of humanity—but only the limits of humanity."

"Eugh... it looks like it's seriously explaining the game's settings..."

In If You're Strong, Climb 10,000 Meters, it would have been fine if it were just a stick-figure jumping game. But once it became a female Seeker of the Way climbing Mount Hyjal, a Ten Thousand Meter Peak in reality, many unreasonable things emerged.

Not even counting the Seeker of the Way's final Refining Spirit and Returning to Emptiness—this was the phrase most frequently mentioned in the comments, showing how the rise of web novels in recent years had greatly promoted the spread of Taoist culture—her climb from 0 meters to 10,000 meters without sleeping or resting was enough to make anyone suspect she was some nuclear-powered robot invented by a mad scientist.

On Earth, there were no people who could go without sleep. Only an extremely small number of special people—fewer than five—could remain awake nearly twenty-four hours a day. But in reality, their sleep was scattered throughout the day; they completed a sleep cycle after closing their eyes for a few dozen seconds. Added together, it made them seem as though they never slept. Still, the longest anyone had managed to stay awake was eleven days.

On Earth, a person could survive two to seven days without water, and at most ninety days without food. But those were extreme figures; in reality, the duration was often shortened depending on a person's mental and physical condition.

Without a doubt, the Seeker of the Way's physical condition and mental state were among the best humanity could achieve. It seemed reasonable for her to go five days without sleeping, resting, eating, or drinking... my ass!

During those five days, she had spent most of her time climbing and trekking through mountain forests, activities that consumed tremendous physical strength. She was nothing like survivalists who lay still to minimize energy expenditure. Moreover, the entire journey had been recorded on video without a single flaw, and True Humans had even appeared in the footage.

The people the Seeker of the Way encountered included Xuan Country People and foreigners. Video sites in other countries were already in an uproar over her footage, and television stations had remotely interviewed people who had seen her. There was no longer any doubt about the Seeker of the Way's authenticity.

Thus, some people naturally suspected that the Seeker of the Way might be one of those Transcendents or Awakened who had been popping up online from time to time lately. Especially in the final scene, where the Seeker of the Way transformed into light—it gave people endless room for speculation.

Now, the skill Infinite Stamina told Ren Suo that she was not a cultivator. She was simply a mortal, the strongest mortal!

"But this skill actually has a cost... that's troublesome." Ren Suo scratched his head.

Maintaining Infinite Stamina for one second consumed one second of lifespan. In other words, if Ren Suo had another fifty years to live and maintained Infinite Stamina every day from now on, he would likely die of old age in twenty-five years.

Thinking more deeply, Ren Suo felt that he might not even live half his lifespan. Old people rarely died simply from old age these days; usually, their aging bodies lost resistance, they developed age-related illnesses, and then died from disease. If his lifespan were cut in half, Ren Suo would likely enter an elderly state early and die young from various old-age illnesses.

Still, he would try it out first.

Ren Suo opened the Equipment Interface, removed the currently equipped Introduction to Fighting, and replaced it with Infinite Stamina.

The moment he equipped it, Ren Suo sensed something was wrong.

He had just been practicing the Advanced Breathing Method, and his body was actually somewhat tired. It was like how an ordinary person's mouth would get tired from sucking snail meat out of shells; his whole body felt lazy, and his mind was as hard to focus as if he had spent three hours doing a science exam. That was why he had stopped to play games.

Yet the moment Infinite Stamina was equipped, Ren Suo found himself as alert and energized as if he had read several pornographic comics. His body was brimming with energy as though he had just gotten off work, and he felt as light as if several hundred pounds of fat had been lifted off him.

Ren Suo got up and started jumping around the room. He first did a hundred push-ups and found himself not tired in the slightest. Then, while doing sit-ups, he circulated the Advanced Breathing Method and resumed his cultivation...

He only stopped when he was drenched in hot sweat and began feeling uncomfortable, then grabbed a towel to wipe himself down.

Looking at himself in the mirror, at the hot sweat covering his body and the faint soreness in his muscles, Ren Suo felt better than ever before—he could keep exercising, keep cultivating!

"...This is pretty nice." Ren Suo thought happily as he removed Infinite Stamina.

Then, the very next second after taking it off, Ren Suo's legs gave out and he dropped straight to his knees in the bathroom! Luckily, he grabbed the sink with his hands, or his whole body would have collapsed!

Endless soreness assaulted Ren Suo's entire body like an octopus. He felt as though his body no longer belonged to him; he was merely a soul attached to a lump of rotten flesh.

"Equip it, put Infinite Stamina back on, quickly..." The instant that thought appeared, Ren Suo calmly snuffed out the foolish idea.

A full ten minutes passed before Ren Suo slowly straightened up. He crawled back to the sofa like a baby and looked at Infinite Stamina in the Backup Slot of the Equipment Interface, a trace of fear flashing through his eyes.

He had never smoked, nor had he tried any forbidden drugs. Yet Ren Suo knew that the skill before him had many similarities to those addictive substances.

Harmful, dependent, inescapable.

Ren Suo knew that if he equipped Infinite Stamina now to escape his body's soreness, weakness, and mental exhaustion, then he would never escape this skill's control for the rest of his life. Half his lifespan would inevitably be spent here.

That healthy state, like escaping hell and ascending back into heaven, was simply too tempting for humans. He even suspected the skill caused his brain to release endorphins—nearly all the fatigue and pain in his muscles had been blocked out.

This was a tonic as poisonous as a drug. If he did not want to age prematurely, Ren Suo could only use this skill to save his life when absolutely necessary.

As for such a luxurious waste as equipping it to stay up all night playing games, Ren Suo could just think about it.

After quite a while, Ren Suo realized he probably could not go downstairs to eat, so he called Jian Ji downstairs.

"Hello."

"Got it."

Ren Suo looked at his phone and wondered if the landline downstairs had caller ID...

Barely managing to sit on the sofa, Ren Suo opened the World Store and headed straight for This Month's Free Game—

"It's you!"

After thinking it over before going to sleep last night, Ren Suo had already made up his mind. The game fortunate enough to be claimed for free by him this month would be—

"Cross My Corpse"!