Extraordinary Player

Chapter 9: How Sweet!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Qin Guan casually clicked on one of the history records and discovered a progression bar at the lower corner of his vision. An illusionary image of his character appeared on a platform.

Qin Guan tried to drag the progression bar forward. The illusion started a run-up. It soon jumped, leapt into the air… and fell.

“Oh? I can adjust the progress bar at will to my viewing pleasure?”

Qin Guan noticed that he could move the progress bar as he pleased. If he dragged the slider forward at uniform speed, the jump would be shown as it had been done. He could also drag the slider slower or even backwards. He could pause at a certain spot to examine some action of his.

On top of that, each jump had a mark attached to it, and it was shown in the records.

“…Three marks?! Are you kidding me?”

When he saw the marks for his other jumps, Qin Guan reluctantly realized that the marks were out of a hundred.

Each page had twenty history records, and on the newest page, all that entered his line of sight were red fails. His marks drifted around forty, but even the best was only forty-six.

This meant that even though Qin Guan thought that he had been about to make it that one time, in reality, he was still a long way away from scoring sixty—the passing mark.

The sudden shock caused Qin Guan to feel as if there was no joy in living anymore.

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After scrolling through the previous pages, he had discovered that whenever he managed to reach the next platform, he would score at least sixty marks. The highest mark he had received for the previous few platforms was seventy-six. However, this was a relatively simple platform. When Qin Guan replayed his jump, he could not find anything wrong with his movements.

“Heh heh, system, my buddy, my pal, aren’t you strict?”

Qin Guan cursed in his heart. Logically speaking, the game was only about jumping, and as long as he made it to the next platform, he should have scored one hundred marks, so why did he only get sixty marks?

Could it be that the essence of the game was actually fancy jumping? Was he supposed to do a Thomas Flare, followed by three-and-a-half somersaults, and land steadily on both feet to be considered to have scored one hundred marks?

What the heck? This was not a game about gymnastics!

Qin Guan wanted to continue making sarcastic remarks about the game when he realized that there was a button that allowed him to continue flipping to an earlier page even though he was already at the first page.

Curious, Qin Guan clicked it. The page placed before page one was numbered as five!

That was not all, the twenty records in it were all jumps that scored one hundred marks!

Qin Guan stared at them with wide eyes. What the heck was this?

He knew very clearly that ever since the trial began, he had only jumped one hundred times. So, to whom did the one hundred records in the five pages before his own records belong?

Qin Guan tapped the hundredth record while wondering whether it would even work. There was a progress bar for it, but when he dragged the slider, he did not see anything.

Qin Guan thought about it for a moment before he tapped his head. “I get it, it might be because I haven’t activated the platforms of the later stages.”

There was still plenty of space that was empty in the large dimension of trials. Qin Guan had only reached the fifth platform. Because of that, in his field of vision, the first five platforms had physical form, while the sixth platform was an illusory frame. He could not even see the seventh platform.

This meant that the record he chose just now was definitely about a platform in the later stages, and that was why he could not see it.

Qin Guan flipped to the first page and found the fifth record.

“If my math skills still work, this should be the record that shows a person jumping from the fifth platform to the sixth, right?”

Qin Guan clicked the record, and to his delight, there was a reaction.

An illusion of a figure appeared at the center of the platform. He was also a man and dressed in the torn shorts belonging to the useless person. However, his face was different from Qin Guan’s.

“Darn it, he’s actually a little more handsome than I am. Unforgivable…”

As Qin Guan stared at the person’s face, he felt jealousy rage in his heart, and he nearly forgot the more serious matter at hand.

“Bah, I’d like to see whether you did a Thomas Flare. I’m not going to believe that you managed to get full marks for a simple jump.”

Qin Guan slowly dragged the slider forward. The illusion raised his foot, began running, and leapt into the air in slow motion… Then, he landed gently on the green zone with his left foot. He immediately used the momentum to jump again and landed on the platform.

Qin Guan felt as if his world view, outlook on life, and values had all shattered. “What the heck… can a useless person jump so far? You’re using cheats, right?”

Qin Guan dragged the slider back to the start of the video and watched it again, and he was once more stunned by how epic the jump looked.

The person did not perform the Thomas Flare followed by three-and-a-half somersaults, as he expected. It was just a very normal jump, but in the process, every ounce of energy within the body belonging to the useless person was squeezed out, and not a single bit of extra energy was wasted. Besides, both the control of the landing point and the way he put forth his strength was done to absolute perfection. Not a single flaw could be detected anywhere.

This meant that this particular jump was the best that a useless person could perform. No wonder then that the system gave him full marks.

“Sorry for bothering you, I’ll be taking my leave now.”

Naturally, Qin Guan no longer wanted to play, because there was just no way a person could perform such a jump!

Forget performing the jump personally, he did not even understand what he had just seen…

He felt defeated, utterly defeated!

However, while Qin Guan felt defeated and was prepared to quit the game, he saw a new notice pop up on his UI.

A inconspicuous line of words showed up at the upper right corner of his peripheral vision. The words read, [Display detailed data]. There was even a checkbox before it.

“Detailed data?”

Qin Guan did not even think and just clicked the checkbox. The next second, numerous lines of text appeared on the illusion.

“What the— Isn’t this WAY too detailed?!”

Qin Guan looked carefully and saw that the data told him all the factors—regardless of whether they were important or not—that contributed to the jump.

Take, for example, the moment before the illusion took off. At the instant the illusion kicked off the platform with his right foot, an auxiliary line that showed the force analysis of the right foot appeared. It showed the angle in which the illusion put forth his strength, and there was even a progression bar that showed the detailed amount of force the illusion used.

The force he put forth when he kicked off the platform with his right foot was 100%. The entire progression bar for the amount of force was full. However, once the illusion took off, he still made some minor adjustments to his position. The progression bar for the force then became much smaller; it never surpassed 10% during that time.

The moment Qin Guan activated the [Detailed Data] software, every single detail in the illusion’s jump was quantified and presented to him.

Qin Guan flipped to his own records.

Once he activated [Detailed Data], every single detail of his jumps had also been quantified. When he made the comparison, he found that the difference… made him feel a little tragic.

His strength, direction, posture… and various other factors were all flawed. It was no wonder then that his marks were so low.

When he saw this, Qin Guan suddenly had a bold thought.

“Isn’t this thing just like the answers to summer homework? Or rather, I should say this is the best possible solution given by the officials! I only need to copy this jump to the T, and even if I don’t get full marks, I’ll be able to get a pass with no problem!”

His train of thought changed suddenly, and he shook his head. “Qin Guan, what’s wrong with you? You’ve fallen! When you played games, you never looked at walkthroughs, you wanted to experience the game yourself!

“You’re the type to write walkthroughs, not the type to read them. You’re a hardcore gamer, through and through! Isn’t it much sweeter to taste the fruits of victory you gained through your own efforts?”

Qin Guan resolutely closed the history records and challenged the platform before him again.

…

Ten minutes later, Qin Guan quietly turned on the history records and switched on [Detailed Data].

“Ah, how sweet.”