SWNOVELXO Chapter 115 - Veteran (2)
Chapter 115. Veteran (2)
Yuri’s greedy eyes turned toward Peter.
“Ah, just one more question.”
“What is it?”
“What happens if there’s a tie?”
“It’s handled according to internal regulations.”
“…Internal regulations, huh.”
Watching Yuri mutter to himself, Peter yawned and waved his hand dismissively.
“Yaaaawn, you don’t have anything else to ask, right? Then get going if you’re done. I need some time to myself.”
Peter’s face looked even more dazed than before.
He slowly shuffled back to his chair and plopped down, falling asleep almost instantly.
Seeing this, Yuri and Theresia left the makeshift building without saying a word.
The two of them moved far away from the makeshift building, which was also known as the Ranking Center.
As they walked, Yuri gestured toward the building with his chin and asked, “What’s with that guy?”
“His name is Peter Lehmann. He manages the challenge quests for this facility.”
“Is he part of the Black Sword Corps?”
“Probably? But ever since I got here, and even before that, he’s always been the manager here.”
“Don’t tell me… he got kicked out of the Black Sword Corps for sleeping too much?”
“There were rumors to that effect.”
“Knew it…”
Until now, every member of the Black Sword Corps Yuri had seen had a strong and intense presence, befitting the name Black Sword.
In contrast, Peter seemed utterly unremarkable.
However…
‘But the way he reacted to the word ‘battle preparation’ was unmistakably like a Black Sword Corps member.’
Yuri recalled how Peter had suddenly emitted a fierce aura the moment he woke up.
How much training and real combat had he gone through to react like that even while half-asleep?
Thinking about that, Yuri was convinced that Peter was indeed a member of the Black Sword Corps, despite his unimpressive demeanor.
While Yuri was mulling over his thoughts about Peter, he heard Theresia’s voice.
“It seems like there’s nothing more I can help with.”
When Yuri looked at her, she smiled faintly and said, “You’re not going to ask me about the Seven-Star Cave, are you?”
“No way.”
“I could give you some information about it.”
“Honestly, it’s a bit tempting, but… I’ll pass.”
Yuri grinned and waved his hand dismissively.
No matter how much he wanted to rank first, he didn’t want to ask Theresia for information about the Seven-Star Cave.
Of course, having the information would make things much easier.
But…
‘That would hurt my pride a bit.’
Even though Yuri wasn’t someone who cared much about sticking to principles, he couldn’t bring himself to do that.
He didn’t believe for a second that he couldn’t do what Gunther Ryder and Theresia had done.
For the sake of his future achievements and his self-respect, Yuri decided to refuse any information this time.
As he continued to think, his eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at Theresia.
“By the way.”
“…?”
“Why are you being so nice to me?”
“…What do you mean?”
“I mean, it doesn’t seem like you had any real reason to come to this quest area.”
Theresia had already cleared the Two-Star, and even held the second place record for the Seven-Star Cave.
Although she hadn’t secured first place, it didn’t seem like she had any reason to revisit this quest area.
‘But she brought me here anyway and explained everything so kindly.’
She was being kind, to the point where it felt excessive.
Even now, look at her.
At first, she said she had business here too, so they should go together, but now she was already preparing to leave.
“Why are you being so nice today?”
As Yuri gave her a suspicious look, Theresia responded curtly, “Just because.”
Then she immediately began to withdraw.
Just as she was about to leave, Yuri called out to her.
“Oh, right, Senior Thescha.”
“What now?”
Theresia’s expression slightly twisted in annoyance.
But her frown quickly disappeared when she heard what Yuri said next.
“You said Gunther Ryder is 18, and that you’re two years younger than him, right?”
“…”
“That means you’re 16?”
“…”
“Wow, Senior Thescha… You entered the Cradle early, huh? I’m 16 too.”
As Yuri grinned, Theresia turned abruptly.
Then, as if fleeing, she quickly walked away from the spot.
Watching Theresia’s retreating back, Yuri chuckled.
But his face soon returned to a blank expression.
‘Alright, until I break the record… it’s a never-ending challenge!’
Yuri took off running toward the cliff.
Thud!
As Yuri dashed out of the cave, his hand quickly pressed the stop button on the timer.
Scrreee!
Sliding across the ground, Yuri lifted his head to check the time.
“18 seconds.”
This was already his third attempt.
As a result, his original time of 19 seconds had now been reduced to 18 seconds.
And at that moment…
Slide! Click!
A slip of paper with his score popped out.
Upon seeing it, Yuri’s expression hardened.
“188 points?”
This was strange.
Too strange.
‘The score is the same as my first attempt?’
During his second attempt, Yuri had received 189 points.
His time then was also 18 seconds.
But how could the score be lower now, even though the time was the same?
Yuri rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
‘I really need to figure out how the scoring works.’
Only then could he pave the way toward his ultimate goal.
Yuri recalled Peter’s words.
‘He said that ties are handled according to internal regulations.’
Instead of sharing the rank, he had said it would be handled according to internal regulations.
Indeed, when Yuri checked the leaderboard, he noticed that sometimes people with the same score shared the rank, while other times, there was a clear distinction between them.
This implied that Peter’s internal regulations had a specific criterion for breaking ties.
Yuri suspected that the criterion might be ‘time.’
And his ultimate goal wasn’t just to casually take first place.
He aimed to score a perfect 200, setting a record so overwhelming that no one could surpass it, even if they too scored a perfect 200.
His goal at this moment was to set an unbeatable time record.
‘Well, first, I need to get that perfect score.’
Crack, crack.
Yuri lightly rotated his shoulders.
‘Anyway, I have enough time. I’ll keep going until I figure out the criteria.’
With that, Yuri pressed the start button on his timer.
Click.
The button slid in smoothly without any resistance.
But the timer didn’t start.
Yuri frowned slightly.
“What’s up with this again? It did this earlier too?”
He had intended to immediately start his next attempt to maintain his momentum, but with the timer malfunctioning, he had no choice.
‘Well, there are plenty of other caves.’
Muttering to himself, Yuri moved toward another cave.
Thus, Yuri’s never-ending challenge continued.
Time flew by quickly.
On the second day of his challenge quest attempts.
Yuri had explored all 20 of the Two-Star Caves, except for the red Seven-Star Cave.
Having roughly figured out where and how the traps were triggered, his average record had now dropped to around 17 seconds.
Moreover, within two days, Yuri had somewhat figured out the scoring system.
‘Out of a possible 200 points, 100 points are based on time, and the remaining 100 points are related to the traps.’
The shorter the time.
The fewer traps he destroyed.
The higher the score.
‘If I go through this a few more times, I’ll be able to confirm it.’
Click.
Yuri pressed the button on the stopwatch again.
Day 3 of the Challenge Quest Attempts.
While investigating the trap-related scores, Yuri noticed that once a mechanism was used, it underwent a maintenance period.
‘So that’s why the timer didn’t work.’
When the timer malfunctioned, he sneaked into the cave and found that the entrances to both pig-nose-shaped caves were closed.
Then, when the timer worked again and he entered, the traps he had destroyed were completely repaired.
Moreover, the more severely a trap was damaged, the longer the maintenance period.
‘This means someone is repairing the mechanisms.’
When Yuri asked Peter about this, he consistently replied, “I don’t know.”
‘Well, if I keep running the challenge, I’ll find out eventually.’
Yuri didn’t think much of it and dove back into the cave.
The more times he went through, the more certain he became about how the scoring system worked.
Day 4 of the Challenge Quest Attempts.
Yuri’s times had improved to 16 seconds.
The score he received was 194 points.
‘Didn’t Theresia say she scored 198 points after five months?’
Considering what he had heard from Peter about Theresia’s progress, Yuri’s speed of improvement was incredibly fast.
Yet, Yuri was not satisfied, and his attempts continued day and night.
Day 5 of the Challenge Quest Attempts.
By now, Yuri had memorized where and how each trap activated.
He had reached the point where not only did he avoid triggering any traps, but he could also control his times as he wished.
He had also fully analyzed the scoring system.
‘Over 110 seconds is 0 points, from 109 seconds to 11 seconds, each second grants 1 point, totaling 99 points.’
And there were a total of 100 traps.
‘Every time you destroy a trap, you lose 1 point.’
Once the analysis was complete, Yuri nodded in understanding.
‘If you adapt, you can pass without triggering a single trap, so the trap score has little impact. Therefore, the criteria for breaking ties must be… time!’
In cases of identical scores, the one with the faster time is ranked higher.
What he had vaguely suspected before now became a strong certainty.
And that day, Yuri passed the challenge without breaking a single trap, finishing in 15 seconds, and scoring 195 points.
But even though his score was increasing, his expression was far from cheerful.
“To get 200 points, do I have to break through the cursed 10-second barrier?”
Yuri had an intuition.
Breaking through this 10-second barrier would not be an easy feat.
Perhaps Gunther, too, couldn’t break through this barrier and ended up stuck at 199 points.
However.
‘I think I can do it.’
Yuri felt confident that he could get his time into the 10-second range.
So, his challenge continued, and the once-clear waters of the challenge quest had gradually turned into murky, stagnant waters.
Day 10 of the Challenge Quest Attempts.
Yuri emerged from the entrance of a green cave.
Slide! Click!
He stopped the timer and habitually checked the time.
“…11 seconds again.”
As Yuri frowned, a score slip popped out just in time.
Slide! Click!
Yuri checked it with a blank expression.
[199.]
199 points.
He was now tied with Gunther Ryder.
This score could potentially put him in first place, but Yuri didn’t look particularly pleased.
‘I’m not aiming for a shared first place.’
What he wanted was an overwhelming first place.
So, even though quite some time had passed since he achieved 199 points, Yuri still hadn’t registered his score.
Crrk-.
Yuri crumpled the score slip and sighed.
“Sigh… the cursed 10 seconds.”
As expected from the start, breaking into the 10-second range was difficult.
If it was just running 50 meters, he could do it in less than 3 seconds, not 10.
But avoiding traps, each movement was causing delays.
And there were 100 traps in total.
No matter how well he knew their locations and prepared for them, they still consumed a lot of time.
‘Well, at least my mastery of Cloud Step is improving thanks to these traps.’
Until now, he had mainly relied on Thunder Wing and Magic Flow in dangerous situations, so he had somewhat neglected Cloud Step.
But by continuously using Cloud Step to avoid traps, his proficiency was increasing.
This was excellent news for Yuri.
‘If my mastery of Cloud Step continues to improve at this rate, I’ll definitely break through the 10-second barrier.’
With that confidence, Yuri didn’t feel discouraged despite repeatedly failing to break the cursed 10 seconds.
Instead, what was bothering him now wasn’t frustration but boredom.
And Yuri’s boredom was of a different kind from the usual boredom or tedium.
Have you ever experienced this feeling?
Where your body moves on its own out of habit because you’ve been doing the same thing repeatedly.
You don’t even feel particularly bored, but your brain, having lost its work, keeps nagging you about how bored it is?
That was exactly Yuri’s state.
Once again, his mouth automatically responded to his brain’s nagging.
“Ah… I’m so bored.”
Looking for someone to talk to, Yuri glanced down the cliff.
But.
‘Not a single person, not even an ant in sight.’
The situation was quite different from the first day when there were plenty of people around.
But now he knew.
That day had been a very, very special and rare occurrence.
After observing the area for the past ten days, Yuri realized that this quest area wasn’t frequently visited.
He had hardly seen anyone from the 49th class.
Some from the 50th class showed up occasionally, but they usually left after a few attempts.
‘At most, they stayed for about two days?’
The person who stayed the longest was a girl from the 50th class who remained for four days, but…
Swish-.
Yuri’s gaze shifted to the Seven-Star Cave at the top of the cliff.
‘Ah, she’s gone now…’
After placing 92nd in the rankings on her fourth day, the girl challenged the Seven-Star Cave.
Since then, her name remained on the leaderboard, but she never returned from wherever she had gone.
Since the girl left, Yuri had only seen Peter for the past three days.
Of course, Peter was always sleeping, so he wasn’t much company.
Still, Yuri now perfectly understood why Peter called this place a ‘boring place’ and why he was always sleeping.
“Boooring!”
Yuri exclaimed, writhing in boredom.
“Ugh, I should hurry up and get 200 points and leave.”
With a big sigh, he habitually reached to press the timer button again.
“Huh?”
Yuri’s eyes caught sight of three people walking from afar.
His eyes narrowed as he focused on them.
‘Let’s see… Red epaulets, 50th class?’
And.
‘Emerald hair, blue hair, not a buzz cut either.’
They weren’t Theresia, Arin, or Poppy.
‘…Then who are they?’
Having grasped everything, Yuri shouted in excitement.
“Newbies!”
The veteran, thrilled by the arrival of newcomers, had his eyes gleaming with excitement.