SWNOVELXO Chapter 119 - New Record (3)
Chapter 119: New Record (3)
“What do you mean by a change in perspective?”
Yuri looked up at the sky, noticing Theresia’s puzzled expression, which indicated that she had no idea what he meant.
As he observed the sun, which had just passed its zenith, Yuri roughly estimated the time remaining.
‘About 10 hours left, I guess?’
It was time to start preparing, slowly but surely, to register the points before the sun set.
However…
‘Before that, I should do something about this person staring at me like she’s about to drill a hole in my face.’
If she became any more curious, she might actually put a hole in his face with her intense gaze.
Yuri glanced at Theresia’s crimson eyes and chuckled.
“Follow me.”
Leaving those words behind, Yuri started walking.
“…?”
The group exchanged glances briefly before quickly following after him.
Without looking back at those trailing behind him, Yuri spoke.
“I suddenly had an inspiration. Until now, I’ve always been focused on dodging the traps once they were triggered…”
“…”
“But what if, instead, I triggered the traps after avoiding them first?”
Arin and Poppy looked at Yuri as if they had no idea what he was talking about.
On the other hand, Theresia, who was familiar with the type of quests involving traps, had a hard expression on her face.
“That’s… impossible.”
From what Theresia knew, the traps here were triggered by detecting ground vibrations.
From the moment one entered the mechanism, all the way through to the end.
Every step forward would trigger the traps installed within a certain area by sensing those vibrations.
Therefore, even if someone avoided one trap, the next one would trigger as soon as they took another step.
Moreover, the traps had to be triggered for the points to be registered, so achieving a perfect score in the manner Yuri described was impossible.
“Impossible, you say.”
With those words, Yuri stopped in front of a cave.
A crimson entrance.
It was the 7-star cave.
“Hold this for me.”
“Hungry?”
Poppy, bewildered, accepted the sword *White* that Yuri handed over.
After entrusting his sword, Yuri looked around.
Then he scurried to one side, picking up several large stones.
Holding three in each hand, Yuri now faced the firmly shut iron door of the 7-star cave, bringing back fresh memories of recent events.
* * *
Yuri stood in front of the 7-star mechanism cave.
His hand hovered just 1 cm above the button that would start the timer.
If he pressed it, the challenge would begin immediately.
However, Yuri remained still, as if he had turned to stone, unable to press the button.
The reason for his hesitation was the unsettling feeling in his chest.
‘Why do I feel this way?’
Trying to rid himself of the inexplicable unease, Yuri calmly organized his thoughts.
‘The 7-star and 2-star mechanisms should share the same basic structure.’
The traps were triggered by sensing vibrations.
The only difference would be the difficulty level, depending on whether the traps were lethal or non-lethal.
‘If my assumption is correct, achieving first place shouldn’t be difficult.’
Yuri was confident that he could easily take first place.
The current first place score, set by Gunther Ryder, was 188 points.
Yuri was 100% certain that he could set a new record far surpassing that.
‘At least 190 points or more.’
Yuri’s confidence was not the blind optimism of those foolish enough to challenge the 7-star mechanism and die.
It was a calculated confidence, derived from the information he had meticulously gathered by tirelessly analyzing every detail of the 2-star mechanism day and night.
He knew his current abilities well, and he had carefully weighed them against the difficulty of the 7-star mechanism.
This calculated confidence assured him that he could score over 190 points, but for some reason, Yuri wasn’t satisfied.
‘Just? …Ah!’
That’s when Yuri realized it.
The unease he felt stemmed from the word “just.”
“…Only in the 190s?”
It was the dissatisfaction born from that single thought that had prevented Yuri from pressing the button.
Fortunately, this gave Yuri the time to gain inspiration.
Or perhaps his instincts had recognized this, stopping him from pressing the button.
*Plop*.
Yuri heard a faint sound, like a drop of water falling in his brain.
It was the sound of the last drop of thought falling into the pool of information he had accumulated while pondering over this quest.
And then…
*Trickle*.
The pool of information, which had been filled to the brim and was about to overflow, finally spilled over due to that last drop.
*Whoosh*.
A new path formed from the overflowing pool.
At that moment, Yuri felt a surge of exhilaration, and the frustrating blockage in his mind cleared away.
“Ah…”
Inspiration.
It was a word that referred to a sudden feeling, stimulus, or thought.
But Yuri’s understanding of inspiration was different.
To him, inspiration was something that emerged after relentlessly focusing on one thing, analyzing it from various angles, and then discovering an alternative path.
That was what inspiration meant to Yuri.
And now, a new path, an inspiration, had appeared before him.
‘I see.’
He had been thinking about it all wrong until now.
Yuri smiled faintly.
“…This was the real trap.”
Without realizing it, he had fallen into a trap of thought by obsessively focusing on breaking through the mechanism.
“Why did I assume that I had to avoid the triggered traps?”
It might sound like madness, but that was the entirety of Yuri’s inspiration.
He turned around and looked out at the vast expanse below the cliff.
Now erased without a trace by Johan, it was the same view he had once looked out upon from the cliffside hideout where he had lived.
As he recalled that memory, the image of Johan walking through the air naturally surfaced in his mind.
He had thought it was amazing back then, but now that he had learned the *Magic Flow* technique, he realized how truly astounding it was.
It was a level he couldn’t even dream of reaching at his current state.
But while it might be impossible to perfectly replicate the level Johan had shown him…
‘With my current *Cloud Step* technique, I can probably mimic about… 5% of it.’
And 5% would be more than enough.
Even if he could only manage 5%, all the traps in the 7-star mechanism would become useless.
“I need practice.”
Muttering to himself, Yuri descended the cliff.
*Tap*.
He activated the timer for the 2-star mechanism again.
* * *
The plan he had devised from his late-blooming inspiration had succeeded brilliantly.
And now…
To satisfy the curiosity of a very eager young girl, Yuri intended to recreate that successful moment.
“Watch carefully.”
With those words, Yuri activated the timer.
*Drrrrr!*
The iron door of the 7-star cave, which had been firmly shut, opened swiftly.
*Whoosh!*
Yuri vanished into the cave, leaving a gust of wind in his wake.
Theresia was horrified.
“That’s dangerous!”
Her alarmed shout was nothing more than a belated cry.
Theresia’s pupils trembled as she stared at the spot where Yuri had just been.
‘He went in without even a weapon!’
Yuri’s sword was now dangling in Poppy’s hand as he stood there, dumbfounded.
To Theresia, who knew how perilous the interior of that cave was, what Yuri had just done seemed utterly insane.
But what could she do?
The deed was already done.
All she could do now was pray for his safe return.
Meanwhile, inside the cave, Yuri’s eyes were calm.
Soon, a forked path resembling a pig’s snout appeared before him.
The left path was closed, while the right was open.
It was the same setup as the 2-star mechanism.
Without hesitation, Yuri turned right, and at the same time, lightning surged from his body.
Redner Family’s Secret Magic Body Technique.
Thunder Wing.
Crackle!
Yuri activated Thunder Wing and leaped through the air, passing through the right passageway. His speed was so fast that he appeared like a streak of lightning shooting forward.
In an instant, Yuri had passed through the entrance, and now he spread out the Magic Flow web widely behind him.
Whoosh.
The web of Magic Flow reached the floor, walls, and ceiling of the cave. At the same time, Yuri quickly assessed the surroundings.
‘That’s the activation point, isn’t it?’
As soon as the thought crossed his mind, a strong vibration spread through the web of Magic Flow that touched every surface. The vibration, created by Magic Flow as it disturbed the airflow, caused…
Drrrrr.
The entrance Yuri had passed through closed, and all sorts of traps in the space he had just moved through were triggered.
Clank!
Boom!
Yuri’s eyes glinted as he witnessed the scene.
‘Even seeing it again, it’s a nasty level of difficulty.’
As Yuri had expected, the 7-star level traps, like those in the 2-star level, were activated by detecting vibrations. The only difference was that the difficulty was utterly terrifying. Each trap was designed to kill any intruder with absolute certainty.
Even Yuri had to admit that these traps were not easy to deal with.
‘No wonder people keep dying here.’
The dark red stains at the entrance clearly indicated what had happened to those who had attempted it before. It didn’t take much thought to understand.
And beyond this entrance, countless dangerous traps awaited further ahead.
But none of this concerned Yuri.
Whoosh.
Just as Yuri, who had soared through the air, was about to land, he threw the stones he had brought with him.
At that exact moment, his foot kicked off one of the stones.
Redner Family’s Secret Magic Body Technique.
Cloud Step.
A technique said to reach such mastery that one could step on clouds and sky—the first absolute technique of the Redner family. Thanks to the mechanism breakthrough quest, Yuri’s proficiency in Cloud Step had risen significantly.
Because of this, Yuri could now mimic about 5% of that miraculous scene Johan had once shown him.
Whoosh.
Crackle!
Yuri kicked off the small stone, propelling himself into the air once again, wrapped in lightning as he sped forward.
At the same time…
Snap!
Boom!
Bang!
The Magic Flow web Yuri had spread behind him caused another round of vibrations, triggering all the traps. These were the same deadly traps that had claimed countless lives. But today, those traps struck nothing but empty air.
Like that…
Tap!
Whoosh.
Crackle!
As Yuri threw another stone, he reached the turnaround point.
Tap!
When the third stone was thrown, he was already halfway through the exit corridor.
And as the final, fourth stone was thrown…
Crackle.
Yuri’s body smoothly slid through the now half-open exit.
Behind him, numerous traps were just starting to activate, but Yuri had already passed through the iron door.
Bang!
Yuri emerged from the iron door and immediately pressed the stop button on the timer.
“…?!”
Theresia’s eyes widened in shock as she saw Yuri emerge just moments after he had entered.
As she stared at him, Yuri casually tossed the remaining stones from his hands over his shoulder and said, “It’s possible—if you never touch the ground even once.”
He could say this because he had mastered Cloud Step. And that mastery had reached its current level.
Tap, tap.
Yuri lightly brushed off the stone dust from his hands. Above his head, the single hand of the record-measuring clock hanging at the entrance of the 7-star mechanism stopped… at the fourth mark.
Theresia, seeing this, murmured as if in a trance.
“…Four seconds.”
Yuri’s record, now listed on the leaderboard, wasn’t a lie. He had really completed the 7-star mechanism cave in just four seconds.
As she stood there in a daze, she suddenly realized something and exclaimed in shock.
“Wait! Did you just enter the 7-star level again? But I thought you could only challenge it once?”
However, Yuri had just casually gone in and out of the 7-star level, hadn’t he?
In response to Theresia’s question, Yuri answered nonchalantly, “You only get one chance to challenge it for the record, but it’s fine to go back in after succeeding.”
Judging by his tone, it wasn’t the first time he had re-entered the 7-star mechanism.
Theresia stared at Yuri in disbelief.
‘Going back in there… who would even think of doing that?’
Most people barely survived just one entry, yet Yuri spoke as if he was merely taking a casual stroll inside.
While Theresia was staring blankly at him…
Slide, click!
The score sheet for the 7-star mechanism popped out. Unlike the 2-star level, it was black, and the paper quality seemed considerably better.
As Yuri picked up the sheet, Arin and Poppy hurriedly gathered around him.
“Is that the paper with your score on it?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s the score?”
“Of course, it’s a full…”
…As Yuri was about to say “full score,” he suddenly froze.
Instead, a faint mumble escaped his lips.
“…What?”
“Huh? What did you say?”
“Hungry?”
Unable to hear clearly, Poppy and Arin peeked over Yuri’s shoulder to look at the score sheet.
Yuri’s hands trembled as he held the black paper. The golden line elegantly drawn on it formed a single word:
【Spit】.
The handwriting was bold and powerful, conveying an intense and concentrated rage.