Episode 205

The darkness before them disappeared and Su Jin exhaled deeply. He looked up at the people around him and saw that besides his three teammates, there were only four others. This was an eight person Challenge.

“That’s not a lot of people.” Su Jin was a little surprised. The number of owners in a Challenge was proportionate to the difficulty level of the Challenge. A Level A Challenge could have three teams and 15 owners in total. There would be no newbies and the number of veterans could be as high as one third of the group or even more.

Out of the other four, two of them looked completely bewildered and retreated warily when they saw the other six. These two were clearly newbies.

“Old timers, please raise your hands.” Su Jin didn’t want to waste time and raised his own hand. His teammates also raised their hands.

After that, the two who looked unfazed by this situation also raised their hands. Only the two obviously new owners had confused looks on their faces, because they had no idea what Su Jin was talking about.

“It’s your first time in a Hell’s Handbook Challenge?” Su Jin asked the two new ones. One of them was a man who looked like he was in his thirties and was dressed smartly in a suit. The woman looked like she was in her twenties and looked even younger than Kano Mai. Her expression was extremely wary.

The man hesitated and seemed distrustful of Su Jin and the others. He paused for a moment, then said, “What is this Hell’s Handbook Challenge you talk about?”

Su Jin removed his own Handbook from his pocket and said to them, “Check your pockets. You should have one of these as well.”

They checked their pockets and did find their own Handbooks inside. Su Jin continued, “Nobody knows who controls this universe. Maybe it’s a deity, or maybe it’s an alien. But we are people who own a copy of Hell’s Handbook, and we’re known as owners.

“In general, we think that we’ve been chosen by Hell’s Handbook to become owners. Once you’re an owner, the Handbook will send you into a dangerous Challenge every month. To make it easier to understand, you can think of it like a dungeon in a computer game, but never, ever, think of the Handbook universe itself as a game. If you die in here, you’re really dead in the real world.”

The woman mustered up her courage and said, “You’re lying to us, aren’t you? Have we… have we been kidnapped or something? Is this some reality TV show you’re filming?”

One of the old timers who wasn’t from Team Boning Knife was a man in his twenties. He said impatiently, “Why do you bother saying so much to these newbies? If they die, then so be it.”

The two newbies were taken aback by what he said, but Su Jin did not try to allay their fears. “It’s true that I don’t have the time to tell you much else. Then again, there isn’t much else to say either. Just remember, do your best to stay alive. That’ll be enough.”

After that, Su Jin ignored the two newbies and gathered his teammates to analyze this Challenge. The other two old timers immediately concluded that these four owners were a team.

“Jin, this Challenge isn’t too hard, it’s only a Level C Challenge.” Wu Chen had a small smile on his face. A Level C Challenge was indeed not very dangerous to the team.

Su Jin paused to think, then said, “I don’t think anybody would get very high level Challenges at this point in time, since it’s the first Challenge after those major changes were announced. The Handbook would give the owners some leeway, which is also a way for the Handbook to test the waters.”

He then turned to look at the information inside his Handbook.

Level C Challenge: Dragon

Main mission: Successfully slay the dragon.

Optional mission: Get rid of the dragon problem permanently.

After chewing on it for a while, Su Jin just shook his head with a sigh. He said, “Very little information has been given, but at least we’re sure about who our enemy is.”

“The dragon mentioned here… is it the European lizard-like type? Or the Chinese sort? Or… a dinosaur of sorts?” asked Situ Jin.

“It’s more likely to be the European sort, since the Chinese ones are usually a symbol of righteousness and are often depicted as a deity. The European ones represent evil and massacre the righteous without any reason. As for dinosaurs… I think the chances of that are very slim,” said Su Jin.

“This Challenge should be less taxing, right?” mumbled Situ Jin.

Su Jin shook his head and laughed. “Before this, such a Challenge wouldn’t be too hard. The few of us put together would slay a dragon pretty easily. But don’t forget, our abilities will be greatly reduced in a Level C Challenge. Also… there are limits on what items we can use.”

Everyone’s faces fell after Su Jin reminded them of the limits. Level C Challenges did limit them quite badly. Their Spirit Powers would be reduced by 80%, their physique weakened by 40% and they could only use three items.

After Su Jin’s Spirit Power was reduced by 80%, he was only left with 460 points. His body was extremely resilient, so even though his physique had been reduced by 40%, he was still basically invincible. He was quite sure that even if he had to fight the dragon head on, he would be able to hold out for a while.

“Damn it, my Spirit Power is only left with 800 points! This reduction is pretty severe,” sighed Wu Chen. But that really shocked the rest of his team. Wu Chen was an old timer who had gone through dozens of Challenges alright. Even after such a significant reduction, he was actually still left with an 800 point upper limit.

Su Jin looked toward Kano Mai and Situ Jin. Their situation was way worse. Kano Mai smiled sadly and said, “I don’t even have a hundred points. Each of my bullets require at least five points to have any effect. If I have to shoot at something as large as a dragon, it’ll take at least ten times as many points. In other words… I think my Spirit Power is practically useless here.”

“I’m only left with 30 points. If I have to hide myself in a shadow, I’ll only be hidden for three minutes at best.” Situ Jin had a look of dismay on his face. He hadn’t received this Spirit Power for long, and his first Challenge after getting it, it ended up being reduced to this pathetic state.

“We need to readjust our mentality. This is a Level C Challenge. Back when we didn’t have Spirit Power, we survived it anyway, what more now?” Su Jin smiled at them. As their leader, he had to boost their morale when they were feeling down.

The rest agreed with him. A Level C Challenge was considered Challenge on the easier side, and they had all gone through a time when they had to complete Challenges with no Spirit Power. They hadn’t been afraid back then, so there was nothing to be afraid of right now.

The other two old timers walked toward them. The man who spoke up earlier smiled at Su Jin and said, “Sir, I suppose the four of you must be a team. Since we’ve had the good fortune of being part of the same Challenge, do you think we could… help each other out?”

Su Jin was a little hesitant. He had received help from others before, but others had schemed against him before too. During the Temple of the Origin of Heaven, he and Kano Mai had nearly died because another owner plotted against them. The latest slew of changes to the Challenges didn’t say that missions that pitted owners against each other had been removed either.

Wu Chen took a step forward and sneered. “Go away! When it comes to Handbook Challenges, those who are able will survive and those who aren’t will die!

His attitude was very nasty because he could see that Su Jin felt bad turning the two owners away, so he decided to play the bad guy. Besides, after going through so many Challenges, he had seen many of such scenarios. Refusing to work together wasn’t the worst anyway. There were some owners or teams who would end up killing others depending on the Challenge, even without receiving any specific mission to do so.

For example, some Challenges had limits on essentials like food and water, or had severe caps on certain items. In order to get more essentials to survive the Challenge, some owners would not hesitate to kill others. He had even gone through several Challenges where the owners went to war with one another immediately after the Challenge started.

After Wu Chen snapped at him like that, the man’s smile instantly faded. He yelled back, “What the hell? I asked nicely and you give me this shitty attitude? I’ll have you know that I’m an expert who’s ranked at 11000 something!”

11,000 something didn’t sound very impressive, but when you considered how many owners there were in total, this was a pretty high position, actually. Calling himself an expert wasn’t an exaggeration.

Situ Jin raised an eyebrow and said nastily, “11000 something? I’m the worst ranked in the team and I’m at 5200 something.”

“Situ!” said Su Jin sternly to stop Situ Jin from saying more. Situ Jin looked back at Su Jin and realized that he had indeed said too much, so he shut his mouth again.

The man immediately wiped the arrogant look off his face and quietly walked away from the group. Su Jin thought, “Any person who’s survived enough Challenges is definitely no idiot.” That man had behaved really arrogantly just now, but it had taken him only one statement to figure out how strong this team was.

But Su Jin didn’t care, really. Situ Jin might have exposed their level of prowess, but at the same time, it was a good way to warn these two old timers. If they wanted to plot against his team, they’d better think twice and see if it’s worth doing something like that.

The other old timer looked like he was in his forties, around Wu Chen’s age. He walked up to Su Jin and said, “I know you’re worried that one of us might have a mission to kill other owners, but I think… based on your prowess, the Handbook wouldn’t include such a mission in this sort of Challenge. I hope you could reconsider working together.” He glanced at the two newbies and said with a warm smile, “It’s hard on everybody, especially the two new ones. A Level C Challenge could very well kill them.”

“The possibility of such a mission is still there and it’s simply too dangerous to trust others. I have to put my team’s safety first.” Su Jin was in a dilemma. He didn’t really mind working with others, but any decision he made would affect his team’s safety, so he had to be very cautious.

The older man sighed and said, “Never mind then. Both of you can follow me. I… I’ll try my best to protect both of you.”