I woke up, which was pretty shocking all on its own. I was sure I was… going to die.


    At the same moment I opened my eyes, a figure began to appear in front of, but I relaxed when I realized it was only Shisho.


    “Pathetic! Unable to even beat yourself so cleanly? Even with all of this great Shisho’s help?! Without medicine being no more than a heart beat away, you’d be dead as can be. Fwah! Truly, truly the gods have cursed me with this idiot disciple.”


    “Hey. He was my equal, what on earth was I supposed to do?”


    “Evolve faster of course! Improve at a better rate!”


    “But… didn’t he improve at literally the same rate as me?”


    “Fah! Just check your stupid system and let us begin. You are running out of time.”


    I tilted my head at that, but a quick look at my blinking status menu revealed a lot all at once.


    [Skills unlocked!]


    [Achievements unlocked!]


    [Level up!]


    [Mind of Darkness: Passive Skill. Your mind has taken in the depths of darkness and come out reforged. Gain extreme mental resistance, boosted while in the dark. Fatigue is now an alien concept to you, as your mind will always feel fresh and rested even if you aren’t. Begin to see the true shape of darkness]


    That explained why everything seemed so different after the skill, why we’d both felt so… calm despite everything. Even more than just a high mind stat. I tried to remember the end of the fight, before I’d lost it, and honestly it just felt like… going for a walk? Even near the end, when I’d been dying, he seemed calm. That was… strange and bizarre but helpful.


    [Conquer Thyself: No two ways about this one. You fought yourself… and won. That’s some cheesy joke level or epic nonsense type of stuff. +5% Effectiveness to All Stats.]


    Huh. So achievements could also give effectiveness. That’s pretty cool.


    [Name: Matt (Challenge sight. 3 hours left)


    Level: 8


    Free stat points: 5


    Qi points: 2


    Qi Rank: Foundation 1 [The Infinite Astral Path]


    Achievements: [Welcome to The Gameshow] [The Royal Road] [Humanity’s First Fear] [Creative Care] [Boned] [Anti-Deus Ex] [Legs For Days] [Bleed To Bleed Another Day] [Centennial] [Millennial] [Challenger] [Enter The Dream] [Find The Backrooms] [A New Dimension] [Escape The Dream World] [A Good Monster?] [The First Step] [Insects Galore] [Vine Whip] [Baby’s First Eldritch] [Diverse] [The Nonstopping] [Conquer Thyself]


    Titles: [A Good Sport]


    Skills: [Body of Darkness]


    Strength: (21) (+15%) 24


    Speed: (53) (+15%) 60


    Endurance: (30) (+15%) 34


    Magic: (29) (+15%) 33


    Mind: (29) (+15%) 33]


    Jesus Christ, my stats were getting insane. My speed… I felt like I could move as fast a fucking bullet. I had no reference to compare myself towards but it was so much I could actually feel it. As if every piece of me was just… less restricted towards the earth. Combined with my cultivation… absolutely mind blowing. This was going to be amazing-


    I felt something that made me grimace.


    Turning I waited and a moment later… another care package waited. Ghostly laughter echoed into my mind.


    “It’s not funny… I almost died. If I had…”


    ‘Then you’d be dead. And then your companions and pet would be dead. I am aware… but it is still hilarious! Misery or fortune, you must accept either, for it is only with struggles you’ll grow strong.’


    I sighed, running my hands down my face. Shisho wasn’t wrong. Objectively, yesterday went fine. Sure, I’d done only a single damn thing and almost died, but a +5% boost to everything was… considerable. It was worth far more than anything I’d done the day before that.


    But on the non logical side… I was incredibly angry. Yesterday had been three things, good, bad, and funny. Funny was whatever, in fact, I was even starting to like them a little more. I was doing alright now and not every single care package was a literal matter between life and death. And when it had been… the Gods had pulled through for me. If they wanted their jokes… fine. The good gods were nearly always there, willing and waiting to help me. But the bad… I’d nearly died. The worst part was is I don’t think they necessarily wanted to kill me… that would’ve been boring. They just want my suffering to be entertaining.


    I wonder if this is how religious people actually felt back in the day, when they believed every famine or miraculous recovery was a result of a higher power. It was much, much better when Gods were just fiction made by man… Them being real… why would anyone ever want that?


    I stood up, getting out of my hospital bed and felt… okay? I looked down, shocked as my own body. I was once more wearing a hospital gown and I quickly redressed. My clothes had… seen better days. Hell, my armor had seen better days. Even my sword seemed to have a small chip on it. Which was bad, I had no idea how to care for a sword and especially didn’t have the proper supplies.


    But for now, I had more important things to do. I had exactly 3 hours left on my ‘Challenge Vision’ and that would only allow me to do so much. I needed to get through them as fast as possible. But first… it was time to deal with the elephant in the room.


    Awkwardly, I walked over to the care package. Part of that was complicated emotions over them, mostly it was readiness. Whatever it was, I wanted to get it over with. If it spawned another damn evil clone, I was just going to run away and hope for the best. No way did I think I could win against myself twice.


    I popped it open… and had to resist a cry of frustration. I’d seen this one before, back when I got my speed x3. It was a gacha. Dozens of images of what could be, from banana peels to guns to eldritch creatures, all appeared and disappeared, rapidly cycling through in front of me in a small translucent box. Finally, it finished and-


    ‘Uh-oh.’ Shisho called, which had my heart rate spiking when-


    An explosion. An explosion of color slammed into me and I felt myself staggering back. I blinked rapidly, getting my bearings… only to gape in awe at my damn room. It was… a kaliedscope of colors and shapes. I’d hesitate to say rainbow, because it was more colors than just that. Cherry red, bright ocean blue, literal sky pink, shining one and all, even the browns somehow. It was bright and honestly… beautiful in a way.


    My feelings lasted all of a second till I looked down at myself. My armor, blade, clothes, and even my skin were all different. A mix of red, blue, orange, yellow… I looked like I’d been bathed in paint made from the mind of a neon artist… that was on shrooms and pulled directly from their mind. I was more art than man.


    “What the fuck?”


    I pulled up my status… but for once, it had nothing to give me. No unknown status effects. A cold sweat began to pour off me as I began to try to get the ‘paint’ off. Except it wasn’t coming off, which was frustrating in the extreme. I used some of my saliva but… god damn it, it wasn’t budging even a little bit!


    “That was probably useless my idiot disciple.” Shisho spoke up, sounding utterly amused. “You look so alien I’d believe you a child’s monster before an actual living creature. Bravo, bravo! You have decided to not go for my exceptional handsome self and chart your own course into art. I’m sure the ladies and perhaps even some men, would be more than willing to get to know you now. To stare at if nothing else!”


    “I-I’m sure it’s just a temporary color change or something! Or I can just find some soap or-”


    “Soap?! Have you seen- Of course you haven’t. It’s not paint or anything so benign! Even your tongue, teeth, and eye color have changed. You best hope it’s a temporary alteration.”


    My eyebrows shot up to my head and I sprinted towards the bathroom, only to gape at myself in the mirror. If anything… Shisho was underselling it. I looked so absolutely… artistic and beautiful that it struck me like a chord. There was no singular color I could pick at anything, almost nothing was not a blend or a mesh, some combination and riot of colors. For a small beat, the idea of me going back to normal was… sad. I shook that off. I may look like a literal living work of art from one of the most exotic minds on the planet… but I didn’t want to stay like this! Even my eyes had changed into that strange mix and no whites were left! Oh god, if Rick or Jessica see me like this…


    I breathed out and grumbled in suppressed fascination and amazement as even my very breath seemed to exude a kind of colorful vapor.


    Coming back out, Shisho seemed caught between laughing directly at my face and admiring me in a way that sent uncomfortable shivers up my spine. Shisho was… just a cool teacher that was helping me survive, there was nothing ‘bad’ in his gaze but… I truly looked too awe inspiring for my own good. At least the room itself was also affected so-


    “Hey wait a minute! Why weren’t you hit with that Color Bomb?!”


    “Idiot! I obviously retreated back into the necklace when it was deemed necessary. It’s your own fault, perhaps if you had better senses, you wouldn’t be a living Xi Mingun painting!”


    I had no idea who that was but it didn’t matter. Actually, none of this mattered, I had points to get and levels to achieve. Speaking of, a new level was very welcome. I must have put on a hell of a show what with fighting my own doppelganger. But today, I needed to work on Challenges, which meant finding them as fast as possible. I’d wasted enough time with this care package.


    Quickly making sure I was ready, I headed outside. Annoyingly, sky was still pink, but whatever.


    “So what’s the plan?” Shisho asked, still smiling from earlier.


    “For now, challenges. And after that…” My eyes looked out into the distance, where the Behemoth was. In the light of a pink sky it seemed… strangely more intimidating. All of it’s massive vine limbs were able to seen better and now that I was faster, I could tell it’s legs clearly weren’t doing some strange teleporting trick. It was really just moving the damn things that fast. I once more took it in. Massive, sphere like body, no discernable features, no eyes or features, with legs like square blocks of cement. It looked like what a child would put together. That was until you took in the vines. Red in color, curling all around it, branching to make massive vine limbs that swayed through the air. Countless fell off it but there always seemed to be more.


    Always walking around in the same area, the rhythm of its legs stomping the ground sending a constant vibration that could reach me all the way here. It was… a strange creature. But I knew I’d fail to kill it right now. It was just… too much. Even if I got all my stats to 50… it’s size was a massive problem. How would I fight a million vines trying to engulf and strangle me at once?


    I wanted to fight it before I had my class but the more I thought about it, the more that seemed impossible.


    “You need more Qi.” Shisho said. I blinked.


    “Qi?”


    “If you want to fight that thing, you need more Qi. That’s the only way your sword will be able to have any effect.”


    I frowned.


    “Well… it’s a good thing that’s what I plan on getting then.”


    I moved and it was like the whole world slowed down to accommodate. I gaped, even as my body moved through the world. I was… beyond fast. Beyond anything I could have imagined. In no time at all, annoyingly, I found myself back at the gas station from oh so long ago. The ice cooler was where the challenge seemed to be ‘coming from’. I walked up to it, laid my hand on it and- Stolen novel; please report.


    [Challenge Found!]


    [Challenge Type: Speed


    Reward: 5 Qi Points


    Special notes: You will be temporarily transported to a separate space to take part in your challenge!]


    I nodded. That was pretty good all around and it didn’t even have anything like it taking up a whole day. The special notes might even be unique to every challenge typing. Part of me hoped not, I didn’t want to have to deal with a 24 hour test every time I wanted to do something involving endurance. I began to pull my hand back but… something appeared.


    [Warning! Leaving the Challenge untaken will cause it to disappear!]


    “Fuck.” I said quietly.


    That was annoying. I had wanted to go to each of the challenges in the area, marking their location. This… would be a problem. It meant I had a much more limited amount of time to complete as many challenges as possible in the next 3 hours.


    I was apparently going to be putting my speed to the test.


    “I accept.” and the world went dark.


    But only for a moment, because the next, it was blue.


    Ice. Lots and lots and lots of ice. I was standing on a platform, in what seemed to be a massive underground area, entirely composed of ice. In front of me was floating platforms of crystal blue ice, spinning and moving. At the very far end there seemed to be a flag stuck into the platform, but it was nowhere near me.


    I began to realize exactly what I’d need to do and was really, really hoping my shoes had more traction that I’d ever expected from them.


    [Challenge Start!


    Rewards: 5 Qi Points


    Challenge Type: Speed


    Challenge: Make your way across platforms made of ice. Beware though! You only have… 3 minutes! Make sure to run fast or you’ll fall right into the void!]


    I heard a low whistling sound behind me and turned, only to see a platform falling down and down, below into what seemed like a never ending white fog. It occurred to me once again that… challenges were very dangerous if you weren’t careful.


    I began to run and immediately felt my feet trying to fall out from under me as they began to slip on the ice. I hit the edge and basically tripped into the empty air, soaring right over one platform, and onto the next. Despite feeling panic for a moment… I mostly just felt annoyed strangely. My body was under my complete control and this was the first time it’d felt ‘out of sync’ with me. I tried to walk and move across the ice, slowly getting my footing, as I heard another whistle from a platform falling down behind me. I should have been worried, panicked, my heart racing with adrenaline but I just felt… calm. Relaxed. That skill was paying dividends, especially combined with my mind stat.


    Finally feeling like my feet were underneath me properly, I began to move just as the platform I sailed over began to fall down. My feet skidded over the ice as I approached the edge of the platform but I didn’t hold back this time. This time, I leaped and went flying through the air like a rocket. I soared over multiple platforms, hitting one and keeping my momentum, as I jumped off it. It honestly almost felt… fun. Like I’d become one of the Rario Sisters and was just leapfrogging my way across some easily made platforms. It only took me a few more seconds to land where the flag was and grab it.


    “Well… that was easy.”


    [Challenge Completed!]


    I blinked as my vision began to darken and I found myself back, standing outside the gas station again.


    “That was… really strange. I expected something… harder.”


    “Of course it was easy you idiot! You have so much speed that it would have been appalling if it had been any easier and look at the reward! It seemed pretty light. Even if you’d still been a weak normal person, it would have only been really difficult.”


    Shisho was right. If I had just been a normal person… I still probably could have completed that. Which made me think. Was this challenge… here since the beginning? Was I meant to find it? I could have gotten 5 more Qi points right at the very beginning of my journey… and maybe fallen to my death in an icy pit. I’d much rather have done it here and now, then before and then. I’d probably have died.


    The next marker was pointing me deeper into the town. As I went, combat was inevitable but I could already feel myself out growing what I’d seen. Zombies no longer sent me into terror, Black Skeletons were far slower than me and I could already have beaten them easily enough before hand, scorpion ant things, vines, Shoggoths, none of it was a challenge anymore. I’d… I’d survived and now I was thriving.


    Which was a problem. I needed more strength to become more entertaining to get more strength. Part of that equation meant fighting stronger and stronger enemies but I’d need to actually find them. This town… I was outgrowing it rapidly and then I’d need to move, go out, explore different areas.


    And I had no idea what was out there or where to go. It was almost a chilling thought. This town was dangerous but somehow… I doubted I’d seen the worst of the worst. No matter what, this town was my starting point. I don’t think it was ever meant to kill me, not really. It could have. But it was perfectly survivable. The biggest threat had actually been the nurses of all things. There were still things that went bump in the dark, things lurking out there that I hadn’t seen even when I was trying, but I had an extremely bad feeling about being outside when the true night came. That seemed like a good way to die.


    But outside the town? Outside of this… cultivated area, this garden of hell? It would be worse. I could feel it, could know it. This was like a tutorial and I’d nearly grown beyond it. It was going to be like stepping out from a garden into a jungle and I’d just have to pray I was strong enough for it.


    The next challenge point pissed me off the moment I saw it. It was the police station, the one I’d searched heavily a few days ago. But I’d only been searching the doors, thinking challenges could only be attached to them. Clearly I had been wrong, especially as my temporary challenge vision pointed right towards a little dragon statue that was lying on a random desk. I grabbed it and-


    [Challenge Found!]


    [Challenge Type: Strength


    Rewards: 100 Qi Points, Title, Special Potion


    Special Notes: None]


    “Nope. Un uh, Nope. Not in a million years, NOPE.”


    ‘It is… good to know one’s limits.’ Shisho said in his semi-creepy ghost mind speaking way.


    Honestly… what the hell? No way. I was going to absolutely, 100%, Die, if I took that challenge. I could already see exactly what it was going to have me do. It was going to have me fight a fucking dragon. No way.


    I pulled my hand away quickly, backpedaling, as the warning message popped up. Once I was far enough away I saw the challenge dissipate before my very eyes. Or at least the marker for it disappeared. That was more than good enough. I was really feeling that ‘You can die by making the wrong choices’ thing Warix had said. Her words were still stamped into my memories and they had almost never seemed more relevant than right now.


    I left the police station, glad I hadn’t found that challenge before and glad I hadn’t taken it now.


    The next one was in a jewlery store. Annoyingly, I had to kill a dozen Black Skeletons and three shoggoths to even get inside. The bottom of my shoes were now unpleasantly sticky by whatever the hell they’d been made of. This time, the challenge was a strange looking pearl necklace. I reached out to grab it.


    [Challenge found!]


    [Challenge Type: Magic


    Rewards: 10 Qi, Book of Cantrips


    Special notes: Alternate Testing Space.]


    I frowned.


    “Magic…”


    I didn’t know a damn thing about magic. Not the slightest amount. I had absolutely no way to shoot a fireball or control water or anything like that. I couldn’t cast any spells. Something testing me on my Magic was… incredibly dangerous actually. I had no idea what it could ask of me. There was a very real chance I simply lose and die.


    On the other hand… I might be able to do it. If I needed to kill something, I could. If I needed to run away, I could. I didn’t think it was… hopeless for me to succeed and more than that, one of the rewards wasn’t normal. It was a book of cantrips. Otherwise known as a book of spells so weak and tiny, they didn’t even really count as spells. But that meant I could learn them. Maybe. Hopefully. It would be another tool in my arsenal, one that completely consisted of a sword and Qi at the moment. Well, and the stats to back it up.


    “I accept.”


    The world faded away and when I opened my eyes I was struck by just how loud the place was. It was like a thousand pipes were carrying a thousand streams of pressurized stream. All around me I seemed to be in some kinda… I had no idea. Metal and more metal. Dark too. It was like I’d been taken into some underground… testing chamber. Except it looked more like a place for nukes rather than magic.


    In front of me was… some kinda… magic machine maybe? It had a million symbols I didn’t understand, was clearly a ‘screen’ but one made of out some kind of thin blue crystal, and seemed to part illusion or hologram, I couldn’t tell what.


    Suddenly, all the lights and the screen itself became bright red, as what was clearly an alarm began to go off.


    [Challenge Start!


    Rewards: 10 Qi, Book of Cantrips


    Challenge Type: Magic


    Challenge: A RED has begun to enter made reality. Quickly, use your mana manipulation to prevent this catastrophe before you and everything around is unmade!]


    WHAT? What’s a Red? What do you mean unmade? What mana manipulation?! Quickly, I reached out towards the screen in front of me, hoping I could find some answers. The second I did, for the first time, I felt a connection to a part of myself that was more ethereal than most. My mana channels, the one’s that wound around my Qi Channels, seemed to leap forward like something had just prodded and connected with them. I blinked and cautiously, slowly, I began to send my ‘mana’ forward. It was… unreal. It was kinda like Qi but… starkly different. Like they were both liquid but one was more like… coffee and the other was tea. No, that wasn’t really quite it either… more like the difference between… there really were no proper words for it. Qi was Qi and Mana was Mana, both energy, but so so starkly different in make up.


    As I sent my Mana forward, it felt like I was connecting and feeling out something, like I’d grown more sensory information. When my mana hit something, I knew it. When it didn’t, I knew it. It was like… I was sending it through pipes. I looked at all the many, many pipes around me. Maybe I was.


    As I reached further in, as the alarms continued to ring, I began to worry a little. This wasn’t just any challenge, this was a puzzle. I was… inputting some kinda code, kinda. My Mana had to go down the right pipes, at the right time, in the right way. It was simple in one way, like a key into a hole. It wasn’t made to be hard… it just was hard. If I was an actual magical engineer, sure, this would have been easy. But it wasn’t. It was like asking a child to hit all the buttons the right way to steer an airplane. I was mostly shocked I hadn’t blown myself up.


    Because as the alarms began to grow louder and louder, I was keenly aware that the Challenge hadn’t given a time frame. It’d simply said quickly. I had to do the mental equivalent of making a Key, except I’ve never used the thing to make it. I was positive that without experience with Qi, I’d never make it in time. I was improving fast, manipulating mana for the first time, but it didn’t really feel fast enough. It had started with me essentially using somehow both floppy noodles and also a mass of playdoh shoved down pipes by a limp wrist. I was severely upgrading those, rapidly, like a book opening up in my mind, but I still required time. I got to a section of the ‘keyhole’, the pipes, and my mind flailed. I needed… two. My mana needed to go down both paths. I was absolutely sure of it.


    But how?


    I struggled, focused, and tried to split my mana. It did. From one lumpy playdoh noodle, to two. I kept going and two became four, five, seven, eight, nine. Different pipes, different threads, and I was starting to feel very, very worried as everything had suddenly gone from just Red to RED. No longer was I just being warned, something was happening. I was positive that I could already feel myself beginning to unravel. I was already going as fast as I can but I desperately tried to learn faster, to act faster, to-


    Clink.


    Like a key slotting into a slot, it was done and at the same moment, I ‘turned’ my mana. The pipes seemed to explode with raw energy and moments later, the red seemed to recede, leaving me feeling… existentially strained somehow. My heart, I absently mindly noticed, was beating hard in my chest. My mind may feel somewhat calm… but my body had nearly panicked. I had come… far too close to death there.


    [Challenge completed!]


    And suddenly, I found myself back where I’d left. I took a second, just to breath. Just to close my eyes and feel my mana coursing around and through me. I raised my hand… and a book appeared in it. I looked down, seeing what looked like a genuine dusty old brown spellbook. I smiled. I could now feel my mana in a new way and even had to a way to practice. And speaking of…


    It was time to do more challenges.


    …Right after I dropped off this book.


    The rest of the challenges were mostly simple. Strength, kill 100 creatures. That one didn’t even give me any kind of space to do it. It just straight issued the challenge and told me to be quick about it. Speed, another obstacle course, this time one made of mud and grass with worm like things. An endurance one I skipped that would’ve taken me at least six hours. Considering I touched a punching bag for that one, I had a good idea of what it would’ve taken.


    By the end of the day, since I took a Mind one that required me to not move for 12 whole hours because my challenge vision was fading, I’d accrued over 50 Qi points. Not just that, but also a book of Cantrips, beads that seemed to make breathing a little easier strangely, and an extremely scary amount of patience.


    Well… that and a lot of mana practice. Not moving for twelve hours didn’t mean I had to do nothing after all.


    “Today was a good day.” I said.


    Shisho nodded.


    “What do you plan to do with those Qi Points? You haven’t even checked your Achievements today.”


    “I think… I’m going to go grab my stuff from the Hospital and then go ‘home’ and sleep.”


    “Home?”


    “This world… it’s either a version or a copy of mine. That means my bed should be out there. I’m gonna find it and pass out in it. And then tomorrow…”


    I stared at the behemoth in the distance.


    “I think tomorrow I’ll be ready.”


    .


    .


    .


    “And maybe you won’t be a walking art gallery.” Shisho snickered.


    “W-Why did you have to remind me of that?!”