For Rudra the most important thing currently was to amass the required merit points to exchange for the top 2 items.
After recruiting Orochimaru , Rudra gained 18K merit points , which meant he only needed 15k or so to be sure of reaching the 150K mark .
The positive of Orochimaru clearing the bell challenge was that , after his rise to fame for clearing the challenge , there was an outburst of players in Hazelgroove kingdom attempting . The event became extremely popular , with how far you can go being a testament of your strength.
On the final day of the 7 day event , the gaming company cuber , seeing the popularity of the bell challenge decided to divide it into 3 modes , only for the final day after locking the merit points prize. Everyone could attempt the event for free , just for today.
Easy , normal and nightmare.
The price pool was 10K merit points for clearing in normal mode .
5 K in easy mode
And. 15 K in nightmare mode
With the merit point multipliers as 0.5x , 1x and 1.5 x
There were 16000 easy mode clears
Basically the normal mode was the mode everyone was playing in uptill now , with only 70 clears uptill now in the entire game , thirty in western continent , ten in eastern continent , thirty in northern continent.
And only one nightmare mode clear in southern continent by a player named NotYourAverageJoE .
Rudra never experienced this in his past life , if he thinks logically , just Orochimaru clearing the Hazelgroove kingdom bell challenge was something different that happened , however the last day event was changed. It was a change that never happened before .
No matter how hard he thought , he could not connect the dots to why the game organizers would change the set event.
However that meant that Rudra now had to clear the challenge in nightmare mode difficulty.
When Rudra reached the event area for the bell challenge , he saw a crowd of players queing to attempt the challenge.
There were approximately a 2 Km line infront of the easy mode challenge , with a huge spectating crowd , cheering and booing challengers , having a good time.
The normal mode line , has a lower line with about .5 km line , but the amount of spectators were the most . About 30 thousand people spectating the event.
The least number of participants were in the nightmare mode , with only 10 to 15 people Queuing for the challenge . With the lowest spectator crowd at about 5 thousand . But it was the most wild crowd , who were there to leach from others miseries.
They were there to boo the hell out of every challenger , and see their dreams of clearing the challenge be crushed by the plants.
After waiting 15 minutes in the queue , Rudra's turn was up next , just as he went on the stage , someone from the crowd shouted.
" Hey , newbie , state your name and organization ".
Rudra completely ignored the man and focused on the countdown till the challenge started.
Boos were raining from the crowd now
" Hmph , arrogant bastard , lets see how bad you fail , i bet you cant even reach 5 meters ".
" Another newbie , thinking he s some hotshot , who will clear the nightmare mode , failing in 5 seconds ".
BOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!
The countdown hit 5….4…3…2….1….. GO!
Rudra sprung into action, dodging and running through the vines out early …. Within 3 seconds , Rudra covered about 5 meters.
He swerved left and right , jumping and ducking through the vines , with his golden ratio boost. Rudra's stats made impossible manoeuvrs possible , like a cat chasing a mouse Rudra burst forward.
The crowd went ballistic
" F*** , What insane speed , just who is he? ".
" His stats must be off the charts , to have such agility ".
" This guy must have invested all his stats uptill , now into agility and speed , there is no way he will be able to go more than 10 meters though , as after that you need more than just speed ". Some idiot , gave his expert commentary .
As the crowd watched glued , Rudra advanced to 10 meters point.
After that the attack of the incoming vines , could no longer be only dodged , it needed to be faced and countered to move forward. Rudra called out Excalibur .
Excalibur , shrunk in his hand , into a dagger like length as , Rudra swung it with one arm moving forward .
11m …. 12 m … Dodge dodge , cut , cut 13…14…15!
Rudra reached the halfway mark!
Silence ….. Absolute silence in the crowd.
" H….he….hey …. Can …can he …. Actually … Do it?". Someone said , shakily
" Nono, nonsense …….. He is skilled , but this is the nightmare mode…. Not possible , no".
The rowdy crowd was now paying attention , many started recording
Rudra had went into the zone now, somehow everything in his surroundings became white , his only focus on his path ahead. He could see every , incoming vine , his breathing ragged , his body control perfect , the balance of his blade …. perfect. He was in absolute control.
16 m … 17 m …. 18 m… 19 m ….. 20 !!
He reached the 20 m mark …. This is the farthest anyone has ever reached in the entire Hazelgroove kingdom .
The crowd was screaming and screeching now , everytime a vine shot forward , their heartbeats raced , seeing Rudra dodge them by centimetres each time
The opinion started to change ….. " Maybe he can do it".
" Just , who is this guy? ".
" Will he be able to go all the way?".
The boos slowly started getting converting into cheers … The crowd wanted to see , just how far can this guy go ….
However Rudra was in his zone , oblivious to the outside …. His only focus on the increasing pace of attacks he was facing … A change happened at 21 m , the final boss , the Dryad woke up , and started shooting bullet like seed projectiles ….. Shit just got real !
/// We ended at rank 130 last week , thankyou thankyou thankyou for all the support guys , my 5 bonus chapters paid off ….. Let me give you guys a bigger incentive this week … Should we end within top 100 this week , i will release 7 bonus chapters mass release NEXT MONDAY ! , Lets get it guys , its monday , lets go hard this week , Top 100 here we come ! ///