BXBX NOVEL Chapter 72 - Holy Priest: Survival Battle
“Mmm…?”
In his slumber, Ren Suo felt the rays of bright light piercing through his eyelids. He stretched sleepily and accidentally pushed something to the floor.
“Eh?”
Ren Suo looked down to see the game controller on the floor. He continued lying down on the couch as he wiped a mix of saliva and unknown substances off the corners of his mouth with the back of his hand. He shook his head as he finally recalled why he was sleeping on the couch.
He had fallen asleep while playing the game.
Or rather, he had been tortured to exhaustion by the exciting game…
Ren Suo looked at the time and realized that it was already afternoon. He called for takeout and freshened up slightly before returning to sit in front of the television, ready to embark on his game journey on a new day.
“Eh? There is an intro animation?”
Ren Suo had wanted to experience the game as soon as possible the previous night, so he pressed the game controller the moment the game loaded and must have missed the game introduction. He loosened his grip on the game controller as he continued to watch the introduction of the exciting game.
On the screen was a scene of a snow-covered wilderness. A domineering and fierce-looking saber-toothed tiger was running across the land at a blazing speed. The might and valor of the now-extinct animal could be felt through the screen.
And yet, the saber-toothed tiger was attempting to escape from danger!
Chasing behind the tiger were hunters wearing cloaks made of animal skin with spears or bows and arrows in hand!
After an intense, nerve-wracking Hollywood-style battle, a spear from the hunters finally pierced into the tiger’s mouth, marking their victory. However, the saber-toothed tiger retaliated one last time on its brink of death, killing one and injuring one of the hunters.
The injured hunter laid down on the floor with his abdomen exposed and intestines punctured by the sharp claws of the saber-toothed tiger. Massive volumes of blood were gushing out of his body, and it was a dire situation even with the medical technology of today. Just as he was on the edge of life and death, a girl, holding a walking stick and not a spear, appeared from the side and walked over to him. Oddly, she started dancing around the injured hunter.
As the girl starting dancing about, a light starting glowing around the injured hunter.
A short while later, the injured hunter healed fully and was able to move about energetically as usual!
The screen started flashing and the time in the animation fast forwarded to show the healers and the injured of different time periods—magic healing water from burned amulets devised by witches were used to treat warriors and combatants, hymns were sung by priests to the wealthy, the blood of commoners was purified by doctors…
As time progressed through the ages, the tools that the healers used also changed gradually: In the beginning, they used walking sticks made from the bones of animals; then, they used bronze sticks of authority and inscribed silver tools, and later progressed to using sharp blades to cause bleeding, golden-threaded robes to prevent death, and Gu poison to preserve bodies…
Some used bows to shoot into the sky, causing light showers to fall upon the people, curing them of illnesses;
Some used straight swords to release positive energy and ward off all evil…
They were not bounded by techniques or equipment like daggers, spears, swords or halberds, nor their fists, palms, needles, or staffs. They could treat and heal people with anything, and they would all regain their health.
“We will always be watching,” an immensely noble and dignified voice said. Ren Suo quivered upon hearing the voice in a perfectly enunciated language of Xuan Nation.
The animation ended and the main page loaded. Ren Suo saw the character he had created—
On the vast, barren land stood a short, big-bellied character with a head of curly hair and a bust much larger than typical Asian women. Above her head floated her name, “Zhao Zili”.
Ren Suo would usually create characters that he fancied…
But of course, he had not fallen prey to a hypnotic trance that made him fancy plump girls all of a sudden. Rather, it was because he had to pay money to customize the face of the in-game character.
If he spent money, not only would he be able to customize the character’s looks, but also switch between characters he already had.
Ren Suo currently had a total of three game characters: the Seeker from [A Strong Warrior Ascends 10,000 Meters], Ren Woxing from [Over My Dead Body], as well as…himself.
However, the character customizations required money. 5 merit points were needed to customize the face of the character, and 3 merit points were needed to switch the game character. On the other hand, there was no charge to be randomly given a character.
As a “fully-equipped non-casher” of games, Ren Suo had not spent a single cent on the game and naturally chose to be given a random character.
Furthermore, 1 merit point was required to change the character after being randomly given one.
And that was why Ren Suo had no choice but to use the given character to play the game. Fortunately, there was no score attributed to looks in [Holy Priest: Survival Battle], and no physical combat skills were required either. As such, the player would not be at any disadvantage as long as he had a pair of hands and legs—but of course, there were no advantages either.
There were only four options on the main page:
“Begin Training”
“Continue Training”
“Replay Training”
“Achievements”
Of the four, the “Continue Training” option was greyed out, since Ren Suo did not pass the previous round of training he entered.
There was no autosaving function in the game, but instead, it was split into three checkpoints, and he was allowed to save his progress upon completion of each checkpoint. In that way, even if Ren Suo failed at the second checkpoint, he would still be able to restart from that checkpoint again.
Hence, it was no big deal that Ren Suo had just stayed up all night but failed to pass even the first checkpoint.
Ren Suo went into training immediately. Shortly after, his game avatar appeared on a platform atop the peak of a snowy mountain. Many other people of other skin colors also appeared together with her.
The only similarity between all of them was that they were all mature adults. There were barely any children.
“This time, it’s…the Ruler of the Wind, Rain, and Snow,” Ren Suo muttered as he lay on the couch. He thought aloud, “This is going to be hard…”
Ren Suo silently put on his Bluetooth earbuds and heard shrieks of human voices amidst the roaring of the wind and snow:
“Where am I? I was clearly in the office just now!”
“Call the cops now…Where’s my mobile phone?”
“What the hell ￥@*（@￥）@*”
“Game?”
A mix of languages could be heard, but everyone was quickly silenced.
Between the tall snow-covered mountains, a male figure with a cloak formed in the snow and wind. When he spoke, everyone had to remain silent—even the rain and snow subsided.
“I am the Ruler of the Wind, Rain, and Snow.”
“In a few moments, everyone would proceed with the training to select the best priest amongst all of you.”
“The one who emerges champion will be noticed by and receive the Talents of the Master of the Holy Light, the Heart of the Everlasting Warmth, and the Ruler of the Wind, Rain, and Snow.”
“And the rest who failed will receive our care and mercy; your health will be restored as you leave the training.”
“The details of the training are already in your minds.”
“Please feel free to soar high in the training as no one will lose anything because of it.”
As soon as the Ruler of the Wind, Rain, and Snow finished his speech, a loud rumble emerged from the snowy mountain, revealing white snow-covered plains on both sides. An enormous head emerged at the front—they were on an ice dragon, not a snowy mountain!
The ice dragon spread its wings and flew up high into the sky. At the same time, the trainees remained on the back of the ice dragon, as if they were bonded together by the wind, rain, and snow. No one fell in mid-air to the ground below!
“Long, long!”
“Dragon!”
“This is a training…that’s what it is!”
“なるほど (Alas)!”
At that moment, an exclamation mark icon appeared on the screen beside a message box. Ren Suo clicked on it and the training details appeared:
[The location of this round of training is White Snow Land. The weather is snowy and windy. Sounds would be muffled, and vision would be slightly poorer.]
[There are a total of 100 trainees in this round who are people with suboptimal health statuses, illnesses, or disabilities. However, all trainees have been granted protection by the gods and would not be affected by their respective conditions during the training. Physical disabilities have also been healed.]
[Training summary: The purpose of the training is to select one best priest who can save all who has to be saved, regardless of environmental conditions. Furthermore, the gods have adapted from the tools created by humans to devise new recovery equipment. Trainees must use this new recovery equipment to heal other trainees and emerge champion.]
[Everyone has a ‘health bar’. When the health bar is filled to the maximum, the trainee would have been sufficiently healed and leave the training to continue living as a healthy person.]
[Everyone’s health bar starts at 0. Trainees can heal other trainees using the recovery equipment placed at different locations throughout the training area. Upon successful healing of the target trainee, he/she who is fully recovered will have to leave the training.]
[Food and drinks that decrease the health level of trainees can also be found throughout the training area.]
[The gods will also bless trainees with ‘Angels’ Light, where the health of trainees under the Angels’ Light would gradually increase. The gods will also send angels to drop recovery equipment, as well as cast recovery spells at certain locations in Angels’ Grace.]
[The locations of Angels’ Light and Angels’ Grace would be updated live on the map.]
[All trainees are protected by the gods and would never die, feel pain, or be affected by the heat or cold. Trainees’ health will increase when the protection of the gods is activated during an attack or fall; the initial miracle ‘Flight’ can only be cast once.]
[All trainees are equipped with the miracle ‘Touch of Recovery’, so the bare hands can also be used to heal others.]
[Not only would the strongest priest be able to heal all beings, but he will also remain amongst the people to understand their pain and suffering due to illnesses so as to comprehend the mindsets and perceptions of ordinary people. A perfectly healthy person would not be able to stand in their shoes and understand the thoughts of the sick.]
When Ren Suo finished reading the training details, the ice dragon had also arrived at the training location, the White Snow Plains. Ren Suo could now control his character to jump down.
“So it is alright if I fail the training?”
“This seems quite interesting.”
“It scared me, I thought I entered an endless cycle…”
Ren Suo studied the map as he ignored the commotion of voices—yes, he was very close to the shooting range of the White Snow Plains now!
It was not the first time Ren Suo was playing this map. In about 10 seconds, the ice dragon will fly past the shooting range, and at that time, he would control his character to jump straight down to the ground below!
When jumping, he would press the forward button to increase the rate of descent!
When the character dropped to a certain altitude, a pair of white wings would emerge and slow him down like an angel descending from the sky.
No matter how many times he watched the animation, Ren Suo could not help but exclaim in awe—it was an amazing animation.
Ren Suo panned around and found that there was someone behind his character!
Incredible, the first round was supposed to be first-time players of the game, and most players would only jump down at the last moment. Who else would be so courageous as to jump down at the start…
It was very likely that the person wanted to talk to the main character, which was the character Ren Suo controlled.
Poof!
The Wings of the Angels disappeared as Ren Suo’s character landed in the shooting range. Ren Suo looked around and realized that the person was about to walk over. Ren Suo controlled his character to search for items.
There was a “Fried Chicken Set” on the table, which Ren Suo conveniently retrieved.
[Fried Chicken Set: Reduce 75 health points over 7.5 seconds to a minimum of 25 health points. It is the most common energy food and loved by fatties.]
Ren Suo’s character continued in search of items and quickly found, amongst a pile of sandbags, a long-barreled recovery gun—98K!
“Aye, what amazing luck!” a pleasantly surprised Ren Suo remarked as he controlled his character to retrieve the gun and load it with bullets.
[98K Holy Light: A modified long-ranged recovery weapon devised by the Master of the Holy Light. It has an astounding healing capability, allowing the priest, when safe, to heal people who are not in sight. It uses 7.62mm holy recovery bullets, 3 accessory slots. Holds up to 5 rounds. Recovery mode: Single. Reload time: 1.9 seconds.]
By the time Ren Suo’s character loaded the bullets in the gun, the person had caught up to her. The person had acne on his face and wore a thick pair of glasses. He had a similar physique to Ren Suo’s character, but he was much fatter.
“What are you running for…” the bespectacled character with a face full of acne said as a ray of green light shot out from his right hand!
It was the Touch of Recovery!
Who would have expected that the bespectacled character with a face full of acne would have familiarized himself with the training so quickly!
However, the range of the Touch of Recovery was very small and Ren Suo easily avoided it by controlling his character to take two steps back. At the same time, his 98K had been fully loaded with bullets and he pointed it at the person!
The bespectacled character with a face full of acne immediately raised his hands up in shock, “Wait, what are you doing…We are both from Xuan Nation…”
Bang—
A loud bang sounded!
The forehead of the bespectacled character with a face full of acne exploded into white light. The next second, a pair of wings emerged once again on his back, but instead of falling, he was flying upwards.
He had failed in the training and was ascending to the sky!
But at the same time, his fats and acne gradually disappeared, and he turned back into a relatively healthy young man. If Ren Suo guessed correctly, his short-sightedness would also have been cured.
And in his original spot a box was left behind—he could not bring the items he retrieved with him, and those items were packaged into a box by the gods and left at the original position.
“First blood,” Ren Suo said as he heaved a sigh of relief.
Author Ting Ri Says:
PS: Another double update…Lost my saved document…Would appreciate more likes as encouragement! Although I double updated for two consecutive days, please do not misunderstand and think that this will be the norm…