CHAPTER 56: WEIRDLY FAST

’Okay, now this has really got me worried...’

Instead of feeling glee at his remarkably fast speed, Nick felt slightly worried.

Was something wrong with him?

That was his first thought, but it didn’t seem likely. Although, once an idea like this sprouted in one’s mind, it spread like a cancer. Thoughts like this were extremely hard to get rid of, unless he could find the real reason for his remarkably fast speed.

There had to be a catch to it, like that saying.

There’s no such thing as free lunch in this universe...

Shaking these worrisome thoughts from his head, Nick focused his concentration on simply reaching the exit and moving onto the second level of the speed test.

The rocky canyon.

After just another 30 seconds of constant running, jumping, ducking and manoeuvring through the dense jungle environment, he finally saw the doorway.

He didn’t even take a moment to admire the beautiful environment forming on the other side, forming into what looked like an almost perfect replica of the Grand Canyong on Earth!

’Nice! With this environment I can actually go all out with testing my speed, forget saving my Sabertooth Wolf Beast Armament as well, if I don’t use it here, I won’t get the chance to use it at all in this test!’

Nick was ecstatic after seeing the type of environment that had formed in front of his still rapidly moving body.

The environments for each speed test change every time someone starts them, procedurally generating a different environment each time, making it so that there would never be the same environment used twice.

This was put in place to prevent Altered just studying preset environments and finding the most optimal route through all of them, as this was as far from a real scenario as it could get.

It wasn’t like you could do that when out in the wilderness of the Beast Domain in the heat of an intense chase, whether chasing a beast or being chased by one!

With the canyon fully formed around him now, Nick looked up through the two narrow, dark walls on either side of himself and got a sense of just how small humans were in the grand scheme of things.

Both of those walls were at least over a kilometre tall, letting very little amounts of the artificial sunlight reach the bottom, where Nick was situated.

His goal for this stage was simple, and arguable the most simple of all the environments; run along the canyon floor to reach the other side, while dodging all sorts of falling rocks and obstacles on the way.

But considering that at least 75% of the level was an entire straight line, it meant that he could go all out with his speed!

The jungle stage had been too cramped, filled with twisting turns, tangled roots and constant elevation changes.

A true test of his agility and reflexes, but not raw speed.

This test however, was going to be a test of both of the previous elements, but with the main focus on simply seeing just how fast he could go!

Without further adiu, he activated the beast armament while still in mid sprint.

His muscle fibres in his legs twisted tighter, becoming more dense as his whole body became lighter and sharper.

SNAP!

Even though he was still moving at an incredible pace, he exploded forward like a bullet, with each step of his covering several metres at a time!

The canyon surrounding him howled in response to his sudden increase in speed, with all the displaced air caused by his rapid acceleration rocking against the canyon walls, causing huge echoes and howls to reverberate for miles.

Of course, it was still all simulated.

Soon enough, the first obstacles came into view. Boulders the size of cars plummeted from hidden hatches in the walls, landing with deafening crashes ahead of him that far dwarfed any sounds his extreme speed had caused.

Some fell in slow, spiralling arcs, while others burst down like meteorites, giving Nick no time to try and predict their landing zone.

Within seconds he was within the danger zone, with the chances of a falling boulder hitting him increasing by every moment he spent there.

Whoosh!

’Woah, fuck!’

He barely dodged the first one, a long, oblong slab that nearly clipped his right shoulder.

He was lucky that it was relatively small in comparison to the bigger boulders he’d spotted earlier.

But from that point on, he found his rhythm.

In fact, he no longer even needed to dodge, as his speed carried him forwards and he managed to stay ahead of the falling boulders, with loud crashes constantly echoing directly behind him the whole time.

This level was nowhere near as easy as the previous jungle level, but at the same time, Nick still felt it was manageable.

That weird feeling kept creeping back into his mind when he realised he could direct some of his attention away from the falling boulders, since he was simply too fast for them to catch him.

Just where had his speed come from? And was it just his speed that was so freakishly beyond what it should be for other Altered around his level?

Or was he just overthinking everything from the beginning, and this was how the speed test was for everyone that attempted it?

The only way to find out was to complete it and see what time he came out with at the end.

After another minute passed, he finally caught sight of a change in direction of the canyon, signifying he had completed 75% of the level already.

And honestly, now the level started to feel just as lackluster as the previous jungle level.

Aside from the first close call when entering the falling boulder zone, it was a breeze from there.

And not even a few seconds after turning the corner, he caught sight of the doorway that led to the other zone.

Nick was already starting to get a little bored, wanting to just get the test over and done with and see what his final score was.

He suspected that all the incoming levels were just going to be repeats of the first two, after seeing how he performed in the two different scenarios.