5 The Final Test
The kid had only just died when Jay heard a loud BANG. At the same time, his surroundings changed completely. He was now standing on one end of a long hallway. The walls were black yet he didn't have any problems looking around and on the left side of the walls hung paintings. There were 10 paintings each of which had a fair amount of distance between them.
It was then that he also noticed a veil once more covered his senses, signifying he had returned to the illusion.
"Teleportation?"
The last 24 hours had been very different then what he had previously expected. The first test he got an insanely high rating, the second test he somehow got pulled out of an illusion and pulled into a weird type of mist and now he clearly felt he had teleported just before his senses got dulled once more.
| Final mission: resist the temptations to forge your path. |
After hearing the notification within his mind he sat down for a few minutes calming his mind. This test was quite different than the previous ones, it was a test of the mind.
Once he had prepared himself he walked forward until he stood in front of the first painting. The painting depicted a myriad of beautiful women, within his mind he could almost see these women dancing and trying to lure him over.
The paintings depicted the 10 weaknesses and everyone would get this test. Despite it being a potential big hurdle it was also an opportunity. This test allowed you to properly see your temptations and potentially overcome them.
Now, as for the first temptation, he didn't really care too much, and the same could be said for the following 3. The second temptation was the desire to rest, the third was the need to be rich and the fourth the need to once more use magic.
These 4 really didn't matter much since he either barely desired them or they would be satisfied soon anyways.
The fifth painting was somewhat different. It depicted a group of adventurers who were about to go out on another adventure. He was among them, with his previous life's companions alongside him. When confronted with this painting Jay did stop for a moment acknowledging this potential demon before accepting the situation as it was thus wiping the temptation away.
The sixth painting showed him a small town. He could tell that if he were there he would never face danger again. He would be able to live a long life without any wild beasts or criminals around. The need for safety...in truth, this painting took him by surprise, he hadn't realized before that he wanted safety so he thought about this for a good while. In the end, he accepted that by acting safely he would never get what he desired and hence he moved on to the next painting.
The seventh painting showed him an image of himself, even though this was just a still image it gave him an indescribable feeling. He could sense the immense strength hidden within that picture as it seemed as if it was made by an insanely powerful expert. This wasn't something he worked on, strength was one of the pillars of his main goal and hence he instead embraced this allowing the desire to grow and take root within his heart.
The eighth painting made him feel intense joy. It wasn't simple happiness, rather a feeling that you'd get when you do what you wanted to do, for no reason other then it being fun. The desire for fun, this was something he had immense problems with in his last life, doing things simply because he thought they might be interesting was one of the reasons he died in the first place. This was a controversial 'problem' for him. It was something that might stand in the way of his goal yet he was unable to get himself to erase this desire no matter how hard he had tried in his last life. And well, despite being reborn this wasn't something that seemed like it had changed so he had no choice but to move on without working on this.
The ninth painting was the same as the one in his last life and thus it didn't come as a surprise. When he stood in front of the painting he saw his little sister, Li Collin depicted there. Yet unlike the other temptations she didn't try to draw him in, instead, she beckoned him to keep going.
The tenth painting, the tenth temptation.
He saw himself on a throne high up a mountain with millions of troops beneath him, sieging another city on his command. As blood flowed and walls fell, he had yet another city in his hands.
The desire for power. Often confused with the desire for strength yet oh-so-different.
If he passed by this last painting he would get to forge a unique path, different from all his basic temptations. Yet despite having the willpower to resist the painting and keep going he just didn't, walking up to the painting before a white light engulfed him.
The mission was to forge his own path and this was exactly what he had done. If he took those last few steps he would have to make his own 'painting' his own unique path. This would often cause the goal to become diluted and for the gain to be spread wider. Since all he truly decided was to be an unrivaled emperor, this was exactly the path he wanted.
| Final mission completed: resist the temptations to forge your own path |
| Mission ranking: A |
| Gained title: Fighter for power |
| All missions finished. Overall score: S+ |
| Please have a look at the rewards given. |
| Rewards: Platinum ranked base token, 1000 basic resources, A Grade architect, A+ Grade General, 50 gold, Free choice of placement S+ grade, 3 special tokens, interspacial ring D grade, Land deed quality great, AI-chip upgraded to E-grade, necessary building token, Violet salad x10 |
After seeing the multitude of rewards Jay was extremely elated. Especially the S+ choice of placement and the A grade architect were things he truly valued the most, closely followed by the platinum ranked base token and the Violet salad.
Without any further ado, he was now placed in an enclosed room with a glass wall. Looking outside he could see an absolutely massive planet many times larger then earth stretched out. With huge mountain ranges and large seas.
After looking a bit closer he noticed that the half of this world he could now see seemed to be divided into about 300 small areas. and in each of these areas, there were 1 to 3 small red dots. He obviously knew these dots represented the starting cities of the adventurers, also known as the main cities in the beginning phases of this world. Meanwhile, the areas were the kingdoms that currently ruled the lands.
The top third of the world seemed to be a land of ice, nearly none of these squares had more than 1 main city due to the obvious scarcity of resources up there, while the closer you were to the large sea on the southern side the more chance there was for there to appear 3 MCs (main cities). It took a while before he was able to make a decision, luckily whenever he wanted to have a closer look at an area it enlarged in front of his eyes, allowing him to properly make a decision.
In his last life, he only had a choice between 9 areas instead of several hundred. Thanks to some traders he did learn he was just a few regions away from the sea.
After considering everything he settled on a certain square around the dividing line between the snowy mountains and the more tropical area. More specifically a square with a large river coming from inside of the snowy mountains, a large amount of forested area as well as a valley.
He picked this since it seemed like the area that had the most diversity and in his last life he heard a lot about the snowy mountains. Since nearly nobody settled there due to the harsh conditions there was a copious amount of untouched treasures even after 5 years.
After deciding on the square he now had to pick a more exact place to settle. Since the square was about 4 times the size of China other than the main landmarks from before there were obviously many other small patches of trees or even small areas of swamplands. After weighing all the possibilities he finally settled on a place just east of the main river flowing in the easternmost part of the region.
It had the snowy mountains just a few miles away and the same with the eastern border. These 2 combined with the large river on the west would make it an easily defendable position while still giving it plenty of room to grow. He also had a patch of trees nearby and even though it wasn't enough in the long term, that amount of wood would be plenty for the early stages of the development.
| Simulation finished, user will be brought back to sleep. Good luck user.|
