What gave him some comfort was that the next platform was quite large and not far away. However, since the round platform he was currently standing on was small and made it hard to get a running start, the difficulty of the next jump, though slightly reduced, still left him with little confidence.

"This is just too hard. When will it ever end?"

William Carter instinctively reached up to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead, only to realize that he couldn't sweat at all in this place.

After so many jumps just now, William Carter was no longer afraid of the act of "jumping" itself. Although there was still a void below, and the feeling of falling was still nerve-wracking, at least jumping down wouldn't cause any harm. The time William Carter needed to mentally prepare before each jump was getting shorter and shorter.

Just then, he heard his roommates in the dorm start to excitedly discuss the trial, so he left the trial instance and his consciousness returned to the real world.

This feeling was rather strange, somewhat like multitasking. When William Carter was in the world of consciousness, he could still sense the real world, just in a blurry way.

Just as the system prompt said, if someone in reality tried to sneak up on William Carter or spoke to him, his subconscious would react—maybe a wave of tension, or a few muffled words. At that moment, William Carter's consciousness could immediately return to the real world.

Several roommates were enthusiastically discussing things about the trial space.

"Did you all choose the athlete start?"

"No, I picked student."

"How many platforms have you all jumped to? I already made it to the 39th one. Honestly, it doesn't feel that hard."

"You picked beginner difficulty, right?"

"Didn't you?"

"I went straight for easy difficulty, and even as an athlete it's still tough. I keep falling later on. By the way, these platforms must be at least ten meters above the ground—it's terrifying."

"Ah, why are my platforms only a bit over two meters above the ground? Is it because of the different difficulties?"

"If even athletes have a hard time passing on medium difficulty, wouldn't higher difficulties be impossible?"

"Hmm, I don't think that's necessarily true. When I was jumping, I clearly felt I had enough stamina, but what I lacked was jumping technique. There were many places I thought were impossible at first, but after a few more tries, I made it."

David Clark looked at William Carter: "Bro-in-law, how many have you jumped to? You must be at forty or fifty by now, right?"

William Carter shook his head. "No, I've only made it to the fourth one."

Everyone expressed disbelief: "No way, even elementary schoolers could get past the first ten platforms, right?"

David Clark also said, "Bro-in-law, you're lying again. Ignore him, let's keep going. I really want to know what happens if you finish."

William Carter could only sigh to himself, feeling quite helpless.

Clearly, everyone else's trials were normal. One roommate had chosen the easiest beginner difficulty and started as an athlete. When jumping across platforms, he didn't even need to stop for the first dozen or so—he just leapt across in a row.

But for William Carter, it was a pain. By the third platform, he already needed dozens of tries to get across.

Although he cursed this damned system countless times in his heart, William Carter still managed to roughly analyze some features of this trial.

First, the difficulty would affect every aspect of the trial, including the height of the platforms, their size, the distance between them, and so on.

Second, your starting identity would have some impact on the game. Athletes definitely had an advantage, but other identities weren't impossible to clear the trial with.

For example, William Carter chose "useless person." Whether it was jumping ability, running speed, or physical fitness, he was far behind the athlete, but the system would still design the trial so that even a useless person could pass. There was no such thing as "impossible" in terms of the numbers.

However, it was obvious that, even if both could clear the trial, a useless person would need much more precise control over their strength compared to an athlete. What an athlete could do in one jump, a useless person might need five or even ten tries.

Finally, in the later stages of the trial, it wasn't just about jumping anymore.

That roommate who picked beginner difficulty and athlete identity had already reached the 39th platform. According to him, there were all sorts of tricks later on. Some platforms would suddenly sink when you stepped on them, some would move irregularly, and sometimes you'd encounter forks in the path, with three platforms ahead in different directions and you'd have to choose.

William Carter checked the time—it wasn't even 1 o'clock yet. Looking at his roommates lying on their beds with mysterious expressions on their faces, he decided to head back, lie down on his own sofa, and focus on this game in peace.

Chapter 7: History Records

On the way home, William Carter scrolled through some information online with his crappy phone. Clearly, this suddenly appearing trial mode had once again caused a lot of panic.

Thinking about it, it really was pretty scary. As long as you closed your eyes, your consciousness could immerse itself in another world. Not only could you switch to a different body and adventure as you pleased, but you could also switch back to the real world at any time. No matter how you looked at it, this was far beyond what science and common sense could explain.

The heated debates online had never stopped since the appearance of the personal intelligent system, and now those debates seemed to be getting even more intense.