Chapter 469 - Willpower

And yet, that simple purpose had resulted in a lot of memories and encounters along the way which he was going to remember forever. When he recalled those memories, the person at the forefront of them all was his apprentice sister Astes and afterward came the pagoda master, Hadelia, the Sun and Moon Elders, and everyone else!

True, many of those memories weren't anything quite worth recalling or even good memories at all, to be frank. But still, they had already become a part of Virus. A part of who he is today.

After delving into that short nostalgia, Virus shook his head as he overtook Hadelia and walked toward the following person at the path ahead of him, Hellarose.

Studying the condition of Hellarose in front of him next, Virus saw she still seemed to be quite comfortable as she resisted the pressure and went forward.

As Virus increased his pace and slowly walked beside her, he looked at the several rolling sweats on her forehead and teased her, "You look like you're about to shit yourself, want me to piggyback you?"

However, much to Virus' incredulity, he realized Hellarose was absolutely focused on the task at hand, to the point she had yet to even notice Virus' existence beside him.

'Those eyes, they're terrifyingly concentrated.' Indeed, just as Virus was claiming, currently, Hellarose's eyes were exuding a strange illusion of light made of focus. If willpower could take a form, Virus would say it would probably be similar to those eyes. Everything beside her had no meaning at the moment, the only thing those eyes could see was the path ahead.

Not wanting to disturb her in any way since she seemed to be in some sort of odd state, Virus took over her as he proceeded ahead once more.

Now, the next participant in his line of sight was the third prince of the barbarians, Ra.

Quickly charging beside his worn-out physique, Virus exclaimed, "How can you live with yourself after running away from me like such a coward?"

Spotting Virus beside himself, a shiver went down Ra's spine momentarily before he picked up his pace and overtook Virus.

Unfortunately for him, Virus easily caught up to him and added, "When you go home back to the barbarians, every time one of them looks into your eyes, don't forget that their prince was a coward who escaped for his life after having used one of his own people, the most loyal one, as a meat shield. Shame on you, trash!" Roaring that at his ear, Virus spat on Ra's path to the front.

Ptooey!

"AHHHHHH!" Screaming out of exasperation and disheartenment, all of Ra's determination and willpower seemed to falter and crumble away at once as he was promptly propelled backward as the stairs expelled him out of the trial.

Rolling back through the stairs one after another, when Ra returned to the feet of the staircase again, he stood up and started shouting and cursing in Virus' direction like a maniac, "I'll fucking kill you! I'll fucking kill you, bastard! One day, I'll fucking kill you, just you wait! You hear me?! Wait-"

Albeit, before he could even finish, his body vanished away as he was transferred outside the Invisible Ancient Fortress World at once!

Just as the archaic voice had told them, everyone was given a single chance alone to climb the stairs and in case they didn't pick a book panel when they were at their utmost limit and fell off, they would simply lose their chance of gaining a book from the panels as they would be naturally teleported out of the trial worlds.

"Hahahaha." Seeing that he had succeeded, Virus began laughing uproariously as pleasure and amusement tickled him. 'Who could have thought it was that easy to rip apart his willpower. Such a weak mentality.'

After sending Ra away from the trial, immediately, all distractions left Virus' expression as he became absorbed and engrossed in the process of the trial itself.

By now, Hadelia had reached the ceiling of her limitations, therefore, being wise enough, she stopped and entered one of the library panels beside the current height of her stair. 

Meanwhile, while the absorption degree of Virus had been elevated to a monstrous extent, he could feel some of the pressure that had been previously building up over his body disappearing.

'So, the more determined we are, the less the pressure will get, huh? Though the pressure was already very minor to begin with, which means it's not just the active concentration that matters but rather the passive level of determination and willpower one builds throughout one's life is even more essential.' Through logical analysis and comparison, Virus concluded quickly.

As he reached that conclusion, a frown of seriousness took shape on his face as he proceeded with even more determination.

One step…

Two steps…

One step after another!

It didn't take him long to arrive right at the back of the academician he didn't even know the name of.

Nevertheless, witnessing Virus about to catch up, the academician scoffed at him before picking up his speed. Clearly, he was in utter contempt of Virus' funny attempt of trying to move ahead of him.

That, however, didn't draw out even a minor reaction from Virus. Virus just increased his pace as he gradually reached the same stair level as the academician before overtaking him and leaving him in the dust.

Although he felt a little amused by how frustrated and offended the academician looked when he realized he was no match for Virus, it still wasn't to the degree where he would spare him a second glance since it felt beneath him to bother himself with a nobody.

Thus, continuing the test, Virus locked his gaze on his last targets, the cloaked figures! 

At the same time, he also effortlessly determined that half of the smokes had left the mark by now, which meant he was closer to his limits by that much.