Chương 13: Night Hoppers

That question. It was the question asking a budding skill user whether they wanted to become a Hopper. A question so well-known in Night Hoppers that it became the main quote of the novel. If someone were to ask any Night Hoppers reader the first thing they could recall from the novel, it would most likely be this question. And that question would only be asked once. The skill user would have to come up with a firm decision about whether they wanted to be a Hopper or not, and their decision would be final.

There is no turning back after the decision has been made. There is no option for you to change your mind. I looked longingly at the question on the system window in front of me. [WIll you become a Hopper? Yes/No] It felt like I was in dreamland. A way to escape the horrors of reality and wander off into my own world. I could become a Hopper, warp to another planet and just live there peacefully for the rest of my life, knowing that I had accomplished my main goal in life.

"You all passed with flying colours." Of course, Cayman had to interrupt the moment I had longed for in my life, the moment where I zone out and think about the magic of becoming a Hopper.

"Guess what? These mana beasts drop mana crystals. Go pick them up and use them as you wish." What? Mana crystals? Yes! I needed those since I was extremely exhausted and out of mana. Waiting for my body to fully replenish all my mana could take a few hours, or it could take days, or even weeks. I wasn't going to risk waiting that long. I walked over to the mana lion I had stabbed just minutes earlier. Sure enough, inside the body, there were three precious mana crystals.

They were completely different from the ones we were given last time; those crystals were blue like the sky, whereas the ones I was holding were a sinister red colour. It was like I was holding a huge ruby that could glow in the dark. It looked like I had taken the fresh blood from someone and put it inside a transparent stone. They weren't basic crystals anymore. I opened the system window and studied its description.

Red Mana Crystals Level: Advanced Description: Crystals given as rewards for killing Advanced-level mana beasts. Can be exchanged for cash, used to upgrade skills, used to create new skills or used to upgrade your traits. I used two of the three advanced mana crystals to increase the mana supply in my body. Slowly but surely, I was climbing the ranks. And I had Theo to thank for saving my butt from that beast.

"Listen up!" Cayman shouted.

"You all have earned three advanced mana crystals for defeating one advanced mana beast. Use them however you wish, whether that's replenishing your mana or keeping them so you can sell it. There are a few things I want to talk to you about right now." Ellie nodded.

"Firstly, check your profiles." I opened my profile. There were several changes to it. Name: Robert Ryan Age: 17 Height: 5'9" Level: Basic (stage 3, 140/800 XP) Main skill: Reading Bubble Other skills: Teleportation (basic), Recovery (basic), Strength (basic), Healing (basic) Traits: Strength: 20 Agility: 10 Stamina: 10 Locked????? Locked????? Locked????? Hopper status: pending I had unlocked another of my traits.

The trait that I had just unlocked was perhaps the most important one for my development as a future Hopper: stamina. That was probably what I was lacking in the most, and I was glad on the inside for unlocking it early. And what was the thing at the bottom? Hopper status? In Night Hoppers, the actual Hoppers venture out to different planets and complete missions. The Hopper status keeps track of whether the skill user is an active Hopper and all the missions the skill user completes as a Hopper.

It was kind of like a mission log.

"Once you answer 'yes' to the Hopper question, you will unlock your Hopper status, which is at the bottom of your profile," Cayman said. He then went on to talk about the Hopper status in detail, which was all stuff I knew already from my knowledge of Night Hoppers. I looked at the system window with the Hopper question again. My heart was pounding. I had butterflies in my stomach. I was going to be a real-life Hopper, and no, this was not a dream. This was one hundred percent reality.

"Now, I'm going to teach you something that will help you greatly in the future. There's a window in the system that allows you to check how much mana you have left in your body." At Cayman's words, our eyes glistened.

"I could tell you all weren't keeping track of how much mana you use, so this will definitely come in useful." Ellie nodded again. Cayman began the demonstration.

"At the top right hand corner of your system window, there should be three dots. Click the three dots, and you should see a section called 'mana consumption'. Click it once you see it." I did exactly as instructed, and sure enough, I saw the section that said 'mana consumption'. I clicked on it. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. [Mana consumption] Available mana: 65% Time left until fully replenished: 4 hours, 2 minutes Wow.

Two advanced crystals were able to heal 65% of my mana. I only had a small mana core, however, so that was to be expected. Once I level up, however, that figure may fall.

"A quick and easy way to check how much mana you have left is to say 'mana consumption' clearly in your head," Cayman added. Mana consumption, I said to myself clearly and confidently. The mana consumption window opened. Wow, that was an extremely handy tool. Finally, I could confidently know how much mana I had left during a fight. That could help me significantly.

"Now, time for the big one. The one you've all been waiting for." I could tell Cayman was getting nervous when he said this.

"Accept the question given to you by the system," Cayman blurted out, unable to hide his anxiety anymore. He spoke those words twice as fast as usual. I opened my system and looked at the question and those words again. I must have done this a million times already, but in my opinion, it was something worthy of admiration. [Will you become a Hopper? Yes/No] With my heart thumping like a hammer, with cold sweat dripping down my back and with my breathing rate at least ten times greater than normal, I answered the question. [Yes] [Congratulations, skill user! You have become a Hopper!] I wanted to jump with joy and scream, but it would be embarrassing with Cayman, Maya and Theo in front of me. I had done it. I had done something I thought was only possible in a work of fiction. I had successfully become a Hopper. I could join the group of Night Hoppers.

I was ecstatic. No, more than ecstatic. Words couldn't describe how I felt at that moment. A teenage boy who spent all his years cooped up in his bedroom reading web novels was living his dream of being inside his favourite web novel and becoming part of a group of people able to use supernatural powers and travel to different planets. Something that a teenage boy should not be able to do. Something that should not be possible at all. My brain, heart and stomach were all running in circles. This did not feel real.

What have I done to accomplish this feat?

"Have you all answered the question?" Cayman asked us, bringing me back to reality.

"I think I declined it by accident," Ben said, as if he was aware of his own mistake. In response, Cayman's face went red, and it looked like he was going to blow smoke out of his ears and nose.

"What did you say, you f-""Relax, I'm just joking," Ben corrected himself.

"I accepted the offer in reality." Cayman's arms drooped down by his sides.

"Don't ever make that joke again," he grunted, furious and embarrassed. Theo, Maya, and even Ellie were all smiles and laughing at Cayman getting publicly embarrassed. After a while, once Cayman calmed down, he gathered us all and gave a speech which felt like another one of his lectures.

"Congratulations on becoming a Hopper, everyone," he began, changing his tone of voice when he looked at Ben.

"This is no easy job for you all, especially when you have just met the requirements of being a Hopper. Just take it easy, and spend the next few days trying to accept reality. This may be alien to some of you." I looked down at the ground. I couldn't wait to begin my first mission.

"Now let me tell you about my story," Cayman said quietly.

"Listen carefully." What? That was strange. In Night Hoppers, Cayman hated opening up about himself since he had a poor upbringing. And if Cayman was opening up, surely the information should match up with what he was like in Night Hoppers.

"Ellie and I have been Hoppers for a long time," Cayman explained.

"I mean a very long time. We've been to a lot of planets. Five hundred, to be exact." Hence the name Cayman gave to this planet, Planet 500.

"You said you've been Hoppers for a long time, yet you're the same age as us. Did you start when you were really young? Surely not, right?" Theo was intrigued. Luckily for him, Cayman shook his head.

"For Hoppers, age is just a number. I'm not actually your age. I've been to so many planets with so many day and year systems that I've lost track of how old I actually am." Theo's face contorted in confusion, and so did Maya and Ben's.

"So does that mean Ellie isn't actually the same age as me and might actually be way older than me?" Ben asked Cayman as if he was a homeless person begging for money and shelter. Cayman, who was already annoyed at him, replied, "Yes. We are the same age. We could be fifty years old, or we could even be hundreds of years old. We don't know." So Cayman and Ellie might actually be fifty or a hundred years old but took the appearances of 17-year-old teenagers at school. What was the purpose of that?

Was it to blend in and not reveal that they're skill users from a different planet? Well, in the web novel, Cayman and Ellie's ages were never confirmed anyway. Ben looked like he was going to break down in front of Cayman. I could tell Ben had a soft spot for Ellie.

"No more questions?" Cayman scanned the room for any more potential questions.

"Good. Let's continue. Ellie and I became skill users when we were the same age as you, and we spent countless hours training and perfecting our skills to become Hoppers. Back in the day, we went to new planets so often that we earned the name 'Night Hoppers', because we would go to a different planet every night." There it was. The name 'Night Hoppers'. Exactly as described in the web novel. That was the reason why Cayman and Ellie earned that name.

Every night, the two of them would head off to a different planet to complete missions and find materials so that they could save their mother from eternal suffering. What Cayman said just now was something I could imagine him saying in the novel. It was reminiscent of the Cayman I was so used to reading about in the past. It felt nostalgic, and it reminded me of when Night Hoppers was just beginning as a novel.

"What about sleep?" Maya chimed in.

"If you're going out to different planets every night as the 'Night Hoppers', how much sleep were you getting every night?"

"Zero," Cayman replied bluntly.

"We were literally up all night touring planets for our own personal mission. No sleep. We felt like our mission was more important than sleep. And Maya, I know you're going to ask a follow-up question. We took pills imbued with mana every night to ensure that we never felt tired and that we weren't going to die from an extreme lack of sleep." Maya was flustered. It seemed as though she wasn't the only one with the skill of reading minds. After all, Cayman was still a complete enigma in her eyes.

"We've since slowed down the pace and visit one planet each week on average. And yes, we have been getting enough sleep since." And that was exactly how Cayman and Ellie operated in the novel. That confirmed it: the Cayman and Ellie in front of me were the incarnations of Cayman and Ellie Grace in Night Hoppers. Everything was adding up. Maybe that initial performance that day in school where Cayman acted like a bully was just a fluke. Maybe Cayman was just feeling agitated that day. I was speechless.

My idols were in front of me, talking to my new friends. What a life I was living.

"There's someone out there that needs our help," Cayman said. His tone switched, and now he was speaking more gently than usual.

"There's someone out there that's suffering from unimaginable pain and needs someone to save us. That's why we became Hoppers in the first place. We still haven't found that person yet, but I believe we will find them eventually." That person was very dear to them.

"So a part of me is grateful that there are skill users on this planet who can become Hoppers, complete missions and help me accomplish this goal. Is there anyone that wishes to object and say otherwise?" There was no answer.

"Listen, mate," Ben said.

"I know I have a silly side to me, but after hearing what you've just said, I think you definitely deserve the help. And I'll give you that help until the end."

"If you need support, I'll always be there for you," Maya said, striking an extremely determined pose.

"I'll always be there to help you," Theo said, grinning and nodding. I didn't say anything, but deep inside, I was the most grateful that Cayman wanted help from us. That was what I was the most worried about when I first became a skill user, but now, I realised that I could actually be useful for once. That I could help my favourite protagonist achieve his goal. I could put all my Night Hoppers knowledge to the test.

"From now on, let's all be Night Hoppers together," Cayman said with pride.

"Who's ready for their first mission?" Everybody, including me, cheered. For we have all just become a part of Cayman and Ellie Grace's group of Night Hoppers.