Chương 27: Solo Mission - Theo (2)

The mission had finally arrived. Theo knew that it was going to arrive eventually. However, this time, it was a little different. When he was on Planet 501, there had only been one mission to complete, which Theo and his group all completed together. The person who landed the finishing blow to the Boss was the one who claimed the planet. However, this time, Theo was alone and he had four missions to complete by himself as a basic-level skill user.

"Survive the night?" Theo said, slightly perplexed. Then he let out a villainous laugh.

"How hard can that be?" Yeah, how hard could it be just to survive one night on this planet? Theo opened his system window to figure that out. [Mission 1/4: survive the night] Description: there are wild mana beasts lurking around these woods at night! Survive the attacks from these beasts and successfully make it through this long night. Time limit: until the sun rises Reward: mission completion, you will unlock the next mission Failure: death Surely that wasn't too hard for Theo to do.

Theo then thought about the mission in terms of other Hoppers. This planet had not been explored before, and Hoppers may have been reluctant to explore this planet for several different reasons. Was it because the missions on this planet were too hard and the Hoppers ended up dying or surrendering? Or was it due to some other factor that Theo wouldn't be able to deduce? Whatever it was, Theo did not want to think about it.

"These missions could secretly be hard and I just don't know it yet." That was a possibility. What Theo did know was that more and more snakes were emerging from the bushes and surrounding his camp, creating an unsettling rustling sound. These snakes began to surround Theo from all sides as if he was at the centre of a ritual. They were getting closer with each passing second. Theo had to act fast or else his legs would get bitten off and end up as food for the hungry snakes. He didn't have time to think.

The night was long. And this was just the start. [Skill, 'Enhanced Strength (basic)', has been activated.] Kick! Like a footballer scoring a worldie from outside the box, Theo blasted the snakes nearest to his feet into the next planet. That gave him space to move away from the snakes behind him. Before, there were at least a hundred snakes surrounding him, and now, just from a few kicks, Theo had reduced that number to around seventy-five. Having enhanced strength really was a benefit for a jock like Theo.

"The snakes are just going to come back if I keep kicking them," Theo muttered.

"I'm going to have to kill them all." Turning around to face the remaining snakes, Theo grinned. According to him, there was one good way to kill the snakes, and it was a pretty gruesome method. [Skill, 'Enhanced Strength (basic)', has been activated.] Splat! Splat! Splat! Theo's feet hit the ground with an astonishing force, almost creating mini earthquakes wherever he stood.

The snakes, on the other hand, were not able to withstand the force of Theo's shoes, and unfortunately, they had to suffer the consequences. Splat! Splat! The snakes' blood created a thick layer of liquid on Theo's shoes, but that was fine, since Theo knew it was the price he had to pay for being a Hopper. With all the mana crystals he could earn on this planet, he could pay for at least ten new pairs of designer shoes. Splat! Splat!

This was going to be a long night for Theo Parker; not even an hour had passed since the system message first showed up. Once the remaining snakes had unfortunately met their untimely demise, Theo knelt down and began to dissect their bodies. He had ample experience dissecting things; he was once the only person in Biology class who had the guts to cut open a sheep's heart. Other kids couldn't handle the strong stench of blood and had to step out of the room to take a breather.

There were countless blood stains all over his clothes, but he wasn't fazed. He knew that this was the norm of being a Hopper. Most of the snakes had no loot inside of their bodies, but to Theo's surprise, some of them dropped small blue mana crystals, which made Theo grin. Theo had only been on this planet for a few hours, but some of the snakes had already awakened and turned into mana beasts. He was going to be rich.

"What am I going to do with all of these corpses?" Theo soon realised that there was nowhere he could store all of the bodies. Someone was going to find out eventually and realise that they had competition.

"Oh well," Theo said.

"I'm not gonna be on this planet for long anyways." The mission was not even five percent complete yet but there was already a bloody mess on the ground. The grass, which used to be pure green in colour like fresh vegetables, was now stained in an awful black colour. It was like looking at an oil spill.

"I wonder where the snakes I had just kicked have gone." Theo, who was already an unrecognisable mess compared to when he started the mission, used his sword and his strength skill to break off the branches from the bushes closest to him. There were awful snapping sounds like the sound of Christmas crackers being pulled. Snap! Snap! Snap! He didn't stop there, though. Theo continued to hack at the bushes until they were all uprooted and lying in a lifeless heap to the side.

He had ruined his grand mattress, but that was alright, since he had better things to be thinking about. This was definitely going to be a long night. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. After a while, Theo felt pain in his arms. [Skill, 'Recovery (basic)', has been activated.] Not for long, though. After he had pulled out all of the bushes, Theo was able to confirm that there were no more snakes hiding amongst the bushes.

That meant all he had to do to complete the mission was to survive the night. He could finally go to sleep. But then- Chomp! What the-? A searing pain travelled from his right arm all across his body, making him feel numb. He couldn't move his right arm. Any movement would cause that unbearable, overwhelming pain.

"Holy shit." Theo still managed to curse despite the pain hurting as bad as being stabbed in the abdomen. He wanted to look at what was causing the pain, but at the same time, he didn't want to. He didn't know what he was going to find. After a heated debate erupted inside his brain, Theo decided to look at what was causing the pain. It was one of those snakes he had kicked earlier.

A snake had bitten Theo's arm, and its sharp fangs were still digging deep into his arm, wishing to chew off all that juicy meat and suck his blood like a vampire. It was like a shovel digging through dirt; Theo's flesh was the dirt that the fangs had penetrated, revealing the stone and rocks beneath, which in this case, was Theo's sweet, juicy blood.

If the fangs had dug any deeper into Theo's arm, his bones could have been exposed, possibly creating an extremely hideous wound, and there was a chance that the fangs could have chewed and broken the bones and caused more agony for Theo. That would be the epitome of unbearable pain.

"You little fucker." Punch! With a punch at least ten times more powerful than a regular human's punch, Theo was able to knock out the snake. Then, holding a mana sword in his left hand, he effortlessly sliced off the head of the snake that had been biting off his flesh. The pressure from the snake's fangs on Theo's arm eased. The rest of the body fell lifelessly onto the ground, spilling out fresh black blood.

"Ha," Theo said to himself. That still didn't take care of the pain, but at least it took out the source of the pain. As if it was nothing, Theo grabbed the head of the snake and let it fall to the floor alongside the rest of its body. Afterwards, a volcano of crimson red blood erupted from Theo's arm, blanketing the floor in a layer of pure human blood which was as red and as shiny as advanced mana crystals. That's a lot of blood, Theo thought. He could seriously die if the wound wasn't patched up by something.

[Skill, 'Healing (basic)', has been activated.]"Hopefully I don't run into any other beasts while this is happening." Theo sighed again. Being a Hopper was truly exhausting. Gradually, the blood stopped flowing and the wound began to close. Magic really was the best tool in the world. Theo didn't know how much time had passed; he was on a different planet and he didn't have a sense of time. However, one thing he did know was that he wanted sleep badly.

Once most of the wound had recovered and the blood stopped spilling out, Theo stood up. He was going to do one last check before bed. Please let there be no more mana beasts. Please. Rustle.

"Oh for f-!" Although he was grateful that he got up and decided to check for remaining mana beasts, Theo wanted to curse as loudly as his vocal cords could handle. He just wanted some sleep. He just wanted a fresh start! What were all these mana beasts doing in the middle of the night? Sleep was never going to come if he was in a field surrounded by beasts.

"Here we go again." With a brain that desperately needed a reset, and with an arm that was going extremely numb from excessive blood loss, Theo grabbed his sword and trudged out into the wilderness of Planet 502.

"Hello?" He tried calling out, but he couldn't hear a response.

"I will find you, and I will kill you right here and right now." Where was the beast? Theo had been searching for at least five minutes in terms of Earth's time, but he still couldn't find the source of this inexplicable noise. Giving up, Theo sat down by a large tree. It was pitch-black and he could barely see anything. He had left the torch he had packed inside his backpack. The best thing to do at that point was to wait patiently. It's going to come soon and I know it, Theo thought to himself.

The real challenge at that point was not to fall asleep. Theo needed something to keep him awake. Rustle. There it was again. Rustle. Rustle.

"Where are you?" Theo bellowed. He was possibly the only being on this planet who could use language, so he could scream and swear to his heart's desire.

"I'll find you." But he didn't need to find the source of the noise, because emerging from the depths of Planet 502, right in front of him, was a mana beast. It was a bear. Its fur was as black as the blood of the snakes that Theo had just fought. Its teeth were fangs of iron; they glimmered in the pitch-black, eerie nothingness and seemed to faintly glisten like a small torch. The beast was a microcosm of darkness.

"You made a mistake coming here," Theo said boldly, cleansing his body of any tiredness left in him.

"I'm going to kill you right here and right now." That was when the bear pounced. [Skill, 'Enhanced Strength (basic)', has been activated.] Punch! The bear was sent flying, and it hit a tree in the distance. Bang! It fell to the ground with an ear-splitting thud. However, Theo wasn't done yet. He still had more moves up his sleeve. Punch! Punch! His first punch was followed by another two punches that were equally as strong, sending the bear airborne and crashing down with a loud thud.

The bear, on the other hand, wasn't going to go down so easily. After a few seconds, despite it being somewhat injured by the punches, it was back on its feet, flexing its layers and layers of shark teeth made of pure iron.

"Come at me if you think you're strong!" Theo hollered.

"It's no use, since I'm gonna beat the living shit out of you!" Kick! Again, the bear was sent flying like a little ball, and it came crashing down to the ground, creating a mini earthquake. Thud! Kick! Thud! Theo repeated the process countless times, continuously flexing his strength which was at least five times greater than the bear's. If anything, in Theo's opinion, this bear was a mana beast at the lowest stage of the basic level. It couldn't be stronger than that. Surely not.

"I'm gonna make sure you don't ever see the light of day again!" Kick! Mana consumption. [Mana consumption] Available mana: 19% Time left until fully replenished: 10 hours, 42 minutes This was humiliation in the eyes of the bear. Theo was overpowering it and was still able to check how much mana he had left. Theo didn't have much mana left. He must have used most of it in that prolonged fight against that sickening swarm of snakes. Let's end it here, Theo said to himself.

Gripping his sword tightly, Theo charged at the bear which was not moving on the ground. All of those monster punches and kicks had rendered the bear immobile. Stab! Blood stained Theo's t-shirt, but he didn't care. He just wanted to sleep, and he was going to kill anything that wished to disturb his beauty sleep.

"Die!" Theo bellowed. Stab! Stab! Stab! The blade of Theo's sword continued to dig into the bear's body. And when he was a hundred percent sure that the bear was dead, he lay down on the floor, extremely fatigued. What caught his attention at that moment was something inside the bear's body that glistened and gleamed. Mana crystals.

"Nobody's stealing my mana crystals!" Although Theo was tired, he wasn't going to have anyone else on this planet stealing his mana crystals. Hastily, and with his experience from Biology class, he dissected the bear and took out the mana crystals inside. They were all basic mana crystals, but who cares? At least they were mana crystals which could be used to gain money or replenish mana stocks inside the core. When Theo picked up all the mana crystals, he let out a loud yawn.

He found a flat area where he could sleep, and, clutching onto his mana crystals tightly like cuddling a teddy bear, and confirming that there were no other mana beasts in the vicinity, Theo drifted soundly off to sleep. During Theo's sleep, his vision was completely black like the fur of the bear he had defeated. But in the middle of his sleep, without warning, a cloud of blue emerged. It was a system message. [You have completed Mission 1/4: survive the night.]