Chương 34: Solo Mission - Ben (2)

At first, only a few drops of snow fell from the sky. However, after a few minutes, more and more drops fell. There really was going to be a snowstorm.

"Crap," Ben cursed.

"I really should've brought spare clothes. A jacket would be nice at this point." As the snow continued to fall, Ben could see the jet-black grass he had been standing on being blanketed in a layer of fresh, white snow. The contrast between the white snow and the black grass felt like standing on a huge chess board.

"Maybe I can endure this storm," Ben said.

"Maybe if I just run a few more laps I can get used to this cold." So Ben continued to run laps around the hole he had dug up. However, in truth, he felt colder after the run compared to before. He still wasn't getting any warmer.

"Shit," Ben cursed again.

"Sometimes I really hate my life choices. At least I should've brought a jacket." But at the same time, it was impossible to correctly predict the temperature of a planet you have never been to which is millions or even billions of light years away from home.

"Just endure it," Ben said to himself.

"The mission said to just survive the blizzard. It shouldn't be too bad, right?" While shivering uncontrollably, Ben opened his system and checked the mission details. [Mission 1/3: survive the blizzard] Description: this planet has been ravaged by blizzards and cold weather. Survive this snowstorm to unlock the next mission. Time limit: until the blizzard ends Reward: you will unlock the next mission. Failure: frostbite, death by hypothermia Failure: frostbite.

This meant that if Ben stayed in the blizzard for too long, he could lose a limb.

"This is some real shit," Ben said after he closed his system window.

"There's no way I can survive this. I don't know how long this blizzard will last for. It's literally impossible to light a fire." His fingers and toes were going numb. He was shivering. He was already suffering from mild hypothermia.

"It's like I was dropped in the middle of Antarctica with no way to get back home." Ben looked at his body. His condition wasn't good. His arms were going blue, and it looked like he was about to suffer from frostbite. But he had only been on the surface for around an hour. He needed to do something otherwise he would become a chunk of ice that would form a statue for other people to see. Other people visiting this planet would see his dumb and clumsy mistakes while trying to claim this planet.

"Let's not think about that for now," Ben said.

"Let's actually think about how the hell I can save myself from this demon called frostbite!" What could he do though? There was nothing on this planet, and there seemed to be no sign of human life anywhere. Ben was the only person on this planet. And it looked like he was about to succumb to extreme frostbite and severe hypothermia of he didn't act quickly.

"Think!" Ben shouted.

"Think!" But he couldn't think. Because just a second later-"Brain freeze!" At that point the snow from the blizzard had reached Ben's ankles; his feet were completely submerged in the snow, making his toes even more numb. He was going to lose his toes at any point if he didn't do anything.

"I need to think of something quick!" Ben was panicking. What could he do? He was in the middle of a vast, barren, snow-filled land with no buildings, no trees and no wildlife. He was truly stuck. What was he going to lose first? A finger? Or a toe? Ben didn't want to think about it. If he hesitated, he would be wasting precious time. That would mean he would have less time left until the demon called frostbite hit him, plucking out his limbs and leaving him to suffer.

There was snow on his body; it was on his head, on his arms and on his clothes. His eyebrows and eyelashes were going to freeze at any second. He was going to become a snow sculpture ready to be presented to other Hoppers when they arrive. But despite the brain freeze, all hope was not lost yet.

"Wait a second." Ben's brain clicked when he saw the hole he had just dug up. It gave him an ingenious idea. There was a way to escape from this mammoth snow globe.

"The system window didn't specify how I could complete the mission. So what if I just hide in the portal room until the blizzard is over?" He walked towards the hole he had dug up. It was quite the challenge since the snow was about to reach his shins, but he managed to get to the ladder. Barely.

"That's so cold!" Ben wailed as he held onto the frame of the ladder.

"Why the hell is it so cold?" His fingers were as pink as roses and his veins were dark blue. At best, he only had a few minutes until his limbs gave way.

"I need to get down to the portal room as fast as possible," Ben said. But it wasn't going to be that easy. Firstly, the ladder Ben had built to reach the surface was very poorly built. He didn't have Cayman's expertise with him, and he didn't think he would be making frequent trips down to the portal room on this expedition. Secondly, Ben didn't have any gloves, and touching fresh cold snow with already numb hands made them more numb. After a while, he couldn't feel his fingers at all.

What made the situation worse was that snow was falling onto Ben's head and body, which made him more cold. It didn't stop there. The snow on the ladder slowly began turning into ice, and Ben thought he was going to slip and fall if he made just one wrong move. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work. But if he was careful and took his time, he would surely, no, certainly, get frostbite.

He couldn't decide between being reckless and hurriedly rushing down the ladder, potentially risking slipping off the ladder and falling onto the cold stone floor beneath, or taking his time and losing a limb in the process. Both of those options could lead to a horrible, painful demise for Ben. Everywhere Ben went on this planet, death was watching him closely and meticulously like a hawk.

"Just don't think about anything," Ben said.

"I'll be fine either way." When he was about halfway down the ladder, Ben looked down and took his eyes off the ladder. And his feet slipped.

"Crap," Ben said as he managed to regain control.

"That was too close for comfort." He had almost fallen and broken his spine. That was a forty-five feet drop.

"It's getting warmer," Ben muttered as he continued his descent.

"It definitely is. Surely it gets warmer when you go deeper underground." Ben continued to descend the ladder. Sure enough, it was gradually getting warmer the closer he got to the portal room. When he had about fifteen feet left to descend, Ben decided to risk it. The recklessness engraved in his brain had taken over. He was going to jump. He didn't care about whether there was ice on the rung. He was going to jump and land on his feet. And he was going to try not to slip over.

"Here goes nothing," Ben said as he readied himself for the leap of faith.

"If I miss this jump, I might die. But it's way better than getting frostbite." There was no time to think. If he stuttered, there was a chance he might get frostbite. He stopped thinking. And he jumped. Clack!

"Ouch!" He had landed on his feet, but the impact was strong enough to send pain shooting into his body from his heels. And he still couldn't feel his feet. Luckily for him, the temperature in the portal room was way higher than on the surface. Significantly higher.

"I can finally rest and relax for a bit," Ben said to himself.

"With the portal room here, this will be the easiest mission ever." When the pain in his heels subsided, Ben inched closer towards the portal. The giant, circular, ominous portal beckoned for Ben to get closer. However, it wasn't because Ben wanted to leave the planet so badly that he walked closer to the portal, it was because it was a source of considerable warmth.

"This feels so good," Ben said as he stretched his hands out to the purple glow of the portal.

"Make me warm!" Slowly but surely, Ben was getting warmer. It took a while, and after what felt like three hours of standing beside the portal begging for warmth, Ben could feel his hands again. Goodbye, hypothermia. Goodbye, frostbite.

"Holy crap. I could've died out there if it wasn't for the portal room being underground." Ben thought about what would have happened if the portal was on the surface. He would have definitely lost all of his fingers by now as well as all of his toes. It would be an unpleasant and gruesome sight, leaving him looking utterly hideous.

"Thank you, portal room," Ben mumbled, thanking the portal room as if it was his saviour. He was going insane for sure since he was praising an inanimate object with as much affection as he would give to his future girlfriend. He so desperately wanted to kiss the centre of the portal with his lips at least five times. The brain freeze was definitely eating his brain like little parasites. Then suddenly his face contorted in anger.

"Screw you, Cayman Grace!" Ben bellowed.

"You are no saving grace! Screw you for sending me here! I almost lost all of my limbs because of you! Live up to your name for once!" They say teenagers get crazy mood swings sometimes, and what Ben was going through at that point was definitely an example of that. Ben let his body fall on the floor next to the grandiose portal.

"Is this why no one bothered to explore this planet?" Ben thought.

"Is it because they're scared of losing their limbs to the extreme cold? Well, I shouldn't be on this planet at all. I've been forced to go by this damn imbecile who's completely ignorant and doesn't know what the hell he's doing!" He slammed the floor with his feet, which only made his heels hurt even more.

"Damn you, Cayman!" With his face still scrunched up with anger, Ben stared longingly at the ladder. The snow from the blizzard fell effortlessly, creating soft white blankets on the rungs and the floor. It was accumulating slowly but surely, and when Ben squinted to get a better look at the snow, he was sure that he could see the snow building up.

"I'm going insane," Ben muttered.

"I'm going insane because of the anger Cayman has given me for sending me here. Why did I get chosen to go to a planet nobody's been before? Why?" Ben grabbed his head and started rocking back and forth. Yes, he was going insane.

"All I have to do is to survive the blizzard, and it's gonna be a piece of cake with me just sitting in the portal room. However, why the hell do I have to do this myself?" Ben was suddenly lost in his own thoughts.

"How much time has passed on Earth? An hour? Two hours? Three hours? Maybe even a day? I wonder what everybody else is doing. How are they coping with their missions? Has anybody stumbled upon competitors? Looks like I'll never get the answers to these." He just wanted to leave.

"I'm stuck in this shitty snow globe with nothing to do! Oh, how has my life come to this? Is this part of the struggles I have to face on the road to becoming a successful millionaire? I need to earn a ton of mana crystals on this planet!" He accidentally opened his profile while still deep in thought.

Name: Ben Oxley Age: 17 Height: 5'7" Level: Basic (stage 4, 10/2000 XP) Main skill: Enhanced Strength Other skills: Teleportation (basic), Recovery (basic), Healing (basic) Traits: Strength: 40 Agility: 20 Stamina: 25 Intelligence: 10 Locked????? Locked????? Hopper status: Status: Active Planets explored: 3 (including home planet) Planets claimed: 0"What is this stupid profile doing in front of me?" He tried to swat the profile away as if it was a fly circling him over and over again.

"Shoo! Shoo!" But it wasn't going away. This was worse than being drunk. Something was chewing on his brain, and it was ripping his sanity apart like it was a piece of paper. All because Ben was on the cusp of getting frostbite. He thought he was going to cry a whole rain puddle of tears, although in this extreme cold, the tears might just end up freezing and create a slab of ice. He thought he was never going to see his friends again. He thought his life as a Hopper was going to end prematurely.

All because he was on a planet with average temperatures below zero degrees Fahrenheit. It had felt like hours of constant whining and screaming before Ben looked up. That was when he realised that all the snow had stopped falling. He couldn't see the white flakes of snow falling from the sky. He had really survived the blizzard. And he had done so in a t-shirt and joggers.

His extreme, unbearable boredom derived from sitting in the portal room watching snow fall and screaming like a lunatic was finally going to be relieved. Ben stood up and trudged towards the ladder. There was a tall mound of snow beside the ladder, and each rung had sharp icicles hanging from them.

"I've done it," Ben said with a loud sigh.

"I've survived the blizzard successfully." The ladder was as cold as ice. But that was because it was literally coated with a thin layer of ice. Regardless, Ben began to climb the ladder up to the surface. He didn't care about his fingers going pink and numb. He just wanted to reach the surface and complete the mission. It was a tough climb, but eventually, after countless minutes of determination, Ben reached the surface. And it was not what he was expecting it to be.

"What?" There was a thick layer of snow above him which was about four feet tall. If he stood up on the surface, the snow would likely reach his stomach area or even his chest.

"Holy crap," Ben said.

"It's a winter wonderland." [You have completed mission 1/3: survive the blizzard.] But Ben couldn't be happy just yet. Clomp! Clomp! Clomp!

"What was that noise?" He heard a series of thunderous footsteps in the snow, and he thought the planet was going to shake. He had just completed one mission, and it looked like he was about to start another one.

"Are those mana beasts?" Ben had a quizzical look slapped onto his face. He was going to get his answer very shortly.

"Oh my gosh." Clomp! Clomp! Clomp!

"I have to defeat those? I really am gonna die today, either from those beasts or hypothermia." The source of the footsteps were literally abominations. Even scarier than the Boss on Planet 501, in Ben's opinion. But he had no time to worry about that just yet, because shortly after their arrival, he received a system message with the details of his next mission. You have a new mission! Mission 2/3: defeat the beasts