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Lady Keqing was radiating confidence, but was the path to "Ascension" truly as simple as she imagined? Li Mo and the crowd of onlookers certainly didn't think so. They were all gathered around, popcorn-ready, waiting to see how the dignified Yuheng would handle the inevitable frustration. Seeing a high-ranking official lose her cool was a rare opportunity, after all.
Keqing launched her first assault on the obstacles, swinging the sledgehammer toward the gnarled tree ahead. The hammer caught onto a branch, and the bald man, Wu Ke, leaped into the air as she leveraged the weight. However, the cauldron clattered against the trunk, failing to gain a solid purchase. The hammer slipped, and the character slid back down to the grass.
Oh? It seems this isn't quite as straightforward as I anticipated.
She didn't let it bother her. After two or three more focused attempts, the clever Yuheng figured out the physics and vaulted over the tree with a sharp flick of the mouse.
Clap, clap, clap!
"That was impressive, Lady Keqing! You're easily the fastest person to clear that first hurdle so far," Li Mo praised, giving her a genuine round of applause.
To be fair, Keqing's gaming instincts were sharp—far sharper than Li Mo's had been when he first tried the game. He remembered being stuck at that very same tree for several agonizing minutes. Hearing the praise from the owner and the murmurs of awe from the crowd, Keqing couldn't help but feel a small spark of pride.
She pressed on. After the tree came a series of boulders wedged between some branches. The rocks were smooth, but they had enough protrusions for Keqing to navigate them without much effort. But then, the real game began.
The rock wall ahead was the true beginning of the nightmare.
It was a sheer, vertical face with only a single protruding stone at the base. At first glance, it didn't look impossible. Keqing manipulated the bald man to strike the rock with the hammer, attempting to vault upward. Her angle was slightly off, and instead of going up, Wu Ke lunged awkwardly to the left.
A minor setback. I just need to adjust my positioning.
A single stone wasn't going to stop the Yuheng. She swung again, using the momentum to catch an iron paddle hanging above. The paddle acted much like the tree branches, making it relatively easy to climb higher. Keqing's plan was to swing from the paddle directly onto a protruding tree trunk further up.
She flicked the mouse, but the metal head of the hammer slipped on the smooth surface of the paddle. Instead of the graceful leap she expected, Wu Ke plummeted straight back to the ground.
"It is... a bit challenging," Keqing admitted, a small, tight smile on her face. To her, difficulty was simply the measure of a challenge's worth. Seeing her unwavering self-confidence, Li Mo began to worry that the poor girl might end up in tears by the time she left.
The higher she climbed the rock wall, the smoother the surfaces became. There were fewer places for the hammer to catch, and the points of leverage were few and far between. Keqing, perhaps a bit too eager for a quick victory, found herself frustrated as she slipped again and again.
"Deep breaths, Keqing. Don't rush. Take your time. Steady hands," she whispered to herself.
Her composure was slipping, but she quickly forced herself to adjust. She knew that haste made waste, so she decided to adopt a more methodical approach. Under her careful control, the bald man began to crawl upward inch by inch, the hammer clinking and scraping against stone and rebar.
But this was a game of precision and muscle memory. Every new step was an unknown variable. Just as she reached a new height, the hammer slipped on a narrow edge, and she fell all the way back down. Keqing's eye twitched. This game definitely required a mountainous amount of perseverance.
Behind her, the crowd was whispering. Though they were trying to be quiet, she could hear the muffled sounds of someone stifling a laugh.
It's just a fall. Starting from the beginning is no big deal.
Keqing gripped the mouse tighter and started the climb once more. She navigated the lower sections with practiced ease and arrived at a new difficulty: a incredibly narrow vertical chimney. The passage had small protrusions on either side, but it was so cramped that swinging the hammer was nearly impossible.
To clear it, she had to wedge herself in and use a stone beneath the cauldron as a fulcrum to launch upward. Keqing pushed the hammer down, but her posture was slightly skewed. Instead of going up, she launched herself horizontally.
"Wait, wait! No!"
She panicked, swinging the mouse wildly to try and hook onto something, anything. But the smooth stones and cold steel plates offered no mercy. She watched in silent horror as the bald man tumbled through the air, falling down, down, and further down.
With a sickening thud, she landed right back at the starting point. Back to her "happy hometown."
"Pfft—!" Li Mo couldn't help it. He burst out laughing.
Seeing the usually untouchable Yuheng, who had probably ruined his gacha luck in another life, finally get humbled by a digital mountain made him feel inexplicably better. Keqing whipped her head around and glared at him with enough intensity to start a fire. Li Mo immediately looked up at the ceiling, whistling and pretending to be fascinated by the architecture.
The onlookers who wanted to laugh quickly turned away, suddenly finding the walls very interesting. Keqing was fuming. For a split second, she genuinely wanted to smash the mouse and walk out. But how could the Great Yuheng admit defeat so easily?
Absolutely not!
After taking a moment to center herself and calm her racing heart, she reset her grip and started the climb again from the very bottom.