3 - Weird dimension

As Su Tao woke up, he tried to sit up, only to realize that he couldn't. A few moments passed and he still couldn't move.

Then, all at once, there was a wave of pain that washed over him. It was an excruciating pain that he had never felt before.

But he still couldn't move. He was still lying there with not having even opened his eyes, but he was going through torture the likes of which he had never even been able to imagine before.

This pain was so relentless and excruciating that it would have already killed normal people. However, Su Tao pushed through it like he always did with other pain. However, this was different. This pain was so intense that no matter how strong one's willpower was, they would not be able to last long.

It felt like every cell in his body was on fire, frozen, being crushed, and being torn apart all at the same time. It was so painful that it was completely beyond words. At least when one was actually being burned, it would only last for so long before your nerves burned up and didn't allow you to feel any more pain. However, with this pain, it was endless, as if it would last for an eternity.

Never before had he ever imagined that there could possibly be something so painful and that one would be able to experience it. He was sure that no one in history could have possibly endured such agonizing pain. However, he tried to endure it the best that he could. He lay there in excruciating pain for six hours before the pain finally and all at once vanished. At first he thought that he had died, but then he realized that he could finally move his body. Through the course of the six hours, he got used to the inhuman torture and was able to endure it without mentally flinching. However, now, all the pain which had existed vanished as if it was never there in the first place, and all at once, he could now move again.

The first thing that he did was open his eyes. He did not know that his eye had changed color or what had happened to him. All he knew was the excruciating torture which he had just gone through. It was so bad that no other pain could compare. He felt as if for the rest of his life he would be immune to pain due to that torture.

As he looked at his body, he realized that he was in his bed with only his undergarments on. The first thing that he noticed was the scars going all the way down his body. He could not see much of the scars though since they were covered in medicine. However, he knew that he felt no pain whatsoever from the scars and it seemed as if they had been healed all at once. With this, he wiped off the medicine as well as the blood which had leaked out of the lightning scars.

When he finally saw the scars without anything covering them, he could not help being astonished. His whole body was covered in scars from lightning. Looking in the mirror, he saw that the scars started from his right eye and went down his entire body. First, the scars wrapped around his neck. Then, they went all over his chest and back, then down his arms and eventually into his fingers. below his chest, the lightning scars went all the way down his legs like a nightmarish spiderweb.

There were not many scars, but they went around his entire body and there was not a single square foot of space on him that did not have a lightning scar. The only place that did not have a scar was the left side of his face. It was only now that he noticed his right eye which had changed color. It was now a wicked bright green, and it seemed to be able to pierce through anything. However, Su Tao could not feel anything different about it no matter how hard he tried.

Then, he noticed another thing that was astonishing. The lightning scars on his body seemed to start fading and merged into his body. All at once, the scars which were as clear as day had faded from his entire body. The only thing that stayed the same was his right eye which had turned green.

He could not begin to describe how confused he was right now. What the hell had just happened? He got struck by lightning, then he woke up in a limitless torture unlike anything in existence for a total of six hours. Then, the lightning changed his eye color and scarred his entire body. Then, the scars just faded into his body as if they never existed at all.

He was outside of his own home when he got struck by the lightning, so he assumed that his mother came out of the house to see what was happening with the lightning strikes and then saw him on the ground and took him inside and called a doctor.

After all, he was only a few feet in front of his house when the first lightning struck, but it had temporarily blinded him so he couldn't find the way into the house.

He almost didn't notice it, but he felt as if his right eye could now see much clearer and further. If he could see an ant from eight feet away before, he would now be able to see it from sixteen feet away and also much clearer.

Yes, it was clearer. His eye was much more accurate and it could see further! Not only that, he also noticed that he could also notice thing's trajectories and where they were going based on their current path.

He was still sitting on his bed since he did not know whether or not he was actually injured, but at this moment, he lost consciousness.

He did not know what was happening, but he felt as if his consciousness was being ripped from his body and brought to a separate dimension. He did not resist it because he had an odd feeling that if he did, he would have his mind torn to pieces.

Soon, he appeared in a vast field. There was a sun shining in the sky, but that was all there was. As far as his eyes could see, there was only fields. Tall grass blew in the winds, and there was the occasional flower. It was a normal field, but it seemed extremely mysterious and profound.

Every single blade of grass, every single flower, the way each individual one blew in the wind, it seemed extremely mysterious and seemed to contain secrets the likes of which Su Tao couldn't imagine.

As he stood in the field, he had no clue what to do. He had no idea where he had been brought to or why. He did not even know how he was here, or what state this place existed in. He knew that it was not his body which was brought here but his mind. However, he had no clue what the purpose of this place was.

After looking around for a few moments, a bow appeared in front of him. He was confused, but he picked up the bow since this seemed to be the point of the dimension that he was in.

The moment that he picked up the bow, he felt a connection to it, as if he had been through life and death with it. It was as if he had lived his entire life with this bow. But he quickly cast this thought aside.

Next, an arrow randomly fell from the sky and stuck solidly into the ground next to him. It was still quivering violently in the ground when Su Tao grabbed it. However, he was shocked to feel that the vibration of the arrow traveled along his whole arm into his entire being.

It was as if his very soul was getting shaken violently. However, it quickly settled and he pulled the arrow out of the ground. It was a very average arrow, but it seemed to be just as mysterious as the rest of the field that he was on.

Going through the motions, Su Tao nocked the arrow into the bow and drew it back. To his surprise it was extremely difficult to draw it all the way back. However, he put all his strength into it and managed to do so. The next moment, a target appeared about one hundred feet away.

'The hell? I've never even shot a bow and it wants me to hit a target one hundred feet away with a bow that I can barely even draw?' He could not help complaining to himself.

Despite being unhappy, Su Tao still drew the bow and aimed it towards the target which was one hundred feet away.

As he released the bowstring, a magical *TWANG* sound rang out. This was a simple bow, but everything about it seemed exquisite but simple at the same time. Even the sound that it made when it shot the arrow seemed to be magical.

As Su Tao watched the arrow fly, he was surprised to see that it actually managed to hit within five feet of the target. Normally, one could not hope to have such good aim on their first shot, but he had done so without any training of any kind.

However, nothing happened after he shot the arrow. But a moment after the arrow struck the ground, another arrow fell from the sky and lodged itself into the ground exactly where the previous arrow had been before Su Tao picked it up.

This time, Su Tao waited for it to stop quivering before picking up the arrow. When he picked it up again, he once again nocked it on the bow and pulled back, aiming towards the target, this time he felt as if he could get closer than the previous arrow.

Releasing the arrow, it flew through the air much straighter than the previous arrow. This time, the arrow lodged itself firmly in the ground one foot away from the target on the opposite side from the previous arrow.

Once again, as soon as the second arrow landed, another arrow fell from the sky into the ground next to Su Tao. He could not help but wonder how the ground had not had a hole in it from the arrows yet, but then he remembered that this was a weird place he knew nothing about. It did not follow the rules of physics or logic. It was a complete mystery.

However, as mysterious as it was, he could tell that the dimension wanted him to shoot the arrows at the target.

As such, he picked up the third arrow and once again shot it at the target one hundred feet away. This time, the arrow lodged itself on the upper part of the target. This was the first time that he had hit the target, so he looked around to see if there was any change in the environment, but to his disappointment, another arrow fell from the sky to his side just like all the others.

He now realized that he probably had to hit the target dead center for any changes to happen.

After a few more shots, he was now only an inch away from the center of the target one hundred feet away. As the next arrow fell from the sky, he picked it up and shot it at the target. If there was a master archer here, they would be astonished at the rate of his improvement.

After only ten or so shots, he had the capability of almost hitting dead center one hundred feet away. Even the most talented archers in the history of the city of silver sparrow would at least have to take a few thousand shots to accomplish what he had, but he had done so in only ten or so shots.

Of course, he thought that this was all due to his eye which had somehow changed and allowed him to predict something's trajectory. He used it to predict the trajectory of the arrows and then shot them, nearly hitting dead center after warming up to the bow and arrow.

As the arrow flew through the air, it made a very faint whistling sound. It was on the perfect trajectory.

Dead center! It had hit dead center! Just as Su Tao suspected, something had happened when he hit it dead center. But it was nothing like he expected. The bow in his hand seemed to change material and the string seemed to now be made out of metal wire. The arrow that fell from the sky had also changed to a metal material.

He could not figure out what this meant, but he dismissed his thoughts and looked towards where the target was, only to be astonished to see that not only was it now five hundred feet away, it was also moving in a random pattern. Although it was not moving quickly, it was unpredictable and seemed to be entirely random.

'How the hell am I supposed to hit that?' Su Tao thought to himself. Anyone else would have exactly the same thoughts as him since not even experienced bow masters would be able to hit a target that was moving randomly from five hundred feet away.

This truly was too weird of a dimension that he had gone into. He could make no sense of these tests. He had figured that these were probably tests set by the owner of the dimension, or maybe it was a way to train him, he didn't care. All he cared about was how to get out.

As he took up the metal arrow, he nocked it into the now metal bow and tried to pull back the arrow, but he was astonished to find that he could only pull it back approximately two feet, which was barely more than half draw. He was using all his strength too, which made it even more astonishing.

Since he could not draw it back any further, he aimed the bow and decided to try taking a better stance to improve his aim. After all, he was not living under a rock and knew that archery required a proper stance to pull off. Up until now, he had merely been relying on his mysterious right eye to predict the route of the arrow to hit the target.

To start off, he shifted his weight and tried to balance it. Moving his feet, he could feel his balance become better and his hand steadier. Next he tried to find the angle at which it was most convenient to hold the large bow.

Everyone's perfect stance was different, which meant that one could only guide others for stance and not just show them. As he did not have anyone to guide him, Su Tao just experimented with all the different positions that he could put his muscles into.

Soon, he found a stance that not only kept him steady, it would also be much more comfortable to fire and easier to get the new arrows.

As he released the bowstring, a much louder *TWANG* sounded. It seemed to contain the same mysterious energy that the previous bow had, only stronger.

The arrow flew so fast that it was almost hard to keep track of with his eyes.

Su Tao was happy to see that the arrow had landed about twenty five feet from the target, proportionally the same as when he had started with the first target at a hundred feet.

As the next arrow fell from the sky, Su Tao picked it up and once again got into his stance and shot the arrow at the moving target five hundred feet away. This time it landed the same distance as before. It was twenty five feet away from the moving target, and it was once again where the target had used to be as opposed to where it was currently.

Changing his pace, Su Tao decided to see if he could find any pattern in which the target moved. However, he was disappointed to find that there was simply no pattern to how it moved. But he did know one thing: it was always within a certain area, and that was the area five hundred feet in front of him and within a fifty by fifty foot area. Through this, he at least knew where the target would always be and he knew that he would not have to chase after it should it leave that certain area.

After shooting a few more arrows at the target, he made no progress whatsoever. The arrows were always between fifteen to thirty feet away from the target and they never got anywhere close to it.

He figured that there must be a trick to it, other than just dumb luck. Because it seemed that the target would not ever get hit by his arrows, as if it had intelligence.

Thinking up to here, he finally figured something out. The target seemed to be avoiding his arrows, which meant that it had something like intelligence. But intelligence meant that it could be tricked into getting hit by the arrows. He finally had an idea. But the next moment, he remembered something. He would only get the next arrow after the previous one landed, so how was he able to get more arrows to be able to trick the target?

This was quite a predicament. If the target not only moved randomly but also avoided his arrows, and he could not get more than one at a time, then how could he manage to hit the target?

He did not know the rules of this dimension. As such, there was no way to get any form of hint, and he felt that if he did something wrong, he might be killed instead.

Su Tao racked his brain trying to come up with a solution, but no matter how hard he thought he just couldn't figure it out.

He did not know if he was allowed to go get the arrows he had already shot because he had never been told the rules of this dimension. In this way, he was essentially forced to shoot one arrow at a time.

Then, he finally realized something. 'My muscles in my arms seem to be getting stronger. I can now draw the metal bow to two feet and one inch, which means that if I can get it to full draw, maybe the solution will present itself,' Su Tao thought to himself.

He realized that the growth speed of his muscles was ridiculous, but nothing in this dimension made sense, so why should he worry about how fast his muscles got stronger? If it helped him get out, then he did not care even if he ended up having to kill people in here.

For the next few hours, Su Tao shot the metal bow and arrow repeatedly. After shooting it for a few hundred times, Su Tao realized that he was not at all getting tired or sore and that he was only getting stronger, but he once again thought that it was because of the weird dimension that he was in. He could now draw the bow to ninety percent drawn, and the arrows would fly out twice as fast as before.

Now the arrows would always get within ten feet of the target and some would even get within five feet of it, but there was still not a single arrow that managed to hit the target.

After practicing for several more hours, it was still daytime on the field even though it should theoretically be nighttime. At this moment, he could reach the full draw on the bow, but the arrows still never hit the target. They would at most get within one foot of the target, but it still did not hit. But the challenge was not just to hit the target.

The challenge was to hit it dead center, which was what perplexed Su Tao the most. This meant that even if he managed to hit the target, it meant nothing so long as he could not hit the dead center of it.

There were hundreds of arrows on the field, and all of them were made exactly the same. They were so perfectly identical that no one would be able to tell the difference between them unless they left some form of mark on them. Every one of these arrows represented an attempt from Su Tao, who stood five hundred feet away from the arrows.

Since he had already reached full draw on the bow and nothing had changed other than the distance the arrows reached from the target, he had long ago decided to change his strategy. He was now paying attention to how the target moved every time he shot an arrow.

Sometimes it would zoom ahead, sometimes it would turn, sometimes it would completely turn around. It seemed to have no pattern whatsoever, but Su Tao did not give up at all. He did not know what this dimension was, but one thing was for sure. He wanted to beat this test, no matter what it took. If he had to miss ten thousand times to hit dead center, then he would shoot a hundred thousand times to hit dead center ten times.

But it was at this moment which he noticed something. The target only ever moved away from where he initially shot, not where the arrow ended up going. He noticed because at one point, the wind had blown his arrow within one inch of the target, and it showed him what he had not realized.

'Curve the arrows!!!' he thought excitedly to himself.

He had no clue how he could curve the arrows, but he had heard of legends of those at the second gold star being able to curve their arrows in the air. He was obviously not at the second gold star, but he knew that the rules of the world likely didn't apply to this dimension, meaning that he could possibly curve his arrows in the air. If he could not curve the arrow, he could at least knock it into a separate course at the last second while it was leaving the bow.

If he could do this, it would mean that he no longer had to rely on luck to get close to the target. Instead, he would be able to directly shoot at it.

Taking a deep breath, he took the arrow from the ground next to him and nocked it on the bow. He had no clue where to start with curving arrows, but he knew that it was likely possible. However, he decided to start by simply knocking the arrow with his bow.

He calmed his mind as he drew the bow and aimed it. However, this time, he did not aim at the target. Instead, he aimed ahead of where the target was going, as if he wanted to intercept the target.

As he released the arrow, this time he lightly flicked the end of the bow to smack the tail of the arrow when it left the bow.

This changed the original trajectory of the arrow so that it was no longer going towards where the target used to be going. Instead, it was now going behind where the target was going.

The moment the arrow was released from the bow, the target changed direction, going straight towards where the arrow was now.

*THOCK!*

The arrow had finally hit the target for the first time ever!!!! Although it had hit the target, it was at the outermost ring and nowhere near the center. But it was enough to make Su Tao jump for joy!

Little did he know that this would only be the beginning.