Day XII: Greed

The Sphere pulsed in front of me faster than it ever had before—90 times. 

[9000] 

[1040] 

...… 

[10,040] 

"Huh?" 

I stared blankly at the Sphere. Didn't I kill over 100 goblins? Like 30 in the morning, then I counted 100 in the afternoon. 

"The fuck do you mean only 90 kills?!!!" 

I screamed at the Sphere. 

[1,000,000] 

The stupid, ridiculous tome appeared before me. 

"No! You can't just do that every time!" 

Nothing. 

I was mad. I was so, so mad. 

It took me a moment to calm down. 

"Okay, so why only 90?" 

[1,000,000] 

The tome appeared in front of me again. 

"I know already. Stop showing me the damn tome!" 

I was more upset about being let down by the only thing that had been a constant during those early days. I fought every day, and I had grown comfortable with the Sphere always rewarding my actions. Now, all my previous confusion and frustration came rushing back. 

I was quickly starting to lose my mind in this new world full of secrets and mysteries. 

I stayed there for a moment, thinking. 

I tried to figure out whether the yellow goblins were worth fewer points. But then again, the Sphere pulsed 90 times, which meant it registered 90 kills. I could be wrong—or not. I simply didn't know. 

"I have to count this time," I told myself. 

I did tell everyone—or actually just Travis—that I'd be back today, but I needed answers more than ever. I would lure the yellow goblins out the same way, kill them the same way, and then run to the clearing before sunset. 

I decided to buy [Good Nutrition] for 500 points. Then I fixed my [Exhaustion] for 700 points. 

I decided to get upgrades to help with this mountainous terrain. 

I bought 20 upgrades for dexterity. I stopped at only this much because another upgrade costed 1 000 points. There was obviously some kind of threshold on these upgrades. The total cost me 600 points. 

Then I upgraded my constitution by 20 points for another 600 points. 

At the last minute, I also upgraded my strength 20 times for 600 points. 

I spent a total of 3,000 points right there and still had 7,040 left. 

[7,040] 

I decided to upgrade my stamina until it hit a threshold. It took only 13 upgrades for a total of 390 points. 

[6,650] 

I was sure I could get a lot of points the next day, so I decided to try something new. 

[MIND UPGRADE] [100] 

The starting cost was already 100. So I bought one. The price didn't change, so I bought nine more before hitting the threshold. 

[MIND UPGRADE] [1,000 points] 

'Damn.' 

[5,650] 

I willed myself to wake up by shifting my focus away from the Sphere. 

---

I woke up feeling like my best self ever. I wasn't hungry at all, and my body felt alive. It felt perfect—fully recovered. Like I had just had an intensive stretch and massage session. 

The sunrise was beautiful from this view. It highlighted the distant eastern hills and cast a golden hue over the northern misty clouds. 

I climbed down easily. I was so fast, I felt like a professional parkour athlete from those YouTube videos. I hopped from rock to rock and had incredible balance. I felt in control of my center of gravity as my muscles worked effortlessly. 

It didn't take long to reach the cave. The same weird boulder and puddle—it looked like a copy from the clearing. 

I picked up a rock and threw it. 

"Come out, you fuckers!" 

I screamed, more for the sake of coping than anything else. 

I ran up the steep incline like an athlete. At this point, my body looked jacked. For the first time, I could do muscle-ups as I climbed the rocks. I looked behind me at the cave below. 

I waited. 

After about 30 minutes, I grew bored and considered going back down to try again. But then a crowd of yellow goblins started pouring out. 

"Hey! Try and catch me, you freaks!" I yelled something like that and darted up the steep climb. 

My muscle strength was enough to push me faster than ever. My balance was insane. I eventually reached the steep stone wall and waited a bit for the goblins to catch up. 

I started climbing like a professional wall climber. I couldn't believe how capable and strong my body was. 

I finally reached the top and took a few breaths. I panted a little, but it quickly subsided. 

Soon, goblins showed up. 

I clenched my teeth and stomped down on the hand of the first one. Yes, my foot stung a little. Yes, the goblin's hand splattered. The fingers were still attached, but the force of my full stomp popped the flesh of his palm. 

I got to work quickly—leaping with side shuffles as I stomped and kicked. No group was fast enough to overwhelm me. 

This time, I counted. 

"95…96…97…98…99…" 

I grabbed the last goblin's head beneath my foot and lifted him over my shoulders, above the ledge. 

He kicked and screamed. Before his hand could claw at me, I punched him in the chest. He puked, and in disgust, I dropped him. 

"Dammit." 

Now I had a new layer of stink on me. 

I climbed down the stone wall. It was still morning—not even noon yet. 

---

I passed by their bodies, counting as I descended. I reached 68 before I had to look down the sides of the rocks to find more. Some were too far to reach without taking an unnecessary amount of time. 

In the end, I passed by 68 goblins on my way down and found 25 further away, which I also counted but didn't approach. 

"The last 7 of the 100 must be somewhere between the rocks." 

After two more hours of climbing, I reached the bottom. It was a little past noon, so I decided to run around and kill as many goblins as I could before sunset. 

I ended up killing 19 more. 

Fighting them was easy. One punch to their heads knocked them out. Two or three more, and they were dead. Obviously, my strength upgrades played a role. My wrist and knuckles stung from punching goblin skulls, and my right hand even had a small cut. 

---

By the time I reached the clearing, it was just past sunset. 

Travis was nearby, since I came out of the treeline where his group always camped. 

"I was starting to worry," Travis said, welcoming me back. 

I was exhausted and panting hard. My stamina was great, but ask any marathon runner to climb a mountain and run all day, and they'll spit on you. 

I ignored Travis and walked straight to the pond, sweaty and red-faced. 

The water tasted like heaven. 

"Welcome back. Did you see the Holy Land up there?" 

Samuel appeared out of nowhere. 

"I wish." 

He chuckled. 

"Carl saw you and is fetching Rebecca and Ben." 

"The Old Man?" I asked. 

Samuel raised a brow. 

"Never heard someone call him that. You know he was military, right?" 

"You know we're in some game-like world, right?" 

He looked at me—and laughed. 

He wiped his tears and said, "Guess we can be whoever we want to be." 

Something about that stuck with me, but I didn't have time to reflect before the so-called leaders surrounded me. 

"What did you see from up there?"

Rebecca was the first to ask. Around me stood her, Samuel, Carl, Travis, Victor, Hannah, Old Man Ben, and a few others I hadn't met yet.

"I didn't reach the peak, but I got really high. The east has a lot of hills. The west has some open fields, maybe plains, with mountains way off in the distance. The north is covered in some kind of mist or clouds—I couldn't figure out what's causing it in the middle of the day."

"And the south?" Travis asked.

"I climbed from the north side of the mountain."

Everyone looked disappointed, but I was already thinking of an excuse to go again.

"I couldn't see behind the mountain. I want to go back and climb the east side—get a better look at the south and east."

That seemed to catch their interest. They fell into thought.

"We don't have a problem with that. Don't you want help this time?" Rebecca offered.

"How many goblins are there? We need more hunting grounds," Travis interjected.

She scoffed. "We don't need more hunting grounds—you just need to stop taking more than half the goblins!"

"We need more ground so we can get stronger faster. We still owe that owlbear in the east." Travis folded his arms and looked at me.

"Now, calm down, everyone. We have our differences, but we need to work together." Carl stepped between them.

Victor nodded. "I'm with Carl on this one."

"I'll go to the mountains again. It's faster if I go alone. There are a lot of goblins there, but no more than here, overall."

I caught Samuel's eye. He was watching me with suspicion. I looked away, which probably made me seem even guiltier.

"Me and my boys will head far west, just to see if it's any different from the east," Old Man Ben said confidently.

"Are you sure? What if there are owlbears on that side too? Or something worse?" Rebecca asked.

I lost interest in the conversation and slowly backed away, heading toward the pond for a drink.

As I looked around, it was obvious—everyone was in bad shape. Some were so skinny they looked like they were barely hanging on. Others had visible broken arms or legs. Nobody had proper clothing. I even saw some girls throwing themselves at hunters returning from a raid. It was obvious they were trading their bodies for protection.

"You know, everyone can tell when you're lying."

Samuel crouched beside me, squinting with a wide grin.

"Sure." I splashed my face with the pond water, rubbing off sweat and blood.

"Be careful. Yesterday, someone got their arm broken for bathing in the pond when most of the group was out hunting."

I stopped, glancing around. People were watching me—even some from Travis' group. I decided that was enough and stood up.

"We really should figure out a way to separate the drinking water from the bathing water."

Samuel's eyes lit up.

"Great idea! Why didn't anyone think of this sooner?" He hurried over to the others, probably to share whatever plan he just came up with.

I took the moment to stare at the boulder near the pond. Maybe it was because I could compare it to the one on the mountain, or maybe it was my upgraded mind, but I noticed details I hadn't before. The grooves, the crevices—everything about it was exactly the same as the one on the mountain.

Looking closer, it didn't even seem natural. It looked carved, like someone had placed it there.

Two boulders. Two ponds. 

One next to a cave, with a pond at its entrance. The other standing in the pond itself…

My eyes widened.

"Is there a hole beneath the boulder?"

The pond never dried up. And the one by the cave had a stream flowing from inside. This had to be some kind of underground fountain—covered by a massive boulder.

'Damn. This Mind Upgrade really made me smarter.'

It was a bizarre feeling—to just notice things and make conclusions I never would've before.

Samuel broke me out of my thoughts.

"You can thank me later! Tomorrow, we're digging a channel from the pond to the treeline—gonna make a proper river. Top part for drinking, bottom for washing."

He looked really proud of himself.

"Nice." I meant it. I was sick of being filthy.

Samuel ran off, probably to gather help for tomorrow's project.

I made my way back to where Travis' group usually slept. I was really tired and in the mood for a nap. I was also eager to find out what the Sphere was going to show now that I counted every goblin. I found a soft patch of grass, lay down, and finally closed my eyes.

It had been a long, exhausting day, and it finally ended with 93 plus 19 confirmed goblin kills and 5650 points to spare on the Sphere.