Chapter Six: The End of the Sky Ladder?

Zhao Xu, having lived two lifetimes, did not dwell on the matter for long before quickly regaining his composure. He realized he could attempt to narrow the statues down to just Mage and Priest by answering a large number of questions ambiguously. Given his dual-elite class, perhaps in the end only two statues would be illuminated, triggering the Defect System. If he guessed wrong, it didn’t matter—he could simply keep answering questions to eliminate the Priest statue as well.

This approach was more challenging, but he felt no pressure. Answering questions surely couldn’t be harder than fighting monsters. The professional selection questions allowed for ambiguous, multiple-choice answers, which slowed the process but also gave Zhao Xu the chance to lean toward both Mage and Priest at the same time.

Without hesitation, Zhao Xu stepped onto the stairway and began the quiz. He wasn’t a Mage, but he had met Mages before. In fact, he was the only person in the world who’d interacted with both Mages and Priests before the game had even begun. Other than those naturally suited to these roles, no one could match Zhao Xu’s sensitivity to class selection.

In truth, by the late stages of the game, players would have gained enough experience to know which class suited them best. Many people would simply skip the class recommendation phase altogether, which didn’t affect their future development. As Zhao Xu expected, the lights of the Mage and Priest statues grew steadily brighter, while the others dimmed. The Warrior statue, which had been his class in his previous life, was the first to go completely dark.

As he continued answering questions, Zhao Xu began to sense a certain philosophy underlying the question pool. This realization gave him even greater confidence. By the time he reached the five hundredth step, he had successfully extinguished half the statues. “Extinguish” rather than “eliminate”—once his answers showed a different tendency, a previously darkened statue could light up again. Zhao Xu worked methodically, like an assistant chef slicing vegetables—repetitive and mechanical on the surface, but only he knew precisely where each cut landed.

For most people, after thirty questions, several statues would be shining brightly enough for selection. If they were more cautious, after a hundred questions, most statues would be dim, leaving only a few as radiant as lightbulbs. Unfortunately, the Defect System only recognized a state where ten statues were fully extinguished, not those that were merely faintly glowing. Otherwise, Zhao Xu could have finished in two hundred questions.

“Fully extinguished” meant the system deemed a class utterly unsuitable and would no longer recommend it—a rare occurrence, which was why not many players unlocked the Defect System. By the time he’d answered over nine hundred questions, most of the statues before Zhao Xu were almost entirely darkened. The floating Mage and Priest statues shone so brightly they were almost blinding, but the Druid still emitted a faint, lingering glow that refused to go out. For at least fifty questions, Zhao Xu’s answers had failed to affect any of the lights at all.

He knew the AI wasn’t deliberately targeting him, but this barrage of irrelevant, redundant questions was starting to stir a faint anxiety beneath his calm. The Druid possessed ninth-level divine spells and required its alignment to be neutral on one axis—order or chaos, good or evil—which, in some ways, aligned with Zhao Xu’s own philosophy. Unless a particularly direct question arose—like whether he loathed nature or animals—he found it difficult to fully extinguish the last flicker of the Druid’s statue.

More troublesome still, Zhao Xu had underestimated the number of questions required. He hadn’t anticipated so many irrelevant ones in the later stages, and he might still have to eliminate the Priest as well. There were only 2,000 steps in this trial. After answering two thousand questions, the system would stop refreshing, even if he wished to continue.

Most people, answering sincerely, wouldn’t need anywhere near two thousand questions; even the pickiest would have only one statue left shining after a thousand questions, at which point the system would stop presenting new ones. If a player was still dissatisfied with the recommendation, they could choose a statue that was already extinguished. Zhao Xu realized he’d have to make a trade-off: if he couldn’t get rid of the Druid by question fifteen hundred, he would have to eliminate the Priest as well. To ensure that only the Mage remained, he needed to preserve a margin of five hundred questions.

He continued answering, and the count steadily climbed: 1,000, 1,100, 1,200, 1,300, 1,400. By question 1,500, the Druid’s light had nearly gone out several times, but Zhao Xu hadn’t managed the rhythm precisely—twice, the light had grown bright again. Otherwise, he could have eliminated it by question 1,300.

Seeing that he still hadn’t reached his goal by step 1,500, Zhao Xu sighed and shifted to his backup plan, changing his answers to eliminate the Priest instead. Most people, reaching this point, might have been tempted to gamble on another dozen or so questions in hopes of finally extinguishing the Druid. But Zhao Xu had never been one for such reckless wagers. If he went to a casino with a thousand chips and lost them all, he would leave without a second thought, never chasing his losses.

The questions continued: 1,510, 1,520, 1,530. As he approached 1,550, Zhao Xu finally noticed the Priest statue’s light starting to visibly fade. Then, after answering a classic trolley problem—whether to save one rule-abiding child or five unruly ones—from a Mage’s perspective, something unexpected happened. The light of the Priest did not dim, but the last trace of the Druid’s glow vanished completely.

“Player dual-elite class confirmed. The quiz system is now closed.”
“Defect System activated. Please choose whether to load a defect.”
A jolt ran through Zhao Xu’s heart, followed by an irrepressible surge of joy.
He had won his gamble.