CHAPTER 201: EX 201. WHAT THE HELL?

Leon remembered the Governor’s words like they had been branded into his skull. One year. That was all the time the world had left before destruction descended. He had answered without hesitation, saying he could handle it by then. At that moment, confidence burned hot in his chest. A year wasn’t short, not for him. Maybe for those fossils who had lived two centuries, time slipped through their fingers like sand. But Leon was only nineteen, if you didn’t count the years of his first life. A year felt more than enough.

At least, that’s what he told himself.

When the fire of his pride cooled, Leon knew better. If one wanted to be realistic, he needed more time. The question gnawed at him, did he have it? The only way to know was to check the trial timer.

The logic was simple. Pandora’s days were longer than the Blue Planet’s. That meant he could grind more in what felt like a single day. But did that matter if the flow of time synced perfectly with the real world? For all he knew, every day he spent here could equal a day there, no matter how stretched it felt.

Hypothetically, he reasoned, if a day here equals two days back home, then two real days have passed no matter how long Pandora drags it out. That would mean all the points I squeeze from these extra hours don’t actually buy me more time. If three hundred and sixty-five real days pass... then by Pandora’s count, it might not even be a full year here.

Leon’s gut tightened. He prayed that wasn’t the case as the shimmering display appeared before his eyes.

[Trial Time: 365/365]

For a moment, he simply stared. The number held him frozen, his breath caught in his chest. Then, a small chuckle slipped past his lips. Another followed. And suddenly he was laughing, first softly, then loud, a sound that tore across the quiet like a man teetering on madness.

"Ha... ha... ha! Looks like luck hasn’t forgotten me after all!"

The loophole was right there, written in glowing letters. The trial’s time wasn’t tied to the Blue Planet’s passing days. It followed Pandora. Which meant...

Leon bent over, clutching his stomach as he laughed harder, half-wild. "It’s a fucking loophole!"

This changed everything. It meant he could accumulate his ten thousand attack points more than once in a single Pandora day without shaving away his limited year on the Blue Planet.

When his laughter finally broke into silence, Leon straightened. His grin hadn’t faded. "All I have to do now... is figure out how many times in a day I can stockpile points. If it’s three times..." His voice trembled with excitement. "...that’s three years’ worth of growth packed into one."

The thought alone made him burst out laughing again.

****

After several more hours had passed, Leon sat in silence, his eyes fixed on the glowing panel before him. The look on his face was nothing short of ridiculous, wide-eyed disbelief mixed with a helpless sort of awe. It was the same look he had worn the first time he had ever seen his skill break logic. But now, that look wasn’t born from discovery. It was born from the sheer impossibility of what he was witnessing.

"How... is this even possible?" Leon muttered, his voice low but sharp as if speaking it aloud would somehow ground the madness before him.

The status panel glowed back in answer, mercilessly clear:

[Status Panel]

Name: Leon Kael

Race: Human

Age: 19

Class: Warrior

Rank: E-Rank

Talent: {Attack} — EX Rank

Status: Normal

Health: 100%

[STATS]

Vitality: 3050

Stamina: 3050

Strength: 2875

Senses: 2875

Speed: 2725

Aura: 2725

The numbers themselves weren’t the problem. It was what they represented.

He had already accumulated 10,000 attack points, nineteen times.

And the day hadn’t even ended.

Leon dragged his hand down his face, staring at the shimmering digits. "What the actual hell? Isn’t this too broken?"

The emotional storm he had endured to get here flashed through his mind. At the third cycle, when the day was still bright, he had been pleased, proud even by the thought of pushing further. At the tenth cycle, that pride turned into exhilaration, his heart pounding with the thrill of endless potential. But by the fifteenth, a pit had opened in his stomach, because it felt too good, too surreal, like something that shouldn’t exist.

Now, on the nineteenth cycle, he was past disbelief. He was standing at the edge of madness, staring down into the bottomless pit of his own power.

One hundred and ninety thousand attack points in a single day. And the sun had not yet set.

Leon exhaled slowly, the sound carrying both awe and resignation. "If I don’t reach SSS rank in a year at this rate... I’ll stop being a man."

Resolute, he sat straighter, ready to see this absurdity to its very end. He would push until Pandora itself decided it had had enough of him.

When the false sun of the trial world finally began to sink and the endless day reached its close, Leon had experienced thirty full cycles. His body hummed with a power that made the air tremble around him, and his panel gleamed with terrifying numbers:

[STATS]

Vitality: 3300

Stamina: 3300

Strength: 3075

Senses: 3075

Speed: 2825

Aura: 2825

Leon’s lips curled into the faintest smirk. "Good... let’s see who can stop me now."

****

Leon had finally pieced it together. The reason Pandora’s days stretched unnaturally long wasn’t some trick of the sky or the system, it was the planet itself. Its sheer size dwarfed the Blue Planet. He’d been running, without pause, yet hours passed without so much as brushing against another living thing since those horned rabbits.

It’s too damn big. That’s the only explanation.

The thought settled heavily in his chest, but then his focus shifted. His senses sharpened, a ripple tugging at the edge of his awareness. A presence. Faint at first, then clear. It wasn’t just air or the endless trees. Something was moving.

His lips curved into a sharp grin as his eyes narrowed on the distant blur between the trees. "What do we have here?"