Chapter 8: God of Skills (3)

“Stage skips… are possible?”

Raidel was a little surprised by Silverhair’s message, then blinked, confused.

「Is he talking about a shortcut?」

「Wait, you can skip stages in this game??」

「Pretty sure that’s not possible lol」

Shortcut.

Taking a path that deviates from the intended course to reach the goal faster.

It’s usually a kind of glitch-exploit, where players take advantage of incomplete physics systems.

In games made by small indie teams like Chain Roller, it wasn’t exactly unheard of.

Speedrunners were especially known for this kind of tactic.

“Chain Roller has that kind of thing?”

But unlike other games, shortcut exploits were difficult in Chain Roller.

The map and stages were procedurally generated each time.

Even if AI was generating the stage layout randomly, it’s not like the obstacles themselves were dynamically generated by the AI.

All the obstacles were still handcrafted by the developer.

They were just shuffled around in different orders every time you played.

Since the game had such a large pool of obstacles, it felt new every time.

The “steel ball stage” they cleared earlier? Other players had played that exact same obstacle layout too.

The structure of the map, however, changed slightly each time.

And shortcut exploits relied on finding small, specific gaps—which didn’t stay the same between runs.

Even if one player found a viable shortcut, the next time someone created a new room, that gap would likely have changed slightly.

Honestly, it felt like the whole reason they even implemented a procedural map AI was just to prevent shortcuts.

「Where would you even shortcut in this game?」

「Structurally, it’s impossible to skip stages」

「Shortcuts might work if you get lucky, but skipping entire stages? Nah」

「Isn’t that jump way too high?」

Raidel glanced at the chat and sighed internally.

She tilted her head back and looked up.

In this game, the higher you climbed, the higher the stage number.

The next stage was visible far, far above.

Way too far.

No matter how much momentum you built up, no matter how perfect your jump was—there was no way to reach it.

Shortcuts seemed completely impossible without literal cheats.

[Silverhair: Get back into position]

[Silverhair: Just do the same thing as before]

Silverhair’s calm messages felt weirdly anticlimactic. Raidel adjusted her position again.

[Silverhair: A little further forward]

[Silverhair: Tap your keyboard once please]

Just like before, Silverhair carefully positioned Raidel and Delbung #3 again.

[Silverhair: You did great last time]

[Silverhair: Let’s just keep it up]

[Silverhair: 3]

[Silverhair: 2]

[Silverhair: 1 gogogogo]

“Haap!”

With a slightly smaller burst of energy than before, Raidel followed Silverhair’s signal and sprinted forward.

Her character picked up speed as the momentum built.

Whoosh—

They entered the gravity reversal zone. Just like before, the three bald characters floated into the air.

And at the same time, arrows flew in from the side.

“Ah!”

Raidel gasped instinctively.

She remembered how, just seconds earlier, they had all been shot down and slammed into the wall in under a second.

And unlike last time—this time, the left side wasn’t a wall.

‘If I get hit, I’ll fall!’

Arrows flew from the right.

The left side was a drop—open air, no wall.

If she got hit now, it was 100% straight back to stage one.

Whsssh—!

Just then, her character rapidly sank downward.

The anti-gravity weakened at that moment.

Her character dropped slightly—just enough that the arrow skimmed over the top of her bald head.

「LMAOOOOO」

「Oooooh」

「Arrow barely grazed her scalp lol」

“Nice! Nice!”

Raidel wiped the sweat from her forehead.

Beads of sweat were dripping down. It had been a while since a game made her this tense. And she wasn’t even controlling anything in midair.

Whip! Whip!

Arrows kept coming.

But whether by perfect timing or just masterful sense, all the arrows barely missed their characters.

Thanks to the full-speed dash, the anti-gravity zone—though it had looked long—felt surprisingly short.

‘Seriously… if it just stays like this—’

She could see the end.

The exit of the anti-gravity zone. Just a little further.

If nothing went wrong, the clear was within reach.

‘Did he actually plan all of this?’

She’d doubted it when they’d slammed into the wall on the first try.

But now it seemed Silverhair had found a clear route in just two tries.

‘But what did he mean by stage skip?’

Was he just bluffing?

Raidel tilted her head, thinking—

Thunk!

“Wah!”

An arrow struck Raidel’s character.

The bald head that had been steadily floating forward was suddenly flung backward.

“Ahhhh! It’s over!”

Had Silverhair miscalculated?

She was definitely going to fall.

Clang—!

But with the sound of tightening metal chains, her character was yanked back inward.

“Huh? What was that?”

Raidel looked bewildered.

They were midair—meaning movement controls were disabled.

She’d just taken an arrow to the face, which should’ve yanked her down.

And since the characters were chained together like dried fish, the others should’ve gone down with her too.

But instead, she stopped midair.

「Delbung #3 got hit too」

「Looks like they got hit at the same time?」

「Nooo Delbung T_T」

「Delbung save Delbung」

“Oh.”

She saw the taut chains between them.

Arrows had flown in from both sides.

When Raidel got hit by the arrow from the right, Delbung #3 got hit by one from the left.

Their momentum yanked them in opposite directions—but thanks to the chain, they stopped in midair.

“Whew. That was close. But… now we’re way too slow…”

At least they didn’t get flung out of the stage.

But getting hit from both sides had dramatically slowed them down.

They were close to the end—but if they didn’t make it in time, they’d be hit again and fall.

「Looks like they’re not getting hit anymore?」

「Timing was insane」

Though their speed had dropped, luckily, the arrows continued to miss them by a hair.

The danger now lay in the final section of the anti-gravity zone.

「That part doesn’t have anti-gravity, right?」

「That part toggles on/off」

As expected of the final section—its mechanics were different.

Everywhere else, the anti-gravity simply fluctuated in strength.

But here, it outright switched on and off.

Sometimes it had no effect at all—then suddenly turned back on full force.

No wonder this stage was so hard.

Even if you made it this far, one misstep in timing and—

You’d either fall straight to the ground when the anti-gravity disappeared,

Or be flung violently off course when it kicked back in.

“I think… we have to enter just as the gravity turns off?”

Raidel’s eyes sparkled. Even if she was being carried around like a sack of potatoes by Silverhair—

She was still a veteran streamer who had cleared her fair share of garbage-tier games.

She spotted the answer right away.

Even if it was an on/off switch,

There would be a momentary sweet spot—a perfect level of lift right between the on and off states.

That was the window where you could land safely.

「But how do you even get that timing?」

「Easier said than done lol」

「You can’t adjust your timing midair anyway」

「So true lol」

Even timing the entry felt like trying to land a plane in turbulence.

And it wasn’t like they could stop to adjust—they had to calculate everything from the start.

Raidel sighed. This whole thing felt like a stage designed to stop you from clearing it.

‘But… I don’t think now’s the right timing?’

Right now, anti-gravity was off.

And because of that, all the previously fired arrows were embedded in the floor.

If the anti-gravity suddenly kicked in, every single one of those arrows would shoot upward.

Like a volcano erupting.

If that happened, they wouldn’t just have to deal with lift—they’d be slammed by arrows from below, too.

“Wait, hang on. Don’t tell me…”

As the three slowed to a crawl near the final section—

The embedded arrows all began to rise.

The unique anti-gravity field of the final zone had kicked in.

The arrows were now accelerating upward.

Headed straight for Raidel, Silverhair, and Delbung #3, who were all hovering overhead.

[Silverhair: Hold on tight.]

Just as if it had all been pre-planned, Silverhair sent a message.

THWACKTHWACKTHWACK!!

“WAAAAAH!”

A barrage of arrows slammed into their bald characters.

Not just Raidel—Delbung #3 and Silverhair, too.

And then—

The three of them launched upward like rockets.

[Silverhair: I wasn’t sure what would happen if we got hit by those]

[Silverhair: So I tried taking a hit to see what the arrow hitbox was like]

[Silverhair: Turns out if you even graze one, you get flung]

[Silverhair: So I figured if we got hit by a lot, we’d shoot straight up]

[Silverhair: And yup lol]

[Silverhair: It worked]

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TL Notes:

• 굴비처럼 주렁주렁 엮이다: Korean idiom. Dried fish (굴비) are strung together in lines; used here to mean they’re all chained together helplessly.
• 타닥!: Sound effect, like a quick tap or click on a keyboard.
• 날아가다 / 튕겨 나가다: “To be launched/fly out”; used frequently in these obstacle descriptions.
• 화산 폭발: Literally “volcano eruption,” used metaphorically for the arrow burst.