The Buggiest System 146 Twisting Like A Top, As Still As A Tree

As Zhou Lei had become this proficient in Dance Dance Revolution, Lin Guiying a.s.sumed that he already knew of this. So, in her eyes, the fact that he still activated the second set of arrows - which made the already hard song all the more harder - was an indication of either his arrogance or his confidence. Anyway, these two were sides of the same coin, as arrogance cannot exist without confidence, and conversely, confidence cannot exist without arrogance.

In actuality, Zhou Lei didn't know of this fact.

However, even if he did have prior knowledge of it, he still would have chosen to step on the arrow. This potential decision would have stemmed not from confidence that he could finish it either way, but from doubt. He would have doubted that the stingy System would accept any less than absolute perfection.

Zhou Lei sighed inwardly, his foot pressing the lone arrow on the other set of arrows. In an instant, all of the other arrows lit up simultaneously, and the right side of the screen flashed. After various bright colors alternated between each other, a single word was left in the middle of the screen.

"Activated!"

As soon as the word disappeared, Zhou Lei saw that the amount of arrows rising up from the bottom of the left screen decreased, not because it got easier, but because the rest of the arrows got dispersed on the right side.

In a way, the only difference between the activation of the right side and not would be that about half of the arrows originally slated to appear on the left screen now started to appear on the right screen instead. The amount didn't increase nor decrease. However, this simple change drastically upped the difficulty of the level, applying more pressure on him...

Zhou Lei raised his right foot and continued to follow the arrows. For now, none of the arrows on the right side had reached the top just yet. After all, it had barely been five seconds since activation.

The first arrow inched nearer to the top of the right side as Zhou Lei continued on clearing the arrows on the left side with the same elegance as before, occasionally glancing on the right screen.

'Bottom-left and top arrow!'

Jump!

'Top and right arrow!'

Leap!

'Right and middle arrow!'

Hop!

'Middle and top-left arrow!'

Every set of simultaneous two arrows generated a small jump from Zhou Lei for both his feet to step on the arrows at the same time, timing his jumps and the force in each one. A tiny lapse in his judgement would render all of this effort useless, and fortunately for him, none of these lapses have happened so far.

As he leapt two more times, the moment he landed after the second jump, Zhou Lei suddenly found himself in a precarious position. His whole body spun around multiple times in that short duration, but this was the first time that... he had his back turned against the screen.

's.h.i.+t...!'

Like an owl, Zhou Lei rotated his head as far as he could, and he saw a small glimpse of the whole screen. A left arrow and a middle arrow were both a moment away from touching the top. If it was like before, Zhou Lei could have easily managed these two arrows.

However, there was one problem. The middle arrow was located on the left screen, while the left arrow... was located on the right screen. In other words, the left arrow was the first arrow to arrive after the activation of the right side.

Biting his lip, Zhou Lei decided to do a drastic move...! He jumped again. This time, he did something he had never done before - he twisted his whole body a whole 180° in mid-air!

The air around him was thin. Zhou Lei didn't know whether he would land on the arrows safely, or if he would break his ankle by doing this reckless move. 'No take backs...', he thought, as his body descended.

He quickly looked down and adjusted his feet, making sure that he would land on the correct arrows. Soon enough, Zhou Lei felt his descent coming to a halt, pain running through his legs.

"Perfect!"

An evaluation appeared on both sides of the screen. Even though Zhou Lei still had his head bowed down and staring at the arrows, he heard the "perfect" sound out from the machine and grinned.

He looked at the screen again and readied himself for the next barrage of arrows to come.

After the initial shock he received, Zhou Lei continued to twist and turn his body, whether it be in mid-air or grounded on the machine. The subtle blur that it produced gave off the image of a rapidly twirling top.

Sweat flew off from his skin, and his clothes were stuck to his body. Even then, Zhou Lei never ceased to grin as he pressed the arrows as efficiently as possible.

"De. Spa. Ghetti~"

Zhou Lei didn't notice, but the screen was void of arrows, as if preparing for something big to happen. After a while, a lone arrow appeared from the bottom.

Instead of the usual arrows floating up the screen, there was a yellow arrow with a long line behind it, a blue arrow attached to the bottom. The line's color transitioned from yellow to blue as it got further down.

Zhou Lei squinted his eyes as he caught sight of the long yellow-blue arrow. 'This one... is troublesome!'

The yellow blue arrow was going to hit the right arrow of the left side, so he planned on using his left foot to hit it. The moment the arrow arrived on top, Zhou Lei executed his plan, stepping on the arrow with his left foot.

On the left side of the screen, the yellow arrow disappeared, but the yellow-blue line continued to rise up. As Zhou Lei was still stepping on the arrow, the yellow-blue line got shorter when it came into contact with the right arrow that Zhou Lei controlled.

As it was the only arrow on screen, Zhou Lei had just one foot stepping down, the other suspended in mid-air.

Zhou Lei stayed completely still, destroying the yellow-blue line in the process.

The spectators observed his stillness, comparing his visage to a decades old tree, whose trunk was unmovable.

Before, he was twisting like a top, but now, he was as still as a tree. The difference between the two couldn't be more evident, and that was the main reason why these people were amazed at the fact that he could switch between these two so seamlessly.