There was one big problem with the potential behind what I had just seen. Even if that meant what I thought it meant, I hadn’t been doing anything before that would let me measure if my jumping height had actually increased in any meaningful way. I couldn’t see where I was touching, so that was out. And while I could have counted the seconds I was off the ground as a likely marker, I hadn’t been doing that before. So I had nothing to compare it to.

  I jumped up and down a couple of times just to get a good baseline of where I was at now. I estimated I was staying in the air for around half a second. Whether that was more than before I had hit level two, I didn’t know.

  With no other option, and air likely to start dwindling at any moment again, I started leaping more. Two thoughts ran through my brain as I pushed myself. The first was that I wished I had an easy way of measuring time other than counting it, as that would require far too much active thought to reasonably work. The second was the realization that it wasn’t just as simple as being denied death, as this room entirely reset itself as far as I knew. Otherwise, I’d have just started to run out of air again immediately.

  A large blue pop-up filled my head. My first actual goal had been reached. For the first time since the nightmare had started, I felt like I might actually be making progress at something. Sure, Jumping was a pretty abstract thing to be focusing on for a success considering the situation, but at the moment, any win felt monumental.

  I wasn’t unhappy with the other things I had leveled up, assuming, of course, they actually did anything, but they were not my focus. I jumped up again, putting as much force as I could into it, and I was sure I had jumped higher. I had been off the ground nearly a second that time. I suspected that was a combination of both jumping and muscle strength, making me happy that I had, in fact, leveled both.

  I went back to the jumping, completely aware of my impending death. I could already feel the air growing thinner. There was no sense in stopping, though. Quitting to rest would just be a waste of time, so I pushed through dizziness only to spot another blue box as my legs finally gave out from the lack of air.

  Huh, why hadn’t I ever seen that unlocked if I was able to level it up? Or had that been something that had popped up as I lay dying in my last life? If I had been out of it enough, it reasoned that I’d either not remember it or possibly not even have been fully conscious when it first manifested. Hopefully, that would mean I could last longer in my next life.

  That final thought comforted me as the rest of my thoughts grew fuzzy. Death was very near yet again. I coughed, wondering if perhaps last time had only been a fluke. Had I just wasted my second chance only to not be given a third?

  ***

  I bolted awake, gulping in a deep breath of air as my mind caught back up with what had just happened. It seemed it was more than a single extra chance. I wasn’t sure if it was in my best interest to operate under the idea of an infinite series of chances or tread carefully in each new life. At the moment, I supposed it didn’t really matter, as my options for survival were still extremely limited.

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  I sighed. Back to jumping I went. And after what felt like forever, I finally got the notification for the next level. The air hadn’t seemed to thin yet, so I figured I should keep going. There was always the chance I could grab another level in muscle strength.

  I made my next jump, starting to count as I pushed my feet off the hard floor below. My counting came to an immediate halt as I felt my head hit something sharp that must have been hanging from the ceiling above me. The stabbing pain of the protrusion impaled deeply into my skull. I managed to spot five more pop-ups as I crashed to the ground, blood pouring from my head.

  I tried to yell in pain, but found my mouth wasn’t moving right. I had obviously done something to my brain based on one of the resistances I unlocked, but it was getting harder to remember what that was. Wait, why did my head hurt so much? Why did my mouth taste like copper?

  ***

  I bolted awake and immediately brought my hands to my head to check for any lasting damage. Nope, no blood that I could feel. I was keenly aware now what the last few seconds of severe brain trauma felt like as you lay dying, and the memory of being unable to even remember what was happening to me was not a pleasant one.

  The bigger problem than that newly added spike to brain phobia though was my only potential way out was again removed. Had whoever built this place really just put spikes on a ceiling that I couldn’t see solely to cause me to hurt or kill myself in an attempt to climb out? Considering the lack of air, I wasn’t sure why they had bothered. I just didn’t see how that gained anything unless there really was someone just observing every way I managed to get myself killed.

  So what was I supposed to do now? If up wasn’t a possibility, just what was I left with? I recalled that I had already unlocked something called Stone Breaking. Was it possible to punch my way through the walls if I kept at it long enough? I supposed that depended on how thick the walls were.

  I once again ran my hands across the walls. This time, I did it much slower, feeling for any kind of difference. There were four corners to this room, and it seemed the walls were about equally apart, so I guessed I was in a cube-shaped room, though maybe not a true cube, as the ceiling was too high for that.

  My fingertips continued their journey carefully across the cold stone. Actually, no, not all of the stone was cold. In fact, only one side was that cool; the other three were warmer for some reason. They felt closer to room temperature than the other wall did. Why was that? The question was apparently enough to unlock more blue boxes.

  As with several times before, I still didn’t understand what exactly caused these new unlocked abilities. Several seemed like ones I should already have possessed or at least gained access to in my first life. Were they sometimes unlocked in an order to give me a clue on the means of my escape?

  I had no idea on the answer to that question, but I did have my next plan of action in mind. I stood in front of the single cold wall, and I started to punch it, over and over again. As the pop-ups flared into my mind, I kept going.

  The process had easily been the most notifications I had gotten from anything so far. Did that mean I was going in the right direction now? I didn’t know the answer, but I did know that despite how much my hands were starting to hurt, I could feel the stone beginning to crumble with each new hit.

  My fists were now capable of doing real damage to the wall in front of me, and that brought some catharsis to bear as I let my rage out onto the stone sealing me into this death chamber. One more punch and the tiniest stream of light appeared through the hole I had just made. My eyes watered at the sudden intrusion, but I just smiled.

  I wasn’t blind, and through this wall was light. I continued my onslaught, feeling a rush of more air into the room as the wall crumbled before me. I blinked through the pain of the light that flooded over my form for the first time since I had arrived. My vision finally cleared, revealing a long corridor with a single door on the other side.