Chestskip has been performed. It begins.

2300m was much harder than it should have been... likely because I kept dashing diagonally instead of straight upward.

2400m was easy thanks to my previous experience in Foreverred's Trueskip route, which contains this exact room.

The same applies to 2500m, which is also present in Foreverred.

While 2600m was not present in Foreverred, a slightly altered version of it was used, thus the experience still transfers.

Oh. My. GOD. That was exhilarating. I had to look up a guide on speedrun.com, and even then, 2700m killed me about 80 times before I even got to the right half with a dash. According to the speedrun.com guide, that was the hardest part of the entire run. It's only uphill from here.

2800m took a bit of effort, requiring a double cornerbounce in the bottom right AND a quick shift to moving left to retain enough height to get to that single breakable block, but I made it. Just a bit further now.

2900m required me to take a new path I'd never really tried before, since the one I already had was so easy... I think 2900m is just genuinely more fun this way. But there's no time to think on that right now. Between me and my goal is 3000m. The final stage.

3000m seemed overwhelming. The final part looked impossible. But, through the power of an extremely convenient walljump trajectory... I did it.

...and that's the end. No more obstacles stand between me and my objective. And yet... why do I hesitate?

I've come so far. Achieved so much. And when victory sits right in front of me, right in reach... I do not take it. Instead... I recall the trials along the way. Is it, then, that victory was not my original desire..?

I've come to understand now. I hadn't taken this journey just for the small victory jingle at the end. I could have gotten that from any normal playthrough, and I've heard it countless times in the other Celeste Classic mods I've played. No... what I really came here for was the challenge of it all. I'd come here to test myself... and, if I am understanding correctly, for one other purpose as well.

To overcome the odds, to persevere in the face of all that opposes you... when it's all over, something special is created within the mind. That something is called "pride". It is the understanding of one's own capability. The knowledge that you are able to overcome any challenge you so desire. Some may call it belief in oneself: self-confidence. That feeling... that "pride"...

That is the true victory here.

And yet… I look back on this, seeing something missing. Something I still need to do. Thus, I went through again. You may have noticed that the background is not pink like it was last time. This is because I completely skipped opening the chest at 2200m, never triggering the background to change. That particular skip is one of the two things I came back to do.

The other thing I came back for… well, I’m sure you’ve all noticed that the berries are missing in these new screenshots. That’s because I came back to collect them. The only issue was that they were all so easy in comparison to the first run… I began to worry that this return was not going to be worth it.

Fortunately, 2600m did pose a minor challenge, as I had to make a precise dash to retrieve the key. Even then… it wasn’t enough. I needed something better. Something harder. Something I could fail at for longer before succeeding.

And as luck would have it, 2800m posed a moderately more challenging objective. I was forced to take a part of the normal path in reverse, then stall for blocks to respawn. I stood directly in the face of this opposition, my focus solely on one thing: Victory. I was ready to do whatever it took to win.

2900m was not problematic either: in fact, I found it much more fun than the usual path I take to get the berry. As I made my way to the room exit, I was sure I would breeze through 3000m as well. But then…

Disaster strikes. The key is in a position such that I will have to do the spikeclip from the original route a second time, except that one will not have proper setup. I tried everything I could think of: walljumping off the normal spot from above, spikeclipping somewhere else, using the balloon at the bottom left… nothing. Until I tried something ridiculous: returning to the original platform. At first, this wasn’t working either, but I could tell it wasn't just because it was impossible. It was still possible that this might work. So, with one last push…

I got the berry and lived. In that moment, I was in utter shock at what I had just done. After purposefully dying to get the previous screenshot and heading back up to the final room... it was done. Every berry had been collected without the double dash. It was over. 

There is a reason I did not collect any berries the first time. It was because I was afraid. I was reminded of a certain radish collectible in Foreverred, specifically the great difficulty it posed in Gemskip. I knew Gemskip was intentional in Foreverred, but not in base Celeste Classic, so I feared that not all the berries were possible. And yet… I tried anyway, and succeeded.

Even though I was unsure if it was even possible, I still tried, knowing there was a chance my efforts would be wasted. I’m quite lucky that such a thing was possible, in all honesty. But I will say there is something intriguing about that will to do what might not even be possible. A focus so powerful that it breaks any discouragement. There is a name for this… “determination”. And that feeling… that “determination”... through its power, the impossible is made possible.