Chapter 1019: Sunwalker's Cave

It differs from what Xiong Hanzi and the other outsiders imagined.

Lin An, accustomed to high-intensity combat in daily life, under the strictest self-imposed standards, fundamentally had no need for such lowly desire venting.

The long night was one reason for waiting for the Sunwalker time; moreover, after the Second Will revealed its covert arrangements, Lin An suddenly realized that the Second Will must have tampered with him.

After careful examination, he was surprised to find that the progress bar of his long-neglected Fearful Body had already reached 39%.

As a Fearful Body unrelated to combat attributes and merely a prompt, it had hardly ever appeared in his field of view.

Mechanical consciousness...

Lin An let out a bitter laugh.

He actually also noticed that since leaving the Secret Realm, his condition has been somewhat off.

It wasn't just simple apathy; few things could stir his emotions. More so, it was his attitude toward humanity.

Killing was as easy for him as drinking water.

Whether it was the villagers within Heiyu or Paro outside the Lei Mao Safe Zone.

Even if the opponent indeed interfered with his actions, wasting time, but no matter what, it wouldn't come to death; he could easily spend some time handling it better.

Once, he would still consider avoiding harming innocents in battle, or at least minimize casualties.

But after a series of ultra-high-difficulty missions, each victory came only through sacrificing large numbers of humans.

Over time, Lin An seemed to have grown accustomed to doing so.

In his subconscious, he had always thought he was merely "forced," but now...

That is clearly not the case.

No desire, no sympathy, no tolerance. No kindness.

In attempting to test whether he still possessed humanity's most basic physiological desire, Lin An quickly reached a conclusion.

Various emotions and desires, he had not completely disappeared.

He had them, but only a tiny bit.

Moreover, this part usually works only on his comrades and companions.

Slowly raising his cup, Lin An calmly swallowed a mouthful of strong liquor, his mood complex and bewildered.

This might just be... the price of becoming stronger?

For some reason, he suddenly recalled that noon when he approached the mirror.

His former self... had truly already "died"...

Now he is merely a shell clinging to life in the apocalypse...

"Lin Dui!?"

In the team chat, Zhang Tie instantly noticed that Lin An seemed absent-minded.

He anxiously called out, feeling that after emerging from the Dream Meme, Lin An had become increasingly off.

"Lin Dui, what the hell is wrong with you!?"

Repeatedly questioning, Lin An snapped awake instantly.

"I'm fine."

After a moment, Lin An gave a bitter smile, slightly shook his head, indicating to Xiong Hanzi not to worry about him.

At the same time, the maid standing behind him, seeing Lin An return to normal, somewhat nervously pressed the bracelet on her wrist.

That was a small device for notifying the backstage.

It probably meant that the guests were dissatisfied with the current "performance."

However, a few seconds later, the whole troupe of girls who had been used for guests to enjoy while watching the performance were hastily transferred away.

In their place, the dancers on stage froze in their movements.

"Emergency notice!"

In the backstage control room, single-mindedly, having received a death order from Tuo Er, the management responsible for befriending Lin An grew grave and hastily issued a new command via a simple earpiece.

"Number One, Number Three! Six!"

"Withdraw from the performance! Send them straight to Lord Lei En's private chamber!"

"Everyone else remains as before!"

At the downstairs guidance station, the attendant in charge of attending to the guests before the curtain, hearing the voice, was startled and couldn't help but whisper:

"Have them withdraw from the performance now!?"

"Sir! These three girls are the finest we have here! Many Awakened Ones come just for them!"

"If we send them up now, downstairs will explode!"

Without waiting for subordinates to rebut, the theater manager, tone grave, firmly rebutted:

"Don't bother!"

"Lord Tuo Er has issued a death order! Tonight we must make that noble enjoy himself! Even if others are dissatisfied, even if we cancel future performances, we must satisfy that noble!"

Unlike the subordinates still wrangling over how this move would affect future ticket sales.

As management, Lei Dun clearly understood why the Tuo Er people valued these two mysterious individuals so highly.

Leaving that aside, both are Third Rank, but that mixed-blood youth is simply strong enough to make one's hair stand on end.

Crushing a Second Level Peak cultivator with a bare hand in midair—something that shouldn't be possible even with rank suppression!

Asking himself, Tuo Er mused that even the strongest Third Rank mental-system Awakened One he had ever seen, Bastanding, could not reach this level!

Meanwhile, the opponent is already among the top ten Awakened Ones of the Soviet Union.

Using a group of clean girls to curry favor with this great figure, in Tuo Er's view, it was simply too worthwhile!

Downstairs, the subordinate in charge of crowd control, hearing the boss's tone, could only sigh.

He glanced at the girls still performing on stage, half envious, half regretful, his heart constantly cursing and longing.

This bunch of bastard beasts, they also don't know how to toy with these children.

"Team Leader Dancer, Seriya, after a performance ends, directly lets numbers 1, 3, and 6 go to the backstage room!"

Looking at the girls who were called out, their pure faces, the attendant couldn't help but feel pity.

What a pity.

"Participate in the performance"

As the final "Assassin's Halberd," he knows how the management has been teaching these children.

Even if the Pope were here, he would likely excitedly cast aside his crown and cry, "I stand with sin!"

"Lin Dui, is this the Sunwalkers' lair?"

Standing on a mountain peak, Xiong Hanzi curiously gazed at the pit not far below his feet.

This is a mine, abandoned after the Apocalypse.

Rubble jutted out, and everywhere one could see traces of rough chiseling.

Dense cannon pits covered every hilltop; from the abandoned mine carts, one could faintly picture the bustling scene of the past.

"Be careful, I will lure it out to fight."

Without psychic scanning, Lin An cupped the map in his hands and closely inspected the underground conditions.

Although the map was detailed, unfortunately the tunnels excavated by the Sunwalkers are not included.

He could only deduce the underground situation of the Sunwalkers from the basic terrain.

The tangled caves and pits are like a rat's nest; once you go in, anyone weaker would probably get lost.

"Boom"

He lightly stepped down, and Lin An silently felt the feedback from the vibrations.

His brow furrowed slightly.

As the sole means of remote detection at this stage, the seismic waves from the vibration feedback told him there was more than one monster underground.

The feedback from flesh and rock shows a clear difference in strength.

After several consecutive tests from different angles, Lin An quickly arrived at a rough conclusion.

In this underground area, there are at least seven mutants!

The Sunwalkers are in the largest cavern among the three mutants.

At a glance, under the dim night sky, specks of starlight gave faint visibility.

The end cannot be seen; in the Sunwalkers' pit, like the entrance to hell, faint, eerie howls could be heard.