Chapter 1048: Negotiation

One sword after another.

Scarlet sword shadows intertwined with invisible rending force; at full firepower, Lin An, wielding his twin swords in crossed attacks, was like a merciless pile driver, directly pressing and rubbing the god hiding in the armor.

Accompanied by piercing impact sounds, the god hiding in the armor could only hastily gather a gray shield, straining to withstand Lin An's attacks.

Boom—boom—boom! Boom!

It was like a massacre; each sword strike made the gray sphere shudder.

Stop!

Blasphemer!

Enough!

Stop!

Ahhh!!!

Hiding in the armor, the god resentfully maintained the shield, only able to weakly endure Lin An's attacks. Under each terrifying strike, he felt his will about to split apart.

Resentful, furious.

No matter what he said, Lin An outside seemed not to hear, turning a deaf ear.

Sword after sword kept slashing, clearly intending to wear him to death.

Following behind Lin An, having just stepped into a chaotic temple, Zhang Tie clicked his tongue watching Lin An's relentless attacks.

Hearing those resentful roars, though he didn't know what was going on, he actually felt a bit sorry for that guy inside the gray sphere.

Goodness, if the defense were a bit weaker, Lin Dui would probably have chopped him into mincemeat.

Bringing up the rear, Mo Ling also glanced curiously at the gray sphere, unable to resist asking:

Is the thing inside the sphere an evil god?

While speaking, little Mo Ling also directed the accompanying zombies to gobble up the still-reviving cultists.

30 seconds later.

Perhaps he'd been beaten into submission, or perhaps he was resigned.

The god inside the sphere finally couldn't help but roar in resentment:

Stop! Mortal!

You can't cut through my defense!

Retreat now! I can spare you...

Spare your mother?

Hearing the entity inside the equipment still acting like a god, Lin An couldn't be bothered to respond, merely continuing his attack with unchanged expression.

Indeed, the gray sphere's defense exceeded his expectations.

But with each of his attacks, he could feel the opponent's strength continually being drained.

If I'm not mistaken, the opponent must be using the equipment's properties to gain such high defense.

But even if it can hold out, what then?

Turning, he swung another sword, Lin An simply reduced his spiritual output and went berserk with pure physical strength.

Zhang Tie! Attack together!

Keep attacking; he just didn't believe he couldn't break the defense!

Hearing Lin An show no sign of giving up, the god inside the sphere felt a surge of shock and anger, then suddenly felt utterly powerless.

Exactly.

His defense relied entirely on the equipment's set properties. Though hiding inside the equipment kept him safe, he could not launch attacks from within; otherwise, he wouldn't need to appear via a sacrificial vessel.

But if he went out, he had no doubt Lin An would blast him to pieces directly.

His mood sank; a few seconds later, the god could no longer hold back and spoke again:

Don't attack anymore!

Even if you attack to the end, it's just a dungeon reset! My power will recover again!

Here, you can't kill me!

Outsider, leave now! You're just wasting time!

No longer acting like a god, the man's voice, somewhat resigned, tried to negotiate with Lin An.

Huh?

The attack halted instantly.

Lin An looked thoughtfully at the gray sphere before him and spoke calmly:

Dungeon reset? Is your power tied to the dungeon?

What are you? An Awakened One?

Hearing the man's voice sounded genuine, Lin An felt a stir in his heart and went ahead and asked. Of course, giving up was out of the question.

Even if what the man said were true—that continued fighting would trigger a dungeon reset—Lin An would still give it a try and speak again.

He let out a light breath.

Seeing Lin An stop, the male voice from the half-body leg armor spoke gloomily:

Who I am doesn't matter.

If I'm not mistaken, you should be a survivor from the outside world, right?

Leave! I have no need to deceive you!

Hearing the low male voice unwilling to reveal his identity, Lin An gave a light laugh and then slashed again:

Not saying?

If you won't speak, I'll keep cutting until you do!

"You're not from our world? Or are you a remnant?"

"Zhang Tie! Kill him!"

Seeing no point in talking, and with the other side showing no sincerity, Lin An slashed again with the dual swords in his hand.

Damn!?

Inside the gray ball, the man who called himself a god never expected Lin An to be so troublesome, almost perverse! After a few seconds, feeling the power inside the instance constantly being drained, he finally couldn't help but roar again:

"Stop! Stop!"

He let out a frustrated sigh.

"Alright, I'll tell you. You guessed right—I'm not from your world."

"But I don't know what you mean by 'remnant'."

"And as for what I am, I can't tell you either."

The attack stopped, Lin An raised his eyebrows and asked directly:

"Why?"

"Because of the system? And also, are you even human?"

On the other end of the conversation, the gray ball answered with silence.

After a moment, he spoke helplessly:

"If I'm not mistaken, your world should be facing an apocalypse right now? The system? Indeed, you have it too."

"As for me... I don't know if you've heard of the punishment instance."

"I suppose I'm currently... trapped in the punishment instance."

A pause, then the male voice added:

"If you don't know what the punishment instance is, I can explain..."

"No need."

Lin An slightly shook his head, his gaze narrowing as countless thoughts flashed through his mind.

Your world? Trapped in the punishment instance?

In an instant, the blood-red gate he had seen in the secret realm world appeared in his mind.

Are they survivors from another human world, trapped in the punishment instance for some reason? Or from another world altogether?

How many worlds has the apocalypse system appeared in?

To be punishable, one likely exploited a system loophole—so they dare not mention the system?

All these thoughts flashed through his mind. Upon first truly contacting a survivor from another world, Lin An inexplicably felt something.

As for the male voice saying he's trapped in the punishment instance, and that continuing to attack would consume the instance's power.

Although Lin An was surprised by this, he quickly understood.

Just like the amoeba worm instance—if he had failed to resolve the crisis and been trapped there back then, his only way out would have been to transform into an amoeba worm and remain there forever.

The punishment instance is essentially the system's means to kill or imprison those who exploit loopholes.

"How long have you been trapped here?"

Having asked the crucial question, Lin An stared straight at the gray ball.

After a moment, the gray ball fell silent briefly:

"I don't know."

"Probably a few hundred years, I guess."

"I can be frank—I'm not really trapped; you could think of me as hiding in here."

"So I've fused with the instance; you can't kill me."

He sighed, and the gray ball reiterated:

"Get out, outsider."

"Even if you keep attacking, at most the instance will reboot. I admit that rebooting affects me, but it's only temporary!"

"I just don't want to relive the world over again! That's too boring!"

He felt stifled.

For the gray ball, his only pleasure in this little world was controlling humanity's development and occasionally descending upon it. But now Lin An has utterly destroyed it—nothing remains but a land overrun with zombies!

His eyes flickered.

After hearing the gray ball's revelations, a strange hue flashed in Lin An's eyes.

Reliving the world? Just like the secret realm? Thinking of how the secret realm turned to nothingness when he replayed it, Lin An also found the gray ball's words believable.

To recreate a world from utter void, with no sense of time, is indeed terribly boring.

But...

Seeing no point in further talk, Lin An calmly said:

"Withdrawing is fine."

"But you must hand over the death god set you're occupying!"