Chapter 1143: Another Civilization

On the dry, yellowish-brown earth, Lin An floated silently in midair, with a two-meter-long insect corpse lying beneath his feet.

On the green insect corpse, blood like sulfuric acid slowly seeped into the ground, making a hissing sound as it corroded the rocky ground into honeycomb-like pits.

The hard insect shells were violently crushed together, as if they had been squeezed into a ball.

"It's roughly equivalent to First Level.."

Lin An's eyes twitched slightly, and under the precise Arcane Power, he carefully dissected the insect corpse on the ground.

Just a few seconds after entering, this insect burst from the nearby building debris, attempting to ambush him.

He glanced at it casually, then crushed the insect in midair.

"The brain is very small, but inside there is something like a small stone.."

"The trunk has hardly any meat, only a large amount of pus-like fluid, plus a thick chitinous exoskeleton."

"This monster seems to mimic hydraulic drive?"

Playing with the gray stone in his hand, Lin An frowned slightly, unable to discern anything.

In his perception, this thing seemed somewhat special, yet there was no energy fluctuation.

The insect's appearance resembles an enlarged mantis, except its head is a narrow triangle, usable for ramming.

A normal Second Level Awakened One faces little pressure from these insects, but a First Level might find it somewhat troublesome.

The insect's exoskeleton can roughly withstand small-caliber pistol fire, yet a First Level Awakened One still needs to fight desperately. Moreover, this creature's blood is extremely corrosive; even ordinary metal may not hold up against it.

"Is the enemy in this survival trial these insects?"

After muttering a few lines under his breath, Lin An habitually opened the team voice chat, but to his surprise, he found that Zhang Tie, who had been randomly teleported, was not within the team communication range.

Fortunately, the Rescuer Team System had a rough directional guide, showing Xiong Hanzi roughly to his southeast.

This place..

It's huge..

No longer studying the insect corpse, Lin An raised his head to look around.

All he saw was a sky covered in a dull yellow haze, like severe industrial pollution smog.

Weak sunlight filtered through the clouds, barely providing any light.

The surroundings stretched endlessly, with only barren mountains visible far in the distance. The ground was littered with jagged rocks, and occasionally fierce winds swept up sand and dust, striking people like bullets.

Through the clouds, Lin An could barely see two small-sun-like celestial bodies here, keeping the temperature constantly above forty degrees.

Hot, dry, barren.

From the observed information, he could actually confirm that this place was not modeled after reality, but rather resembled a ruined world.

The rules after entry are simple.

After surviving for a certain time, the system will release coordinates; gather at the coordinates, then initiate the next stage.

Looking at the desolate surroundings, Lin An also realized that this round of survival trial was not just about staying alive against insect attacks; there might also be issues with food and water.

At least, as far as he could see, there was no trace of plants or rivers.

Come to think of it, finding food seems unlikely. These insects aren't edible...

Over time, neither high- nor low-level Awakened Ones could endure it. Of course, except for him and Zhang Tie; both of their storage spaces contained large amounts of food.

"Members of Faction: Long An should be fine."

"Before departure, each person carried a fixed amount of nutrient fluid.."

"At most seven days' time should be enough to hold out..."

Lin An shook his head, intending to rendezvous with Zhang Tie's direction. The insect he had just killed also provided some points, better than nothing.

It seems the system still gives low-level Awakened Ones a chance to earn points.

Thinking about being able to exchange supplies in the apocalyptic battlefield, Lin An also thought of some things. Given the system's nature, points are probably hard to take out.

At ten times the price, I estimate someone will have to exchange supplies here just to survive...

With a thought, Lin An simply prepared to quickly scout the area.

For Third Level Awakened Ones, the survival trial should be easy; it's more about screening. If one can find a swarm of insects, they could also harvest some points.

"Whoosh-bang"

Like a jet fighter's afterburner, after swiftly flying across the ground at extreme speed, the solemnity in Lin An's eyes grew ever heavier.

At such a distance, seeing no one else indicates that the area here is likely larger than imagined.

Even if different continents enter different apocalyptic battlefields in batches, the Asian theater alone has millions of Awakened Ones. Not encountering a single person this far out obviously exceeds his expectations.

"Let's check ahead..."

"The terrain there looks like a mountain range."

Continuing the flight, not long after, Lin An discovered another problem—it was neither finding enemies nor Awakened Ones.

But rather..

"Spiritual Energy cannot be replenished!?"

"Is there no Spiritual Energy here?"

Sensing that his internal Spiritual Energy reserves had already dropped somewhat, Lin An suddenly realized where his unease came from.

He hadn't fought much along the way, but while continuously consuming Spiritual Energy to fly, he keenly noticed that the Spiritual Energy that should have slowly replenished wasn't doing so; instead, it was being used up bit by bit. Normally, as long as he wasn't flying at full burst, his recovery speed would be enough to offset the consumption.

It's getting a bit troublesome..

His heart sank.

Lin An simply stopped consuming Spiritual Energy, relying solely on his physical strength. Even the Cataclysmic Power constantly operating within him ceased as well.

He wasn't sure what enemies he'd encounter later, but he knew that once his Spiritual Energy was exhausted, his combat power would be greatly reduced.

"Not allowing Spiritual Energy replenishment, and the battlefield is extremely vast.."

"It seems the difficulty this time is all invisible.."

Under hyper-effective thinking, Lin An quickly realized this was probably also one of the system's traps. Those Awakened Ones who just entered here, once they realize that killing insects yields point rewards, would likely, like me, start exploring everywhere from the beginning.

Especially for those who consider themselves strong three Fourth Rank, encountering a large swarm of insects would instead feel like a good thing.

At first maybe nothing, just consume some, consume some. But later...

"If nothing unexpected happens, the system will probably spawn a large number of monsters later.."

"No.."

"Now!"

Suddenly turning his head, Lin An instantly drew his dual swords, gazing into the distance.

Only seen, the horizon in the distance was darkening at an extremely fast speed, just like the Wu Yun before a storm, spreading rapidly.

Accompanied by an irritating, scalp-numbing buzzing sound, Lin An suddenly saw the Wu Yun in the distance, which was actually a dense swarm of insects quickly flying over.

That buzzing sound was the resonance of the insect swarm's wings flapping.

Moreover, several humans appeared on the horizon in the distance, frantically fleeing under the pursuit of the insect swarm.