Chapter 137: This is our base

At the base's outer wall, the students who had come to watch followed behind Lin An and his group.

"What happened?"

"I heard our base has gained another Awakened One!"

"Real or fake, who is it!!"

The crowd whispered, constantly craning their necks to see more clearly.

At the foot of the outer wall, Liu Shiming nervously turned his head to look at Lin An, but saw only encouraging eyes.

"Come, give it a try."

Lin An gestured that he needn't be nervous, somewhat expectantly letting him place his palm on the wall.

"Hiss."

Amidst everyone's astonished gazes, Liu Shiming's palm seemed to vanish, sinking directly into the wall as if his hand had been cut off.

"Focus your mind, try to control the wall with your mental power, just like controlling your limbs."

He was at a loss.

Liu Shiming, hearing the voice, took a deep breath, his eyes fixed firmly on the wall before him.

"Architecture Control!"

"Boom—crack!"

A miraculous scene occurred.

The originally unified earth wall slowly deformed, as if an invisible hand were continually squeezing and stretching it.

In just a few seconds, sweat droplets the size of soybeans rolled down his forehead, his whole body drenched.

The simple earth wall built by the earth-element Awakened One instantly shrank considerably, turning into hard bricks, and even its height increased out of nowhere.

A flicker of astonishment flashed in Lin An's eyes.

He had hardly heard of such an ability that directly alters material form, even in his past life.

He never expected that the guy he casually picked up, who was begging tearfully to follow him, would actually awaken this ability.

"Architecture Control B-rank Talent: After activating the skill, you can freely manipulate structures, remodeling, deforming, compressing, or transmuting their material (limited to the same type)."

"One second after activating the skill, you can fully merge with the structure, increasing your control ability."

"Talent description: During skill activation, your palm must touch the structure's surface. Note: If you do not disengage from the structure before your mental power is exhausted, you will lose the part of your body that has entered the structure."

A special talent that is hard to evaluate.

If used in combat, one could instead burrow into a steel war fortress and become a war monster.

Relying purely on the structure's own weight and hardness, the combat power is formidable.

But the problem is, with Liu Shiming's current mental power strength, he cannot last long at all.

Roughly six seconds later, his mental power will be exhausted.

Once his mental power is exhausted in battle and he fails to disengage in time, his fate is to fuse with cement and rebar.

Perhaps after a rank increase he could perform well, such as merging with a hundred-meter spiritual energy tower to become a giant divine warrior!

But for now, he might as well honestly be a human-shaped excavator...

Having the Architecture Control skill undoubtedly speeds up the construction of the Safe Zone again.

After all, not all structures in the Safe Zone can be built with spiritual energy; before the base's level rises, there will always be conventional facilities needing manual construction.

"Very good."

Lin An never spares praise for others; he knows what confidence a single word of encouragement can give them.

One sentence can warm hearts and fill people with fighting spirit; another sentence can destroy humanity and lead people to sin.

Especially his image in everyone's hearts...

Although Liu Shiming is naturally timid and cowardly, Lin An is willing to give his companions time to grow as long as they are his fellows.

Pressure and difficulties—he can bear them himself.

"Lin... Lin Brother!"

Liu Shiming looked at him somewhat excitedly, his whole body drenched in sweat.

To avoid being looked down upon and disappointed, he almost exhausted his mental power before pulling his hand out.

Watching his skill's performance, he couldn't help feeling a bit sour inside.

Lin An's praise is undoubtedly an acknowledgment of him.

So, I too can become an Awakened One?

Lin An saw this, smiled, and formally extended his right hand.

"Welcome to join my team, my future chief designer."

In the sunlight, Lin An's smile was brilliant, warming hearts.

"Mm!!"

He hastily extended his right hand and clasped it with Lin An's; the warm palm seemed to have a soothing power.

Liu Shiming subconsciously turned his head to look at the surrounding students, the base's outer wall erected with scaffolding, and the distant black-gold war fortress...

Zhang Tie with arms crossed, wearing an ugly smile; Wen Ya with a calm gaze; Mo Ling with a sullen face; An Jing Tian with the corners of his mouth turned up in a smile; and Gao Tian, standing among the trainees, excitedly explaining his ability to others.

For no reason, he suddenly felt as if he had gained a sense of belonging.

Team... chief designer...

This is... our home?

A breeze blew, the crowd buzzed, and everything seemed just like before the apocalypse.

Liu Shiming deeply etched everything before him into his memory; perhaps he would forever remember this scene.

"Alright, it just so happens that everyone is here."

Lin An looked around, glanced at the time, then leapt up, his figure instantly appearing high above the original academy gate.

Under the enhancement of mental power, a magnetic voice resonated throughout the venue.

"Here, I want to announce something."

Golden sunlight bathed him, radiant light enveloping him, his face sharp as if carved, the tall and handsome Lin An resembled the incarnation of hope from myth.

Inside the base, everyone was drawn to his voice, staring at him without blinking, their minds seemingly pulled.

"I want to announce."

"Long'an Base...."

"It is officially established!"

A soaring column of light rose from the spiritual energy core; the unnamed Safe Zone where the core information was previously located instantly changed its name.

【Long'an Base-First Level】

"Beep, global announcement. Safe Zone ranking officially opened."

"Current global Safe Zone rankings:"

"1st place: Long'an Base-1st Level (Huaxia War Zone)"

"2nd place: None"

"999th place: None"

The whole nation was shocked.

Inside the capital's defense line highest command room, the crowd engaged in heated argument froze on the spot.

Just ten minutes ago, over 70% of the meeting participants were debating whether Lin An was actually a Hua Guo player.

Many lacked confidence, feeling that the previous plan was overly optimistic.

After all, they were deeply aware of Hua Guo's population density, and many simply suggested that Lin An was an overseas Chinese or even Southeast Asian.

Only there could one possibly gather Awakened Ones to slay so many Mutants.

30 First-Level, 20 Second-Level.

Such a terrifying number makes even searching extremely difficult.

Perhaps it was some overseas military organization that used strategic weapons to wipe out the place where Mutants were gathered.

However, when the global announcement sounded again, everyone instinctively opened the ranking list.

The two grand characters 'Hua Guo' were strikingly conspicuous.

Silent, breathing heavy in the meeting room.

The middle-aged man who had repeatedly been doubted and shouldn't have rashly sought Lin An had his lips tremble, then he burst out laughing and slammed the table, standing up.

"Laozi already said Lin An is definitely one of ours!"

"You damn bastards keep boosting others' prestige!"

"Send people! Send people! Send people!"

"Deploy the air force battalion immediately! Spare no expense to find Lin An! Just thinking about relying on messages to find someone—do you have any sincerity?!"

Nie Ping, wearing shoulder insignia of a general, glanced at the grim-faced Commander Zhang, then spoke to himself.

"You damn still let them come to you voluntarily, giving you face!"