Chapter 1467

Looking at the respectfully bowed Annihilator Overlord before him, Lin An chuckled lightly and then directly exchanged for the highest-grade slave contract from the Reputation Shop.

Fortunately, contracts below the Fifth Stage are still available.

Gao Yan

He spoke calmly; seeing Lin An thoughtfully preparing a slave contract for him, the Annihilator gave a bitter laugh in his heart and could only resign himself to signing it.

He cannot actively attack Lin An; within a hundred‑kilometer radius, as soon as Lin An delivers a mental strike, he will instantly explode and die.

Knowing how precious this thing is, he let out a long sigh, and even his last hope was gone.

Emperor

Just as if he had thought of something, the moment before the Annihilator Overlord placed the soul imprint, he subconsciously glanced at Lin An, who was gazing into the distance at the fireball.

He opened his mouth, wanting to speak but stopped; as if he had suddenly realized something special, a strange gleam of spirit flashed across his eyes.

He noticed that Lin An seemed to only have him sign the contract.

And signing the contract surely means taking him back to Earth.

This monster seems completely unaware of what it means to bring him back...

Fourth Stage

Fifth Stage

Accompanied by the pain of a soul imprint, the Annihilator Overlord, with some difficulty, handed the contract back to Lin An, wearing a pleading smile.

Taking the contract, Lin An casually glanced at the name on it.

For the first time, he realized that the Annihilator Overlord's true name was actually the two characters 【Gayan】.

Gao Tian? Gao Yan?

After a moment of stunned silence, Lin An smiled somewhat unexpectedly; he hadn't expected the Annihilation Overlord's ability to be extremely similar to Gao Tian's, and even their names were almost alike.

However, he also knew that the true name of the Annihilation Overlord was a translation from the system, and that didn't really mean it was actually that.

All that can be said is that their meanings are similar.

While waiting for the system to settle, Lin An casually asked the Annihilation Overlord a few questions.

He was still very curious about this guy's ability and the apocalypse's progress.

"Your Rule Ability is Annihilation, a direct death-and-disintegration effect, right? But I noticed that your ability can't achieve a guaranteed death effect?"

In the memory fragments, Lin An had indeed seen the Annihilation Overlord join forces with the Alien Species Sovereign to attack himself.

It's strong, but that's about it.

Hearing Lin An's question and seeing him directly toss the contract into the ring, the Annihilation Overlord, who should have felt hopeless and despairing, now seemed to have a glimmer of hope.

After he forcibly suppressed the strange feeling in his heart, he quickly spoke earnestly:

"Lin Emperor, my Rule is indeed as you said."

"As for not being able to achieve a true guaranteed death effect, it's because there's no need for it."

"I actively weakened my Rule in exchange for another kind of strength!"

Seeing that Lin An seemed not to understand what he meant, the Annihilation Overlord didn't hide anything and directly manifested his Annihilation Rule in his hand.

"Annihilation power can indeed cause a guaranteed death effect, disintegrating the target at any material scale; it can be called the most terrifying Rule in terms of lethality!"

"But you also know that the stronger the Rule, the more restrictions it has, and its consumption becomes even greater!"

"Like the Annihilation Rule, it actually has a huge weakness! That is, it requires a long lock-on, and during an attack, you can't even put up a defensive Rule yourself! It's like holding a cannon—you can't fire from a safe trench!"

"Moreover."

"Actually, there's no need to kill the enemy so thoroughly and cleanly; a large part of the damage from the Annihilation Rule is actually wasted."

The black Rule in his hand slowly shifted, the Annihilation Overlord gave a bitter laugh, and then said:

"Let me give you an example."

"If killing a Fourth Stage requires one unit of Annihilation Rule, killing a Third Stage still consumes just as much!"

"It's like using a cannon to swat a mosquito—obviously a slap could kill it, but the Annihilation Rule, no matter what target it attacks, will cause an utterly lethal effect! This is undoubtedly a huge waste!"

"Therefore, when I became a mid-level Fourth Stage, I sought to weaken the destructive power of the Annihilation Rule, removing its thorough disintegration ability."

"Lower the ceiling, raise the floor! Anyway, I couldn't possibly lock onto beings far stronger than me, so I'd rather deal with opponents roughly my equal!"

"So..."

"By removing the special ability of the Annihilation Rule, I gained longer usage time, faster activation, and better suitability for sudden combat."

Saying this, the Annihilation Overlord looked at Lin An with a hint of helplessness and discomfort.

"Normally... when I attack a target, I can choose to annihilate either the opponent's Rule or their flesh, then completely kill them after any kind of power."

"Theoretically, there is no lifeform that is strong in both Rule and flesh."

"Therefore, in most cases, I can actually instant-kill the opponent...."

Nothing is more unfortunate than running into Lin An.

Of course, Lin An is too strong; even if he hadn't weakened his own Rule, he still couldn't lock onto Lin An. Even if it took just a few seconds, Lin An could kill him with a backhand strike in the blink of an eye.

After hearing the Annihilation Overlord's detailed explanation, Lin An nodded and also understood why the Annihilation Overlord was so strange.

Put simply, the Annihilation Overlord can achieve an Annihilation effect against opponents of the same or lower stage, making his combat power nearly invincible among peers.

When facing higher-level opponents, that would be the Sovereign.

So he simply gave up the upper limit and kept only the lower limit.

His instant-kill Annihilation ability was exchanged by him for the equally terrifying "Half-Annihilation Rule" with destructive power just as fearsome.

After comparing it with Gao Tian's ability, Lin An could also understand this point.

The Annihilation Rule seems overpowered, but in actual combat its restrictions are too great... If used well, it's god-tier, allowing a Fourth Stage to possibly kill a Fifth Stage; but if used poorly, there's no chance to use it... the power of the Annihilation Rule can't even match a First Stage, because there's simply no time to activate it!

The Annihilation Overlord's way of thinking is not problematic at all; it's actually a manifestation of his deep understanding of Rules!

In a certain sense, he's indeed a genius. No wonder he hated the Faction: Long An back then.

However, by relying on his thinking ability pushed to the extreme, Lin An keenly noticed another point.

The annihilation rule... seems not to be the talent of the Annihilation Overlord.

Gao Tian, however, gained this attack ability through talent.

He shook his head; just as Lin An was about to ask more about the civilizational battlefield, a wash of red sky suddenly flashed in his eyes.

That is...

It burst apart completely, like fireworks, beautiful stars.

「Ding, settlement complete. 」

「The rewards for this settlement are as follows: 」