Chapter 1482: with translation of chapter title

Watching Anduyin, face tense and panting heavily, he lay into the pyramid.

Lin An seriously adjusted the light at the top of the tower, trying as much as possible to let sunlight reflect in the way of Memory.

Although he didn't obtain those spirit stones as he did when he first made the pyramid, according to his initial tests, it was still roughly effective.

At most, the effect is not good, only able to condense a little bit of 'solar power'.

However, it also happens to be just right.

"If we were to produce a sun-walker like the Soviets have, that would be troublesome..."

He secretly sighed.

While patiently waiting for the effect to appear, Lin An's heart was filled with emotion.

He never imagined that his current predicament would have to be broken by swindling money.

Or rather, it is religious faith, plus a little bit of 'miracle'.

Through the pyramid device, he simulated an effect similar to that of a spirit node.

Under a somewhat different strengthening, combined with mysterious and eerie whispers, the two together make it easy to disguise as a miracle.

Most of the spirit nodes in the wild have disappeared, or have been occupied by various forces. A 'miracle' that can grant power to ordinary people, and even be useful to low-rank Awakened Ones, will inevitably attract a batch of fervent believers.

Just thinking that the only method he could find was this, Lin An couldn't help but wryly smile.

He clearly possessed Fourth Stage knowledge, knowing power information surpassing all humanity. Casually leaked information and dungeon strategies could shock the world.

But after losing his power, Lin An only then realized that these were all meaningless.

Nobody would believe him.

Everything requires the most basic, even a zeroth-rank power to be usable.

It's just like starting a business; no matter how grand the ambitions, how extraordinary the intellect and experience, at least one first needs startup capital.

"Within three hours, I must get some money. Otherwise, I'll really starve to death..."

Feeling intense hunger inside, Lin An's body swayed slightly, nearly weak to the extreme.

He only drank a bowl of porridge.

For the energy he needs, it's literally a drop in the bucket.

Lin An even suspected that, if it weren't for the Savior System stripping him of all his attributes before hibernation, just his past physical consumption, without spirit energy as daily consumption, he would have likely starved to death instantly.

Seven minutes later.

"Who's speaking! Who's speaking!!"

"Devil! Devil!"

"Ah!!!"

A startled cry.

All that could be seen was Anduyin lying beneath the pyramid, trembling all over; the next second he scrambled out in terror, crying out as if he had seen a ghost.

It's hard to imagine, but just a few minutes after he lay down, he felt something suddenly crawling on his body; then after a moment, a series of eerie whispers began to sound in his ears.

So terrifying, like the horror events spoken of by big shots, he was instantly frightened and crawled out.

He trembled.

Struggling to sit upright on the ground, Lin An's expression remained calm as he softly spoke:

"Feel the power inside your body—has it increased somewhat?"

After a moment, Anduyin suddenly froze. Feeling the imperceptible increase in his body's spirit energy, which is called the key to becoming an Awakened One, he stood there dazed, staring at Lin An with a face full of shock.

"This pile of broken stones!? This kind of ability!?"

"That voice!?"

"His brain instantly froze. Looking back and forth at the broken stone pile before him and Lin An, Anduyin gasped, and as a youngster at heart, he suddenly realized the significance behind it."

To absorb a lowest-rank spirit node in order to break through to become an Awakened One requires not only a huge cost, but also putting one's life on the line.

Such a spirit node, which can be called suicidal, is indeed the only 'hope' for countless ordinary people to survive.

In Anduyin's memory, even a first-rank spirit node is extremely precious, often heavily guarded by major forces.

But compared to the pyramid Lin An made, it suddenly seems like trash.

He is not an idiot.

He could calculate that, after lying down a few more times, he might naturally break through to become an Awakened One!

Seeing Anduyin's shocked expression, Lin An was not surprised, yet he was also somewhat surprised.

What was not surprising was the pyramid's effect.

This thing can even strengthen third-rank, let alone ordinary people.

What was surprising was that the weaker one's physique, the greater the effect seemed to be. Moreover, the voice heard appeared too early.

"Is the effect of the solar virus more obvious for those with weak physiques?"

His brows furrowed tightly.

Anduyin mistakenly thought that absorbing a few more times would turn him into an Awakened One, but Lin An knew that continued irradiation might grant him power similar to that of an Awakened One, though the side effects would also be terrifying.

This is also one of the reasons he did not choose to promote it in the Faction: Long An, but instead continued researching.

With high-rank spirit nodes plus awakening elixirs, he had no need to use this dangerous method to create Awakened Ones.

"It seems that the original sun-walkers and the two third-rank individuals I later tested differ somewhat, the reason being that the power during irradiation was different."

"The early sun-walkers were just the lowest-rank Awakened Ones, while the two people I tested were third-rank from the start..."

"So, the degree of infection among ordinary people is actually the highest."

After hesitating a moment, Lin An slightly furrowed his brows, but still intended to continue doing this.

Although there is some risk, in the short term he couldn't find a better way to make money.

With the pyramid he has now made, it shouldn't cause too big a problem. Even if he ends up producing another sun-walker, that would be far in the future.

As long as he can hold out for a month, there is no problem.

Even if he can confirm that he can turn people into fanatics, he can have those fanatics contact Long An for him...

Having come to this thought, Lin An hesitated no longer.

After staggering to his feet, he didn't even notice his vision going black; his body was extremely weak.

Clinging to his last shred of spirit, Lin An issued a low command:

"Get ready to round people up..."

"You must definitely, definitely act exactly as I say."

As his words fell, Anduyin, still immersed in excitement, nodded hurriedly.

But without realizing it, his gaze toward Lin An suddenly took on a special expression.

"That fell from the sky..."

Lin An..

Ling An?

"Your faith... can grant you power?"

Half an hour later, a man with a dazed gaze, reeking of sweat and looking like a scavenger, stared blankly at the black‑robed Lin An.

"It's not faith in us, but faith in the god of Ling An."

His voice low, Lin An furrowed his brow, looking at the scavenger before him; he could clearly see that the man's mental state was off.

"God?"

"Heh.."

Whether a divine spirit had touched the man's sensitive nerve or not, he let out a beast‑like low laugh from his throat, staring fixedly at Lin An.

"What god!? There is a god!?"

"They're all liars! All liars!"

"If there were a god, how could he let me become like this!?"

"If there is a god, then it's just the system! But he's a devil! A demon playing with us!"

Waving his arms and legs, the man suddenly burst into tears and laughter, startling the attendants standing at both sides—Anduyin and the others posing as god‑attendants—into a panic.

They had no money left to set this place up. If this man goes mad, they're truly doomed!

However, unlike the panicking children, Lin An's expression remained unchanged; looking at the man's ragged attire, he noticed a clean metal chest plate on his front and instantly realized something.

"Yale University professor."

The man before him was actually a professor who had been highly respected before the apocalypse.

Seeing his current state, Lin An could roughly guess what he had gone through.

His wife and children scattered, his home destroyed, his family dead. The knowledge he once prided himself on was worthless in the apocalypse. From a respected professor, he had fallen to being a scavenger.

People like him were indeed filled with despair for the world.

Especially, he was just an ordinary person.

"Where is god!? When Daisy died, where was that bastard!?"

"You're nothing but a bunch of liars! Liars!"

It seemed he had been deceived by some cult before; the more he spoke, the more agitated he became. Especially seeing the words on the Ling An doctrine that promised power, his anger flared.

As someone unable to become an Awakened One, he had also, in countless desperate nights, begged the divine spirits to save him, even if only granting him a trifling power.

But aside from another bout of despair, after being cheated and nearly becoming a sacrificial offering to be eaten, he saw nothing.

Just as the man, furious, was about to smash this place that looked like the most disgusting liar cult, a voice of extreme calm rang out again.

"Lie down in it, and you will see a sign of god."

"At this moment, god descends to the world."