Chapter 1645: Cataclysm and Battlefield

Calm down, there must be a way... 」

He stood alone in the empty fortress, Lin An desperately calmed his emotions, his thoughts racing.

Although the system's move caught him off guard.

But no matter what, his situation is now much better than before.

At least, at least he doesn't have to escape during this period.

Of course Lin An also knows these Fifth Stage beings won't always hide from him.

They're not fools; someone meticulous will come to test and see if Lin An is truly a Shattered Star Rank!

The time left for him is at most two hours.

"If there is a way... what would it be?"

"The system has loopholes, sometimes makes mistakes, but in strength calculations it is absolutely never wrong."

"If the system can give me this task, then it means I am theoretically capable of doing it..."

Reverse inference begins.

After completing many system tasks, Lin An is very aware of how terrifying the Doomsday System is.

These players seem able to exploit loopholes, even using various means to escape the Apocalypse.

But Lin An has always suspected whether these errors and loopholes are intentionally created by the system.

"Taking the Amoeba Worm Instance as an example, the task that seemed impossible to complete actually had many ways to be done."

"Then, following this line of thought... I was judged as an independent faction due to the Destroy Title, and recognized as a Shattered Star Rank..."

"Never mind what the criteria are."

"The key lies on the Shattered Star..."

Lin An organized his thoughts, constantly searching memory for useful information.

"I was able to shatter planets back then purely by relying on Cataclysmic Power."

"So the problem can only be Cataclysmic Power."

With a thought, Lin An flipped his wrist, and a pure Cataclysmic Power appeared in his palm.

"What should we do?"

"Detonate this world?"

"Or perhaps Cataclysmic Power can work wonders on the Star Battlefield?"

In the midst of thinking, Lin An tentatively smashed the Cataclysmic Power in his hand toward the ground.

If it works...

However, the result came out quickly.

As streams of Cataclysmic Power sank into the ground, attempting to trigger earthquakes and such disasters, Lin An's face immediately turned grim.

"No effect..."

"Not the slightest effect..."

"Crack! Crack!"

The ground slightly cracked.

Only seen under his feet, where large amounts of Cataclysmic Power had been infused, there were only fine cracks.

At a glance, it's about the size of a seam.

Previously, the extremely destructive Cataclysmic Force, on this battlefield, was only slightly stronger than the effect of bombarding with Spiritual Power.

In Lin An's perception, the Cataclysmic Power he released was like a small knife; no matter how he triggered it, it could only slightly damage the surface.

"Too hard.."

"The hardness of this battlefield's material is simply comparable to my physical strength."

"Not only that, beneath the ground, it seems there isn't even a core..."

He exerted effort to release Spiritual Power downward to probe.

Lin An gave a bitter laugh, feeling like a toothpick stirring a large water tank.

Previously he could sense Spiritual Power up to thousands of kilometers.

Inside the Star Battlefield, at most he could sense less than a hundred kilometers.

And when penetrating underground, it's only a dozen kilometers.

At such depth, he felt the ground beneath him was basically a steel plate, completely unable to find a structural point to detonate.

After withdrawing the Cataclysmic Power, Lin An frowned, only able to continue thinking.

"Although I don't know the principle of Cataclysmic Power..."

"But in the past, triggering disasters essentially meant pouring power into weak points."

"Is it because this world is too stable? So Cataclysmic Power has no point to leverage?"

Recalling the scene of him shattering the Alien Species world, Lin An stroked his chin.

Back then, he directly activated the Earth Core, let it boil, then used the planet's own power to tear himself apart.

"An planet's Earth Core is essentially a bomb containing terrifying power, like a volcano, merely encased."

"At that time, I broke an opening, then let the Earth Core's 'fire' tear the crust, and under gravity's action, let the planet disintegrate."

"So the key is..."

Lin An raised his eyebrows, suddenly realizing the problem.

Shattered Star Rank...

Shattered Star...

Actually, a planet is really hard to shatter!

He could destroy an alien species' planet back then, essentially because that planet was already in ruins! Lin An remembered it clearly—before he detonated it, that planet was like a beehive, having been ravaged by various disasters for a hundred years!

If it were Earth's structure, even with ten times the disaster power, he couldn't possibly detonate the core!

Like the last straw that breaks a camel's back, the disaster power he triggered then mostly detonated the disaster power long accumulated in the Fei Yi Shijie!

The line of thought ends here, Lin An's mouth curls into a bitter smile.

He could shatter a star purely because the conditions back then were special.

As the title says, under normal circumstances it's impossible for a Fourth Stage to shatter a star, and even a Fifth Stage would find it extremely difficult.

Therefore, the title he obtained by accident led the system to assume he had the ability to shatter a star.

How unfortunate.

Thinking this way, it's likely the system, when judging strength, doesn't care how he managed to shatter a star.

Strength evaluation is based solely on performance.

Upon reflection, it actually makes sense.

Just like a First Level Awakened One who gets a set of gear, his combat power comparable to Fourth Stage; the system, when calculating difficulty, naturally wouldn't still count him as First Level.

Perhaps there is preferential treatment in mission rewards, but absolutely not in difficulty!

"No wonder those fugitives hardly ever act, just hiding in dungeons to sleep. Not only to avoid system detection, but more to avoid revealing their strength..."

"The faith-based system will have an advantage, which also explains things..."

All the previous doubts, linked together, finally got answers.

Lin An secretly sighed; he never expected that while seeking a way to break the situation, he would actually infer this unspoken rule.

Although useful, it's of no help to his current situation.

"Really... is there no way?"

"Is it just because I'm unlucky? So this mission has no so-called breakthrough idea?"

Clenching his fists silently, Lin An looked at the skull above his head, his eyes full of unwillingness.

What disaster is there in this world?

Given the sturdiness of the land beneath his feet, even if he exhausted all his points and wore himself out, he couldn't possibly destroy this place!

Moreover, even if he could detonate this world, it's unlikely he could kill those Fifth Stages!

"Intimidation?"

"Using my identity to deceive those Fifth Stages?"

"Make them kill each other? Or..."

Suppressing useless negative emotions, Lin An refreshed his spirit and continued thinking about whether there was any other way.

Waiting to die has never been his style.

He refuses to believe he truly has no way at all!

Just as Lin An was about to search the fortress first, his gaze was suddenly drawn to the chains in the sky.

Only seen in the dim sky, at some point those black chains that seal the world have lowered their height a bit.

Looking at the fortress on the mountain peak, it seems like an airtight wall, oppressively heavy.

As if reaching out, one could touch it.

This is...

His pupils suddenly contracted.

Lin An stared fixedly at the obviously lowered black lock, his eyes flashing with a strange color instantly.