Chapter 1661: Beginning

Looking at the densely packed rules explanation, Lin An's heart jolted, and he immediately realized the purpose of the Apocalypse Net.

Trading, redemption, broadcasting..

Isn't this just an upgraded version of their system?

No, it should be called the complete version.

As his strength increased, the functions provided by the system also grew.

These newly added functions even exceeded Lin An's expectations.

Just..

It seemed like a good thing, and the sudden appearance of the Apocalypse Net also gave Lin An hope of breaking through.

But likewise, these few simple functions also made Lin An, for the first time, vividly aware of how terrifying the system is.

"Cross-star domain.. cross-plane.. hireling..."

"High-dimensional..."

Lin An subconsciously opened the communication range, and in an instant, light points labeled with region names flared like solar flares.

Within the expanded options, region names beyond imagination popped up frenziedly.

Boundless!

The rapidly popping options seemed endless.

Seeing the countless light points, as numerous as cosmic stars, still constantly emerging, Lin An stiffened on the spot.

Too many, really too many!

No time to close it.

In less than a second, the options he opened were like Pandora's box, spewing out a massive number of world names at a terrifying speed.

At a glance, Lin An couldn't even find the first popped-out Nia Kaia Supergalaxy Cluster.

And within each light point, its interior was being eroded by a touch of terrifying darkness.

The dense light points submerged the red dot representing "him".

It was as if this supergalaxy cluster, bearing hundreds of billions of star systems and capable of holding countless Earths, had no marker even in the entirety of the Apocalypse's domain.

Each light point represents a world, a universe.

Although he had already learned from Klein how vast the Apocalypse's scope was, already unimaginably huge.

But seeing this scene up close.

Lin An couldn't help but feel a wave of shock.

His whole body seemed frozen, stiff in place.

He seemed surrounded by endless light points.

And the meaning behind those light points was an even greater shock.

At this moment, Lin An seemed to see the civilizations behind each light point.

Apocalypse erodes, catastrophe destroys.

Countless light points, countless civilizations and worlds struggling in disaster.

Countless humans are wailing and screaming, no matter how powerful the life, or how lofty the peak of technology of a supercivilization.

Also like a drop of water in the sea, in a breath, in a second, in another world he cannot see, nor could he ever touch in a lifetime, it is instantly destroyed and dissipated.

And they are merely a speck of dust in the most inconspicuous corner among myriad worlds.

This absurd, empty, yet tiny feeling actually evokes a sense of self-collapse!

Close it!

Instinctively, Lin An struggled to regain his composure.

As if deeply trapped in an illusion.

He somewhat "panicked" closed the popping light points, striving to stay calm.

The impact was truly too great.

Compared to vaguely knowing how many worlds suffer the Apocalypse, seeing this so directly really makes it hard to bear.

As the options closed, the massive light points seemed sucked into a black hole, vanishing instantly in reverse.

The button to retract to a single option flashed silently, as if what just happened never occurred.

Don't think about these..!

Wake yourself up!

After Lin An forcibly controlled himself to stay calm, he dared not think of that scene again.

In that brief second, he almost had his will crushed by the boundless void! It was as if, like a worm first seeing the starry sky, in an instant he fell into the endless abyss!

How insignificant.. vast!

Calming down...

He gasped heavily, his face deathly pale.

After breaking free, Lin An suddenly understood why Klein was so desperate and self-destructive.

No.. don't think about it again..!

"Now is not the time to consider these. Rather, what can I do with the Apocalypse Net!"

He took a deep breath.

Lin An slowly closed his eyes.

Unknown whether the system intentionally did this, or whether any Awakened One would suffer such impact upon first contacting the Apocalypse Net.

After desperately controlling his emotions, Lin An tried to quickly shield himself from this soul-shaking emptiness as much as possible.

How many worlds are being destroyed under the Apocalypse has nothing to do with him now!

All he needs to do is stay alive first, then talk!

A few seconds later, he opened his eyes again, and his gaze shifted downward.

Looking at the other options, Lin An only dared to search for functions that might help him.

"Exchange options... sub-options include trading and system exchange."

"Equipment... rules... attributes... props... special..."

"I can use this, but I haven't generated a dedicated list yet."

His rationality returned.

Not thinking about what just happened, Lin An took a deep breath and directly clicked the first option, which was also flashing with red light—the system exchange.

After a quick look, he understood the purpose of the first option.

This option merges the trading and exchange systems, but with a broader scope and higher rank.

At least those who can use this function are at the Fifth Stage.

"I wonder what's inside..."

"Equipment? Props?"

"After the Fifth Stage, do we still need equipment?"

He felt doubtful.

Lin An lowered his head to look at the Death God set on himself.

Since reaching the Fourth Stage, he's increasingly felt that equipment is of little use to him.

From the Fourth Stage onward, the slight attribute boost from equipment is almost negligible; its attached skills and effects are useless before the rules.

Even Lin An could feel that when he used the Death God set's skills, those Fifth Stage outsiders were extremely surprised.

They weren't surprised by the strength of his equipment, but by the fact that anyone would still be using equipment abilities.

The effect of the skills is simply too weak compared to the rules.

"Is there equipment that's also useful for the Fifth Stage?"

"Mythic tier? Or divine tier?"

Upon recalling the conversion core he had obtained, Lin An nodded thoughtfully.

If he could exchange a few pieces of equipment beyond the Fifth Stage, his combat power might increase.

He just didn't know whether those pieces of equipment would be expensive.

"Hire options..."

Skipping a few unusable options, Lin An frowned slightly and clicked the seventh option—hire.

"Hire: consume Apocalypse points to hire other lifeforms to fight for you; after hiring, a binding contract is automatically generated. The teleportation or descent fees incurred during hiring are paid by the employer."

"Current permission allows hiring up to the peak of the Fifth Stage!"