Chapter 1701

rb thinking seems to sink

One after another, icy system prompts, like a distant folk song, twisted into a strange female voice in the ever‑blurring consciousness.

It kept repeating, as if the very essence of the world were a looping mechanical tone.

No.

Lin An

If not for the instinctive struggle of life, Lin An even felt he might already be dead.

He was like a soulless shell, unable to bend even a finger.

Only his will burned—or rather, every cell, every atom, every strand of his spirit desperately fought to keep him from slipping into death.

This force was so unwilling that, even as time ran out, it still clung desperately to the last thread of life.

Yet the death that comes when time burns to its end is perhaps something few beings in the universe ever experience.

That is true exhaustion, true disappearance.

Secret Realm, Chu Renmei, Dream Meme, Lin An

This time, Lin An felt, at great length, what death truly is.

Gradually, his raised right hand slowly lowered, finally falling limp to the ground.

No.

He fought tooth and nail for a sliver of hope, but the price of that hope was his life.

No one knew how long had passed—perhaps ten seconds, perhaps a minute.

Exchange System, Lin An

"Beep, conditions reduced, query successful."

Props, Death Spirit Curse, Star-Destroying Level

【51】

No.

The orb of light flashed, like a bulb emitting a cold glow above Lin An's head.

That uninterrupted, flickering light seemed to remind Lin An to confirm the information.

Amid the endless mechanical repetitions, Lin An was like a corpse, unable to respond at all.

No.

Or rather, the search took too long.

Even within the system's vast, near‑infinite exchange list, things that could save Lin An were extremely rare, and those meeting the conditions were even fewer.

Not knowing what he himself needed, Lin An could only have the system mechanically query until it found something that matched the conditions.

Perhaps in normal circumstances, this at most one-minute query time has no effect on any Fifth Stage.

But for Lin An, it drained his last remaining life.

Death God Battle Armor, Lin An

Death God Set

Death God Set, Netherworld

No matter how hard this black light "struggled," it could only futilely drift back and forth across Lin An's body surface.

No.

Within this once immensely powerful body, there might be nothing more than soul remnants like ashes.

The skill activated mechanically, running on repeat.

As more and more black light appeared, these lights, like ants on a hot pan, eventually formed a black film that wrapped Lin An.

That thin black light, invisibly, accidentally locked the soul remnants that should have dispersed tightly within the armor.

Perhaps the death god set's skill effect interfered with the system's scan.

Doomsday System

Of course, this wouldn't last long.

When the death god set's energy ran out and the soul dispersed, Lin An was truly dead.

"Beep, please confirm exchange? This prompt will repeat for ten seconds then disappear."

"Beep, please confirm exchange? This prompt will repeat for nine seconds then disappear.."

No.

Mechanical prompts continued to sound, one after another.

The death god set's final ability activated, yet it seemed to change nothing.

"系統" (System) generic? Not a name.

All this was like falling into a dead loop, as if placing a bottle of water before someone dying of thirst.

No.

No.

No.

Suddenly, an invisible force burst forth within Lin An.

This force was so weak it hardly seemed like a force at all—more like a thought, an idea.

Within the thin gap between the armor and the black light, this force resembled a panicked mouse, desperately scrambling toward Lin An's head.

Under the faintly swelling black light, this infant‑fist‑sized invisible thing, in the blink of an eye, burrowed into Lin An's tightly shut eyes and into the sea of his silent consciousness.

In the pitch‑black sea of consciousness, that mouse seemed to be desperately searching for something.

Just as the ninth repetition began, it, which couldn't find even a speck of anything, actually stiffened in an anthropomorphic manner and remained in place.

It stiffly lifted its head, and through Lin An's eyes it furtively glanced at the system light sphere, as if making some decision.

It struggled and hesitated.

「%…………&……&%&」

「%……&&……%&……」

The thing hiding inside the black light barrier seemed to be complaining about something, but no one could understand what it was saying.

Of course, if Lin An is still 'alive,' he should be able to understand what it says.

Finally, this extremely conflicted force turned into an infinitesimally small yet extremely pure unknown power that suddenly shot into the back of Lin An's head.

In an instant, beneath the Death God Suit, dark purple patterns suddenly appeared on Lin An's back.

Like activation, as the patterns lit up, a vast amount of mental power instantly surged from within Lin An!

At the same time, on Lin An's personal panel invisible to others, the black characters representing his name suddenly jumped.

Lin

Dragon

Lin An

「砰！！」

Under the azure system light sphere, the icy corpse whose very soul had turned to ash suddenly lifted its hand.

A hoarse voice, sounding as if tinged with malice, rang out.

「Confirm exchange. 」

「Buzz! 」

Upon the sudden appearance of the confirmation prompt, the light sphere suddenly brightened.

Within the exchange point, there was a deathly silence.

Flickering light and shadow shone on Lin An's face.

Behind the mask covered in dark gold patterns lay a pair of eyes Lin An knew all too well.

「Patterns... spirit power mutant.. 」

「Share spirit power... 」

「Heh... indeed it is like this. 」

「Lin An... without me... 」

「You're really useless... 」

He slowly rose to his feet.

Bathed in the system's light, Lin An stood ramrod straight.

From afar, he in the darkness looked like a dark silhouette, or rather, he was the shadow itself.