Chapter 275: Old Grandfather

The necklace floated in midair, the old man weakly lying inside the transparent crystal.

Under Lin An's unreasonable "electrotherapy", he could only repeatedly beg for mercy.

"Sir! I'll talk! I'll say anything!"

"I remember! I remember everything..."

Unlike when facing Li Lei with his immortal bearing, the old man knelt on the ground, begging Lin An not to pierce him again with psychic power.

Without a body, psychic piercing is too painful; this torment is no different from hell.

Lin An nodded in satisfaction, secretly sneering.

The earlier amnesia was mostly faked; this old guy definitely has something up his sleeve.

"First tell me who you are; I'm curious how someone like you could exist in the Doomsday Game."

The old man's spirit body gave a trembling bitter laugh, hesitated a moment, then spoke.

"Before the Apocalypse, I was a cultivator, but then I was damaged by some unknown force..."

"You're asking for death!"

A silver flash crossed Lin An's eyes as his domineering psychic power turned into a blade, stabbing at the spirit body.

"Still spouting nonsense, bullshit cultivation!"

The Doomsday Game indeed has very few Daoists, the Eastern power system, but the main power still leans toward technology and psychic means.

Human threats basically come from zombies and monsters.

Lin An can be certain that before the Apocalypse, Earth had no supernatural system at all! At least certainly no mythical immortals or Daoists!

At most there are psychic mutants like Wen Ya, born with strong psychic power.

Pretending to be gods and ghosts, acting as "horse immortals" to deceive ordinary people might work, but they truly have no power.

This is also why Lin An only suspects that the equipment in the Doomsday Game might have a source, but he isn't sure.

At least in his memory, in his past life there were only zombies or monsters, or else after the great catastrophe, alien-space demonic beasts appeared.

The old man let out a cry of pain, his whole body trembling as he rolled on the ground.

"Damn it!"

"This brat actually doesn't believe a word I say!"

For a moment, the dark-blue spirit body felt as if it were about to die from psychic stimulation.

"Why, why can't you be as easy to deceive as Li Lei!?"

"I dare not lie again."

The old man panted, crawling on the ground, his face showing difficulty.

"Sir, I didn't mean to deceive you!"

"I'll talk, I'll talk!"

"I'm actually an Awakened One..."

"Also a player..."

Lin An's heart jolted; he never expected the old man to give such an answer.

"How can you be an Awakened One and end up like this!?"

"Impossible! If you're an Awakened One, how could you have such power!?"

Instinctively, Lin An felt this guy was lying again.

"An Awakened One at such an age?"

His strength is not bad; if I didn't have the Black Dragon and Death God Crystal, which ordinary player could beat him?

Being able to resist the Black Dragon's digestion, combined with the power Lin An sensed when the necklace first flew out.

This guy's peak strength is definitely not inferior to a Second-Level Advanced, and it relies purely on psychic power.

If he were to press down on Wang Kun, without me using my trump cards, the outcome would be uncertain.

Seeing Lin An about to throw him into the Black Dragon's mouth, the old man shouted in fear.

"Sir! I really didn't deceive you! My name is Huang Shaohua!"

"It's not that I don't want to say more; if I continue, the system will erase me!"

"Once those keywords are spoken, I will die instantly!"

Lin An's throwing motion stalled, his eyes solemn as he looked at the old man calling himself Huang Shaohua.

"System purge?"

"Your way of existence has a problem?"

"Wait, how old are you exactly?"

Huang Shaohua dared not answer the previous questions, his face embarrassed as he replied.

"Sir, I'm 26 years old..."

"But I've actually lived a long time in theory..."

"Ahhh!!"

As if triggering some taboo, Huang Shaohua suddenly erupted in white flames all over, like self-immolation.

In the white flames, he screamed in agony, as if enduring the world's most painful torment.

Lin An saw this and was astonished, his thoughts unsettled.

"26 years old!?"

"Theoretically lived a long time..."

For a moment, he suddenly recalled a speculation Chu An had once told him.

The Doomsday Game has very likely been conducted many times.

In his speculation, Chu An believed their memories had been erased, but traces of the previous game remained in the material world.

It was like an amusement park, with Earth as the rides and they as the visitors.

After each closing, the facilities were cleaned up, and their memories were erased as well.

But during the facility cleanup, the system missed some things.

For example, the spiritual energy core in the electromagnetic cannon.

While he thought it was a kind of reincarnation.

The Doomsday Game is a test from the start; each time the test ends, everyone is killed and replaced with a new batch of players.

Like an endless hell.

If Huang Shaohua wasn't lying, it would very likely confirm Lin An's speculation.

His breathing heavy, Lin An stared fixedly at the somewhat transparent, burned Huang Shaohua and asked in a low voice:

"You're an internal test player!!"

"Has the Doomsday Game gone through many rounds!!"

"Humans failed last time!!"

"You survived by some means, but you can only avoid the system's monitoring by becoming a spiritual entity."

"So you cannot reveal your former identity, lest the system detect you and directly erase you!!"

Huang Shaohua looked at him in terror upon hearing this, yet dared not utter a word.

Just who is the person before him?

Why does he reveal only this little information, yet Lin An can guess so much?

Silence.

Lin An took a deep breath, his eyes complex.

His rebirth, in a sense, counts as rejoining the Doomsday Game, or, like Huang Shaohua, surviving from the previous round (previous life).

So, therefore, the system might consider him a possible loophole?

If he were to speak of his rebirth, would he also be directly erased by the system?

The shock in his heart was indescribable, yet in an instant Lin An negated his own idea.

No.

He had shown signs of his rebirth, he just never said it outright.

Like when he subdued the academy, he had warned the team in advance about a future zombie tide outbreak and great catastrophe.

By rights, this should also count as triggering the system's forbidden words.

Is it because of the Savior System?

Or did he guess wrong?

If the Savior System helped him hide from the Doomsday System's detection, then what is the Savior?

After a long while.

The black dragon yawned tiredly, blinking its eyes at Huang Shaohua.

"Finished asking..."

"So hungry..."

A childish voice interrupted Lin An's thoughts; he couldn't help but let out a wry laugh and gave up investigating.

It's all just speculation; even if guessed correctly, what then?

Forget it; his current goal is merely to survive in the apocalypse.

As for all those secrets, they can wait until he becomes strong enough.

Lin An calmed his thoughts, looked toward Huang Shaohua, and asked with a hint of curiosity for the key information:

"What's the deal with Li Lei's talent?"

"Why are you pretending to be a cultivator?"

Huang Shaohua huddled in the crystal corner, giving a dry laugh twice:

"Sir, I don't want to pretend to be a cultivator either..."

"Mainly because that guy Li Lei is easy to fool..."

"If I told him I'm an Awakened One, would he believe me?"

"So I simply imitated movies and novels, posing as a golden finger and an old geezer."

"Isn't that how it's written in novels?"

"A worthless youth obtains a supreme treasure, inside which sits an old geezer, and he shoots straight to the heavens..."