Chapter 284: Strange Announcement

u-wu！！

Almost simultaneously with the monster's hatching, a deafening roar like a whistle rang out.

Sensing the threat of the electromagnetic cannon, the High Nailer struggled to free itself from the blood cocoon beneath its feet, its pair of scarlet, huge eyes like iron doors fixed firmly on Lin An.

Inside the restaurant, a commotion erupted as the crowd huddled in the corner like chicks.

At the top-floor exit, Fan Bing panted as she shoved open the iron door, bending over to behold the shocking sight before her.

Unlike others who only wanted to hide, driven by some unknown impulse, she hurried to follow from inside the building the moment Lin An charged upstairs.

She wanted to look again, to glance once more at what the power in the apocalypse truly was.

「1-」

「Frenzied Charge! 」

At the final second of the countdown, the black bear downstairs let out a roar, its whole body glowing with red light as it charged toward the monster's feet:

「Heavy Pound Blast! 」

「Whoosh! 」

Dark purple arrows shot out like a torrential rain, clanging against the monster's scale armor.

Attacks synchronized.

The monster's mountain-sized arm smashed toward the top floor without hesitation; one blow could nearly demolish the entire inn.

A flash of silver flickered in Lin An's eyes as he pulled the trigger before the monster could retaliate.

「Boom!! 」

Electric current surged wildly.

In an instant, a blue energy stream shot out like flowing light, roaring as it coalesced into a thick electromagnetic impact the size of a water bucket.

「Withering! 」

The grim reaper phantom appeared again, its scythe wielding the power of death as it swept forth.

「Divine Stab! 」

Mental power condensed into a substantive shockwave, joining with the grim reaper's scythe to break the outer defense.

At six times the speed of sound, the specially forged tungsten alloy bullet burst with a piercing screech, breaking the sound barrier and, in an instant, penetrating the monster's skull whose defenses had been shattered by skill bombardment.

Time seemed to stop.

The monster's mountain-like arm suddenly froze, and the shadow shrouding the top floor gradually faded.

A half-person-tall blood hole appeared on the High Nailer's forehead, thick brain matter mixed with dark blood oozing out.

「Drip. 」

Slain: Second Level high-rank mutant, High Nailer.

As the notification sounded, the monster, nearly as tall as the inn, slowly toppled backward.

Dense spiritual energy rose like raindrops from the monster's body, then seeped into everyone.

「Drip, congratulations to player Gao Tian for advancing to First Level Awakened One. 」

「Drip, congratulations to player Lin An for advancing to Second Level Awakened One. 」

「Drip, congratulations to player Lin An on talent advancement, obtained 【Human-God Form - False】」

「Drip, obtained blue equipment 【Void Foot】」

「Drip, obtained blue item 【Thought Nail】」

「Drip, obtained white equipment 【Titan Scale Armor】」

「Drip, obtained blue crafting material 【Leaping Corpse Tendon】」

「Drip, obtained... 」

Unlike before, unlike imagining that he would immediately check his equipment and talent.

Lin An merely tilted his head back, stunned, gazing upward at the dark night sky.

In his perception, two forces terrifying enough to shatter the globe were colliding in the high skies.

Even Fan Bing, an ordinary person lacking spiritual perception, instinctively looked upward.

In the high skies, a violent force that made one feel like an ant pierced the world.

Almost simultaneously, the global population of tens of billions felt the two terrifying forces wildly clashing.

Palpitations, despair.

As if gods in the void were slaughtering each other.

The black clouds shattered, revealing a twisted, broken night sky.

Time moved so slowly that the pressure erupting in just a few seconds made one unable to resist a mental breakdown.

After a moment, once the two auras had dissipated, a cold notification tone sounded intermittently.

「Global Announcement: The world's first Second Level player has been born, opening the rank leaderboard, receiving special rewards. 」

「The first Second Level player... 」

「lin... 」

The cold mechanical sound was interfered with, like a damaged tape.

The Doomsday System, as powerful as a deity, was forcibly cut off; the distorted, broken sound prevented anyone from hearing the final name.

Tens of thousands of quick-thinking Awakened Ones worldwide seemed to think of something, attempting at top speed to open the newly added leaderboard, only to find that the single-person ranking appeared as if an unknown entity had smeared it with a paintbrush.

Dense garbled code filled the light screen.

Above Facing River, in the near-Earth space orbit at an altitude of 42,000 kilometers, like a black hole's space, light pillars burst forth.

Then.

A strong pressure that made one's heart pound, nearly breaking through the atmosphere at light speed, descended from the heavens.

Within seconds.

Lin An stared blankly at the pitch-black key that had appeared in his hand, and the system's global announcement sounded again in his consciousness:

"System error: no second-level Awakened Ones detected yet."

"The ranking leaderboard has been canceled; it will reopen once the first second-level player appears."

Across the globe, the tens of thousands of Awakened Ones who reacted fastest were instantly kicked off the ranking light screen, their eyes filled with terror.

They were shocked by the sudden appearance of a second-level player, and even more horrified that the seemingly omnipotent system had actually made an error.

The terrifying power cleared the entire Linjiang cloud layer, and the empty night sky revealed a moon tinged with red.

On the rooftop.

Lin An gripped the key in his hand tightly, his heart pounding.

Unlike the other players' shock, he was completely unaware.

He actually discerned the subtle difference between the two system announcements.

The first global announcement that sounded was actually the voice of the Savior System!

What on earth is the Savior System doing!?

It was actually masquerading as the system!?

Long'an Base, core meeting room.

In the underground hall newly built from the Land of Rules, Chu An sat expressionlessly on a metal chair.

Before him, more than thirty-six of the largest display screens surrounded him like mirrors.

Up, down, left, and right, they completely occupied his field of vision.

On his gold-rimmed glasses, fine and intricate data was reflected, streaming down like a waterfall.

He habitually lifted his glasses frame, then clicked the option representing audio playback:

The system's unique cold mechanical sound resonated low in the headset:

"Global announcement: the world's first..."

"Global announcement: system error..."

After repeatedly playing it back at accelerated speed several times, Chu An's mouth corner twitched up strangely, as if he were smiling, and he muttered softly to himself.

He calmly opened the file on the sixth electronic screen in the upper left corner, as if he were comparing something.

Behind him, the low-pitched diesel generator rumbled.

After a long while.

Dim, the central hall was filled with dark red light.

Chu An slowly rose to his feet and walked toward a brand-new password door.

"Two systems..."

"You finally couldn't help but show up, huh..."

For the first time, genuine emotion appeared in his eyes.