Chapter 514: Ancient

The sound of resistance vanished.

Lin An acted without hesitation, shattering their illusion.

No one dared mention relocation anymore, let alone the idea of building their own safe zone.

They had figured it out.

If they uttered another word, Lin An would really kill them.

After being seized, the tactical nuclear bomb that was immediately brought under control also cut off their only means of mutual destruction.

Through the hole above.

Wang Meng stared blankly at Lin An hanging in mid‑air, unable to speak for a long while.

Compared to seeing the scene on screen, witnessing Lin An's strike in person hit him with far greater impact.

This isn't a person at all—it's a man‑eating beast.

In an instant, he suddenly realized something.

Treason... retracting... commendation... intimidation.

The truth behind the matter is probably far more terrifying than he had imagined.

Is it a factional struggle?

No, perhaps Lin An doesn't belong to any side at all...

Heads bobbed.

From high above, the entire Wangjiang Military Region looked like ants, marching in droves toward Long'an Base.

On the armored vehicle, Chu An expressionlessly calculated something with pen and paper, speaking without looking up:

"You're too impatient..."

"Wangjiang Military Region has a lot of people."

"We can show more kindness to assimilate them."

"After all, compared to the Ring River Military Region, the Wangjiang Military Region harbors almost no hostility toward us."

Lin An lifted his head and, offhand, took a yellow peach can from Xiong Hanzi's hand.

"I'm short on time."

"Two hours ago, the Savior System issued me a new mission."

"I didn't expect it to come so soon."

"Huh?!"

Zhang Tie had just been wistfully watching the can Lin An snatched away; hearing this, he couldn't help but widen his eyes.

"Captain Lin?! Another mission?!"

"What mission?!"

"Can't this damn thing let us catch a breath?"

Chu An likewise froze, lowered his pen and paper, and stared straight at him:

"What mission?"

"Suddenly issued?"

Lin An sighed and gave a wry laugh.

To be honest, he hadn't expected a mission to pop up out of nowhere.

But he glanced at Chu An.

It seemed Chu An couldn't see his own system's status, nor was it reading his memory in real time.

To be frank, every time he saw Colonel Chu, he couldn't help feeling that this guy was totally like a "peeping tom"...

He opened the mission details directly.

"Savior Mission 4: Supernatural"

"Within a week, accept a special mission. No limits on type or number of participants."

"And raise the base attribute to the Second Level limit of 40 points."

"Mission reward:???"

"Mission deadline:???"

"Warning: Please accept the special mission as soon as possible; overtime triggers an erasure countdown."

The mission is vague.

The first time, the Savior Mission merely gave a vague outline, not even providing the reward.

The bloody red countdown in the warning column made Lin An's thoughts grow heavy.

"What the hell does this mean?"

"The mission is to accept a special mission? What the hell is going on?"

"The attribute needs 40 points? Isn't the Second Level limit supposed to be 30 points?!"

Xiong Hanzi looked at the mission explanation with a surprised expression, couldn't help touching his forehead, his face full of question marks.

After Chu An examined it carefully, he fell into contemplation.

He and Lin An exchanged a glance; both basically arrived at the same idea.

"I guess the system must have issued some kind of task to me two hours ago, but the Savior System forcibly replaced it."

Lin An softly voiced his judgment, then sighed:

"We had speculated about this before."

"The system might at any time issue me another punishment mission."

"I think, probably after the Savior System received a punishment mission, it forcibly intercepted it, then left me some leeway, allowing me to freely choose a special mission."

"Otherwise there's no way to explain why the Savior mission would actually require me to take on another mission."

"As for the Second Level limit attribute, it's 40 points..."

"The mission name is again supernatural..."

Lin An furrowed his brows.

Taking his bare equipment attribute as an example, his strength is only 26.4, and that already includes the boost from the Celestial Human form.

There's still a big gap from the 40 points required by the mission.

But shouldn't the normal Second Level limit attribute be 30 points?

40 points... This completely doesn't match his memory.

Without equipment boosting attributes, raising it to 40 points is too difficult.

From zero to Second Level, he only gains a total of 6 points (Awakened Ones level +4, player level +2); even if his starting attribute were as high as 14 points, that would only be 20 points.

Including talent bonuses...

Even the most extreme single-attribute player wouldn't exceed 26 points at Second Level.

This means that reaching 40 points is almost impossible for anyone.

The only way to achieve it is to consume a large amount of spirit-energy fruits, or obtain a special boost, even undergo transformation?

However, each time spirit-energy fruits are consumed, their effect diminishes.

Even if Lin An ate twenty spirit-energy fruits at once, it would still be hard to push his attribute value up.

Chu An heard the sound, nodded, thought for a moment, and then agreed with his idea about this mission.

"Let's set aside the issue of the 40-point attribute for now; later we can ask Huang Shaohua whether he knows part of it."

"Now the key is, what special mission do you plan to take?"

"The Savior System should be hinting... no, explicitly telling you to leave the real world as soon as possible."

"This time there's no way to give you any help, indicating it's under great restrictions."

That's right.

Lin An also realized this; it matches my earlier speculation about them.

If we stay longer in the real world, we'll likely receive another punishment mission.

After a moment's contemplation, he took out the Eye of Fear from his ring:

"What other kind of special mission could it be? It must be inside the Secret Realm."

"I previously asked Huang Shaohua what types of Secret Realms there are."

There's nothing hidden in that statement; Lin An indeed isn't very clear about what the Secret Realm actually is.

His past-life memory also only gives him a vague understanding of the Secret Realm.

"In his description, the Secret Realm is actually similar to a dungeon; the only difference is that the mission is actively triggered."

"Sometimes you only realize you've completed the mission after you've finished it."

"Based on what I currently know, there are two places suspected to be Secret Realms."

While speaking, Lin An raised the closed Eye of Fear, his eyes showing contemplation:

"The first is the Door of Desire triggered by my contact with the Eye of Fear."

"This also counts as a type of Secret Realm, but I don't know what dangers lie inside."

"The second, I suspect the rear mountain is also a type of Secret Realm."

The rear mountain, that is, the Yin-Facing Mountain.

Sand worms emerge from there, and Liang Shaoguang's Moon Wolf ability also seems related to it.

Moreover, Lin An dares to be so certain largely because, according to his past-life memory, Gao Tian, in the rumors, only became famous after entering and emerging from a Secret Realm.

The Yin-Facing Mountain is right behind the base.

Connecting the clues, Lin An can easily imagine that place is probably the Secret Realm that Gao Tian entered in his past life.

"The rear mountain?"

Zhang Tie, sitting nearby worried, heard the voice and froze, instinctively looking toward Liang Shaoguang outside the vehicle, who was in charge of directing the convoy.

The rear mountain...

"This isn't the first thing Lin Dui encountered when he ran into the moon wolf."

"Props: Fang (Moon Wolf) from a third-rank fantasy creature: the Moon Wolf's sharp teeth, its residual power has already disappeared."

Looking at the snow-white fang in Lin An's hand, one can't help but envision a cold, clear scene.

A desolate mountain village, with black shadows darting in the moonlight.

A broken ancient bow, buried in the corners of history, is the legend of gods and ghosts.