Chapter 693: Death Notice

Outside the Trial Tower.

The remaining ten thousand or so people, easing their tense mood, began chatting casually.

"I don't know what they'll encounter..."

"This system, why must we promote after the trial?"

"Can't we just open the gene lock?"

Most people are doubtful.

Besides the few who were military or high-level survivors before the apocalypse, they exchanged glances and had no intention of explaining anything.

Such confidential information need not be spread.

Opening the gene lock is nowhere near that easy.

Meanwhile, players from some minor war zones looked anxiously at the red gate.

When the gate opens, just what is that thick smell of blood...?

Some feel uneasy.

Fortunately...

I'm not a power type, so I don't have to go in first.

Those survivors confident in their strength are relaxed, many eyeing Luo En with greed.

This first second-level, it's said the North American War Zone put a high bounty on his head.

He's got enough guts.

Yet he dares to join the trial.

Ignoring the greedy gazes.

At the edge of the plaza, Luo En remained silent, unknown what he's thinking.

Lin An...

Is he a power type?

Why do I feel I dislike him?

It's strange.

Luo En is irritable.

When he noticed Lin An, he found Lin An was like him, seemingly also having a conflict with their own war zone.

He had wanted to step forward to make friendly contact, perhaps they could fight together.

But for some reason, an inner voice told him to stay away from that guy.

Torn, he didn't go over to speak.

Seeing Lin An actually choose the power trial, he felt half disappointed.

One less person who seemed to share his situation.

He also didn't know whether that guy would die inside...

North American War Zone.

Clad in white robes, few who can float in midair, mental power awakeners, he felt somewhat disappointed.

Title: Soul Controller, second-level peak, agility and mental dual-system awakeners.

He had been silently observing Lin An.

Not for any other reason, only because he is the American War Zone's recognized strongest awakener.

Innate mental control, almost a nightmare for awakeners.

"Fushan War Zone... the intelligence sent back, is it true or false..."

He frowned tightly.

As a mental type, his thought speed is extremely fast.

Not long ago, the information provided by the military mentioned Lin An's data from Fushan.

Although the military thought the information should be false.

It's likely Fushan, or rather the Korean War Zone, that launched a sneak attack on the garrison base.

After all, it's normal: this country seemed a puppet of theirs before the apocalypse, but actually always wanted independence.

After the apocalypse, finding an excuse to eliminate the military base is also quite normal.

Just, the excuse they found is too clumsy...

After Lin An appeared, a dragon destroyed the garrison base?

When they heard this news, the military high-ranking officials almost laughed in anger.

The apocalypse is full of zombies and mutants; where would a dragon come from?

Do they think it's a legendary tale?

Especially Lin An's withstanding a nuclear blast—this point, the American side and the Huaxia War Zone are almost in agreement.

False information, the Korean War Zone's excuse for passing the buck.

Even the Soul Controller originally paid no attention to this news.

But upon seeing Lin An at the trial tower, he couldn't help but think about it.

But seeing Lin An choose the power trial, he simply gave his own judgment.

Indeed, it's false.

In the fragmented information sent back, Lin An is a mental type, capable of summoning thunderstorms.

Clearly a mental-type awakener with elemental talent.

Such a person, how could they have power talent?

Inside the Huaxia War Zone.

A man with a grim expression looked at Lihao and gave a slight nod.

"The power-system team leader Zhao Yang, following that person's wishes, has chosen the solo trial."

"The situation is going smoothly..."

Floating in midair, Lihao nodded silently after hearing it, and a faint smile appeared on his face.

"This time, we should reap a considerable gain."

"With him here..."

Just as his words fell.

In an instant, a flood of system alerts suddenly sounded.

All that could be seen was the crimson number at the trial tower's top, representing the participant count, plummeting rapidly.

The voice was cold and ruthless.

"Power trial: players who entered have died!"

"Current death toll: 29!"

"57!"

"131!"

"320!!"

The numbers skyrocketed.

One after another, death reports rang out, instantly drawing everyone's shocked gaze.

What the hell is happening!?

How long have they even been inside!?

Why are so many people dying?

No one could answer their questions.

The Huaxia Military, originally full of confidence and unaware of what they had mastered, now stared with bulging eyes.

The situation...

Something changed!?

Weren't they told there was no danger?

This is completely different from what that person said.

Under the cold death announcements, the area outside the trial tower instantly fell silent.

Even the power-system users with decent survival skills had gone in as a group.

They died this fast—what on earth did they encounter?

The gate that originally represented the power trial.

At this moment, to the eyes of ten thousand Awakened Ones, it resembled a bloody maw, ruthlessly devouring lives.

The numbers plummeted rapidly.

Each flicker of the numbers signified a life lost.

Inside the trial tower.

A team of seven Awakened Ones from the Brahma War Zone, dark-skinned, were frantically trying to escape.

"Run!!"

"Don't look back!"

The leader, a man, turned his arm into a shield and desperately guarded his head.

His eyes filled with terror, his whole body shuddering as if in an ice cave.

Why!?

Why would we encounter a high-level Second-Rank mutant the moment we entered?

Behind them, two hulking monsters clad in heavy armor, about four meters tall with triangular heads, wielded giant battle axes and were in hot pursuit.

The ground was littered with corpses split in half.

One Awakened One, split open from the shoulder, kept spitting blood, his eyes full of the will to live.

I can't die here...

If I die here, my wife will be abandoned by the Safe Zone, my family unprotected will suffer horribly.

After the apocalypse, he, who had climbed up from the bottom step by step, knew all too well what his unprotected family would face.

As he crawled, his blood trailed a long straight line.

His palm left a bloody print as he crawled.

That monster.

At least 35 points of strength.

The monster's attacks, each blow as terrifying as a mountain.

When he first encountered the monster, he instinctively tried to resist with his innate beast transformation, but was instantly killed.

That seemingly rust-covered giant axe nearly crushed his entire musculature, splitting him in half.

Unwilling, despairing.

He struggled to crawl away with his last hand, but the thunderous footsteps behind shattered his final hope.

"Bang!"

A giant foot came down.

The eyeball, violently squeezed out, flew away.

Frantically fleeing.

Upon hearing the teammates' death report, the few who had fled gasped heavily.

Their eyes met, filled with terror.

"Why is the difficulty so high!"

Grief and indignation verging on despair.

This isn't a trial; it's outright throwing them in to be slaughtered!

His face was ashen.

After entering the tower, the system finally provided this information.

Those few could not muster any thought of resistance.

Their strength was reduced by more than half.

"Trial rule: In the strength trial, all attribute bonuses except strength will be stripped."

"All Equipment and Props effects are weakened by 70%, retaining only talent effects."

"Current floor: 1/9"

"Upon entering the next floor, gain a 10% boost and a 20% success rate for gene lock activation."

"Note: This trial, due to??? reasons, difficulty is increasing."

Inside the abandoned steel factory, Lin An expressionlessly punched the triangular helmet; the erupting force pierced the monster with a single blow.

The retreating monster's corpse knocked over a pile of scrap steel.

The noise boomed.

"Clang—clang!!"

The successive sounds of heavy objects dragging on the ground indicated that over dozens of monsters had already surrounded him.

Looking at the system prompt, Lin An couldn't help but wryly smile.

"Perfect-level trialist, individual information:"

"The current trial tower content has been changed to..."

"【Surface World - Silent Hill】!"

"Please break through the current floor as soon as possible and head to the inner world to complete the perfect trial!"

Zhang Tie didn't know where he had been teleported to.

Below the text, a percentage number slowly pulsed.

Lin An knew what that represented.

The difficulty inside the trial tower...

It was still constantly increasing.