Chapter 727: Second Will

8「Zhang Yong!? 」

「Captain！！」

Half of his chest was smashed to pieces.

His mouth felt an intense burning sensation.

At the battlefield's edge, Zhang Yong endured inhuman pain, and with effort swung a hammer at the monster.

The teammates were unable to support.

At this moment, deaths had already appeared among the team.

No one blamed Lin An.

The path was his own choice.

Everyone could see the pressure faced by Lin An, who stood at the battlefield's center.

Twenty minutes ago.

The battle situation rapidly deteriorated.

No one knew why the death toll suddenly spiked; perhaps the Awakened Ones outside the church area had an accident.

Under the surging difficulty of the third stage, those staying in the church could barely hold on.

Moreover, twelve minutes ago.

The black dragon also quickly shrank, falling back into a dormant state.

After all, it was a forcibly catalyzed young body; the black dragon was still far from reaching its peak combat power.

If it were an ordinary mutant, continuous fighting this long would have killed them all.

But facing the endless, constantly renewing malevolent monsters, the little guy could only buy time.

If it weren't for Lin An and Zhang Tie drawing a large number of monsters, they would not have lasted this long.

I cannot die...

His voice was indistinct.

Zhang Yong desperately dodged the Arbiter's greataxe, rolling away in a sorry state.

His mouth was completely corroded by the strong acid sprayed from the charred corpse.

After being restrained by the monster wrapped in rubber clothing, a charred corpse spat a large amount of corpse fluid at his face.

His whole face was burned beyond recognition, and one eye was corroded through.

His tongue was burned away by strong acid, and the corpse fluid poured into his throat burned his intestines full of holes.

Weak, near death.

He struggled to rise, but found he could not muster any strength.

In a daze, he seemed to see the scene of Nie Ping sending him off to the plan.

Memories flashed quickly.

In the dim hallway, he silently watched Nie Ping sigh wearily.

On the second Long'an Project, a resolute signature.

In the death simulation, facing a life‑or‑death battle against mutants.

The rally before heading to the trial.

The promise when leading the team members in.

Vision blurred.

He seemed to see that stone‑strengthened Awakened One madly charging toward himself.

「Hiss! 」

A sharp claw pierced the man's skull from his chin as he charged forward.

His whole body trembled.

In the writhing mouth shape, Zhang Yong seemed to hear the words a teammate wanted to say before dying.

I clearly promised to bring them back...

Watching his companion's head being cut off by a human‑head spider.

Zhang Yong's sanity was almost on the verge of collapse.

Open!

Open it for me!

Having lost combat ability, he could not even muster a roar.

The only hope might be to unlock the gene lock.

In extreme despair.

A piercing smashing sound approached.

In his remaining right eye, a great axe came down from above, rapidly looming large in his vision.

Unwilling, with intense longing.

I...

How could I be trash!

Power, I need power!

Even ten seconds would do!

「Boom! 」

Flesh and metal collided.

His gaze was dull, as if he had lost consciousness.

The disfigured skull lifted up, and the originally powerless right hand was filled with strength.

The team members preparing to risk their lives for rescue stared blankly at the captain who gripped the giant axe with one hand.

Zhang Dui, the gene lock has been activated!?

"Lin Dui, Zhang Yong has activated the gene lock."

"But.."

"If this is his first time activating it, will continuing to fight kill him outright..."

Xiong Hanzi strained to push aside the adjudicator in front of him, and threw a weak punch.

After prolonged combat, he truly had no strength left.

Even as monsters tore at him, he felt as if his whole body had been filled with lead.

He held a sword with both hands.

Lin An, surrounded by a large number of monsters, maintained his human form and slaughtered the nearby monsters like a cold machine.

The scattered corpses on the ground submerged his feet.

Although he still had a trump card unused.

But Lin An suddenly felt a wave of listlessness.

The phantom continued to condense.

But he still hadn't found any idea to break the situation.

Xiong Hanzi's unfinished words made him even more irritable.

Zhang Yong activated the gene lock on the brink of death, while he hadn't even seen a hint of it.

Where exactly does the problem lie?

Must we really wait for the evil god's descent, and break through in a life-or-death situation?

But if a mistake is made, perhaps only Zhang Tie might have a chance to survive, while everyone else will die.

He tried to see if the key to breaking the situation lay in the phantom, but found no way to influence it at all.

It was as if he were in two worlds, and he could only watch the plot unfold helplessly.

This shouldn't be the case.

It must be that his thinking has fallen into a misconception.

Power trial...

Lin An believed his initial judgment was absolutely correct!

Such a trial shouldn't have so many riddles.

"Lin Dui, should we try the military's method..."

"I feel it's pretty reliable.."

"Anyway, self-hypnosis—I was basically a monster anyway..."

Having left his bear form, Zhang Tie saw he had no strength left to swat the monsters, so he simply opened his mouth and bit the spider that wanted to stab his eyeball.

This damned spider kept jumping up and down.

The head held in its claws only made him more annoyed to look at.

After a single thrust pierced the monster in front of him.

Lin An listened to Xiong Hanzi's idea, his expression unchanged, but he felt some hesitation inside.

A few minutes earlier.

Chen Yangtian sent him a message, in which he mentioned the secret of unlocking the gene lock.

He even claimed that his side's battle was going smoothly, and tentatively asked Lin An where he was.

Moreover, Chen Yangtian earnestly advised him at length.

Just that.

Looking at the message sent by Chen Yangtian, Lin An instinctively began to doubt.

Although self-hypnosis as a method indeed resembles military style.

But the doubt is not for any other reason.

It's because, in the past life's memory, the Huaxia war zone suffered heavy losses in the first trial.

If this method of unlocking the gene lock works, why did it still fail in the past life?

You should know, the past life's trial had no personal interference to speed up the process.

The difficulty was absolutely far lower than now.

Furthermore, after simply comparing the situation with Zhang Yong, Lin An keenly realized that Chen Yangtian probably had a problem.

Although there was no evidence, it was enough to make him feel wary.

"Don't try it until the final moment."

"Zhang Yong being able to activate the gene lock in dire straits shows that activating the gene lock doesn't necessarily require self-hypnosis."

Just as the words were finished.

Lin An's body suddenly stiffened.

The monsters swarming him instantly inflicted massive damage.

"Lin Dui!!"

Sensing Lin An's abnormality, Zhang Tie instinctively worried and hurriedly pushed aside the monsters in front of him to offer support.

He remained stiff in place.

A sigh echoed in Lin An's mind.

"At the final moment..."

Also don't go trying...

In his thoughts, the second Lin An, who had always disappeared, popped out.

"If you don't come out, I'll bury you together with me..."