Chapter 969: with translation of chapter title

After a moment of silence, Tel quickly sent a message.

No, but I've seen other components.

Worried Lin An might hang up, he hastily sent a picture with the message—showing a piece of equipment resembling lower-body armor floating on an altar.

Death God Armor (lower)

It's the same equipment as yours, right? Lin An!

He was half anxious.

The equipment isn't in his hands, and he's not certain that sharing this information will get Lin An to act.

But a component of a set surpassing Epic Tier equipment, I believe Lin An will surely be interested.

Had he not felt the equipment's aura up close, he couldn't be sure of this.

A top-tier piece of equipment—knowing how powerful equipment is, Tel doesn't believe Lin An would remain unmoved.

Especially, the term "set" usually means that only when the full set is gathered can its true power be unleashed.

In his view, Lin An's such great strength likely has something to do with the Death God set.

According to the information they later gathered, Andre of the North American theater had once faced Lin An! Those two summoned Rank-3 puppets, in an otherwise unsolvable situation, Lin An violently killed them with his mask.

Without the mask, the victory in the death match would still be uncertain.

Hard to imagine that a single piece of equipment could bridge such a huge gap—the attribute boost must be outrageous.

You know...

At that time Lin An was strong, but only at Second Level!

As expected.

On the other end of the line, Lin An directly stated his message:

Where is it?

How did you find it?

As for the Death God set's component, Lin An is indeed tempted.

Especially, having two pieces of the set can already activate part of its effects.

Once he gets it, his strength can surge again!

Suffice to say, just from memory, having the full set can push an ordinary person straight to Fourth Rank—a terrifying effect that proves how powerful the full set is.

The only regret, and what makes Lin An puzzled is...

The set components are actually distributed across different theaters.

The difficulty of gathering them is probably much greater than I originally thought...

Not daring to hesitate, Tel quickly organized his words, eyes showing recollection:

The equipment was discovered a month ago, that is, before the trial.

Specifically, it was found by one of the Awakened Ones from the eastern part of our theater, who, while evading mutant pursuit, mistakenly entered a building from the Catherine era and discovered it.

The equipment is guarded by a Special Event; when we tried to take it, we suffered heavy losses.

So we simply marked it and plan to go back later.

Without revealing any coordinates or symbols, Tel, though urgent, knows that if he told the whole situation, Lin An could abandon them and go alone to the Soviet theater to take the equipment.

Although obtaining it is extremely difficult, that is also the case for them.

After a pause, Tel spoke earnestly and sent another message:

Lin An, if you have a way to help us get through this mission.

I swear, the Soviet theater is willing to help you obtain this equipment, and if you have other demands, we can also agree to them!

Although reluctant.

Any Awakened One would feel heartbroken to hand over such priceless equipment.

But the situation can no longer be delayed.

When a person dies, nothing remains.

When the Red Tower corpse tide arrives, it will completely break through the defenses...

Although Tel might not die himself, the painstakingly built Safe Zone in his theater and countless survivors will inevitably suffer a devastating blow.

And he truly cannot bear to abandon all this...

On the other end of the line, after listening, Lin An's eyes flickered, his fingertip habitually tapping the armrest.

One message, plus a promise...

If he gives up this opportunity, he probably won't be able to find this component even if he later goes to the Soviet theater.

Tel is very smart; his description revealed no coordinates, and the Soviet Far East is really huge...

Trying to find the Death God Armor is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Beside him, Zhang Tie, seeing him lost in thought, couldn't help but interject:

Lin Dui, is it that Tel idiot wants our help?

Lin An glanced at Xiong Hanzi and gave a soft hum.

After a moment, he sent another message:

I do want the information.

But now wanting to resolve the mission... impossible.

If nothing unexpected happens, theoretically the only way to resolve the mission is to infiltrate the Red Tower's center and find the source of the disaster outbreak.

Even if I rush over now, there's not enough time.

Lin An directly stated it.

Frankly speaking, if Tel had looked for him from the start, there might still be time.

But now... it's too late.

Hearing Lin An's such blunt reply, Tai Er gave a bitter laugh, his heart suddenly tightened.

Lin An, you have no way out either?

That's right, if they had organized manpower from the start and spared no expense to infiltrate the Red Tower, they might indeed be able to resolve the crisis.

But the problem is, they've never encountered anything like this before, and only after the fact did they realize how terrifying a war-zone-level mission truly is.

Everything... really is too late.

Moreover, the center of the Red Tower has just been bombed by a nuclear weapon, and they aren't sure whether it will produce new mutants.

"So... is there really no hope?"

Muttering to himself, Tai Er stared blankly at the distant front line.

All third-rank Awakened Ones have already led their troops in charging into the zombie tide.

For now, the battle situation looks decent; the Awakened Ones' forces deep in the zombie tide are like a sharp blade tearing through the tide, firmly holding their position.

The dazzling glow of their skills almost merges into a single sheet, appearing astonishingly mighty.

But he knows well.

Human strength has its limits; as long as the battle drags on, the Awakened Ones depleted of spiritual energy are merely soldiers who can hold out a little.

"There is hope."

At the other end of the call, Lin An, utterly unfazed by Tai Er's battered state, shifted the topic:

"Mission failure is inevitable, but mission failure does not mean death."

"Huh?!"

Tai Er suddenly froze, looking dubiously at the message Lin An sent.

He couldn't help but respond aloud:

"What do you mean? If the mission fails, we can't possibly stop the surging mutants; at most we have a day before the safe zone behind us is completely overrun!"

"So what?"

As soon as the message was sent, Lin An replied without any emotional fluctuation:

"Will the extra third-rank mutants appear right before you? Does the safe zone being overrun mean everyone must die?"

"Think differently; mission failure merely means more monsters in the war zone, or that the Far East region has fallen!"

"The Soviet War Zone is so vast; abandoning this place is tantamount to giving up, and the worst outcome is merely equivalent to having no disaster reduction."

A string of replies left Tai Er feeling a sudden bewilderment.

One second later, he frowned, unable to suppress some indignation:

"Lin An, aren't you being too casual?!"

"I certainly know that, but don't you realize that if we abandon this place, we can escape, but what about the remaining survivors?!"

"They simply can't escape!"

"Moreover, this place gathers the finest survivors of the entire Far East! Many of them are engineers!"

After sending the message, Tai Er clenched his fists tightly.

They certainly considered evacuation, moving the survivors continuously to other areas.

In fact, he had already begun issuing that order just earlier.

But the problem is, where in the Soviet War Zone are there no zombies? Where are there no mutants?

From this safe zone to the next, the distance is at least several hundred kilometers.

Not to mention the dangers along the way; just the Red Tower zombies tracking them by scent are enough to make them drink a pot!

Once the Red Tower zombies are left chasing behind, even reaching the next safe zone amounts to bringing the disaster along.

Everyone can imagine how grim the escape route will be.

Just as his words fell, Lin An calmly replied from the other end of the comms:

"So, in fact, if we can withdraw instantly, that would solve the problem, right?"

A white light flashed in his right hand, and a scroll-like prop appeared in his grip.

Prop information sent.

Upon receiving the information, Tai Er on the other end stared blankly at the prop details, frozen in place.

"What is this?!"