Chapter 836: with translation of chapter title

b「Lin Dui, what are you spacing out for? 」

Under the altar, Xiong Hanzi looked at the motionless Lin An with a suspicious face, his heart itching like a cat's paw to see what he had obtained.

Adding to the fact that Lin An had previously mentioned the skill to him, he wished he could just finish these trivial matters right now and hurry to exchange for the skill.

Even just taking a glance, he felt satisfied.

After coming to his senses, Lin An quickly suppressed the strangeness in his heart and slightly shook his head.

「Nothing. 」

「Go advance to the top ten. 」

There are still 39 promotion slots; although there is no special promotion, at least no points need to be spent.

Saving even a little is good, and Lin An clearly noticed that promoting to the third rank on the altar is far stronger than promoting outside.

Casually allocating the remaining slots to Zhang Yong and Fiona after.

Lin An looked toward the Huaxia war zone, after a brief consideration still chose to give out the remaining slots again.

No matter what, I am ultimately a member of the Huaxia war zone.

After receiving Lin An's message, the military Awakened Ones obviously froze.

They had thought about asking Lin An for a slot, but they just couldn't bring themselves to say it.

The entire death battle victory can be said to be entirely Lin An's achievement.

They, it's as if they got a freebie.

At the front of the team, Lihao, floating in midair, also glanced at Lin An somewhat unexpectedly.

After a while, he silently nodded slowly in acknowledgment.

I don't know whether it's gratitude for Lin An's contribution to the entire Huaxia war zone or something else.

After leaving the altar, Lin An actually discovered that several messages had appeared in his private chat.

(Thanks)

The sender is Lihao, along with a bunch of military high-level officials.

Watching Lin An's departing back, several high-ranking officials who had earlier suggested getting on good terms with Lin An to fight together couldn't help but give a wry smile.

「If, we had persisted a bit longer.. tried a bit harder.. 」

「Wouldn't the ending be much better than now? 」

No one responded; everyone's thoughts were complex, not knowing how to speak.

Yes.

If they had tried a bit harder, even showing willingness to "protect" Lin An and bear pressure from other forces, they would have done so.

Perhaps the rift between the two sides would ease considerably.

Attitude, above all.

Even looking at the results now, Lin An doesn't need them, but human hearts are ultimately flesh-grown.

Many hawkish high-level officials exchanged glances, secretly sighing.

Saying this now is already too late.

Who would have thought... who would have thought Lin An's true strength would be this terrifying?

Standing somewhere in the team, Chen Yangtian desperately tried to conceal his emotions.

After hearing about Lin An's true performance from other war zones, his heart couldn't help but feel a bit of lingering fear.

No wonder the rumors behind the gate place such importance on perfect ones.

It's truly hard to imagine that a mere second-rank perfect one could erupt with such terrifying combat power.

If Lin An weren't, in his eyes, an actual flesh-and-blood human, he would even think that the face beneath that mask might be a monster that escaped from some apocalyptic world.

Kill him... must kill him!

We must definitely bring this news back to the gate!

Leaving the death battle space, standing before the trial tower.

As Lin An carefully examined the newly acquired epic equipment, he unexpectedly discovered Andre and others who were about to leave.

The team was scattered, everyone listless and dejected.

The two met eyes; amid the North American war zone's extremely hostile gaze, Andre merely gave him a silent glance, nodded slightly, and then directly withdrew from the trial space.

What a pity.

Watching Andre's fading silhouette, Lin An faintly furrowed his brow.

Not being able to kill that guy in the trial is his only regret.

However, there will still be opportunities in the future.

Suppress the emotions.

Lin An then turned and continued to look down at the glove-like equipment in his hand.

「【Cain's Hand】: Epic Tier Equipment, Left Hand」

「Equipment Attributes: All Attributes +3 (below third rank All Attributes +7), and additionally provides 3 points of spiritual energy (below third rank, provides 600 points of mental power). 」

「Equipment Special Effect: Attacks carry 10% Arcane Impact damage, can inflict damage on all types of enemies (including spiritual entities, mental entities, Undead Body)」

「Equipment Skill 1: Arcane Torrent」

「Arcane Torrent (A-rank damage): Consumes 3 spiritual energy points per second, firing 3 arcane missiles. Missile maximum existence time: 6 seconds. 」

「This damage is arcane damage, and the missile flight speed is three times the speed of sound. 」

「Equipment Skill 2: Spellcaster」

「Spellcaster (A-rank buff): After activation, consumes 1 spiritual energy point per second; during activation, can control any unowned or self-owned material existence within a hundred-meter range. 」

「After controlling the material, it can be accelerated to twice the speed of sound for attack, and also bears an arcane enchantment effect. 」

The equipment is very strong; one could even say the system has finally been generous.

After putting it on his left hand, Lin An happily admired the glove covered in purple patterns, as if forged from metallic threads.

Upon wearing it, a faint purple special power never felt before slowly wrapped around his left hand, appearing extremely mysterious.

Cain's Hand is roughly a fused and enhanced version of the Soul-devouring Hand and telekinetic crystal.

Two skills: one can replace Soul Shriek, the other can replace telekinetic control.

Since advancing to the third stage, Lin An has clearly realized that his previous means of attacking by consuming mental power are now outdated.

Skills that consume spiritual energy points, whether considering upper or lower limits, vastly outperform the previous skills by several times.

Of course, the drawback is the huge consumption.

For an Awakened One who has just entered the third stage, unleashing a three-second spell torrent can drain all of their spiritual energy reserves.

And to recover to full condition requires a full nine days...

No wonder those third-stage beings from my past life, though powerful and akin to autonomous tactical weapons, rarely acted lightly.

This consumption—who can withstand it?

However, for my fourfold recovery rate, it's barely acceptable.

The fourfold special promotion reward—Lin An truly finds it increasingly perverse the more he thinks about it.

Although if he wishes to pursue true strength, the difficulty of advancement is also more than four times that of other Awakened Ones.

Thinking of his spiritual energy cap as high as 80 points gives him a headache.

That means... he must kill a full 120 third-stage low-level mutants... or destroy 120 safe zones that possess third-stage spiritual energy nodes...

If he also wants to maintain his attribute advantage, that number must be multiplied by four!

The reason is simple.

Only by killing different types of mutants can one gain the corresponding attributes.

Just thinking about it is terrifying.

No wonder third-stage Awakened Ones from my past life rarely reach high third stage, and even mid-level are seldom seen.

Thus, reaching the peak of the third stage is enough to contend for the title of ultimate powerhouse.

Gao Tian, too, probably relied on a bug-like skill, gradually grinding his way to the third-stage peak.

However, if he truly reaches his limit, his strength would theoretically be 400 times that of the weakest third-stage being.

By then, even with third-stage strength, he could likely go head-to-head against a fourth-stage opponent.

In his contemplation, Lin An looked up and found he had already arrived before the trial tower.

He took a deep breath.

He directly deployed a mental power barrier around himself, then solemnly submitted an application to the system.

"Redeem skill!"

Within 0.1 seconds, the system's confirmation prompt also sounded:

"Player Lin An, you apply to redeem an SSS-rank skill, consuming 9999 points this time. Continue?"

Gazing at the ancient, towering trial tower ahead, Lin An forcibly suppressed his excitement and without hesitation clicked confirm.

In an instant, an unprecedented sense of oppression rapidly gathered from the horizon.

Behind him, a large crowd that had just walked out of the death battle space stared in shock at the sky above.

What the hell happened again!?

In an instant, the space quickly darkened.

All that could be seen was a gigantic eyeball, like a true eye, suddenly rolling and emerging in the endless mist.

As if being stared at by some extremely terrifying existence.

Under the gaze of the gigantic eyeball stretching kilometers in length, Lin An only felt his whole body as if being swept over, a chill rising from within.

"Crack"

The mental power barrier he had set up was instantly crushed by this aura.

What terrifying pressure—Lin An's heart jolted violently.

Is it fourth stage... or fifth stage!?

His mind shaken, his body went rigid.

A few seconds later, a voice directly pointing at the soul, as if exploding in thought, echoed emotionlessly in the trial space.

"Monitoring passed, granting."

"Target meets this reward."

"Hum--"

The real world.

At an altitude of 42,000 kilometers, within the near-Earth space like a black hole, a jet of black light shoots out.

Then, a strong, heart-pounding beam of light nearly at light speed pierces the atmosphere, descending from the sky and connecting the real world with the trial space.

It pierces the clouds and runs through the skyline.

"Ding.."

1 second later.

The beam, as thick as a person, dissipates; a dark, hexagonally shaped metal object slowly floats before Lin An.

At the same time, a system prompt also sounded:

"Obtained: SSS-rank skill: 【Heavenly Calamity of Death】 skill module."

"This module cannot be copied, simulated, transferred, replaced, or modified."

"This module is unique; after use, it disappears from all ***."

Inside the trial space, all was quiet.

Many of those who had just been shocked by the giant eye only now came to their senses, dumbly opening their mouths to stare at the back of the diamond-shaped construct.

How long has it been, and Lin An has already produced something else!?

Just now that scene, how could it be more exaggerated than taking first place globally?

What is that floating in midair!? Why would such a terrifying existence personally release it?

Monitoring? Monitor what!?

With his back to the crowd, Lin An, feeling a bit dry-mouthed, slowly reached out to touch the skill module.

To be honest, he was also shocked.

Before that giant eye, he even felt he had no power to resist; if the other side wished, he would be torn apart in an instant.

The skill exchanged this time seems far more terrifying than imagined.

As his fingertip touched, in an instant, a flood of massive information surged into his thoughts.