Chapter 380: No More Concealment, Time For A Showdown, I… Am Also A God!
[Exiting the group ruins… ]
[The player’s current progress and points are being assessed for ranking rewards…]
[Congratulations to Ocean Commander Su Mo, you are ranked No. 1 in the group ruins this time. Points: 1280 million. Your title is promoted by default to Level 5: Ocean Admiral]
[Congratulations to Ocean Commander Su Mo, it is detected that you have successfully completed all levels, your bonus rewards have accumulated to the maximum limit, and cannot be increased any further.]
[Reward distribution is in progress…]
[Reward distribution is in progress…]
[In progress…]
…
? ? ?
Once again, this was the dark space that had to be passed when returning from the ruins to the wasteland world.
Listening to the game’s continuous repetitive broadcast of reward distributions, Su Mo raised his hand and waved at the void with a confused expression.
After more than 20 days clearing up the last of the Church of the God of the Ocean in the group ruins and starting the industrial revolution, Su Mo only had had a few words with his sister before hurriedly choosing to quit.
At present, the level’s cumulative rewards had reached the 150th level. The reward item was an extremely rare three star resource card and a rare-quality blueprint.
If one included the title promotion, as well as the materials and seeds that were safely in the storage space, the group ruins this time had certainly delivered a windfall.
However, after listening to the sound of the game prompts for a full five minutes, Su Mo panicked!
“Shit, Hope One can’t have run into trouble and sunk, right!
“Could it be that the game can’t find my initial entry location point right now, and it’s stuck?”
When this idea surfaced in his mind, Su Mo had a fright, but after thinking about it carefully, he immediately ruled out this possibility.
Currently, it was not that the game was unable to find the teleportation point—the game was stuck in the distribution of rewards.
“Could it be that this three star resource card and rare-quality blueprint should basically be unobtainable at this stage…
“So the game didn’t prepare the rewards at all?
“This still doesn’t make sense, a resource card and blueprint is nothing too difficult for the game anyways!
“That can’t be; don’t tell me I’ve encountered a bug in the system?”
After thinking about it, Su Mo attempted to invoke the system to ensure it was still escorting him. He then sprang into action rapidly instead of sitting there doing nothing.
The last few times, this space had not given Su Mo time to grope around and explore. Every time after the rewards had finished being issued, it would immediately pop back and vanish.
Yet this time, he heard the game notification sounds buzzing like mosquitoes in his ear.
It did not take very long for Su Mo to do an initial mapping out of the boundaries of this space.
The length and width of the space were roughly calculated according to stride, but the actual measurements were basically around 400 meters, neither very large nor very small.
Furthermore, as soon as he reached the boundaries, something like an air wall would appear.
Su Mo experimented by calling up the three-pointed two-edged sword in the storage space and attempting to strike the air wall several times with great force.
At first, the air wall felt firm and solid, but after three or five rebounds of the blade, it suddenly became a rubbery, somewhat tough substance.
Even if Su Mo struck with all his might, not much damage power remained after the fluctuating unloading force, and it was impossible to penetrate this thin membrane substance at all.
“It’s weird—it feels hard at first, and then immediately becomes soft after taking some impact—what is this!
“If this substance could be mounted on shields or armor, though, it would be a first-class absorbent material.”
He put away the three-pointed two-edged sword, then took out the machine gun and fired several dozen rounds. After ascertaining that his existing attack power did nothing whatsoever to this thin film, Su Mo immediately changed his way of thinking.
One by one, he took out the items in his storage space.
Countless seeds and materials flew out into the empty void of the space as if they were dancing in the sky, then flew back into the storage space again.
After a round of inspection, he discovered there was no problem with all the items brought out from the Deep Sea World.
The next second, some things that had originally been obtained from the wasteland world slowly began drifting out, from the most basic drinking water and military rations to all the small items of the same level.
In the end, Su Mo even took out the Mountain and Sea Painting Scroll card.
“Hey, don’t tell me the game is genuinely lagging? You can’t keep me trapped here!”
Putting back the Mountain and Sea Painting Scroll card, while carefully recalling what he did in the group ruins, Su Mo continued to take out items mechanically.
However, just as he took out the Divulgence of Heaven’s Secret from sheer habit and naturally wanted to put it back, a slight change finally occurred in the pitch-black space.
At this moment, this dark space that even the light of the system panel could not illuminate turned just a little brighter under the influence of the talisman.
The game prompts also stopped suddenly as if someone had strangled the sounds in its throat.
Swish…
Swoosh…
Swish…
A familiar, yet strange sound began to emerge in the entire space. Within a few seconds, it had become very audible.
“This… what is this?”
Su Mo glanced at the Divulgence of Heaven’s Secret in his hand that wanted to fly up sans orders. He did not prevent it from doing so either and let it flutter around freely.
It was the same sound of the waves that could be heard every time he entered the talisman’s simulation world to test Hope One.
This time in the pitch-black space, not only was the sound of the waves clearer but there was also a subtle sound like the buzzing of mosquitoes and flies, drifting beyond the waves.
Furthermore, as the Divulgence of Heaven’s Secret floated up, the sounds of conversation masked behind the sound of the waves became louder, and a faint phantom image even appeared in the empty space.
This phantom image would certainly have been difficult to detect in broad daylight, but in the extremely dark space, it instantly caught Su Mo’s eye.
“Are those two people walking and talking by the sea? No, wait, the person on the left is the one I saw in the Divulgence of Heaven’s Secret!”
Although the two figures in the phantom image were very faint, Su Mo’s excellent eyesight and observation skills instantly picked up on the old-fashioned pocket watch on the ankle of the person walking on the left.
After noticing this exclusive outfit previously, Su Mo had always kept it in mind.
For some reason, however, after seeing it again in this empty space, a mysterious premonition told Su Mo that if he could hear the conversation between the two clearly, the secrets that time had swallowed on the wasteland would truly be revealed!
Unfortunately, the sound of the waves was too loud, and they were not conversing in human language.
A series of complicated, incomprehensible syllables floated from their mouths and slowly drifted toward him…
“Wait a minute. Damn, how come I’ve overlooked one major thing all this while! Why can the native inhabitants of the Deep Sea World speak the Huaxian language!
“This isn’t the game translating things; not only can they speak the Huaxian language, but they can even write in it!
“Back in the Fertile Soil Era, humans didn’t have teleportation, so how could they know these things!”
While speculating about the language that the two mysterious characters were speaking in, the thought flashed through Su Mo’s mind that perhaps everyone in the Fertile Soil Era used Huaxian language, and these two individuals were just anomalies.
In an instant, there arose the question of why these human beings and marine creatures in the Fertile Soil Era could speak the Huaxian language so fluently.
“Could it be that in that era, the game had already made its appearance?
“Or perhaps humans from a parallel Earth universe had already come to this world?”
Even though he could not hear the conversation between the two, a storm seemed to have been stirred up in Su Mo’s brain as he rapidly considered all these anomalies.
For the other participating humans, there was nothing unusual about the group ruins this time.
However, now that he knew about the God of the Ocean, the Fertile Soil Era, the battle that year, and the true identity of the game, all of it was now too abnormal to Su Mo.
One after another, inexplicable logic chain errors slowly began emerging.
After nearly a hundred days of exploration, Su Mo had not been able to discover the root cause of the war that year, nor any traces of the so-called enemy.
Currently, however, if this chain of logic were to be followed any further…
Staring at the two mysterious figures floating in the air, Su Mo’s eyes gleamed, and an extremely bold idea flashed into his mind.
An instant later, a light blue system panel appeared.
At a flicker from Su Mo’s thoughts, thin green threads representing “appraisal attributes” flew out.
The target was…
The figure on the right!
Apart from being unable to analyze any dead creatures that he had not obtained, the system was extremely accurate in analyzing living creatures!
Even the Heavenly Dog Pseudo God could be “dissected” within the space of a few breaths and all its attributes analyzed.
Last time, in the void of the Divulgence of Heaven’s Secret talisman world, Su Mo had tried to use the system to analyze the attributes of mysterious figures.
At that time, the system had not responded.
This time, however, when scanning the figure in the air on the right, the system’s appraisal worked as it always had, and sent back two solid attribute panels in one go.
[Character A (Friendly)]
[Description]: A living being with very good intentions toward you. Due to the current level of the system, the being’s attributes cannot be viewed for now. Please try to upgrade the level of the system and scan again for the results.
[Ability]: Unknown
[Evaluation]: Young man, when you encounter a senior like this, aren’t you going to hurry up and find some way of cheating them?
…
[God of the Ocean (Fertile Soil Era) (Neutral 12%)]
[Description]: This is a phantom image left by the God of the Ocean during the Fertile Soil Era. His role is very simple. He is responsible for the behavioral assessment in the title promotion trial, as well as the final reward distribution.
[Ability:] Unknown
[Evaluation:]
[Option 1:] Lying on the ground, arms wrapped around your stomach and shouting:
“I want to go home, I don’t want to play anymore. Hurry up, you two effeminate old farts, and let me go back!”.
Your reward will be reduced by 60%, and the two effeminate old farts’ favor toward you will decrease by 100%. Correspondingly, however, you will be able to return to the wasteland immediately.
[Option 2:] Display an expression of admiration, and sigh with wide eyes while applauding.
“Amazing, truly amazing—truly worthy of real gods. Listening to your words is just like listening to a long boring speech!”
Your reward will decrease by 30%, the two important beings’ favor toward you will be reduced by 15%, and you will also be able to return to the wasteland immediately.
[Option 3:] Make a pinching gesture with your finger, wearing an expression that displays boredom, mockery, and indifference while lamenting regretfully, “So unambitious; your worldview is just far too unambitious.”
You will retain your reward, and the favor of the two important beings toward you will increase by 5%, but you will accept a test. If the test fails, your favor will be -100% and your reward will be -100%.
[Option 4:] With a fervent expression, raise your clenched fist into the air shouting loudly, “The institutions in the Deep Sea World are rotten to the core. I have decided that from today onward, I will choose a path that I won’t regret. I’m going to create my own institutions. I want to become a burning fire… a true reformer!”
Your reward will increase by 50%, and the favor of the two important beings toward you will increase by 20%. Similarly, you will also accept a time-sensitive quest. If you fail, your favor will be -500%, and you will permanently lose the Divulgence of Heaven’s Secret.
[Option 5:] Reveal your own status as the “God of Food”. You will retain your reward, and you will gain a bonus of no less than 5000% of the reward. Your Level 4 title will directly be promoted to Level 9 Oracle of the God of the Ocean, and you will gain the full favor of the two important beings.
[Penalty:] You need to follow the guidance of the Fertile Soil God of the Ocean to find the habitat of the Wasteland God of the Ocean as soon as possible, otherwise your probability of being discovered by the game will increase day by day, and you will permanently lose the Divulgence of Heaven’s Secret, as well as the favor of all the gods.
The system was unable to give information about the mysterious man on the left, either because of his power or his level. All that popped up was that he was friendly.
However, for the figure on the right, extremely detailed information popped up from the system.
“Fertile Soil God of the Ocean? Five choices? Interesting!”
Su Mo stared at the five pieces of information delivered by the system’s appraisal and rubbed the stubble on his chin. An enigmatic smile flickered over his face.
A second later, upon seeing that the two figures were still talking between themselves and had completely forgotten that there was someone below who was anxious to go back, Su Mo did not delay further and immediately chose to switch his identity.
In an instant, “Su Mo” disappeared.
Replacing him was…
The form that exuded perfection, power, and the authority to speak—the mighty Yang Jian!
Looking at the two important beings who were staring at him with shocked expressions because of his transformation into such a gorgeous form, Su Mo smiled lightly. His face bore a trace of ineffable indifference.
“No more concealment.. It’s time for a showdown—I… am also a god!”
