Chapter 27: After Despair, Divine Equipment Descends

Thinking of all this, he set out immediately. He climbed out of the pit he had just dug and jogged along the narrow path back to the lowest-lying area of the village. Here, the mountain forest and the country road were divided by a clear ravine; to the east of the road lay farmland, to the west, a stretch of primeval green forest.

Upon arriving, he glanced at where the underground water cave should have been. There was a ravine, but no cave, and not even a trace of water to be found.

Could it really have been a coincidence? Was he just wasting his time here? Damn it!

He cursed, slamming his fist into the ground. The earth shook violently, as if the sky itself were collapsing, and from what was once solid ground, a cave slowly revealed itself. As soon as the cave appeared, the apocalyptic trembling ceased.

Stunned by the commotion, Hua Tian was at first petrified, then overjoyed—so it really was here! Without a second thought, she leapt in, landing clumsily but undeterred, crawling forward in a frenzy of excitement.

She quickly scrambled through the tunnel, her heart jumping as she stood. This place was nothing like the water channel she remembered—there was no direct path out to the cliff and cascading waterfall. Instead, the tunnel was shorter, broader, and, as she looked around, nothing but yellow earth and mud surrounded her.

She recalled that it was only after she struck the ground that the cave appeared—could that be the key? At the spot she remembered as the end, she punched the earth dozens of times, then looked around again. Still, nothing happened. Crestfallen, she slumped against the mud wall. There was only one other place, but...

It was a legend, handed down from her ancestors. To be honest, even her own father didn’t know where it was. Realizing sitting there would solve nothing, Hua Tian stood and left the water channel.

As she did, her foot struck something, tripping her. Annoyed, she glanced back—and there it was: something that shouldn’t have appeared here, yet here it was. What did that mean? Without hesitation, she began to dig frantically—there were only a few minutes left until the seven-day mark.

Suddenly, a voice rang out: “You’ve found the place. Time has stopped, and this spot is marked. Only you can enter this space. Choose: proceed now or leave. Leaving will not reduce your reward.”

Having searched for so long, Hua Tian didn’t even bother with the voice.

“I’m going in!” she shouted joyfully.

As soon as she spoke, a prophetic mirror appeared before her. Within it, her village materialized once more, though it seemed subtly altered. Oblivious to the change, Hua Tian focused intently on the astonishing transformations around her. When she tried to clarify—“I said, I want to challenge”—the voice replied, “Challenge begins.”

Scenes flashed by—a montage of her childhood: catching snakes, playing, swimming, wrestling, and other less-than-wholesome antics.

Time passed swiftly—elementary school, middle school, high school—helping others, protecting the weak, fighting, then training her body relentlessly. Suddenly, the scene shifted: she saw herself hoeing the fields, and then, one morning half a year later, leaving home with a gaming watch.

“How could it be—a gaming watch?” Hua Tian muttered incredulously, unable to contain herself. But the images kept rolling, and she didn’t interrupt this strange trial.

The vision changed abruptly: terrifying hordes of zombies besieged her fighting self. She saw her parents performing emergency actions—her father leaping from a spaceship, tossing her and her mother aside, choosing to face death alone. The “Anti-Change” self-destruction lit up the sky…

She watched her life, from birth to youth, then the death of her father, her mother’s brush with death.

Suddenly, she clenched her fists—what was happening? In the time that followed, the entire planet inexplicably exploded, vanishing into the endless sea of stars.

Hua Tian stared at the mirror, now black. Wasn’t she supposed to be facing a trial?

Then, the mirror lit up once more. A figure in white armor, wielding a massive sword, angelic and demonic features combined, with a pair of black-and-red dragon wings, appeared…

The scene immediately shifted to a view from behind. Before him stretched tens of trillions of creatures. Calm and composed, he swung his greatsword—a single strike obliterated the masses. Behind him lay the ruins of the just-exploded planet.

So cool—so thrilling!

“Challenge complete!” a woman’s voice sounded in her ear.

“Huh? What? That’s it? I haven’t even started the real challenge!” Hua Tian hadn’t yet processed what had happened.

“This challenge tested two things: whether you would despair or become lost in chaos, and whether you would feel fear. Failure in either means failure overall. You passed both without change.”

Hua Tian thought, I didn’t even know what was happening—it’s just a game, what’s there to fear? Though seeing her parents like that, she couldn’t help but feel angry after their deaths.

“Take your reward!”

Hua Tian marveled at the incredible prize—so this was the reward for seven days? How magnificent! After a while, she called out, “Hey, beautiful, can you give it to me? Let it come down, please. Otherwise, this is too much for me.”

“Ahem, it’s recognizing its master! You have to let it come to you itself,” the woman’s voice replied, outwardly generous, but inwardly…

At the same time, deep within the Illusory Wave Star, in an ancient glazed palace, watching the images sent by her avatar, Liu Liu turned to the woman facing the wall in repentance and said, “Mother, what’s going on? Why did the power of the Void go to him by itself?” She looked at Long Qingxin.

Long Qingxin, full of regret, replied, “I thought the replica I made would do, but the real one got there first. It never really listened to me—before, with Origin Power suppressing it, I could barely wear it myself. Now it’s run off to that kid, and he complains it’s uncomfortable—uncomfortable, my foot! I was just watching to see if he could survive the coming apocalypse, and if he could, I’d finish the replica and send it to him. But my treasure ran off and got snatched away…” Long Qingxin fumed at the thought—the traitorous thing had run off so quickly. Watching her main mirror, she kept thinking she’d seen that boy somewhere before, and she fell into deep contemplation.

Meanwhile, Hua Tian, after much effort, watched the equipment in the air fasten itself to her body. Standing there, staring ahead, she felt it was all so sudden—the past few days had been filled with bizarre and sorrowful events. She looked at the four pieces of equipment.

She heard, “Your task is complete. There will be a clear prompt when the next task begins.”

Unable to contain her spirited nature, Hua Tian ignored the voice once she understood. In the silent, mysterious space, she squatted down to examine her new gear.

Equipment: Will of the Illusory Wave [Clothes]
Class: Sovereign (Displays as Void class in-game only)
Attributes: +20 Defense
Skill: All Leader of the Wave skills available

Equipment: Will of the Illusory Wave [Pants]
Class: Sovereign (Displays as Void class in-game only)
Attributes: +20 Speed
Skill: All Leader of the Wave skills available

Equipment: Will of the Illusory Wave [Belt]
Class: Sovereign (Displays as Void class in-game only)
Attributes: +20 Strength
Skill: All Leader of the Wave skills available

Equipment: Leader of the Wave [Weapon]
Class: Sovereign (Displays as Void class in-game only)
Attributes: Weapon
Skills: Devour, Transform, Battle Ashes, Mystic Slash Thrust, Godburst Dance, Mimic, No One Behind, Guardian, Ignore, Innate Void Type

(Innate Void Type: minimum set skill requirement—complete mastery of Void Power. Set appearance: colorless, no aura.)

Upon reviewing these, she realized—this was a full Void class set.

Interesting. The equipment had put itself on her; it seemed she couldn’t remove it, nor could it be dropped.

She glanced at the full skill set. (All passives and Innate Void Type have a 1-second cooldown; all other skills have a 10-second cooldown. Transformation weapon skills will be revealed in the professional tournament.)

Weapon skill, Devour: Can absorb all skill abilities; Mimic, enhances via devouring.

Weapon skill, Mimic: Passive, synergizes with Devour, highest-tier, immune to counter-devouring, activated via Devour.

Weapon skill, Transform: Actively change weapon form, original skills remain, each form gains an extra skill. Passive: Invincible when switching between three forms—Mystic, Demon, God. Cannot use form-exclusive skills, but Mystic form can use all skills, including exclusives.

Weapon skill, Battle Ashes: Actively makes all attacks ignore all defenses and damage reduction, with an extremely high chance of absolute hit, lasting until the end of battle.

Weapon skill, Mystic Slash Thrust: On use, transforms into Demon form, exclusive active skill for physical burst attack; slashes forward ten times in a row, each slash multiplies in power, final slash comes down from above, totaling eleven strikes; then instantly charges forward with a thrust, killing any gravely wounded target. Demon form passive: all skills usable at full power; hitting any creature fully restores health; can use any weapon.

Weapon skill, Godburst Dance: On use, transforms into God form, exclusive active skill for sustained magical attacks; each attack causes an explosion, range determined by distance, attacks any target within maximum range, damage is at least tenfold, user is immune to self-inflicted damage. God form passive: all skills usable at full power; attacks can be ranged or melee, ignore all long-range attacks, and reflect them back with double the force as an absolute hit; cannot use any weapon, only energy orb in hand.

Equipment skill, No One Behind (Hero’s Tears): Belt passive skill; when in a team (pets and animals don’t count, only same race), if all teammates die, some stats are increased a hundredfold—healing, speed, strength—and all attacks become absolute hits with innate power.

Equipment skill, Guardian: Pants passive skill; Passive 1: using No One Behind has a very low chance to trigger Hero’s Tears, all stats increase ten thousand-fold, attacks become absolute hits with innate power, the angrier you are the higher the stat boost, no upper limit, and enters Mystic form. Passive 2: 33.3% chance to ignore enemy absolute hits, 50% chance to absolutely defend when attacked. Passive 3: while in Mystic form, cannot die, ignores all enemy innate attributes, and is immune to their innate attributes as well.

Equipment skill, Ignore: Clothes passive skill: naturally immune to all poisons, ignores marks, ignores absolute control and negative effects, immune to bad items and talismans, innate dominance.

Innate Void Type (not used in the virtual game arc): In battle, immune to all damage, can enter the void to escape at will. All incoming attacks are reflected back multiple times. Can find the timeline in the void.

“So powerful!”

With that, she fed her old weapon, the Destiny Gauntlets, to the Devour skill. Instantly—

Name: Berserk Slayer
Level: 25 [Intermediate]

Class: Berserker Shield
Attributes: 150/150/150 (max for beginner and intermediate)
Skills: Earthshaker [Void lv5], Heaven-Devouring Fist [Void lv5], Lucky Meteor [Void passive lv1], Command [Weapon Enhanced], Blood Claw [Weapon Enhanced], Devour [Weapon Skill], Transform [Weapon Skill], Battle Ashes [Weapon Skill], Mystic Slash Thrust [Weapon Skill], Godburst Dance [Weapon Skill], Mimic [Weapon Skill], No One Behind [Equipment Skill], Guardian [Equipment Skill], Ignore [Equipment Skill]
Technique: Fist Art–Corpse Hunter [level 10]
Equipment: Will of the Illusory Wave [Void set], Leader of the Wave [Void weapon]
Team: Han Crown Squad [Vice Captain]
Squad Coins: 1,301,184,535
Gold: 40
Command Skill: Sea Monster: 480,231 [units]

Looking at the dense list of skills, she shouted, “Who else can match me?”

Exhilarated, she rushed out. On her way to find the teleportation array, she encountered a level six-and-a-half saber-toothed tiger. An hour later, Hua Tian was at full health.

Having used all her skills—including Demon and God forms—she ended up slaying the beast with Mystic Slash Thrust, then rode it in search of the way out.

…

In Han City, Captain Han and Xiaoyu walked toward the city gate. Xiaoyu pulled Captain Han along. “Where’s Berserk Slayer? It’s been seven days—he’s still not back. Forget him for now. I just cleared all the stages I was stuck on in solo mode. In the end, a zombie snake appeared and scared me to death—I’m terrified of snakes! Then I got mobbed and died.”

As Xiaoyu pretended to cry, she thought she ought to find their “money tree” Berserk Slayer to upgrade her gear. Just then, she saw a player riding a tiger emerge from the teleportation array, looking around with a relieved expression. Xiaoyu’s eyes widened—speak of the devil, and he appears—the money tree…

She was about to approach him, but saw Captain Han rush over first. So, she went home to notify the others: the money tree is back…

The two arrived at the captain’s office. Han Qianyun looked at Berserk Slayer and asked, “Did you find anything? Any crafting books above purple grade?”

Hua Tian coughed and replied, “No, nothing. And if I did, they wouldn’t be of use to you.”

“Oh? What is it? Show me,” Han Qianyun said, her voice suddenly enticing.

“Um, could you step back a bit? I’ll show you.” She reluctantly pulled up her information for Han Qianyun.

“Oh, it’s just equipment. Everyone’s found purple equipment crafting books by now, and there’s no shortage of Void class sets. Void class… set…”

Boasting, Han Qianyun rose on tiptoe, then realized what she had just said. She checked his information closely—an entire set of Void class gear.

No, no, it can’t be real—a whole set! Tears welled up.

“Captain! Let go! Have some self-respect! What about your goddess image? It really can’t be taken off—I’ve tried!” Hua Tian pleaded as Han Qianyun tried to snatch her gear.

“No way! I don’t believe it. Let go! Why won’t it come off? Huh, what’s that under your foot? Let me see.”

Berserk Slayer spread his arms wide, frantically clicking to remove his gear, but nothing budged. Head down, dejected, he noticed something underfoot.

“Another Void class item? Not bad, let me borrow it…”

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Author’s Note: Mystic Slash Thrust is the only skill in this novel that multiplies. All other skills either stack to a set value, like Heaven-Devouring Fist, or increase gradually. For example, a previous Void class item had a speed of ten times; adding another ten times makes twenty, not a hundred. Mystic Slash Thrust’s final blow is planned to be 1,024 times the first, which is just one. If you use No One Behind for a hundredfold boost, Mystic Slash Thrust becomes one hundred times its slash multiplier. Godburst Dance generally multiplies by only 110, but 1,024 times can’t be used in early or late apocalypse periods—using it would knock you out. Apart from Heaven-Devouring Fist being the strongest single-target skill, Mystic Slash Thrust is the second.

Attributes aren’t important—skills are the real power. Techniques are for survival once the zombie outbreak begins; that’s when they’re most useful. Techniques in-game have two main functions: higher level means a higher defense-ignoring ratio; at max level, you get ten extra points in each attribute—except for the Supreme Technique the protagonist gets later. Attributes are just the foundation for skill damage and health, plus the ever-shifting nature of combat. I feel like I never really wrote this out, all flashy nonsense—just got to keep working at it!

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