Awakening：The Infinite Evolution of My Talent as a Low-Level Awakener - Chapter 268: The Despairing Suppression

Sterl’s anger came swiftly and faded just as fast.

He realized that the trouble the young man was causing him likely wasn’t out of “malice.”

Instead, it was…

The backlash of Fortune had returned!

Just at that moment, the young man harbored some ill will towards Sterl. With a subtle nudge from some unseen will, he chose to take action.

When the young man acted, it meant the entire strategy team would spring into action as well.

In the outside world, they always moved together, advancing and retreating in unison.

The leader of the strategy team hadn’t even noticed the young man’s attack, but with a glance, he instructed the others to quickly eliminate this third-class player.

Regardless of the reason, the leader of the strategy team only saw one of his teammates attacking a third-class player, so it must be the enemy’s fault!

Meanwhile, the alien woman remained trapped, and amidst her pain, a glimmer of hope flickered in her eyes as she looked towards Sterl.

Could this third-class player still have a trump card?

Would he be able to…

Make a move?

At this moment, she was in a situation where “desperate times call for desperate measures.” Although she thought that this third-class player might be able to defeat the boss-hunting team, her rational mind told her that there was simply no chance.

However, the alien woman and the many members of the strategy team who couldn’t help but glance at Sterl were all left dumbfounded.

First, the bizarre giant mouth that had restrained the alien woman suddenly and inexplicably vanished.

Next, the buffs on many members of the strategy team abruptly dissipated into nothingness.

Finally, those who had already taken action and were preparing to eliminate the third-class player stumbled back, spitting blood, seemingly suffering from a backlash.

“What’s going on? Where are my skills?”

“Why is my skill bar completely black?”

“It seems like only legendary abilities can be used; my talents have been sealed—what’s happening?”

…

Instantly, many members of the strategy team were shouting in panic and confusion.

At the same time, they noticed—

“It’s dark!”

“What’s going on?”

“Are we being targeted by some powerful boss?”

…

The leader of the strategy team had a serious expression: “Everyone! Form a defensive formation!”

The members of the BOSS strategy team, who had been in a state of chaos just a second ago, upon hearing the command, maintained their blank expressions, still looking quite lost, but their movements became extraordinarily efficient and precise.

Those in the back stood in the middle, while the front-line warriors shielded all the back-row units behind them.

Once this formation was established, even a formidable enemy would struggle to breach the strategy team’s defenses quickly.

Yet, at this moment, these players wore confused expressions.

“My skills are restored?”

“Me too??”

“What just happened?”

“Wait, why are my equipment skills dark?”

“It seems like my talent isn’t usable anymore?”

…

After forming the defensive formation, many were puzzled but felt a bit more relaxed. However, the leader of the strategy team’s expression had changed dramatically.

Because…

Only the front-line warriors were speaking; not a single person in the back row uttered a word.

The leader of the strategy team turned in horror, and indeed, all the priests and mages in the back row had been decapitated by a single sword strike, with no one left alive!

“How is this possible!”

The leader’s pupils contracted slightly.

He instinctively resisted the reality before him. He had built this strategy team from the ground up, personally assessing each member, and they had formed deep bonds. Now, more than half of them had been wiped out in an instant?

“What on earth…”

The leader’s awareness suddenly froze. His eyes caught sight of a headless corpse slowly collapsing to the ground.

That was… my corpse??

He was momentarily stunned, the immense vitality granted by his legendary peak allowing him to witness the following scene.

A figure.

It seemed to be that third-class player they had encountered twice before; he was the one who had acted!

The leader of the strategy team felt a twinge of confusion.

Hadn’t I already let him go? Why is he doing this?

With the perceptive ability of a legendary peak, he hadn’t noticed the actions of his subordinates earlier, which could only mean one thing…

To ignore is the highest form of contempt.

The leader had regarded a third-class player as mere dust, as if he didn’t exist at all.

At this moment, all he felt was boundless confusion and resentment.

We didn’t offend you; what do you want?

He realized what the “third-class” player intended to do.

The “third-class player” moved like a tiger among sheep, drawing forth a sword made from flowing water and casually slicing through the air.

It was as if…

A real person had entered a wax museum, wielding a sharp blade and casually hacking the wax figures to pieces.

Indeed, what the strategy team leader saw was his subordinates being cut to pieces without any resistance.

It was a sense of despairing oppression.

Many members of the squad wanted to flee, some wanted to fight back, but the result was the same: death.

Some released offensive skills, others defensive skills, but it made no difference; under the Flowing Water blade, their attacks were severed, and their defenses were sliced through like tofu.

The leader of the strategy team had no time to feel sorrow or anger; his consciousness was plunged into darkness.

“Damn!”

“Why?!”

At that moment, in an apartment in a city on some planet, a middle-aged man angrily smashed his game helmet onto the floor.

“Damn it, I ran into a madman.”

“After years of hard work building this strategy team, it’s been wiped out in an instant.”

…

Meanwhile, in the Heavenly Curtain Canyon within the game,

Sterl still held the Flowing Water blade, the earlier scene igniting fury in his heart, prompting him to immediately test the effect of Silent Domain on people.

Sterl maintained control for only a brief moment, approximately 0.3 seconds.

However, the actual effect of the control lasted much longer.

The reason was simple: the players would find that no matter how they tried, they couldn’t activate their skills.

In such a situation, they would prioritize figuring out how to break the control over frantically attempting to use their skills until they worked.

After all, they were unaware of the specifics of the Silent Domain skill, so they could only respond instinctively.

As a result, during the 0.3 seconds of silence, all the enemies were in a state of confusion, and Sterl used that brief window to eliminate the back row with his Rain Curtain Sword.

Since he had already offended them, Sterl decided to go all the way; his first strike was aimed at wiping out the opponent completely.

After the entire back row of the strategy team had fallen, the front-line players were still trying to see if their skills would work again.

Then, using the energy saved from maintaining such a short Silent Domain, Sterl activated the enhancement of Arcane Law and swiftly killed the leader of the strategy team.

The remaining members, even after the enhancement, found themselves easily dismembered by the sustained Flowing Water blade.

Sterl felt…

Not long ago, he had struggled a bit against the legendary peak in the Trial of the Brave, and he had also needed some effort when assisting the members of the Twilight Guild, facing down the legendary peak’s techniques.

Now, killing a legendary peak felt as easy as casually dispatching a wild monster.

Meanwhile…

Sterl sensed another portion of Fortune merging into his body, as this time, it came directly from defeating a high-tier legendary enemy.

The intensity of the Fortune backlash was unprecedented.

Thus, he gained twelve points of Fortune from this encounter, and combined with what he had already acquired, he quickly accumulated a total of fifteen points.

This made Sterl feel quite pleased.

At the same time, he received an uncertain piece of news: the Fortune backlash had one final occurrence before it would end. This was a deep intuition that left him utterly convinced.

Therefore, there was no way Sterl could rely on a single bug exploit to accumulate enough Fortune for an upgrade cheat.

However, if the intensity of the Fortune backlash continued to rise at this rapid pace, it wouldn’t be long before he faced enemies he couldn’t handle.

“But exploiting bugs is indeed absurd,” Sterl nodded. Why did he say this?

After consecutively killing bosses and this group of boss hunters, the high-quality enemies provided another boost of blood force, in addition to what he had previously accumulated.

Sterl had a total of 1.31 points of blood force.

It sounded like a small amount, but it was enough to evolve the Grass and Wood Law into a fragmented level.

And he had only spent less than a day to accumulate that one point of blood force.

“This is still the main world. If it were a place with higher combat intensity and more strong opponents, I could keep grinding as long as I wanted in hell.”

“The efficiency of farming blood force would be even higher!”

A glint of fervor flashed in his eyes.

It was truly one of those things you didn’t know until you experienced it; once you did, you couldn’t stop.

The Origin of Chaos was indeed powerful!

“I must go to hell soon and grind hard!”

At this moment, Sterl did not use the blood force directly because he wanted to first enhance the power of the Flowing Water Law and unlock the second form of the Rain Curtain Sword.

Simply increasing the Grass and Wood Law wouldn’t yield significant results.

After contemplating, Sterl slowly approached the only surviving person on the field.

The alien woman was already so frightened that she was in a daze. As an observer this time, she had acquired the most information, and she confirmed once again that this third-class player had not used any hidden cards given to him by others.

“Spare me!”

“I absolutely won’t tell anyone what I saw today!”

The woman was quick to read the situation and could see what the third-class player cared about the most.

“Heh.”

“Why are you being illogical? Killing you wouldn’t stop the news from leaking either.”

Sterl corrected her with a cheerful smile.

The woman was so terrified that she slumped to the ground.

“I… I…”

“You…”

She struggled to find words.

Sterl could only kindly remind her: “You should say what you’re willing to offer in exchange for your life.”

“Oh!”

“Right! Right!”

“I’m willing to pay a ransom for my life; I’m willing to pay.”

The alien woman clung to this lifeline like it was a straw to grasp. She shouted repeatedly, and then her expression changed painfully as she reluctantly handed over an item.

“My lord, this is my most precious possession…”

“Could you please be merciful?”

Sterl had initially just taken the item she handed over casually, but in the next moment, his expression changed.