Chapter 174: Shattered Hopes
by xennovel“Next round!!”
His right hand trembled slightly.
Yenir pressed hard on the wound in his stomach, his face turning pale as fresh blood slowly seeped from his fingertips.
Despite his injuries, his eyes burned with anger rather than pain.
Only three seconds ago, he had snapped Ye Xiaoan’s neck with his own hands!
He had expected the system to become increasingly twisted, but he never imagined that this round’s enemy would be his own sister.
Facing the only remaining family he had, a brief moment of hesitation nearly cost him his life as the monster formed from Ye Xiaoan’s approach struck.
He just couldn’t do it. He really couldn’t.
Even though he knew it was an illusion, the system’s interference made everything feel painfully real—so real that he almost bit his tongue before the agony reminded him it was all fake.
He only had two seconds left.
When Ye Xiaoan, with childlike innocence and a look of wounded grievance, ran toward him, Yenir simply couldn’t bring himself to strike her down immediately.
And that fleeting hesitation cost him dearly.
The dagger that materialized from Ye Xiaoan’s hand plunged straight into his heart without any obstruction. Had he not reacted quickly, Yenir feared he was done for.
Watching her lifeless body at his feet, with a confused expression still lingering on her face as if unable to believe her brother had killed her, felt like a jagged blade repeatedly gouging at his soul.
He forced down the anger burning in his heart.
Yenir fixed his gaze on the trial space, which hadn’t yet shifted, struggling to cling to his sanity.
The final round was about to begin.
He had to see what fragments the system would pull next.
Buzz!
Unlike previous rounds, the final test left Yenir feeling as if he were dragged to the ocean floor, his thoughts instantly silenced.
Meanwhile, the trial space began shifting rapidly.
………………..
“Yenir!?”
“Yenir, wake up quickly!”
“You did it!!”
“Wake up! We need you!!”
Calls rang out one after another.
As if awakening from a deathly slumber, Yenir slowly opened his eyes, a throbbing pain pulsing in his head. His thoughts felt frozen, the voices around him playing like a slowed-down recording, a noisy clamor in his ears. Perhaps noticing his awakening, the surrounding crowd erupted into cheers.
“He’s awake!”
“He’s awake!”
Without a moment’s hesitation,
Yenir struggled to open his eyes, only to find himself surrounded by people in military uniforms, each face brimming with excitement. Their looks, filled with hope, made it seem as though he embodied their last chance.
This place… it looked like a hospital?
With a splitting headache, Yenir managed to lift his head with difficulty.
“Wh-what’s happening to me…?”
Wasn’t I in a trial? Why did it feel like ages had passed…
Sensing something off within his body, Yenir was struck by an uncanny familiarity with his own form.
The next second, a somewhat familiar, weary middle-aged soldier hurried to his bedside and grasped his hand excitedly.
“Yenir! You did it!”
“You fell into a coma after breaking through to Fourth Stage! We were all terrified!”
“Thank goodness you woke up!”
“There’s hope now! We have hope!!”
“I knew it! You’d pull through!!”
As his words faded, the exhausted crowd in the hospital fixed fiery, passionate gazes on him, many with reddened eyes from overwhelming emotion.
“Fourth Stage!? A coma…”
Yenir froze and instinctively raised both hands.
He noticed that his left hand, previously devoid of combat power, was now completely intact and brimming with strength. Perhaps still unaccustomed to Fourth Stage energy, a brutal, overwhelming force suddenly erupted as he sensed the power within him.
Unmatched. Impossibly powerful!
In an instant, the hospital room was flooded with a terrifying, oppressive pressure—an almost boundless surge of raw power that invaded his very soul.
Nearby, several top Military officials at the peak of Third-Stage power turned pale, clearly overwhelmed by the pressure.
Yet this only stirred the onlookers into greater excitement.
At the same time, a flurry of rapid footsteps sounded outside the hospital, with explosions and tremors echoing in unison from afar.
“General Li Yan! The frontline can’t hold out!”
“That Fourth Stage mutant, with its horde of corpses, has shattered our defenses!!”
“General Qin Feng is severely injured and surrounded by mutants!!”
“Boom! Boom! Boom!”
The ground trembled.
It felt like the start of a war.
Amid deafening roars and the clamor of artillery, the hospital walls shook violently.
Listening to the news from the frontline, the Military officials guarding Yenir’s room suddenly turned ashen.
Beside Yenir, a very familiar soldier urgently asked,
“Yenir! Are you alright? Can you fight?”
“If you need more time to recover, we old dogs will hold the line!”
“Don’t worry! Even if we die, we’ll buy you time!”
“The last line of defense must not fall! If it does, it’s all over!”
His eyes were filled with desperation.
Before Yenir could answer, the soldier waved his hand and led several Third-Stage troops straight to the battlefield.
Struggling to control his inner power, Yenir’s mind was a chaotic mess as he instinctively glanced out the window.
Outside, beneath a darkened sky, masses of fully armed soldiers rushed to the frontline, while panicked groups in the farthest Safe Zone scrambled to hide in underground shelters.
Could this scene… be from before the Capital fell?
Wasn’t I in a trial?!
With a low grunt,
Yenir clutched his head in agony.
A torrent of memory fragments flashed by in rapid succession as one brutal recollection crashed into his mind.
Seconds later, while the few remaining caretakers panicked, Yenir panted heavily, drenched in sweat. His entire spiritual energy, out of control, nearly leveled the hospital room.
He remembered…
Two days ago, he had indeed attempted a forced breakthrough to Fourth Stage!
After frontline reconnaissance units risked their lives to report the appearance of a Fourth Stage mutant, he had no choice but to push his limits.
In his memory, after shattering his own will, everything went dark—as if his thoughts had shattered and he knew nothing anymore.
Seeing Yenir endure the pain,
the remaining few in the hospital, faces filled with guilt, hurriedly spoke up,
“Lord Yenir!! Please don’t force your power any further!!”
“Only when your strength recovers do we have hope!”
Their eyes shone with reverence and a hint of regret.
In recent battles, Yenir’s unprecedented display of overwhelming power and innate talent had turned him into a beacon of hope for countless people. To them, Yenir was a hero.
Knowing that Yenir had nearly died—a coma induced by trying to stop this catastrophe—their regret was almost unbearable.
Meanwhile, a series of shrill sirens began to sound, rapidly approaching from afar.
In Yenir’s view, the newly appointed interim chairman, Zhang Lin, rushed to his side with a look of deep remorse.
Seeing Yenir’s body in utter disarray, the white-haired, middle-aged man—fresh from a major battle—spoke with complex guilt,
“I’m sorry, Yenir.”
“The Military should have trusted you and poured all their resources into you!”
“It’s my fault!”
“It forced you into a rushed ascension while we were helpless!”
“Rest well! Don’t worry! We’ll buy you time—as long as you live, hope remains!”
“The Military is ready. If things go awry, we’ll detonate a nuclear bomb to secure your evacuation time!”
His eyes burned with determination and resolute defiance.
Yenir listened, stunned by the chaotic sounds of battle and explosions. At that moment, he could no longer tell what was real.
Power doesn’t lie. Neither do his healing wounds. He indeed had memories of breaking through to Fourth Stage.
So his rebirth was nothing but a dream he had while unconscious!?
“Boom!!!”
Amidst his scattered thoughts, a terrifying aura suddenly rushed in with a massive explosion.
……
“The city has fallen!!!”
On the battlefield, scores of Awakeners looked in despair at a gigantic, thousand-meter mutant that towered like a god. Piles of corpses formed monstrous mounds at its feet.
From behind the humanoid Fourth Stage mutant, four massive sets of fleshy wings beat furiously, stirring up terrifying storms.
The earth was shattered, and devastation was everywhere.
The steel defenses that had once held back wave after wave of monsters had completely collapsed.
At that moment,
the building was on the verge of crumbling.