Awakening：The Infinite Evolution of My Talent as a Low-Level Awakener - Chapter 429

Chapter 429: Chapter 429: Breaking Through the Illusion
Sterl spoke with excitement.

“What a pity I can’t enhance my talents; otherwise, my combat power could skyrocket in an instant.”

He sighed.

After discovering his ability to allocate points, Sterl felt something inside him stirring, ready to break free.

But the illusion continued to suppress his thoughts; the word “talent” slipped from his lips, only to be forgotten immediately.

Outside the illusion, the stat-boosting cheat within Sterl surged forth, transforming into a beam of golden light that shot into his mind!

It activated a memory.

About how he had transmigrated!

Sterl had long lost track of that memory; he had always thought he simply woke up one day in another world.

Now, he recalled something.

The illusion within the instance began to shift as well.

The campus changed its appearance!

“Help! There’s… there’s a monster attacking!”

From a distance, Sterl saw a girl in hot pants, her figure quite impressive, rushing toward him.

It seemed to be…

“The cheerleading captain from our school?”

Sterl recognized the girl.

His brown-haired male friend had a crush on her and had pursued her in the past.

At that moment, however, the cheerleading captain appeared to be in a dire state, covered in blood.

Upon seeing Sterl, she revealed a hint of surprise and tried to rush over.

Suddenly!

Her expression froze, her movements became stiff, and she coughed up chunks of her innards.

She was pierced through by a monster that charged in from behind!

“That is…?”

Looking at the creature, which was entirely green with arms resembling dual blades, Sterl felt a strange sense of familiarity.

“It looks a bit like the demons I used to grind against in hell?”

“Wait, I was in hell before??”

“What the hell is going on?”

Inside the illusion, Sterl’s memories were in a continuous state of chaos.

But he had no time to think.

He saw flames descending from the sky.

The campus instantly transformed into a hellish inferno.

He was thrown back by the shock of the flames, tumbling to the ground in a miserable state.

Yet amidst the endless fire, a golden silhouette also fell from above.

“This is…?”

Sterl was still in a daze, but his body had already begun to move.

He wasn’t just acting on his own will; he was mimicking actions he had once taken, hidden in his memories.

Sterl forced himself to get up. Despite the painful burns from the flames, he ran without hesitation toward the spot where the golden light was descending.

He sprinted a few steps, suddenly dodging into a pile of debris just as a flame crashed into the spot he had occupied moments before!

Boom!!

Many bricks and stones on the campus were shattered.

However, thanks to his excellent positioning, Sterl had already dashed into the classroom building. The flames and debris hit the walls, causing no damage to him at all.

Next, Sterl initially intended to head towards the elevator, but after a moment’s thought, he abruptly turned and bolted down the hallway.

Behind him—

Clang!

Clang!

The elevator doors opened, revealing a few bouncy monsters munching on the corpse of a staff member in work attire.

They glanced curiously ahead.

They could clearly sense the presence of prey…

Well, since the prey had disappeared, they might as well eat.

Nom nom!!

A few small demons quickly reduced the teacher’s corpse to nothing but bleached bones.

Sterl skillfully evaded the onslaught of flames and the ambushing demons, finally making his way to the rooftop of the campus.

At that moment, the golden light was just about to fall!

Sterl made a sudden leap, soaring over the rooftop to grasp the golden light in his hand!!

“Was I really that reckless back then??”

Sterl recalled!

Looking at the golden light he had caught, his memories flooded back completely!

He remembered his transmigration.

At that time, he was on his way to class when chaos erupted on campus. His friends, the cheerleading captain, and many teachers were slaughtered by demons.

And Sterl had noticed a point of light falling from the sky, radiating an inexplicable allure, prompting him to seek it out decisively…

He also remembered how he later transmigrated, awakened his cheat, and grew stronger, eventually joining a colossal organization like the Hall of Valor, slaying the will of an entire dimension in hell.

However…

He still couldn’t recall how he returned to the time before his transmigration.

But Sterl had regained his former memories.

Next, he lost the ability to act as everything unfolded like a movie.

It was just a first-person VR perspective.

After grasping the golden light, Sterl rapidly fell from the rooftop.

At such a height, there was no doubt he would die upon impact.

Unfortunately for Sterl, he crashed headfirst into the ground, instantly rendering him unconscious!

“…” Sterl’s consciousness felt helpless; he remembered thinking that after obtaining the golden light, he might become a hero and save the campus.

Instead…

He died on the spot.

However, the golden light fused into his body, forcefully sustaining his soul.

At this moment, Sterl’s consciousness transformed into a third-person perspective, watching his own corpse: “This is what I looked like after falling.”

He observed with curiosity.

In the chaos, no one paid any attention to Sterl’s lifeless body.

He lay there for what felt like four or five days.

Sterl’s consciousness had waited too long, and he was extremely anxious.

Finally, several figures approached.

“There’s actually someone still alive.”

“Wait, why does this potential value seem so high? Such a strong Fortune!”

“This person could be quite valuable.”

The memory of their thoughts froze at this moment, and he felt a chill run through him, as if those people were spraying some kind of reagent from a gun.

“Store him.”

“Later, we can reactivate him…”

This was all the memory he had before his transmigration!

As his consciousness gradually faded…

Sterl felt that the surrounding illusion could no longer be maintained.

The light in his chest, symbolizing the cheat, grew more intense! Ultimately, it broke through everything!

Even in an extremely weak state, his soul level approached that of a god.

He recalled the most crucial memory—

He had participated in the instance, which was why he had returned to the past; this was an illusion!

Upon realizing this,

Bang!!

The sound of shattering echoed all around.

All light and shadow turned to nothingness, and Sterl returned to the void.

“The instance has been cleared.”

Sterl murmured.

At this moment, however, he felt little excitement; instead, he was overwhelmed by confusion and fear.

“The difficulty of Inquire Within the instance is indeed exaggerated.”

“Except for the first stage, I passed everything by sheer luck.”

Sterl pondered that the second stage had flaws due to the limitations of the instance itself, while the third stage was…

He sensed within himself and found that his Fortune had indeed been depleted.

He had completely immersed himself in the nightmare illusion; if it hadn’t been for Fortune triggering the disk, causing a bug that rendered the concealment ineffective and exposed Mephistopheles’s presence, he wouldn’t have triggered the pursuit mission.

This led to two prompts suddenly flashing into Sterl’s mind, and without that, he might not have awakened the cheat to ultimately break the illusion…

Failing to clear the instance could trigger the assist function to run his corpse…

But all the rewards would be lost! How could he not be afraid?

“My nightmare…”

Sterl murmured softly.

“What I fear most isn’t some powerful enemy, but living a mundane life as an ordinary person…”

He sighed, realizing that was why, when calamity descended upon the campus, he chose to risk everything to chase after that golden point of light.

In the next moment, Sterl found himself in a state of confusion again.

“Perhaps I transmigrated because I captured the point of light representing the cheat??”

“What did those figures mean by potential?”

“It seemed like they were selecting some special individuals.”

“Could my transmigration be related to them?”

“They also mentioned something about reactivation.”

“Did I end up being frozen??”

After regaining his lost memories, Sterl became even more bewildered.

He had thought that the world before his transmigration was just an ordinary, peaceful one, but now it seemed… quite complicated??

Were there monsters from hell appearing??

It was likely that his hometown had also been affected by the [Transcendence] system and the Swallowing Heaven system, belonging to some Crystal Barrier Galaxy.

“Will I ever be able to return?”

As he pondered this, he felt little joy; what would be the use of returning to his hometown? The timelines were different, and it was very possible that everything had changed beyond recognition.

All the friends and family he once knew might have turned to dust.

“No, I should still find a way to go back, at least to understand where the demons that erupted during the disaster at the campus came from.”

“Why did the cheat manifest? And I need to uncover the secrets hidden by those mysterious forces.”

“And…”

He suddenly considered a chilling possibility.

His body hadn’t actually died at that time; if he had been frozen by those mysterious individuals, was there a chance of resurrection?

Would he encounter another “Sterl” upon returning to his hometown?

The more he thought about it, the more perplexed he became.

At this moment, Sterl lazily floated in the void.

Returning to his former hometown was a bittersweet experience for him; even though he was just an ordinary student there,

he had enjoyed playing games every day, indulging in various fast foods, and living a peaceful life, which gave him a sense of ease and comfort.

This was something he could no longer enjoy in his current state.

“But if I had to choose…”

“I still want to be this version of Sterl, the one who can even kill gods.”

He muttered to himself.

Time flew by, and a gentle flow of energy entered Sterl’s mind, rejuvenating his exhausted spirit.

Suddenly, a prompt appeared before Sterl.

[Congratulations! You have perfectly cleared the instance: Inquire Within. This instance will temporarily close.]

[You will receive an opportunity for soul infusion.]

“Soul infusion?”

Sterl noticed the void dissipating, transforming into a semi-transparent space filled with countless numbed souls.

They were densely packed, layered upon each other.

There were at least thousands upon thousands of them!

Suddenly, the souls seemed to be influenced by something and rapidly rushed into Sterl’s body!