Apocalyptic Wasteland Simulator

Chapter 273 - 268: End of the Instance, Summary
Symbiosis progress: 100% achieved!This was the last echo in his mind before the explosion.

[Ding! The ’Unclosed Eyes Upon Death’ attribute has been triggered.]

Chen Pingchuan suddenly felt as though he had regained control over his body—or rather, his Spirit Body. Although he still couldn’t make any movements, he had the distinct intuition that he was himself again.

The preceding events had felt like watching a live-action movie.

I thought the rage trait was already invincible, but this arrogance trait is on a whole other level!

Yes, that was Chen Pingchuan’s honest thought. During that series of great battles, he had been unable to control his own body, but he had witnessed everything with perfect clarity. Even the Eight-armed Demon God, a monster capable of driving anyone to despair, had fallen to the power of the arrogance trait—though admittedly with the help of some advantageous items. Still, there was no denying it: if Chen Pingchuan had been in control himself, he probably couldn’t have defeated a monster like the Eight-armed Demon God, let alone perform the subsequent operation on the Divine Tree.

PHEW!

Not bad. I wonder what I’ll get after leaving this instance.

While secretly calculating his potential rewards, Chen Pingchuan observed his surroundings. He wouldn’t have known if he hadn’t looked, but one glance left him stunned. The entire Divine Mountain had collapsed, revealing a cavern of searing, molten lava. Who could have imagined that a volcano on the verge of eruption lay beneath the Divine Tree? How the tree had managed to suppress it, Chen Pingchuan had no idea. The only thing he knew for certain was that the Divine Tree Envoys and the Divine Tree Puppets were all gone.

They must be dead.

As this thought crossed his mind, he remembered his newly recruited underlings.

They probably started their journey to reincarnation even earlier, and I might have been the one who personally sent them on their way.

A long wait followed. For some reason, Chen Pingchuan felt that every day in this Spirit Body state was agonizingly difficult to endure. It was comparable to being imprisoned. No, even prison wasn’t this unbearable; it was more like being a person in a vegetative state who could still open their eyes.

Yes, that’s exactly what it feels like.

Suddenly, WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

Several strangely dressed individuals appeared near the Divine Mountain. Judging by their attire and their methods of flying, it was obvious they were not from the same faction.

One of them, a man in a black robe who looked just like the leader of the previous group of men in black, spoke first.

”The Demon God Tree has been eliminated. Although Meng Ran perished, his death was for a worthy cause. I will report this news back to the Holy Sect.”

Hearing this, a young man with dyed yellow hair scoffed, ”This... whatever tree... was so powerful that it could block all technology? The super-nukes we prepared were useless. They all failed the moment they entered the Divine Tree’s range.”

”Hmph! The Holy Sect already told you the contents of the Doomsday Prophecy Book. Are your leaders pigs? They refused to believe it. Otherwise, my companions might not have died.”

Facing the black-robed man’s accusation, Huang Mao immediately retorted, ”I don’t know if they’re pigs, but you’re definitely not human! Why, you—”

His vision flashed from darkness to light, and Chen Pingchuan found himself back in the backyard of Mayor Xu Sanhua’s villa. A continuous stream of system prompts followed.

[Ding! You have died at the age of 20.]

[This simulation has now ended!]

[You may choose any number of rewards from the options below, or you may spend Simulation Value, at a rate of one percent of an item’s cost, to retain rewards from the simulation.]

[Reward Contents: Unstable Space Travel (Skill), Energy Pulse Gun (Item)... Divine Tree Fruit (Item)]

[Unstable Space Travel]: A rare Silver-rank skill. Be a man who can go wherever he wants. (Cooldown: 1 use/24 hours).

P.S. When it comes to Silver-rank skills, it’s better to choose wrong than to miss out.

Exchange Cost: 100,000 Simulation Value.

[Energy Pulse Gun]: Click to expand details.

Exchange Cost: 10,000 Energy Value.

...

[Gene Enhancement Agent (Level 6)]: Click to expand details.

...

[Divine Tree Fruit]: Consume to acquire a random talent. The lower limit of the talent’s rank is determined by the user’s character quality.

Side Effect (Eliminated): Becoming a puppet of the World Tree Devourer.

Exchange Cost: 100,000 Energy Value.

[Body Status Inheritance]: Spend 200 Simulation Value to inherit the strongest physical body status achieved during the simulation.

[Time Thief]: Esteemed Mr. Time Thief, you can shatter the twin barriers of time and space to solidify a character’s status from the simulation.

Solidifiable Targets:

World Tree Devourer (Gold-rank, Rule-based Organism): 1,000,000

Lan Duoduo (Purple-rank, Level 9 Mid-Stage Powerhouse): 28,800

Zhu Wu (Purple-rank, Level 9 Mid-Stage Powerhouse): 28,800

Meng Ran (Purple-rank, Level 8 Late-Stage Powerhouse): 25,600

...

[Remaining Simulation Value: 1,222,042 points]

[Remaining Simulations: 0 (Acceleration available)]

[Simulator Cooldown: 167:59:52 (Acceleration Cost: 10 points/hour)]

[Please select your rewards and choose whether to solidify a character.]

”No way... Simulator, what the hell are you doing?!”

”Where’s my Apex Battle Armor?! Where’s my Invincible Gundam?! Huh?!”

”Did you just swallow them?! After all the trouble I went through to get rich, I wanted to taste the good life, and you pull this crap on me!”

As he spoke, Chen Pingchuan began to vent his fury on the surrounding furniture.

CRASH! SMASH!

He rampaged through the room before finally sinking to the floor, squatting silently in a corner.

It was no wonder he was so irate, so close to losing his mind. Anyone who had a chance to ascend to the heavens in a single step, only to have it snatched away, would be in a foul mood. But no matter how furious he was, he couldn’t change the facts.

With no other choice, Chen Pingchuan forced himself to study the system’s reward options again.

There’s no need to redeem the rewards I’ve already seen before. They’re safe in the bank vault and aren’t going to grow legs and run away. The talent skill is a must-have, even if it’s a bit pricey. That fruit with no side effects is also a must. The simulator can generate random talents, but based on my experience in the simulation, the power of those Holy Envoys of the Divine Tree definitely came from that fruit. Just choosing these two will cost me 200,000 value. As for inheriting my physical stats, it’s better than nothing. I didn’t kill many people in the last simulation, and even those who died as collateral damage didn’t meet the conditions of the Heavenly Dao. Relying solely on ’Bloodthirsty Plunder’ for absorption has a terrible cost-benefit ratio.

As Chen Pingchuan continued scrolling down, his gaze suddenly locked onto the Time Thief option. It was a function he had never imagined he would use. After all, if he could kill an opponent in the simulation, he could kill them in reality, so there was no need to spend Simulation Value on it.

But this time was different.

He thought back to the final moment before his death, when the symbiosis progress had reached 100%.

Is it possible that I could...

A conflicted expression appeared on Chen Pingchuan’s face.