"Since that''s the case, I''ll go take a trip," Sterl said.


    His reasoning was simple: with [Transcendence] backing him, being ranked first on the merit leaderboard would grant him a mysterious reward from the upper realms. It was a must to go and im that reward.


    Why not go?


    Sterl''s only concern was the potential odd tactics from the upper realms that might render his Emergency Escape Device useless, but it didn''t matter; he nned to send Bionic Tear while keeping his main self at a safe distance.


    Sterl''s style was clear: rewards could be set aside, but safety muste first.


    Upon hearing this, the three gods looked delighted, but then they quickly realized the critical issue.


    "When this young friend is asked by the gods, who will you say referred you?"


    "…" Sterl was taken aback; that sounded like a death sentence. No matter who he named, it would likely earn him resentment from others. Thankfully, he was skilled at dodging tricky questions.


    He immediately put on a grand and passionate expression, dering, "I''m willing to let the three esteemed gods decide!"


    The air tensed for a few seconds.


    Then, the peaceful facade of the three gods shattered, and they red at each other in anger.


    "Marlon, you know this opportunity is very important to us. If you give it to us, we will…"


    "Give it to you? On what grounds? Can you instigate Ashen and the Golden Kingdom to go to war with the Hall of Valor? War doesn''t matter; I''ll take the reward and go y in the upper realms."


    Sterl only caught the first few sentences of their argument before they seemed to feel a bit embarrassed and switched to anothermunication channel.


    Marlon, however, remained enthusiastic and reminded him, "Young friend, feel free to farm merit on the battlefield; the rewards you receive afterward won''t be lessened."


    "We still have some matters to discuss. We''lle find you shortly; how does that sound?"


    "Sounds good."


    Sterl nodded. Since the war was still ongoing, it was better to farm some monsters instead of just exchanging banter. He naturally went along with the suggestion.


    ...


    After that, Sterl''s monster-farming journey went exceptionally smoothly.


    No one dared to stop him anymore.


    Many yers from the Hall of Valor initially hoped that after Marlon had pulled in this mysterious demigod, he might show some mercy towards his own faction.


    yers from Ashen and the Golden Kingdom thought that this mysterious demigod had shown a hint of humanity and kindness earlier; perhaps once he had farmed enough, he would stop...


    As it turned out, they were overthinking it. Sterl became increasingly ruthless, clearly aiming to monopolize the entire battlefield!


    Radiant spheres rose again and again!


    The yers from Hell and the demons were wailing, but when the three gods made their appearance, the more sensible demons and yers had already made their escape!


    Now, those who remained were either too slow to react orcked powerful escape items…


    They could only curse the gods of the main world for not taking care of such monstrous beings!


    "You don''t deserve to be called gods!"


    ...


    Meanwhile, yers from the three major factions found themselves in a mix ofughter and tears as they discovered a particr trait of the mysterious demigod: he was incredibly diligent. After emptying the richest resource areas, he didn''t hesitate to unleash skills in the less abundant ones.


    Ultimately, the yers from the three factions hadpletely given up.


    The earlier conversation with the gods had not been discreet, so the yers were aware that this demigod would be summoned by the big shots from the upper realms.


    The existence of the upper realms meant that crushing the demigod Supreme would be easier than squashing an ant.


    "We can''t provoke them or hide from them, so what can we do? We''ll just farm merit when you''re summoned!"


    At this moment, after their initial anger, the yers'' mindset gradually cooled. At worst, they would treat this event as if it hadn''t happened; after all, farming demons in the Layer of Hell was already yielding much higher returns than usual!


    ...


    On Sterl''s side, the gains were skyrocketing.


    He felt… amidst the massive drops, he was nearing thepletion of his legendary-level gear. He wouldn''t need Sosia or Sonis to procure items for him anymore; he was even closing in on demigod-level gear.


    It seemed he could start preparing divine-level equipment directly.


    However…


    Divine-level gear had a baseline quality of — Iridescent-Level.


    Unlike other levels, any equipment possessing divine power, no matter how poor, would meet this standard. Sterl wasn''t sure about the quality divisions above Iridescent-Level…


    However, he felt that with his insane monster-farming speed, the resources he umted prior to reaching divine-level should be enough to exchange for a full set of Iridescent-Level gear.


    At the same time, his blood force had finally reached 270 points.


    Afterward, due to the scattered demons, he could no longer farm efficiently; he was progressing too quickly.


    Of course, another gain left Sterl pleasantly surprised: he had collected 300 blood-colored documents.


    In the Login Terminal, it finally showed that the collection had reached its limit.


    Now, this item had a new effect. When Sterl used a cheat to observe, he discovered a new entry in the Login Terminal:


    [When creating a new character, you will definitely receive a new talent (Swallowing Heaven type): 99% chance for F-grade, 1% chance for E-grade.]


    [Warning: Adding a Swallowing Heaven-type talent involves triggering the deleted codes of [Transcendence]. Please do not use any [Transcendence]-type items to influence the generated talent.]


    [Warning: Current version of [Transcendence], the yer talent limit is three; exceeding three will trigger Fortune bacsh.]


    Sterl looked at the entry with a mix of joy and surprise. Was he really about to receive a fourth talent? (Sub-Profession talents didn''t count.)


    Although, for others, an F-grade talent was practically useless and could even trigger Fortune bacsh! That was a force capable of taking down even divine-level demons.


    And it required 300 blood-colored documents to unlock, which seemed utterly worthless. But for Sterl, he could invest points into it!


    For him, an F-grade talent was equivalent to a radiant-level talent!


    As for the second evolution of his cheat, Sterl felt it wouldn''t be enough to evolve beyond radiant-level, as there hadn''t been any new plus signs indicating that he could add points after the secondary evolution.


    What about the third evolution?


    Every new talent was a permanent and tremendous boost to Sterl''sbat power!


    He couldn''t contain his excitement!


    Moreover, the so-called Fortune bacsh meant nothing to him, a person with only third-ss visible strength. He could still gain Fortune and evolve his cheat!


    He felt like he had won big!


    The only downside was that collecting 300 blood-colored documents was indeed a hassle. If it weren''t for the ongoing war in this expansion event, he wouldn''t have known he could gather so many and trigger the hidden conditions.


    He might have gathered just 100 documents and opened a new character right away.


    With that thought, Sterl became even more exhrated.


    Fortune was on his side!


    Additionally, he had made up his mind.


    Though Sterl already had enough experience points to level up to legendary, he decisively decided against it. He wouldn''t even bother leveling up; he would wait for the Fortune bacsh to finish and then level up all at once.


    This way, he could better navigate through the bacsh…


    However, the warning in the Login Terminal left Sterl momentarily stunned.


    "Code"?


    He was familiar with this term; in his past life, various game developments revolved around the umtion of code. How could a "game" like [Transcendence], which clearly rooted itself in the real world, also require code?


    Of course, Sterl quickly realized that this code was not the same as the types of numbers and symbols inputted into aputer. It was something entirely more mysterious.


    He had a premonition that this "code" would be rted to the very essence of [Transcendence].


    Then—


    He stopped thinking further.


    There was too little information to deduce anything meaningful.


    Sterl decided it was better to focus on practical matters.


    At this moment, he wasn''t in a hurry to open a new character. He knew too little about the people from the upper realms; if he opened a new character, they might be able to detect something unusual, and that would be a major loss.


    Instead, Sterl quickly activated Shadow Stealth, pretending to weave through the battlefield.


    In reality, he was hiding in the Shadow World. He was farming monsters so aggressively that he had already exceeded the limit for Stardust, which meant he could stay in the Shadow World for as long as he wanted. If necessary, he could continuously activate Shadow Stealth.


    Bionic Tear took over for Sterl as he descended into Hell.


    Sterl manipted Bionic Tear to initiate Fission, creating a radiant sphere to verify its identity.


    Then, he nced at the battlefield.


    At this moment, the area hadpletely transformed into a ce utterly unrted to Hell.


    There were countless voids scattered everywhere, filled with sand and gravel that had been turned into a ssy state.


    Thendscape was ravaged!


    The ground had sunk several meters, and all the energy in the air had been purified away by Fission.


    The blood-red sun hung in the sky above Hell, casting light onto the ground. In the past, it would have revealed a bizarre and eerie scene, but now, under Sterl''s bombardment, it appeared exceptionally clear and transparent.


    It felt as if this ce was no different from the main world…


    In fact, if Sterl were to observe closely, he would notice that his contribution to the expansion event had increased significantly. This area had be unsuitable for Hell''s inhabitants after being bombarded by his Fission.


    Of course, it was also not suitable for creatures from the main world.


    However, the main world''s intention to consume Hell was merely to gain arger territorial footprint; they weren''t in a rush to relocate their poptions here.


    Sterl took a brief rest.


    Nearby, other yers rushed onto the battlefield to scavenge some leftover scraps.


    They were feeling a bit numb, watching Sterl not take action, and instead, waves of gratitude began to rise within them.


    It seemed this mysterious demigod hadn''tpletely shut them out; he had left them a glimmer of hope. Even if their merit was reduced, the rewards from the merit leaderboard wouldn''t diminish.


    That was something!


    Sterl found the expressions of the yers somewhat strange, but he didn''t have time to ponder it. Suddenly, three beams of golden light illuminated the sky once more. The three gods still wore pleasant expressions, but aside from Marlon''s genuinely warm smile, the other two wore slightly twitching faces.


    They had lost a significant amount of resources to persuade this god from the Hall of Valor to agree to introduce them to the "mysterious demigod."


    This round of the expansion event had cost the Golden Kingdom and Ashen two of their deities dearly!


    "By the way, we still don''t know how to address you, young friend," one of the demigods seemed to remember something and hurriedly inquired.