As Bionic Tear transformed into Sterl''s form, he felt something was off again.
Earlier, when he was protecting Teresa and the others, why hadn''t he used Bionic Tear?
Now, to validate his suspicions, Sterl flew toward the source of the cracking sounds.
He focused all his attention on Bionic Tear; at a critical moment, he could unleash the power of Fission. Thebination of an Iridescent-Level Silent Domain and Fission power would be enough to clear the battlefield of all Devourers of All Things in one go.
So...
How had Teresa and the others died?
Why had he just been helplessly guarding outside the cave?
Sterl felt that the images in his memorypletely defied logic.
The current situation was also chaotic!
Those Devourers of All Things, to put it bluntly, he could easily obliterate them. Unless Sterl had deliberately chosen not to act, wanting to get Teresa and the others killed, otherwise...
Everything he remembered shouldn''t have happened at all.
"Damn it, I must have fallen under some illusion."
"Holy Spirit Bloodline! Activate!"
Using the power of the upper realms, he sensed an instant surge of countless golden threads impacting the entire world!
Sterl didn''t need to fly to where the crashing sounds wereing from.
His confusion was resolved.
The entire world was disintegrating into nothingness, shattered by the threads created by the Holy Spirit Bloodline.
Sterl stood at the edge of the void, feeling memories surge within him.
"It really is an illusion..."
"Right, I''m participating in the Inquire Within instance!"
"So everything before my eyes is merely a trial."
Sterl contemted.
As the whole world turned into countless drifting fragments, everything hade to an end!
Sterl found himself once again standing in the void, this time without any spirit entitiesing to speak to him.
A prompt slowly appeared before him.
[Congrattions, you havepleted the second stage of the Inquire Within trial.]
[Task Evaluation: [Data Error]]
"Huh?"
Sterl was taken aback.
He looked at the broken world and recalled the scenes he had just witnessed, gradually realizing something. The second stage of this instance''s trial corresponded to his own fears.
Sterl''s greatest fear in the face of cmity was his ownck of strength, which prevented him from protecting those around him, especially...
Linna and Rayna.
He had once had nightmares where, during a great disaster, he lost his only two family members because...
Sterl wasn''t strong enough!
The content of this trial was designed to force Sterl to break through his fears.
However, the earlier feeling of "regret" had been constructed based on Sterl''s memories, making it a nearly wless reenactment of past events.
But now, the scenes projected by the Inquire Within instance depicted a normal scenario, showcasing what a third-ss yer might achieve in the future.
The instance had already overestimated Sterl as much as possible; a third-ss yer had advanced to Supreme!
Such a rapid improvement was almost unreasonable.
Yet it still failed to simte Sterl''s truebat power.
Just as Sterl had considered in the illusion, even if he hadn''t improved at all and had simply reached the Supreme level—adding just a few attribute points—the time spent each day gaining insights from the Holy Spirit Bloodline was enough for him to master multiple forms of divine authority!
Combined with his existing abilities, Sterl could unleash a radiant-level Silent Domain that perfectly countered the Devourers of All Things!
A great cmity??
It was merely his yground.
The scenes of despair from the earlier illusion were almost trivial for Sterl to obliterate with a mere gesture.
Ironically, he didn''t even need to advance to Supreme; sending his current self into that situation would result in rampant ughter.
The Inquire Within instance had simted the terrifying aspects of cmity based on the information it possessed.
But to Sterl, that terror was nothing at all!
This led Sterl to detect a bug within the illusion.
As a result, the second phase of the trial shattered instantly!
"But... this time, the real cmity is likely to be much more challenging than what the illusion depicted."
Sterl didn''t let his guard down due to the perceived difficulty of the cmity shown in the Inquire Within instance. He could sense that the intensity of the cmity in the illusion was roughly simr to what was recorded in various texts.
Sterl vaguely guessed the truth.
The cmity within the Inquire Within was just an ordinary disaster; faced with such intensity, he could easily push through it now!
But this time...
Recalling the information he had gathered, he noted the gods were extremely fearful and frantically seeking refuge, and the upper realms had been the first to be tainted by the cmity.
Sterl chuckled helplessly, "If it were truly like what I saw in the illusion, I''d be at ease."
After waiting a moment, he felt a strange flow of energy surging into his body, rapidly alleviating his mental fatigue. However, after clearing the second wave of the illusion, no spirit entities appeared for him to refine and absorb, leaving him a bit disappointed.
New information popped up before Sterl.
[You havepleted the first two phases of the trial. Do you wish to conclude your journey in this instance and receive rewards?]
[You can choose to challenge the final "nightmare" phase of the trial, which has an extremely high difficulty level. Please choose wisely.]
Hmm?
So he could leave after just two phases.
Sterl was somewhat surprised. Why had no one cleared this instance in a thousand years?
He thought for a moment; the difficulty of this instance was actually quite high.
The first trial of "Regret" was something that only someone with a heart of stone, like himself, could break through. For most people, it would be incredibly challenging.
The "Fear" trial was even more exaggerated. Sterl felt that if he were truly faced with the scenario of Linna, Leah, and everyone around him being killed, while confronting an unstoppable enemy, he might not be able to ovee his fear and fight to the end.
Moreover, the key wasn''t just oveing fear.
It was aboutpletely ignoring the overwhelming threat posed by the enemy, having not a single shred of unease in his heart!
He felt that, whether before or after his transmigration, he had merely the mentality of an ordinary person.
How could he possibly achieve that?
It was only due to the limitations of the Inquire Within instance that he discovered the bug in the illusion, allowing him to clear it sessfully.
So, facing the third level of the trial, Sterl made his choice without hesitation—
"Confirm participation!"
He had even enabled the assistive features. What was there to fear? After all, nothing bad would actually happen!
After confirming, he vaguely heard a phrase echoing—
"Face your nightmare…"
Then he found himself standing on a strangely textured ground.
Wait a minute, this is...
Sterl looked down; it was a cement road.
The odd sensation was due to the new sneakers he had bought recently, which felt a bit ufortable.
At the same time, he felt extremely weak, as if he hadn''t awakened his talent yet.
Wait, awaken talent?
Had he be dazed while reading a novel at night? Was he starting to fantasize?
"Hey! What are you standing there for?"
"The ss bell has already rung; aren''t you heading over?"
Sterl snapped back to reality as a boy with brown curly hair, wearing a t-shirt and smiling brightly in the sunlight, approached him.
"Let''s go! Let''s go! Didn''t you say you wanted to aim for more A+ grades? You could trick your way into getting some extra pocket money."
Oh, right!
Sterl suddenly realized.
The person approaching was his good friend!
What was he doing just standing there? It was time for ss!
As for the extra pocket money, Sterl recalled that he wasn''t like other ssmates who had girlfriends, but he had spent quite a bit on games, often running short on cash.
This semester, Sterl had vowed to get good grades so his parents would give him more money.
Now… he needed to hurry to ss!
If he offended the teacher, he would lose all his participation points!
As for just now, what had he been doing standing there?
Sterl felt as if he had just woken from a strange dream, one that involved concepts like transmigration, game worlds, and gods—a jumble of nonsensical ideas.
Clearly, those things couldn''t possibly exist.
Without hesitation, he sprinted forward, surrounded by the beauty of the campus.
The tall trees let sunlight filter through their leaves, casting dappled golden light that fell on Sterl''s face.
Everything appeared tranquil and serene.
From there, Sterl followed a routine: attending sses,pleting group assignments, returning to his dorm, ying games, ordering takeout, finishing meals, continuing to game, attending afternoon lectures, and finally going to sleep.
The next day, he would wake up for ss.
Back to the dorm, gaming…
Time passed day by day, yet Sterl felt as if something within his body was slowly slipping away.
But…
He decisively went to the hospital, and the results showed everything was normal.
He was in excellent health.
Sterl felt relieved.
Was he really going to doubt the doctor and trust his own unfounded imaginings?
Thus, Sterl continued this repetitive cycle of life day after day.
…
Sitting in the cafeteria, Sterl said, "Sometimes I feel like my life has fallen into some kind of loop, where I always see the same predictable scenes."
Behind him, many people clinked their trays as they walked by.
Sterl poked at his pizza with a knife and fork, then took a hearty gulp of c, letting out a long sigh.
"Is that so?"
His friend, the brown-haired boy from earlier, didn''t seem to care much and focused on demolishing the chicken leg on his tray.
"Are you a transmigrator, a superpower user, or an alien?"
The brown-haired boy mumbled casually.
Sterl just chuckled lightly, ending that topic.
He felt a bit restless.
He was clearly already tired of his monotonous life, yet he saw no way to escape it.
Perhaps this was his future—gradually graduating, methodically finding a job, and then getting married and having kids.
Sterl felt he could see the future unfolding before him.
And indeed, that was how things went.
Before long, he graduated.