F-class thief? Sorry, I can steal anything.

Chapter 323 Engine Shutdown? The End of the World: Everyone Becomes a Disabled Person!

The air inside the air-raid shelter was still for two seconds.

Immediately afterwards, Wang Qingyun slapped his thigh hard, and the crisp "smack" sounded particularly jarring in the enclosed space.

The old man scrambled to his feet, not even bothering to brush the dust off his trousers, and launched into a tirade of abuse at Chen Yifan.

"Zero! You don't even have a 50% chance of winning!"

"You think you're invincible just because you annihilated that ghost? You've got some nerve, haven't you?!"

Wang Qingyun was so anxious he was jumping up and down, spitting as he spoke:

"You were able to kill the ghost today largely because he didn't even consider you a threat! If he had known you were an unsuspecting freak, do you think you would have won so easily?"

Chen Yifan stood still, not annoyed by the scolding, but listened quietly.

When Wang Qingyun saw that he didn't talk back, she got even angrier.

He stepped forward, his rough fingers lightly touching Chen Yifan's chest.

"Don't think you can do whatever you want just because you have immense mental power! That Ghost is an elite among the Lamplighters, specializing in unorthodox mental techniques! When he was wielding that unorthodox black fire, you were still rolling around in the mud!"

"He was being arrogant just now."

"If he had known you were also an outsider, he would have gone all out from the beginning, using the black fire as a fuse to ignite it directly. Your spiritual power, which has quantity but no quality, is like water poured on gasoline! It could even burn through your spiritual power!"

The old man took a deep breath and continued spewing:

"Do you really think these heretical doctrines are just child's play?"

"That's like dancing on a tightrope!"

"You're just swinging a sledgehammer with brute force right now, while they're wielding scalpels! If you really encounter those ancient monsters who have lived for hundreds of years, they have plenty of ways to use your mental energy to backfire and burn you into an idiot!"

These words were extremely serious.

But after listening, Chen Yifan completely suppressed the faintly emanating aura of madness around him.

He swung his sword across the ground, his hands crossed on his knees.

"Uncle Wang is right."

Chen Yifan nodded with complete composure:

"My understanding of advanced heretical techniques is indeed a complete blank."

He was never a blindly arrogant person.

The slight sense of arrogance that came from instantly killing the ghost was completely extinguished by Wang Qingyun's scathing rebuke.

Having great strength is one thing, but how you use it is another.

If what the old man said is true, and that heretical forces have so many bizarre ways of being used, then I was indeed lucky just now.

Seeing that Chen Yifan not only didn't go berserk but was also so obedient, Wang Qingyun's anger suddenly vanished.

The old man grunted a couple of times, rummaged in his pocket for a while, pulled out a crumpled cigarette, put it in his mouth, and lit it with a little spark from his fingertips.

I took a deep drag, and the smell of cheap tobacco filled the air-raid shelter.

"At least you're not completely out of your mind."

Wang Qingyun exhaled a puff of thick smoke.

He sat down on the broken wooden box opposite Chen Yifan, his expression becoming more solemn than ever before.

"Take my advice: what you lack most right now isn't to fight anyone to the death, but time! It's about frantically improving your own hard skills!"

"You must level up as quickly as possible and stack your basic physical attributes to the point where you can withstand the backlash from high-level heretical attacks. Margin of error! That's what you need most right now!"

Chen Yifan tapped on the armrest of the iron chair:

"The Lamplighter might already be targeting me. Even the Shadow Squad has been mobilized; they'll definitely keep hounding me. Can I even stay in Kyoto?"

Wang Qingyun, with a cigarette dangling from his lips, did not answer immediately. Instead, he turned his head and carefully surveyed the abandoned air-raid shelter buried deep underground.

Even though the area was covered with heavy lead layers to prevent detection, he still seemed very unsafe.

A full half minute passed before the old man lowered his voice and spoke in a volume barely audible to the two of them:

"Do you think those old guys who hold the lamplight are just bored and have nothing better to do than stir up trouble lately, even dragging your sister, who's not even eighteen yet, into this mess?"

"It's an open secret that the authorities have always been cultivating geniuses from other paths, but they've never been so indiscriminate in their pursuit of talent as they are now."

Chen Yifan immediately grasped the key point in the words:

"What happened?"

Wang Qingyun threw the cigarette butt at his feet and crushed it forcefully.

"You're a mature young man, this isn't really a secret anymore, telling you won't hurt!"

"Based on the latest ancient sites discovered by the authorities, the think tank has deciphered a top-secret intelligence report."

"A great catastrophe that will affect the entire planet Earth may be about to befall us."

A great calamity?

Chen Yifan frowned.

Isn't the current state of Earth a major catastrophe?

Outside the high walls are all strange beasts, and people die every day.

What other calamity could there be?

A massive siege by alien beasts?

Wang Qingyun saw through Chen Yifan's indifference and sneered:

"Are you thinking that at worst, a few dozen king-level beasts will lead a horde and break through the high wall?"

"Let me tell you, those beasts are nothing!"

The old man suddenly stood up and walked a few steps to Chen Yifan.

"The intelligence they extracted clearly stated... on the day the catastrophe strikes, the [World Engine] shrouding Earth will most likely completely shut down at some point in the future!"

hum...

Chen Yifan felt as if he had been hit by a heavy hammer, and his ears were ringing.

The world's engine has stalled?!

How is that possible!

Since the Great Silence, the world engine has been the sole underlying logic for human survival on Earth!

When everyone turns eighteen, they change jobs, kill monsters, level up, get equipment, learn skills...

All of this is built upon the operation of the world engine!

What does "complete shutdown" mean?

For the first time, Chen Yifan's breathing became rapid.

"Literal meaning."

Wang Qingyun forced a smile that looked more like a grimace than a cry.

"At that time, you won't be able to access the system panel. You won't gain any experience points when you kill monsters."

"Your storage space will be locked."

"Those hundreds or thousands of points added to attributes, equipment, and talents will all turn into a pile of useless scrap metal!"

"Whether you're a level 10 newbie or a level 90 legendary veteran."

"The moment the engine stops, all professionals will instantly lose all the abilities granted to them by the system!"

Wang Qingyun spread his arms and made a big explosion gesture.

"The strength of all humanity will be wiped out overnight, turning them into ordinary people with only brute force left!"

A deathly silence fell over the air-raid shelter.

Chen Yifan felt a chill run down his spine.

If this were true, the entire social order would completely collapse in a second.

A professional who is used to commanding the wind and rain suddenly becomes a useless person. How can he resist those tough and thick-skinned monsters outside the wall?

Wait a moment.

Chen Yifan's mind was racing.

If the world engine stops and all the powers of ordinary professionals are wiped out... then what powers can still be used?

The answer is obvious.

Heretics!

A force that violates the rules of the World Engine!

Since it's not under your jurisdiction, whether you stop or not is none of my business.

"So the authorities panicked."

Chen Yifan blurted it out.

"The Lamp Bearer has been frantically recruiting all sorts of unorthodox geniuses lately, even resorting to unscrupulous means to orchestrate events, all so that after the world's engine shuts down, he can hold onto a group of super trump cards that still retain combat power!"

"clever."

Wang Qingyun clapped his hands, looking at Chen Yifan with a complicated expression:

"Without the shackles of the engine, external forces will become humanity's only means of self-preservation."

"This is why all major powers, even conglomerates, are secretly and frantically researching flesh mutation and mechanical ascension."

"Similarly! This is why more and more so-called Outer Gods are appearing, and the authorities haven't stopped them."

"So...everyone is now preparing for that day to come, making backup plans in advance."