208: How can I be so worthy?

Lin Chuping gasped for air, his chest heaving violently, the soreness and numbness in his arms excruciatingly clear.

Those two punches just now not only consumed a tremendous amount of his energy but also felt like two heavy hammers striking his self-proclaimed solid confidence.

Lin Chuping, refusing to believe it, used all his strength, Divine Power pouring out, and smashed it into the Little Sky Demon's belly, only for the Little Sky Demon's belly to merely get a scratch.

"Damn it!"

"System, you call this 'cutting'? Anyone who didn't know would think I'm polishing the Earth with a nail clipper."

The System's light screen flickered in his Sea of Consciousness, uncharacteristically not refuting him immediately, only popping up several warning boxes indicating [Data Anomaly] and [Energy Impact Exceeds Estimate].

"Tong Ge, tell me, what kind of strength do those 'teammates' have, the ones who are using me as a whetstone and 'letting' this thing in?"

The System was silent for a moment: [Host authority insufficient...]

"System!"

"Tong Ge."

"Tong Dad, what time is it? Can't we be open and honest?"

Lin Chuping now had a crazed calmness, his finger trembling as he pointed at the colossal beast below, which resembled an abyss, like a helpless child.

Of course, it was all an act.

"Tong Grandfather! Look at this thing! It's still a 'hatchling,' still 'sleeping'! Its mere instinctive counterattack almost tore me apart!"

"Give me the bottom line, what kind of strength do the people who can 'let' it in as a 'test' possess?!"

To be honest, ever since Lin Chuping learned that this thing was 'let in' by someone, he actually stopped being anxious.

That's the feeling of having someone to fall back on.

Reassuring.

His back-and-forth with the System now was primarily driven by the need to understand the truth behind this.

So these words were both an interrogation and a probing.

Lin Chuping needed to know what kind of beings his 'teammates' were, so he could gauge his own importance in this game of chess and... his potential path to survival.

The System's light screen flickered wildly, the code stream so fast it was almost illegible.

After a long while, a line of text slowly appeared with difficulty:

[...Host, you should have heard their names.]

Lin Chuping: "..."

What? What?

He could know big shots of that caliber?

In this world, the strongest he had encountered were a few Ghost Kings in the Netherworld and a few old Demon Kings deep in the Ten Thousand Mountains, at most Earth Immortal Peak level, a hundred and eight thousand miles away from beings who could 'let in' such Extraterrestrial Demons!

No, he wasn't from this world!

The System only said he had heard their names, not that they knew each other!

If it was from his previous world, powerful figures whose names he had heard in the realm of metaphysics... with each added buff, Lin Chuping's heart sank a little more.

Finally, Lin Chuping's heart sank deeper and deeper, as if falling into a bottomless abyss, but just before hitting rock bottom, it violently collided with a thunderbolt!

"Heard their names... heard their names..."

He repeatedly chewed on the System's vague yet earth-shattering hint.

A thought, almost absurd yet igniting a glimmer of light in his desperate situation, swept through his mind like a prairie fire!

Those names... those names of beings already etched deep within humanity's collective subconscious, symbolizing Chaos, ancientness, and the unnameable!

"Could it be..."

Lin Chuping's breathing almost stopped, a name rolled on his tongue, bringing with it a chill capable of freezing the Soul, "...Is it Them?!"

Lin Chuping didn't even dare to speak the names.

"What right do I have to call myself their teammate!"

The System's light screen flickered violently in his Sea of Consciousness, this time no longer a warning, but a nearly 'default' silence, tinged with complex emotions.

That silence itself was the most powerful answer!

"Damn it!"

Lin Chuping couldn't help but curse, his hairs standing on end, a chill originating from the deepest part of his Soul making him feel as if he had fallen into an ice cave!

"Why do They want to test him?"

"Why should I be tested by Them? No, what do I have that's worth Them testing?"

Lin Chuping's hairs stood on end, that chill from the deepest part of his Soul almost freezing him!

He felt like an ant that had stumbled into a battlefield of gods, not even qualified to look up, merely knowing their names was a blasphemy and a burden.