43: Chapter 43 Hextech: A Last Stand

"Bang!" Luo Ning and Li Muzi, who had just come over from the greenhouse, pushed open the door and were instantly stunned by the scene before them.

"Is... is this magic?" Li Muzi pushed up her glasses, her cherry lips slightly parted, watching the kitchen that had originally been in the left hallway "teleport" downstairs, for a moment doubting whether she hadn't woken up yet.

Luo Ning's eyes were wide as copper bells, touching here and there, her face full of disbelief.

"Stop looking, it's just infrastructure reorganization after the fortress expansion."

Zhou An leaned on the railing of the second floor, pointing to the area downstairs tightly sealed by a heavy metal door. "The room at the very back of the first floor, equipped with the highest level of explosion-proof layers, is your new [Mechanical Laboratory]. It connects to independent energy reserves and an exhaust system. As long as you don't blow up the fortress chassis, you can mess around however you like."

"Really?! My exclusive explosion-proof laboratory?!" Luo Ning was stunned for a second, then burst into cheers.

She rushed to the second floor like a tornado, unreservedly hugging Zhou An, her eyes shining with excitement. "Boss! You are simply the most handsome and greatest boss in the world! I love you to death!"

After speaking, before Zhou An could pull her off, she let go and rushed towards the laboratory on the first floor in a flash, closing the heavy metal door with a "bang."

Li Muzi watched from the side, covering her mouth to giggle, then happily went to the first floor to visit her new kitchen and greenhouse interface.

Watching the two go about their business, Zhou An turned and returned to the captain's chair in the main control room. The fortress upgrade was complete; next, it was time for his own strengthening.

"System, initiate random Hextech draw."

[Command confirmed! Drawing Hextech talent...]

As soon as the system prompt ended, a dazzling light erupted in the void in front of Zhou An. It wasn't ordinary white light, nor was it rare blue or purple light, but a brilliant, colorful sphere of light!

The seven-colored sphere of light spun in mid-air, then exploded with a "bang," turning into countless gorgeous rays of light, surging into the center of Zhou An's brow like a hundred rivers returning to the sea.

[Obtained Prism-grade Hextech: Last Stand!]

**[Effect Description]:** Passively triggered when the host is in a state of extreme serious injury or when SAN value decreases!

[Berserk Bonus]: For every 1 point decrease in SAN value (or 1% decrease in Health value), your total attributes, including Strength, Speed, Mental Resistance, and the efficacy of some activated Hextech, will be additionally increased by 1%!

**[Absolute Blood Lock]:** When the SAN value drops to a critical 1 point, an absolute lock state is triggered. Locked for 30 minutes! During this period, the distorting influence of the Abyss mutation on the body and consciousness is greatly suppressed.

[Warning]: If the SAN value is not replenished in time after 30 minutes, mutation will occur directly.

"A colorful Hextech! And it's an outrageous divine skill for desperate comebacks!"

Zhou An looked at this violent talent, his heart beating uncontrollably in his chest.

This was tailor-made for that crazy state from before! If he had had this talent last night, when his SAN value dropped to 1, he could have gained a full 99% increase in all attributes, and his consciousness would definitely not have been completely swallowed by the tentacle monster!

"No, this skill is too dangerous and too heaven-defying. I must take advantage of being in a completely safe airspace now to thoroughly figure out its limits and side effects."

Zhou An immediately stood up and walked straight to the high-risk laboratory on the first floor where Luo Ning had just installed the heavy explosion-proof walls.

"Knock, knock, knock."

Zhou An knocked on the door, and looking at Luo Ning, who was beaming at a pile of new instruments, said straight to the point: "Bring all your testing equipment and help me do an extreme test."

Luo Ning's eyes instantly lit up, and she rubbed her hands excitedly: "Boss, are you courting death again?"

The two walked into the laboratory and locked the heavy metal door tightly. To prevent his power from going out of control and dismantling the fortress, Zhou An even had the system butler EVA activate the indoor highest-level physical isolation field.

Zhou An took a deep breath and, from the deepest part of the system space, cautiously cut off a tiny piece of the [Unknown Abyssal Giant Beast Tentacle] flesh.

"Hum —"

Even though it was only the size of a fingernail, one could hear the whispering of the Abyss that pierced directly into the soul.

[Warning: Suffering high-level mental pollution! SAN value decreasing...]

Zhou An gritted his teeth, the veins on his forehead bulging, staring at the frantically jumping numbers on the panel.

900... 30...

As the SAN value plummeted, it finally dangerously settled at the critical 1 point!

"Boom!"

Dazzling colorful light flowed wildly over Zhou An's body. He felt his strength, hearing, and vision all rapidly magnifying at a twisted and terrifying rate! Under the blessing of [Last Stand], it doubled!

"Haa... haa..."

A rough, beast-like low roar came from Zhou An's throat. His eyes were instantly bloodshot, his ears were filled with crazy auditory hallucinations, and even strange, indescribable tentacle phantoms began to appear before his eyes.

But — he did not mutate into physical tentacles like last night, nor did he completely lose his sanity!

The "suppression of mutation" effect attached to [Last Stand] exerted a powerful effect, like an indestructible iron gate, firmly locking the last trace of clarity in his mind.

"Put that thing... away."

Zhou An struggled to control his destructive urge to tear everything in front of him apart and roared lowly at Luo Ning with red eyes.

Luo Ning skillfully used a mechanical arm to pick up the piece of flesh and quickly stuffed it into a special lead box for tight isolation.

Once the pollution source disappeared, Zhou An's SAN value showed signs of slowly recovering.

He gasped for air, enduring the tearing sensation in his mind, and turned to look at Luo Ning: "No, once the SAN value recovers, the berserk state will weaken, and the test data won't be accurate. Do you have anything here that can just barely trap my mental state and prevent the SAN value from recovering naturally?"

Luo Ning tilted her head and thought for a moment, then snapped her fingers: "I actually do! Wait a moment!"

She turned and rummaged through a temperature-controlled safe full of combination locks, and took out a small, special metal box. Opening the box, a piece of rotten meat the size of a soybean lay quietly inside.

"This is a mental suppression gel I made after more than a dozen purifications, using low-level hallucinogenic poisonous mushrooms collected on the sky island, mixed with the flesh of that tentacle from before."

Luo Ning proudly handed the box to Zhou An, "Its pollution is weak, it can't kill anyone, but the mental waves it emits can perfectly offset your current natural SAN value recovery speed. As long as you stick it on your skin, your SAN value will be firmly welded at 1 point, and it won't be able to rise even if you want it to!"

Zhou An didn't hesitate to take the disgusting gel and slapped it directly onto the back of his hand.

With this, Zhou An was completely stuck in the 1-point SAN value state.

For the entire night that followed, terrifying thumping sounds and manic laughter accompanied by pain echoed from the laboratory.

In this state of madness but retained sanity, Zhou An tested his ability limits all night.

Explosive physical strength! With a casual punch, he could smash a terrifying dent in a high-density alloy wall capable of withstanding missile bombardment; his speed even left afterimages in the confined space.

And what surprised him most was the terrifying bonus to other Hextech talents!

"The recovery speed of [Smallest Giant] has now almost become 10% recovery per hour!"

"And [Compound Interest]... it originally generated 1% interest daily, but now it has received a 99% efficacy bonus, becoming an outrageous 1.99%!"

This meant that as long as he got himself into this crazy 1-point SAN value state every day, the basic materials he conjured out of thin air would directly double! This was simply exploiting a perverted bug in the system!

However, when he endured the torture of auditory hallucinations and excitedly took out Tier 3 materials, wanting to try using the colorful Hextech [Level Up!] to see if he could upgrade one-to-one...

"It seems... [Level Up!] is already a special, highest-law level ability. It belongs to the underlying logic of the system and is not affected by this kind of berserk amplification on the panel data."

The test ended.

When Luo Ning quickly tore off the suppression gel on the back of his hand and pinched his nose to force him to drink a large bottle of high-level spiritual spring water that restores sanity, the bloodshot in Zhou An's eyes faded instantly.

That terrifying power receded like a tide, and a strong sense of emptiness and mental exhaustion struck. Zhou An collapsed on the cold metal floor of the laboratory like he was drained, panting heavily, his combat suit already soaked with sweat.