Erasure

Line by line, orderly, cold, and carrying a sense of official formality, the text quickly listed itself out in front of Ren Yi.

【Name: Raindrop】

【Category: Single-use consumable, Rule tool】

【Grade: Unrankable】

【Effect】: Locks onto a single target individual and performs "Erasure" upon them.

Ignores all conventional and unconventional resistances, including target defense, shields, spatial barriers, rule exemptions, rebirth, and regression. Leaves no trace and does not trigger any post-death abilities.

【Usage Conditions】

Target must be within the user's current perception range;

The user must precisely understand the target's "core, most essential category of pain" and be completely certain in their heart.

Definitions cannot be vague, multiple attempts are not allowed, and possibilities cannot be ruled out one by one.

Any subjective judgment that is not certain enough will fail to activate the tool.

【Note: The rules carried by this tool have been solidified; it is limited to a single use and will dissipate immediately after taking effect.】

【Remark: Take it outside the Alliance and go wreak havoc on someone else!】

Ren Yi stared at the screen, automatically ignoring the remark as he read through the rules and restrictions three times. Finally, his confusion was completely resolved.

He had to admit, the 【Anomaly Image Search】 app on the Anomaly Web was actually quite useful.

The information was straightforward and the rules were clear—a hundred times more reliable than his riddler brother.

Now, he completely understood how to use this raindrop Ren Man had given him.

To put it simply, this was a "concentrated, solidified, single-use portable auxiliary rule."

Its core logic was essentially identical to the Calamity Rule he had experienced back in the Three Cities World.

He still remembered it clearly; the initial rule of the Three Cities World was 【Do not feel pain together with others】.

Back then, when facing Azure, he had to empathize with the other's core pain if he wanted to trigger the rule and complete the liquidation.

He even had to forcefully synchronize his feelings through self-harm to leverage the power of the rule.

And now, what this raindrop required of him was almost no different from what he had faced with Azure.

He had to precisely identify the target's most fundamental pain.

Azure's core was a loneliness carved into the soul, but for other targets, he would have to analyze their specific circumstances.

Was it eternal imprisonment, endless regret, an inescapable fate, or an obsession that could never be fulfilled...?

Okay, okay, he was starting to sound a bit like he had a case of chuunibyou.

The only difference—and the most humane aspect of this raindrop—was the activation method.

This time, he didn't need to trigger his emotions by putting himself through terrible illusionary realms like before.

He didn't have to forcefully empathize or synchronize with the target's pain, and he didn't have to beat himself half to death to trigger the effect.

As Ren Yi's fingertips brushed against the icy crystal, he roughly understood the origin of this raindrop.

This was rain from the end-stage of a Calamity, a product forcefully stripped, compressed, and solidified by Ren Man.

During the end of that Calamity, the world's rules had become completely twisted, finally settling into an absolutely cold 【Do not feel pain】.

In the places where that rain fell, every existence carrying pain would be directly erased. Even the world itself was slowly dissolving within the curtain of rain.

The raindrop in Ren Yi's hand was essentially no different from that world-ending rain.

However, that rain had been an indiscriminate liquidation covering the entire world; the rule had already pre-judged that "the entire world was soaked in pain."

But this raindrop, crafted into a tool, had no preset target and no pre-completed rule judgment.

This most critical and rigorous step had to be completed by Ren Yi himself.

It was exactly what was written on the Anomaly Web panel.

He had to understand the target's core pain and be absolutely certain in his heart.

This meant that trying to get by through blind guessing, the process of elimination, or gambling on probabilities was completely out of the question.

Even if he guessed ninety percent correctly, as long as there was a hint of uncertainty or a trace of doubt in his heart, the tool would fail to activate.

Ren Yi pursed his lips.

In any case, he could forget about using this for a spawn kill the moment he saw an enemy.

Expecting to just encounter an enemy and immediately one-shot them with the raindrop was simply unrealistic.

Why wasn't his ability something like mind-reading instead?

After a moment of self-pity, Ren Yi quickly tossed the strange thought to the back of his mind.

The restrictions were indeed numerous: he needed perception locking, precise mind-reading, and absolute hundred-percent certainty without a hint of ambiguity. The margin for error was pitifully low.

But correspondingly, the effect was ridiculously powerful.

Ren Yi's gaze fell once more upon the words "Erasure" and "ignores all defense."

The most crucial point was that from beginning to end, the system panel never mentioned restrictions like "needing to touch the target" or "needing to hit with a throw."

In other words, as long as he simultaneously satisfied the two conditions of "target within perception range" and "precise understanding and certainty of pain," the erasure effect could be triggered directly across space.

He didn't need to throw the raindrop in the target's face, nor did he need to do any groundwork.

And then there was that term: "Erasure."

A precious execution mechanism!

This meant that no matter how powerful the target was, no matter how many layers of shields they wore, how solid their defenses were, how many lives they had, or how many revival methods they possessed—it was all useless before this raindrop.

As long as the judgment was successful, their existence would be deleted directly from the source.

Ren Yi couldn't help but chuckle. Well, his brother was right.

What "life-saving tool"? This thing didn't save lives at all.

He would still have to rely on his own strength to weather the bloody storm of the exam.

But looking at it from another perspective, the best defense was a good offense.

If he could directly erase the enemy, then naturally there would be no danger.

This was the most extreme, domineering, and uncompromising integration of offense and defense.

The only pity was that it was labeled as a "single-use consumable."

Ren Yi rolled the crystalline raindrop between his fingers, feeling a bit of a sting in his heart.

Such a powerful rule-based killing move could only be used once; it was such a waste.

If he could have a few more drops, he could practically walk sideways through the Promotion Exam Instance without any issues.

As he played with the raindrop, his eyes lit up. He looked up with great anticipation at Ren Man, who was sitting across from him.

"Brother, since this thing is so useful, how about giving me a few more?"

Ren Man kept his head down, his eyelids lowered, and did not answer. His face remained expressionless.

He neither nodded nor refused; he just sat there quietly as if he hadn't heard the request.

Ren Yi hesitated for a moment. Following Ren Man's gaze, he subconsciously looked under the table.

Beneath Ren Man's feet, that shadow—which had just been adjusted back to a normal shape and was perfectly aligned—suddenly began to surge silently the moment Ren Man lowered his head.

The pitch-black shadow was like a living venomous snake, its edges lifting slightly as it silently and gently probed in his direction.

In an instant, all of Ren Yi's senses flared.

He had already been blasted into a blob by Ren Man's true form once today and had barely managed to piece himself back together. He didn't want a second time.

"I'll go do the dishes!"

Ren Yi sprang from his chair instantly, backing down faster than anyone. He grabbed the bowls and chopsticks from the table and rushed into the kitchen.

Fine, fine, just one then. Stingy guy.