With godlike talent from the start, how did he become invincible?

Chapter 575 Zhao Hao's Departure and Staying

He touched the back of his head.

"I stopped going to the main city after that. I relied entirely on small villages in the wild for supplies. I would only go to a place once, buy enough, and then move on to another place. If my equipment broke, I would find a blacksmith to repair it, and if they wouldn't, I would just make do with what I had."

He looked down at his tattered armor. There were three deep claw marks on his breastplate, from when he was attacked by an elite monster in the desolate hills a few days ago; they had almost pierced through him. Half of his shoulder armor was torn, and only a few loose threads of his cloak remained hanging from his shoulders.

"Nobody wants to team up with me. It's not that they look down on me, it's that they're genuinely afraid—afraid of being associated with me and being seen as a jinx by others. No guild wants me, even the newly established small guilds have a recruitment threshold of 'not accepting Zhao Hao'."

He paused, his voice lowering even further.

"Sometimes I think, if only that barrier hadn't been triggered. If only I didn't have that lousy talent. If only I didn't even exist."

He didn't say the last word, but the meaning was already very clear.

Lin Tian listened quietly, without interrupting, offering no words of comfort, and without any extra expression on his face.

There was a few seconds of silence.

Lin Tian spoke up: "With your talent, what else can you do besides passing through barriers?"

Zhao Hao was taken aback, not expecting the topic to veer in this direction.

He thought for a moment and answered seriously, "I can sense the energy flow. No matter what kind of barrier, array, or seal it is, as long as it is within my perception range, I can 'see' its energy flow. I can clearly see where it is unobstructed, where it is blocked, and where there are cracks."

"It can also temporarily break the seal. It's not about destroying it, but about finding the 'lock' to the seal and temporarily disabling it. If the seal itself has a self-repairing function, it will automatically recover after the lock is unlocked."

He spoke with more confidence than before. This was the only thing he could boast about.

Lin Tian nodded.

"So, you can explore, break seals, and repair barriers?"

Zhao Hao thought for a moment and nodded: "More or less."

"Then you're not a piece of trash."

Zhao Hao suddenly raised his head, his eyes wide open.

He opened his mouth, as if to say something, but his throat felt like it was blocked by something. Lin Tian's tone was too calm, so calm that it didn't sound like he was comforting him, but rather like he was stating a fact.

It is this tranquility that gives this statement its unique weight.

Zhao Hao took a deep breath and suppressed the emotions that were welling up inside him.

Then he mustered his courage—real courage, not the kind of courage to fight, but the kind of courage to utter his most humble request.

"Can I...can I add you as a friend?"

His voice trembled slightly, and his ears were red, which was particularly noticeable on his face, which was purple from the cold.

He knew how shameless this question was. Lin Tian was a powerful expert capable of soloing level 80 bosses, while he was a level 35 scourge hated by everyone. The two were simply from completely different worlds.

But he still asked.

He wanted to grasp at this straw.

Lin Tian looked at him.

There was a three-second silence.

In those three seconds, Zhao Hao felt his heartbeat was so loud that it could be heard across the entire ice field.

Then Lin Tian raised his right hand and made a few gestures in the air—a gesture to open the social networking interface. He opened his friends list, opened the add friend input box, and entered Zhao Hao's ID.

Zhao Hao's pupils suddenly dilated.

He couldn't believe what he was seeing.

The next moment, a system notification popped up in front of him.

[System notification: Player "Lin Tian" has requested to add you as a friend.]

Do you agree?

Zhao Hao stared at the notification, at the name, for a full three seconds.

His fingers were trembling.

He raised his hand and forcefully pressed down on the "Agree" button.

[System notification: You and Lin Tian have become friends.]

Zhao Hao stared at the notification, his mouth agape, unable to close it.

His eyes were a little red, but he didn't cry. He wiped his eyes hard with his sleeve, then opened his friends list.

Lin Tian's name lay there quietly.

It wasn't a gray "offline" status, but a lit one—we were in the same world, under the same sky.

Zhao Hao took a deep breath and then opened Lin Tian's character information.

This is the basic function of friend permissions—viewing a friend's level, profession, and basic attribute panel.

He glanced at it.

Then I took another look.

Then his eyes widened like copper bells.

"Level 70...?!"

Zhao Hao's voice was so sharp it cracked, echoing several times across the empty, icy hollow.

"You, a level 70 player, just killed a level 80 boss?! 920 million HP, and you killed it in less than 15 minutes?! How did you deal that damage? Your stats... are you even human?"

He bombarded the ice with a barrage of questions, his excitement causing him to gesticulate wildly. He stomped his bare foot on the ice several times, slipped, and nearly fell.

Lin Tian did not answer.

He simply closed the system panel and glanced at Zhao Hao.

There was no smugness, no boasting, not even a "this is no big deal" expression in that glance. It was just a glance to confirm that Zhao Hao was still standing in the same spot, and then he shifted his gaze to the depths of the icy plain.

"Don't wander into barriers randomly anymore," Lin Tian said.

His tone was very calm, as if he were talking about something very trivial.

But Zhao Hao understood the weight behind those five words.

The word "later" implies that Lin Tian places his existence in the future. It's not "This is resolved now, and then you disappear," but rather "Be more careful in the future."

Zhao Hao nodded vigorously.

I pressed too hard, and my neck cracked.

"I won't." His voice was a little hoarse, but very firm. "I swear, I'll never cross a barrier again. I'd rather die than do it."

He raised his right hand, held up three fingers, and made a gesture as if swearing an oath.

Lin Tian glanced at him, then turned and walked towards the portal.

Little White flew off his shoulder, circled once in front of the portal to confirm there was nothing amiss, and then flew back to Lin Tian's side. Celia emerged from the shadows, her black robe trailing across the ice, and silently followed behind Lin Tian.

Zhao Hao stood there, watching that figure from behind.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say thank you, wanting to say many things, but his throat felt like it was blocked by something, and he couldn't make a sound.

He just limped after them.

The bare foot stepped on the ice, leaving a clear footprint with each step.

The footprints were quickly filled with tiny ice crystals, stretching out behind him like a white dotted line.

Lin Tian's footsteps were light, but each step was steady. Hearing that sound, Zhao Hao felt inexplicably at ease.

He quickened his pace and caught up.

On the ice field, two lines of footprints stretched towards the light gate.

One line is steady, the other is crooked and twisted.

But the direction is the same.