SSS Class Awakening: Start With A God-Level Choice System
Chapter 73: Liberation (SS) Skill And The Emblem of Final Defiance (A) Item

Chapter 73: Liberation (SS) Skill And The Emblem of Final Defiance (A) Item

Six days have passed. It has been a week and six days since Ainsworth, Rian, and Dante arrived at the Zombie Apocalypse World.

During the past six days, Ainsworth expended all his efforts in assisting the Church of Evolution expand its branches to Eurafrasia Continent, Americas Continent, and Oceania-Pacifica Continent.

With his intervention, he assisted in the creation of cathedrals in other countries and continents as well as the indoctrination of new believers. After all, Ken Rogers and those two High Priests weren’t enough to deal with countless countries in those three continents so Ainsworth recruited more High Priests.

Only Evolver Kings and Evolver Emperors were qualified to serve as a High Priest while Special Evolvers and Elite Evolvers could only serve as Priests.

Under Ainsworth’s meticulous management of resources, the Church Of Evolution now consisted of 5 Evolver Emperors, 227 Evolver Kings, 100,000+ Special Evolvers, and 1.000,000+ Elite Evolvers.

As for Normal Evolvers, there were approximately eighty million.

In other words, Ainsworth’s religion finally had more than eighty million believers.

He had allocated a lot of resources to the Church of Evolution to the point that he didn’t use any Solar Moon crystals for himself but gave them away to his believers. The improvement that a Solar Moon crystal could bring to him was minimal so he no longer used them.

Furthermore, due to his focus on the Church of Evolution, the Zombie Empire led by Kyle didn’t have much resources so Kyle was stuck at Zombie King Peak Stage.

Due to the rapid expansion of the Church of Evolution, most of the resources in the USA were taken by Ainsworth’s believers so the Zombie Empire that was stationed in the USA could barely get any resources.

It was only by relying on his natural talent and the strange moonlight that Kyle managed to improve his power without relying too much on Moon Crystals.

Although Kyle’s evolution to Zombie Emperor was necessary, Ainsworth didn’t regret diverting his resources to the Church of Evolution. After all, only by establishing branches of the Church across all three continents could he hope to monopolize the resources within their nations.

With more than two hundred High Priests, Ainsworth had already established at least one cathedral of the Church of Evolution in every country in Terra.

Because of that, he could collect sun crystals and moon crystals from all countries even if there were cities that were missed due to lack of manpower.

With the believer count of his religion surpassing eighty million, it was no exaggeration to say that Ainsworth had eyes and ears throughout the three continents. Using Hive Mind, he could use the believers to check the progress of every country in Eurafrasia, Americas, and Oceania-Pacifica Continents.

The resource production of his Church of Evolution could even produce two Evolver Emperors.

After asking his High Priests via the Hive Mind, Ainsworth soon heard that there were enough resources to let Kyle evolve into a Zombie Emperor.

The Zombie Empire in the USA was already qualified to be called an empire so the only thing lacking was Kyle’s power to reach Zombie Emperor-rank.

As long as that was achieved, Ainsworth would be able to complete the Side Mission: Road To Zombie Emperor (SS+).

However, he wasn’t in a hurry, having just completed a side mission a few minutes ago, and was now waiting for the Voice of The World’s confirmation and the issuance of rewards.

Ainsworth didn’t have to wait that long as he soon heard a notification sound in his mind.

-Ding!

[The Side Mission: Infiltration 2 (SS) has been completed!]

-Ding!

[Your team has received the following rewards: Improvement of otherworld mission score (which will be graded after all the main missions are completed), SS-rank Skill Book (One per member of the team, tailored to suit the member’s needs), A-rank equipment (One per member of the team, tailored to suit the member’s needs. Can be used regardless of Awakener Rank but only applicable to the team member who received it.)]

-Ding!

[You have received the SS-rank Liberation skill book!]

Without any hesitation, Ainsworth immediately used the skill book.

-Ding!

[You have acquired the SS-rank Liberation skill!]

[Skill: Liberation

Skill Rank: SS

Skill Ability:

(1) Instantly remove all current debuffs, restraints, status conditions, and suppression-type effects from yourself and all nearby allies within a large radius.

(2) For each effect removed per person, grants a Liberation Surge buff that temporarily increases their highest offensive stat by 5% per stack (up to a max of 5 stacks).

(3) If used while the caster or allies are affected by seal-type or law-type effects, the skill also grants temporary immunity to similar effects for the next 30 seconds.

Duration: Surge Buff lasts 30 seconds

Cooldown: None]

After Ainsworth used the Liberation (SS) skill book, he soon heard another notification sound.

-Ding!

[You have received the A-rank equipment Emblem of Final Defiance!]

[Item: Emblem of Final Defiance

Item Rank: A

Item Type: Accessory (Soul-bound)

Item Ability:

(1) Final Defiance – Once per day, when the wearer receives a single instance of damage that would result in immediate death, the Emblem activates and completely negates the damage, allowing the wearer to remain at their current HP as if the attack never occurred.

However, if the incoming damage exceeds the Emblem’s threshold (equal to 500% of the wearer’s maximum HP), the item cannot block it fully but will reduce the total damage by 90% instead.

(2) Chainbreaker’s Mark – For 10 seconds after Final Defiance is triggered, the wearer gains immunity to all forms of crowd control, suppression, immobilization, seal effects, and anti-healing debuffs, and their movement and attack speed is increased by 10%.

(3) This item is soul-bound and can only be used by the one it was assigned to by the Earth Will.

Cooldown: 24 hours]

Ainsworth blinked as the light of the Voice of The World’s system panels disappeared, revealing a small, gleaming object resting gently in his palm.

The Emblem of Final Defiance (A) was not flashy like most high-rank items. Instead, it radiated a quiet dignity, a symbol not of overwhelming power but of unyielding will.

It was a platinum medallion, about the size of a coin, attached to a thin, flexible cord that shimmered with faint traces of gold.

The center of the medallion bore a crimson inlay shaped like a cracked shield, symbolizing the moment before death, the line between survival and destruction. Around the edge, ancient runes glowed subtly in a calming cerulean hue, pulsing faintly as if in rhythm with Ainsworth’s heartbeat.

Despite its modest size, the Emblem felt unnaturally heavy, as though it carried the weight of countless defiant stands against fate itself.

The moment he touched it, he felt a surge. Not of power, but of conviction. It was a protective force, one born from resistance, from standing firm even when the world sought to bring him to his knees.

With a flick of his wrist, he clasped the medallion around his neck. The cord adjusted to fit him perfectly, as if it had always belonged there.

"Guess dying just got harder," Ainsworth muttered with a smirk, the Emblem resting against his chest like a silent promise of ’You’ll fall when you choose to, not when the world decides it.’

After all, it was his freedom to surrender and no one could take that right from an SSS-rank Freedom Freelancer like himself.

Another notification echoed softly in his mind, sealing the bond.

[Soul-bind complete. The Emblem of Final Defiance (A) now recognizes you as its rightful bearer.]

After receiving the rewards from the Side Mission: Infiltration 2 (SS), Ainsworth felt that it was indeed worth it to spend his time completing the side missions.

Although Ainsworth was busy with managing the Church of Evolution in the past six days, Rian and Dante had assisted him with completing Side Mission: Infiltration 2 (SS).

They used the father zombie virus he stored in a vial and used it to infect the human survival bases in the US.

For military-established human survival bases, Captain Rourke from Fort Echo-7 gave them credentials for easier entry.

As for those human survival bases established by survivors, infiltrating those were much easier as Rian and Dante only needed to show off their abilities as "Evolvers".

So aside from giving them the father zombie virus so that the leaders of those human survival bases would be incorporated into his Hive Mind, it was Rian and Dante who did the work of visiting every human survival bases and releasing those father zombie virus.

Ainsworth had merely given them his High Priest who could use a teleportation superpower to assist them in mobility. Most of his time in the past six days were spent on the expansion of the Church of Evolution and at that time, Rian and Dante didn’t slack off.

Aside from that, Rian and Dante had also been training with his High Priests in combat as those two lacked combat experience. Because of that, they underwent hellish training in their free time and it had paid off as they became more familiar with the usage of their class exclusive skills and normal skills.