Chapter 174 Take even the screws off and take them with you!

"Engineering Ship No. 3, what are you dawdling there for? That armor plate might be cracked, but it's high-purity titanium alloy! If we melt it down, we can forge tens of thousands of bayonets. Drag it back for me!"

"Team Five! Who told you to throw away the toilet from that pirate frigate? The plating on that is gold! You wasteful idiots, go pick it back up!"

In space, an unprecedented "big cleanup" was underway.

The airspace where Black Shark Fortress had originally been was now cleaner than a plate licked by a dog.

Thousands of engineering mechs and unmanned transport ships, like a swarm of locusts with eyes reddened by hunger, were crawling over every piece of wreckage with any value, tearing into it frantically.

Lin Yuan stood before the porthole, holding a megaphone, spitting as he directed this massive interstellar relocation.

In his eyes, this wasn't a battlefield ruin at all; it was clearly an open-pit gold mine.

The wreckage of the warships, smashed to smithereens, was roughly shoved into compressors by giant mechanical arms, pressed into standard metal cubes, and then neatly stacked like bricks into the cargo hold of the dragon sparrow.

Even the fragments of precision electronic components floating in the air were sucked clean by specialized magnetic vacuum cleaners.

Even the few meteorites the pirates had used as decorations were ordered to be towed away by Lin Yuan because they were detected to contain trace amounts of rare earth elements.

"Report Commander, the cargo hold... is full." The logistics minister ran over, covered in sweat. "Even the corridors are stacked with the pirates' power batteries; there is really no room left."

"No room?" Lin Yuan raised an eyebrow. "Drain half of the spare domestic water. That's for drinking later; for now, load up these lethal pieces of hardware! We have ice giants ahead anyway, so water can be replenished anywhere, but this special steel won't be here next time!"

This ruthless and greedy way of scavenging left the newly surrendered A Ji dumbfounded.

In his life, he had seen the greediest pirates, who would still leave a ship's hull behind after robbing a merchant vessel.

But these Earthlings... they truly wished they could pry up the very coordinates of this space and take them away.

"A Ji, don't just stand there." Lin Yuan looked back at him and tossed him a can of energy drink found in the pirate warehouse. "I've also had people tow your broken ship to the factory. Although the engine is ruined, the gravity generator is still usable. Old Man Wang says it's perfect for upgrading our pig farm."

A Ji held the drink, his mouth twitching: "My lord, you... are truly thrifty."

"That's right, we have billions of mouths to feed." Lin Yuan clapped his hands, looking at the almost empty dark deep space outside, and nodded with satisfaction. "Pass the order down, work's done! Run the factory at full capacity, and turn all this junk into bullets that can actually fire!"

Over the next twenty-four hours, the wandering Earth became a massive furnace.

Resources dismantled from Black Shark Fortress and patrol ships were fed into the underground arsenal like a flowing stream.

That advanced armor bearing the insignia of the Orion civilization was melted down in the blink of an eye and recast into heavy tanks and exoskeleton mechs marked with "Daxia Made."

Academician Wang and his band of scientific lunatics were even more energized, as if they had been injected with adrenaline.

With the core processors from the pirate fortress and the two destroyers contributed by Zeta, the fire control radar technology that had previously been a bottleneck was instantly broken through.

The planetary engine that originally could only fire in a straight line now had a phase tracking system installed, and could even predict the enemy's warp landing points.

The war potential of the entire civilization had doubled in this short period of rest.

This was not just an improvement in equipment, but a transformation in mentality.

Before, Earthlings felt like refugees, but now, looking at their upgraded arsenal, they stood tall—whoever dared to block their path, they would take them on!

Deep in the bowels of Earth, inside a nuclear waste treatment plant filled with high-energy radiation, the scene was entirely different.

"Hurry up! Don't slack off!"

An Earth supervisor wearing an exoskeleton brandished an electric baton, pointing at a sewage pipe ahead.

Zeta, dressed in a bulky, lead-lined radiation suit, held a shovel and was struggling to shovel radioactive waste that was still emitting a faint blue glow into lead buckets.

This patrol officer, who had once been impeccably dressed and viewed lower civilizations as nothing more than grass, now had a face covered in black grease, and his blonde hair was as messy as a chicken coop.

The radiation levels here were very high, and even with the protective suit, the nauseating dizziness made him want to vomit with every step he took.

"I am... I am a noble inspector of the Order Bureau..." Zeta muttered neurotically while shoveling the foul-smelling waste. "You cannot treat me like this... This violates interstellar law..."

"Smack!"

A glob of mud splattered onto his visor.

Zeta looked up in shock and anger, only to find a group of workers staring at him coldly.

Those workers were not human, but alien slaves who had been imprisoned in Black Shark Fortress.

After being rescued by Lin Yuan, most of them chose to stay and work for Earth in exchange for protection.

Among these people, many had lost their families specifically because Zeta had "turned a blind eye."

A four-eyed alien miner walked over and spat fiercely at Zeta's feet.

He didn't speak, nor did he hit anyone; he just looked at Zeta with eyes that looked at trash, then turned and went back to work.

That look hurt him more than killing him would have.

He used to be a god high above, and these bugs could only crawl at his feet.

But now, he had become the lowliest member of this group of "bugs," responsible for cleaning up the excrement and waste they produced.

Zeta's hand holding the shovel trembled violently, and tears mixed with sweat flowed inside his visor.

He finally realized that the man named Lin Yuan wasn't joking.

Here, no one cared about his noble surname; to survive, he had to work like a dog.

dragon sparrow, highest strategic conference room.

A massive star map was projected in the center of the room, with red warning lines and green safe navigation lanes weaving into a complex web.

"The situation isn't looking good."

Academician Wang pointed to the pre-planned routes on the star map. "According to the data from Zeta's ship, the Order Bureau has already deployed heavy forces at the three main jump points leading to the center of the galaxy. Although we've left the vanguard fleet of the Tribunal behind for a distance, if we take the conventional route, being blocked is only a matter of time."

"Moreover, it's not just warships coming this time." A Ji stood to the side, operating the holographic console and pulling up an encrypted file. "According to intelligence, the 'Holy Expeditionary Army' also has a 'Star-Killer Array' specifically targeting planetary-level targets. If locked on by that thing, Earth wouldn't last three volleys."

The atmosphere in the conference room was somewhat heavy.

The joy from that recent great victory was diluted significantly by reality.

Robbing the pirates was satisfying, but facing a true behemoth, Earth was still like dancing on a tightrope.

"The conventional route won't work, so we'll take the unconventional one."

Lin Yuan sat at the head of the table, his fingers tapping the tabletop rhythmically, making a "thump-thump" sound.

"A Ji, mark that place."

A Ji hesitated for a moment before tapping a few times on the console.

The star map changed abruptly. The dense navigation lines disappeared, replaced by a pitch-black, void region. And in the center of that darkness, three blood-red skull symbols were particularly eye-catching.

Land Abandoned by Gods.

"This is an ancient battlefield." A Ji's voice was somewhat dry. "Legend has it that ten thousand years ago, two god-level civilizations broke out in a fierce war here. Because they used too many causal weapons and rule-based strikes, the physical laws of this star region completely collapsed."

"It is filled with chaotic gravitational turbulence, out-of-control ancient mechanical guards, and some kind of... virus that can twist biological minds." A Ji took a deep breath. "All Orion ships avoid this place; even the craziest explorers who went in never came back out."

"Sounds like a good place." Not only was Lin Yuan not afraid, he smiled instead. "If no one goes there, it means there are no eyes from the Order Bureau, and no pursuers."

"But Commander!" Chen Weiguo couldn't help but stand up. "This is gambling with the lives of all humanity! Collapsed physical laws? Whether our engines can even ignite there is a problem! What if Earth disintegrates as soon as we enter?"

"Old Chen, staying here and being surrounded by the Order Bureau is certain death. Entering that ghost place is just a nine-in-ten chance of death." Lin Yuan stood up, pointing at the dark area. "Besides, don't you think it's perfect for us?"

"Perfect?" Everyone was stunned.

"It's an ancient battlefield!" Lin Yuan's eyes flashed with that familiar, wolf-like gleam. "How much high-level scrap must be left over from two god-level civilizations fighting? Those out-of-control mechanical guards are free troops! Those twisted rules are perfect for Academician Wang to use as research topics!"

"Wealth is sought in danger. We started as a bunch of scavengers anyway; what are we afraid of regarding dirt and chaos?"

Lin Yuan looked around, his tone becoming serious: "Of course, I won't act arbitrarily. Open the national voting channel. Tell everyone the current situation and the pros and cons of both paths truthfully."

"I want the results in ten minutes."

Earth, Underground City.

On the giant holographic screen, Lin Yuan's voice had just faded.

There was no panic as imagined, nor was there intense quarreling.

If it were at the beginning of the wandering plan, people might have argued until they were red in the face for a chance at survival. But having experienced one desperate situation after another, and having witnessed the brutality of pirates and the cold-bloodedness of advanced civilizations, the nerves of Earthlings had long been ground harder than steel.

In the D3 district plaza, a middle-aged man eating synthetic meat skewers wiped his mouth and looked at the person next to him: "What do you say? Which path to take?"

"Nonsense, of course we listen to Boss Lin." The young man next to him was wiping his powered arm gauntlets. "Take the main road and get slaughtered like pigs by those hypocrites? I'd rather go to that so-called Land Abandoned by Gods and fight the monsters to the death!"

"Exactly! Land Abandoned by Gods? We've even killed gods, are we afraid of a place abandoned by them?"

"Charge, charge, charge! As long as Boss Lin dares to lead, we dare to follow!"

Data streams refreshed on the dragon sparrow's screen like a waterfall.

Ten minutes were up.

Approval rate: 98.7%.

The remaining 1.3% was not opposition, but abstention—most of them were newborn babies and the severely wounded.

"Looks like everyone is very clear-headed." Lin Yuan looked at the red number, a smile curling at the corner of his mouth. "Since all of humanity wants to go sightseeing in hell, I'll be the tour guide."

"Order the entire ship! Target, Land Abandoned by Gods! Level 1 combat readiness! Overload preheat all planetary engines!"

"Yes!"

Following the order, this massive blue planet began to turn slowly. A huge beam of gravitational light cut through the darkness, like an unswerving warrior, charging toward the forbidden zone where even starlight was swallowed.

However, just as Earth was about to touch the layer of gray mist on the edge of the Land Abandoned by Gods.

Earth Academy of Sciences, top-secret biological laboratory.

The black metal box captured from the pirate ship, sealed by layers of lead plates and force field shields, suddenly made a crisp mechanical sound.

"Click."

The researcher in charge of monitoring was so startled he almost fell off his chair.

"Alert! The sealed object... the sealed object has automatically unlocked!"

Without any external intervention, the box covered in twisted runes slowly popped open a crack.

An indescribable, cold aura instantly permeated the entire laboratory, and even the high-precision surveillance cameras experienced a moment of static.

Through that sliver of a gap, one could see that there was no earth-shattering artifact inside, nor any terrifying monster limb.

There was only a chip.

A rusty, old-fashioned chip that looked as if it had been buried in the dirt for thousands of years.

But the moment the box opened completely, a blood-red spot of light suddenly lit up on the chip that looked like scrap iron. That spot of light was like an eye that had just awakened, carrying some ancient and vicious will, flashing at a strange frequency.

At the same time, a line of bright red garbled code forcibly cut into the main control screen of the dragon sparrow, even covering the star map in front of Lin Yuan.

It wasn't a human language, but the meaning of this message automatically appeared in the minds of everyone present.

It was a warning, or rather, an invitation.

[Rust... has awakened.]

[Welcome to... the graveyard.]

Lin Yuan looked at the red text on the screen, not only not panicking but subconsciously licking his lips.

He felt that the system within him, the moment the rusted chip lit up, actually emitted an unprecedented, hungry vibration, as if it had seen one of its own.

"Interesting."

Lin Yuan looked up at the gray mist drawing closer, the dark golden light in his eyes surging violently.

"Looks like this trip really is to the right place."

Boom—!

Earth broke through the mist and completely disappeared from the field of vision of the real universe.