Chapter 175 Let's see who has a tougher life

"Warning! Unknown signal intrusion detected, underlying protocols are being rewritten!"

gaia's scream echoed through the command room, and the previously clear star map on the holographic screen was instantly covered by a patch of ghastly green garbled text. The characters twisted, like countless tiny venomous snakes drilling frantically behind the screen.

Lin Yuan stared at the blood-red text reading "Welcome to the graveyard," his expression showing no fluctuation; instead, he casually pressed the full-band broadcast button.

At this moment, in the deep space region behind Earth, dozens of pirate ships of various sizes and observer vessels from investigation teams were following from afar like ghosts. They dared not approach the terrifying fire pillars spewed by the ten thousand engines, yet like greedy wild dogs, they attempted to take one last bite before Earth entered the mist.

"Hey, you bunch of trash behind me, can you hear me?"

Lin Yuan's voice pierced through the interference, exploding across communication channels within a radius of several million kilometers.

Those pirate leaders were all stunned, subconsciously turning up the volume.

"Earth is just passing through; we only want to pick up some scraps to make a living. In the spirit of peaceful coexistence, I'll give you one last piece of advice."

Lin Yuan paused and lit the synthetic cigar he had been holding in his mouth; the smoke quickly dispersed into the oxygen circulation system.

"I do not offend those who do not offend me. But if anyone wants to try and stop my car on the Hell Highway, I guarantee that not only will I send your entire clan to meet God, but I will also dig up your ancestral graves back home and smelt them into scrap metal. Don't doubt my professional standards; I'm a professional at demolition."

After speaking, Lin Yuan didn't wait for a reply and directly ordered: "gaia, shut down all external signal identification, and set all fire control systems to fully automatic counter-attack mode. As long as something that isn't ours appears on the radar, don't ask for instructions—just blast it to smithereens."

"Understood! I've been holding back my anger!" gaia promptly cut off the broadcast.

The few small pirate groups that had originally intended to make a quick grab and run, upon hearing this extremely arrogant declaration, looked again at the terrifying planet in the distance, trailing ten thousand blue exhaust flames.

Just three minutes ago, they had witnessed firsthand how the dozen elite warships of the Black Shark group had turned into space junk.

"Kill the lights! Kill the engines! Maintain silence on all channels!"

A pirate leader, his forehead covered in cold sweat, roared almost frantically at his subordinates: "Let this 'Blue Death Star' pass! Let it go wherever it wants; we can't afford to provoke such lunatics!"

Thus, at the edge of the Land Abandoned by Gods, an extremely bizarre scene unfolded.

Dozens of armed starships floated neatly in orbit, all energy supplies cut off, like lifeless metal statues, watching as that behemoth plunged headlong into the gray mist.

From then on, the name "Blue Death Star" spread across the Hell Highway, becoming the most untouchable taboo in this lawless land.

...

"The environment here is even worse than I imagined."

Lin Yuan stood before the window; by now, Earth had completely entered the sphere of influence of the Land Abandoned by Gods.

Looking out, the surroundings were filled with thick, impenetrable, ghastly green mist. This mist seemed to possess some kind of strong electromagnetic shielding, as even the dragon sparrow's most advanced optical scanners could only see things within a five-kilometer radius here.

Even more bizarrely, the originally noisy cosmic background radiation had vanished, replaced by a silence that made one's hair stand on end.

"The radar echoes are all overlapping, and the spatial readings are jumping thousands of times per second; the laws of physics here seem to have been kneaded into dough by something." Academician Wang rubbed his reddened eyes, his tone filled with unprecedented gravity: "Lin, kid, we're like blind men feeling an elephant; if we bump into something big, Earth's armor might not hold up."

"We won't bump into anything."

Lin Yuan pointed to the black box on the command console.

That rusty chip was emitting a faint red glow, and with every flicker, a specific frequency spread forward.

When those ghastly green mists came into contact with this frequency, they would actually part automatically like living things, revealing a narrow path barely wide enough for a planet to pass through.

"This chip is leading the way." Lin Yuan stared at the blood-red spot of light: "It wants to take us to the core of this 'graveyard'."

Just then, a massive shadow suddenly popped up on the radar screen.

It was an object several times larger than the dragon sparrow, floating silently in the mist. As Earth approached, the true face of that thing was gradually revealed under the lights.

It was the wreckage of a warship.

The surface of its hull was covered in a dark golden luster, and although it had been torn in two, the break was still shockingly smooth.

On the massive bridge casing, a triangular gear emblem was engraved—that was the emblem of the Titan Civilization.

"This is a titan capital ship..." A Ji walked to the screen, trembling, his single eye filled with fear: "How is this possible? A warship of this caliber has shield strength that can withstand a supernova explosion; how could it... be torn apart directly by hand by something?"

Lin Yuan frowned; he saw more than just the break.

Under the illumination of the lights, he discovered that the surface of this massive titan warship was covered in red spots; from a distance, it looked as if this steel behemoth had grown countless blood-red molds.

"gaia, stay away, don't touch that wreckage." Lin Yuan had just spoken to warn her.

"Commander... something is not right." gaia's voice suddenly became extremely weak, carrying a tremor at the data level.

"What's wrong?"

"I just tried to link to the warship's black box, and as a result, my algorithms were subjected to a reverse intrusion. Those codes... they aren't logical instructions; they are alive! They are eating my firewall!"

Lin Yuan suddenly turned his head to look at the big screen.

On the screen, gaia's virtual avatar actually showed a trace of distortion, and a patch of rust-red suddenly appeared on her arm.

Immediately after, a teeth-gritting "hissing" sound came from the command room.

It was the sound of metal oxidation, but at an alarmingly fast speed.

In a corner of the command room, a precision air purifier that had been operating suddenly turned red and brittle, and within a few seconds, it turned into a pile of red rust powder.

"Alert! The Heavenly Court Fortress's outer armor has been invaded by an unknown mechanical virus!"

"Erosion rate 0.01%... 0.05%... the speed is increasing exponentially!"

The big screen displayed an overall simulation of Earth.

On the originally azure outer armor, a red spot was spreading rapidly, like a drop of red ink falling into water.

Lin Yuan's face darkened, and his figure instantly vanished from where he stood.

The next second, he appeared on the observation platform at the very top of the Heavenly Court Fortress.

Outside was green mist where one couldn't see their own hand, and beneath his feet, the originally indestructible alloy floor was currently churning with a layer of dark red substance that looked like rust and blood.

This thing was spreading downwards along the cracks in the floor; wherever it passed, the alloy structure softened rapidly as if corroded by strong acid, losing all structural integrity.

Lin Yuan crouched down, and a mass of black Void Energy surged from his right palm, attempting to forcibly reclaim this "rust."

【Warning! S-class mechanical virus "Rust" detected!】

【One of the culprits behind the destruction of the Titan Civilization; a predatory logic specifically targeting metal life forms and high-dimensional code.】

【Due to the host's insufficient level, it cannot be directly reclaimed. Physical isolation is recommended.】

The system's pop-up prompt box was a glaring blood-red.

Lin Yuan's fingertips touched the rust spot; not only did he not feel the texture of metal, but he instead felt an extremely viscous, cold heat, as if a rotting heart were buried beneath this piece of armor.

What made his scalp tingle even more was that after the rust spots touched the Void Energy within his body, they actually emitted a sharp, screeching sound like a baby crying.

"A logic virus? This thing is eating code?"

Lin Yuan looked up.

Deep within the thick green mist, something had been awakened by the commotion here.

Two massive, scarlet beams of light pierced through the dense fog, accurately locking onto Earth's position.

Those were not lights, but the eyes of some massive mechanical life form.

Accompanying the opening of those eyes, the sound of grinding teeth—like billions of old machines operating simultaneously—came from the mist, and the entire mist of the Land Abandoned by Gods began to churn violently with this sound.

"gaia, have all personnel retreat to the underground shelter, and shut down all non-essential power facilities!"

Lin Yuan stood up abruptly; he could feel that the surrounding warship wreckage, which had been lifeless, had all moved at this moment.

This place was not a graveyard at all.

It was a massive, still-digesting "stomach pouch."

"Since you want to eat us, let's see if your teeth are tough enough."

Lin Yuan looked at the red eyes drawing closer and closer; not only did he not retreat, but he stepped into the void, and at that instant, the void engine within him began running at full load.

And behind those two giant red eyes, more red dots lit up densely in the depths of the mist.

The rust-corroded chip snatched from the pirates was vibrating frantically in its box at this moment, emitting an extremely clear audio message.

It was a desperate roar delivered in a titan tone:

"It has come... it is what we created... it wants to reclaim all iron!"

Lin Yuan snorted coldly, the void blade in his hand instantly coalescing, the edge pointing toward the behemoth gradually revealing itself in the deepest part of the mist.

"Whether you are an 'it' or a 'he,' once you've entered my territory, don't even think about leaving for the rest of your life."

At the very instant the red light completely enveloped Earth, Lin Yuan's figure turned into a bolt of dark golden lightning, charging straight toward that giant eyeball.

At the same time, half of Earth's twelve thousand engines suddenly cut out, and the remaining half spewed flames that were no longer pure blue, but mixed with that ominous, viscous rust-red.

The crisis had only just begun.