Chapter 207 The Natural Enemy of Metal

"Screeeeee—!!!"

The Leviathan beast, occupying half the field of view, gave the Earthlings no time to set the table and serve the meal.

A psychic shriek, one that couldn't even be transmitted through the air, hammered directly into the crowns of everyone's heads.

In the command hall, several physically weak technicians sprayed nosebleeds on the spot, and A Ji curled up on the ground clutching his head, feeling as if his brains had been stirred into tofu pudding.

"The dinner bell has rung." Lin Yuan rubbed his temples and threw the handful of melon seeds he had just grabbed back onto the plate. "It's just that this time, we've become the dish."

On the screen, the pitch-black sea of bugs moved.

They had no formation, no tactics, only a pure, despair-inducing quantity. Billions of bugs, like a black bomber fleet with eerie biological phosphorus fire spraying from their tails, paid no mind to gravitational orbits and dove headfirst into Earth's atmosphere.

"All anti-aircraft fire, open up! Don't save ammunition, hit them hard for me!" Chen Weiguo roared into the communicator, veins bulging on his neck.

In an instant, countless tongues of fire rose from the Earth's surface.

A metal storm composed of tens of thousands of close-in weapon systems, combined with a light net woven by high-energy laser arrays, illuminated the pitch-black space brighter than during the New Year.

But this excitement didn't last two seconds.

"Report! Kinetic warheads are ineffective!" The frontline Commander's voice sounded like he had seen a ghost. "These bugs' carapaces are too damn hard! Depleted uranium armor-piercing shells are just ricocheting off; it's like scratching an itch for them!"

The image zoomed in.

The vanguard bugs, which looked like a crossbreed between a cockroach and a crab, charged hard against the dense barrage of bullets. Electromagnetic cannon shells capable of tearing through battleship armor struck their shiny black chitinous shells, but apart from sparking a string of fire, they didn't even leave a white mark.

Even more absurd were the energy weapons.

When multi-megawatt laser beams burned them, the bugs were not only unharmed, but their bodies glowed with an eerie iridescent light, as if they had eaten the energy, flying even faster than before.

"Is this still a carbon-based organism?" Academician Wang leaned over the monitor, his eyes almost popping out. "Even titanium alloy doesn't have such absurd resistance!"

"They're coming! Impact warning!"

Boom, boom, boom!

The first wave of the bug tide slammed hard into the planetary engine shield that Earth had just restarted.

But these beasts didn't intend to just ram it.

The moment they touched the shield, millions of vanguard bugs simultaneously swelled, glowed red, and then—self-destructed.

Green liquid filled the sky like paint sprayed from a high-pressure water gun, instantly coating the surface of the shield.

The "hissing" sound of corrosion could be heard clearly even through the heavy armor.

The originally light-blue psionic shield, splashed by this layer of strong acid, immediately began to flicker, like an old light bulb with a loose connection. Some acid even penetrated the energy layer and dripped directly onto the massive nozzle casing of the planetary engine.

That was titanium alloy, capable of withstanding nuclear explosions!

Yet at this moment, it was like ice cream meeting boiling water, rapidly softening, melting, and turning into pools of iron emitting toxic smoke.

"My engine! That's my precious baby!" Academician Wang let out a horrific scream. "Boss! That's 'anti-metal enzyme'! These bugs have enzymes in their blood specifically designed to break down metallic bonds! They grew up eating iron!"

"Eating iron?" Lin Yuan's brow twitched. "So they're just a bunch of interstellar scrap collectors?"

Before he could finish speaking, a new alarm went off.

"The 33rd Ghost Fleet is calling for help! They've been surrounded!"

That was the undead fleet responsible for side flank escort.

Originally, these warships resurrected using necromancy were the bane of the Church, but this time they had hit a snag.

On the screen, several slender undead destroyers were tightly entangled by a type of jellyfish-like soft bug. Those translucent tentacles were inserted directly into the gaps in the ship's armor, not causing destruction, but just sucking.

"Ah—! No—!"

The warship's main control AI let out a shrill electronic scream, and then the lights of the entire ship instantly went out.

The brain bug drained the psionic energy, its body visibly swelling a size, let out a burp, released the warship that had turned into scrap metal, and turned to pounce on the next one.

"This fight is impossible!" A Ji scrambled up, trembling. "Physically immune, magically immune, they're even drinking our shields like beverages! Boss, let's run!"

"Run?"

Lin Yuan glanced at him, a cold sneer curling his lips, and reached out to grab into the void.

A longsword emitting a faint purple light appeared out of thin air, and at the same time, a set of ink-black armor with galaxy patterns flowing on its surface quickly covered his entire body.

"The word 'run' does not exist in my dictionary."

"Since they like to eat, let's let them taste what a tough meal is."

Bang!

The dome of the command hall was smashed open, creating a large hole.

Piloting the newly upgraded "Void Mecha," Lin Yuan turned into a purple stream of light, rushing straight out of the atmosphere against the sky full of acid rain and the bug tide.

In the vacuum of space, Lin Yuan's figure was as tiny as a speck of dust.

But the next second, this speck of dust erupted with light even more blinding than a star.

"Void Fission!"

The longsword in Lin Yuan's hand swung out violently.

No fancy moves, only a pure, extreme release of energy.

A purple sword aura, fully ten thousand meters long, swept out. Wherever it passed, space shattered inch by inch like glass.

The thousands of vanguard bugs charging at the front couldn't even let out a scream before being vaporized by this violent Void Energy, not even leaving a trace behind.

The previously impenetrable sea of bugs was forcefully torn open by this sword strike.

"Holy crap! Boss is awesome!"

The defense forces on the ground erupted in cheers.

Lin Yuan hovered in the vacuum, flicking the afterimage off his sword. Before he could even strike a pose, his brow furrowed.

Something was wrong.

Those shattered bug remains didn't drift away like ordinary organisms.

The swarms surging up from behind actually swarmed forward, frantically fighting to eat the fragments of their companions' corpses.

The crunching and chewing sounds transmitted through the mecha's sensors into Lin Yuan's ears, making one's scalp tingle.

The bugs that ate their companions' corpses instantly doubled in size, and purple patterns appeared on their originally black carapaces.

That was... fluctuations of Void Energy?

Several evolved mantis bugs shrieked and pounced on Lin Yuan, waving their forelimbs.

Lin Yuan casually slashed at them with his sword.

Clang!

Sparks flew everywhere.

This time, the sword aura failed to cut them in two, only leaving a deep, bone-reaching wound on their carapaces.

Even though injured, these beasts remained incredibly fierce, completely unaware of pain. They even used the impact force of the sword aura to accelerate toward Lin Yuan, opening their mouths to spit a glob of acid like phlegm.

"They can even adapt to Void Energy?" Lin Yuan maneuvered the mecha to dodge, looking at the black spots corroded by the acid on the mecha's coating, his expression finally darkening.

"Boss! Come back quickly!"

In the communication channel, Alita's voice carried unprecedented terror.

"I remember! There are records of these things in the database! This is the 'Metal-Eating Bug Swarm'! One of the top disasters in the universe!"

"Five thousand years ago, there was an advanced civilization that pursued mechanical ascension. That civilization transformed their entire galaxy into a fortress, much harder than we are now."

"But when these bugs passed by, it only took them three days!"

Alita took a breath, her voice trembling: "In three days, that civilization didn't even have a single screw left! These bugs get stronger the more you fight them; they can evolve resistance by devouring energy attacks! energy weapons are just feed to them!"

Lin Yuan looked at the sea of bugs in front of him, which was frantically feeding, evolving, and pouncing again, and spat.

This wasn't food.

This was clearly a pot of copper peas that couldn't be boiled soft no matter what, and would even chew up your pot in return.

"All fleets, retreat into the atmosphere!"

Lin Yuan made a prompt decision, used a sword strike to force back a few brain bugs attempting to climb onto the mecha, and turned to dive toward Earth.

"Abandon the outer defense perimeter, divert all energy to the gravity shield and close-in weapon systems! Prepare for urban warfare!"

"Boss, what about these bugs..."

"Let them in and fight!" Lin Yuan's eyes were ruthless. "Since they want to eat, let's see if their teeth are harder, or my fists are harder, within Earth's gravity well!"

The order was given.

The Ghost Fleet and drone swarms that were still struggling in outer space quickly retreated, shrinking back into the atmosphere like a frightened flock of birds.

The bug swarm, having lost its obstacles, became even more unbridled.

The giant Leviathan seemed very satisfied with the upcoming feast, opening its massive mouth again to spit out a huge, meteorite-like black meat ball.

The meat ball, carrying tens of thousands of dead bug corpses, whistled as it smashed toward the Earth's surface.

Most of the meat balls were blown up in mid-air by the close-in weapon systems while passing through the atmosphere, turning into a bloody rain filling the sky.

But one slipped through the net.

It was a massive beetle corpse, which looked like it had been blown to pieces by artillery fire, emitting black smoke, swaying as it fell toward an abandoned city in the Asian region.

Its landing spot was tricky.

It was right near the ventilation shaft of Underground City Entrance No. 102.

Thud.

The huge corpse smashed into the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Several defense soldiers hiding behind cover cautiously poked their heads out.

"Is it dead?" A recruit held his gun, swallowing a mouthful of saliva.

"It's already rotted like this, it must be dead." The veteran spat, but still vigilantly aimed his gun at the pile of rotten meat. "Hurry and call the cleanup crew; this thing stinks so bad I want to puke."

Just at this moment.

The seemingly dead beetle corpse suddenly swelled up violently like an over-inflated balloon.

Pfft—!

The corpse burst.

There was no flesh flying everywhere.

From the burst abdominal cavity, countless miniature, transparent parasites, only the size of a fingernail, poured out.

They emitted a hair-raising "hissing" sound, like an inescapable stream of water, and frantically burrowed into the gaps of the huge fan blades of the ventilation shaft.

The next second.

Inside the Underground City, the shrill air-raid siren instantly drowned out all the noise.

"Warning! Unknown biological intrusion detected!"

"Living Area C! Ventilation ducts! They're inside!"

"Ah—! Help! My leg! Something has burrowed inside!"

Sitting in the cockpit, Lin Yuan looked at the red dot that suddenly lit up on the map, his pupils shrinking sharply.

"Trojan horse?"

These bugs, they actually know how to play tactics?