128: Chapter 128 Protecting the Server

Then, he threw back his head and let out a terrifying laugh that shook the entire Coastal City.

"Hahaha! The final key fragment for my ascension to godhood was actually hidden in this remote corner!"

Lin Li stood by the window, observing the celestial anomaly through binoculars.

Vashtorr! Lord of the Soul Forge!

As a transmigrator, Lin Li knew all too well how terrifying this demigod was.

Not only was this guy's combat power off the charts, but more fatally, he was the natural nemesis of all mechanical creations!

A Golden Age mechanical intelligence like Iron Man 73, without protective measures, was nothing more than a delicious home-delivered meal in the face of a monster like Vashtorr, who represented the very source of mechanical corruption!

"How the hell did such a malevolent god suddenly pop up?! I swear I'll strike down every heretic I find from now on."

Just as Lin Li was about to turn around and order Ushtan to flee with him immediately...

He suddenly felt his back stiffen.

An unprecedented, terrifying chill, like being death-stared by a venomous snake, shot up his spine to the crown of his head!

He had been targeted.

In mid-air.

Vashtorr seemed to have seen through the layers of mist. His crimson gaze, from several kilometers away, locked onto Lin Li standing in the command post with pinpoint accuracy.

His mouth quickly chanted an ancient and twisted mechanical prayer.

"Found you."

Vashtorr's voice, sounding like grinding metal, exploded directly in the depths of Lin Li's mind.

"It is you, the Medium."

As he spoke, Vashtorr's massive, half-mechanical palm reached out across the distant void and made a grasping motion toward Lin Li's direction!

"Run!"

Lin Li's scalp tingled, and he instinctively tried to activate his Power Armor to retreat at full speed.

However.

As that mechanical giant hand reached out.

The physical laws around the command post were forcibly twisted at that moment!

Gravity instantly failed!

The air stopped flowing!

Even the light became warped and bent!

Lin Li felt his feet leave the ground.

His heavy Power Armor, weighing hundreds of kilograms, and his body floated uncontrollably in mid-air like a weightless feather.

He flailed his arms desperately but couldn't find any leverage. Furthermore, under the influence of the Warp storm, the engine thrusters couldn't even emit a spark.

"Shit!"

Suspended in mid-air, Lin Li flailed his limbs wildly, his expression completely collapsing.

...

Ming Shen, Liver Emperor, Flash, and other core members of the Scourge Legion hadn't even reached the beach before they all stopped in their tracks.

They looked up, staring in shock at the terrifying anomaly in the sky.

That giant semi-mechanical hand reaching out from the purplish-red Warp rift.

"Holy crap..."

Flash held his plasma gun, his eyes wide as saucers.

"That hand looks at least a hundred meters long! If the main body crawls out, just how big is that Wa Banxian guy? This place wouldn't even fit him, right?"

Liver Emperor frowned, staring at the air around the giant hand, which was constantly warping like ripples on water.

"Don't be fooled by your eyes. This is the result of severe distortion of physical space laws under the interference of Warp energy."

As a veteran lore-diver, Liver Emperor immediately provided a rational analysis.

"The actual size of that arm isn't that ridiculous; the main body is likely only a few to a dozen meters long. It's the Warp twisting physical reality, forcibly stretching out a terrifying visual of a hundred meters on our retinas."

Hearing this, Flash sucked in a breath of cold air.

"Damn, the Warp has that function? It can even twist basic physical laws and spatial perspective at will? Then how the hell has the Imperium of Man in the Warhammer setting lasted ten thousand years surrounded by monsters like this?"

"The Warp is essentially an irrational dimension governed entirely by emotion and spirit."

Liver Emperor quickly explained while recharging his weapon, "It's not that humanity doesn't have technological means to counter these things. For example, the Geller Field can isolate the Warp, and there's the Blackstone Matrix that can absorb psychic energy."

"But those are inanimate objects. In true desperation, countering the Warp mainly relies on the faith and will of life itself! Just like the machine spirits the Adeptus Mechanicus believes in so blindly, or the Orks' unreasonable Waaagh! Energy."

"To face idealistic things, you must use idealistic methods. Simply put, you use magic to defeat magic!"

While they were discussing.

The terrifying giant hand in the sky, warping the surrounding space, suddenly stretched longer and reached directly toward the broken positions of the Defense Force in the distance.

Ming Shen looked in the direction the giant hand was extending and was suddenly stunned.

"Wait. What is its hand reaching over there for?"

Several players raised their binoculars one after another, looking toward the giant hand's target.

With one look, everyone's expressions changed drastically.

"Holy shit!"

"That person floating in mid-air in red armor... isn't that our Administrator boss?!"

It wasn't just Ming Shen and the others.

At this moment, a large number of players on the western and central fronts also discovered that red figure flailing in mid-air, completely having lost control due to the lack of gravity.

The players, who were originally excited about farming points, instantly exploded into a frenzy.

"It's over, it's over! That's our faction boss! How did he get snatched by the enemy's big boss for a duel?!"

"With this size difference, can our boss win against that Wa Banxian? This cutscene looks so damn intense!"

A veteran couldn't help but pour cold water on the channel:

"Intense my ass! I feel like the boss definitely can't win! If he really had the combat power to solo the heavens, he would have led us into the Warp to slay the Chaos Gods long ago. Why would he need to hide in a basement every day giving us daily quests?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the surrounding players panicked.

"Crap, that makes sense! Then what do we do? We can't just watch the boss get slaughtered by that hand, can we?"

"Absolutely not!"

A player jumped up and down in anxiety.

"Didn't you guys read the underlying settings in the newbie manual? [If the leader of the Fire Seed Shelter faction is confirmed dead, the server will be shut down immediately]! If the server shuts down, where are we going to grind for real money? This is more painful than killing me!"

"Protect the server!"

"Save the boss! Open fire!"

Accompanied by roars of anger, thousands of players on the positions below turned their muzzles one after another.

Plasma light, smoothbore cannons, heavy machine guns, laser beams... a dense network of firepower wove into a brilliant rain of light, pouring directly toward the mechanical giant hand in the sky!

However.

The effect was negligible.

When all the shells and beams approached within dozens of meters of that giant hand, they seemed to fall into some invisible, viscous mire.

Trajectories were forcibly twisted and bent, and the explosive flames were like duds, failing to even blow off a piece of rusty iron skin from the giant hand.

Physical attacks were completely immune due to the Warp's twisting laws!

Just as tens of thousands of players on the ground were as anxious as ants on a hot pan, not knowing what to do...

The pilot players flying planes in the sky gave the most hardcore answer with practical action.

"Vroom—!"

Accompanied by the ear-piercing scream of a jet engine.

Legion Commander ikun, piloting that scarred Swallow Jet Fighter, suddenly pulled up the nose in mid-air. Without slowing down at all, he turned into a silver bolt of lightning and slammed hard into the semi-mechanical giant hand!

In the final two seconds before impact.

ikun pushed open the cockpit's windshield.

The gale poured into the cockpit. Instead of being afraid, he was flushed with excitement.

The six crude mechanical prosthetic limbs on his back were waving frantically like spider legs!

"PROTECT OUR SERVER!!!"

"CHARGE!!!"

ikun let out a hysterical, fanatical roar.

"BOOM!!!"

The jet fighter plunged headlong into the Warp gravity field that could even twist light.

Then, it slammed solidly into one of the mechanical giant hand's fingers, erupting into a dazzling orange-red fireball!

This was just the beginning.

Following closely behind.

The dozen or so Destroyer Heavy Fighters and massive Hornet Bombers in the sky completely ignored any formation.

All the pilot players pushed their throttles to the limit.

Dozens of planes, with a roar of determination, were like a tragic meteor shower, slamming into the giant hand in the sky one after another!

The sounds of explosions merged into a continuous thunder within the clouds.

On the ground.

Liver Emperor watched this scene, his eyes full of confusion, even doubting his life.

"This isn't right..."

Liver Emperor muttered to himself.

"Isn't gravity inverted and spatial laws completely twisted around that arm? Logically, planes flying in would disintegrate and stall instantly. How did they manage to maintain their course and crash into it so smoothly?"

Flash looked at the firelight of the mid-air explosions, swallowed hard, and proposed a bold hypothesis:

"Old Liver, didn't you just say that idealistic will can resist Warp interference?"

Flash pointed to the sky.

"Do you think... could it be because ikun and his gang have such damn twisted brain circuits? Their crazy will to give up all common sense just to protect the server forcibly broke through Vashtorr's spatial laws?"

Liver Emperor was stunned for a full three seconds before slapping his thigh: "Shit! That makes sense!"

It turned out that such a ridiculous hypothesis was completely valid in this even more ridiculous universe!

The players on the ground were surprised to find...

With the dozens of planes' frantic suicide crashes, the body of the protagonist Lin Li, floating in mid-air in the distance, seemed to descend a few meters!

In other words, ikun and the others' completely unreasonable, crazy suicidal behavior indeed interfered with the force field of the Warp's twisted physical laws, allowing real gravity to show signs of recovery!

"Holy shit! It really works!"

"Brothers! That hand has a health bar too! As long as it has a health bar, we'll kill even a god for you to see!"

"Charge! Defend the server!"

The The Fourth Calamity on the ground fell into a complete, frantic boil.

They no longer relied on long-range firepower. Instead, like a zombie siege, they stepped on their companions' shoulders and climbed and jumped toward the giant hand in mid-air like ants along the ruins of the buildings that had been blown down!

...

Above the firmament.

On the other side of the rift.

The Lord of the Soul Forge, Vashtorr.

This demigod looked coldly at the mortals below who were like moths to a flame, constantly crashing to their deaths against the force field of his arm.

On that face pieced together from pale leather, a cruel sneer curled.

"Foolish ants."

Vashtorr's metallic voice echoed in the Warp.

"Your meaningless suicides will only add the freshest fuel to my Soul Forge. Come, struggle in death!"

He spread his invisible mental tentacles, preparing to feast on the souls of these newly dead mortals, filled with fear and despair, as he usually did.

However.

In the next second.

In Vashtorr's crimson eyes, a Flash of undisguisable shock and bewilderment suddenly appeared.