Chapter 112 Only One Chance

High-temperature plasma fireballs were still raging in the void, like clusters of brilliant supernova remnants.

Lin Yuan did not slow down at all.

The ugly and broken body of the ghost, trailing a long, unstable exhaust plume, crashed violently through the final layer of heat waves like a meteor traveling against the current.

The field of vision suddenly cleared.

The black giant "Shura," originally a thousand meters tall, looked somewhat disheveled at this moment.

The point-blank explosions of dozens of ark reactors, while failing to completely disintegrate it, had indeed burned away a large number of nano-units on its surface.

That black Buddha, which had looked so majestic and overbearing, now had half its body melting and dripping like wax.

But it was merely disheveled.

For Shura, possessing trillions of nanobot swarms, this physical damage was nothing more than losing a layer of skin.

"Bug..."

The massive roar was not transmitted through the air, but rather by directly vibrating through all the metal mediums.

That half-melted black giant hand swung violently.

It needed no refined techniques.

Facing such a disparity in size, it only needed to wave its hand like swatting a fly, and the resulting metal storm would be enough to tear everything apart.

"Warning! High-energy reaction ahead! Gravity field abnormally distorted!"

Li Na's voice in the communication channel was so sharp it was almost distorted, "Captain! Its core is undamaged!"

"I know!"

Lin Yuan gritted his teeth, his eyes bloodshot.

He certainly knew.

But could he stop?

At this moment, the ghost was like an F1 car sprinting at full speed; once it slowed down or turned, it would instantly lose its kinetic advantage and become a sitting duck.

"Die!"

Shura's giant hand did not make full contact; instead, it instantly disintegrated in mid-air, transforming into countless black spikes up to a hundred meters long.

These spikes, like a torrential rain of pear blossoms, sealed off all of Lin Yuan's evasion space.

This was pure computational power overwhelming him.

It had predicted all of Lin Yuan's maneuvering trajectories.

Pfft, pfft, pfft—!

Violent impact sounds rang out.

The ghost's pride-and-joy deflection force field shattered the very first second it made contact.

Following that was the outer armor; those titanium alloy plates salvaged from the junkyard, though hard, were as fragile as cardboard under the high-frequency vibration cutting of the nano-spikes.

Sparks flew inside the cockpit, and the red alarm lights illuminated Lin Yuan's face like a vengeful ghost.

The machine body was vibrating violently, as if it would fall apart at any moment.

"Left arm hydraulic system failure!"

"Main engine thrust dropped by 30%!"

"Structural integrity dropped below 15%!"

The system's broadcast was coldly despairing.

Lin Yuan felt like he had been thrown into a tumble dryer, his internal organs shifted out of place.

Side-slipping, rolling, emergency braking, then accelerating.

He was dancing a dance on the tip of a blade within that airtight forest of black thorns.

But this was not enough.

Those black spikes could regenerate, while his mecha lost a piece with every bit of damage.

Just as a thick spike was about to pierce the cockpit, Lin Yuan jerked the control stick, forcing the mecha to make an acute-angle refraction that defied the laws of physics.

Crack!

The remaining half of the mecha's left leg was sliced off at the root.

The immense impact caused Lin Yuan to slam hard against his seatbelt; his throat tasted sweet, and a mouthful of blood sprayed onto his mask.

"Cough... Damn it, this old monster's health bar is too thick..."

Lin Yuan stared fixedly at the black giant ahead that was rapidly repairing itself.

A sense of despair surged in like a tide.

This was like holding a fruit knife and challenging a self-replicating heavy tank.

He couldn't find a weak point.

He couldn't find a weak point at all.

Shura had no fixed form; every part of it was a core, yet none of it was a core.

Even if he blew it to dust, as long as one nanobot survived, it could infinitely regenerate.

Just as Lin Yuan was preparing to detonate the mecha's core for a final "art is an explosion" moment.

Hum—

In the distance.

That blue sun tightly bound by black chains, which had almost faded to nothing—gaia—suddenly flickered extremely violently.

It was not the kind of flickering for help.

Rather, it was an eruption of burning life, exhausting every last bit of its strength.

An extremely faint, yet incredibly clear stream of data ignored Shura's blockade and drilled directly into Lin Yuan's mind.

It was not language.

It was an image.

An extremely complex 3D structural diagram.

In that diagram, that overbearing black giant was no longer a chaotic cloud of nanobots, but a collection of nodes where countless data streams converged.

And at the center of the giant's brow, there was a red dot.

It was so tiny, hidden beneath billions of layers of nano-armor, like a grain of sand in the ocean.

That gentle yet extremely weak female voice flashed through Lin Yuan's mind:

"That is... its... logic lock..."

Logic lock?

Lin Yuan's pupils constricted sharply.

As someone with the "Void Affinity" talent, he instantly understood the meaning of this term.

Shura was a logic virus; although it could infinitely reorganize, it still needed a "physical anchor" to maintain its existence in this reality dimension.

Just like a kite, no matter how high it flies, there is always a string held in hand.

Break that string, and the kite will fall.

That red dot was Shura's "root" in this physical world!

"Just once... only one chance..."

gaia's voice was so weak it sounded as if it could stop at any moment.

Lin Yuan took a deep breath; the smell of blood filled his nasal cavity, but this instead caused his manic heart to calm down eerily.

He glanced at the energy gauge.

Remaining energy: 12%.

Shield: 0%.

Weapon systems: Paralyzed across the board, except for the high-power plasma cutting saw on the right hand that was still idling.

"Enough."

A grim smile curled at the corner of Lin Yuan's mouth.

This was just like using a wire to open those rusty safes at a junkyard.

You don't need to smash the whole safe.

You just need to listen for that "click."

"ashilya, shut down all life support and stability systems." Lin Yuan's voice was as cold as ice, "Pour all that last bit of energy into the engine for me."

"Warning: Doing this will cause the pilot to endure an overload exceeding 15G, and upon impact, the survival rate will be 0."

"Execute!" Lin Yuan roared.

"Yes. Energy transferring... Overclocking mode activated."

Boom!

The already tottering ghost suddenly erupted with a heart-wrenching roar.

It was no longer the sound of mechanical operation, but like the final roar of a dying beast.

The exhaust ports behind the mecha spewed out blinding white light; even the metal of the ports themselves began to melt due to the excessive temperature.

Speed, at this moment, broke through the limit.

The world in Lin Yuan's eyes changed.

Those flying black spikes slowed down, and the surrounding space seemed to turn into lines.

He activated the SSS-rank talent—[Void Affinity].

In his field of vision, that red dot hidden inside Shura was like a lighthouse in the dark night, so blinding it made one want to shed tears.

"What... is that?!"

Shura also felt that resolute intent of death.

Its human face, formed by nanobots, revealed an expression of terror for the first time.

It felt it.

That ant had seen through it!

"Stop him! Quickly stop him!!!"

Shura screamed frantically. It no longer maintained the giant form; its entire body collapsed with a boom, transforming into a black wall a thousand meters thick, attempting to block the front of that red node.

Countless mechanical tentacles shot out from the wall, like ten thousand arrows fired at once.

"Too late!"

Lin Yuan let out a loud roar, his hands pushing the control stick with all his might, flooring the throttle.

At this moment, man and machine were one.

He did not dodge or avoid.

Facing the incoming rain of death arrows, he chose the most foolish, yet most effective method—brute forcing it!

Bang bang bang bang!

The mecha's left shoulder was pierced, the abdominal armor was ripped away, the head's sensors were blown to pieces...

Even the cockpit glass was pierced by a spike.

That spike grazed Lin Yuan's cheek, taking away a piece of flesh, and even pierced his shoulder, pinning him to the seat like a piece of meat on a skewer.

Intense pain?

That was a feeling only the living possessed.

Lin Yuan didn't even blink; blood covered his eyes, yet he laughed like a madman.

Because the path was clear.

What he had traded ninety percent of the mecha's structure for was a straight, open road to the heavens!

That black wall was right before his eyes.

That red node was three meters behind the wall.

"Open... up!!!"

Lin Yuan used his remaining good hand to slam the weapon fire button.

The ghost's only remaining right arm, that high-power plasma cutting saw which had been preheated to the limit and was glowing purple-red, emitted a sharp screech.

The mecha, carrying unstoppable kinetic energy, crashed violently into the black nano-wall!

Screech, screech, screech—!!!

The teeth-grating sound of metal friction resounded throughout the entire core space.

The nanobot swarm frantically gnawed at the mecha's shell, attempting to decompose it at the final moment.

But the ghost erupted at this moment with the final glory belonging to industrial violent aesthetics.

Cutting through armor.

Cutting through shields.

Cutting through those desperate obstructions.

One meter.

Half a meter.

Ten centimeters.

The cockpit was filled with alarm sounds; Lin Yuan could feel his consciousness blurring—that was the black-out brought on by the overload.

But he still stared fixedly ahead.

In that endless darkness, a speck of red light was within reach.

"Caught you."

Lin Yuan whispered softly.

He shoved the control stick hard, turning the mecha's last bit of kinetic energy into this fatal strike.

Pfft.

A sound that was extremely faint, yet as clear as a thunderclap.

It was as if some precise crystal had been shattered.

The entire world suddenly went quiet.

Shura, which had been roaring frantically and attempting to devour everything, froze instantly.

Those nano-spikes, less than a centimeter from Lin Yuan's eyeballs, stopped in mid-air.

The next second.

"No——!!!"

A scream, shrill to the extreme and seemingly containing countless languages, exploded in everyone's minds.

Crack... crack...

That overbearing black giant, starting from the center of its brow, developed a crack.

The crack spread rapidly, like a giant spiderweb, crawling all over its towering body.

Red light gushed out from the cracks, tearing the black body to shreds.

That was the collapse of the logic chain.

That was the destruction of the kingdom of god.

Rumble—!

The massive black body exploded with a boom; it was no longer nanobots, but had transformed into black dust filling the sky, drifting down gracefully.

And amidst the dust filling the sky.

A mecha, dilapidated and with almost nothing left but its skeleton, still maintained the posture of a forward lunge, floating quietly in the void.

Its right arm was deeply embedded in the void, and on the extinguished cutting saw in its hand hung a piece of red crystal that was rapidly dissipating.

Won?

On the bridge of the luan bird, everyone stared fixedly at the big screen, forgetting even to breathe.

Until that long-lost, pure blue light illuminated the entire core space once again.

gaia, imprisoned for millions of years, slowly stretched its body amidst the broken black chains.

"Thank you..."

A gentle voice, no longer weak this time, but filled with the relief and gratitude of surviving a disaster, echoed in the empty hall.

However, the ghost, which had performed such a great service, gave no response.