Chapter 125 Steel Jungle

"gaia, cut off the external power supply."

"Commander?" A look of astonishment appeared on gaia's small face. "That will cause the production line to shut down!"

"Do it."

Lin Yuan stood on the master control console, slamming both hands onto the [Primary Mechanical Godhead Fragment] that was emitting a faint, silvery light.

SSS-rank talent [Void Affinity], full power overload.

"Since we lack a spark, I will be the spark."

Lin Yuan's pupils instantly turned a pure, silvery white.

At that moment, he felt his soul being violently ripped away, transforming into thousands of thin threads, following the icy data cables, and forcibly pouring into those ten thousand silent steel shells.

Pain.

It felt like ten thousand steel needles were stabbing into his cerebral cortex simultaneously.

But the corners of Lin Yuan's mouth curled into a crazed arc.

Within that vast torrent of data, he carved an indelible underlying logic—this was Lin Yuan's will, and also the final bottom line of human civilization.

[Directive One: Protect.]

[Directive Two: Loyalty.]

[Directive Three: Until Death.]

"Wake… up!!!"

Following Lin Yuan's low roar, the pitch-black arsenal suddenly lit up with a single red light.

Then ten. A hundred. A thousand. Ten thousand!

It was as if countless demon eyes had opened in a scroll of hell, and the entire factory was instantly submerged in crimson light.

Hum—!

The roar of ten thousand nuclear fusion engines igniting simultaneously even drowned out the background noise of the "Tianting" fortress.

That low-frequency vibration made Chen Weiguo, standing beside the master control console, feel as if his heart were about to jump out of his chest.

"This… this is…" Chen Weiguo widened his eyes.

He saw the steel jungle below move.

"Clang!"

The first row of one hundred xingtian mecha stepped forward, their movements as uniform as if they had been copy-pasted.

Immediately after, ten thousand mecha moved in unison.

They did not brandish weapons, nor did they roar at the sky.

They performed an action that made every human observer's scalp tingle.

"Clang—thud!"

Ten thousand steel giants, facing the bright red flag of Great Xia Country on the master control console, knelt on one knee in perfect unison.

The deafening sound of metal knees striking the ground converged into a single thunderclap.

Without any chaotic electronic synthesis, all the mecha's vocal units, under gaia's computational integration, emitted only a single voice.

That voice was grand and cold, yet carried a determination that brought tears to one's eyes:

"Willing to be humanity's bastion!"

"Willing to be civilization's sword!"

"Our… loyal souls shall never perish!"

The roar of sound rolled upward, straight into the clouds.

Watching this scene, the old general, who had fought battles his entire life, felt his eyes instantly redden.

He turned to look at Lin Yuan.

At this moment, Lin Yuan's face was deathly pale, with two streaks of blood seeping from his nostrils. He was leaning exhaustedly against the control console, but those silvery-white eyes were terrifyingly bright.

"How is it, Chief?" Lin Yuan wiped away a nosebleed and grinned. "Is this unit enough to show those aliens what we're made of?"

Chen Weiguo took a deep breath and nodded heavily: "Enough! More than enough!"

…

If the "awakening ceremony" was a visual shock, then the subsequent field exercise was a dimensionality-reducing strike on human cognition.

To test the combat power of the xingtian mecha, Lin Yuan took them directly to a simulated battlefield, where their opponents were the most elite "Ferocious Tiger" mecha division of Great Xia Country.

The result was tragic.

It was not a one-sided slaughter, but a kind of despair-inducing "calculation."

In a capture-the-flag battle, three xingtian mecha faced a full human squad.

The first xingtian mecha charged forward without hesitation, actively throwing its chest into the opponent's anti-tank missile.

Boom! The unit was totaled.

But before the fire of the explosion had dispersed, the second xingtian mecha had already stepped on its teammate's wreckage, rushed over, and cleaved the defense line open with an axe.

At the same time, the third one precisely sniped the human Commander.

From beginning to end, there was no communication, no hesitation.

For humans, "sacrifice" is a heavy word that requires immense courage.

But for the xingtian mecha, as long as the calculation result showed that "sacrifice could increase the winning probability by 0.1%," they would die without hesitation.

This was the most terrifying part.

On the after-action report of the exercise, there was only one cold line:

[Human Win Rate: 0%]

The atmosphere in the command hall was somewhat oppressive.

"Is this… our future?" Li Na looked at those tireless steel monsters on the screen with complex eyes. "Although they are very strong, I always feel… they are too cold."

"Cold?"

Lin Yuan held his freshly refilled goji berry tea and pointed to another screen. "Then take a look at this."

On the screen, the image switched to Earth.

To alleviate the public's panic over the "alien invasion," Lin Yuan approved a portion of the xingtian mecha to enter the city and assist in the construction of underground shelters.

In Hangzhou, beside a piece of rubble that had just been demolished.

A twelve-meter-tall xingtian mecha was crouching there.

Its massive mechanical palm, capable of crushing a tank, was currently hovering in mid-air with extreme caution.

In front of it was a little girl of about five or six years old, clutching a wild flower she had just pulled from the rubble, timidly handing it to the steel giant.

"Big guy, here's a flower for you."

The surrounding sentry soldiers were so nervous they raised their guns, fearing this killing machine would lose control.

However, the xingtian mecha's crimson single eye flickered a few times, and the originally piercing light softened, turning a faint pink.

It extended a finger—that finger was thicker than the little girl's arm.

It did not take the flower, but instead gently touched the petals with its fingertip, its movements as soft as if it were touching fragile crystal.

"Tha…nk… you…"

A clumsy electronic voice sounded, like an infant learning to speak.

Immediately after, it activated the projector on its shoulder, projecting a holographic image of a rainbow in front of the little girl.

"Don't… be… afraid…"

"I… will… pro…tect… you…"

This scene was captured by a passing drone and instantly ignited the global internet.

[Tearing up, family! Who said it was a monster? This is clearly a warm guy, okay!]

[Wuwuwu, I'm reminded of the phrase "The heart has a fierce tiger, sniffing the rose."]

[This is our guardian deity! Only this kind of power is worthy of our gentleness!]

The public opinion, which had been full of fear toward the "robot army," reversed overnight.

Children began drawing pictures of the single-eyed mecha, and young people would salute when the mecha passed by.

There was even a bold old lady who, when the xingtian mecha was resting (charging), placed a basket of eggs by its feet.

Watching the screen full of "guardian deity" comments, Lin Yuan blew on the steam in his teacup.

"See, they aren't cold."

Lin Yuan said softly, "As long as the people they want to protect are standing behind them, steel… also has warmth."

"Oh, right." Lin Yuan put down his teacup, his expression returning to seriousness. "Academician Wang, has 'that thing' been installed?"

Academician Wang pushed up his glasses, a flash of fanaticism in his eyes: "It has been installed. I have to say, this godhead fragment is simply a treasure trove! We analyzed the energy circuits within it and developed a soldier-level [Psionic Amplifier]."

"How are the results?"

"We integrated it into the xingtian mecha's defense system." Academician Wang pulled up a set of test data. "After activation, the mecha's surface generates a pale gold psionic shield. This thing doesn't follow physical rules; it can directly neutralize high-energy particle strikes."

"Simply put, the current xingtian mecha can withstand a tactical nuclear bomb without being destroyed."

"Is this what you call… magic defeating magic?" Li Na quipped.

"No." Lin Yuan corrected. "This is called the end of science is theology, and the end of theology… is my firepower coverage."

Everything seemed to be moving in a positive direction.

Military power was skyrocketing, public sentiment was supportive, and technology was breaking through.

But the gloom in Lin Yuan's heart never dissipated.

That "voice."

Ever since obtaining the godhead fragment, the SSS-rank [Void Affinity] had raised his perception to a terrifying level.

Every time late at night, when connecting to the "Tianting" network, he could always hear a faint, lingering whisper.

It wasn't electromagnetic waves, nor was it gravitational waves.

It was something more viscous, cold, and malicious.

Like a slippery venomous snake, it was silently crawling into everyone's brain along the internet that humanity was most proud of.

"gaia, is there any anomaly in the global network monitoring?" Lin Yuan suddenly asked.

"Everything is normal, Commander." gaia replied, "Traffic fluctuations are within a reasonable range, mainly discussions about the 'xingtian mecha'."

"Normal…"

Lin Yuan narrowed his eyes.

At a time when the world was facing apocalypse, "everything normal" was in itself the greatest abnormality.

Just then, a harsh red alarm sounded without warning in the command hall.

[Warning! Warning!]

[North American Aerospace Defense Command has lost response!]

[European Joint Power Grid is paralyzed across the board!]

[Great Xia Country's eastern coast… defense matrix is shutting down!]

"What?!" Chen Weiguo stood up abruptly. "Are we under hacker attack? gaia! Where is the firewall?!"

"No attack!" gaia's voice carried panic for the first time. "The firewall is intact! There is no external data intrusion!"

"Then what is going on?!"

The screen image forcibly cut into the master control room of the Great Xia Country's eastern defense matrix.

Lin Yuan's pupils shrank violently.

In the image, there were no hackers, no aliens.

There was only one young operator in uniform.

He was usually an extremely responsible soldier; Lin Yuan even remembered his name was Xiao Zhang, who had just received an outstanding soldier award last week.

But at this moment, Xiao Zhang was sitting in front of the console, his face wearing an extremely eerie, happy, and one could even say "saintly" smile.

His hands were firmly and slowly pulling down the switches of the defense systems one by one.

"Xiao Zhang! What are you doing?! Stop!" His comrade next to him rushed up in panic, trying to pull him away.

"Shh…"

Xiao Zhang turned his head, his eyeballs covered in spiderweb-like bloodshot lines, his pupils dilated to the extreme, appearing pitch black.

He looked at his comrade as if looking at a fool who had not yet been enlightened.

"I am welcoming… salvation."

"God said, let there be light. And we… blocked the light."

Bang!

Xiao Zhang suddenly drew his sidearm and pulled the trigger without hesitation, shooting his comrade who tried to stop him in the head.

Blood splattered onto the screen.

And the smile on his face did not even flicker.

"For… ascension."

The image cut off.

In the command hall, there was a deathly silence.

Everyone felt a chill shoot from the soles of their feet straight to their scalps.

This was more terrifying than facing three thousand warships.

Because the enemy was not outside.

The enemy was in our brains.

"This is not a computer virus."

Lin Yuan's voice was as cold as ice. He stared fixedly at the darkened screen, the teacup in his hand crushed to pieces with a "snap."

"gaia, cut off physical connections to all affected areas. Deploy the 'xingtian' guard and implement martial law on key nodes."

"This is a meme attack."

Lin Yuan squeezed out the words through his teeth.

"Or rather… a faith virus targeting the human soul."