Chapter 126 The Prelude to Ragnarok

East Sea, base of the Great Xia United Fleet.

"For... eternity."

An ace pilot flying a "Xuanbird" fighter jet whispered, the aircraft carving a strange arc in the sky before suddenly turning its nose and spitting fire from its onboard cannons. The two accompanying wingmen did not even react in time, instantly exploding into fireballs in the air.

Looking through the glass at the falling debris, the pilot's eyes held no sorrow, only a nearly pathological ecstasy.

This was not an isolated case.

North America.

Nevada.

A group of air force soldiers preparing to board for training suddenly stopped in their tracks. They knelt mechanically on the concrete, hands clasped, kowtowing toward the direction of the mechanical fleet that had yet to descend from the horizon. The leading captain cut his own wrist, and watching the blood flow out, he chuckled, "Red... it's too dirty. If it were silver, I could ascend."

Panic, like a plague, followed undersea cables and satellite signals, instantly covering every corner of the Earth.

"Heavenly Court" fortress, Command Center.

On the holographic projection in front of Lin Yuan, there were dense, countless distress signals.

Out of thirty-two global defense bases, eleven had been paralyzed within ten minutes. They were not breached; instead, internal personnel had personally cut off the power and even begun slaughtering their comrades.

"Damn it, these lunatics." Chen Weiguo slammed the table.

Just as Lin Yuan was about to speak, his heart skipped a beat.

His SSS-rank Void Affinity made him extremely sensitive to the surrounding energy fields.

"Get down!" Lin Yuan growled.

Almost in the same second, a staff officer behind Chen Weiguo suddenly lunged. He pulled a specialized ceramic military dagger from his sleeve. His eyes, once full of loyalty, were now pitch black as ink, and his face wore a chilling, holy smile.

"Chief, flesh is too heavy. I will help you escape the sea of suffering."

The military dagger sliced through the air.

Lin Yuan did not move, instead pressing his right hand into the void.

"Bang!"

The staff officer seemed to hit an invisible wall of steel, flying backward and slamming heavily into the reinforced armor plating. As the dagger hit the ground, he spat out black blood mixed with organ fragments, yet he continued to smile, his expression twisted like a poor-quality mask.

"Lin... Commander... God has seen you... you cannot escape..."

Guards swarmed over and pinned him to the ground, but the staff officer felt absolutely no pain, even letting out a pleasurable gasp as his ribs broke.

"Take him away, quarantine him!" Chen Weiguo wiped the cold sweat from his face.

Academician Wang hurried over, holding a freshly printed waveform report. His hair was messy, and his eyes revealed unprecedented gravity.

"I've found it." Academician Wang pointed to a wavelength on the screen. "Those animals from the Mechanical Papacy did not send a distress signal before they died; it was a 'Subspace broadcast'. Ordinary people cannot hear this frequency, but it acts directly on the pineal gland in the brain. It is broadcasting a message to the whole world: 'Flesh is a cage; only machines are eternal.'"

"Is it targeting those with weak wills?" Chen Weiguo asked through gritted teeth.

"No, it is a large-scale screening." Academician Wang shook his head. "As long as your heart harbors even a shred of fear of death, or greed for power, it can crawl through those cracks and reorganize you into one of their 'servitors'."

At this moment, everyone in the command hall looked at each other.

Comrades who had fought side by side now saw each other as potential bombs.

Trust, the foundation that sustains civilization, was on the verge of collapse at this moment.

The morale of the troops was shaken.

"Lin Yuan, if this continues, we will have strangled ourselves before the mechanical fleet even arrives." Chen Weiguo looked at Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan did not speak; he closed his eyes.

In his mind, the globe had turned into a tangled mess of black threads. That was the belief virus of the Mechanical Papacy spreading.

"gaia, pull up those blueprints." Lin Yuan opened his eyes.

"Commander, do you mean... the [Psychic Network Blueprints] brought back from District 005?" gaia's loli face was full of worry. "Those were prepared for spiritual entities. If you force them to run on a mass level, your psychic power will be diluted to the limit. If you suffer a backlash, you might become mentally disabled."

"Being mentally disabled is better than being someone else's slave." Lin Yuan waved his hand.

He stood before the main console, spread his arms, and the psionic energy in the void began to boil.

The entire "Heavenly Court" fortress began to tremble slightly.

The massive radar array named "South Heaven Gate" was not searching the sky at this moment; instead, it changed direction, aiming at the blue planet beneath their feet.

"Since they want to play at 'divine descent', I'll show them what a real miracle is." Lin Yuan took a deep breath, his tone indifferent.

"Access all channels. Don't worry about firewalls; force your way into every holographic bracelet, mobile phone, speaker, even the radios in ordinary people's homes."

At this moment, riots across the globe were at a fever pitch.

But in the next second, heaven and earth seemed to stand still.

A voice, not entering through the ears, exploded directly in the depths of everyone's souls.

"I am Lin Yuan."

The voice was calm, yet carried an unquestionable weight, instantly overpowering those fanatical, brainwashing whispers.

"Everyone, look at your bracelets. Or close your eyes."

"Now, beginning... antivirus."

At the top of the "Heavenly Court" fortress, a blue ethereal light formed a massive halo, like a soft veil, rapidly spreading along the atmosphere and enveloping the entire Earth.

That was Lin Yuan's SSS-rank psychic power, amplified tens of thousands of times under the support of the [Psychic Network Blueprints].

This was no longer about reasoning; this was a high-dimensional forced override.

"Ah!!!"

On the streets, the fanatics who were preparing to self-mutilate suddenly clutched their heads and collapsed.

They felt as if a red-hot branding iron had been shoved into their brains, frantically burning away those twisted codes.

Veins bulged on Lin Yuan's forehead, and sweat dripped down his chin.

In his mind alone, he was currently connected to billions of consciousnesses.

That massive influx of information would have caused the head of any genius to explode instantly. But he held on; he was like a scavenger walking through ruins, casually waving a golden sword of light, severing those sticky black logic locks.

"Get... out!" Lin Yuan roared from the bottom of his heart.

In reality, a strange scene appeared on the streets that had been ravaged just moments before.

Countless people kneeling on the ground suddenly vomited violently.

What they vomited was not food, but a thick, ink-like black liquid that was still writhing slightly. As soon as this liquid hit the ground, it dissipated into thin air without a trace.

"I... what did I just do?"

A man who had just been choking his wife regained consciousness, looked at his own hands, and collapsed to the ground in terror.

"Mom, my head doesn't hurt anymore."

The chaos was subsiding.

The fear was dissolving.

The apocalyptic pressure that had been stretched to the limit was forcibly dismantled by Lin Yuan in this nearly "violent" manner.

In the command hall, the originally scarlet alarm lights turned green one by one.

Chen Weiguo looked at the screen and let out a long sigh of relief. Just as he was about to offer some praise, he saw Lin Yuan's body sway.

"It's nothing, just low blood sugar." Lin Yuan waved his hand, casually taking a piece of chocolate from his pocket and popping it into his mouth, while his eyes watched several specific coordinates on the screen.

"Commander, 99.2% of the population has returned to normal. But..." gaia's voice dropped.

The screen zoomed in.

In wealthy districts around the world, or in certain remote temples, a very small group of people had not recovered.

They did not vomit, nor did they wake up. On the contrary, their skin began to take on an eerie bluish-grey hue, and their eyeballs had completely disappeared, covered by a silver, fluid substance.

"What... happened to them?" Li Na could not help asking.

"These people don't need 'antivirus'." Lin Yuan swallowed the chocolate, his voice filled with coldness. "Because they aren't poisoned; they opened the door voluntarily."

These people had actively sold their souls; under the whispers of the Mechanical Papacy, they had completely transformed.

"Their brains are no longer carbon-based tissue; they have become signal sources for these 'signals'. As long as they are alive, the Mechanical Papacy's virus will continue to exist." Academician Wang looked at those "things" that could no longer be called human and shook his head. "There is no saving them; their genes have been contaminated from the foundation level."

Lin Yuan watched the screen. Those former human dignitaries and ambitious individuals were now gathered together, chanting toward the sky in a brand-new, cold, electronic voice.

"Looks like not only do we need to run an antivirus in this house, but we also need to get rid of the four pests."

Lin Yuan rubbed his throbbing temples and turned to look at Chen Weiguo.

"Chief, prepare for battle. Those brainwashed scum are already building a landing runway for their 'God'."

At this moment, in the silent depths of space, that massive Mechanical Crusader fleet was advancing at an incredible speed toward the Earth, which was emitting a faint blue light... closing in at full speed.

And the first batch of "human traitors" had already lit the beacon of welcome on the cold far side of the moon.