Chapter 135 The Art of Dimensional Reduction

"Deal struck."

The moment that emotionless system notification echoed in Lin Yuan's mind, it felt as if an invisible giant hand had crudely reached into his physical shell, grabbed the flame known as 'vitality,' and ruthlessly snuffed out most of it.

Pain.

It wasn't the pain of flesh being torn apart, but the hollow void of a soul being drained dry.

*Pfft—*

Lin Yuan abruptly spat out a mouthful of dark red, stagnant blood. His originally taut and elastic skin lost its luster at a speed visible to the naked eye, becoming shriveled and loose. His pitch-black, short hair seemed as if it had been dyed by frost and snow; within a mere two seconds, it turned white from root to tip.

A young man in his twenties became deathly haggard in an instant, like an old man with one foot in the grave.

This was the price.

This was the ticket to touching a high-dimensional taboo.

"Commander! Your vital signs are plummeting! Heart rate dropped to 40... cellular activity decayed by 90%! Damn it, what on earth did you do?!" gaia's tearful scream exploded in his ears.

"Cough, cough... stop shouting, I'm not dead yet."

Lin Yuan raised his hand, looking at his palm which had become thin as a stick and covered in age spots. He forced a strained, ugly smile: "This is great, saved me the money for hair dye."

Trembling, he 'fished' that item out from the pitch-black Space No. 006 of the system.

It wasn't a weapon; it didn't even look like it had any lethality.

It was a crystal-clear foil, only the size of a palm. It emitted a soft shimmer, appearing so exquisite and harmless in this dark universe, like a crystal bookmark someone had lost.

This was the ultimate cleanup tool that could make even God-level civilizations tremble—the Dual-Vector Foil (Fragmented Version).

Though it was a fragmented version and could only act upon a limited space, it was enough to deal with this beast that knew nothing but eating.

"Old partner..." Lin Yuan patted the console, his voice raspy like sandpaper, "One last charge. Don't complain about these old bones being heavy."

mech name, activate.

The battered, dark-gold mecha's rear engine nozzles once again spewed out pale blue flames. Only this time, it lacked its previous agility and dominance, instead carrying a sense of resolute tragedy as it stumbled toward the 'Planet Devourer' that spanned across space, frantically gnawing at the Moon's gravitational field.

"What is he doing? Committing suicide?"

In the command hall of the Heavenly Court Fortress, everyone held their breath. On the screen, the dot representing Lin Yuan was as tiny as a speck of dust, yet it charged without hesitation toward the abyss capable of swallowing planets.

Three hundred thousand kilometers.

One hundred thousand kilometers.

Ten thousand kilometers.

On a cosmic scale, this was face-to-face.

"Roar—!!!"

The Planet Devourer clearly noticed this little snack delivering itself. Although this bit of meat wasn't enough to fill the gaps between its teeth, the energy reaction emitted by the mecha's core was its favorite flavor.

Its bloated, massive body stopped its entanglement with the Moon. Countless tentacles opened up like sea anemones in the deep sea, each one covered in barbs and mouthparts. In the center of the tentacles, a giant maw that seemed to connect to hell swung open; the stench of acidic fluid felt perceptible even in the vacuum.

It was smiling.

The emotion revealed in those hundreds of cloudy eyeballs was pure mockery.

A tin can that's about to fall apart thinks it can stop the pace of feeding?

"Eat, eat, eat, all you know is eating."

Lin Yuan piloted mech name, weaving through the tentacles dancing across the sky. His vision had begun to blur; every high-G maneuver made his aging blood vessels let out groans of being overburdened.

But he still charged directly in front of the monster. He was less than five hundred meters from that abyssal maw.

"Since your appetite is so good..."

In Lin Yuan's eyes, which had turned grayish-white, the monster's hideous oral structure was reflected. Using his last ounce of strength, he controlled the mechanical arm and gently tossed out the glowing 'bookmark' in his hand.

The movement was as gentle as throwing away a piece of scrap paper.

"It's yours."

"Don't mention it."

The moment he tossed the foil, Lin Yuan didn't hesitate. He directly activated all of mech name's remaining energy, and his SSS-grade talent, Void Affinity, was squeezed to its limit at this moment.

"Go!!!"

The space around the mecha distorted violently. mech name was like a startled fish, frantically retreating with consecutive blinks.

The crystal-clear foil drifted leisurely toward the monster's giant maw.

The Planet Devourer didn't take this small thing seriously at all. It didn't even bother moving its tentacles, swallowing it in one gulp, and even greedily tried to chase after the fleeing Lin Yuan.

However, the next second.

A scene appeared in space that made the souls of all carbon-based and silicon-based lifeforms freeze.

The foil did not explode.

It simply... unfolded.

There was no sound, nor any violent light or heat reaction. It was like a drop of ink falling into calm water, or a spring compressed to its limit suddenly being released.

Space collapsed at that point.

The three-dimensional space that originally possessed length, width, and height suddenly lost the concept of 'thickness.'

An irresistible suction erupted with the foil as the center. It wasn't gravity; it was the collapse of dimensions.

"That... that is..." On the Mechanical Papacy flagship, the always aloof Archbishop suddenly lunged toward the screen, its crimson electronic eyes flashing frantically due to overload. "Curvature of space? Dimensional collapse?! How is this possible! This is a rule-based weapon only mastered by God-level civilizations!!"

Too late.

The Planet Devourer's massive body suddenly froze.

It sensed something was wrong. Its chitinous carapace it was so proud of, its regenerative cells capable of withstanding nuclear blasts, and even its mass which was enough to warp gravity—all lost their meaning at this moment.

It wanted to flee, but its body was already 'falling.'

In everyone's field of vision, the three-dimensional, hideous, and overbearing behemoth was rapidly becoming 'flat.'

It was like a giant waterfall flowing into a deep pool, or a soda can crushed by a steamroller.

Its thousands-of-kilometers-long body slid uncontrollably toward that unfolding plane. No matter how it struggled or roared, it could not stop this absolute rule.

Three-dimensional flesh and blood were forcibly expanded into a two-dimensional graphic.

Tentacles were stretched into lines, eyeballs were pressed into color blocks, and internal organs turned into complex geometric patterns. Every blood vessel, every bone, and even the wreckage of warships it had just swallowed and not yet digested were displayed without reservation on that plane.

Extremely cruel.

Yet extremely... beautiful.

In just ten seconds.

The terrifying beast capable of devouring Earth vanished.

In its place was a colossal oil painting suspended in the pitch-black space.

In the painting, countless distorted lines and brilliant colors intertwined, forming a monster totem that was roaring, struggling, and despairing. Every detail was clearly visible, even more vivid than when it was alive, like a masterpiece depicted stroke by stroke under a microscope by the most skilled painter.

But this painting had no thickness.

It was an absolute plane.

Silence.

A deathly silence.

Whether it was the survivors on Earth, the soldiers in the lunar fortress, or the overbearing mechanical fleet in the distance, everyone lost their ability to speak at this moment.

This was not war.

This was a miracle.

Or rather, this was treating 'existence' itself as paint to be smeared at will.

*Gulp.*

In the Heavenly Court command hall, someone swallowed hard, the sound particularly jarring in the dead silence.

Academician Wang tremblingly took off his glasses, tears streaming down uncontrollably, but he didn't even bother to wipe them. He stared fixedly at the giant 'artwork' on the screen, muttering neurotically: "This isn't scientific... this isn't scientific... this is true physics... beauty... it's too beautiful..."

It was a shock that transcended human cognition.

Interpreting destruction as art.

*Beep— Beep— Beep—*

A piercing alarm broke this eerie tranquility, pulling everyone back to reality.

"mech name power reactor stalled! Life support system offline! Commander's vital signs are weak... he's unconscious!" gaia's voice carried despair.

In space.

The dark-gold mecha that had accomplished this feat was now like a piece of scrap metal, quietly floating not far from that 'painting.' Its armor was shattered, and its engine had long since cooled, resembling a cold coffin.

And in the cockpit.

Lin Yuan's hair was entirely white, his body curled up in the pilot's seat, his breathing so weak it was almost imperceptible. Those eyes that once shone with spirit were tightly closed, and a trace of dried blood hung from the corner of his mouth.

He was too tired.

Overdrawing his life, forcibly using a taboo. Being able to hold on until now was purely due to a final breath of will. Now that this breath had dissipated, the backlash surged like a tide, instantly drowning him.

"This... damned... bug..."

Thirty astronomical units away.

On the Mechanical Papacy flagship, doomsday, the Archbishop finally snapped out of that immense fear and shock.

Its electronic brain was trembling, and its logic core was overheating. It couldn't understand how that native had produced such a god-tier weapon, but it knew one thing—that weapon was a consumable.

Because that terrifying two-dimensional plane was slowly stopping its expansion, showing no signs of devouring the entire Solar System.

And the human who threw the weapon was now a lamp whose oil had run dry.

"Kill him!!!"

The Archbishop let out a hysterical roar, which was the ultimate killing intent transformed from the fear of the unknown. "Now! Forget about Earth! Forget about the Moon! All fire! Lock onto that mecha!"

"He must die! Even if we have to blow up the entire space, he must die!!"

If he were allowed to live, who knew if he had a second 'painting' in his pocket?

*Vroom—*

The remaining two thousand-plus black warships, even with their formations in disarray, turned their muzzles in unison at this moment.

Even the flagship doomsday, which had never fired, showed its fangs for the first time. The bow split open, revealing the dark matter main cannon inside that emitted an aura of destruction.

Countless red fire-control radar beams instantly crossed the void, locking dead onto the mech name mecha that was like floating trash.

"Warning! Ultra-high energy reaction lock!"

"Warning! Enemy main cannon charging!"

In the Heavenly Court Fortress, Chen Weiguo watched helplessly as those dense red locking lines converged on Lin Yuan, his heart feeling as if it were being ruthlessly crushed by a hand.

"No!!!"

"Quick! Use the tractor beam to pull him back! Hurry!" Li Na lunged at the console, her fingers frantically tapping the keyboard until her nails broke.

"It's too late..." gaia looked at the data in despair, "The distance is too far... Enemy fire countdown: 3 seconds."

In space.

Lin Yuan seemed to sense something.

In the dark cockpit, he struggled to open a sliver of an eyelid. Through the viewport, he saw those countless dots of light lighting up in the distance.

That was the starlight of death.

"Heh..."

Lin Yuan wanted to smile, but he didn't even have the strength to pull the corners of his mouth.

Is this how it ends?

That's fine too.

This life has been quite tiring, and being a savior is even more exhausting.

Just as Lin Yuan prepared to close his eyes and calmly welcome death.

In his blurred vision, he suddenly caught a hint of something unusual.