Chapter 161 Before even leaving the village, they encountered a highway robbery?

Neptune's orbit was like a blurry boundary; once crossed, no one would be providing meals anymore.

The light outside the porthole dimmed visibly. The big fireball that had hung in the sky for billions of years had shrunk to the size of a mung bean, blending into the starry sky. If one didn't look closely, it was impossible to tell which one was the former "Grandfather Sun."

The surface temperature had dropped below minus 120 degrees.

Although the planetary engines were still spewing blue plasma streams, providing meager heat to this wandering sphere, the chill from deep space could seep into the marrow even through thousands of meters of rock.

This wasn't cold; it was loneliness.

Inside the Tianting Command Center, the atmosphere was heavier than the vacuum outside.

"Reporting some bad news."

Academician Wang, sporting two massive dark circles under his eyes, slammed a data pad onto the table in front of Lin Yuan. "Our family fortune is almost gone."

Lin Yuan was using a small file to trim his nails—which had snapped from overexertion when he tried to grasp energy from the void earlier.

"Speak human." Lin Yuan didn't even look up.

"Heavy Fusion Fuel—rocks—we aren't short on that. But this stuff needs deuterium and tritium to ignite," Academician Wang scratched his messy hair. "To break free from the sun's gravity, the engines have been running at 300% overload for the past few days. Now our inventory is critical. At most, it's only enough to burn for another thirty days."

"And after thirty days?"

"After thirty days, Earth will become a dead ball drifting on inertia. The dungeons inside can hold out for a few more years using geothermal heat, but if we hit an asteroid belt..." Academician Wang made an explosion gesture. "Bang, we all turn into space fireworks."

Chen Weiguo stood nearby, his face ashen. "The mood below isn't right either. Although I've arranged for the gendarmerie to patrol, 'Deep Space Claustrophobia' is starting to spread. Some people feel like we've been abandoned in a coffin. Last night, an engineer even tried to remove the reactor's fuse, saying he wanted to hear a 'bang'."

Lin Yuan finally stopped his movements.

He raised his hand, palm up, trying to mobilize the void core inside his body.

The once-boundless energy that obeyed his every whim now felt like constipation; he only managed to squeeze out a few tiny dark-gold sparks that flickered twice and died.

[System Prompt: 'Godslaying' aftereffects repairing. Currently, the void engine is in a cooldown period.]

[Warning: Do not force a 'cool' pose, or it may lead to a core meltdown.]

"Really doesn't last long." Lin Yuan curled his lip and pulled his hand back.

Right now, he couldn't even conjure a lighter, let alone nuclear fuel out of thin air. It seemed the price of that "Godslayer" title was temporarily turning himself into a giant power bank.

"So, basically, we're out of gas."

Lin Yuan stood up and walked to the massive holographic star map.

The blue dot representing Earth was floating lonely in a gray belt. That was the Oort Cloud, the Solar System's last fence. Past this point was a truly lawless land.

"gaia, what's that path ahead called?" Lin Yuan pointed to the chaotic debris field in the star map.

"According to the Universal Interstellar Charts, this area has no official name." gaia's figure projected onto the table, holding a virtual lollipop. "But in black market route maps, this is called 'Hell's Highway.' Smugglers used to love this path to avoid the Interstellar Taxation Bureau."

"As long as there's a road."

Lin Yuan stared at the darkness. "Pass down my command: shut down all planetary engines."

"What?!" Academician Wang almost jumped. "Shut them down? What if we hit a meteorite? Without thrust, we can't even perform an orbital maneuver!"

"Inertia is enough. Our current speed is already nearing 1% of the speed of light. As long as we don't brake, we can glide right out of the Solar System."

Lin Yuan's eyes were sharp. "Cut power to all non-essential facilities, keeping only the ecological recycling system and minimum radar detection. We're paupers now; we have to learn to live within our means."

"Besides..." Lin Yuan paused, a playful curve hooking the corner of his mouth, "this is also to avoid alerting the snake."

"Snake?" Chen Weiguo was stunned.

"Why do you think this place is called Hell's Highway?" Lin Yuan pointed to several pulsing blips on the edge of the radar screen. "In a godforsaken place like this, even a piece of scrap metal is being watched, let alone a sphere as big as ours."

Following Lin Yuan's command, the ten thousand giant towers standing on the surface spewed a final trail of flame and then suddenly went dark.

Earth instantly plunged into darkness.

Like a fat man wearing a night suit, it carefully retracted all heat sources and light, gliding silently through the deathly quiet Oort Cloud.

Time passed minute by minute.

The feeling of drifting blindly in the dark was extremely oppressive. Only the low-frequency hum of the instruments could be heard in the command room as everyone stared intently at the pitch-black main screen.

"Beep—"

Suddenly, gaia's alarm broke the silence.

"Intercepting a wide-area broadcast signal! The frequency is very messy, like it was cobbled together from an old crystal radio."

After a burst of harsh static, a raspy voice processed through a voice changer echoed in the command room.

"...passing... pay... fee... know the rules... save your life..."

The signal was intermittent, but putting these words together, anyone could hear the bandit-like air of a highway robbery.

"Oh, their Mandarin is quite standard?" Lin Yuan was amused. "Are they treating us like fat sheep?"

"Boss, look at the port side at three o'clock!" gaia enlarged the sensor feed.

In the dark void floated a massive wreck.

It was a whale-shaped biological warship, at least five kilometers long. But now, it had been stripped down to a pale skeleton. The armor plates on the hull had been neatly cut away, and the power reactor's position was completely empty—not even a copper wire was left.

The technique was clean and efficient, wasting nothing.

Lin Yuan narrowed his eyes. As a veteran scavenger, he could even see a hint of "professionalism" from a peer in those cut surfaces.

"These are marks left by plasma cutting, and an old handheld model at that, but this craftsmanship... tsk tsk, they're experts," Lin Yuan commented. "This place doesn't just have bandits; it has bandits who know their tech."

Chen Weiguo was in no mood to admire the bandits' handiwork; his hand was already on the weapon fire button. "Should we charge the main cannons?"

"Don't be in a hurry, save some power." Lin Yuan waved his hand. "Since they dare to set up shop here, they aren't afraid of you forcing your way through."

Before he finished speaking, a sudden change occurred.

The pitch-black void ahead suddenly lit up without warning.

Not one light, but tens of thousands.

Countless ultra-high-power searchlights turned on simultaneously from all directions—above, below, left, and right. The blinding glare instantly illuminated the gliding Earth in vivid detail!

"Holy shit!" Academician Wang covered his eyes.

After adjusting to the intense light, everyone gasped.

Directly ahead of Earth's flight path stood a metal Great Wall so magnificent it was breathtaking.

It wasn't a fortress cast as a single unit, but a giant roadblock crudely cobbled together from countless abandoned starship wrecks, meteorites, and even half a shattered asteroid, held together by thick cables and weld points.

It stretched for tens of thousands of kilometers, like a rusty iron gate, dead-set on the mandatory path from the Solar System to the outer realms.

Behind the cover of those cobbled wrecks, countless gun barrels were slowly turning, their dark muzzles glinting with a cold metallic sheen under the searchlights.

On a watchtower in the center, converted from a battleship bridge, several huge red-painted words were exceptionally eye-catching under the strong light, even thoughtfully translated into Interstellar Common Tongue and several other unknown scripts—

[Toll Station Ahead]

[Price per Ton, Honest Prices for All]

Chen Weiguo looked at the "toll station," which was larger than Mount Everest, and swallowed hard. "Is... is this also a unit of the Mechanical Papacy?"

"Those germaphobes from the Papacy would never use such junk."

Lin Yuan looked at the screen. Instead of panicking, his eyes, which had been dim for several days, gradually lit up.

It was the look of a mouse falling into a rice bin.

It was the look of a pervert seeing a beauty.

It was the look of a scavenger seeing a mountain of trash.

"These aren't bandits."

Lin Yuan licked his lips, pointing at the magnificent roadblock cobbled together from countless rare metals and high-energy engines, his voice trembling with excitement.

"These are clearly kind-hearted people who knew we were short on parts and specifically delivered them to our door!"

He slammed the table, ignoring the fact that his void engine was still cooling, and roared:

"gaia! Connect me to their channel!"

"Tell them: If you want to pass this way, leave your toll behind!"

Chen Weiguo: "???"

Academician Wang: "???"

Weren't we the ones being robbed?