Chapter 197 Is this the 'god' they went through all this trouble to summon?

The pitch-black shadow finally stopped merely squirming. Like pus squeezed from a wound in reality, it tore through the membrane of the dimension, accompanied by a teeth-grinding tearing sound.

There was no holy radiance, nor were there angels blowing trumpets.

All that remained was a suffocating, pungent stench—the smell of rotting stardust mixed with the decay of souls.

A mass of flesh, so huge it filled half the hall, revealed its true form. It had no fixed shape, its surface covered in countless suckers and tentacles. At the tip of every tentacle grew a mouth filled with sharp teeth, greedily sucking in the stray energy in the surrounding air.

Those mechanical guards that had just been fleeing in terror turned into piles of dull scrap metal the moment they were swept by the tentacles, even the sparks of life within them sucked dry.

"It has descended... It has truly descended!"

Several bishops wearing magnificent robes knelt on the ground, ignoring the mechanical limbs flying about, and kowtowed with loud thuds.

"Great Void Walker! Please enjoy this star! Please grant us eternal silence!"

A giant compound eye split open on the monster's body. The murky eyeball rolled, seemingly mocking the ignorance of these ants.

Suddenly, a piercing psychic shriek erupted without warning.

Pfft, pfft, pfft—The dozens of bishops kneeling in the front row didn't even have time to scream before their heads exploded one after another like overripe watermelons. Red and white matter splattered everywhere, painting the so-called "holy ground" into a slaughterhouse.

But this did not scare off the remaining believers; instead, they became even more fanatical. Some even actively spread their arms to welcome the deadly psychic ripples, as if dying at the hands of this monster were a supreme honor.

"Tsk."

Lin Yuan stood on the second-floor platform, raising a hand to wipe the machine oil off his face, looking with a strange expression at the big moth-like creature below.

"Is this the 'god' they went through so much trouble to summon?" He turned his head to look at Alita. "It looks quite unique, like a moldy octopus ball."

Alita gripped the alloy combat knife in her hand tightly, her voice tense: "Boss, don't be careless. This is a projection of a high-dimensional creature in a low dimension. Its energy density... is ridiculously high."

"Ridiculously high?"

Lin Yuan laughed, a laugh that sounded somewhat chilling. He stuck out his tongue to lick his somewhat dry lips. The void engine in his stomach, like a hungry wolf that had smelled meat, let out waves of urging roars.

【Ding!】 【High-energy Subspace spirit reaction detected.】 【Target species: Void Worm (Growth Stage).】 【Consumption advice: Remove the head... No, wait, this thing is all head. Suggest swallowing it raw; protein content is 80,000 times that of beef, excellent texture, crunchy.】

The system's prompt box was surprisingly thoughtful this time, marked in red and bold, and even had a knife and fork icon next to it.

"I just love high-end ingredients that don't need cooking."

Lin Yuan flexed his wrists. The mecha armor plates that had originally covered his body suddenly burst open, revealing the pitch-black entity of Void Energy beneath.

That was not a mecha. It was his fangs as the "Void" in the present world.

"Alita, take the team and clean up those fools kowtowing; don't let them spoil my appetite."

Having said that, Lin Yuan exerted force with his legs. Boom! The alloy platform collapsed under his feet, and he shot forward like a black meteor, crashing straight toward the feeding Void Worm.

The giant mass of flesh below clearly didn't expect that food would dare to deliver itself. It let out an angry roar, and dozens of thick tentacles instantly wove into an airtight net, whipping toward Lin Yuan with a sonic boom that tore through the air.

Such an attack, let alone a carbon-based organism, could flatten even a frigate into a metal pancake on the spot.

"Boss, watch out!" A Ji's voice cracked in the communication channel from fear.

"Watch out my ass!"

Lin Yuan didn't dodge or evade, suddenly spreading his arms in mid-air. The space behind him twisted abruptly, and a phantom of a void giant maw, several times larger than the worm, appeared out of thin air. There were no teeth in that mouth, only a bottomless dark vortex capable of devouring all light.

"Get... over here!"

Lin Yuan roared, and the giant maw phantom behind him moved in sync, biting down on the tentacles dancing all over the sky.

Crack! That was the crisp sound of energy being forcefully bitten off.

The once aggressive Void Worm suddenly froze. In its giant compound eye, for the first time, an emotion called "confusion" appeared.

It couldn't feel pain, but it could feel... that it was disappearing.

The tentacles that were bitten didn't break; instead, they were forcefully "digested" by some higher-order rule power. Its energy, its origin, was flowing madly along those tentacles into the body of that tiny human.

This isn't right. I am the hunter, you are the prey. That is the script.

"Roar!!!" The worm let out a shrill scream, desperately trying to pull its tentacles back. But how could Lin Yuan let go?

He grabbed a tentacle thicker than his waist, his feet firmly pinned onto the worm's slimy body, his fingers digging deep into the flesh.

"Running? Weren't you quite arrogant just now?" A wild smile hung on Lin Yuan's face, the black light in his eyes already so intense it was about to overflow.

"A buffet should have the awareness of a buffet! Did I say you could leave?"

He yanked it hard toward his chest. Rip! A large chunk of spirit flesh emitting a ghostly blue light was torn off by him. Lin Yuan didn't even look, grabbing the still-writhing energy mass and shoving it into his mouth.

It melted upon entering his mouth, carrying a minty coolness, then turned into a scalding hot current that rushed into his limbs and bones. Awesome! It was even more intense than the tube of star hot drink he had just consumed!

This satisfaction originating from the depths of his soul almost made Lin Yuan moan with pleasure. "Not bad, tastes a bit like raw marinated seafood."

Lin Yuan laughed loudly and lunged again, this time aiming directly at the worm's core. The once arrogant Void Worm was completely panicked. It had run rampant in this star sector for thousands of years, devouring the souls of countless civilizations, and it had always been the one scaring others out of their wits.

But today, it had encountered a monster. The aura emanating from that tiny human was older than it, greedier than it, and... hungrier than it.

It started frantically slamming against the surrounding walls, attempting to escape back to Subspace. But Lin Yuan was like a maggot on a bone, clinging tightly to it, and every punch he threw took away a large chunk of energy flesh.

On the other side, the squad led by Alita had also begun the harvest. "For the Machine God!" A cardinal raised the scepter in his hand, attempting to launch some kind of psychic attack. Bang! The heavy electromagnetic cannon in Alita's hand blasted his upper body into a blood mist.

"Your god is being eaten as a snack." Alita coldly stepped over the corpses on the ground, blue light flickering in her mechanical eyes. "Wake up, there are no saviors in this universe."

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat! A dense web of fire wove through the hall, and the believers who had lost the protection of their "god" fell like cut wheat. Without the boost of mental control, they were nothing but a group of lunatics holding fire pokers.

In less than five minutes, the giant Void Worm had been gnawed down to just a small fraction by Lin Yuan. Its originally massive body had shrunk severely, like a deflated balloon, and it could only weakly wave the few remaining tentacles.

"I can't... I can't eat anymore..." Lin Yuan burped, feeling that his current state was like having eaten three big feasts in a row during the New Year, so stuffed that his temples were throbbing.

【Warning: void engine charge has reached 300%!】 【Warning: host's physical strength is about to reach its limit!】 【Suggestion: Pack it up and take it away, eat it next time.】

"Pack it up my ass, this thing will dissipate once it leaves this place." Lin Yuan wiped the energy residue from the corner of his mouth, looking at the worm remains still twitching slightly under his feet, his eyes hardening. "One last bite."

He raised his right hand high, Void Energy condensing into a huge black dining knife. "Is this your so-called eternal life?" Lin Yuan looked down at that compound eye filled with fear. "In your next life, remember to look where you're going; don't drill into the demolition office's yard."

With a swift motion, the knife fell. Pfft! The knife precisely pierced the worm's core. The still-beating energy heart instantly shattered, turning into the purest stream of light, which was sucked into Lin Yuan's belly in one breath.

【Ding!】 【Congratulations host! Successfully devoured a high-order void creature!】 【void engine evolution progress: +15%!】 【Acquired new skill: Void Deterrence (Passive).】

The hall instantly fell silent. The terrifying aura that had suppressed everyone for so long vanished into thin air, leaving only the remains scattered on the ground and the smell of gunpowder smoke that had not yet dissipated in the air.

Lin Yuan stood in the middle of the pile of minced meat, feeling as if his whole body were glowing. The feeling of power overflowing made him want to roar at the sky.

"Boss, it's done." Alita walked over, her combat boots making crisp sounds on the metal floor. "The core console has been taken, and that 'Gravity Lens' is shutting down."

"Good." Lin Yuan nodded, just about to turn around. Suddenly. From the remains of the worm carcass that he had already eaten clean, the last bit of faint light burst open. It wasn't an attack. It was some kind of signal.

A very high-frequency band, ignoring all physical barriers, instantly penetrated the dome of the hall, shot straight into the depths of that huge metal ring, and then refracted into the vast universe.

Hum—The entire space seemed to vibrate. At this very moment, that black giant door leading to the deepest part of the ring, which had been in a locked state, swung open with a boom.

An aura a hundred times more terrifying and a hundred times older than the worm just now slowly awakened from the darkness behind the door. If the worm just now was a vicious dog, then the thing behind the door now was a Tyrannosaurus rex that had just woken up.

The smile on Lin Yuan's face froze. That familiar female voice sounded again in the depths of his mind. This time, it was no longer the gentleness and teasing from before, but carried a coldness that froze one's soul.

"You... have crossed the line."

"Having fun eating?"

"Then now... it's my turn."