Chapter 200 Shatter the Idol, I Am God

Space was very quiet, with only A Ji screaming in the communication channel like a chicken with its neck being strangled.

"I'm not looking! I'm not looking! I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die!"

Lin Yuan floated in the vacuum, facing that coronal whip capable of knocking Earth away like a billiard ball.

That torrent of red plasma was like a frenzied fire dragon, baring its fangs and brandishing its claws as it rushed toward him, even causing Lin Yuan's specially crafted void armor to begin glowing faintly red amidst high-temperature warnings.

"So noisy. Mute this hamster's mic for me." Lin Yuan roared into the channel.

The world became quiet.

He looked down at the unremarkable black metal ball in his hand.

This thing was only the size of an apple, with a few rings rotating slowly on it, looking just like a stress-relief toy bought for nine-point-nine yuan with free shipping on Taobao.

"Legendary-tier item. If it drops the ball this time, I'm tearing the system apart and selling it for scrap."

Lin Yuan cursed while raising his arm, posing as if he were throwing a baseball.

There were no fancy incantations, nor any holy chanting.

He exerted force from his waist and abdomen, the void engine gave a sudden push, and the black metal ball was thrown out just like that.

"Go, Pikachu!"

The moment the small ball left his hand, it appeared incredibly minuscule before the sea of fire, like throwing a pebble into the ocean.

However, the next second.

Hum—

A strange vibration spread throughout the entire star system.

The little black ball suddenly burst open.

It wasn't an explosion, but an unfolding.

Countless golden gravitational ripples diffused outward at the speed of light, instantly weaving into a giant net around the violent red giant star.

That net was ridiculously large, and every single line was a manifestation of pure high-dimensional gravitational rules.

The red giant star, which had been crazily spewing coronal matter, was like a wild ox on a rampage suddenly having a nose ring put on it.

That flaming whip, which had already lashed out millions of kilometers, was actually caught hard by that thin golden net!

Zzzzt—!

Visible spatial distortion.

That world-destroying energy slammed into the net, stirring up immense waves, but the golden net only trembled slightly before tightening violently.

"Shrink back for me!" Lin Yuan grabbed at the empty air, his five fingers clenching tight.

That red giant star, with a volume hundreds of times that of the sun, was actually squeezed hard as if by an invisible giant hand.

The originally expanded and loose surface gases were forcibly compressed, and the spewing fire dragon was also shoved back onto the star's surface.

The violent red planet instantly became docile, turning into a large red lantern packed inside a golden net, occasionally struggling inside, but this was useless except for making the net tighter.

"Done."

Lin Yuan brushed the dust off his hands, looked at the packaged star, and nodded with satisfaction. "Now, not only have I solved the light pollution, but I've also incidentally made a stellar-class hand warmer. Perfect."

In the distance, the Holy See fleet and the pirate coalition, who had originally been waiting for death, were now all dumbfounded.

On the bridge of a pirate frigate, the coffee cup in the first mate's hand clattered to the floor, and he didn't even react when the scalding coffee splashed onto his feet.

"Cap... Captain..." The first mate's voice trembled like a candle in the wind. "Am I hallucinating? That person... that person caught the sun...?"

The captain's mouth hung open, his jaw nearly dislocated, and it took a long time before he managed to squeeze out a sentence: "Don't ask me... I want to go home to my mommy..."

This was simply not something a human could do! It wasn't even something their so-called "God" could do!

Just when everyone was questioning their existence, this scene wasn't over yet.

A massive portal suddenly tore open in the deep space shrouded by the golden giant net.

Rumble—

That wasn't thunder; it was the low-frequency vibration produced by a massive object compressing space.

A cerulean planet, carrying thousands of planetary engines spewing eerie blue flames behind it, rammed into this star system like a heavy dump truck.

Earth had arrived.

It was like an interstellar thug wearing full-body exoskeleton armor, with defensive turrets and shield generators erected all over its body. That "fight anyone who disagrees" aura was carved from the same mold as Lin Yuan.

"This is the Earth Defense Force First Fleet!"

A rough voice rang out in the public channel, with the rumble of old-fashioned diesel engines audible in the background. "Boss! The cargo has arrived! Our little brats in the engineering team are drooling at the sight of the sun over here. When can we start work?"

Lin Yuan grinned. "Isn't that what we're here for? Tell those brats, the buffet is open. Eat as much as you want, don't be polite to me!"

...

Ring Fortress, on the plaza outside the central hall.

This was originally a holy land for pilgrims, with a thousand-meter-tall mechanical idol standing in the very center.

That idol had a compassionate human face on one half and intricate gears on the other, symbolizing the Holy See's twisted doctrine of "Flesh is weak, mechanical ascension."

At this moment, even though the sky outside had changed, thousands of hardcore fanatics were still gathered at the foot of the idol.

They knelt on the ground, kowtowing with loud thuds, chanting in their mouths, praying for the deity to send down divine punishment, strike dead that blasphemer, and save this world on the verge of collapse.

"Oh God! Please open your eyes!"

"That devil has already obscured your radiance!"

"Send down heavenly fire!"

Just when they were shouting the most vigorously, the sky above suddenly darkened.

It wasn't dark clouds, but a shadow.

A massive, mountain-like black titan mecha phantom appeared out of thin air above the plaza. Lin Yuan operated the titan mecha's projection system, activated 100x magnification mode, and looked down at this group of ants from high above.

"Praying to God?"

The sound from the loudspeaker shook the floor tiles of the plaza, and the believers felt their eardrums aching, as if a hammer were pounding on their hearts.

Lin Yuan's magnified face appeared in the holographic projection, wearing a punchable smile.

"Stop praying. That guy from just now, what's his name, 'Jealousy,' right? I've already digested him completely, and now there's not even a scrap left. If you want to see him, I can point you in the right direction—go fish around in the septic tank; maybe you can still find some undigested parts."

"Heretic! Shut up!"

A bishop in red robes stood up tremblingly, pointing at Lin Yuan in the sky and cursing angrily: "God is immortal! The will of God resides in this idol! As long as we are here, faith exists! You..."

"So much bullshit."

Lin Yuan picked his ear, that look of extreme impatience magnified countless times by the holographic projection.

Then, the massive black mecha raised its foot.

The movement was as casual as wanting to step on a grasshopper while walking past a patch of grass.

"Any piece of scrap metal dares to block my way."

Boom!!!

That foot didn't actually step on anyone, but kicked squarely onto the shin of that thousand-meter idol.

The teeth-grinding sound of twisting metal rang through the sky.

Under the horrified gaze of countless believers, the idol that had stood for thousands of years, representing supreme faith, suffered a comminuted fracture right at the knee. The massive body lost its balance and fell backward like a collapsing mountain, with a whistling sound of wind.

Bang—!

Dust flew, and rubble scattered. The exquisitely carved head of the idol rolled to the edge of the plaza, face down, and smashed directly into an abandoned sewage ditch.

The red-robed bishop who had been clamoring just a moment ago now had his mouth open wide enough to fit two eggs, his whole body slumped to the ground as if his spine had been pulled out.

The idol... fell? Their sky... collapsed.

Before the dust and smoke had dispersed, a figure descended directly from the sky, landing heavily on the fractured base of the idol.

Lin Yuan dispelled the mecha projection and sat down right there in an imposing manner. He had one foot on the remaining base of the idol, one hand resting on his knee, and his cape behind him snapping in the heat wave.

That posture was even more arrogant and domineering than the idol just now.

"Listen up."

Lin Yuan's voice wasn't loud, but through Alita's signal hijacking, it was clearly transmitted to everyone's ears, even to every spaceship in outer space.

"From today on, this place doesn't need a God."

He lowered his head, his gaze sweeping over the ashen-faced believers below, with no pity in his eyes, only the disgust of seeing a troublesome matter and wanting to deal with it quickly.

"If there must be someone in charge, it can only be me."

"I don't care what scrap metal or rotten meat you believed in before; now this territory belongs to me. There is only one rule—work, eat, and don't cause trouble."

"Who approves? Who objects?"

A deathly silence.

No one dared to speak. Even that toughest red-robed bishop now had his head buried between his legs, his whole body shaking like a sieve.

What a joke? Object?

Look at the locked sun in the sky, and then look at this idol on the ground that was kicked over like trash.

Is this something a mortal can object to?

When absolute power is placed before you, so-called faith is like ice cream under the scorching sun, melting until not even a scrap is left.

Clang. Don't know who was the first to drop the weapon in their hand.

Immediately after, there was a chorus of weapons hitting the ground. Those fanatics who had originally been holding energy guns and vibration blades, ready to fight to the death, were like deflated balloons, one after another kneeling to the ground.

Only this time, the object of their worship had changed.

It was no longer that ethereal mechanical God, but the living man before them, who had just eaten their God as a snack.

[Ding! Congratulations, host! You have successfully destroyed the enemy faction's faith totem! Reputation points critical hit! +1,000,000! Obtained achievement title: "God-Slayer" (When equipped, intimidation against fanatic-type enemies +50%). Obtained special title: "New God" (Although you look more like a bandit leader, these fools seem to really treat you as a God).]

Lin Yuan looked at the series of red reward notifications on the system panel, his mouth just about to curl upward.

Suddenly. The control terminal in his arms, which hadn't even warmed up yet, emitted a harsh buzzing sound.

Not only that, the golden gravitational capture net in the sky also began to tremble violently, emitting a creaking sound of being unable to bear the load.

"Hm?" Lin Yuan frowned and looked up sharply at the bound red giant star.

Beneath the coronal layer that had originally been compressed back, a large area of eerie black patches suddenly emerged. Those weren't sunspots; they were more like some kind of... living creature crawling under the skin.

A fluctuation, even colder and more obscure than when "Jealousy" died just now, pierced through that legendary-tier capture net and drilled straight into Lin Yuan's mind.

There was no language in that fluctuation, only an emotion of extreme hunger.

It was like... even though the fish in the net hadn't escaped, something even more terrifying was eating that fish as feed.

"Boss! The data is wrong!" Alita's panicked voice exploded in his mind. "The capture net's energy is dropping rapidly! Inside the star... there is a high-dimensional lifeform waking up inside the star! It is absorbing the energy of the capture net!"

The smile on Lin Yuan's face vanished instantly.

He watched the sun, which was rapidly turning from dark red to dead gray, his eyes gradually becoming cold.

"So, the signal that green-skinned monster sent earlier wasn't a cry for help..."

Lin Yuan slowly stood up, the black Void Energy in his hand beginning to condense frantically.

"...it was a fucking takeout order?"