Chapter 206 The Living Nebula

Earth's current speed is very high. Pulling a sun along and still being able to hit this speed is all thanks to that "gravitational lens" core pouring energy into the engines like it's free.

Lin Yuan had just finished sucking the meat off that string of golden, crispy "titan rice fish" and was preparing to use a fishbone to pick his teeth, when the command hall's alarm suddenly blared, shrill as a cat that had its tail stepped on.

"What's going on? Is there illegal parking ahead?" Lin Yuan threw away the fishbone and pulled out a tissue to wipe the oil from his hands.

"Boss, we've got big trouble."

Alita's figure instantly flickered to the center of the console. The originally green data stream had now turned into an alarming shade of red. "Three thousand light-seconds ahead, we've detected a high-density dark matter clump. The volume... it's too big. It covers the three star systems in front of us, blocking our route completely."

The image on the big screen zoomed in rapidly.

That wasn't an ordinary nebula.

Normal nebulae are colorful and ethereal, but this mass was purely, stickily black. It looked like a huge, moldy piece of dead skin, stuck firmly in the starry sky, preventing even a sliver of light from passing through.

"Chen Weiguo!" Lin Yuan shouted.

"Here!" A middle-aged man in the Defense Force uniform stepped forward. He was the former Commander of the Earth United Fleet and was now responsible for specific tactical execution. "Commander-in-Chief, please instruct!"

"Throw a few rocks in to scout the path. Let's see which deity dares to block my way."

"Yes! Launch the 'Ghost' probe formation! Full-spectrum scanning enabled!"

Following Chen Weiguo's order, three hundred pitch-black probes shot out like a swarm of hornets leaving the nest, their tails spraying ghostly blue ion streams as they plunged headfirst into that strange black cloud.

The signal sources on the screen flickered densely.

However, the moment the probes touched the edge of the black cloud.

Swish.

Three hundred signal points went out simultaneously.

No explosion, no delay, not even a trace of struggling data fluctuation. It was like a drop of water falling into boiling oil, instantly evaporated.

Only a 0.1-second video clip was forcibly transmitted back.

The frame froze.

It was a mouth.

No, to be precise, it was countless mouths, squeezed together and squirming crazily. In that instant, they opened, filled with barbs and mucus, and "swallowed" the probe along with the surrounding void in one bite.

A collective gasp echoed through the command hall.

"Boss, this isn't some dark matter thundercloud at all." Alita's voice sounded slightly distorted. "The data model has analyzed it. This is a 'super-giant life form aggregate.' Simply put, this cloud is alive."

"Alive?" Lin Yuan narrowed his eyes, staring at the black mist that was still slowly expanding.

"If we want to go around, we need to deviate from our route by two hundred light-years. Plus the time for deceleration and re-acceleration, it will take at least another hundred years." Alita calculated rapidly. "Boss, I suggest a detour. The energy reaction of this thing is very abnormal. Our shields might..."

"A hundred years?" Lin Yuan scoffed, sitting back in his wide chair and crossing his legs. "Wait a hundred years, and the opportunity will be gone; even my 'titan rice' will have molded."

He stretched out his finger and tapped a rhythm on the armrest.

"There's only ever the rule of cars yielding to people, never people yielding to dogs, right?"

"Pass the order down. No slowing down, no detouring."

Lin Yuan waved his hand sharply, a look of reckless ruthlessness in his eyes. "Charge the main cannon 'Truth' and prepare the secondary battery group. Since it wants to block the road, then let's crack its head open!"

"Yes!"

Although the Earth Defense Force was feeling nervous, their execution was impeccable.

In an instant, thousands of huge turrets on Earth's surface adjusted their angles simultaneously. The newly installed "Truth" main cannon, with a caliber large enough to fit a frigate, began to gather a blinding white light at its muzzle.

"Fire!"

Boom—!

A high-energy particle beam capable of piercing a planet, carrying the power to destroy heaven and earth, slammed straight into the center of the black cloud. The space along its path even distorted visibly due to energy overload.

Everyone widened their eyes, anticipating the sight of the black cloud being scattered.

The beam plunged into the black cloud.

One second. Two seconds.

No explosion. No fire.

That terrifying energy beam was like a clay ox entering the sea, disappearing silently into that black, greasy substance. The energy reading meter showed that not only was the opponent unharmed, but it had... absorbed this energy?

"Boss! The attack is ineffective! Energy reaction... is it burping?!" A Ji exclaimed while looking at the data.

As if to confirm A Ji's words, the calm black cloud suddenly boiled violently.

It was as if it had been woken up by that shot and was in a bad mood.

Zzzzt—!

Countless beams of sickly green light sprayed out from inside the black cloud, moving with astonishing speed. That wasn't a laser; it was some kind of highly compressed bio-plasma!

"Warning! High-energy strike incoming! Shield overload!"

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The green plasma smashed heavily against Earth's psionic shield.

The originally impregnable pale blue shield, which could even withstand solar flares, now sounded like plastic sheeting splashed with concentrated sulfuric acid, emitting a teeth-grinding corrosive noise.

The shield energy bar plummeted crazily at a terrifying rate of 5% per second!

"Physical laws seem to have failed! This kind of plasma has some kind of energy-devouring property!" Chen Weiguo's face changed drastically. "Commander-in-Chief, the shield won't hold for three minutes! We must evade immediately!"

"Evade my ass! You want me to hide with a planet this big?"

Lin Yuan cursed and sprang up from his chair.

"Alita, give me the helm!"

"Boss? That's planetary-level maneuvering. Your neural load will..."

"Less talk! Hand it over!"

Lin Yuan grabbed the floating metal sphere in the center of the console.

Hum!

A massive data stream rushed into his brain through the neural connection. At this moment, he felt like he was this planet.

On the screen, the rain of green plasma filling the sky was already close at hand.

A flash of madness crossed Lin Yuan's eyes.

He jerked his hands to the left while simultaneously issuing dozens of extremely complex micro-maneuver commands to the engines in his consciousness.

"Drift for me!"

Earth, which was speeding along at sub-light speed, suddenly performed a maneuver that completely defied celestial mechanics.

It didn't decelerate, but instead used the massive gravity of the "sun" behind it as an anchor point, forcing a sharp ninety-degree turn in deep space!

This was only possible because Earth was thick-skinned and sturdy; if it were any other ordinary planet, this move would have shaken it to pieces.

The huge centrifugal force sent unsecured items on the surface flying everywhere, and even A Ji had to hug a table leg to avoid being thrown against the wall.

Zzzzt—!

That wave of deadly green plasma flew past, grazing Earth's atmosphere.

Although they avoided the core strike, some splashed plasma still landed on the outer armor plates. The hundred-meter-thick super-alloy armor was instantly corroded, creating deep, bottomless pits that emitted disgusting yellow smoke.

"Hiss— this thing has some kick to it."

Lin Yuan let go of the control sphere and shook his numb hands.

Just then, the system's cold notification sound finally rang out.

【Ding! High-risk biological reaction detected.】

【Target identification: S-class cosmic disaster — Tyranid Void Swarm (mutant).】

【Characteristics: Extremely hungry, feeds on metal, energy, and all organic matter.】

【Evaluation: Congratulations, host, your delivery has arrived. However, this delivery is not only substantial in portion but also has quite a temper. It is recommended to remove the head before eating; it's crunchy.】

"Tyranid Swarm?" Lin Yuan licked his lips, his eyes gradually becoming ferocious.

The black cloud in front was rapidly dispersing.

Or rather, they were finally done pretending.

That wasn't a cloud at all.

That was a sea of insects.

Endless, dense black-shelled creatures filled the entire field of view. Some looked like mantises, some like jellyfish, and some were simply a huge mouth with wings.

And in the deepest part of the insect sea, a shadow so vast it was suffocating slowly emerged.

It was a giant creature comparable in size to the moon. It had a whale-like body, its surface covered in thick chitinous armor, and tens of thousands of compound eyes glowing with red light opened one after another in the darkness.

Every eye was fixed firmly on this tender, juicy "fat meat" that was Earth.

It opened a giant mouth capable of swallowing mountains and let out a roar that couldn't be heard but could shatter souls.

That wave of plasma just now was merely it sneezing.

Now, it was truly hungry.

The insect sea surged, instantly surrounding Earth, with hideous fangs everywhere—above, below, left, and right.

"Boss... it seems we've been surrounded like dumplings." A Ji crawled out from under the table, trembling, his legs feeling weak as he looked at the screen full of red dots.

Lin Yuan stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, looking at that huge Leviathan, but a strange smile suddenly appeared on his face.

He raised his hand and pointed at the monster that was as huge as the moon.

"A Ji, look at that thing, doesn't it look like an extra-large mantis shrimp?"

A Ji: "???"

"Pass the order down." Lin Yuan turned around and straightened his collar, a raging fire of appetite burning in his black eyes.

"Get all the pots ready."

"We're having an extra meal tonight."