Chapter 214 You're the Empress? I'm Your Ruler!

"Protocol No. 0? Sounds intimidating."

Lin Yuan looked at the pale arm extending from the Empress's split spine, his face devoid of fear; instead, he looked as if he had found an interesting toy.

The arm did not attack Lin Yuan's body but instead plunged violently into the surrounding Void Energy.

In an instant, the surrounding data streams reversed like crazy. The "soap operas" and "calculus problems" that had been flooding the Empress's brain began to stall, as an extremely cold, orderly flow of code attempted to purge this mental garbage.

"It's an automatic antivirus program left by the titan!" Alita exclaimed. "It's trying to reset the Empress's operating system! Once the reset succeeds, this won't be a bug anymore; it'll become a pure titan biochemical weapon!"

"Playing with computers in front of me?"

Lin Yuan stabbed his Void Energy dagger into the ground and pressed his other hand onto the golden life loom.

"Alita, tear down that firewall for me! Since it's a titan legacy, it should belong to the Lin family!"

"Received! Loading brute-force module... Boss, this antivirus software is too tough; it's the underlying logic!"

"Underlying logic?" Lin Yuan sneered. "Then wipe out the underlying logic too!"

【System Prompt: Detected that the host is attempting to seize control of an S-class biological entity.】

【Consuming 100,000 points to activate overclocking mode.】

【Talent: Void Gluttony (Conceptual Version) — Activate!】

Lin Yuan's eyes instantly turned a pure purple-black.

At this moment, in the Empress's mental world.

Originally, this was a vast sea of stars, representing the Zerg Empress's terrifyingly massive computing power. But now, this sea of stars was filled with countless floating "exam papers," "spam messages," and "mother-in-law and daughter-in-law arguing scenes."

In the center of that chaos, a golden mechanical phantom was frantically waving a light sword, hacking those junk data files to pieces. This was the "Protocol No. 0."

It was highly efficient, and it looked like it was about to finish cleaning up this mental ruin.

Suddenly.

The sky went dark.

The mechanical phantom paused and mechanically raised its head.

There, in the firmament of this mental world, a huge rift opened. A giant hand, blotting out the sky and composed entirely of purple Void Energy, descended with a boom, like someone swatting a fly.

It was not some holy manifestation; the giant hand looked more like a woven bag carried by a scavenger—it was the manifestation of Lin Yuan's will.

"In my territory, I have the final say."

Lin Yuan's voice boomed like thunder in the mental world.

"Format."

Boom!

The purple giant hand made no fancy moves and directly grabbed the overbearing mechanical phantom, along with the Empress's last pitiful shred of self-awareness, in its palm.

Squeeze.

Simple, brutal, and unreasonable.

That so-called "Protocol No. 0" didn't even have time to utter a last word before it turned into specks of light, which were then unceremoniously shoved into the purple giant hand's mouth.

"Burp."

A satisfied belch echoed in the mental world.

【System Prompt: Target's mental defense has collapsed.】

【Executing deep formatting... Progress 100%.】

【Self-personality deleted. Biological instincts suppressed.】

【Congratulations, host, you have captured the planetary-class biological weapon "Embrace of Pain." Current status: Factory settings (Ownerless).】

In the real world.

The pale "No. 0" arm froze in mid-air, then fell to the ground like a withered branch that had lost all power, turning into a puddle of pus.

The Empress's body, which had been mutating continuously, instantly stopped trembling.

She—or rather, it—slowly raised its head.

Those vertical pupils, which were originally filled with tyranny, cunning, and pain, now became a dead, grayish white. There was no anger, no fear, not even any emotional fluctuation.

It was like a machine waiting for instructions.

"Did it work?" A Ji poked his head out from behind a pillar, still clutching the rag he had used to wipe his tears. "Boss, is this lady stupid now, or is she dead?"

"Neither stupid nor dead."

Lin Yuan withdrew his hand; the light on the life loom had completely changed from the original gold to an obedient light purple.

He walked over to the zombie-like Empress and reached out to pat her face, which was still stunningly beautiful even without any spirit.

"Just swapped in a more obedient brain."

Lin Yuan turned and stepped onto the throne, which had already collapsed halfway.

He kicked away the residual broken bones and sat down firmly.

Although the seat was a bit hard and still leaking slime, the feeling of controlling everything was indeed addictive.

"Alita, access the Zerg hive mind."

"Okay, Boss! Connection established... My god, this bandwidth is ridiculously huge! It feels like sticking a water pipe into the ocean!"

Lin Yuan closed his eyes.

In an instant, hundreds of millions of perspectives flooded into his mind.

Those were the Zerg armies spread across every corner of Earth, low Earth orbit, and even the dark side of the moon. Every perspective was a bug, and every bug was waiting for the "brain's" instructions.

Earth, Huaxia Defense Zone, Third Frontline.

"Grenades! Tie all the grenades to me!"

The blood-soaked Commander Zhao Gang roared at the top of his lungs. His left arm was gone, and the stump was messily wrapped in bandages, still oozing blood.

In front of him was the Zerg swarm rushing in like a tide.

Those sickle-clawed jumping bugs stepped on the corpses of their comrades, their hissing sounds making one's scalp numb. The ammunition had long been exhausted, and all that remained were over a hundred wounded soldiers and civilians behind him.

"I'll fight you to the death!"

Zhao Gang bit the fuse, clutched a bundle of cluster grenades, and with wide, angry eyes, prepared to charge into the bug swarm and detonate himself.

Even if he died, he would knock out a few teeth from these beasts!

The few jumping bugs in front had already leaped high, their sharp front limbs flashing with the cold light of death in the sunlight, less than half a meter from Zhao Gang's neck.

At this critical moment.

Hum—

An invisible fluctuation swept across the entire battlefield instantly.

It was a shock from the soul level.

Zhao Gang closed his eyes to wait for death, but he didn't feel any pain for a long time.

One second.

Two seconds.

Five seconds passed.

Except for the sound of the wind, there was nothing.

He cautiously opened one eye, and then, he saw a scene he could never understand in his entire life.

The jumping bug was suspended above his head.

It wasn't flying; its claws were hooked onto a steel bar of the ruins, and its entire body was as stiff as a stone.

Not just it.

Looking around, the dense sea of bugs on the entire battlefield, whether they were charging, biting, or flying in the sky, all maintained their original postures, motionless.

It was as if someone had pressed the pause button on the entire world.

"What... what is going on?" Zhao Gang forgot to throw the grenades in his hand and stared blankly at the ferocious monster inches away.

At this moment, the same scene was happening all over the world.

Whether it was the Freedom Federation defense line with the strongest firepower or the survivor squads fighting guerrilla warfare in the deep mountains and forests, everyone was staring dumbfounded at these bugs that had suddenly "crashed."

Just as all of humanity was wondering if God had manifested or if the system had a bug, a slightly lazy voice, mixed with the sound of a microphone with electrical interference, rang out in everyone's minds, or rather, in all devices capable of receiving signals.

"Hello, hello? Sound check, sound check. There's no delay on this thing, right?"

Immediately after, the voice became serious—though it still sounded a bit unserious.

"All Zerg swarms, listen to my command."

"All units—stand up!"

Clatter!

The stiff sea of bugs moved in unison at this moment.

Those lying down stood up, those hanging on walls jumped down, and those flying in the sky landed back on the ground. Even those missing limbs stubbornly propped themselves up with their remaining limbs.

Their movements were as standard as a military parade.

"At ease!"

Boom!

Hundreds of millions of bugs simultaneously spread their hind legs, put their front limbs behind their backs (if they had any), and held their heads high.

The neat sound of footsteps even triggered a small earthquake.

Billions of survivors around the world watched this scene, their jaws dropping to the floor.

The cluster grenades in Zhao Gang's hand fell to the ground with a "clatter," rolling to the feet of that jumping bug.

The jumping bug even lowered its head to look, then politely kicked the grenades aside with its foot and continued to maintain the "at ease" posture.

"Am... am I crazy?" Zhao Gang muttered to himself.

Meanwhile, inside the Leviathan, three thousand meters high in the sky.

Lin Yuan sat on the throne, looking at the neat formations on the holographic screen, and nodded with satisfaction.

"The discipline is not bad."

"Boss, you have a weird sense of humor, don't you?" A Ji rolled his eyes from the side. "You've completely confused all of humanity."

"This is called establishing authority."

Lin Yuan stretched, looking at the dense red dots on the big screen.

These bugs were indeed a devastating disaster for the current Earth. But to him, these were all walking energy packs.

Keep them?

Just kidding, with hundreds of millions of mouths, how much meat would they eat every day? His family didn't own a mine.

Let them go?

That's even worse; these are all spoils of war.

"Alita, calculate how much concentrated biological nutrient solution can be converted if all these low-level units are recycled."

"Approximately... enough to fill half of this ship's reserve tanks." Alita did a quick mental calculation. "If used to strengthen the human body, it would be enough to give all of humanity a basic genetic baptism."

"Very good."

Lin Yuan's mouth curled into a cruel smile. He never considered himself a saint; in the apocalypse, maximizing resource utilization was the absolute truth.

He reconnected to the mental network.

"This is the new Supreme Commander."

"Due to a shortage of food and supplies, and because you all look too ugly and affect the cityscape."

"I am now issuing the second order."

Lin Yuan's voice was cold, without a trace of warmth.

"All units, self-destruct in place. Liquefy your bodies, convert them into organic nutrient solution, and store them at each hive node."

"Execute."

The moment the words fell.

On the Earth's battlefield, a spectacular and tragic scene occurred.

Without any hesitation, without any resistance.

Those bugs that had just been trying to eat people, the moment they received the order, unhesitatingly stabbed their sharp front limbs into their own hearts, or jumped directly into nearby acid pools or deep pits.

Squish! Squish!

The sound of flesh and blood disintegrating rose one after another.

Those massive bodies, under the action of some special enzyme, quickly melted into pools of glowing green liquid.

The sea of bugs that had originally blotted out the sky disappeared completely within a few minutes.

Only pools of surging, pure life energy remained.

The originally desperate human defense line was now dead silent.

Everyone stared blankly at the green liquid. That was it? The catastrophe that almost wiped out humanity just cooked itself in these few words?

"This is... too wasteful."

On the throne, Lin Yuan watched the pools of "green soup" on the monitor and suddenly felt a bit of heartache.

"So much high protein, I have to find a way to use it up."

His gaze fell on the life loom flashing with golden light beside him.

Since this thing can edit the Empress's genes and change the code of bugs...

A crazy but tempting plan suddenly emerged in Lin Yuan's mind.

He raised his head and looked at another set of images Alita brought up—human soldiers still struggling in the ruins, with weak bodies and broken limbs.

In the past, humans could barely tie with the bugs by relying on exoskeletons and mechas.

What if... this thing was used on humans?

"A Ji."

"Here! Boss, what are your orders?" A Ji was now absolutely admiring Lin Yuan; this wasn't just a thigh to hold onto, this was a golden thigh!

"Go, notify the human Commander below."

Lin Yuan's fingers tapped lightly on the armrest of the throne, his eyes flashing with fanatical light.

"Tell them, do they want to experience... a 'Divine Body Transformation' that can not only regenerate lost limbs but also tear apart mechas with bare hands?"

"Since this titan artifact is in my hands, I should also prune the branches and leaves of this world's evolutionary tree."