Chapter 220 The Perfect Fusion of Biology and Mechanics

"Ignition."

Lin Yuan sat at the command console, holding the half-eaten mutant potato in his hand, and lightly spat out the two words.

There was no countdown, nor was there any impassioned mobilization speech.

In an instant, the twenty thousand planetary engines distributed across the Asian and American continental plates simultaneously let out a deafening roar.

But this sound no longer resembled the simple mechanical rumbling of the past; instead, it was mixed with a low, guttural hiss resembling the breathing of a colossal beast.

The exhaust ports no longer spewed beams of ghostly blue plasma, but rather a torrent of brilliant, golden-red flames too dazzling to look at directly.

This was a brand-new fuel mixed with titan divine power and highly concentrated bio-energy.

"Thrust increased by three hundred percent! Structural integrity... perfect!"

Academician Wang stared at the screen, his saliva flying in his excitement. "Good heavens, this isn't just pushing the Earth; this is equipping the Earth with a superluminal particle thruster! At this acceleration, it will only take us three days to get to that so-called 'Graveyard of Gods'!"

If anyone were standing in lunar orbit looking back at this moment, they would absolutely be scared into cardiac arrest by the scene before them.

The originally azure Earth was currently undergoing a mutation that was both horrifying and filled with beauty.

A layer of grayish-white material was rapidly spreading along the surface of the crust; this was the "bio-active armor" secreted by the Leviathan.

They were like living fungal mats, rapidly covering oceans, mountains, and ruins, then hardening and thickening, finally transforming into a chitinous shell shimmering with a cold, metallic luster.

If a meteorite were to strike, this shell would automatically secrete mucus to cushion the impact, and it could even writhe to repair damaged areas just like a healing skin wound.

The Earth had come alive.

It was no longer just a stone ball that could only take a beating, but had transformed into a semi-biological, semi-mechanical super-warship with a diameter of twelve thousand kilometers.

"Boss, isn't our look a little... villainous?"

A Ji watched the new image of Earth on the big screen—a dark, black planet covered in spikes and armor, dragging a long golden tail flame, rampaging aggressively through space.

"So what if we look like villains?" Lin Yuan took a bite of the potato, which Academician Wang had specially washed to bribe him earlier. "When you're out in the universe, looking kind just makes you a snack for predators. Looking fierce makes others think twice about whether they can afford to lose a couple of teeth."

He stood up and walked to the porthole.

As the planetary engines operated at full power, a massive G-force pressed down on everyone.

Ordinary people might have to lie in anti-G pods, but Lin Yuan didn't even sway.

After devouring the core essence of the Zerg Queen, his body had long since transcended the category of carbon-based lifeforms.

Now, even if he jumped into the center of a nuclear explosion without a protective suit, the most likely outcome would just be his hairstyle getting messed up.

What flowed in his veins was no longer simple blood, but a type of Void Energy liquid emitting a purplish-red shimmer.

Lin Yuan raised his hand; within the cluster of purple Void Energy in his palm, there was now a hint of tyrannical blood-red color.

"The power is stronger, but also more restless." Lin Yuan clenched his five fingers abruptly, and the air in his palm instantly exploded with a crisp crackling sound. "But I like it. Power that is too obedient is like a domesticated dog; only the untamable ones are wolves that bite."

"Report!"

An esper soldier in charge of communications suddenly shouted, his voice tinged with a hint of oddity. "Monitoring a broadcast on the public channel... our actions seem to have attracted an audience."

"Read it."

"Uh... this is from a smuggling caravan in the Alpha Centauri system: 'Holy crap! Is that Earth? How did those lunatics manage to drive their home planet out? Run! I heard they even eat bugs!'"

The soldier paused, holding back a laugh, and continued reading: "There's another one from the Mercenary Guild of the Orion Arm: 'Warning to all ships, clear the way! The civilization codenamed 'Mad Dog' is moving at high speed! I repeat, they've equipped their planet with spikes; hitting them means certain death!'"

A burst of laughter erupted in the command room.

"Mad Dog civilization? The name is a bit ugly, but it's quite fitting." Lin Yuan shrugged nonchalantly. "From now on, we don't need to use any peace doves for our banner. Just draw a dog's head and write 'Beware of Dog, Keep Out' underneath."

Laughing aside, everyone knew this wasn't just a joke.

Earth was transforming from a refugee on the brink of extinction into a bully that no one in this star sector dared to ignore.

"Alright, stop laughing."

Lin Yuan restrained his smile and fished the fragment of the "Key of Chaos" out of his pocket.

This object was only the size of a thumb, with a material resembling some kind of gray crystal that felt bone-chillingly cold to the touch.

But just a moment ago, when the Leviathan passed through an interstellar dust belt, this thing suddenly heated up.

Furthermore, it was vibrating.

The frequency of that vibration was actually resonating with several items on Lin Yuan's person.

Lin Yuan unbuckled the titan core controller from his waist and took out a "star map slate" he had found in the ruins earlier.

When the three items were brought together, a miraculous scene occurred.

Click.

Without using any adhesive, the three seemingly unrelated items fit together seamlessly, forming a strange, polyhedron-like device.

A complex holographic projection was cast from the device, hovering in front of Lin Yuan.

It was a flight path.

A shortcut that bypassed all conventional jump points, cutting directly through a death nebula to the core of the "Graveyard of Gods."

"As expected." Lin Yuan narrowed his eyes. "The so-called key wasn't something to be found; it was a puzzle that the titans had long left for their successor. As long as you collect all these pieces of junk, the path naturally reveals itself."

"But this path..." Alita's projection floated over, looking at the red flight path, her tone somewhat grave. "Boss, this requires passing through the 'Machine Graveyard.' That is the exile site for all runaway AI and scrapped warships from the past tens of thousands of years. It is said that ships that enter never come out."

"They didn't come out because they weren't tough enough."

Lin Yuan stuffed the assembled device into his pocket. "We're thick-skinned and tough now, so we're just in need of a whetstone to test our blades. Notify Zhao Gang and tell his 'Dragon Soar' fleet to stop playing with flight simulators; bring out the real hardware."

"We're going to that graveyard to have a rave."

...

Meanwhile.

Thousands of light-years away from Earth, within a hidden folded space in the Milky Way galaxy.

There were no stars here; the light source came from a metal fortress so massive it was suffocating. This was the legendary headquarters of the Mechanical Papacy—the Temple of Truth.

Deep within the great hall, countless cold data cables were connected to a figure floating in mid-air.

He wore an intricate electronic bishop's robe; his face was a smooth, expressionless screen that only flashed with blue ripples when he spoke.

The Mechanical Pope, codenamed "Prophet."

"Zerg Queen... confirmed dead?"

The mechanical voice echoed in the hall, carrying a hint of incredulous data fluctuation. "That creature, whose instinct was to devour, was actually... eaten by a bunch of carbon-based monkeys with only a 0.7-level civilization?"

"Yes, Your Holiness."

Below, several high-ranking Templars clad in power armor were kneeling and shivering. "And monitoring shows that the planet named 'Earth' is approaching the divine domain at high speed. Their outer defenses are composed of biological tissue, and their internal energy reaction... has already exceeded stellar-class."

On the Pope's smooth screen face, the blue ripples shuddered violently.

He pulled up a segment of footage transmitted from the front lines.

In the footage, that blue planet, modified into a monster, was like a cannonball leaving the barrel, smashing through an asteroid blocking its path without even slowing down, rampaging straight over the debris.

That reckless ferocity could be felt even through the screen.

"This is blasphemy... this is a trampling of logic and order!"

The Pope's voice suddenly turned shrill.

And deep within his massive database, a line of underlying code that had never been activated was quietly running.

The name of the code was: 【Fear】.

Ever since he had transformed himself into a machine ascendant, he had never felt this emotion, not even when facing weapons left behind by the titans.

But now, looking at that unreasonable Earth civilization that ate everything clean and then smashed the pot, he was afraid.

These people did not follow logic.

They even turned the Zerg, which should have been their mortal enemy, into spicy dried rations!

"Cannot let them near the divine tomb." The Pope abruptly cut off the data stream. "The final secret of the 'Main Brain' is buried there. If those mad dogs get it..."

"Issue an order to the 'Gatekeeper'."

A scarlet killing intent flashed across the Pope's screen.

"Activate all abandoned units in the Machine Graveyard. Those are hundreds of millions of war machines that have gone insane in this universe... I want to see if the teeth of these carbon-based monkeys can chew through a torrent of rusted steel."

"Lock the door tight. Don't let a single fly in!"

...

Three days later.

In front of the Earth fleet, a strange nebula appeared.

It was not colorful like other nebulae, but presented a dead, grayish-brown color.

There was no light inside the nebula, and the occasional electrical sparks illuminated the countless wrecks floating within.

There were destroyers broken in two, giant mechs with only half a head left, and countless electronic eyes that were still glowing with red lights.

This was the Machine Graveyard.

The largest garbage dump in the universe, and also the most dangerous forbidden zone.

"Boss, the signal interference ahead is too strong."

A Ji clutched his head; even he felt a stabbing pain in his brain in this environment. "It's like hundreds of millions of lunatics screaming into microphones at the same time, all just chaotic, illogical garble."

Lin Yuan stood on the bridge, looking through the giant holographic screen at the sea of wreckage ahead, which was like a thick fog.

Suddenly.

All the noise disappeared.

The communication channel became deathly silent.

Immediately after, a hoarse voice that sounded like rusty gears grinding abruptly drilled into everyone's ears. This voice was genderless and carried a bone-chilling madness.

"Welcome... to..."

"This is... the paradise of lunatics..."

"May I ask, guests... do you want to be dismantled into parts... or do you want to be compressed into cans?"

Accompanying this voice, hundreds of millions of red dots lit up in the fog ahead.

Those were not stars.

Those were countless scrapped mechs that had been sleeping, all opening their eyes at the same time.

"Interesting."

Lin Yuan looked at the overwhelming red light; far from being nervous, he excitedly licked his lips, revealing a sharp, snowy-white canine tooth.

He pressed the button for the ship-wide broadcast.

"Answer him."

"We are not guests."

"I'm here to collect scrap."

Lin Yuan abruptly pulled out the high-frequency vibration blade at his waist, the tip pointing straight into the depths of the starry sky.

"Alita, play the BGM! The loudest one you have!"

"Huben Fleet, ram through for me! Whoever dares to block the way, smash their dog head to pieces for me!"

"Let's get to work!!"