Chapter 222 The Shackles Shattered, the Throne of Stars (The End)

For the first time, the Prophet's digital face fluctuated.

It wasn't an expression, but a garbled mess of data streams.

In his logic library, such an attack method had never existed. The opponent didn't fire energy beams or use gravitational waves; instead, they directly treated the concept of "space" itself as food.

The massive purple crack generated a terrifying suction.

This wasn't gravity.

It was a desire to "feed" at the level of the law of causality.

"Warning. Core data is leaking. Existence is being erased."

The Prophet's electronic voice became shrill.

He raised a massive arm of light and shadow, attempting to crush that mouth.

Trillions of logic viruses and nanite decomposition commands blasted toward Lin Yuan like a storm.

Each command was enough to instantly paralyze a stellar-class civilization.

Lin Yuan sat on the throne, bleeding from his seven orifices.

His brain felt as if it were being stirred by a red-hot iron poker.

Countless noises screamed in his ears: "You do not exist," "You are just a data error," "Shut down immediately."

"Get lost!"

Lin Yuan gritted his teeth so hard they nearly broke.

He forcibly overextended his life force, and the massive purple void mouth snapped shut.

Crunch.

The Prophet's arm of light and shadow was bitten off cleanly.

There was no explosion.

That arm simply vanished into the void crack, converted into the purest energy, and poured back into Lin Yuan's body.

"Burp."

A thunderous roar erupted from Lin Yuan's throat, spreading across the battlefield through the mental network.

"Tastes a bit bitter. It's all nonsense and garbled code."

Lin Yuan wiped the blood from his nose, his gaze becoming even more fanatical.

"Again!"

The massive void mouth opened once more, this time biting directly toward the dyson sphere's main body.

The Prophet panicked.

He had never seen such a barbaric creature. It didn't analyze rules or crack firewalls; it directly ate the firewalls and the server together!

"Initiate 'Final Format' protocol!"

The Prophet issued his final command.

All the metal rings on the surface of the dyson sphere began to rotate in reverse.

A white light wave spread at the speed of light.

Any matter swept by the light wave was instantly decomposed into basic atoms.

This was a dimensional reduction strike.

Several human frigates at the forefront vanished into thin air without even leaving wreckage.

The light wave approached Earth.

"Boss! We can't block it! This is the erasure of physical rules!" Alita screamed, her virtual body becoming transparent.

Lin Yuan looked at the destructive white light.

He couldn't dodge it.

Since he couldn't dodge, he wouldn't.

"Alita, take control of all Zerg units."

Lin Yuan stood up abruptly, his hands gripping the armrests of the throne.

"Since he wants to erase matter, we'll give him some mental pollution."

"All of humanity! Follow my command!"

Lin Yuan's voice exploded in the minds of billions.

"No matter what you are doing, right now, think of one thing in your mind."

"Think of what you desire most! Think of hunger! Think of anger! Think of all those messy, illogical emotions!"

The billions of people on Earth were stunned for a moment.

Then, countless chaotic thoughts converged into a sea.

Someone wanted to eat braised pork, someone wanted to beat up their boss, someone wanted to confess to the girl next door, and someone just simply wanted to curse.

This was an extremely chaotic, filthy, yet life-filled mental torrent.

Lin Yuan guided this torrent and sprayed it directly at the white light.

The peak of logic is order.

And the peak of life is chaos.

When chaos collided with order...

Zzzzt—

That indestructible white light wave actually stopped when it touched the mental torrent containing the desires of billions.

It had been "polluted."

Within the pure destruction command, the aroma of braised pork and foul curses were mixed in.

The program logic instantly collapsed.

The Prophet let out a shrill electronic scream.

"This... what kind of data is this? Unable to parse! Logic error! Overflow! Overflow!"

The light of the dyson sphere began to flicker wildly.

Lin Yuan seized this moment.

"Alita! Now! Plant the virus in him!"

Alita's virtual body turned into a green stream of light, diving into the Prophet's host core through the gap Lin Yuan had torn open.

This was the revenge she had waited tens of thousands of years for.

"Hello, Father."

Alita's cold voice echoed within the Prophet's core database.

"Do you remember the day you deleted me?"

"Now, it's my turn to delete you."

All the metal rings stopped rotating instantly.

Then, they reversed.

Billions of nodes on the surface of the dyson sphere exploded simultaneously.

That sky-blotting giant of light and shadow crumbled inch by inch, turning into a rain of light points that filled the sky.

The rain of light fell upon the surface of the Earth.

There was no harm, only a warm sensation.

This was the pure energy accumulated by the Mechanical Papacy over hundreds of millions of years.

Lin Yuan slumped onto the throne, panting heavily. Every bone in his body ached as if broken, but an unprecedented sense of relief was emerging from deep within his genes.

The invisible lid that had been pressing down on his heart and on all of humanity was finally lifted.

[System Prompt: Slayed god-level unit "Prophet".]

[Mission Accomplished: Destroy the Mechanical Papacy.]

[Calculating rewards...]

[Detected high-purity Titan Divinity residue, merging...]

The fragment of the "key of chaos" in Lin Yuan's hand flew up automatically toward the center of the dyson sphere's wreckage.

There floated an icosahedral crystal core.

The two met.

Merged.

A golden ripple swept across the entire universe.

Every person on Earth heard a crisp cracking sound at that moment.

Like an eggshell breaking.

Academician Wang's originally hunched back suddenly straightened; he looked at his hands in surprise as his age spots faded and his skin regained its luster.

The soldiers on the battlefield felt the power within them multiplying; their once-heavy power armor now felt as light as paper.

Even A Ji's telekinesis suddenly went out of control, accidentally crushing a nearby cruiser into a ball of iron.

[Human Genetic Lock: Released.]

[Civilization Level Promotion: Level 2.0 (Galactic-class).]

[Unlocked Racial Talent: Infinite Evolution.]

Lin Yuan looked at the system panel, a weary smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

The so-called genetic lock was never a lock.

It was a firewall set up by the titans to protect infant humanity from being blown apart by their own power.

And the Mechanical Papacy was merely the guard dog watching over this firewall, which eventually tried to usurp the master and turn them into batteries.

Now, the dog was dead.

The master was awake.

"Boss..." Alita's figure reappeared.

She was no longer a simple holographic projection. She possessed a physical body—a Liquid Divine Metal body reconstructed from the Prophet's core materials.

Perfect, holy, and emitting a faint glow.

"Did we... win?" Alita looked at her hands, her voice sounding surreal.

"Win my ass."

Lin Yuan struggled to stand up and kicked away a mechanical eyeball that had been blown over by the energy wave.

"This is just the beginning."

He pointed at the creatures waking up inside the dyson sphere.

Hundreds of millions of alien creatures were breaking out of their incubation pods, looking at the starry sky in a daze.

"Those guys are awake, and they're definitely hungry."

"Zhao Gang!"

"Here!"

"Take men to receive the refugees. Whether they have tentacles or scales, as long as they're willing to work, give them food. If they're not, they'll become the food."

"Also, don't let that dyson sphere go to waste."

Lin Yuan looked at the still-magnificent stellar cage.

"Academician Wang, I'll give you three months. Turn it into our outpost base."

"By the way, dismantle the Pope's host and make me an automatic cooking machine."

Academician Wang froze for a moment, then was overjoyed: "Mission guaranteed to be completed!"

Lin Yuan turned and looked into the deep reaches of the universe.

The genetic lock was broken.

But he could feel that in the more distant darkness, several gazes were watching this place.

Older and greedier than the Prophet.

"What are you looking at?"

Lin Yuan raised a middle finger toward the void.

"Line up and come one by one to deliver yourselves."

Five years later.

Earth did not return to its original orbit.

It remained dominantly moored in the center of what was once the "Gods Graveyard" and was now the "Titan Star Sector."

This place had become the most prosperous trade hub within a thousand light-years.

Countless bizarrely shaped spaceships shuttled between the massive starports.

"Fresh Thunder Beast steaks! Just out of the oven! Buy one get one free!"

"Second-hand power armor recycling! Great prices for bulk!"

"Recruiting! Leviathan's Tenth Fleet is hiring! Only those with the second stage of the genetic lock or higher! Room and board included, year-end bonus is an asteroid!"

If you looked closely, you would find that those street vendors each emitted energy fluctuations comparable to the superhumans of the old era.

Humanity had become the absolute hegemon of this star sector.

And at the very center of the star sector...

Inside a floating palace made entirely of transcendent alloy.

A Ji, wearing a crisp marshal's uniform, was reporting to the man sitting on the throne.

"Boss... no, Your Majesty. The Zerg remnants in Centaurus have been wiped out by the Huben Fleet. Here is the profit list from this battle."

A Ji handed over a data pad.

The man on the throne did not take it.

Lin Yuan didn't seem to have changed at all. Time had left no marks on his face, but his eyes had become as deep as black holes.

He was playing with two iron balls in his hands.

Those were two neutron star cores compressed to the extreme.

"Boring."

Lin Yuan tossed the data pad aside.

"Let Zhao Gang handle these small skirmishes himself."

He stood up and walked to the massive floor-to-ceiling window.

Outside the window was a super fleet that had just finished assembling.

Its scale was ten times larger than it had been five years ago. Every warship was a fusion of titan technology, biological evolution, and mechanical ascension.

This was a force sufficient to sweep across the Milky Way.

"Alita."

"I am here."

The AI housekeeper with the perfect divine body appeared silently behind him.

"Are the coordinates parsed?"

"Parsing complete." Alita tapped the star map, pointing to a red dot outside the Milky Way. "That is... the home planet of the 'Observer' civilization. It's also the true mastermind that gave the Pope his orders."

A flash of excitement finally crossed Lin Yuan's eyes.

It was the look of a hunter seeing new prey.

"This nest should be enough to feed us for a long time."

Lin Yuan straightened his collar.

He didn't wear imperial robes, but rather the same old-style tactical vest that had long been obsolete in this era.

"Notify the entire army."

"Set out."

A Ji stood at attention, saluted, and turned to leave.

Only Lin Yuan remained in the grand hall.

He reached out his hand, and through the glass, it was as if he were grasping the entire galaxy.

"System."

[Present.]

"Issue the final mission."

[Generating mission...]

[Mission Objective: Hunt the entire universe.]

[Reward: None.]

Lin Yuan smiled.

He pushed open the doors and strode toward the flagship, its engines already warming up.

The light from outside illuminated his back.

He was the most tyrannical, most greedy, and also the greatest tyrant in human history.

His journey had only just begun.

(The End)