Chapter 57 First Boss

" 'Spatial Lens Force Field' failed?!"

When the voice of the Head of Technology Department, filled with shock and disbelief, exploded in the Command Center, everyone was stunned.

How could this happen?!

The "ghost"'s "Spatial Lens Force Field" was the top-tier stealth system they had created using the theories of the Eternal Flower civilization.

It did not achieve stealth through coatings or energy absorption; instead, it directly distorted the surrounding space, causing light and detection waves to bypass it.

Theoretically, this was a perfect, absolutely undetectable form of stealth!

But now it had actually... failed?!

"Shit!"

Lin Yuan was scared out of his wits.

He felt as if he were running naked down the street in the Emperor's New Clothes, foolishly believing that no one could see him.

Then suddenly, a child pointed at him and shouted: "He's not wearing any clothes!"

The embarrassment and fear of being exposed in an instant made every hair on his body stand on end.

He abruptly stopped the "ghost".

Then he raised its "head" and looked toward the end of the dark conduit in front of him.

He saw that at the end of the conduit, where the exit should have been, it was now blocked by... something he had never seen before, something bizarre to the extreme.

The thing looked like a Void Devourer.

It was also an absolute black vortex that constantly rotated and could swallow all light.

But unlike the "pure black" Void Devourers they had encountered on the Ghost Route before.

At the edge of this black vortex, there were actually... countless pulsating, bio-tentacles glowing with a ghostly blue light, resembling blood vessels!

Those tentacles seemed like living things, constantly extending, retracting, and probing in the void.

And in the very center of the black vortex, within that deepest darkness, a huge, pupil-less eye, composed entirely of blood-red light, slowly opened!

The moment that eye opened.

A malice, a hundred times stronger and ten thousand times more evil than that Tunneling Worm from before, filled with chaos and madness, instantly locked onto the "ghost"!

[Warning! High-risk mental contamination source detected!]

["Mental Barrier" protocol activated! Resisting mental intrusion!]

Lin Yuan felt his brain go "buzz," as if it had been struck hard by an invisible sledgehammer.

Countless chaotic whispers, filled with desires for slaughter and destruction, flooded his consciousness like a tide.

Fortunately, the "Mental Barrier" built by the pangu system took effect immediately.

Those mad whispers, the moment they touched the "Mental Barrier," were mercilessly burned to ashes like moths to a flame.

Even so, Lin Yuan still felt a splitting headache and waves of nausea.

"What... what the hell is this thing?!" he hissed through gritted teeth on the communication channel.

"It's a mutant Void Devourer!" Academician Wang's voice was extremely solemn. "It devoured the flesh and blood of the giant beast skeleton and... fused with it!"

"It is no longer a pure energy entity! It has become a... half-energy, half-biological Stitched Monster!"

"Therefore, it not only possesses the Void Devourer's ability to devour space but also possesses biological... sensory capabilities!"

"Our 'Spatial Lens Force Field' can distort light and radar waves, but it cannot distort... its 'sense of smell' for biological energy! In its eyes, we are like a giant light bulb in the middle of the night, completely unable to hide!"

Academician Wang's explanation left everyone feeling desperate.

Their proudest stealth system had actually failed in front of the first true "BOSS"!

How were they supposed to fight this?

"Roar!!!"

Just then, the "Stitched Monster" ahead, with its eyes and tentacles, seemed to lose patience.

A hint of brutality flashed in its huge, blood-red eye.

The black vortex in its center suddenly began to spin faster!

An irresistible, terrifying suction force instantly emanated from the front of the conduit!

"Oh no! It's about to eat!" Lin Yuan roared.

He could feel the "ghost"'s sturdy hull starting to make teeth-grinding "creak, creak" sounds under this terrifying suction.

It was being forcibly dragged toward that vortex of death!

"Lin Yuan! Hurry! Turn the engine power to maximum! Turn around! We're retreating!" Chen Weiguo made a decisive decision and issued the order to retreat.

"I can't! Sir!" Lin Yuan gritted his teeth, desperately maintaining the hull's balance. "The suction is too strong! I... I can't pull out!"

He tried to instantly boost the power of the "Miniature Curvature Gravity Engine" to 150% overload mode.

However, it was useless!

The "ghost" just shuddered violently in place, still being dragged little by little toward the front by that terrifying suction.

It was like a small fishing boat fighting against the vortex of the entire ocean, appearing so helpless.

"It's over..."

In the Command Center, these two words appeared in everyone's mind.

They had calculated everything, accounting for every risk to the extreme.

But they hadn't expected that the "Void Devourer" here would be such an unreasonable "Stitched Monster" that countered all their technology.

"Is... is it really ending like this?" Li Na looked at the black "ghost" on the screen being dragged bit by bit into the abyss of death, tears streaming down her face uncontrollably.

Just at this critical moment!

A thought suddenly flashed through Lin Yuan's mind.

No, that's not right!

There must be a way!

The "Eternal Flower" database must have records on how to fight this kind of thing!

Enduring the stabbing pain in his head, he sank a sliver of his consciousness back into that blue "soul USB drive."

"ashilya! Hurry! Tell me! How do I deal with this half-energy, half-biological Stitched Monster!"

He used all his strength to roar in his heart.

Instantly, a massive yet incredibly clear stream of information flooded into his brain.

It was a... combat record that the "Eternal Flower" civilization had summarized with blood and tears during countless battles against "Void Devourer" mutants!

[Target: 'Flesh Eater' (Void Devourer subspecies)]

[Characteristics: Fused with biological traits, possesses powerful bio-energy sensory capabilities, and physical 'predatory tentacles'.]

[Weakness Analysis:]

[Weakness 1: Due to the fusion of biological traits, its core is no longer a pure 'singularity,' but an unstable 'bio-energy core.' It cannot perform infinite devouring like a pure 'Void Devourer.' Each act of devouring requires time for 'digestion.']

[Weakness 2: Its 'predatory tentacles,' although capable of physical attacks, are also part of its energy circulation system. Once severed, it will cause massive energy feedback damage to it.]

[Weakness 3: This is also the most fatal weakness! Its 'sensory eye' is the core of all its perceptions and also its most vulnerable point! That is the only unstable 'junction point' between its biological part and energy part!]

When Lin Yuan saw this third weakness, his eyes lit up!

"Academician Wang! I've found its weakness!" he shouted excitedly.

"Its eye! That blood-red eye of its is its most vulnerable place!"

"Eye?" Academician Wang was stunned.

"Yes!" Lin Yuan's speaking speed was as fast as a machine gun. "That's the junction point between its biological part and energy part! As long as we can blow it up! It will fall into temporary... paralysis because its energy circulation will go out of control!"

"Blow it up?!" The Minister of Security listened, dumbfounded. "How do we hit it? With what? We can't even move right now!"

"With this!"

A hint of a crazy, gambler-like smile appeared on Lin Yuan's face.

He moved his mind.

The "ghost"'s "nanocluster plasticity tool arm," which had been retracted under the fuselage, suddenly extended!

Then, in the shocked eyes of everyone.

At the tip of that mechanical arm, countless nanobots began to frantically deform and reorganize!

They didn't turn into a blade, nor did they turn into a gun.

Instead, they turned into a... a ten-meter-long, extremely sharp armor-piercing spike that shimmered with a cold metallic gleam!

"Lin Yuan! What are you doing?!" Chen Weiguo realized his intention and exclaimed.

"Sir!" Lin Yuan's voice held a desperate fierceness. "Retreating is death! Waiting is also death!"

"Since it's death either way! We might as well charge up and give it a hard hit!"

"Isn't it just about who's more ruthless?!"

"I've never been afraid of anyone in my life!"

Before the words had even faded!

He instantly switched the power mode of the "Miniature Curvature Gravity Engine" from "retreat" to... "advance"!

"Buzz—!"

The "ghost"'s engine let out an unprecedented, high-pitched roar!

Under the combined force of the "Stitched Monster"'s terrifying suction and the immense thrust of its own engine!

The black "ghost," like a black arrow released from a string, turned into an afterimage almost impossible for the naked eye to capture!

Carrying that huge armor-piercing spike shimmering with a deadly cold light!

Unhesitatingly!

Toward that huge, evil, chaotic, and mad... blood-red eye!

It stabbed viciously!