Chapter 83, Area 4: Steel Tombstone

"Comrade Lin Yuan, are you... are you really sure about this?"

In the connection room, Chen Weiguo's voice was somewhat hoarse.

He looked at Lin Yuan, who had already changed into a pure white biological monitoring suit, and confirmed one last time.

"I am sure, Chief."

Lin Yuan's expression was very calm, but deep in his eyes, a repressed flame was burning.

"The sooner, the better. The Eagle side won't give us too much time."

These past few days, bad news from the Western Pacific has come one after another.

The Eagle's three major aircraft carrier battle groups, like three moving steel fortresses, have completely blockaded the First Island Chain.

Their reconnaissance planes and electronic warfare aircraft are conducting unscrupulous provocations and probes along the edge of Daxia's airspace and territorial waters almost every day.

Although, because of the mysterious disappearance of the "Black Triangle," they dare not take a single step beyond the restricted area.

But this feeling of having a gun pointed at one's forehead while being helpless made the entire Daxia, from top to bottom, hold back a burst of anger.

Everyone knew that the time left for them was not much.

"Alright."

Chen Weiguo no longer tried to persuade him further.

He could see that this young man in front of him no longer needed any mobilization from him.

He stretched out his calloused hand, patted Lin Yuan's shoulder heavily, and said in a deep voice: "Remember, safety first. This time, we are not setting any rigid targets. Your mission is just to find clues about that 'industrial mother machine.' If you can't find it, come back immediately. We will think of other ways."

"Understood."

Lin Yuan sat into that familiar, sci-fi-filled cockpit.

The helmet slowly descended, isolating all external sounds.

The world instantly became quiet.

"System."

He recited silently in his heart.

"I want to unlock a new salvage area."

[Please select the area you need to unlock.]

On the pale blue system interface, next to the three already illuminated areas, a brand new gray icon representing the unknown was slowly flashing at a fixed frequency.

[Salvage Area 004 — Steel Tombstone]

[Unlock requires authority points: 3000 points.]

"3000 points?!"

Lin Yuan's pupils suddenly constricted.

Last time he took down that half-biological, half-energy "Stitched Monster," the system gave an astonishing SSS-level rating, rewarding him with 5000 authority points at once.

Later, in order to upgrade the "ghost"'s warp engine and energy weapon, he spent 3500 points in one go.

Now, he only had 1500 points left in total.

It wasn't enough at all!

"Damn it, this dog of a system, it must have calculated this, right?" Lin Yuan couldn't help but curse in his heart.

He was now facing an incredibly awkward situation.

Either he could only keep spinning around in the three areas he had already explored, or he had to find a way to get another 1500 authority points.

"How can I quickly get authority points?" Lin Yuan asked in his heart.

[Complete high-difficulty salvage missions and obtain high ratings to receive authority point rewards.]

[Alternatively, recycling high-value, high-rarity items can also yield a small amount of authority points.]

The system's answer was, as always, simple and clear.

"High-difficulty mission..."

Lin Yuan's gaze swept rapidly across the virtual map.

Area 001, "Silent Star Sea," the newbie village, had long been picked clean by him; there was nothing left to gain.

Area 002, "Ghost Route," although it might still hide quite a few medical ships, the biggest boss there, that paranoid cleaning robot, the "Purifier," had already been thoroughly provoked by him.

Going back now would be no different than walking into a trap.

The only one left was... Area 003, "giant beast skeleton."

"It seems I still have to go back to that damn place and pull off a few big jobs."

Lin Yuan immediately made up his mind.

"System, enter Salvage Area 003, 'giant beast skeleton'!"

[Command confirmed.]

[Activating deep space salvage system...]

"Hum—"

A familiar feeling of weightlessness rushed over him like a tide.

When Lin Yuan opened his "eyes" again, that giant beast corpse, so massive it was suffocating, like a dead planet, appeared before him once more.

"Alright, time to get to work."

Lin Yuan flexed the "ghost"'s "muscles and bones"; that perfect human-machine synchronization made him feel full of power.

"Where should I go first to get some authority points?"

He opened the "biological energy flow map" that he had already partially drawn.

"Got it!"

His gaze precisely locked onto a red area on the edge of the map, marked as "high danger."

That was the lair of the "Tunneling Worm" that he had severely wounded with a sword previously.

"It's you! I didn't kill you last time, this time, Grandpa is here to send you off!"

A cold sneer spread across the corners of Lin Yuan's mouth.

Controlling the "ghost," like a top-tier assassin lurking in the darkness, he stealthily crept toward that cave.

...However, when he arrived at that huge cave, large enough to accommodate a skyscraper, he discovered that it was completely empty inside.

That giant worm was gone.

"Damn, it ran away?"

Lin Yuan was a bit dumbfounded.

He immediately activated the scanning system, and an invisible ripple swept across the entire cave.

[Scan complete. No large biological signals detected.]

[However, in the depths of the cave, faint, unstable spatial fluctuations were detected.]

"Spatial fluctuations?"

Lin Yuan's heart stirred, and he controlled the "ghost" to fly toward the depths of the cave.

In the deepest part of the cave, he saw a spatial rift that was still slowly healing, like a scar made of flesh and blood.

That worm actually... dug a hole and ran away to another space?

"This thing has this ability too?"

Lin Yuan watched in amazement.

Just as he was about to leave to find the next target, the system suddenly popped up another notification.

[Ding dong!]

[Detected that the host already has enough authority points to unlock a new area.]

[Unlock Salvage Area 004 — "Steel Tombstone" immediately?]

Lin Yuan: "???"

He opened his attribute panel in a daze.

[Current total authority points: 3000 points.]

"I... when did I get 1500 more points?"

Lin Yuan was completely dumbfounded.

He recalled carefully.

From just now until now, he hadn't done anything!

He just came over to take a look at the worm's lair.

Could it be...

A bold guess flashed through his mind like lightning.

"System, I ask you, is it... that 'Stitched Monster' I killed in the monster's stomach earlier, its 'corpse' was judged by the system as 'recycled'?"

[...]

The system was silent for a moment.

[The successful kill of the 'Flesh Eater' was judged as a 'high-difficulty environmental cleanup' mission.]

[Mission rating: A. Reward authority points: 1500 points.]

"Damn it!"

Lin Yuan couldn't help but curse.

So, fighting monsters really could drop loot, gain experience, and add authority points!

He felt like he had discovered a brand new "way to play" this system!

"Then what are we waiting for!"

"Unlock! Unlock immediately! Area 004! 'Steel Tombstone'!"

Lin Yuan issued the command without hesitation.

He couldn't wait to go and see what that legendary "industrial mother machine" actually looked like!

[Command confirmed.]

[Consuming authority points: 3000 points.]

[Unlocking Salvage Area 004...]

[Unlock complete!]

[Warning: Area 004 is a high-intensity magnetic field and energy radiation environment, posing a huge threat to conventional drones.]

[Warning: Detected "ghost" airframe, meets entry standards.]

[Opening sub-space channel...]

"Hum—!"

A spatial pulling sensation, stronger than any previous time, instantly rushed over him!

Lin Yuan felt as if he had been thrown into a super-high-power tumble dryer, being torn and kneaded along with the surrounding space, spinning dizzily!

When he regained consciousness again and saw the scene before him clearly, he and everyone in the Command Center who saw this scene through the screen were completely speechless.

What was before them was no longer the dark, dead universe.

Nor was it the biological corpse filled with flesh and stench.

But a... a boundless ocean of death, composed of pure steel!

This was a dead planet, entirely composed of metal!

On the planet's surface, there were no mountains, no rivers.

Only piles of broken... mechs!

Some mechs were hundreds of meters tall, like silent steel giants, although they had long lost power, they still maintained a combat posture, the broken, hundred-meter-long giant light sword in their hands pointing straight at the sky.

Some mechs were cut in half at the waist, their huge metal wreckage stacked together like small hills, forming a continuous "steel mountain range."

Countless warship wrecks, like discarded soda cans, were scattered among the corpses of these mechs.

The entire world presented a cold, dead, metal-gray color, filled with the smell of rust and gunpowder.

In the vacuum, violent, visible electric arcs and disordered magnetic fields permeated.

They were like streaks of blue-purple lightning, constantly jumping and raging between these steel tombs.

[Welcome to Salvage Area 004 — "Steel Tombstone".]

[This was once the site of the ultimate decisive battle between two god-level mechanical civilizations — the "Mechanical Papacy" and "Titan Heavy Industry".]

[The victor has long since departed.]

[The corpses of the defeated have formed this eternal steel tombstone.]