158: Chapter 158 Interstellar Warfare? No, this is a large-scale server-wide raid!
Outside the Absolute Defense Zone of pangu-003 · Starry Sky Ancient Road.
Buzz—! With a violent spatial tremor, a warp rift tens of thousands of kilometers long tore open in the starry sky. Immediately after, a fleet so vast it was suffocating slowly emerged. It was the Titan God Clan's vengeful allied army, assembling elite warships from twelve S-rank civilizations, including the Light Spirit Race and the Mechanical Race. Tens of thousands of star destroyers were arranged in neat battle formations, their main cannons glowing brighter than stars as they charged. This power was enough to instantly vaporize an ordinary star system.
However, the style of this fleet, which should have been incomparably majestic, became extremely bizarre because of its flagship.
At the very center of the battle formation was the Titan God King's personal vessel — the Olympus. This super mothership, originally magnificent and symbolizing divine authority, now appeared entirely in a coquettish pink. The bow, which once bore a statue of Zeus holding thunder, was now a statue of a magical girl holding a fairy wand and wearing a lace tutu. Even the exhaust flames from the engines were pink particle streams shaped like hearts.
"Li Mo! Daoist Tianhe! Get out here!" The Titan God King stood on the bridge, his rugged face filled with shame and indignation. He wore a matching pink skirt (its settings locked by Li Mo, making it impossible to take off), waved a fairy wand, and let out a high-pitched roar: "Change my settings back! Otherwise, today I will flatten your broken planet! Ying ying ying! (Angry tone)"
...
Inside the atmosphere of pangu-003.
Facing this world-destroying threat, the native residents of the Cultivation World (Great Zhou Dynasty citizens, Sect Cultivators) were already trembling with fear, activating their Mountain Protection Grand Array. But for the "players"...
"Holy crap! What a huge pink spaceship!" "Screenshot! Quick, screenshot! This is definitely a limited edition skin!" "That BOSS's fairy wand, is it a Divine Artifact? The kind that's guaranteed to drop?" "Brothers! The official announcement said! This event has unlimited deaths! Instant resurrection with no cooldown! And for every enemy ship shot down, there's one real-world materialization slot as a reward!"
Boom—! This last reward instantly ignited the madness of all players. Real-world materialization! It meant being a superman on Earth! Why cultivate Immortality then? Why move bricks then? Kill!!!
The Tianhe Spaceport in the Thirty-Third Heaven instantly erupted. Countless bizarre "vehicles" soared into the sky. Some were riding Mutated Abyssal Wild Boars (with thrusters installed on their butts). Some were stepping on Door-Panel Flying Swords (welded by Civil Engineering Department players). Even more outrageous, thousands of players tied themselves together with ropes, forming a giant "human ball," and launched directly using an Electromagnetic Catapult provided by the Scrap Iron Clan.
"For the real-world slots! For the tribe... no, for Tianhe!" "Charge, charge, charge! Snatch the kills!"
...
In the starry sky, Titan Allied Army Command.
"Reporting, God King! The enemy has dispatched... uh... interception forces." A Titan adjutant looked at the radar screen, his expression contorted. "But... this isn't right." "No high-energy reactions detected, no unified command signals, not even shield waveforms." "This looks like a bunch of... space junk?"
The Titan God King snorted coldly, waving his fairy wand: "Hmph! Petty tricks! Li Mo must be trying to use these cannon fodder to deplete our ammunition!" "Pass down the order! Activate point-defense cannons! Clean up these bugs!"
Da da da da da—! The allied fleet's firepower net instantly covered the airspace ahead. Countless high-energy laser beams rained down upon the player army.
Puff, puff, puff! The "wild boar cavalry" and "human balls" at the forefront were instantly riddled with holes, turning into streaks of white light.
"This is the gap in strength!" the Titan God King said proudly, "Mortals are Mortals after all, in front of interstellar warships..."
However, the next second, his smile froze.
Those players who turned into white light did not disappear. A few seconds later, they actually respawned directly at the Temporary Resurrection Beacon (just deployed by Li Mo) near the battlefield! Moreover, the resurrected players were faster, moved more erratically, and were cursing: "Holy crap! The laser's hit detection range is too big! Can't dodge it at all!" "Don't be afraid! I just figured it out! The laser has a 0.5-second cooldown! Exploit its CD!" "You, the one piloting the star destroyer! Don't run if you've got guts! Dare to come down and fight me one-on-one!"
These players, like immortal cockroaches, pushed through the dense gunfire, literally piling up corpses to carve out a path. Even more, some players with the Civil Engineering talent actually started "building blocks" in space. They used the wreckage left by their deceased teammates (although players turned into light, their vehicle wreckage remained) to weld together Temporary Shelters on the spot, then pushed these shelters forward.
"This... what kind of tactic is this?!" The Titan adjutant collapsed, "Are they not afraid of death? Even Zergs have fear!"
...
Battlefield flank, Falcon Special Operations Team.
Compared to the chaotic charge of ordinary players, the official team led by Thunder War displayed extremely high tactical proficiency. All of them were equipped with Ghost Camouflage obtained from the Rule Anomaly Dungeon, piloting several Stealth Assault Crafts borrowed from the Scrap Iron Clan, and silently infiltrated deep into the enemy fleet.
"Captain, target locked." The vice-captain pointed at a lone Mechanical Race cruiser. "That's an enemy supply ship. Destroying it will cause chaos."
"Move out!" Thunder War ordered. "Remember, we don't have heavy weapons, we can only use... rules."
Fifty special operations members swiftly boarded, using entrenching tools to forcibly pry open the cruiser's maintenance hatch. Once inside, they didn't engage in a massacre but went directly to the power room. There, they took out the Dean's Exam Paper they brought from the dungeon.
"Stick it on!" Sheets of exam papers filled with fill-in-the-blanks from the tao te ching were pasted onto the battleship's main control optical computer. [Item activated: Forced Exam.] [Effect: All intelligent entities (including AI) within range are forced into answering mode and cannot perform other operations until they pass.]
Buzz—! The supply ship, which was originally transporting ammunition, suddenly shut down. The ship's AI emitted a desperate electronic sound: "Warning! logic lock encountered! Attempting to parse questions..." "The Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao... what's the next line? Database retrieval failed... CPU overheating..."
"Done!" Thunder War waved his hand, "Withdraw! To the next ship!"
Just like that, the Falcon squad, like a group of ghosts, went around sticking exam papers throughout the enemy fleet. Before long, the Titan Allied Army discovered with horror that over a dozen of their ships had inexplicably "shut down," and the reason was... taking an exam?
...
Main battlefield, Olympus.
The Titan God King was driven mad by these players who disregarded martial ethics. "Enough! I'm not playing with these lunatics anymore!" "Main cannon charging! Target pangu-003 itself! Blast it to smithereens with one shot!"
The pink Olympus's main cannon began to flash with destructive light. This was the flagship main cannon of an S-rank civilization; one shot, and even if pangu-003 had the Thirty-Third Heaven, it would still lose a layer of skin.
"Warning! Detecting ultra-high energy strike!" "Countdown: 10, 9, 8..."
Just as the players felt despair, thinking the mission was about to fail, a lazy voice echoed throughout the server.
"Trying to raid my home base?" "Did you ask me, the Administrator?"
Buzz—! Above the Thirty-Third Heaven of pangu-003, Li Mo's figure appeared out of thin air. He didn't move to block the main cannon, but instead took out the Setting Compendium and quickly wrote a line of code.
[Server-wide event upgrade: World BOSS descends.] [New mechanism: Damage sharing.] [Description: Damage taken by pangu-003 will be evenly distributed among all online players. Each point of damage taken by a player converts to 10 experience points.]
"Boom!!!" The Titan main cannon's pink light beam, capable of piercing the galaxy, fiercely struck pangu-003's atmosphere. But the anticipated explosion did not occur. The light beam, upon contact with the atmosphere, transformed into countless tiny streams of light, precisely connecting to every single player.
Puff! Puff! Puff! Millions of online players simultaneously felt like they were bitten by mosquitoes, with a red number "-100" appearing above their heads. Immediately after, a golden number: "+1000 (Experience Points)".
The entire field was silent for a second. Then...
"Holy crap! This isn't damage! This is an experience shower!" "Awesome! So awesome! Another shot! God King brother, please give us another shot!" "I leveled up! I directly reached Foundation Establishment!" "Where are the healers? Quick, heal me! I'm going to tank this head-on! Nobody stop me!"
The players who were originally dodging artillery fire all stopped. They spread their arms, looking at the Titan God King with expressions of enjoyment, their eyes full of longing and... lewdness. "Hurry up! Didn't you eat? Hit me harder!"
The Titan God King watched this scene, his hand holding the fairy wand trembling violently. His mentality collapsed. Completely collapsed. His world-destroying main cannon shot, not only didn't kill anyone, but actually helped millions of opponents... level up? What's the point of fighting anymore!
"Monsters... they are monsters..." The Titan God King took two steps back, for the first time entertaining the thought of retreating.
But how could the players let go of this walking experience package? "Brothers! The BOSS is out of mana!" "Strike him while he's down! Strip off that skirt!" "Charge!!!"
Millions of newly leveled-up, full-health, full-mana players, like hungry wolves seeing a bone, let out roars that shook the galaxy, engulfing the Olympus.
Li Mo stood in the clouds, looking at the pink fleet swallowed by the player army, and closed his notebook with satisfaction. "This is the true meaning of the fourth calamity." "As long as the rewards are sufficient, even gods will be shattered."
He turned to look at T-9 behind him. "Get ready." "After this battle, our 'recycling station' will probably be full again." "Also..." Li Mo glanced in the direction of the real world. "The network cable over there, it's time to fully connect it."