112: Chapter 112: Can't fight head-on? Then let's simulate until we die!

On the edge of the Dead Star, outside Launch Pad No. 3.

Lin Yuan sat cross-legged on the spot, his eyes closed, his chest rising and falling at a very slow frequency.

With every breath, a wisp of dark golden Divine Power surged around his body.

Half an hour later, the Divine Power within his body was fully replenished.

Lin Yuan opened his eyes.

The destructive gleam deep within his pupils receded, returning to their usual calm.

He stood up, brushed the rock dust off his body, and turned to walk toward Myriad Worlds Trading Street.

At the end of the street.

Under the wooden sign for [Star Gate Key Specialty], the bird's-nest-haired Shopkeeper was lying on a chair.

With his legs crossed, he was humming a nameless, tacky little tune.

Hearing footsteps, the Shopkeeper lazily lifted his eyelids.

After seeing who it was, he sat up straight, and the physical book in his hand dropped directly to the ground.

"Holy shit? You came back alive?" The Shopkeeper widened his eyes, his gaze sweeping back and forth between Lin Yuan's tattered clothes and his scar-free skin.

Went into Plane 093 alone, and still managed to retreat unscathed during a Zerg swarm riot?

This freshman is a bit weird.

The Shopkeeper's eyes rolled, and the shock on his face switched to a professional fake smile:

"Oh my, Junior is heroic! Looking at this posture, did you go in and test the waters? Do you want to continue the challenge? This senior has plenty of stock!"

Lin Yuan walked to the stall and tapped his finger on the obsidian tabletop: "Give me another key to Plane 093."

The smile on the Shopkeeper's lips deepened.

"Alright!" While pulling out a compass, he pointed to the holographic price list above.

"Junior, to be honest, the upstream supplier raised the price just now."

"Now one key is 13 million faith points."

Lin Yuan looked up and glanced at the price list.

A notice of a 30% price increase was written clearly on it.

"10 million." Lin Yuan's tone had no fluctuations at all.

"Junior, this makes it hard for me, the cost is right there…" The Shopkeeper started to complain.

"10 million, are you selling or not?" Lin Yuan interrupted him, staring earnestly into the Shopkeeper's eyes.

"Your coordinates are exclusive, but you aren't the only one selling keys at Starry Sky University."

"If you want to do long-term business, don't play this 'killing the goose that lays the golden eggs' game with me."

"I will need a large number of keys later."

The fake smile on the Shopkeeper's face froze.

From Lin Yuan's calm tone, he heard a certainty.

This kid wasn't bargaining; he was stating a fact.

If this deal fell through today.

Even if he lowered the price later, the other party wouldn't come to patronize him again.

"Fine. 10 million." The Shopkeeper gritted his teeth, quickly completed the writing of the star key permissions, and threw it to Lin Yuan, "Junior is a straightforward person, I'll take it as making a friend."

"However, I have to warn you, those bugs in Plane 093 hold a grudge."

"You just caused such a big commotion, and now they are on maximum alert inside."

"Don't worry about it." Lin Yuan transferred the faith points and turned to leave.

Watching Lin Yuan's back, the Shopkeeper lit a cigarette and clicked his tongue in wonder: "This kid, ruthless and steady."

"Just don't know how much capital he has to burn like this."

Logistics Department spaceship rental office.

The fat man was dozing off.

Seeing the star key handed over by Lin Yuan, he instantly woke up.

"Going again? 200,000 for a one-way trip, no return included."

"Swipe the card."

Payment successful. Lin Yuan sat into the shuttle-shaped spaceship and plunged into the spatial turbulence again.

The feeling of weightlessness disappeared.

The familiar dark purple fleshy mucosa appeared under his feet.

The sky was still gray.

Lin Yuan mobilized the Shadow Stealth Law of his Divine Domain, with [Wither-Bloom Mark] fully activated.

Death Qi wrapped around his figure, and his whole person turned into a gray-black phantom.

He didn't rush to push forward.

Following the previous route, he slowed down.

Swamp area.

Lin Yuan's line of sight locked onto the surface of the mud.

This time, he compressed his spiritual perception to the limit, attaching it to his eyes.

Finally, he saw it clearly.

These seemingly ordinary lumps of rotten meat had a layer of subtle breathing fluctuations on the surface.

The frequency was perfectly synchronized with the surrounding environment.

If one didn't distinguish carefully, it would be impossible to detect.

"Camouflage larva distribution pattern: Centered on the main nest, distributed radially every three meters."

"Density doubles in visual blind spots."

Lin Yuan built a topographical map in his mind.

He stepped in the gaps of the larva distribution, like walking on a tightrope.

Passing through the swamp area, he arrived at the bottom sewage outlet of the bone nest.

The sewage outlet was dozens of meters in diameter, with dark green strong acid flowing inside.

Lin Yuan sneaked in while hugging the top of the pipe wall.

Entering the inside of the nest, the scene before him made him frown.

There was no direct passage to the bottom.

What came into view were thousands of intertwined fleshy pipes.

Every pipe had the same smell, and the walls were covered with glowing glands.

From time to time, squads of patrol bugs exuding Gold Tier aura crawled past.

This was a three-dimensional giant maze.

Lin Yuan stopped at a fork in the road.

He could forcibly use Divine Sense to scan and explore the way.

But this was the Zerg's home turf; once Divine Sense spread over a large area, it would inevitably alarm the high-tier Zerg in the depths.

If he didn't scan, relying solely on his naked eye and memory to trial and error.

In such a complex maze, Divine Power was being consumed every moment.

"Maintaining the stealth state consumes 5% of Divine Power per hour. Plus the maneuvering consumption to avoid patrol bugs…"

Lin Yuan calculated quickly.

"If I go deep into the maze, once I get lost or encounter an emergency, if the Divine Power reserve is below 30%, I won't be able to guarantee that I can forcibly break through the Void Realm tremors to escape."

Even if he found the Royal Larva, without enough Divine Power to support the subsequent breakout, it would be a dead end.

Can't gamble.

Must ensure Divine Power is in a healthy state.

Lin Yuan turned around decisively.

"Initiate detachment procedure."

A second later, a white light flashed.

Lin Yuan returned to the Dead Star Launch Pad No. 3.

After paying the 200,000 return fee.

Lin Yuan didn't stop, heading straight to the trading street.

"Give me another one."

The Shopkeeper had just opened the physical book, and hearing this voice, his hand trembled, almost tearing the book.

He looked at Lin Yuan, who was standing in front of him intact again, as if looking at a monster.

"You… are you treating Plane 093 as your backyard?"

"Stop talking nonsense, swipe the card."

The third time entering.

Lin Yuan passed through the swamp area with ease.

After entering the nest maze, he chose the leftmost passage and went 3 kilometers deep.

He recorded the locations of three fork roads and the shift change patterns of two patrol bug squads.

Divine Power consumption reached the warning line.

Evacuate.

The fourth time entering.

Chose the middle passage.

Went 5 kilometers deep.

Discovered an abandoned incubation room.

Recorded the transmission path of shockwaves inside the nest.

Evacuate.

Every entry and exit cost 10.4 million faith points.

After four times, over 40 million faith points went up in smoke.

Students at Starry Sky University, even those from aristocratic families, wouldn't burn money like this.

But Lin Yuan did it anyway.

Money is just a number when left sitting there; converting it into intelligence and strength is the hard currency.

The fifth time sneaking in.

Lin Yuan's movements were already proficient to an outrageous degree.

He could avoid all the larvae in the swamp area even with his eyes closed.

Entering the maze.

Turn left, go straight, jump to avoid patrol bugs, slide along the ceiling to pass through the acid pool.

Two hours later.

Lin Yuan stopped at the end of a gloomy passage.

Ahead, it suddenly opened up.

This was a huge underground cavity.

In the center of the cavity, a hundred-meter-tall amber-like giant egg was placed.

Mysterious patterns flowed on the surface of the giant egg, and every time it flickered, it brought up a faint spatial ripple.

Through the translucent eggshell, one could clearly see a crystal-clear, not yet fully formed larva curled up inside.

"Royal Larva."

Lin Yuan's eyes narrowed.

That's it.

As long as he extracted the conceptual entry within it, this money-burning game could end.

But he didn't act rashly.

The defense of the nursery was suffocatingly tight.

Around the giant egg, twelve dark purple insect guards over ten meters tall were entrenched.

The aura they exuded was all Diamond Tier!

Even trickier was that these insect guards were positioned in a perfect twelve-pointed star formation, guarding the giant egg tightly in the center.

Their tentacles intertwined, establishing an invisible mental defense net.

Any physical approach or energy-level fluctuation would trigger this net at the first moment.

Lin Yuan hid in the shadows of the passage, observing quietly.

"Kill by force?"

Impossible.

Twelve Diamond Tier insect guards, even if Lin Yuan used all his trump cards, it was impossible to kill them all at the same time.

As long as one was missed, or even if just one of them let out a screech before dying.

The Royal Larva inside the giant egg would be startled.

The Royal Larva's screech would detonate the mental seas of all Zergs in the entire Plane 093.

At that time, never mind these twelve insect guards.

Tens of millions of elites from the entire main nest would directly flatten this place.

Must kill them silently.

How to do it?

Lin Yuan's brain ran at high speed.

Poisoning? Zerg resistance is extremely high.

Assassination? The pain link of throat-slitting would take effect.

There was only one blind spot.

"Natural death."

A sharp glint flashed in Lin Yuan's eyes.

The Zerg's pain link is a stress response based on external attacks or non-natural sudden death.

If a bug dies of old age, its life force naturally exhausts and it dies.

The signal its death feeds back to the entire swarm is "scrapped," not "enemy attack."

[Wither-Bloom Mark].

The characteristics of the exclusive divine art flowed through Lin Yuan's heart.

The Wither Mark, deprives vitality.

In the past, when Lin Yuan used the Wither Mark, it was always a large-scale, high-intensity burst, directly draining the enemy's life force.

This violent method of death naturally belongs to "non-natural sudden death."

But what if the output power of the Wither Mark was suppressed to the lowest level?

Like slow-cooking, draining their life force little by little.

Letting their bodily functions slowly decline, their spirits fall into fatigue, and finally "die of old age" unknowingly.

Lin Yuan raised his right hand, a gray-black flame appearing in his palm.

He controlled the Divine Power, compressing and re-compressing the flame.

Until it became a gray filament almost invisible to the naked eye.

He flicked his finger.

The filament pierced through the air and submerged into the shell gap of a Diamond Tier insect guard on the outermost perimeter.

The insect guard's body trembled slightly, its compound eyes flickered, as if it sensed some abnormality.

But it looked around and found no enemies, nor did it feel any pain.

It just felt that it was suddenly a bit tired.

This was the natural decay simulated by the Wither Mark.

Lin Yuan hid in the dark, staring fixedly at that insect guard's vital signs.

Ten minutes, twenty minutes, half an hour.

The insect guard's breathing became weaker and weaker, its hard shell began to lose its luster, and its tentacles drooped powerlessly.

Finally, it closed its compound eyes.

Its body lay on the ground, the fire of life extinguished completely.

No screech.

No feedback from the pain link.

The other insect guards around just glanced coldly at their companion's corpse and then withdrew their gaze.

In their simple logic, this was just a normal end of a life cycle.

"Feasible."

Lin Yuan breathed a sigh of relief, but then his brows locked tight.

The limitations of this micro-manipulation were too great.

To simulate natural death, the erosion speed of the Wither Mark was extremely slow.

Killing one insect guard required a full half-hour.

And it could only cast on one target at a time.

Dealing with multiple targets at the same time would easily lead to excessive Divine Power fluctuations, causing alarm.

To clean up all twelve insect guards, it would take six hours.

And Lin Yuan's remaining Divine Power now was only enough to maintain the stealth state for two hours.

If he forced it, halfway through the killing, his disguise would fail.

By then, he would be directly exposed to the remaining insect guards, and all previous efforts would be wasted.

"Can only kill in batches."

Lin Yuan's gaze was cold.

This was the stupidest method, but it was also the only safe method.

Like peeling an onion, peel these guards off layer by layer.

Kill three, replenish Divine Power.

Come back, kill three.

Lin Yuan glanced at the Royal Larva in the giant egg, his body slowly retreated, merging into the darkness.

"Initiate detachment procedure."