49: Chapter 49: A Tycoon's Firepower Overwhelms? Watch Me, a Thug, Dismantle a Mech with My Bare Hands!

The names at the very top of the list each carried immense weight.

Normally, these names only existed on the Federation News Channel and in textbooks.

Lin Yuan's gaze swept from the top down.

A strange thought flashed through his mind.

Commander Xiao Lie was not on the list.

Reasonably speaking, as a military commander who commanded a massive army and had just suppressed an Abyssal Demon God outside the Interstellar Great Wall...

Xiao Lie's strength was definitely qualified to be among the top ten.

But even after searching through the top hundred, he couldn't find the name of the Spark Legion's Commander-in-Chief at all.

Was he hiding his strength? Was it military secrecy to avoid suspicion?

Or perhaps, at Xiao Lie's level...

He no longer needed or disdained to leave his name on such a public sandbox?

Lin Yuan did not dwell on it.

He knew very well that the people on the overall rankings...

Were old monsters who had lived for at least several hundred, a thousand, or even ten thousand years.

The Divine Domains under their command had likely evolved into complete star systems long ago.

He was just a high school senior who had recently ignited his Divine Fire.

Wanting to leave a name on the overall rankings was nothing short of a pipe dream.

Lin Yuan's finger slid across the virtual light screen, switching regions.

In the lower interface of the starry sky war chess, he found the ranking list exclusive to ungraduated high school students.

[provincial rising star rankings].

He clicked on the rankings.

Lin Yuan immediately skipped past the flashy names of the children from wealthy families and headed straight for the reward mechanism description at the bottom.

Lines of text emerged.

[Top 2000 on the Rising Star Rankings: Monthly reward of one million faith points.]

[Top 1000 on the Rising Star Rankings: Monthly reward of ten million faith points and one random Silver-grade building blueprint.]

[Top 100 on the Rising Star Rankings: Monthly reward of one hundred million faith points and one random Gold-grade resource blind box.]

Lin Yuan's breath hitched slightly as he continued reading.

[Top 10 on the Rising Star Rankings: One-time reward of one billion faith points and one military-exclusive Star Source Baptism.]

[1st Place on the Rising Star Rankings: One billion faith points plus a fragmented Divine Godhead Fragment.]

“No wonder Xiao Ting is so arrogant.” Lin Yuan leaned back in his chair, looking at the long list of rewards before him, and smiled.

A Divine Godhead Fragment!

Igniting the Divine Fire was merely the threshold to becoming a Demigod.

To truly ascend to the Divine Throne, one must condense their own Divinity.

The benefits on the rankings were simply too substantial.

With such heaven-defying resources dropped in front of them, how could those children from deeply-rooted wealthy families not go crazy?

“The Tyrant Demons have split into the Titan and Shadow Lurker paths; I was just worrying about having no place to test specific combat data,” Lin Yuan muttered to himself.

The starry sky war chess sandbox provided a 100% realistic law simulation.

When fighting inside, there would be no actual loss if the Divine Domain's believers died.

It could be used to train troops without losses and simultaneously sweep up the rewards on the rankings.

There was no reason not to fight.

...

In the real world, time flew by.

Five days later.

His consciousness sank as Lin Yuan descended into the Wasteland Divine Domain once again.

The edge of the Blood Abyss Sea was piled high with the carcasses of Mutated Black Magic Pigs sent over by Fatty Wang.

Lin Yuan focused his gaze on the [star spirit gene monolith] in the center of the Blood Abyss Sea.

Below the monolith, the Tyrant Demon camp had completely split.

On the left was the 'Titan' camp, bathed in dark golden light.

On the right was the 'Shadow Lurker' camp, shrouded in black shadows.

Lin Yuan scanned the entire army.

He found that those currently able to withstand the gene chain baptism and gain a preliminary understanding of the blueprint's prototype...

Were all battle-hardened veterans who had survived the previous Demigod Divine Fire transformation.

Only a very few newborns with monstrous talent were mixed among them.

“This is enough.”

With a thought from Lin Yuan...

Below, over two thousand elite Tyrant Demons who had successfully completed their preliminary differentiation raised their heads in unison.

The fire of fanatical faith burned in their eyes as they awaited their Creator's command.

Lin Yuan pulled up the data panel.

These two thousand-plus elites, aside from the newborns, were all at Silver Rank 9.

There were even dozens of fierce individuals who had shredded countless kin in the gladiator cages, crossing the rank barrier to reach Gold Rank 1.

But what surprised Lin Yuan the most was the leader standing at the very front of the monolith—Tyrant.

Tyrant's height had already reached ten meters.

Standing there, he was like an insurmountable mountain of metal and flesh.

He had delved deepest into the 'Titan' path, and the heavy living armor covering his body was outrageously thick.

His arms had even evolved barbed structures similar to battering rams.

Even more absurdly, Tyrant's metallic skin did not have the dark golden luster of the Titan path.

Instead, it displayed the light-swallowing matte black of the 'Shadow Lurker' path.

Dual-path compatibility!

He not only possessed the strength and defense of a Titan but also mastered the concealment characteristics of the Void Shadow Lurker Beasts.

A ten-meter-tall, extremely violent, heavy-armored Demon God with maxed-out defense.

If he could also mask his presence in the shadows to launch a surprise attack, it would be a catastrophe for any enemy.

“Connect to starry sky war chess.”

Lin Yuan did not hesitate; with a thought...

The invisible power of laws descended upon the Divine Domain.

Lin Yuan's consciousness, along with the two thousand-plus elite Tyrant Demons, was simultaneously stripped away and cast into the vast virtual sandbox network.

After a brief sensation of weightlessness, Lin Yuan's vision cleared.

He stood in a void, with the sandbox light screen below him.

A synthesized mechanical voice sounded in his ear.

“System Prompt: Participant Lin Yuan detected. Identity: Senior at Jiangcheng No. 3 Middle School.”

“Believer ranks meet sandbox entry requirements. Performing the first provincial-wide match for you...”

“Match successful!”

“Scenario generated: Misty Swamp.”

“Combat countdown: Three, two, one, start!”

The light screen before him shattered.

Lin Yuan's consciousness arrived in a gray, hazy swampland.

Five hundred meters in front of Lin Yuan...

Rows of well-equipped human swordsmen stood in formation, waiting.

They wore bright, shiny silver plate armor and held standard-issue longswords.

Behind them, dozens of apprentices in mage robes were clumsily conjuring fireballs.

Lin Yuan scanned them with his spiritual sense.

Average rank: Bronze Rank 5.

Lin Yuan couldn't help but complain in his heart.

The low-level matching mechanism of this starry sky war chess was truly primitive.

Looking at this formation and rank, the opponent was clearly a newbie who had just awakened and relied on resources piled up by their family.

There was no need for Lin Yuan to issue a command.

The hundreds of Titan-path Tyrant Demons standing behind Tyrant let out a roar.

They ignored the mud of the swampland as their lower limbs rapidly exerted force.

Muddy water exploded as hundreds of black metallic monsters crashed into the opposite human swordsman formation.

It was pure power crushing them.

In front of the Tyrant Demons, the silver plate armor was not much stronger than paper.

When the human swordsmen's blades struck the Tyrant Demons' armor, they couldn't even leave a scratch.

Severed limbs and broken arms flew through the air along with warm blood.

The battle took less than ten seconds from contact to conclusion.

Before the newbie deity on the other side could even issue a command, his believers had already been torn to shreds.

“Battle victory! Win rate 100%, Points +1.”

“Your ranking on the provincial rising star rankings has risen to 98,541.”

The mechanical voice finished its broadcast.

Lin Yuan was expressionless as he spat out two words: “Continue matching.”

The starry sky war chess ranking slaughter mode had officially begun.

Light and shadow shifted.

“Match successful! Scenario generated: Arctic Snow Mountain.”

Avalanches roared.

Before the Silver-rank snow monsters on the other side could see their enemies, the Shadow Lurker Tyrant Demons had already blended into the shadows of the snow.

Silent metallic blades sliced through the snow monsters' throats, and scalding blood dyed the white snow red.

Victory.

“Match successful! Scenario generated: Death Desert.”

Wild sand filled the sky.

Braving a sandstorm strong enough to shred flesh, a Titan Tyrant Demon punched through the skull of a Gold-grade sand worm that had tunneled out from underground, tearing it into two pieces.

Victory.

“Match successful! Scenario generated: Urban Ruins.”

In the jungle of steel and concrete, the opposing Orc army tried to use the terrain for guerrilla warfare.

Tyrant finally moved.

He took a step forward, and the metallic heavy hammer of his right arm smashed down an entire twenty-story abandoned building.

Thousands of tons of rubble collapsed, burying the Orcs along with their positions alive.

Victory, victory, victory.

Not a single battle could keep Lin Yuan for more than a minute.

He didn't need to rest; the Tyrant Demons who died in the sandbox would be resurrected with full health in the next match.

This was one of the advantages of virtual deduction.

Thirty consecutive matches.

Thirty consecutive wins!

Lin Yuan's points soared, and his rank charged from over 90,000 into the top 2,000.

“Match successful! Scenario generated: Steel Fortress.”

The thirty-first match.

The scene stabilized.

Lin Yuan stood inside a military base made of pure steel.

A thousand meters across from him...

Was a technologically-focused armored unit with an extremely complete organization.

Thousands of believers were all wearing sci-fi-esque exoskeleton power armor.

In front of the formation was a row of heavy infantry holding heavy electromagnetic rifles.

Behind them, dozens of tracked self-propelled artillery pieces had already raised their barrels.

At the base's high points, there were even several high-energy laser turrets with staggering calibers.

Rank evaluation: All were at the peak of Silver Rank, and the lethality of their weapon systems approached the Gold Rank.

Clearly, Lin Yuan had finally run into a truly tough nut to crack.

The opponent was a wealthy family scion who had poured in a massive amount of resources.

In the early stages of Divine Domain development, the cost of the technology path was extremely expensive.

But once formed, that kind of firepower saturation that ignored individual differences was a nightmare for all traditional flesh-and-blood races.

Lin Yuan looked at the steel torrent on the other side with all its firepower ready.

In his eyes, which had remained as calm as an ancient well, a glimmer of interest finally emerged.

“A technology-path armored army?”

Lin Yuan's lips curled up as he chuckled, “Perfect. I'll use your gunfire to test the quality of my group of flesh-and-blood monsters.”