Quite a few viewers backed out of immersive mode and switched back to regular screen viewing.
Their hearts were pounding like crazy, cold sweat beaded on their foreheads, and their whole bodies were trembling.
It was terrifying!
The wormhole, still expanding outward, made their hearts race even through the screen.
They watched the arena nervously, feeling hopeless but still hoping—would someone come to turn things around? Could humanity really win this?
“We can’t let it out! Soldiers of the Federation, this is our moment of truth!”
The commander of the Kepler-503 garrison ordered all officers and soldiers to stop the new monster from arriving, no matter the cost.
The surviving warships fired off all their ammunition in a short time, then launched suicide attacks straight at the wormhole!
The Central Military Academy students also managed to regroup under this order.
Out of 23 departments and 2,100 contestants, fewer than 500 remained—a loss of over two-thirds.
And these were all elite sophomores and juniors! They had been completely crushed by these monsters without putting up any real fight.
“Bastard, Li Hao, what do we do?”
The entire surface had fallen. Out of the planet’s entire population, only 35,142 survivors remained aboard the [Ark] interstellar transport ship.
Bastard’s eyes were like two sharp blades, and his teeth ground together audibly.
This was the first time in his life he had ever experienced being completely overpowered.
Li Hao said coldly, “Following orders is a soldier’s duty. The commander said we must stop the monsters at all costs.”
Even if death awaited them, they would charge forward!
Boom!
Another warship, without even getting close to the wormhole, was lightly swiped by a tentacle and exploded on the spot.
Seeing this, the students’ eyes turned red.
Even though they knew it was all virtual.
But when a warship marked with the Federation’s emblem sacrificed itself in such a brutal way to stop the enemy—and it didn’t help at all—the helplessness, guilt, and hatred nearly drowned them.
“Huh?!” Li Hao’s pupils suddenly contracted. What was that?
Among the burning debris, a small piece was stuck tightly to the tentacle.
“No! That’s not debris! It’s Lin Xiaohe!”
Not just the contestants, but even the Kepler-503 garrison commander was deeply shaken by this scene.
How did she survive that explosion?
Why hadn’t the tentacle monster, which could easily tear apart a warship, killed her?
If Lin Xiaohe herself had heard that question, she would have rolled her eyes.
Why else? Because she had paid real money!
The gaming experience and treatment for premium players versus free players—could they ever be the same?
[Nuwa: Points deducted: 100, deducted: 903, deducted: 1100…]
A rapid series of point deduction alerts made Lin Xiaohe’s brain buzz.
Not only was she late, but right after entering the arena, the warship she was on got blown up. To make things worse, before earning a single point, she was already thousands of points in debt!
She, Lin Xiaohe, had come to win the championship, earn 25 billion, and get that meteorite! Not to be someone’s backdrop or end up in last place!
The tentacle monster tried desperately to shake Lin Xiaohe off, but Fanfan’s annoying little tendrils were rooted deep into its flesh.
Lin Xiaohe felt like she was on a 360-degree roller coaster combined with a giant pendulum ride and a space elevator—her brain was almost rattled out of her skull.
A soft, female voice echoed in her mind: “Let go, good child. You’re home now. You’re safe. Just let go…”
Lin Xiaohe’s focus wavered for a moment, but in her mental sea, a stone engraved with [25 Billion] blazed with dazzling white light.
Lin Xiaohe snapped back to her senses immediately: “Wow, that’s some psychic attack! Good thing I had special training.”
The three months of hardship hadn’t been for nothing.
She had mastered about seventy to eighty percent of the Giant Sound Whale Baby mental training method.
Among all the techniques, her best was the Anchor Method—setting up an anchor point in her mental sea. When she faced a hypnotic psychic attack, the anchor would guide her.
Other Giant Sound Whale babies only set up one anchor point. Lin Xiaohe had set up three!
If her mental power had been stronger, she would have gone for a Russian doll setup for good measure.
The tentacle hadn’t expected Lin Xiaohe to withstand its psychic attack. A bolt of lightning-like purple light shot from the wormhole’s center along the tentacle, radiating outward in waves.
“We are not here to destroy this planet. We are here to join this family. Put down your weapons, and we will be one happy, beautiful family.”
This voice struck straight into everyone’s hearts.
“Yeah… Since we have Stardust plant tamers and Stardust creature tamers, why can’t we coexist peacefully with them?”
“They just want to be friends with us, and we greet them with cannon fire. They must be so sad, right?”
“If we can stop fighting, why keep going?”
“If we can survive, who would want to leave their home?”
The Federation warships seemed frozen, hovering motionless in the air.
The [Ark], which had been desperately accelerating, slowed down. A swarm of young fat bugs was right on its tail, but the captain of the [Ark] acted as if they weren’t there.
Bastard and the others felt their tense nerves soaking in warm spring water. Their determination to fight to the death melted like a chocolate bar about to dissolve into the warmth.
Lin Xiaohe was completely unaffected. Her second anchor point, [Meteorite], shone brightly in her mental sea.
The tentacle lashed up and down in frustration!
It had truly never seen such pure, unwavering, and worldly desires!
“Fanfan! Eat up!”
She, Lin Xiaohe, was no longer the Lin Xiaohe of the past. She was now Nu(Er)ku(le) · Big Eater · Lin Xiaohe!
She was the woman who had vowed to surpass Marshal Chu and betray her own master!
Fanfan plunged all its roots in with a squelch.
The tentacle shuddered from being drained. Another round of even larger purple light surged from the wormhole’s center, radiating across the entire planet Kepler-503!
“Tremble! Submit! Bow your heads and welcome my master! My master is the ruler of the universe…”
Bastard and the others had empty, hollow looks in their eyes. Like puppets, they controlled their mechs to voluntarily move closer to the young fat bugs.
It was an utterly insane scene, yet the viewers felt dazed, vaguely thinking that what they were doing made some sense.
The Federation warships retracted their cannons and slowly descended.
The [Ark] was just one step away from the young fat bugs behind it.
Everything was going as expected—except for that one insufferable person!
Lin Xiaohe’s face was full of disdain: “Which badly written light novel did you plagiarize from? How can you say such cringey lines out loud?”
In her mental sea, a towering pillar stood firm as if it were holding the whole world steady.
On it, a few wildly scrawled characters radiated an overwhelming, arrogant aura.
[The Strongest in the Universe]!
The ruler of the universe? Who cares?! Did he even ask for my opinion?!
So arrogant? Then I’ll just eat you!
Fanfan gulped and slurped, and the tentacle visibly shrank by a full circle.
Lin Xiaohe was still throwing tomatoes into the wormhole, and they exploded with crackles and pops, making the purple light flicker with each blast.
Just as the tentacle was about to be eaten clean and the monster-killing points were within reach, something unexpected happened!
