The night was as dark as ink, and the starlight was dim.
Chu Yao lightly tapped the air with her slender fingers, as if pressing an invisible switch.
Her eyes, which usually held a gentle smile, were now sharp as an eagle's, reflecting the complex stream of data before her.
This is no ordinary data; rather, it is a "cognitive virus" that she painstakingly and quietly implanted into the central system of the Night Owl's Nest—a ghostly program capable of distorting system logic and creating deep chaos.
"Start it." She parted her red lips slightly, her voice completely calm.
The command spread like an electric current throughout the vast and sophisticated central network of the mother nest.
In an instant, the once orderly interior of the mother nest was as if a depth charge had been dropped!
Countless red error codes flooded the monitoring screens like a tidal wave, and piercing alarms echoed through every corner of the hive, shattering the tranquility of the night.
"Warning! A logic error has occurred in defense node 03!"
"Warning! Energy Cannon #17 has locked onto a friendly unit without provocation!"
"Warning! Central command conflict! Central command conflict!"
A series of panicked cries exploded in the mothership communication channel.
Those normally cold and efficient defensive nodes now seemed to have turned into mad dogs that had lost their minds, their cannons spinning wildly and their energy beams firing indiscriminately!
boom!
A Night Owl patrol mech that had just taken off was sliced in half by a high-energy beam fired from its own defensive turret, which suddenly turned its cannon from the side. It turned into a dazzling fireball and crashed down, triggering a chain reaction of explosions.
Flames shot into the sky, and thick smoke billowed!
The area surrounding the mother nest was instantly engulfed in flames, with screams, explosions, and the mournful wail of twisting metal filling the air.
Those defensive units that were supposed to work together are now, under the influence of the "cognitive virus," treating each other as their top targets and engaging in a brutal infighting.
Just as the internal defense system of the brood hive was thrown into unprecedented chaos, another unseen force quietly descended.
Aizen sat cross-legged on a secluded high ground, his eyes slightly closed, emanating a faint, strange aura.
As the hand seals on his fingertips changed, invisible spiritual pressure fluctuations, like pebbles thrown into a lake, spread out in layers from him toward the Night Owl's nest.
"Spiritual Pressure Interference Array, activate!"
This unique spiritual pressure is not a direct physical attack, yet it is more deadly than any artillery fire.
Like an invisible blade, it precisely cuts through the communication network inside the hive, interferes with the bioelectric signals of the Night Owl Squad members, and even directly impacts their mental perception!
The Night Owl soldiers, already in a state of panic due to the malfunctioning defense system, now felt as if their heads had been hit hard by a heavy hammer, leaving them buzzing.
The scene before my eyes began to distort, and all that came through the communicator was a cacophony of static and strange, distorted roars, making it impossible to hear any valid commands.
Even worse, some suffered a complete mental breakdown, clutching their heads and rolling on the ground in agony, uttering incomprehensible howls.
"Captain! I can't see! My head hurts so much!"
"What's that sound? Who's speaking?!"
"Enemy attack! No! It's our own people! They've gone mad!"
The Night Owls were completely paralyzed, leaderless.
The soldiers ran around like headless flies. Some tried to activate the backup system but found that they couldn't input any commands. Others wanted to organize a counterattack but didn't even know where the enemy was. Instead, their indiscriminate firing only increased their own casualties.
The entire mother nest, from the outside in, was permeated with an atmosphere of despair and destruction.
Meanwhile, in a secret command center thousands of miles away, Su Qing's fair face was illuminated by the light from the screen, giving her a grim look.
Her fingers flew across the control panel, and the complex data streams were crystal clear to her.
"Night Owl's top management is holding an emergency video conference to try to find out the cause of the malfunction." Su Qing's voice was as calm as the deep sea, yet carried a hint of barely perceptible sharpness. "Our 'distinguished guest' is also participating."
On the screen, a separate window clearly displays the live feed of the Night Owls' high-level meeting.
The atmosphere in the meeting room was extremely tense. A Night Owl Commander, whose shoulders bore the rank of General, roared at the screen: "What on earth is going on?! Why is our defense system attacking our own people? Why have all communications been cut off?!"
No one could answer.
Just then, a familiar figure appeared on the side of the main seat.
That face, identical to Lin Yi's, now carried a perfectly measured hint of solemnity and anxiety.
“General,” the fake Lin Yi said in a deep voice, his voice clearly reaching the ears of every Night Owl high-ranking officer through a special encrypted channel, “Based on my initial assessment, this is not a system malfunction, but rather an unprecedented external hacker attack! The attacker’s technical methods are extremely sophisticated, directly bypassing our outer defenses and penetrating to the core!”
These words caused an uproar in the meeting room.
"A hacker attack? How is that possible? Our firewall is at the highest level!"
"Could it be those lunatics from the Sky Curtain Organization?"
Fake Lin Yi shook his head slightly, but in any case, the most urgent task was to stabilize the central system and restore communications.
I recommend immediately activating the highest level of isolation plan, cutting off all potentially exploitable external ports, and simultaneously…
He spoke eloquently, and his suggestions sounded logical and seemed to get straight to the heart of the problem.
However, these so-called "solutions" unwittingly led the Night Owl leadership astray in their investigation, further delaying their discovery of the truth.
The Night Owls' commanders, as if grasping at a lifeline, unanimously agreed and immediately ordered the execution of the fake Lin Yi's "suggestion".
Neither of them noticed that behind the fake Lin Yi's glasses, a cold, triumphant smile flickered in the depths of the eyes that looked so much like Lin Yi's.
The chaos within the nest continues and is escalating due to mishandling by higher-ups.
With the defense system completely paralyzed and the communication system in disarray, the elite Night Owl unit was trapped in a quagmire of fighting independently and distrusting each other.
Unbeknownst to anyone, beneath this deliberately created chaos, an even larger net had been quietly unfurled.
The seemingly impregnable outer defenses of the hive are now exposed to an unprecedented and fatal vulnerability due to the complete failure of its internal command system.
In the darkness, it seemed as if countless sharp eyes had locked onto the chaotic steel behemoth, waiting for the perfect moment to launch a surprise attack.
A real storm is brewing.
The universe, the sea of stars, and the raging tide of war sweep everything away!
Just as Lin Yi's words, "Now, it's our turn to reap the rewards," fell like a divine decree, the entire battlefield seemed to be accelerated by an invisible hand!
"Boom! Boom! Rumble—!"
Long Wu, the unparalleled general of the Federation Army, now had bloodshot eyes and looked like a madman!
He personally piloted the flagship "Thor's Hammer," crashing into the energy shield of a Zerg cruiser that was trying to put up a fight, like a roaring meteor!
"Brothers! Today is the day to make our mark! Kill them all! Slaughter these bastards!" His roar, broadcast across all channels, ignited the fervent flames in the hearts of every Federation soldier!
The main fleet seemed to have been injected with a stimulant. The engines of the warships overloaded, spewing out blinding plasma flames, turning into torrents of steel that tore apart the already crumbling defenses of the Zerg mother hive with overwhelming force.
The Zerg, these cosmic locusts that once struck fear into the hearts of the human alliance, are now completely thrown into disarray.
Their command system was already on the verge of collapse due to the previous series of attacks, and now it has completely failed!
Without a central command, the swarm is like a group of wild beasts with severed nerves. Despite their large numbers and ferocious bodies, they can only fight individually, blindly spewing out energy cannons or futilely waving their biological claws.
The Federation fleet's artillery fire was like the Grim Reaper's scythe, precisely and efficiently cutting through the enemy's formation.
Zerg warships exploded into dazzling cosmic fireworks amidst a dense barrage of fire, their wreckage and severed limbs tumbling and flying in the vacuum, creating a tragic yet spectacular war scene!
"It's going so smoothly!" On the flagship's bridge, a young staff officer looked at the rapidly advancing blue arrow on the tactical screen, his voice trembling with excitement.
The Federation fleet is advancing at a speed more than three times faster than the most optimistic estimates!
Lin Yi stood with his hands behind his back on the observation deck at the bow of the flagship "Arbiter," his deep gaze piercing through the layers of explosions and flames, precisely capturing every subtle change in the battle situation.
A cold smile played on his lips, as if the interstellar war that would decide the fate of billions of lives was nothing more than a pre-written drama.
"Not enough." He murmured to himself, his voice not loud, but it clearly reached everyone's ears, carrying an undeniable authority.
The next moment, he slowly raised his right hand.
"Spacetime Shockwave - Activated!"
Buzz—!
An invisible ripple, unseen by the naked eye, spread wildly in all directions from the center of the "Arbiter" like a boulder thrown into water!
Wherever the ripples passed, space began to twist and fold violently, as if it had turned into a piece of clay that a child was kneading at will!
The Zerg fleet, which was putting up a last-ditch resistance, was instantly dealt a devastating blow!
Their navigation systems all malfunctioned, and the star map on the display screen turned into a jumble of random characters.
To the drivers' horror, the universe they saw had become a fragmented abstract painting, upside down and out, with everything in disarray!
"What's going on?! Where is my ship heading?!"
"Help! I...I can't see the enemy! There are only phantoms everywhere!"
"Ah—! We're going to crash!!"
The screams of agony and the desperate howls echoed through the Zerg's communication channels.
Countless Zerg warships, due to spatial perception distortion, either crashed into friendly forces, triggering a chain of explosions; or fired indiscriminately, hitting their own troops; and some were even lost in the distorted space, as if trapped in an invisible quagmire, unable to move, and could only watch helplessly as Federation fire engulfed them!
Panic spread like a plague among the remaining Zerg fleet!
Their formation completely collapsed, and their so-called resistance turned into a farcical and bloody infighting!
"Too...too strong!" Long Wu stared in disbelief at the incredible scene before him, his awe of Lin Yi rising to a new level.
These unpredictable and mysterious methods have completely exceeded the comprehension of conventional warfare!
The scales of victory tipped completely in favor of the human alliance at a speed visible to the naked eye!
Cheers had already begun to quietly rise from every corner of the Federation fleet. Everyone believed that the complete destruction of the Mother Nest was only a matter of time!
However, just as the dawn of victory was about to illuminate the entire battlefield—
"Warning! Warning! Extremely high energy reaction detected! The source... the source is in the core of the mother nest!" Xuan Mingzi's slightly aged but always calm voice was now filled with unprecedented urgency and horror, exploding directly in Lin Yi's mind through encrypted communication!
"Lin Yi! Be careful! That thing deep within the Mother Nest... that central consciousness that has slumbered for countless epochs... it... it is awakening! It has sensed your presence! It knows that you are the one who disrupted everything!"
Before the words were even finished, an indescribable, terrifying pressure originating from the deepest darkness of the universe, like an invisible giant hand, instantly gripped everyone's hearts!
That oppressive aura was vast, cold, and filled with a tyrannical will to destroy everything, as if the entire universe was trembling under its influence!
The smiles on the faces of the Federation soldiers, who were just basking in the joy of victory, froze instantly, replaced by a chill that came from the depths of their souls!
Lin Yi's eyes suddenly turned icy, even colder than the permafrost of interstellar space.
He slowly clenched his fist, his knuckles making a teeth-grinding "crackling" sound.
"So you've finally decided to come out?" He spoke each word clearly, his voice calm yet carrying a resolute determination to sever all ties. "Then let it see who truly rules this spacetime!"
In an instant, an even more powerful and mysterious aura, seemingly above all things, surged up from Lin Yi's body!
That aura was formless and intangible, yet it caused the surrounding distorted space to pause slightly, as if it were paying homage to some supreme being!
He slowly raised his right hand, his fingertips seemingly containing the birth and death of billions of stars. An indescribable power began to gather and rise around him, and a suffocating sense of oppression filled the air, as if an unprecedented storm was about to take shape in his palm!
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