Chapter 389: Parasitic Life on the Planet

On the scorched earth formed by the massive missile explosions, Su Huayun's expression was vacant.

He had clearly reached the Netherworld, so why was he forcibly returned?

'Who the hell was able to push me back? Damn it!' Su Huayun cursed internally and turned to run.

Although he failed to escape to the Netherworld, he had at least survived the missile explosions.

"The Netherworld itself, of course. Who else could it be?" A familiar voice came from behind him.

At the same time, a hand landed on his shoulder, slamming him down with immense force.

He looked back and, just as he expected, it was the violator, Qi Suian.

"Alright, the game of cat and mouse is over." Qi Suian delivered a direct elbow strike, knocking Su Huayun unconscious on the spot.

He then hogtied Su Huayun, injected him with a high-concentration anesthetic, and took a series of other precautions before tossing him into the Subspace Pocket.

He had expected someone to come rescue Su Huayun, but he never imagined the guy would try to use a survival mission to the Netherworld from the doomsday game to escape.

If the World Will of the Ghost World hadn't pushed him back, Qi Suian really would have had no way of finding Su Huayun in the short term.

Coupled with his protagonist halo, by the time he returned, he might have subdued a language ghost or a text ghost, and the truth and bewitchment ghosts inside him might have recovered.

It would have been a major hassle, if not a serious problem.

Unfortunately, whether it was the protagonist halo or the doomsday game, they were nothing but small fry in the face of the Ghost World's World Will, which kicked him right back.

It had been planning for so long; how could it let its grand scheme fail over a trivial matter like this?

'Next up is to find a safe place and study the Ghost Control Technique.'

'But the trouble will definitely keep coming.'

As Qi Suian spoke, he reached into his Subspace Pocket, pulled out a fist-sized iron block, and hurled it with all his might.

In the distance, a fighter jet screamed past. The iron block struck its cockpit, and an explosion blossomed in the sky as wreckage began to fall.

"Smart-Brain, didn't you take control of the satellites? How did this plane take off?" Qi Suian asked.

[The enemy did not use satellite navigation. They cut off all networks and are flying with pure manual control.]

"How much reserve ammunition is left in the global arsenal?" Qi Suian asked.

[According to the database, there is still...]

[However, this ammunition is not loaded into launch systems. It cannot be used and requires manual loading.]

Meaning, there was ammo, but it couldn't be controlled remotely.

The Smart-Brain had no way of making ammunition sitting in a warehouse load itself into a launcher.

The technology of this Exhausted Planet hadn't developed robotics, so the Smart-Brain couldn't solve this problem either.

"Forget it. We'll use our own stuff. Fire a shot at the capital of every surviving faction."

"I don't need them razed to the ground, just as long as the majority of their high-level management are killed or injured." What Qi Suian wanted to do, naturally, was to weaken the influence of these factions first.

Then, he would establish a reign of terror through violence.

Besides, he still had to guide the World Will of the Ghost World.

This involved building a so-called array diagram. If he and the Tai Sui God were to build it, it would take about half a year.

But if he used the native survivor factions, with the advantage of numbers, it could be done in a month at most.

'As for breaking my promise? What would I do then?'

He had no way to travel between worlds. Besides, even without his help, it wasn't as if the World Will of the Ghost World couldn't invade.

It would just take a bit longer. He could well imagine the fate that would befall him if he broke his promise.

The World Will of the Ghost World would treat him the same way he treated those he deemed worthless.

Qi Suian was indeed a hypocrite with double standards, but those standards were built on the foundation of his own strength.

You could apply them to the weak, but using them against the strong was suicide.

[You should look at this report first.]

[The energy produced by the Tai Sui God's Energy Module has undergone a certain change. Although it is very subtle, it confirms there is a problem with this world.]

The Smart-Brain didn't execute the command first, instead presenting Qi Suian with a report.

Qi Suian didn't ask why and began to examine the report carefully.

Normally, the Smart-Brain would have given Qi Suian a brief summary of the situation first.

For it to have him read the report directly meant the matter was extremely serious.

After Qi Suian finished reading, his expression turned ugly.

"So it's confirmed that something is sucking this planet dry."

"And it's an existence on the level of concepts and rules. It might be the source of 'yang energy'."

The Tai Sui God's energy output was normal, but with each energy intake, one hundred-thousandth of it would vanish into thin air, as if siphoned off by something invisible.

That wasn't the main point. The main point was that this ratio was increasing.

If they stayed too long, all their energy output would be devoured, leaving nothing for the Tai Sui God.

[The possibility is extremely high. Therefore, you should leave as soon as possible or guide the descent of the Ghost World's World Will.]

[At the current rate, the ratio will reach one hundred percent in a month at most. At that time, the Tai Sui God will lose its energy source.]

"A world that can grant someone the ability to rewind death is truly no ordinary world."

"This whole planet was probably sucked to death by this thing," Qi Suian grumbled.

'Can't even catch a single break, huh.'

"In that case, let's bomb the factions' capitals first."

"We'll study Su Huayun and the Ghost Refining Technique later. Let's get the array diagram built first."

Qi Suian guessed this was likely Su Huayun's protagonist halo at work, trying to save him, of course.

After all, he had the home-field advantage here.

It was normal for unexpected events to happen to help him.

However, after Su Huayun was captured by Qi Suian, the effect was naturally reduced significantly.

On the contrary, Qi Suian's own protagonist halo began to push back against Su Huayun's home-field advantage, gradually scheming for various benefits for Qi Suian.

The simplest example was directly snatching Su Huayun's opportunities.

It's just that Qi Suian wouldn't necessarily care for Su Huayun's opportunities.

If he could get his hands on that death rewind ability, however, Qi Suian would definitely want it.

As for the rest, Qi Suian couldn't care less.

Truth, Lies, and Bewitchment? Entrusting these three powers to Qi Suian would be a classic case of casting pearls before swine.

He had always preferred to just kill, kill, kill, and rarely used powers that required such great finesse.

Combining them to create the power of "words become law"? It was possible, but Qi Suian had no backer or background, so he would have to bear the cost of making his words reality himself.

The result would naturally be a massive loss.

"Words become law" is a powerful ability when you don't have to bear the cost.

But if you have to foot the bill yourself, it's really not worth it.

For example, if you wanted an apple and "words become law" created one out of thin air for you, that would be incredibly awesome.

But the energy used to create it would be enough for Qi Suian to grow an entire apple orchard, instantly ripen it, and have it bear fruit.

Besides, the fundamental nature of his power wasn't "words become law" anyway; it was using truth to deceive and bewitch the world into reacting.

Deceiving the world of the Exhausted Planet was one thing, but if he tried to deceive the Ghost World, he'd probably be crushed to death. That place had a World Will.

The only reason Su Huayun's power was effective on the "plane of truth" was because the Ghost World's World Will was plotting to take over his world.

Otherwise, his ability would have been rendered useless on the spot.

[Destruction complete. I recommend you start from...]

The Smart-Brain replied, quickly providing Qi Suian with a route for subjugation.

Qi Suian directly deactivated the camouflage, mimicry, and other modules, allowing the Tai Sui God to revert to its flesh-and-blood armor form.

"I'm leaving it to you. Get it done in twenty days. I only care about the results." Qi Suian handed over control of the Tai Sui God directly to the Smart-Brain.

He didn't care how the Smart-Brain subjugated the various factions, only whether the result would meet his standards.

If it did, he didn't care if the remaining survivors lived or died, because they would all be spoils of war for the World Will of the Ghost World.

What he had to do was figure out a way to get the doomsday game to take him away from these two fucked-up worlds before the World Will arrived.

One had a World Will, and the other had an unknown existence sucking the planet dry.

It was completely and utterly absurd.

[If we proceed without regard for the cost, the array diagram can be completed in fifteen days.]

[You will be able to begin your research within two days.]

"I didn't expect you to give me a pleasant surprise. Not bad." Qi Suian, of course, knew what terrible consequences shortening the time so drastically would have for the survivors.

However, what the hell did that have to do with Qi Suian? He wasn't from this world; he couldn't even be considered human.

How could he possibly feel any empathy?

-----------------

"The capital was attacked, and Su Huayun has also vanished," a middle-aged man asked with a grave expression.

From the disappearance to the attack, everything happened very quickly. They had just convened a meeting when the bad news started rolling in, one piece after another.

"We don't know for sure yet, but we can confirm that the attack on the capital and Su Huayun's disappearance are most likely two separate incidents."

"The former was a missile bombardment, while the latter was very likely the work of a ghost."

"We haven't reached the worst-case scenario yet. Don't even think about using the Demon King," an old man said, his eyes cold.

He knew what the other man was thinking.

The Demon King. A special lifeform from Outer Space of unknown origin, similar to Cyanobacteria, that carried potent pheromones.

These pheromones could be read by humans.

By reading the pheromones, they could gain inspiration for technological breakthroughs.

However, through deeper research, they discovered that the Demon King possessed an extremely powerful energy-devouring effect and could directly consume all forms of energy.

Only the few of them knew that the planet had become exhausted within a century not because of technological development, but because of the Cyanobacteria Demon King.

Of course, their technological development also relied on the Cyanobacteria Demon King.

In fact, before this, they didn't call it the Cyanobacteria Demon King, but the "God of Technology."

Later, as their technology advanced, they thought about controlling this Cyanobacteria from Outer Space.

As it turned out, they had been far too arrogant.

The Cyanobacteria's energy-devouring effect spread across the entire planet, forming a strange, living egg that seemed to be incubating some kind of terrifying lifeform.

Once the entire planet was consumed, the lifeform within would hatch.

In their desperation, the doomsday game brought them hope, but it also fueled their ambition once more.

They wanted the Cyanobacteria Demon King, and they wanted the doomsday game too.