Chapter 637: Collapse of Hell!

Chapter 637: The Collapse of Hell!

After listening to Brother Fang Chang's almost absurd idea, Luo Yu felt the guy must have gone mad from playing games.

Yet, upon second thought, he found the guy's words seemed to hold some truth.

This was, after all, a game!

Analyzing it rationally, if conventional weapons could have taken down that thing, the Human Union would have done so long before the Post-War Reconstruction Committee was even formed; they wouldn't have waited two hundred years for them to clean up this mess.

Regardless, at this moment, they had no better options.

They could only give it a try!

Thinking of the Titan corroded by slime mold he had seen in the sky, Luo Yu took a deep breath, calmed the anxious Xiao Yu, and looked at Fang Chang seriously.

"How do I get in?"

That massive maw kept vomiting out earth, the mud and construction waste it had sucked from underground piling up into a small hill.

The electricity Ye Shi had sent might keep it entertained for a while, but the problem was that once it stopped vomiting, it would surely retract its mouth back underground.

Having been tricked once, the Hive Mother couldn't be expected to fall for greed again.

A smile curled at the corner of Fang Chang's mouth as he looked at the Lingyun fighter jet nearby, which had been shaved down into a "machine stick."

Though he often teased Brother Mosquito's wild ideas, he had to admit the guy never cut corners on quality.

Take this stainless steel fighter jet, for instance.

Its wings were all broken, but the main structure remained intact.

"Ride this thing in."

"Ride this thing?!" Luo Yu was stunned, utterly confused. "How the hell do I get in with this?"

Landing this plane smoothly was already a miracle; if it could fly again, Newton's coffin would be nailed shut.

Knowing what Luo Yu was thinking, Fang Chang's plan was entirely different from what he imagined.

There was no need to get the plane airborne again—

"Simple," Fang Chang said with a cheerful smile, looking at Luo Yu. "Let Old Bai carry the plane and throw it into the Hive Mother's mouth. You just close your eyes and floor it."

Planes don't have accelerators; what you step on is the rudder.

Luo Yu stared blankly at Fang Chang.

He suspected this guy had no clue about how planes worked.

But—

Thinking it over, the idea wasn't entirely impossible.

The engine hadn't died because it was broken; if it hadn't been damaged in the turbulence, it could theoretically start.

Luo Yu tried to imagine the scene.

It felt like—

"Like a missile," Old Bai's grumble voiced his thoughts. The latter turned to Fang Chang and couldn't help asking, "Are you sure this will work?"

"I'm not sure; only our ace pilot has the final say."

Fang Chang's eyes were fixed on Luo Yu, waiting for his answer.

Luo Yu took a deep breath and slowly nodded.

"I can give it a try... but this thing isn't light. Are you sure Old Bai can lift it?"

Even if he had emptied the ammunition and burned most of the fuel, and the wings were completely snapped off, leaving only the engine compartment, the remaining structure still weighed four or five tons.

That weight was light by fighter jet standards, but for a human, it was still a bit outrageous.

Could it work?

Luo Yu looked doubtfully at Old Bai, who was drenched in blood, but the latter wore a relaxed smile.

"Let's give it a shot. With the exoskeleton's power, it should be fine."

Seeing Old Bai nod, Luo Yu didn't hesitate and nodded seriously.

"Then let's try it!"

The three immediately set to work.

Fang Chang grabbed a shovel and ran to the side of the massive maw, laboriously digging a makeshift ramp in the pile of spewed earth.

Luo Yu climbed back into the cockpit, checked the fuel lines, and tried to restart the engine.

The moment his hands gripped the control stick, that strange sensation returned, as if the entire plane had merged with him.

Just then, Old Bai walked to the back of the plane, swung his thermal cutting axe, and slashed at the remaining half of the vertical stabilizer.

Sparks flew as the stabilizer was sheared off. Luo Yu, sitting in the cockpit, flinched and couldn't help shouting.

"What are you doing?!"

Old Bai, axe in hand, froze and scratched his helmet.

"Lightening the load for you... you won't need it anyway."

Luo Yu: "..."

That was true, but how much weight could half a stabilizer save?

Fang Chang's voice came from ahead.

"Hurry up! Ye Shi probably can't hold out much longer!"

"Oh!"

Old Bai shouted with full vigor, hung the thermal cutting axe on his exoskeleton, walked under the plane, crouched, and grabbed the belly with both hands, straining with all his might to lift.

Under the force, the Lingyun fighter's fuselage began to shake violently, as if seized by epilepsy.

Old Bai gritted his teeth, every muscle taut, veins bulging on his neck, a flush of red from his forehead to his shoulders, his feet sinking deep into the soil.

That was nearly five tons of weight!

He was pushing the limits of humanity!

Feeling the high-frequency vibration of the seat, Luo Yu involuntarily held his breath, as if that might lighten his own weight, silently cheering Old Bai on.

Fang Chang did the same, holding his breath.

Time passed slowly, each second feeling like a year, but the plane, aside from constant shaking, hadn't budged an inch from the ground.

Seeing the fuselage still not lifted, Fang Chang's heart was in his throat, and he couldn't help frowning.

Was it still too much?

"Maybe we should find another—"

He was about to suggest thinking of another way when a loud roar cut him off.

"Ahhh!!"

Limit Break!!!

The moment his talent awakened, Old Bai’s pupils instantly filled with bloodshot veins. His hands, gripping the fuselage, gouged two inward-denting palm prints into the pitted stainless steel shell.

The Lingyun fighter, already reduced to a metal club, was lifted by him in an instant.

Nearly five tons of weight pressed down on him; Old Bai felt as if his whole body was sinking into the ground.

Yet without a doubt, the aircraft was indeed raised by his hands!

The exoskeleton’s joints groaned under the unbearable strain, as if they might collapse at any moment.

His own bones were the same, all pushed to the limits of human endurance.

Without a moment’s pause, Old Bai strode in great steps toward the slope just ahead, and at the very peak, he hurled the half-plane he had lifted above his head into the abyssal maw.

“Go on!”

He roared, sending Luoyu off on his final journey, and in that instant, all the strength in his muscles drained away.

Staring straight into the black-hole-like esophagus and the ceaselessly spewing rubble and soil, Luoyu gritted his teeth and ignited the engine, shoving the throttle to maximum while also pushing the afterburner—never used in normal times—all the way down.

“Get in there—!”

A pale blue arc of light flared in the deep darkness, and the engine nozzle belched a searing wave of heat.

The Lingyun fighter, already completely wrecked, fired its engine once more, offering up its last surge of power.

Under the combined pull of gravity and engine thrust, the nose-down Lingyun, like a razor-sharp dagger, stabbed into the mother nest’s constantly heaving and gulping throat.

“Woo—!”

Clearly sensing the foreign object flooding its throat, the mother nest, still spewing dirt, let out a pained howl, as if a fishbone had lodged in its gullet.

Yet no matter how hard it tried to expel the dirt, it could not withstand an engine capable of accelerating over ten tons of stainless steel to Mach three.

In a sense, the remaining half of the aircraft had become a de facto missile!

The engine ignited for less than three seconds before the flickering flame at the nozzle died again, but that was enough for the Lingyun to complete its acceleration.

Plummeting downward at breakneck speed, within mere breaths, the Lingyun plunged straight into the depths of the mother nest’s twisted digestive tract.

“Holy shit?! Luoyu?”

Ye Shi, clinging to a tentacle, stared in shock at the Lingyun fighter diving headlong into this crimson fungal chamber, and couldn’t help but cry out.

He had no idea about Fang Chang’s plan; he only thought the mother nest was ridiculously overpowered, able to snatch flying things out of the sky and devour them.

Wasn’t this cheat a bit too insane?!

The cockpit was filled with sand and soil; Luoyu, nearly buried, clearly couldn’t hear him and had no time to spare for the guy.

The mother nest seemed to finally detect the anomaly in him and recognize the threat. The tentacles connected to the stomach wall writhed like dancing pythons, then lunged madly at his craft.

The sharp tentacles struck the stainless steel fuselage with clanging sounds, but fortunately, they didn’t pierce it.

His earlier anxiety eased, Luoyu focused his mind, scanning his surroundings, and soon noticed Ye Shi hanging not far away. He called out joyfully.

“Brother, give me a hand!”

“Me… how can I help?” Ye Shi, still clutching the tentacle, looked utterly bewildered.

Luoyu pressed on without pause.

“Can’t you discharge electricity? Think of something—can you get rid of these tentacles for me?”

Ye Shi laughed bitterly.

“Damn, if I had that kind of power, would I still be hanging here?!”

Hearing this, Luoyu was struck speechless by its sheer logic.

But just then, Ye Shi had a sudden inspiration and shouted to him.

“Wait, I’ve got an idea!”

“What idea??”

“The fuel tank! Where’s your fuel tank?”

“Right behind my seat, that area—”

Before Luoyu could finish, Ye Shi had already drawn his pistol, aimed at the fuselage behind his butt, and fired two shots with a bang.

Startled by his sudden move, Luoyu said with a mix of laughter and exasperation.

“Bro, that’s stainless steel—you’re joking trying to shoot it with a pistol?”

Not even a pistol could pierce it; even a rifle would be useless!

“Cough… I was just trying.”

Ye Shi awkwardly put away the pistol, reached into his pocket, and fished out a coin. A sudden joy surged in his heart.

“Got it!”

Though it was his first attempt, the algorithm for operation was already written on the chip.

Recalling the instructions a certain D-class researcher had repeatedly drilled into him, Ye Shi bit the coin between his teeth, freed his right hand to aim at the upright Lingyun fighter, and raised his thumb as a sight.

Seeing this, Luoyu was taken aback.

“What are you doing?”

The moment his words fell, blue arcs of electricity flickered around Ye Shi’s arm, and then a piercing sound sliced past the cockpit.

Several tentacles snapped instantly, spraying black mucus across the cabin.

Not far behind, the crimson fungal tissue was also punched through, black mucus surging into the digestive chamber.

Startled by the commotion, Luoyu stared incredulously at the guy hanging from the tentacle.

“Holy shit?! What was that just now?!”

“Heh, my electromagnetic cannon! Awesome, right? Just the aim’s a bit off… Let me try again.”

With that, Ye Shi bit another coin, adjusting the angle of his thumb sight.

The capacitor began charging; static electricity crackled all over his body, and the tentacle he clung to trembled as if electrocuted.

Watching the swaying “electromagnetic cannon,” Luoyu’s heart nearly leaped into his throat, and he finally couldn’t help shouting.

“You better aim straight—!”

Once again, before he could finish, Ye Shi released the silver coin from his teeth, letting it tumble onto the magnetic rail formed by the blue arcs.

Time seemed to slow in that moment.

The blue arcs, like a fully drawn slingshot, unleashed terrifying force the instant the coin entered the rail.

Accelerated to several Mach, the silver coin struck the midsection of the Lingyun fighter like a cannonball.

The fuel tank was pierced clean through.

Clear fuel flowed along the fuselage shell to the bottom of the digestive chamber.

Watching the remaining fuel steadily drop on the instrument panel, Luoyu’s heart leaped with joy.

“It worked! Wait, don’t ignite yet—let the fuel leak for a while!”

Though the remaining fuel in the tank wasn’t much, there were still about a hundred liters left.

Seeing that the gauge had stopped falling, Luo Yu pulled a flare gun from the rescue kit beneath his seat, aimed it at the pool of fuel directly below the nose of the aircraft, and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

A flare burning with red light shot out of the barrel, hitting the pool of fuel dead center.

With a dazzling flash of red light, the oil mixed with black mucus instantly burst into a small flame, which spread into a sea of fire in the blink of an eye.

The roots of the tentacles wrapped around the plane caught fire, and they writhed in pain as if electrocuted, thrashing their bodies in the flames.

Seizing the moment while they were preoccupied, Luo Yu endured the scorching smoke and crawled out through the damaged canopy, leaping toward the edge of the sea of fire just before the flames climbed onto the fighter.

Almost at the same moment his feet touched the bottom of the digestive chamber, the rising flames ignited the fuel tank.

The explosion’s firelight instantly engulfed the tentacles, and the fierce shockwave struck his back, pushing him forward with a stumble.

Ye Shi, who had been watching the show while clinging to a tentacle, was shaken off by the shockwave and fell hard to the ground.

“Holy shit…”

Falling from a height of several meters left him wincing in pain, but luckily his bones were made of titanium alloy, so he patted his butt and stood up.

All the tentacles inside the digestive chamber were burned away, and the writhing fungal mass had completely lost its means to deal with them.

After their rampage, the “stomach walls” originally made of crimson fungal masses were also largely charred black by the flames.

For a mother nest spanning several kilometers, this level of damage was obviously not fatal, but it was certainly enough to give it a hard time.

Especially at this critical moment.

A large amount of nutrients in its body were being supplied to the newborn Xiya, making it difficult to spare extra energy to repair the damage in a short time.

Now was the best chance to devour it!

The oxygen level in the digestive chamber gradually decreased, and the burning flames slowly died out.

Dragging his battered body, Luo Yu limped to a relatively intact side of the chamber and pressed his right hand against the pulsating crimson fungal mass.

The frequency of its contraction carried a hint of panic, as if it were desperately trying to drive him out.

But that was clearly futile.

He had come this far with great difficulty—how could he give up now?

Taking a deep breath, Luo Yu murmured softly.

“Please… Xiao Yu.”

Hearing his call, a soft cooing whisper drifted into his consciousness.

Then, tiny pale red filaments seeped out from his palm, beginning to spread toward the crimson fungal mass.

It was just like when he piloted the Lingyun fighter.

He felt his consciousness traveling along those pale red filaments, gradually leaving his body and tilting forward slowly.

Vaguely, he seemed to hear a roar from the unseen.

Just as he could understand Xiao Yu’s cooing whispers, he could also understand that furious roar.

“You are courting death!”

Feeling the surging emotions, the corner of Luo Yu’s mouth involuntarily curled into a smile.

It was indeed quite funny.

Death?

For players like them, that was just a matter of three days!

“Then let’s give it a try.”

Sensing his arrogant determination, the mother nest let out a silent roar.

That roar was filled with contemptuous disdain and the anger of being offended by something insignificant, yet within the boundless fury and scorn, there was also a trace of barely perceptible panic.

Though it had a body as colossal as a Leviathan, it was not truly invulnerable.

Relying on the abundant organic nutrients on the surface, it could be reborn from ruins time and again, even evolving a terrifying resilience capable of withstanding nuclear strikes.

But what it faced now was not a nuclear bomb.

It was a monster that had struggled to survive in an extremely harsh environment for nearly two centuries.

Their understanding of devouring and utilization of resources were on completely different dimensions.

When it could no longer overwhelm Xiao Yu with a vast number of sub-entities and powerful evolved forms, but instead wrestled with Xiao Yu on his own turf, something neither it nor Xiao Yu had anticipated occurred—

This god-like being was not as powerful as it had imagined.

This baby-like little one was not as fragile as it had imagined.

It was like its cancer!

The cancer that had been prepared for two centuries, effective only against it!

Today’s script seemed to have been written many years ago, starting from the moment Level B6 of Vault 404 fell…

The crimson fungal mass gradually faded in color, transforming into a lively pink and fleshy red.

In an instant, the fungal mat connected to Luo Yu’s hand had changed color, forming a starkly divided world from the surrounding restless fungal masses.

The crimson slime surged menacingly, trying to reclaim the lost territory, but no matter how it struggled, even if it occasionally pushed back an inch, it could not stop the expanding momentum of the pale red fungal colony.

Watching this unbelievable scene, Ye Shi’s eyes widened involuntarily.

Not just him.

Even Luo Yu himself, with his right hand pressed against the fungal mat, was shocked by what he saw.

He didn’t even know he had such an ability.

No—

This must be Xiao Yu’s ability.

While he was stunned, half of the digestive chamber had fallen under his control, and his right hand had completely merged with the chamber.

The mother nest, which had been arrogant just a second ago, finally realized the threat and frantically convulsed the esophagus of its digestive tract, trying to eliminate the intruder invading its body through other means.

It had to kill it!

At any cost!

Even if it meant cutting this piece of flesh completely off its own body!

With a piercing shriek, severely malformed xenomorphs fell from above the digestive chamber, splattering onto the ground with wet thuds.

They had round bellies, heads resembling arthropods, and undeveloped wings.

Veteran players who had participated in the last wave would be familiar with these things—they were the explosive self-destruct flies!

Seeing Luo Yu standing motionless on one side of the chamber, they screeched and lunged at him.

But before they could steady themselves, a burst of gunfire turned the dozen or so self-destruct flies into a mess of fragments.

“I’m not dead yet!”

Grabbing his teammate’s assault rifle from the ground, Ye Shi emptied a magazine and quickly reloaded, aiming at the sub-entities continuing to fall from above.

Even though he had no idea what the plan was, he knew for sure that he must not let those sub-entities get near Brother Luo Yu!

The hive-mind, feeling its life threatened, had gone completely mad, attacking its own stomach without regard for anything.

The two worked in perfect coordination.

One cleared the minor minions, while the other focused on cooperating with Xiaoyu, devouring every mutated slime mold within reach.

Just then, the churning digestive chamber suddenly contracted above, closing the cardia.

At that moment, the entire digestive chamber had fallen completely into Luoyu's hands, becoming a part of his body.

Though it was merely an organ, it connected to the entire internal circulatory system of the hive-mind.

Unless the hive-mind stopped breathing entirely, it was impossible to suffocate him by cutting off the influx of gas.

He no longer even needed to obtain oxygen through his own respiration.

To sustain the consumption of this massive body, the hive-mind's respiratory system was far more powerful than his own lungs!

"Please... stop!"

Hearing the voice of submission from the depths of his sea of consciousness, a playful smile curled at the corner of Luoyu's lips.

"Didn't you say I was courting death?"

"..."

The silent response left Luoyu feeling a bit bored.

Seeing that the hive-mind had no interest in acknowledging his taunt, he turned his attention back to the mutated slime molds that were entangled with him, resisting him.

The fruiting bodies that had fallen into the digestive chamber were gradually absorbed by him, becoming nourishment to strengthen himself.

Even the players of the Burning Corps who had died earlier were all digested and absorbed by him, becoming part of his body!

As for Ye Shi, he was out of the question.

That guy had hardly any flesh on him, and he was still alive—Luoyu couldn't bring himself to do it.

At that moment, a voice drifting from the void once again merged into his ever-expanding sea of consciousness.

This time, the voice carried a hint of pleading.

"Don't... I don't want to die..."

"And those you devoured? Did they want to die?" Luoyu's voice carried a trace of amusement.

The hive-mind did not detect the mockery in the voice.

It answered without hesitation.

"They... weak... ugly... filthy. Being eaten by a stronger, more perfect being like me is the law of nature."

Luoyu nodded, a pleased smile spreading across his face.

"With you saying that, I feel relieved."

Perhaps sensing the cheerful mood, the hive-mind, thinking it had escaped disaster, couldn't help but show a hint of post-calamity joy.

But that joy lasted less than two seconds before being plunged back into the abyss by Luoyu's next words.

"...Since you acknowledge that as the law of nature, I suppose you won't have any complaints if I eat you."

"You can't even digest what you've already eaten—you're really weak."

The latter sentence came from Xiaoyu.

Just as they finished speaking, the pale red tentacles enveloping the digestive chamber took the next step, beginning to spread into the hive-mind's internal circulatory system.

Soon, the "cancer cells" he released would spread through the circulatory system throughout the hive-mind's body, delivering the final fatal blow.

Luoyu himself hadn't expected the process to go so smoothly.

And not just him—even Xiaoyu, sitting in the B6 layer of the shelter, was now gaping in astonishment.

Its power made him tremble, so much so that he dared not reveal his own presence before it.

Yet its own strength turned out to be so fragile!

In any case, the hive-mind before them simply didn't have enough time to evolve an "antibody" capable of dealing with them.

Now it was like a monarch collapsed on a dragon throne—even with the power to command a thousand troops, it could not escape the inevitable decay and death.

"No—" it cried out in despair, trying to stop the incomprehensible force coursing through its body, but still unable to halt its own collapse.

As if hearing its desperate wail, the spore clouds hovering over Qingshi City began to churn and boil like ocean waves.

Standing on the giant wall of Boulder City, Ibes stared unblinkingly toward the city center, his face etched with disbelief.

The "giant tree" that had stood for over two hundred years without falling was actually collapsing!

This was the very sight Fang Ming had dreamed of seeing, and he had actually, one day, witnessed it on behalf of that lord!

He had thought he would never have the chance.

After all, those foolish organisms were so disappointing, always wasting precious time on meaningless mutual slaughter.

Ibes muttered incessantly, as if in a dream, his voice choked with emotion.

"Incredible... they actually did it!?"

This unbelievable miracle excited him even more than a river of blood!

What a sight—by the Great Moose God!