End of the World: My Items Can Be Upgraded Infinitely.

Chapter 167 Mechanical Ascension, Plan to Kill the King Spinal Bug
"The human king..."

"The competent ones take the place..."

Lin Feng muttered to himself...

It sounds tempting.

When Long saw Lin Feng's thoughtful look, the corners of his mouth slightly raised:
"You humans have great genetic potential, especially in terms of spirit. In the future, perhaps many high-level strong men with artistic conception will evolve..."

"But the evolution of the human race is still too short. If you take the shortcut of mechanical evolution, it will take at least a thousand years before you can return to the right path and start individual evolution and awakening."

"As for now, the accumulated gene reserves are not abundant, so you need to absorb and learn from other races and eventually form your own gene pool."

"And this will also require a long period of integration and evolution."

"Otherwise, they'd be just like the gene warriors and warrior hunter bugs, just deformed monsters that were forcibly stitched together."

“Although it’s fast, there will be more disadvantages in the future.”

Lin Feng frowned slightly:

"Is there no race in this universe that has taken other evolutionary paths?"

"For example, the mechanical ascension you just mentioned..."

The corner of his mouth turned upwards into a sneer:

"Of course not. But most of them are losers in the interstellar war. That's why they gave up their flesh and blood bodies and used mechanical bodies as vassals of the powerful to survive."

Lin Feng was stunned. In his understanding, mechanical ascension was very powerful, and its lethality and explosion speed were no worse than those of the Zerg.

In Lin Feng's future plan, Chen Yanyan will be able to take such an evolutionary path, and with her mechanical pioneer abilities, she will be able to control the entire fleet in the future and become a true queen of war.

But now, in the mouth of Long Yi, it seems that the strength and status of the mechanical body are extremely low in the context of the universe...

So he asked back:

"This... How is this possible? The assembly line factory of mechanical bodies can produce them much faster than the cultivation of flesh and blood life. Even a biological nest as powerful as your Zerg cannot match the productivity of a mechanical factory."

"Moreover, their energy consumption is much lower than that of living organisms. When they are not active, they can cut off the power supply and enter a dormant state, which requires less energy."

"With the same resources, the combat strength of mechanical ascension is definitely stronger than that of flesh and blood evolution."

Ling Yi looked at Lin Feng, who had an incredible expression on his face, chuckled, and continued along with his words:

"As you know, mechanical bodies consume very little energy. If the whole clan ascends, they can survive until the day when the origin galaxy is destroyed."

"But there are two outcomes for races that choose this path. One is that the consciousness of the entire race is uploaded into a program of the cyber world. According to our terms, it is a spirit in the artificial realm."

"If we continue on this path, the result of evolution will only be a circle of computer matrices under the planet or in orbit around an alien star, serving as a carrier of consciousness."

"They are no longer exposed to external information, and their internal spirits will fade away over time. Their programs will continue to malfunction and eventually die out. So what's the difference between this and death?"

"As for the second type, prosthetic transformation, which completely transforms the flesh and blood body into a mechanical body and forms a mechanical army. It is probably the appearance of the fleet under your command..."

"But here comes the problem. There is no shortage of strong people in this universe. Basically, those who can set foot on alien colonies are all races with cosmic life. For the strong people in the universe, even nuclear bombs can hardly hurt them in the slightest."

"As for tearing apart large mechas and mechanical life forms with bare hands, that's a piece of cake."

At this point, Long Yi stretched out his hand again and pointed to the nearby primitive planet:

"Look at this artistic conception world. It requires a very high energy density to condense and maintain."

“In order to give birth to artistic conception and even the future divine realm, an environment with reduced entropy is even more necessary to maintain the stability of order.”

"A flesh and blood body that consumes a lot of energy is the best carrier for stimulating the spirit state. You also mentioned above that the demand for energy will be greatly reduced after mechanical transformation..."

"So accordingly, there is no mechanical race in this universe that can give birth to a fourth-order existence or above."

"Of course, some galaxies are located in remote areas. Even if they have evolved into fourth-order life, they will undergo a certain degree of prosthetic transformation to reduce energy consumption for survival."

"But it's not like what you said. The entire race completely relies on machines as carriers and chips as souls. Isolating themselves from the outside world is refusing to integrate into the universe. Their fate is naturally to remain closed, causing the entire civilization to stagnate."

"If there is no evolutionary path that can lead to qualitative change, no matter how many there are, they will be swallowed up by the cold universe and the entropy increase of time, and eventually turn into decay..."

After listening to Long Yi's theory, Lin Feng was deeply shocked. It turned out that the underlying logic behind it was to use one's own entropy reduction to counter the entropy increase of the entire universe.

The process of entropy reduction is to evolve the brain tissue that consumes the most energy, give birth to spiritual consciousness, condense artistic conception, and finally upgrade it to a domain.

It is also the divine realm that Long has always mentioned.

Thinking back to the time when she used the secret art of artistic conception to summon the insect nest will domain...

Although I later heard from her that the virtual divine realm had less than one ten-thousandth of the power of the complete body.

However, in front of it, Lin Feng's thousands of spiritual attributes that had already broken through the limit were still like dust in the wind, so small that they were hardly noticeable.

Perhaps only the fourth-level life forms that have fully mastered the artistic conception are qualified to be ants in the eyes of gods.

As for the mechanical civilization, it can only quickly sweep away the initial races that are still developing on the planet. Looking at the universe, it is just as Long Yi said,
The future of civilization can already be seen at a glance. What is the difference between this and death...

With a light sigh, Lin Feng increasingly felt the profound meaning of the sentence "the universe feeds on the weak" from Long Yi's plain and ironic narration.

And when he passed through the Black Rock area with mixed feelings and arrived near the foot of the volcano, the scene of the sulfur hot spring belt appeared in front of them.

"Why didn't I see the black-backed worms and tiger-backed worms that the awakened ones mentioned along the way?"

Lin Feng looked around but didn't find any living creatures. There were only poisonous bubbles coming out of the volcanic geothermal area nearby, making gurgling sounds.

But this volcano is very large, about seven or eight kilometers wide.

Like a small island in a plate earthquake zone in the ocean of the blue planet.

He glanced at a large piece of volcanic rock:

"I guess they were all killed by Shen Jie. Every death and rebirth means starting over from scratch. He has to accumulate strength again before he can reach the top and challenge the Overlord."

"I sense a stronger smell of killing there. Go over and take a look. Be prepared."

Lin Feng knew what she meant. If Shen Jie fell into a frenzy and lost himself, he would probably attack indiscriminately without distinguishing between friend and foe.

The first batch of soldiers who underwent the second awakening encountered this situation. Although they resolved the pursuit of the insect swarm with the help of Shen Jie, they died in his madness afterwards.

If encountering such a situation, Lin Feng must be prepared in advance, control the lost Shen Jie, and protect Ling Yi from harm.

Danger is approaching, and this time Lin Feng takes the lead.

Ling Yi followed closely behind, looking a little nervous. In order to maintain the spiritual channel, she needed to disperse her spiritual power, which made her strength weakened most severely in the killing state. It was even difficult for her to control the tiger-spine worm affected by the killing.

Soon, after passing a hot spring lake, the two saw a pile of second-order tiger-backed worm corpses behind the gray-black volcanic rocks.

Their torsos were hollowed out, leaving only the hardest jaws and fleshless legs.

The dead insects were piled up one after another, layer upon layer, filling up an area as big as a football field. At a glance, it was estimated that there were more than 40 or 50 of them...

There is also a pile of black-backed worms discarded on the periphery.

"there!"

Before Lin Feng could carefully observe the appearance of the primitive spiny worm, the voice of Ling Yi came directly and pointed to the opposite side in the distance.

Lin Feng tightly grasped the tiger-tooth chainsaw sword in his hand, remained alert at all times, and moved forward cautiously.

When he could see a black shadow, he stopped, holding the electromagnetic cannon in his left hand and the tiger-tooth chainsaw sword in his right hand, and shouted a powerful call:

"Shen Jie! Is that you!?" The black shadow was lying on a dying tiger spine worm. After hearing the call from behind, he slowly stood up and turned around. A head with huge spine worm jaws and a face with Zerg flesh around the mouthparts suddenly appeared in front of the two of them.

The electromagnetic cannon in Lin Feng's hand has been aimed and locked. As long as the opponent rushes over, he will use the magnetic storm bomb to restrict its movement first, and then use the chainsaw sword to suppress it.

However, when the humanoid insect saw the two people, it did not launch an attack, but stayed where it was. After a moment of stunned silence, it began to gesture something with its hands, while a hoarse whimpering sound came from its giant mouth.

Seeing this, Lin Feng turned his head and looked at Long. After seeing the other party nod, he stepped forward.

However, they did not relax their guard with the weapons and equipment in their hands.

The alert cannot be lifted yet.

It was not until the two of them walked twenty meters in front of the insect man that Lin Feng confirmed from his specific appearance that the insect man in front of him was Shen Jie.

Because its current form is quite similar to Shen Jie's black warrior.

Although it is influenced by the original genes of the spiny worm and does not look as ferocious and terrifying as in reality, the patterns on its outer armor and the bone blades on its arms have not changed much.

"Conscious?"

Lin Feng frowned slightly and asked.

Shen Jie nodded, then pointed to the huge black jaw on his face, meaning that he couldn't speak.

Lin Feng looked at Long Yi beside him:

"Can it be solved? Can't your infinite reproduction state control the fusion and separation of genes?"

After nodding, Long walked forward and came to the feet of the insect man.

At this moment, Shen Jie was three meters tall, and Long Yi, who was less than 1.7 meters tall, was like a little baby in front of him.

As Long Yi placed her hand on Shen Jie, a strange golden light flowed from her hand into the insect man's outer armor.

"Let's not go to other places for now, so as not to remove too much and affect the combat effectiveness."

While controlling it, Longyi spoke.

Then the huge jaw that covered Shen Jie's entire face slowly fell off, with traces of blood and mucus.

A thin layer of skin was peeled off on Shen Jie's face, but fortunately the deeper layer was not injured, and the red face quickly recovered under the self-healing power.

Then he turned pale, leaned forward and retched a few times, vomiting some Zerg organs, and then he came to his senses and spoke in a human voice:

"Finally... I can finally speak..."

Lin Feng put away his weapon and walked forward:
“When did it become like this?”

A trace of confusion flashed across Shen Jie's eyes. After thinking for a moment, he replied:
"About half a month ago, after sending off the third batch of second awakening soldiers, I have been hunting tiger spine worms. Unconsciously, the assimilation of Zerg genes changed my internal organs. By the time I noticed it, my throat was no longer able to speak."

"It's mainly because I don't have any use for it. Apart from chatting with the soldiers in the past few months, I can only talk to myself the rest of the time."

Lin Feng nodded. It seemed that the lonely days in the artistic conception must be difficult.

"You...why are you here?"

After adapting to the normal human state, Shen Jie then remembered that the appearance of Lin Feng and the other two was a little abnormal.

Lin Feng coughed lightly and briefly explained the situation, saying that the countdown was one month and that this was Shen Jie's last chance.

After listening to this, Shen Jie did not feel worried or distressed. Instead, he looked relieved and then cheered up:
"fine……"

"If it happens again, I don't think I can hold on any longer. Let's make it clear while I have your help this time!"

As he spoke, Shen Jie stood up and looked up at the towering volcano in front of him with a firm gaze:

"Life or death depends on this fate!"

Lin Feng nodded and asked for relevant information:
"How many times have you been up there?"

"How much do you know about the power of the King Spinosaurus?"

Shen Jie thought for a moment:
"Twice. The first time I had no experience, so after I climbed up, I roared at the crater, and then was stabbed by the king worm. The second time I had experience, so I thought of other ways. I climbed to the edge of the crater in my prime, lured out the king worm inside, and avoided the attack of its sharp feet. In the end, it used its huge jaws to directly hit me and flew several kilometers away. My body was shattered and I couldn't move. I was eaten by the black worms..."

"The high-level King Spine Worm is very powerful, but the main problem is that there is no way to break its defense. It's just like the second-level peak Tiger Spine Worm in the underground hatching nest. Artillery can only tickle it. We have to use that tiger tooth chainsaw sword."

After hearing his tragic experience, Lin Feng could already imagine the feeling of despair and powerlessness.

Then he sighed and looked at the one beside him:

"Do you have any information on this?"

"Breaking through the outer armor's defense is just the first step, right?"

The scorpion nodded slightly:
"That's right. Breaking through the outer armor defense is just the most basic thing. It proves that we have a chance to hurt it."

"But if we want to kill it completely, we have to deal with this first!"

Following the direction pointed by Long Yi, Lin Feng and Shen Jie turned around and saw the towering volcano in front of them.

Lin Feng reacted quickly and asked in disbelief:
"You mean to destroy the entire volcano and the habitat of the king spiny worms?"

Long Yi affirmed very seriously:

"Of course. Active volcanoes with high heat concentrations are the best habitats for king spiny worms. They can absorb the energy in the volcanoes for their own use. Moreover, as long as they stay in the volcanic magma, they are invincible. Even if they suffer serious injuries from broken limbs, they can quickly repair themselves."

"It is much more difficult to lure it out of the crater than to destroy the entire volcano."

"So what we have to do is to detonate this active volcano that has long been unable to contain itself, and have a volcanic eruption!"

"Detonate the entire artistic conception!"

"Then the King Spine Worm will be injured by the violent energy released by the volcanic eruption. It is easier to kill a high-level King Spine Worm with low health than to face one in its prime!"

Upon hearing Long Yi's shocking plan, Lin Feng and Shen Jie both showed expressions of disbelief.

Lin Feng took a deep breath, raised his gun with his left hand and pointed it at the middle of the active volcano:
"Are you sure that if you do this... after the volcano erupts, the entire artistic conception... won't collapse instantly?"

Ling Yi shrugged and didn't care:
"Yes……"

After admitting it directly, he pointed at Shen Jie and continued:
"But as long as he is still alive, the speed of the collapse will slow down and it will probably last less than an hour."

"This is our chance!"

"Don't look at me like that. It's your fault that you are too weak, especially you, Shen Jie. Even if it is a powerful second-level peak tiger spine insect, there are dozens of them, and they will start the high-level state of mind trial together. They will fight here first to decide the winner, and then challenge the king spine insect together. The one who wins will naturally become the new king insect."

"You are half human, half insect, and your spiritual power is enough to start the trial of artistic conception. However, you happened to encounter the life-and-death crisis of the underground mother nest, and you accidentally activated it passively..."

"So, make your choice now..."

"It's a step-by-step method of climbing mountains and fighting monsters, but the final winning rate is less than 30%!"

"Stay tuned to my advice..."

"Destroy the artistic conception world, reduce the difficulty of the trial, and give it a final try. This way, we can have at least a 70% chance of winning!"

After saying that, Long Yi and Lin Feng...

At the same time, he looked at Shen Jie.

(End of this chapter)