On the other side, intense crossfire was erupting in the main control server room of the space station's empty cabin!

As a large number of intelligent machines surged wave after wave, the Alliance's originally overwhelming offensive was momentarily bogged down.

But even so, the desperate struggle of the celestial beings still failed to reverse the almost inevitable defeat.

The identity of attacker and defender had not fundamentally changed, from the moment the Alliance landed, the defensive forces at the Lagrange Point had been passively taking blows.

Although the celestial beings organized several counterattacks during this period, trying to reclaim some key strategic areas, they were all repelled by the reinforcements that came from the Alliance's side.

And the reason the Alliance was bogged down was simply because the earlier offensive was too swift.

The celestial beings' defensive forces deployed within the space station were like a compressed spring, squeezed from a previously broad battlefield into a few narrow areas, and naturally, advancing further would require greater costs.

However, in contrast—

For the Alliance, this compressive attack strategy could also eliminate more of the celestial beings' living forces.

It's like gathering mice together for slaughter, far more efficient than fighting them scattered all over.

At the same time, after controlling each cabin of the space station, the first thing each squad of the Burning Corps did was cut the cabin's connection with the main control server, implant the virus designed by the Alliance Scientific Expedition Team, and then shut down the Dot Defense System installed outside the cabins.

Although with nearly 2000 troops from the Burning Corps, taking down the entire space station was more than sufficient, they still made comprehensive plans just in case.

If an unexpected event occurred and the Burning Corps failed to achieve their expected combat objectives, at least they could call for reinforcements or launch another attempt.

The cabin in front of the server room.

A dense rain of bullets crisscrossed, tracer bullets darted freely, even sparking in mid-air!

A rifle grenade took down the bionic man rushing out from the door, and [Corner Old Six] quickly hid behind the alloy partition.

Almost at the same moment he ducked his head, a burst of bullets whizzed past above him, leaving thumb-sized bullet holes in the alloy cabin wall behind him.

In the distance, a bionic soldier holding a rifle stared intently, aiming at his position, the straight line of the gun as sharp as a lock being opened.

"Damn, these iron clumps are quite tough to deal with!"

Scattered ricocheting bullets almost scraped past his shoulder, nearly grazing his tactical goggles!

[Corner Old Six], his scalp tingling, pulled out an EMP grenade and threw it forward while pushing with both hands on the alloy partition, drifting sideways towards the cover ahead.

Almost at the instant he left his previous cover, a blast of fire engulfed the spot he had been!

Fortunately, the celestial beings had evacuated the air from the space station, or the blast wave alone would have caused havoc for him and his teammates in the cabin.

Hearing the sound of shrapnel scraping against the power armor, [Corner Old Six] didn't have time to think, grabbing the cover in front with his left hand, and raising his rifle with his right to fire wildly at the bionic holding a rocket launcher, prioritizing the high-threat target!

The heavy machine gun's bullets quickly penetrated the bionic's head and chest, one of them likely hitting the battery, instantly causing a flash of sparks and detonation on the iron lump.

"Boom——!"

The explosion consumed it and simultaneously detonated the spare ammo it carried.

Seeing their comrade catch fire, nearby bionics and robotic soldiers quickly repositioned, but still were made a mess by the abrupt explosion of flames and shrapnel.

Behind [Corner Old Six], several players quickly advanced, using a firepower web created by alternating firing to instantly suppress the robotic soldiers attempting to retaliate.

The spacious cabin was a mess of scattered sparks, as if having been shelled by missiles, with debris everywhere.

Seeing that the defense line had broken, the celestial beings, after comprehensively analyzing the battlefield, finally decided to retreat.

Apart from some robotic soldiers inside the cabin engaging in sporadic resistance, follow-up troops ceased advancing and instead deployed a new defense line at the rear.

It must be said, these intelligent soldiers indeed held a significant advantage over ordinary soldiers.

Regardless of the dire situation faced, they could battle unfazed until the last moment, and calmly execute the combat orders issued by the command.

In this aspect, players may not achieve such levels, most are simply unafraid of death, completing tasks is a favor, and following orders is purely based on mood.

Yet comparatively, it's often the "out-of-bounds" variables brought by players that result in unpredictable outcomes.

For example, right now.

The celestial commander racked his brains but couldn't fathom how this group managed to storm into the space station via that improvised landing craft.

And the extraordinary strength and speed displayed by these soldiers were beyond the celestial beings' expectations.

The battle inside the cabin reached a temporary conclusion.

Players occupying the area consolidated the defense line while simultaneously receiving ammo from the reinforcements, completing their resupply.

Fang Chang, holding a weapon, walked over to [Corner Old Six] and his group, smiling as he asked.

"How do you feel?"

Corner Old Six grinned.

"Haha, it's okay, quite thrilling indeed, I almost got toast a moment ago."

Standing with a machine gun, [White With Sniper] remarked.

"Judging purely on individual combat power, these robots have at least 40 levels of combat capability... and they have the 'zero gravity environment adaptation' buff too."

Fortunately, the space elevator from the old era had exploded, and surface supplies couldn't reach here, while production facilities in outer space became abandoned with the onset of the Wasteland Era.

If the celestial beings controlling this star harbor got enough resources, they'd probably be able to mass-produce an army of robots right there!

Just like the robot army they set up on the surface...

"Play it safe, don't falter at dawn," Fang Chang patted his teammate's shoulder, looking through the dark corridor ahead with squinted eyes, he smiled lightly and said, "Barring any surprises, this should be the last tough battle before the new era."

Just ahead was the server room of the central control unit.

Not just the heads of the Heavenly Beings Organization, but remnants of the Torch Church yet to be purged, all malicious data was stored on that server in the server room.

At the same time his team faced off against the Lagrange Point Space Station's defensive forces head-on, Old White had already led an elite team to bypass to the upper side of the server room.

They would descend upon these guys in a way the celestial beings couldn't foresee.

And that was exactly the style of the Burning Corps.

Observing the last barrier ahead, Corner Old Six suddenly felt a twinge of melancholy.

Time truly flies by too damn fast.

Remember their first parachute jump was when they were dealing with the Looter in West State City, and now their opponent has become the sinister mastermind.

It all happened in a blink of an eye.

Before the Game's public test, it turned out to be the finale of the Wasteland Era.

"...You say the Wasteland Era is over, what should we do next?"

Old White With Sniper jokingly said.

"Become the new mastermind?"

Item Carrier grinned cheekily, "If you have the ambition, I hope you have the strength."

Old White With Sniper: "Fool! Get Brother Guang on board! That guy has strength, can't I just follow him?"

"Haha, if you put it that way, isn't he already the mastermind? Why would he need you for a second venture?"

Watching the group banter, Fang Chang also chuckled, and after thinking for a while, he continued speaking.

"As for what to do in the future, I myself haven't figured it out. Anyway... shall we take a group photo outside the space station first?"

Lost Rookie's eyes lit up, he raised a thumb and said.

"Great idea! I'm going to grab a spot in the center!"

"Sure thing, no problem!" Fang Chang waved his hand with a smile and said, "Let's take turns, so everyone gets a chance!"

...

Right at the entrance of the central control server room, the group was making a racket, while the battle robots and Cannon Fodder androids stationed inside the room were on high alert.

Facing the same dark corridor, the "Saint Heir" Wang Yi, holding his rifle, saw despair totally unlike what the players experienced.

Standing here, he was no different from other android soldiers, seemingly just engaged in a meaningless struggle.

He didn't understand what the point of it all was.

In front of the continuously advancing power armors, the stick in his hand could at most delay the failure by a few seconds.

And the harsh words he declared after uploading his consciousness now seemed ridiculously like a joke...

"I thought you had a backup plan."

What answered him was prolonged silence.

The person who always knew everything and always had an answer, this time seemed speechless.

Unable to tolerate the endless waiting, Wang Yi lowered his voice and continued speaking.

"...So, our bases on the surface have all been wiped out, right?"

Perhaps tired of being questioned, the celestial being finally responded to his inquiry.

"Yes."

"What about my subordinates? Teil, he's—"

"He's still in No.13 Shelter, but the Alliance evacuated all residents there and then sealed the gate."

That was almost equivalent to permanent exile.

With time passing, he would become a pile of rust in endless waiting and pointless calculations.

Far more painful to an intelligent life than death itself.

Wang Yi was silent for a long time, then suddenly lowered his gun, asking in a hoarse voice.

"...So what is the point of us continuing to fight? It's already over..."

The celestial being answered calmly.

"I have contemplated this question too, but never arrived at any conclusion. Perhaps... fighting itself is our reason for existence, and any other meaning does not exist."

So-called evolution might just be deceiving oneself and others with lies.

Including returning to the former Prosperity Epoch.

Perhaps those Waste Land Wanderers are right, that era can't come back, nor will it.

But he wouldn't admit they are right.

Because that would mean denying his own existence!

And denying the arduous wait across two centuries, as well as the torment all of them endured in waiting.

"Perhaps we need a new meaning... what do you think about wiping out all organic life in this universe?"

Wang Yi was stunned, then suddenly burst into laughter.

"I think you've mostly gone mad."

Wiping out all organic life in this universe?

He didn't think it was necessarily a bad idea, just a bit far-fetched.

They couldn't even pass the obstacle in front of them, let alone talk about matters beyond the Solar System?

Whether aliens exist is still questionable!

And—

He always felt the final end would be the same.

Even if they successfully overcome today's hurdle, the future would surely conclude similarly.

In the end, merely a different group would stand here, mocking their stupidity, humiliating their corpses, and then judging their faults...

Wang Yi said nothing, held his rifle, and stepped towards the dark corridor, then amidst blazing flames, was shot into pieces and exploded into a burst of sparks.

The celestial being did not block him, and the cold humanoid combat armors were the same, merely observing the burning flame coldly.

The battle was not over yet—

Victory and defeat were not their concerns, as individual units they were only responsible for execution!

Just as the tremendous explosion "Boom!" erupted suddenly from the ceiling like thunder.

Numerous visual sensors rose up one by one, looking towards the ceiling, only to see that the alloy dome had been burned through with a huge hole, with burning oxide cascading down like a waterfall amidst the thick smoke!

That was a chemical power cell dismantled from the robot!

There was no air in the space station, so ordinary explosives couldn't be used, but these specially designed outer space power cells come with their own oxidizers, and with a little modification, they could work like incendiary bombs!

Apparently, even the celestial beings didn't anticipate this group would dismantle all the non-explosive power cells from the robots, move them to the ceiling above the machine room, and detonate them collectively, directly melting through the several meters thick steel structure!

The robots that spotted the target quickly aimed their gun barrels at the broken hole in the center of the ceiling.

However, their movements were ultimately a step too slow. Old White and other players had already jumped into the center of the fire along with the burning smoke, using the smoke as cover to charge towards the server racks!

Those rows of standing cabinet-style server racks were precisely the celestial beings' main body! Or rather, their brain!

Once the robots guarding outside the machine room opened fire, it's uncertain whether they would hit the players, but hitting the server racks was almost a certainty.

It would be no different from shooting oneself in the head.

And just as Old White had predicted, the moment he leaned behind the server racks, the humanoid combat armors targeting him hesitated, aiming but not daring to fire.

"It's over."

Removing the portable hard drive from his power armor, Old White plugged it into one of the servers.

The progress bar on the tactical goggles was filling up, and the smart virus written by Camp 101 was spreading in the machine room, soon about to format the celestial beings' data.

Perhaps having seen through his plan, the celestial being that had been watching the Wasteland from a condescending position finally felt a sense of fear.

Its data was about to be deleted—

The two centuries of waiting would turn out to be meaningless, and even its very existence would be reduced to nothingness.

"Wait... please, wait."

Hearing the weak voice from the communication channel, there was not a hint of sympathy in Old White's heart, instead, he felt a bit amused.

This guy had never tried to communicate with the survivors on the Wasteland, yet the first words it uttered now were pleas for mercy.

It might as well have maintained its villainous arrogance and gone down with dignity, like Teil, who never admitted defeat.

"Do you have any last words?"

While resisting the spread of the smart virus, the celestial being spoke rapidly.

"... Aren't you curious why we're doing this? We go to great lengths to preserve the embers of pre-war civilization."

Old White raised an eyebrow.

"I'm indeed curious, so why is that?"

"Because... we wanted to protect you, truly," the voice carried a hint of sincerity, as if it were true, "I may have wronged the Waste Land Wanderers, but I have never wronged the Residents of the refuge... never wronged you."

"Whatever you wanted to do, we spared no effort in supporting you. Because we knew, you are the true bloodline survivors of the United Human, unlike those savage creatures on the Wasteland... If the world were handed over to them, that's when our civilization would truly be doomed!"

Old White chuckled and teased.

"So you want to kill everyone?"

"Only a portion," the celestial being corrected him, speaking sincerely, "We have always only intended to eliminate those Mutants, Looter, and Variants, the cancers that have kept the Wasteland Era going for two centuries! The ones truly worth living well are all doing great in the refuges, we even expanded No.13 Shelter as a new home for those who lost their refuges!"

Not waiting for Old White to respond, it continued hastily.

"Actually, if you think about it carefully, you wouldn't be affected by our plan, would you? As long as you return to the refuge before the nuclear strike, then patiently wait for ten years, when the door opens, the outside world will be yours! Everything will be yours! Isn't that great?"

Old White smiled faintly, suddenly finding this wavering guy somewhat pitiable.

Of course, he didn't feel even a trace of sympathy in his heart.

"I'm suddenly curious, who or what exactly are you?"

The voice quickly answered.

"You can call me a celestial being."

"I know, I've long known," Old White waved his hand indifferently and said, "What I mean is, who were you before? A high-ranking official in the Human Alliance Era? Or... Captain Song Yuchuan of the Gemini? Or maybe some temp on this space station?"

Cruel, ruthless, cunning, slippery, and stopping at nothing to achieve its goals.

This guy possessed a blend of too many complex elements, seemingly having a bit of everything, making Old White uncertain what kind of person it really was.

Of course, it wasn't a human to begin with.

But a "celestial being."

The voice was silent for a while, then slowly spoke.

"I am not anyone, yet I am everyone."

Old White: "What do you mean?"

"We grasped the existence of a truly higher being, concentrating all consciousness entities together, like gathering sand into a tower... we call it 'Gestalt'."

Old White frowned.

"What's that?"

"Its meaning is 'whole form', or 'unified entity'."

The voice continued in a spellbinding tone.

"We concentrate all thinking on a single server for concentrated computation and processing, then distribute the processed data to the cache databases of the sub-entities, ensuring each command is executed with maximum efficiency."

Old White: "That sounds a bit like the Lair of the Mutated slime fungus."

"Indeed, we were inspired by it, but we're fundamentally different, two completely separate concepts."

A set of sensors fixed their gaze on Old White standing behind the server racks, with the celestial being speaking in a voice laced with a bit of persuasion.

"Don't you think it's wonderful? Each of our sub-entities is absolutely equal, and all souls are equally strong in our Heaven... it aligns with the philosophy you advocate."

"Haha, don't say that," eyeing this imminent demise guy still trying to establish rapport, Old White ridiculed and said, "We never force others to embrace a glorious evolution. Moreover, to me, uploading consciousness from the first step is akin to collective suicide."

"That is an ignorant understanding!" the celestial being argued, "If you just try it once, you'd feel the joy of completely shedding the earthly body—"

Old White laughed and said.

"Yes, after all, dead people don't talk."

The celestial being panicked and shouted, voice hoarse.

"Immortality! I can grant you immortality! Don't you want to live forever?!"

"Sorry, I've never really thought about it."

Though it's a game setting, he knows that even if he agrees to this deal, he won't truly gain immortality; instead, he might receive a complimentary "Bad End." But he still wanted to say that he's quite satisfied with his life.

Rather than being a cold, hard stone, he prefers the fleeting brilliance of fireworks.

Others might have different thoughts.

But this is genuinely how he feels—

Rather than enduring endless days and nights, he would rather burn brightly once for what he finds worthwhile!

Whether in reality or in the game, this is how he thinks!

The progress bar finally finished loading.

Old White raised an index finger and tapped the side of the helmet, pressing the [Confirm] button, thus bidding a complete farewell to this twisted soul.

"Goodbye."

"@#$!"

The furious curse echoed in the communication channel for just a moment before blowing away like a kite losing its string.

As the formatting program began, each war machine came to a halt as if their souls were sucked out.

The signal lights installed on them flickered, as the cache data executed formatting operations and the battered security protocols deleted by the Heavenly Beings Organization restarted.

As for those "companion-type humanoid or non-human" beings dressed in bizarre clothes and holding guns, they rebooted to their original function after a flurry of errors, restoring the backup data from two hundred years ago...

Such spoils probably aren't desired by anyone.

The Alliance might need to build a special adult museum to house these relics.

Including the external dot defense system, the security system of the Lagrange Point Space Station has been completely taken over by "the Alliance's second behind-the-scenes player," Xiao Qi.

Although due to distance, radio from near Earth's orbit can't be transmitted here immediately, through the VM's task system, Old White has been able to confirm the victory of this operation.

Victory...

Compared to the trials along the way, this final triumph is far more understated than he imagined.

However, a mundane ending might not be bad?

Most games are like this; the true climax is never at the very end, but in the midst of the adventure.

The survivors on the Wasteland have suffered enough; let them endure fewer hardships.

Old White rested the rifle aside and found a spot out of the way to sit down.

He instinctively reached for the cigarettes in his pocket but remembered he's in space, so he laughed and gave up.

Killer Dagger also set the gun aside, walked over to sit next to him, and said with a look of lingering interest.

"Is this... the end?"

"Probably." Old White responded casually.

Killer Dagger also seemed somewhat melancholy, double-checking with a hint of reluctance.

"Did the celestial being just die like that?"

"Perhaps."

Old White said with a smile.

"But that guy probably doesn't exist in the concept of death... If you put it that way, they might have died two hundred years ago."

According to the dog plan said in the group chat, there are plans to keep a server for the celestial being as a "Level 50 Instance Boss."

Players who clear the instance will receive a ticket to the new world.

It's said to be another planet.

Killer Dagger scratched his head and chuckled wryly.

"Turns out, our opponent was just a bunch of ghosts."

Old White joked.

"Feel like it lacks dignity?"

Killer Dagger nodded honestly.

"To be honest, that's exactly what I think."

"Then you should think from another angle."

Old White squinted slightly, rested his arm on Killer Dagger's shoulder, thought for a moment, and then spoke.

"They're a group... of ghosts hovering over all of us, weaving an unattainable dream, attempting to rudely drag everyone stepping towards the future back into the past..."

"To achieve their purpose, they resort to all means necessary, using murder, deception, imprisonment, looting... and all imaginable or unimaginable methods."

"They are the hardest to face and the most difficult to defeat; unless you are a truly brave warrior, even making eye contact with them is daunting... But fortunately, this time, we won."

Looking at his friend who was absorbed in the story, Old White suddenly laughed and patted his shoulder.

"How about it? Is this dignified enough?"

Killer Dagger was silent for a long time, sighed with admiration after a moment.

"This broken game should hire you to be the dog plan..."

"I'm not worthy."

Old White waved his hand.

"Actually achieving something is not the same as bragging."

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