Chapter 224: Annihilation mode
The moment the information panel appeared, Rover was stunned.
[Temporary access confirmed.]
[Welcome back, Successor.]
Successor?
Those two words were like a cold needle driving straight into his mind. Rover stared at the line of text hovering before him, and immediately countless chaotic thoughts arose. Was this a greeting meant for anyone who could open that metal gate, or was it truly meant for him specifically? If it was only responding to the password Professor Harlan had once left behind, then "Successor" might simply refer to whoever held temporary access rights. But what if that wasn’t the case? If that text had recognized him, recognized [Mirror] within his body, even recognized something related to his parents, then this had already gone far beyond the scope of an ordinary side mission.
Rover frowned and repeated in a low voice: "Successor?"
No one immediately answered.
Nanoe stood beside him, her gaze also growing more serious. She was very intelligent, and therefore understood clearly how dangerous those two words were. It wasn’t a casual designation. In a place where Rover’s [Mirror] had been locked, in a metal hall buried within a strange layer of space, before a spaceship-suited body with an Overlord class that even the System couldn’t assess, the word "Successor" was certainly not simple.
Sunako held the lantern tightly, softly asking: "Great Lord Rover... is it speaking to you?"
Rover didn’t answer.
Because right at that moment, the Unnamed Explorer suddenly moved.
The massive body in the spacesuit hovering in mid-air slowly rose higher. The blue lines running along the silver-white armor became more brilliant, and the red point of light behind the black visor looked like an emotionless eye looking down at everyone. The thousands of spirits circling it also simultaneously fell into chaos, as if being pulled taut by an invisible force then thrown into a spiral with no stopping point.
Then space transformed.
No warning signs. No door opening. No fog flooding in. The massive metal hall was suddenly stretched, twisted, then dissolved like a curtain torn from reality by someone. The walls, metal columns, shattered cubes, and even the floor beneath everyone’s feet all vanished in an instant.
What appeared before them was the universe.
An infinite expanse of darkness.
Countless stars glittering in the far distance.
Sunako’s eyes went wide, her body stiffening to the point of forgetting to breathe. Selina immediately gripped her sword hilt tightly, but even she couldn’t conceal her astonishment this time. Rilia stood at the front, cold aura still present around her, but her azure blue eyes had already reflected a vast expanse of stars. Elith looked down beneath her feet, finding she still stood firm, but the surroundings no longer had flooring in any normal sense.
It all felt like standing in the middle of the universe.
Yet without falling.
Without being crushed.
Without being pulled away.
Rover looked at the scene before him. His gaze grew increasingly deep. He knew this wasn’t completely real. At least, their bodies hadn’t truly been thrown into space. But this scene was too vivid. The cold, the invisible pressure, the light of the stars, and the smallness of being nearly not worth mentioning when standing before infinite darkness were all real enough to make it difficult to distinguish illusion from memory from what had actually happened.
Right after, a massive eye opened in the darkness.
It didn’t resemble the eye of an ordinary creature.
It was more like a black hole.
Dark around the rim, spiraling deep at the center, with distorted streams of light being pulled inward. When that eye opened, countless surrounding stars seemed to shrink. From within that eye, enormous meteorites began to fall.
No.
Not fall.
They launched with terrifying speed, pulling long streaks of light, tearing through the darkness, striking directly toward a massive space station hovering in the void.
The scale of that space station was nearly comparable to a planet.
It was so enormous that Sunako unconsciously stepped back half a step. On its surface were countless metal rings, mechanical arms, storage bays, research sections, and small cities built right into the shell. Light from millions of tiny windows made it look like a colossal nation drifting through the galaxy.
But before the meteorite rain falling from that black hole eye, even that massive space station became fragile.
BOOM!
The first meteorite struck the outer defense barrier.
A massive ring of light waves spread outward.
Then the second.
The third.
Hundreds of meteorites continuously pounded downward, causing the station’s defense barrier to shake violently. Red warning lights spread across every sector. Rover felt as if he were standing inside a magnified fragment of memory, watching everything unfold from the outside, while simultaneously hearing the chaotic sounds from within the space station.
Warning sounds.
Footsteps.
Metal shaking.
Human screaming.
The image suddenly pulled inward into the ship.
In a vast control room, many researchers in white coats were frantically operating control panels. The screens before them continuously displayed red warnings. A few were trying to activate the defense systems. Others were trying to contact different sections of the station, but the sound coming through was nothing but static.
In the middle of that room, a man stood still before the main screen.
Rover looked at that face. His pupils contracted slightly.
Professor Harlan.
Still the slightly disheveled silver hair, the aged face but sharp gaze. Unlike the somewhat deranged, vague, hard-to-read manner of the psychiatric hospital, the man before him now was much more alert. He stood amid the warning sounds and chaos, his eyes looking up at the meteorite rain striking the outer barrier of the station.
A researcher beside him shouted something, but the sound was swallowed by the warning klaxons.
Professor Harlan frowned.
Then he took out a card.
The card was very thin, its surface covered in glowing strange characters. When he held it in his hand, the surrounding light seemed to be drawn inward, concentrating into faint rings around his palm.
Professor Harlan murmured, but this time Rover heard him very clearly.
"Everyone to the auxiliary ships."
Another researcher immediately turned, his face both shocked and panicked, seemingly shouting loudly to stop him.
Professor Harlan didn’t look at that person.
He only looked up at the main screen, where massive fracture lines of light were appearing on the outer defense barrier.
"I’ll hold it back."
The people around him grew even more chaotic. Someone rushed forward wanting to pull him back. Someone else cried out in desperation. A few other researchers seemed to already understand what he intended to do, their faces white but still standing frozen in place.
Professor Harlan didn’t wait for them.
He activated the card in his hand.
BOOM!
Light erupted.
The strange characters on the card flew out, spinning around his body like countless small stars. Then, layer by layer, silver-white armor quickly appeared from nowhere, encasing his hands, feet, chest, shoulders, and head. In just a few seconds, a massive spacesuit had completely enveloped Professor Harlan’s body.
That suit was identical to the armor Rover and everyone had just seen in the hall.
No.
It was that same suit.
Only right now, it was still new, clean, without scratches or burn marks, and not yet covered by death aura and spirits. The characters on the armor’s surface radiated a sacred light, each ring of energy spinning around the joints and back equipment, making Professor Harlan no longer resemble an aging researcher, but an existence armed to confront a planetary-scale catastrophe.
Both his hands lit up.
Light converged around his fists, forming two brilliant orbs. Around each orb were multiple rings of light slowly rotating, like miniaturized orbital paths of planets.
Rover looked at the scene, a tremor running through him.
He had once met Professor Harlan in the psychiatric hospital.
He had once felt that man was strange, dangerous, like someone who knew far too many things he shouldn’t know.
But he had never thought Professor Harlan had once stood in the middle of the universe, wearing this space armor, alone facing a meteorite rain falling from an eye resembling a black hole.
The next moment, Professor Harlan disappeared from the control room.
Space shifted.
He appeared outside the space station.
Alone.
Before him was an endless rush of meteorites charging forward.
Behind him was the massive space station the size of a planet, where countless people were fleeing toward auxiliary ships.
Professor Harlan raised both hands.
The two orbs of light blazed.
The dark universe was torn apart by a brilliant surge of light.
But right at that moment, the image suddenly froze.
Not disappearing.
Not cut off.
But like footage that someone had pressed pause on.
The meteorite rain stood still in the universe.
The light from Professor Harlan’s fists halted at the point of eruption.
The auxiliary ships that had just departed from the station also floated motionless.
Everything was frozen.
Then, the astronaut in the image slowly turned its head.
Rover immediately felt a slight numbness in his scalp.
The spacesuit that had been intact began showing signs of battle. A burn mark stretched from the left shoulder down to the chest. Part of the arm armor cracked. The equipment on the back had a corner torn away. The visor grew darker, and within it appeared a cold red point of light.
In just a few seconds, that armor had become the same state they had just seen in the hall.
Old.
Ravaged.
Full of battle marks.
And death.
Right after, countless points of light appeared around Rover and everyone.
The universe space disappeared.
The metal hall returned.
The Unnamed Explorer still hovered in mid-air, thousands of spirits spinning around the massive body. But this time, the points of light that had just appeared were no longer memories or illusions. They were cold bright dots floating throughout the hall, like countless small cannon muzzles that had just been activated in space.
From the astronaut’s body came a mechanical voice, cold as ice.
No longer resembling the greeting from before.
No longer mentioning the Successor.
Only the absolute coldness of an annihilation program that had just been awakened.
[Intruders detected.]
[Annihilation mode activated.]
[Beginning elimination of intruders.]
The moment the last sentence rang out, every point of light simultaneously locked onto Rover and everyone.
The air in the hall became so heavy it nearly solidified.
Rilia expanded [Frost Battle Domain] without hesitation. Selina raised her sword. Elith spread spider silk. Sunako clutched the lantern tightly, her face pale but not running. Nanoe stood beside Rover, her sharp gaze taking in every point of light surrounding them.
Rover looked at the Unnamed Explorer hovering in mid-air.
[Mirror] was still locked.
The retreat path had vanished.
Before him was an Overlord-class existence of unknown status, a hall full of spirits, and an annihilation mode that had just activated.
He clenched his fist.
Then, the corner of his lips slowly curved up.
"Alright."
"Let’s see who eliminates who."
