Chapter 319: Finally Triggered a Bug

Stars have different sizes, and their temperatures also vary. The regular surface temperature of a small star might only be a few thousand degrees, while the regular surface temperature of a large star might reach tens of thousands of degrees.

And the temperature at the core of a star is even higher. An adequately high temperature represents an endless source of energy.

Many cutting-edge technologies use stellar cores as an energy source.

The famous 【Stellar Furnace】 energy engine of Opto-Electric Technology is precisely forged using parts of stellar fragments, not even the stellar core itself.

Because of its extremely high temperature, a stellar core is difficult to penetrate deeply into; even ordinary A-Class second-stage evolutionists would find it difficult to resist.

Only Third Evolution Bodies, lifeforms possessing the Planet-Shattering ability, can penetrate deeply into it.

It was unknown exactly how Fen Jin obtained this Stellar Core Fragment.

The Stellar Core Fragment radiating a blazing temperature was held in Li Yu's palm, and the 【Titan Colonization Armor】 continuously transmitted high temperature warnings.

Li Yu even had to constantly switch hands to avoid scorching the 【Titan Colonization Armor】.

But even with such a high temperature, it was far inferior to a true stellar core; after all, this was merely a fragment.

However, holding this Stellar Core Fragment, Li Yu felt a sense of palpitation transmitting from his body.

This made him involuntarily swallow his saliva, seemingly wanting to swallow this Stellar Core Fragment in front of him whole.

"Is it Kalaitos?" Li Yu slightly frowned, carefully feeling the sense of craving transmitting from his body. It came from his A-Class Gene Chain—Kalaitos.

This creature, Kalaitos, originally lived near stars and fed on flames and thunder.

Encountering a high-end food like a stellar core now, it wasn't surprising for his body to produce a craving.

Opening the gene detector, after several battles and Li Yu's self-disciplined training in normal times, his current Gene Development Progress had already reached 15%.

Although it was already fast enough, in Li Yu's mind, it still hadn't reached the ideal development progress.

Perhaps eating this Stellar Core Fragment would increase the Gene Development Progress.

This situation was not without precedent; Gene Development Potions were originally formulated using various special materials to stimulate gene chains.

This kind of Stellar Core Fragment was also a special material. If paired with other materials to formulate a Gene Development Potion, it should be able to elevate the effect to a higher level.

However, that would take too much time. By that time... he didn't even know what level he would have reached.

On the meteorite, watching Fen Jin whose head had exploded into pieces, everyone in the Iron Fist Squad also felt as if a meteorite had smashed into their own hearts.

First came disbelief, and then came ecstasy. The feeling of surviving after a disaster surged into their hearts, making them tremble uncontrollably.

"This A-Tier Lifeform is so powerful..." Olena's eyes were full of worship, and she muttered in a low voice: "I wonder which lord this is."

For most non-A-Tier Lifeforms, they didn't know the specific classifications within, and most interstellar citizens didn't even know about the concept of swapping gene chains.

However, they could tell that this big shot was very strong!

"To think we could actually get support from this kind of big shot!" Someone clenched their fists, their expression excited.

"Yeah... Usually these A-Tier Lifeforms are elusive like divine dragons, only the captain has seen them a few times. The rest of us don't have many chances to see them," the others chimed in.

"This can be considered a blessing in disguise for us..."

"Yeah, if we hadn't been hunted down to this extent, I'm afraid it would be very difficult for us to see this kind of big shot..."

"..."

As they spoke, the passionate atmosphere abruptly stopped. Many people silently turned their gazes towards a certain person in the corner, the initiator of this incident—Jay.

Jay squatted in the corner, having already taken the sniper rifle off his back, holding it in his hands in an extremely proper posture.

He had learned it in a certain military academy in Returning Star, but now it was aimed at his teammates.

But the other squad members didn't have the slightest fear, looking at him with disappointed eyes.

Jay raised the muzzle of the gun, not knowing who to aim at. Complex emotions surged into his heart: the shame of betrayal, the regret when Fen Jin broke the agreement, and the disbelief when Li Yu appeared.

These emotions intertwined within his heart, causing his spirit, which was already on the verge of collapse, to completely twist. He abruptly looked up at that stalwart figure.

Why did you have to appear!?

Even dying in Fen Jin's attack would be better than being flagellated by everyone's gazes right now.

"Dammit..." He gnashed his teeth and cursed loudly at Li Yu, venting his already twisted emotions.

Right at this moment, someone pointed towards the starry sky and said in horror: "What is that lord doing?"

Everyone restrained their complex emotions and looked up at the starry sky.

At this moment, they happened to see Li Yu holding the Stellar Core Fragment and putting it into his mouth.

For a time, this place fell dead silent, and everyone's eyeballs almost popped out.

Damn... swallowing a Stellar Core Fragment raw, is this still a human?

Even the captain lying in the instruments seemed to have been cured; his heartbeat accelerated, and the blood scabs all over his body showed signs of cracking open.

We know you are very fierce, but not to the extent of being this fierce, right? That's a Stellar Core Fragment, and you just swallowed it like that?

Olena stared blankly, then subsequently pulled out a metal dagger and slashed a teammate beside her.

"F*ck, Vice-Captain, what are you doing!?" That person couldn't help but wail, his expression twisted.

"I was seeing if this is a dream or not." Olena listened to his wailing and added: "It seems like it shouldn't be a dream now."

"Then you slash yourself, why slash me!?" That person was infuriated but couldn't beat Olena, so he could only mutter curses secretly.

Having swallowed the Stellar Core Fragment, Li Yu's entire person radiated intense light, and the surrounding temperature abruptly rose.

He felt as if his internal organs were all melting. The blazing high temperature even made him not have the time to feel intense pain, as if it was an instinctive reaction from his genes.

Li Yu directly liberated his gene chain. In many life-and-death battles, he hadn't liberated his gene chain.

Instead, it was swallowing the Stellar Core Fragment that forced him to liberate it.

In an instant, his entire body was surrounded by golden thunder, and magma surfaced from the void. His entire person was enveloped in intense light, making it difficult for outsiders to see clearly.

Subsequently, the crimson-gold light began to expand, ten meters, a hundred meters, a thousand meters... blurry wings of light gradually unfurled.

Even though there had been enough shocks today, the Iron Fist Squad still didn't expect to see such a scene.

That was a blurry, massive humanoid phantom of light. The wings of light on its back extended out for nearly a thousand meters, the dazzling light making people unable to open their eyes.

Thick golden electric arcs and high-temperature magma lingered around him in a special trajectory.

The majesty coming from the apex of the food chain made everyone involuntarily want to kneel and prostrate on the ground.

However, such a situation did not last for too long. Under everyone's astonished gazes, that massive humanoid phantom of light actually exploded, and a large amount of golden flowing light dissipated in the universe.

Such an extremely dramatic change made it fundamentally difficult for the Iron Fist Squad to accept?

"This... this... this...?" Someone tremblingly raised their hand, pointing at the flowing light scattering like meteors, unable to say a single word.

"It should... be fine, right?" Someone else brought up doubt and apprehension.

It seemed difficult to accept that the big shot who instantly killed Fen Jin had just exploded so inexplicably.

Olena was even more dumbstruck like a wooden chicken. The continuous twists and turns caused her firm heart honed on the battlefield to also somewhat collapse.

"Haha... haha..." Jay in the corner burst into loud laughter, his eyes filled with delight.

"Overestimating his own capabilities... that was a Stellar Core Fragment, yet he actually dared to swallow it raw just like that!"

Many people glared at him upon hearing his words. No matter what, Li Yu had saved them.

Jay only wanted to vent his twisted emotions. His remaining shame and conscience instead drove him crazy. He was impatient to loudly say: "This is the big shot who saved you guys... what a..."

Bang!

Before his words were finished, a muffled sound transmitted over. His pupils gradually dilated, and the black sniper rifle in his hands fell onto the pitted surface of the meteorite.

Subsequently, his entire person also collapsed onto the meteorite. There was a clear bloody hole on his forehead, his eyes glaring angrily, dying with remaining grievances.

With a gloomy face, Olena put away the purple pistol. Meeting everyone's gazes, she said coldly: "The moment he chose to betray us, he was already dead."

No one spoke, nor did they feel any sympathy for a fallen comrade, only somewhat emotional.

A few teammates who had a relatively good relationship with Jay exchanged glances with each other, and all shook their heads. Olena was right.

"You can leave here now." Before everyone had recovered from the shock just now, they heard an unfamiliar yet familiar voice sound out.

Olena abruptly turned her head. Just like at the very beginning, Li Yu's figure had unknowingly appeared on the meteorite again.

"I... knew that you... you wouldn't be in any trouble," Olena said excitedly.

Everyone looked at each other in dismay... Arriving at this moment, they instead didn't have any shocked emotions, just like what Olena said.

This big shot not dying... seemed to be a matter of course.

Li Yu looked around and shook his head secretly. He had almost died just now, but thanks to 【Near-Death Rebirth】, he revived with full health again.

A Stellar Core Fragment was indeed not something ordinary people could play with. Fen Jin only borrowed the power within it, whereas Li Yu swallowed it whole.

Even if he liberated his gene chain and became Kalaitos, it didn't block the majestic power contained in the fragment, directly bursting him from being overly stuffed.

However, it wasn't without gains. He opened the gene detector, and the development progress on it had already reached 25%, directly increasing by 10%.

If this spread out, it would probably scare a large swath of A-Tier Lifeforms; this kind of improvement speed was simply like riding a rocket.

However, others also couldn't replicate this result. If he didn't have 【Near-Death Rebirth】 just now, then Li Yu probably would have truly died.

"It seems I've really triggered a bug..." He pondered secretly. Finding a few more Stellar Core Fragments, he should be able to directly pile the development progress to 100%.

Eat... explode... revive... directly advance 10%.

This was much faster than bitterly advancing the development progress through combat.

Having been in this world for so long, finally triggering a bug made Li Yu involuntarily feel joyful.

He just didn't know if the effect would decrease after multiple uses... he would test it out later.

After a brief moment of joy, Li Yu thought of a relatively serious problem again, and that was where should he go find Stellar Core Fragments?

He didn't know how Fen Jin got his Stellar Core Fragment.

Unless there was a need for it, no one was willing to do the thankless task of getting stellar cores.

The danger was too high, and most stellar cores would rapidly extinguish within a short period of time.

After thinking for a while and still not coming up with a clue, Li Yu simply set it aside for now. Anyway, when the cart reaches the mountain, there will surely be a road.

The Iron Fist Squad had already begun packing their things, preparing to evacuate... Their spaceship had already been damaged, so they could only rely on Li Yu's spaceship.

Under everyone's help, Captain Stanley was just about to be carried onto Li Yu's spaceship, but Li Yu raised his hand and stopped them, looking at the captain who looked like a black man.

"You..." Stanley seemed to want to say something. The expressions of the people in the Iron Fist Squad were all somewhat nervous, not knowing what this big shot wanted to do.

Li Yu raised his hand, and subsequently the Force surged out. Stanley's pupils shrank, feeling a warm power enveloping him.

Afterward, a tingling sensation transmitted all over his body. Those blood scabs began to fall off, and new skin grew out.

His Force seemed to encompass all characteristics, also possessing healing effects.

Before long, Stanley's injuries were completely healed. This was an injury inflicted on him by an A-Tier Lifeform, which he found difficult to self-repair, yet it was healed by Li Yu with a wave of his hand.

Stanley's expression was excited. He immediately flipped out of the instrument, knelt on one knee, and said with a trembling voice: "Thank you for taking action to save me."

He had also fortunately seen a few A-Tier Lifeforms, but those big shots were all high and mighty. Someone like Li Yu who was willing to take action to heal him was too rare.

"No matter..." Li Yu shook his head. Due to the concealment of the mechanical mask, no one could see his expression.

"However, there is a problem now. I still have to head to a certain star system afterwards, so I cannot escort you out of Amethyst."

He still had to head to the Tabli Star System afterwards to fetch the Gene Optimization Device; it was impossible to escort this squad out of Amethyst.

But the problem lay in the fact that if he didn't escort them, due to Fen Jin's death, Amethyst would probably dispatch more evolutionists to hunt down this squad.

This squad, whose highest combat power was only B-Class, fundamentally couldn't leave Amethyst alive.

Hearing this, everyone couldn't help but look at each other in dismay. Stanley raised his head and obscurely exchanged a glance with Olena. The two were old teammates who had cooperated for many years, basically understanding each other's thoughts.

"We are willing to follow you!" Olena also knelt on one knee. This sentence wasn't simple; following Li Yu meant becoming Li Yu's private army.

As long as they went back and submitted an application, Returning Star generally wouldn't refuse this kind of behavior; after all, they were only a B-Class squad, their value far inferior to an A-Tier Lifeform.

The reaction speed of the other squad members was also not slow. They immediately knelt on one knee and shouted in unison: "We are willing to follow you."

The mechanical mask looked down at everyone. Li Yu thought about it and didn't agree immediately. If he wanted followers, people would basically line up to fight for it.

For these few people to think they could become his followers just by casually kneeling was too simple.

(End of this chapter)