I can receive unlimited protection; my parents handed me over to the state.

"Get out!!" Lu Yuan roared angrily!

He concentrated all his spiritual power into a single point, transforming it into a golden spear of soul, and fiercely stabbed it at the black seed!

However, at that moment, another unexpected event occurred!

The unremarkable gray stone that Lu Yuan had always kept in his pocket, given to him by "Zero," suddenly emitted an extremely faint fluctuation.

Immediately afterwards, the black seed that had been so arrogant and frantically throbbing in his mind suddenly wilted like a mouse seeing a cat!

It trembled and curled up in a ball, as if it had encountered a natural enemy more terrifying than death!

Then, before Lu Yuan could react, the black abyss seed "whooshed" out of his mental sea and disappeared without a trace, as if it had never existed.

"..."

Lu Yuan was stunned.

He glanced down at the unremarkable gray stone in his pocket, which had returned to its original state, and recalled what "Zero" had said.

"A stone that has been 'reset'."

"Perhaps, one day, you will need it."

So that's what it means...

This unassuming little stone is actually the nemesis of the power of the abyss?

What is the true identity of "Zero"?

Lu Yuan felt as if he had been drawn into a vortex that was even more terrifying and enormous than Atlantis.

The moment the Abyss Seed escaped from Lu Yuan's body, in the distant North, beneath the frozen soil, a purplish-black moss covering thousands of kilometers, like a carpet of flesh and blood, suddenly began to writhe violently.

Deep underground, a gigantic woman's face, formed from countless mosses, suddenly opened its eyes!

Her eyes had no pupils, only endless madness and greed. But at this moment, those eyes revealed an unprecedented fear and...ecstasy?

"'Reset'...it's the aura of 'Reset'!"

"There's no mistake! It's that 'Deleter' who betrayed 'Nothingness'!"

"Ha ha ha ha!"

"I never expected... it's like finding a needle in a haystack, only to have it come to me effortlessly!"

"I've been looking for you for so long!"

"So, you too have arrived in this tiny yet delicious world!"

"Wait for me..."

"I'll be coming to find you soon..."

"This time, I'm not only going to devour that delicious soul, but I'm going to eat you, you 'traitor,' too!!"

"Hahahahaha!!"

Maniacal laughter echoed deep underground, and an even greater storm was quietly brewing.

Deep within the temporary base in the East China Sea, in a pure white room made of a special alloy and engraved with isolation runes, Amphitrite was bound to a metal chair, looking haggard with vacant eyes.

The once high and mighty goddess is now as wretched as a mortal awaiting judgment.

There were only three people in the room besides her.

Lin Ziling sat at the table, a data screen floating in front of her, ready to record at any time. Bai Ling stood in the corner, seemingly harmless, but her constantly fluctuating mental energy was like an invisible net, covering the entire room and preventing Amphitrite from making any small moves.

The real protagonist is the thin, dark-skinned boy standing before Amphitrite, toying with a human-faced beetle in his hand—Witchcraft.

"Can we begin?" Wu Gu asked hoarsely, his gaze not on Lin Ziling, but on Amphitrite, as if he were looking at a feast about to be served.

Amphitrite's body trembled uncontrollably.

Lin Ziling took a deep breath and nodded: "Let's begin, starting with the most basic questions. The world coordinates of Atlantis, the structure of its civilization, and... your 'god'."

Wu Gu didn't speak, but simply pushed the [Soul-Eating Ghost Mask] in his hand forward.

The human-faced beetle hissed excitedly.

"I'll talk! I'll talk!" Amphitrite's mental defenses had already collapsed. She screamed and spilled everything she knew.

As she narrated, Lin Ziling and Bai Ling's expressions grew increasingly solemn.

"Atlantis is not a complete world as you imagine; it is more like a... giant 'ark' drifting in endless space and time."

"Tens of thousands of years ago, our ancestors fled this planet, which is your home, to escape a terrifying catastrophe that swept across the entire universe."

"That catastrophe...we call it 'The Devouring Void'."

Void Devourer!

Lin Ziling and Bai Ling exchanged a glance, both seeing shock in each other's eyes. They had never heard of this word before, but just hearing the name was enough to evoke a suffocating terror.

"As for our god..." Amphitrite's face showed a complex expression, a mixture of awe and fear. "Do you think that our lord Poseidon is all we have?"

"No, my lord Poseidon is only one of the three main gods of the Olympian pantheon."

Above him was Zeus, the king of the gods who ruled the sky and thunder, and Hades, the god of the underworld.

"What?!" Lin Ziling almost dropped the pen in her hand.

A single projection of Poseidon's will nearly destroyed the entire East China Sea defense line. And yet, there were two beings of equal or even greater power above them?

How can we fight like this? This is an unsolvable situation!

"The three main gods... their strength is roughly equal. However, due to the 'Void Devouring' ten thousand years ago, all three main gods suffered unimaginable damage and are still in slumber, only occasionally able to project a portion of their will."

"Our return this time is to reclaim the primordial power of this planet, in order to help the three main gods fully awaken from their slumber."

Amphitrite's words brought Lin Ziling a slight sense of relief.

Thankfully, they were all in a weakened state. If three fully-powered true gods had descended, human civilization might as well just give up and wait to die.

"And what about the military strength of Atlantis?" Lin Ziling continued to ask.

"Besides the three main gods, there are twelve other main gods, as well as countless lesser gods and heroes. This time, those who have come with me are only the fleet of Odin, the governor of the North Sea under my lord Poseidon, and my divine rear guard... They don't even rank in the top ten of the entire divine army of Atlantis..."

"..."

The room fell into a deathly silence.

A force that couldn't even rank in the top ten nearly annihilated China's most elite fighting force, even forcing three hidden SSS-level star envoys to reveal themselves. What would happen if the top three legions came?

Lin Ziling felt a bit oxygen-deprived in her brain. This information was simply too shocking, and too...despairing.

"One last question," Lin Ziling forced herself to calm down, "What exactly is this 'Void Devourer' you mentioned?"

Upon hearing this word, Amphitrite's face revealed a fear a hundred times deeper than when she faced witchcraft.

"I don't know... I only know that it's something that can't be understood, described, or resisted."

"It has no physical form."

"It feeds on the world."

"It will completely 'delete' an entire world from the most basic 'rules' level."

"Our ancestors were forced to abandon everything and flee in panic because their home planet was targeted by the 'Void Devourer'."

"And this planet is the only refuge they found during their endless wanderings that could temporarily shield them from the 'Void Devourer's' tracking."

"But now it seems..." Amphitrite gave a bitter laugh, "we seem to have brought a part of the 'Void Devourer' here as well."

Her words instantly reminded Lin Ziling and Bai Ling of the strange abyss moss that had appeared in the Northern Territory before!

It turns out that there is such a little-known relationship between Atlantis and the Abyss!

They are stray dogs being hunted by the abyss! And humans are the innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire!

"Alright, I'm done asking." Lin Ziling turned off the data screen and stood up. She knew that this information was enough; asking any further would only yield trivial details.

"Then...then she..." Bai Ling looked at Amphitrite and asked hesitantly.

"The captain said he wants all the information in her head," Wu Gu said hoarsely, interrupting Bai Ling. "What she said is only what she wants us to know. What I want is everything."

Having said that, he ignored Amphitrite's terrified and desperate screams and gently placed the human-faced beetle on her forehead.

"ah--!!!"

A piercing scream, inhuman in its sound, echoed throughout the closed room.

Lin Ziling and Bai Ling left the room, their faces pale; they simply couldn't bear to watch any longer.

……

Half an hour later, in the highest conference room of the East China Sea Temporary Command Center.

Su Lie, Qian Sen, Li Qingcang, Zhen Shan, Gui Ying, Tian Shu, and Lu Yuan, representing the highest combat power in China, gathered together.

After Lin Ziling finished reporting the information she had just received from Amphitrite, the entire conference room fell into a heavy silence.

"Damn it..." Su Lie, the battle-hardened old general, was the first to swear, "What kind of mess is this?!"

"We fought those murlocs to the death, and it turns out our real enemy is some other, even more outrageous thing?"

"Atlantis, the Abyss..." Dean Qian Sen pushed up his glasses, his eyes behind the lenses unusually bright. "Interesting, very interesting!"

"One is a prehistoric super-civilization with a complete mythological technology system. The other is an invasive species from a higher dimension, capable of erasing the world at the level of its rules. Our planet is certainly lively!"

His tone contained not a trace of fear, but rather the excitement and fervor of a mad scientist encountering a brand-new research topic.

"Now is not the time to talk about these things," Senior Zhenshan said in a deep voice. "According to intelligence, we are now facing the dilemma of fighting on two fronts."

"Although Atlantis's main gods are all asleep, even a weakened camel is bigger than a horse; their conventional military strength still far surpasses ours. And that so-called Abyss is elusive and impossible to defend against. What should we do?"

All eyes fell on the boy who had remained silent and quietly sipped his tea the entire time.

Unbeknownst to them, Lu Yuan, a young man who was nominally just a level 0 blacksmith, had become the undisputed backbone of everyone present.

Lu Yuan put down his teacup, looked up, glanced around, and then spoke calmly.

"What should we do?"

"It's very simple."

"beat."

"beat?"

When Li Qingcang, the commander-in-chief of the East China Sea Military Region, heard Lu Yuan's casual remark, the corner of his mouth twitched involuntarily.

"Consultant Lu, did I hear that right?"

"We're now facing enemies on two fronts! In Atlantis, there are three gods, all asleep, but they have a huge number of subordinates. Any one of their legions could give us a run for our money. Not to mention that 'Abyss,' it sounds like no pushover. They appear and disappear unpredictably, how are we supposed to defend against them?"

"In this situation, shouldn't we first consolidate our defenses, concentrate our forces, and plan for the long term? Why are we still fighting?"

Li Qingcang's words represented the sentiments of most people present. This was no longer a matter of audacity; it was downright jeopardizing the future of the entire civilization.

"Take it easy?" Lu Yuan glanced at him and retorted, "Take it easy with what? Wait for those three old guys from Atlantis to wake up and come over to feast us? Or wait for that thing called 'The Abyss' to eat our planet as dessert? Do we have time to wait?"

One sentence left Li Qingcang speechless.

Yes, they don't have time. Neither Atlantis nor the Abyss will give them time to develop peacefully.

"But..." Senior Zhenshan frowned as well, "Even if we were to fight, how would we fight? In terms of troop strength and high-end combat power, we are at an absolute disadvantage."

"Who said we were going to confront them head-on?" Lu Yuan tapped his fingers lightly on the table. "You've all fallen into a mental trap. You're always thinking about defense, defense, and more defense. Why can't you change your approach?"

He stood up, walked to the huge strategic map, stretched out his hand, drew a circle on the area representing China, and then drew an even larger circle on the outer part of the map, representing the unknown ocean area.

"The best defense is a good offense."

"Since Atlantis is a defeated fugitive being hunted by the Abyss, it means they are also weak right now. They are eager to return and seize Earth's primal power to revitalize themselves. For us, this is both a crisis and an opportunity."

"What we need to do is not wait for them to attack, but to attack them proactively! Before they can even react, we must take a big bite out of them! We must seize their resources, their technology, everything they have, and make it our own!"

"Using war to sustain war!"

Lu Yuan's words were spoken with absolute certainty! The entire conference room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop; everyone was stunned by his seemingly insane plan!

To actively attack Atlantis's home planet? What... what on earth is going on in this kid's head?!

"You're a madman...you're a fucking madman!" Su Lie pointed at Lu Yuan, his hand trembling, whether from anger or excitement, it was hard to tell. "A projection of Poseidon almost wiped us out. And now you want to storm their headquarters? There are three gods, twelve main gods, and countless minions there! What are we going to do? With just a dozen or so of us?"

"A dozen or so people, what's wrong?" Lu Yuan looked at him calmly. "It's about quality, not quantity."

"Besides..." he chuckled, revealing a set of white teeth, "who said we don't have high-end combat capabilities?"

"I am the highest level of combat power."

"As long as there are enough materials, let alone arming a legion of gods, it's not impossible to even create another 'god'."