Planetary evolution, how come you're Ultraman?

The pale purple halo of localized radioactive dust completely dissipated, and the far side of Iron Core Star returned to the silence of deep space, with only a few scattered stars in the distance emitting a cold, desolate glow.

Lin Chen raised his hand to turn off the temporary signal shielding inside the cabin, looked at Ye Zi who was constantly tapping the data panel with her fingertips, and spoke crisply.

"Time is running out. Adjust the development path and prioritize maximizing the shield to deal with the global radiation surge."

Ye Zi paused for a moment, then raised her hand and projected the data panel into the air. A clearly marked star map slowly unfolded, with green dots representing unclaimed resource stars and red dots marking hostile raiders. The locations were clearly defined and there was no clutter.

She adjusted her black-rimmed glasses and spoke at a steady pace.

"We've already sorted things out. Our current shield is level 3, which is barely enough to withstand the aftershocks of radiation, but it's not safe enough. I've selected targets along the way, and once we've cleared them out, we can just get our shield to level 5, which is the maximum value, without taking any detours."

She pointed her finger to a striking red dot on the edge of the star map, its coordinates clearly marked.

"This person's ID is Ironhead. He has awakened a C-level metal manipulation ability. In the past two days, he has robbed seven individual star lords. He has nearly ten planetary origin cores in his hands. His location is on our only route to the silicon crystal resource star, about 380 kilometers away. It's the perfect opportunity to eliminate him while we're at it. This star field is remote, and no individual star lords pass by. I activated the Dawn's full-area concealment and shielding in advance. The whole process will not leave any image, nor will it be recorded and uploaded to the public channel."

Upon hearing this, Chu Yao immediately became interested, rolled up her sleeves, and moved closer to the projector, her eyes filled with a hint of hostility.

"These scum who prey on the weak should have been dealt with long ago! I encountered the same kind when I was being chased before. Should I go out of my capsule and test my newly awakened power amplification?"

Su Qingyue clutched the hem of her clothes, softly echoing her sentiments, her eyes filled with sympathy.

"Those who were robbed are so pitiful. Eliminating the robbery will prevent fewer people from suffering."

Lin Chen scanned the coordinates and confirmed that the route was completely on the same path, and immediately nodded.

"It's feasible. Let's finish this quickly, clear him out, and then take the resource stars."

"clear."

Ye Zi quickly manipulated the controls with her fingertips, and the Dawn ship instantly emitted a deep engine hum, its body shimmering with a faint silver light.

"I have optimized the primary propulsion system. The initial cruising speed of a normal spacecraft is only Mach 0.4, but I have increased the cruising speed of the Dawn to Mach 0.8, and it can reach Mach 1.2 in a maximum sprint, which is twice as fast as a conventional spacecraft. The full-domain concealment shield has been activated, covering a radius of 100 kilometers. Our movement fluctuations and images are completely isolated, and the outside world cannot detect them at all."

The Dawn smoothly accelerated and sped away through the silent starry sky. The 380-kilometer journey, at a cruising speed of Mach 0.8, took only 22 minutes to reach the target airspace.

In the distance, a raiding ship covered in thick, dark yellow metal armor was bombarding a small, damaged ship. The ship's shields were teetering on the brink of collapse. The individual star lord sent out a desperate cry for help in the public channel, but the empty channel was only filled with cold silence, and no one dared to answer and come to his rescue.

Ironhead's arrogant roar came through intermittently via public frequency.

"You ungrateful wretch, hand over the core right now, or I'll blast you into cosmic dust!"

Upon noticing the approaching Dawn, Ironhead immediately ceased fire, turned his ship to face the Dawn, and spoke in an extremely arrogant tone.

"Where did this brat come from, daring to interfere with my business? Get lost, don't delay my acquisition of the core!"

His gaze swept across the porthole of the Dawn, catching a glimpse of Su Qingyue, Chu Yao, and Ye Zi inside the cabin. His eyes instantly turned lewd and greedy, and he almost drooled.

"I do have three nice girls, kid. Hand over the ship and your crew, and I'll spare your life! My metal armor can withstand conventional artillery fire without a scratch; you can't break through it!"

Chu Yao's eyes widened in anger, and she clenched her fists, about to get up.

"That fool who doesn't know his own mortality, I'll beat him so badly he won't even recognize his own mother!"

Lin Chen reached out and pressed her down, a cold smile curving his lips, his tone indifferent.

"No need, I'll do it."

As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Chen put on his simple spacesuit, pushed open the hatch, and floated into the vacuum of space, standing steadily.

When Tie Tou saw Lin Chen leave the cabin alone, he immediately burst into loud laughter, his tone full of disdain.

"You're asking for death. You think you can challenge my raiding ship all by yourself?"

Before his maniacal laughter subsided, Lin Chen raised his hand, gripped the Evolution Trustee at his waist, and suddenly pulled it upwards!

A dazzling pure white light suddenly exploded, and a fifty-meter-tall silver giant stood in the void. Pale red light patterns flowed slowly along the armor, gentle yet carrying an inviolable pressure, completely illuminating this hidden space.

Ironhead's laughter stopped abruptly, his arrogance froze instantly, his pupils shrank, and he trembled uncontrollably. He finally recognized the giant in front of him, and his voice was filled with extreme fear.

"Ultraman...?!"

He frantically maneuvered the ship in an attempt to escape, while simultaneously unleashing his metal powers to fire dozens of sharp metal missiles at Nexus in a final, desperate struggle.

Lin Chen raised his arm and waved it lightly. A layer of light golden shield instantly condensed in front of him. All the metal missiles crashed into the shield and instantly shattered into cosmic dust, having no destructive power.

Next, he put his hands together in a cross shape, crossed the Nexus Armor on his hands, and released the golden spark-like rays of energy from his body.

Cross rays.

The beam of light struck the raider with pinpoint accuracy. The supposedly indestructible metal armor was as thin as paper in the face of the light energy, instantly dissolving completely. The entire raider didn't even last a second before exploding into tiny fragments, leaving it no chance to resist.

[The destruction of a hostile planetary lord has been detected. Should we absorb its planetary core?]

"Yes."

Lin Chen responded softly. The Evolution Trustee glowed faintly, and three perfectly round Origin Cores slowly floated to his front, where they were automatically converted into pure light energy.

[Light Energy Reserve +1200]

Lin Chen deactivated his transformation and gracefully floated back into the Dawn's cabin, the entire process taking less than a minute. The rescued retail investor star lord was still in shock and didn't dare to utter a single word of thanks. He steered the damaged small ship away at full speed, not daring to even consider recording the incident.

Ye Zi raised her hand to disable the full-area concealment shield. Lin Chen glanced at the public channel, which was still filled with scattered messages of distress and requests for help, completely unaware of the recent purge that had just taken place in this airspace. Not a single related event had been leaked.

"Let's go, collect the resource stars." Lin Chen said calmly, as if he had just done a trivial thing.

Ye Zi responded and changed course. Over the next two hours, the Dawn went to three nearby unclaimed resource stars in turn. The closest one was 260 kilometers away and the farthest one was 790 kilometers away. With a cruising speed of Mach 0.8, the round trip was smooth and swift.

With everyone working together to absorb the essence of the resource star, Lin Chen's initial planetary radius expanded to one kilometer, his shield successfully reached level 5 (maximum value), unlocking the basic resource mining function, and his essence reserves became increasingly abundant.