For humanity, burn the stars.

Halfway up the mountain of garbage, two "shell people" who were searching for valuable parts paused for a moment.

One of them turned its huge frog eyes and glanced toward the source of the sound, seeing Li Lin's house.

Although it used materials from scrapped spaceships, it didn't change the fact that the room had absolutely no technological content.

The shell-like creature emitted a series of short, unintelligible hissing sounds, clearly conveying disdain.

"That guy is a complete freak."

"Not only do they do those inexplicable things, but they also can't speak the language we were born with, and they make some inexplicable sounds."

Another shell-like being echoed this with a similar sound.

"Clearly, there's that broad, thick shell behind it—a natural, warm home where you can curl up and sleep soundly anytime."

"But that guy insists on spending a huge amount of effort collecting those scrapped spaceships or building materials to build a weird nest; it might get crushed by the garbage one day."

"With that time and energy, if we rummaged through a few more piles of trash, we might have found something valuable already."

With no time to waste on that freak, the two shell-like beings immediately lowered their heads and dug even harder.

Just then, one of the shell-like beings lifted a piece of the pollution-protected cloth.

Then a barrel-shaped device, about half the size of a person and with an extremely intricate structure, appeared before them.

Judging from its appearance, it appears to be an old, family-run nuclear reactor that uses uranium-235 as fuel.

Although it's trash and outdated, it still has some value in this junkyard.

If there are fuel bars with an abundance of over 50% inside, after exchanging them for Fu coins, it would be enough to feed you for at least ten days.

The two shell-like beings' eyes widened even more instantly, their greed almost overflowing.

The roars suddenly turned sharp and piercing, and the creatures that were digging together began to wrestle without hesitation.

The emaciated limbs tore and pounded at each other, the heavy carapaces collided with each other, and the strange, upright mouthparts began to bite each other.

They all wanted to possess that tempting part.

—When Li Lin dragged his feet closer, this chaotic scene was what he saw.

His enormous frog eyes showed no emotion, only a cold indifference.

"Get out of here."

The words uttered from his distorted vocal organs and mouthparts, though distorted, still barely revealed traces of Chinese.

He didn't know the language of the "shell people" and could only continue to express his intentions in his own way.

Even if they couldn't understand Li Lin's warning, they could still grasp its meaning.

However, none of them gave up the fight because of this, nor did they take Li Lin seriously.

"Sizzle—whoosh."

After a barely audible thud, the neck of one of the shell-like beings, who were locked in a struggle, was instantly shattered, and its head flew into the air.

Thick, dark bodily fluid gushed from the corpse, which finally collapsed silently to the side, rolling into the garbage heap.

In Li Lin's hand was a stick-shaped object with childish graffiti, somewhat resembling a high-tech version of a magic wand.

In fact, this toy-like object is some kind of miniature particle weapon.

The technology involved was a complete black box to him; he only knew the activation switch but didn't understand how to charge it.

For the planetary rulers, who all possess personal shields, this is indeed a trivial toy, something to be discarded into the trash heap once they tire of it.

However, in this cruel garbage hell, this is the foundation of Li Lin's livelihood.

Until his energy runs out, at least here, he can barely be considered someone of importance.

The other surviving shell-man was terrified, his huge frog eyes filled with utter horror.

It immediately released the parts it had snatched, lay prone on the filthy garbage, and humbly patted the ground with its withered forelimbs in Li Lin's direction.

It emitted intermittent, pleading hissing from its vertically shaped beak filled with sharp teeth, its body trembling violently with fear.

Li Lin didn't even glance at it, but simply waved the weapon in his hand, signaling it to get lost.

He would never consider such a thing to be one of his own.

On the contrary, having the same appearance as them is the shame of his life.

The surviving shell-man felt as if he had been granted a pardon and fled the scene in a panic.

Li Lin stepped forward and effortlessly picked up the reactor that had caused the fight, disassembled it, and took out the fuel rods.

He didn't even examine it closely; he simply tried to stuff it into his heavy shell.

—That's the home of the "Shell People," and it's also used as a storage bag.

Just as Li Lin was about to continue his search, a glowing spot caught his attention.

He bent down and took it out; it turned out to be a flat, tablet-like object.

The screen is broken, so it's stuck on a news interface.

Although the text above was all written by the Vera, which Li Lin couldn't understand, one picture caught his attention.

The image shows a massive space structure—a Dyson sphere built by the Vella on the sun.

The Dyson sphere, a rather awkward design concept, absorbs almost all of the radiation energy by enveloping a star in a massive architectural structure.

It sounds wonderful, but in reality, civilizations capable of building Dyson spheres don't need them, while those that do need them can't build them.

Therefore, the reason why Vera built the Dyson sphere on the sun was simply because she found the human concept interesting and wanted to create it as a spectacle.

But what's important isn't the Dyson sphere itself, but time.

Li Lin was quite certain that [Vera] had only ever built one Dyson Sphere, and that this event occurred at a specific time.

The "Starfall Calendar," which began with the defeat of humanity, is now in its 134th year...

So when Li Lin saw that photo, he was filled with despair.

The game's setting for the first time players log in is in the year 276 of the Starfall Calendar, and the location is not even in the solar system.

Even if this news is slightly delayed in time, more than a hundred years is still an insurmountable gap.

Moreover, that game has a very high degree of openness, allowing players to choose their development path as they wish, and [Vera] is just one of the enemies they might encounter.

Putting aside whether players will come to fight again, the time involved is enough to prevent Li Lin from living to see that day.

Of course, there are other possibilities besides players.

Long before humanity encountered the Vera, several colony ships had sailed to even more distant places, one of which would later develop into the Star Federation in the game.

They have developed a formidable power, only slightly weaker than Vera.

However, weakness means being crushed in this sea of ​​stars.

Moreover, Li Lin knew the Starsea Federation's style well and would never choose to initiate a war against Vera.

Indeed, for a long time after players started playing, the Star Federation never had any intention of taking back Earth.

Therefore, waiting for the Star Sea Federation to rescue him is less likely than surviving until the players arrive.

As for self-rescue? This 51st district is a completely isolated place, where you can't even see the faces of aliens.

As long as you're here, the only outcome is endless decline.

In other words, Li Lin, who had traveled here alone, had absolutely no chance of being saved.

The last glimmer of hope has been extinguished.

Li Lin stood up in a daze, looking quite confused.

He didn't know what he was thinking at that moment; he just felt dizzy.

He is very tired now.

Unbeknownst to anyone, Li Lin had already dragged himself back to his house.

Looking at the unusually heavy shell on his back, he gripped the edge of the shell tightly with both hands.

Then, with great effort, try to tear it off completely.

That's enough... He's had enough!

As the heavy, thick shell gradually tore apart from his flesh, brown blood flowed down his body.

Along with it came excruciating pain.

This is to be expected, because the shell is connected to the internal organs, not just the outer shell.

If the "shell people" lose their shells, they naturally have no chance of surviving.

Even if it means death, Li Lin is determined to tear off this heavy and ugly shell!

Because he's not a "shell man," he's a human!

He had no other choice but to endure living in this wretched state any longer.

At the very least... you have to die like a human being!