Lin Yi stopped smiling.
Something was wrong.
This opponent was dangerous.
He realized, with growing disbelief—
he was losing.
"Even using seventy percent of my power?"
"…I'm still losing?"
"Fine."
"Then I'll go all out."
"Mobilize every available processor. We're doing this again."
Lin Yi straightened in his seat and focused completely.
Then his expression changed.
"No… something's off."
"This makes no sense."
"The opponent is absurd."
"Damn it… this isn't Silver Wolf."
Lin Yi lost.
Not because he was careless.
Not because he underestimated the enemy.
He lost in a direct confrontation.
And the opponent's attack style carried a certain brutal elegance—clean, efficient, purely mathematical.
He had been crushed by raw computational power.
This absolutely was not Silver Wolf.
The Stellaron Hunters were fugitives.
Where would they get infrastructure on this scale?
Their technique might have been only slightly better than Lin Yi's.
But hardware?
Processing power?
That gap was monstrous.
Lin Yi became fully serious.
The city firewall had nearly been breached several times.
Even after activating Laplace's Demon and drawing on every available system resource, he still could not turn the tide.
The pressure reminded him of cyber-defense sparring sessions with Screwllum.
No—
it felt worse.
Perhaps Screwllum had held back during those exercises.
Even so, this opponent was terrifying.
Who the hell was it?
Lin Yi issued the command through clenched teeth.
"Pull the plug."
"Disconnect everything."
He had been forced to unplug the internet.
Humiliating.
Cut the cable.
Call Screwllum.
Call Herta.
Call everyone.
Someone had to help him recover his dignity.
Emergency Messages
Lin Yi: "Screwllum. Emergency. Need help."
Screwllum: "???"
Screwllum:(Pam sends confused expression.)
Lin Yi: "Someone's attacking the city network. Heavy assault. Absolute stat monster."
Lin Yi: "Just come. I'll explain later."
Screwllum: "Understood. I am happy to assist."
Lin Yi: "Herta. Urgent. Need to borrow the Simulated Universe's processing power."
"Possibly all of it."
Herta: "?"
Herta: "I'm busy. Stop bothering me."
"I sent you the key."
"Handle it yourself. You know the password."
(Encrypted file received.)
Lin Yi: "Stephen, are you free?"
"Someone's attacking the city network. Tough opponent."
Stephen Lloyd: "..."
Stephen Lloyd: "Okay."
Lin Yi: "Ruan Mei, are you available?"
"Actually, never mind. This isn't really your field."
Ruan Mei: "What happened, dear?"
Lin Yi: "Someone's hacking the city network. Stat monster. I can't beat them, so I'm calling reinforcements."
Ruan Mei: "I see."
"I'm not especially skilled in that area."
"But if you need processing power, I can help."
"Remember the swarm-energy concept we discussed?"
"It isn't complete yet, but I developed a swarm-based biological computer."
"When linked together, its computing capacity is quite impressive."
Lin Yi: "Thanks, Ruan Mei."
(Pam heart emoji.)
Screwllum's projection appeared inside the city.
He had come to assess the situation in person.
His real body had already entered combat readiness.
At any moment, he could mobilize the computational resources of the entire mechanical empire that acknowledged him as its sovereign, with Screwllum Planet as the core node.
He treated the cyber battle with complete seriousness.
Screwllum knew Lin Yi's capabilities well.
Based on Lin Yi's description, one conclusion was obvious:
Lin Yi had suffered a total defeat.
That meant the enemy could not be underestimated.
And Screwllum, by nature, was cautious.
He would approach this opponent with maximum vigilance.
Screwllum turned toward Lin Yi.
"One question."
"Do you know the attacker's identity?"
"Logic suggests that someone with this level of cyber-warfare ability, who also does not fear retaliation from a Genius…"
"…must possess a highly unusual background."
Lin Yi shook his head.
"No clue."
He was still irritated.
Being forced to unplug the internet was a disgrace.
Using administrator privileges, Lin Yi quickly took control of the Simulated Universe core and redirected its processing power.
It was not a specialized supercomputer—
but its raw capacity was immense.
After all, it was a system capable of simulating Aeons.
At the same time, Ruan Mei's biological computing swarm connected to the network.
Distance caused some efficiency loss, but Lin Yi believed the combined resources should be enough.
If this lineup still lost—
then the opponent had to be cheating.
"Reconnect the network!"
"Round two starts now!"
"This time I'm stripping you down to your underwear!"
Lin Yi declared it confidently.
He intended to try once more himself.
Screwllum was only the backup plan.
This time, he abandoned finesse entirely.
Instead, he copied the enemy's earlier approach:
Overwhelming force.
Fight numbers with bigger numbers.
Elsewhere, within the Meta-Domain, Silkall noticed the attack intensity surge the moment the network came back online.
Something felt wrong.
She tested several counters.
Each time, the resistance was stronger than before.
After observing the scale of Shenxiao Space City's retaliation, she understood immediately:
She could no longer play casually.
Silkall became fully serious.
She mobilized most of the Meta-Domain's processing power.
Through the Dominion Logic—an information network formed by data lifeforms linked through the Quantum Star Chain—she took command of a vast computational system.
Full output.
Now her methods changed as well.
No longer simple brute force.
She unleashed:
Centuries of research into information systems.
Advanced cyber-warfare techniques.
The Meta-Domain's immense processing capacity.
Quantum Star Chain cognitive amplification.
Silkall was certain of victory.
This time—
no one would stop her.
Back on Lin Yi's side, he realized something else.
He still couldn't win.
But now the issue wasn't computing power.
It was skill.
Against the opponent, he was always half a step too slow.
Every move he made had already been predicted.
At this point, the gap was so large that Lin Yi suddenly became calm.
"Alright."
"Screwllum, you're up."
He patted Screwllum on the shoulder.
Mechanical lifeforms held natural advantages in this field.
Lin Yi stepped back and began observing.
He started thinking.
Which Genius was behind this little "prank"?
Someone this powerful could only be:
A Genius Society member specializing in information warfare.
Or some legendary hacker from Punklorde who had somehow crawled back from the dead.
The moment Screwllum joined the battlefield, everything stabilized.
The collapsing situation recovered instantly.
Lin Yi was certain Screwllum would soon begin a counteroffensive.
And once they traced the enemy's location—
if the other side failed to provide a satisfactory explanation…
Lin Yi would absolutely retaliate.
One minute passed.
The battle remained deadlocked.
Lin Yi wasn't worried at all.
He simply watched in silence—
studying Screwllum's techniques.
For Early Access of 400+ chapters check out patreon.com/UchihaAce