Just as Lin Ye was contemplating his next move, dawn broke.

A star shining with light and heat illuminated the sky, plummeting downward, its impact point precisely the abandoned building where Lin Ye stood.

"Is this a welcome ceremony?"

Having just arrived here, Lin Ye felt the locals' enthusiasm.

"Oh no! That's a stellar-grade energy weapon! You need to leave here immediately!"

Martha said anxiously.

In the distance, a team was observing the abandoned building.

"I don't understand. Why let those natives complete the ritual? That's one of the system's foundational rituals."

Delger couldn't comprehend the higher-ups' decision. They could have easily crushed those natives before the ritual was finished. This way, there would have been no need to waste that stellar-grade energy weapon.

"Relax. Even if those natives sacrifice everything, it means nothing to the system. Even if the system ritual is completed, it won't summon any powerful being. And we just happen to need to draw the system's intervention. The cost is merely one stellar-grade energy weapon."

Commander Kent's eyes flickered with intense malice. He enjoyed watching those insignificant creatures struggle pointlessly, only to crush them completely later.

"I just think it's a bit wasteful. Originally, a single combat squad could have solved the problem."

Delger was well aware of Kent's sadistic tastes. Of course, he didn't care about the lives of those native creatures, but he disliked Kent's methods.

Too inefficient.

"Wasteful? War is the most concrete behavior that embodies the concept of waste. But conversely, for a war, there is no such thing as waste or not. There is only victory or defeat."

Kent watched the dazzling star falling from the sky, revealing a fanatical smile.

But his smile soon vanished.

Martha watched as Lin Ye held the stellar-grade energy weapon in his hand, compressed to the size of a fist. This sight momentarily robbed her of her ability to think.

That was a strategic-grade energy weapon, not some scattered spiritual energy drifting in the air.

Lin Ye turned his head to look in the direction where Kent and the others were. He slowly raised his right hand toward that direction. The colorful right forearm of the Information Armor covered his lower arm.

"This is a return gift. Please don't stand on ceremony."

Lin Ye rotated his right hand into a fist, and then the right forearm of the Information Armor vanished.

'... The effect is average. After all, it's a skill just researched. It still needs improvement.'

"Take me to your Holy City."

Lin Ye paid no attention to the enemies who survived his return gift. After all, this was just a return gift. He decided to first establish a base, then consider other action plans.

"Yes!"

Martha suppressed her excited emotions, turned around, and led the way.

"Damn it! What the hell was that thing?!"

Kent severed his arm, which had turned multicolored. The combat squad that came with him was already completely wiped out. Out of the hundred-person team, only two survivors remained.

"It should be some kind of mental attack related to information flow. The opponent's mental energy is extremely powerful. We cannot judge his strength based on his spiritual energy tier."

Delger stood beside Kent. He wasn't injured, but his body occasionally produced uncontrollable slight tremors.

"... Before launching the attack, did that system Survivor grab the meteor with his bare hands? Was that a mental illusion?"

Kent used a medical kit to install a new arm. The scene of the opponent grabbing the meteor with his bare hands shocked him even more than the subsequent mental attack.

"Unfortunately, that almost certainly wasn't a mental illusion. High energy would affect mental illusions. If he could create a flawless mental illusion while defending against the meteor, then he wouldn't have needed to create a mental illusion in the first place. And we wouldn't have survived his mental attack."

Delger understood perfectly well what it meant to grab a meteor with bare hands. Precisely because of this, he couldn't believe that a being of Lin Ye's tier would appear in a place like this.

The system maintained a certain fairness in terms of rules. Those natives absolutely had no possibility of summoning an existence of this tier.

"He must have used some kind of one-time item originating from the system, and he was severely injured under the meteor's attack. Otherwise, he wouldn't have let us go!"

Kent immediately thought of one possibility.

"... You're right. I'll pursue him now."

As the strongest member of this combat squad, Delger excelled at close-quarters decapitation strikes.

"... No. First, return to base and report the situation. We cannot confirm if the opponent has other means originating from the system. You pursuing alone might lead to trouble."

Kent turned and began retreating toward the direction of the base.

"Is this also one of your abilities?"

Sitting in the back seat of the sports car, Martha curiously observed the car's interior decorations. The inside of the sports car was a very comfortable space, about twenty square meters in size. The seats were extremely soft, the temperature was pleasant, and a pleasant fragrance floated in the air.

"This is just a means of transportation. It's also my first time using this card. It would be even better if it came with a driver."

Lin Ye took a can of ice-cold cola from the sports car's built-in refrigerator. He suddenly thought of Xiao Bai. As a bionic guide, she was somewhat excessively outstanding.

"Can't it drive automatically?"

Martha didn't understand why Lin Ye still wanted a driver.

"A driver's job isn't just driving. I want a helper to handle miscellaneous tasks for me."

Lin Ye could also control Mutation Creatures to handle miscellaneous tasks, but that would require him to divide his attention for micro-management. Essentially, he would still be the one doing the work.

"Can I be your driver? Although I don't know how to drive, I can learn."

Martha felt this job had more future prospects.

"No. I need you to help me communicate with your side."

Lin Ye looked out the window. That compressed energy sphere was still held in his hand. He was thinking about how to deal with this thing.

When he grabbed this energy weapon, it wasn't actually as effortless as it looked.

First, he used the Falling Rule Fragment to slow the energy weapon's descent speed. Then, he utilized the mental network formed by the Parasitic Butterflies that had flown to various locations to analyze and take control of the entire energy weapon's operational principles.

The mental network was constructed from duplicates of the mental parasite. Since the main body of the mental parasite was under Lin Ye's control, the mental network was naturally also under his command.

This was the parasitic mental network combat system Lin Ye had researched during this period.

That information flow attack, which served as the return gift, was also transmitted through the parasitic mental network. During his morning work, Lin Ye had learned a little about the basics of information flow attacks. And he happened to have the Information Armor, which he could use to launch attacks by harnessing its information flow.

"Understood. Then, can I recommend a driver to you?"

Martha still hadn't given up on this important driver job.