The No. 1 Hunfen King in the Entire Server [Interstellar] Chapter 33

—Click.

The sound of the camera shutter echoed crisply through the submarine, accompanied by Xu Wanzhi’s words.

It struck Lin Jing like a bolt of lightning.

His head shot up to look at Xu Wanzhi, his eyes wide as if he’d just seen a ghost.

Xu Wanzhi’s deep black eyes admired Lin Jing’s expression for a long moment before he finally couldn’t hold back and turned his head away, letting out a soft chuckle.

Lin Jing: “???”

Bro, we’re about to die here, and you’re laughing?!

Karl, meanwhile, was quite pleased with himself. “Perfect. This photo is practically a masterpiece. I wonder if Survivor will let us keep it as a souvenir when we get out.”

Ke Lingxuan laughed. “Wishful thinking. You know Survivor is designed to make players suffer at every turn.”

She was still joking when the short-haired girl standing by the window suddenly let out a sharp scream, shattering the lighthearted mood inside the submarine.

“Look at the Dunkleosteus!” she cried, stumbling back in horror.

Everyone followed her gaze, and their faces instantly froze in shock.

The camera flash had been deliberately designed as a trigger to provoke ancient creatures in this simulation. And sure enough, just like the sharks and other prehistoric fish before it, the Dunkleosteus went into a violent rage after being photographed. But unlike those other creatures, this ancient apex predator’s fury was on a completely different level.

Its upper body was encased in thick, impenetrable armor, still stained with traces of blood. Now, it looked like a deep-sea nightmare coming to life—two enormous, cold eyes gleaming as they locked onto the submarine.

Then, its massive jaws opened wide, and it suddenly surged forward, diving straight down toward them.

From the window, all they could see was its gaping maw, lined with razor-sharp, bloodstained jaw blades.

The water churned violently as the Dunkleosteus cut through the waves, sending the submarine rocking precariously.

Inside the control room, the force of impact sent everyone staggering, grabbing onto whatever they could to keep from being thrown around.

The short-haired girl clutched her head and screamed, “It’s coming for us!”

Everyone’s faces turned pale.

The black-jacketed man, a novice at piloting, could barely manage to steer the submarine under normal conditions—handling a crisis like this was far beyond his abilities. Panicked and frustrated, he snapped at the short-haired girl, “Can you shut the h*ll up?!”

Tears streamed down her face as she wailed, “Are we going to die here?!”

Sweat dripped down the black-jacketed man’s face as he gritted his teeth. “Shut up! Can you do anything besides cry and complain?”

But things were only getting worse.

At first, the Dunkleosteus merely rammed the submarine with its head. Then, growing more agitated, it opened its mouth and bit down on the vessel’s hull.

Even from inside, they could feel the terrifying force of the impact. The submarine, built with cutting-edge synthetic metals from the interstellar era, visibly dented under the ancient creature’s crushing bite.

The emergency alarm blared as red warning lights flashed incessantly, intensifying the group’s fear.

The submarine rocked violently, as if trapped in a vortex, the shadow of the Dunkleosteus looming over them from above.

Even Elena seemed shaken. She stared blankly and muttered, “Is this thing… really about to tear the submarine apart?”

The short-haired girl burst into angry, tearful screams. “This is your fault! If you hadn’t taken the sub out, we wouldn’t be in this mess! We used to be able to just press our wristbands and escape safely! This is all your fault, you heartless b*tch!”

Even Ke Lingxuan, usually the most patient of the group, was fed up. She shot the girl a cold look. “And? What’s the point of blaming people now? No one forced you to agree to this plan in the first place.”

The short-haired girl bit her lip, rendered speechless, though her eyes still burned with resentment.

From the very first day, Lin Jing had known better than to rely on his teammates. So this scene didn’t surprise him at all, nor did he care to waste time on people throwing tantrums. Setting his codex aside, he got up and strode to the control panel. Without hesitation, he grabbed the black-jacketed man by the collar and said calmly, “Move.”

The black-jacketed man, already frantic, snapped, “Don’t f*cking distract me right now!”

Lin Jing took a deep breath. Just a moment ago, he’d been lamenting how uneventful this game felt. Now, the universe had clearly decided to slap him with a reality check.

Also, screw this d*mn submarine. What a hunk of junk. He was never stepping onto this piece of crap again.

Ignoring the black-jacketed man’s protests, Lin Jing yanked him aside and took the pilot’s seat himself.

The man stumbled and fell, smacking his head. Furious, he rolled up his sleeves, ready to throw down.

Ke Lingxuan stopped him with a sigh. “Wait.”

She glanced at Lin Jing.

The red warning lights flashed frantically, casting a glow over the young man’s calm, focused face.

In a soft voice, she said, “Just watch him.”

Lin Jing swiftly activated the submarine’s emergency escape protocol.

This vessel wasn’t built for combat; it was just a temporary safe haven. Its only true security lay in the kelp forest—the one absolute sanctuary in this prehistoric world. But now that they’d left that refuge, there was no going back.

With no weapons and no escape pods, their only option was to run.

To dodge the Dunkleosteus’s attacks and survive until the next mass extinction event.

Lin Jing had flown spacecraft as a child, so maneuvering this submarine was practically second nature to him. The only problem was his low clearance level, which prevented him from accessing the highest control settings. But with his reflexes, the intermediate mode was more than enough.

As soon as Lin Jing took over, the submarine came to life. It went from being a sluggish, battered target to a nimble, evasive escapee, darting through the water like a fish.

The entire cabin fell into stunned silence.

The black-jacketed man was dumbstruck.

The others, unfamiliar with mecha piloting, only thought Lin Jing’s movements were impressive. But for someone like the black-jacketed man, who actually understood what was happening, the realization was terrifying.

Was this even humanly possible?

Every single maneuver—adjusting heading, depth, and tilt—was executed without delay. Lin Jing weaved through the Dunkleosteus’s lunges and strikes with impossible precision.

Unlike driving a car, where you only had to worry about surface friction and resistance, piloting a submarine meant constantly accounting for shifting weight distribution, ocean pressure, and underwater currents.

But that wasn’t even the most terrifying part.

Straight-line navigation was simple—h*ll, the black-jacketed man could do that himself.

But what Lin Jing was pulling off right now—the dizzying, multi-directional evasion, seamlessly maneuvering across all six degrees of freedom in three-dimensional space—was absolutely insane.

The data calculations required for this were immense. The submarine had an operational delay—even a mere ten-second delay would have been enough for them to end up as fish food. The fact that they had made it this far could only mean… Lin Jing had already calculated the submarine’s entire movement trajectory in his mind beforehand.

The man in the black jacket didn’t even dare to breathe, his gaze fixed rigidly on Lin Jing’s hands.

Was this something a human could do?

Xu Wanzhi was probably the only one who remained calm. Propping his chin on his hand, he watched Lin Jing without blinking, his eyes carrying a faint smile.

The others were shaken to the point of nausea, but fortunately, after maneuvering around countless obstacles and reefs, the submarine had finally managed to temporarily shake off the Dunkleosteus.

However, as the dominant predator of the sea and a vertebrate, the Dunkleosteus was naturally not slow. Enraged, it pursued them relentlessly.

This was a heart-pounding chase for survival, and all they could do was watch in stunned silence.

Ke Lingxuan’s gaze was filled with complicated emotions. At first, she had a favorable impression of Lin Jing simply because he was good-looking.

But Lin Jing’s kind of good looks were different from Xu Wanzhi’s cold, sharp, and intimidating presence.

Lin Jing was more like a college student untouched by the world—gentle, clean-cut, and with a clear, bright smile that easily won people over.

When she saw him always sticking with Xu Wanzhi, she had assumed he was just an innocent younger guy who needed his boyfriend’s protection and guidance.

She never expected… that in the end, it was Lin Jing who stood up to protect everyone.

Of course, Lin Jing himself wasn’t exactly happy about “standing up to protect everyone” either. In reality, he had just been naïve and inexperienced, accidentally boarding a doomed ship and having no choice but to fight for his survival!

Well, not exactly accidentally—he had willingly come aboard. And Xu Wanzhi had definitely done this on purpose, showing him firsthand the consequences of disobedience.

…Tch.

Clenching his teeth, Lin Jing remained exceptionally calm despite the dire situation, skillfully maneuvering the submarine toward a narrow strait.

Though the Dunkleosteus sat at the top of the food chain, nature had not granted it an indestructible stomach. On the contrary, its digestive system was quite poor. After a prolonged deep-sea chase—especially after just having eaten—it became even more agitated and slowed down.

Just as everyone was about to breathe a sigh of relief—

Suddenly, the red lights on their wristbands lit up!

All nine of them. At the same time.

The countdown on the wristbands had unknowingly reached 10.

“It’s about to be nighttime?”

The nearsighted man murmured, looking a bit lost.

He didn’t quite understand what that meant.

The short-haired girl wiped the sweat from her forehead, still relieved from their brush with death. “It’s just nighttime. What’s there to be scared of? Time outside doesn’t affect us. We got through last night just fine, didn’t we?”

Everyone thought about it and realized she had a point.

They had survived the transition from the Silurian to the Devonian just like this before.

But Ke Lingxuan’s face was turning paler and paler under the red glow of the wristband. She shook her head. “No… no, it’s different this time.”

Elena frowned in confusion. “Different? How?”

Ke Lingxuan’s lips trembled as she stared blankly at the darkening ocean outside.

The massive creatures swimming through the depths were beginning to show signs of aging and decline.

Her voice shook as she spoke. “Tonight… the Second Mass Extinction will occur.”

The Second Mass Extinction.

Everyone froze.

Ke Lingxuan continued, “All of our previous assumptions were based on the absolute safety of the submarine. But now, even just one Dunkleosteus was enough to nearly crush it. The catastrophic destruction brought by the Second Mass Extinction… there’s no way the submarine will survive that.”

Lin Jing halted the submarine above an ocean trench, refusing to move forward.

The short-haired girl swallowed hard. “The Second Mass Extinction… what exactly is it?”

As she spoke those words, Lin Jing turned his gaze toward Xu Wanzhi.

After surviving the Dunkleosteus encounter, he had come to understand that Xu Wanzhi was only helping him out of boredom. Whether the group perished or not didn’t matter to him—he treated it with the same careless, indifferent attitude as the last game.

Xu Wanzhi responded with a smile. In the heavy, oppressive atmosphere, he spoke, but his words were meant for Lin Jing alone: “A super mantle plume eruption. This time, you’d better choose your strait wisely.”

A mantle plume eruption.

Just those words were enough to conjure up a scene of catastrophic devastation.