Chapter 278: I've Got You

“I have prepared 500 billion asteroids for you, ready to crash into the star.

Once the impacts occur, you know roughly how much energy will be released. You also know roughly how hostile the environment of the star will become because of these impacts.

Now, I’m giving you two choices.

One: total extinction. Two: surrender to me!

There are no other options! Now, tell me your choice!”

At this point, merely coexisting peacefully and leaving each other alone was no longer enough to satisfy Li Qingsong.

‘Before I dismantled this dwarf planet, I would have been satisfied if you had simply agreed to coexist peacefully with me.’

‘Now that I’ve dismantled the dwarf planet, if I’m still satisfied with just peaceful coexistence, then wouldn’t that mean I dismantled it for nothing?!’

‘Now, it’s surrender or die!’

Lyra G16 is a star similar to the Sun. For a star this massive, objects in its outer system possess immense gravitational potential energy.

This meant that Li Qingsong didn’t actually need to add much velocity to these asteroids—a project of that scale was so immense that even he couldn’t accomplish it.

He only needed to alter their orbits; the star itself would handle the subsequent acceleration.

Under the star’s Gravity, these asteroids would accelerate faster and faster, reaching a velocity of approximately 620 kilometers per second.

Impacting at this speed, even if only 10% of their kinetic energy was released, the 500 billion asteroids would unleash a total of approximately 9.6 x 10^30 joules of energy.

In terms of TNT, this is equivalent to the energy released by the simultaneous detonation of roughly 230 quintillion tons of TNT—a full 1,500 times more than the energy Li Qingsong released previously with the simultaneous explosion of thirty thousand Hydrogen Bomb ships!

Li Qingsong was certain that with such an immense release of energy, no matter how resilient or skilled at hiding those Electromagnetic Creatures were, they could not possibly survive the asteroid impacts.

With the completion of the dwarf-planet-dismantling mission, the lives of the Electromagnetic Creatures were now truly in his hands. A single command from him was all it would take to annihilate them all.

Of course, Li Qingsong hoped these Electromagnetic Creatures would surrender and become his allies, a force he could rely on in the future fight against the Intelligent Mechanical Calamity.

Just briefly considering the unique abilities of the Electromagnetic Creatures, augmented by the developments of a technological civilization, Li Qingsong could already imagine numerous ‘applications’—each one with the potential for immense utility.

But if they still chose to refuse, then despite their immense value, Li Qingsong would have no choice but to exterminate them.

Li Qingsong waited patiently for the reply from the Electromagnetic Creatures.

Before long, another electromagnetic signal emanated from the star.

“Kill, kill, kill! Kill all technological, intelligent civilizations!

Either you will be completely exterminated, or we will be!

Even if you flee this Interstellar System, we will follow you! Wherever you go, we will go! This ends only when one of us is dead!”

Sigh…

Li Qingsong let out a soft sigh.

‘The Harville Civilization spent a thousand years trying to tame them and failed. What made me think I had any special ability to make a species like this submit?’

‘In that case, I have no choice but to destroy you.’

…

「Deep space, aboard the Honor Spaceship.」

Haimo Lan stood silently before a viewport, his expression grave as he watched the sea of stars wheel by outside.

A secretary hurried over and said in a low voice, “Supreme Leader, the long-range observation team just detected an energy burst of unprecedented intensity from the Lyra G16 Star. It was over 1,500 times stronger than the previous eruption.

As a result, the star’s luminosity briefly spiked by a factor of over one thousand, and its surface temperature increased by nearly ten thousand degrees Celsius.

The observation team is unable to confirm the type of eruption, but they are certain it was caused by an external influence rather than the star’s natural activity.

The intelligence analysis team believes this was deliberately triggered by Human Civilization through some external means, with the clear objective of eliminating the Electromagnetic Creatures entrenched on the star.

Based on our prior knowledge of the Electromagnetic Creatures, they could not possibly have survived such a violent stellar eruption.

The intelligence analysis team unanimously agrees that Human Civilization has completely eliminated this threat, freeing them from the menace of the Electromagnetic Creatures.”

‘With that problem solved, Human Civilization could now focus all its efforts on development, stockpiling resources, and preparing for its next interstellar voyage.’

‘And there was a considerable chance they would come after us, posing a threat to us.’

‘This was undeniably bad news.’

But right now, this bad news failed to cause even a ripple in Haimo Lan’s heart.

The threat his fleet was currently facing far exceeded any potential threat from Human Civilization.

‘Compared to that, the humans were the least of his worries.’

The fleet of unknown origin was still closing in on them. Despite employing various evasive tactics—like low-power maneuvers and deploying decoys—they had failed to shake the threat.

Now, the distance between their fleet and the enemy had shrunk to less than 300 billion kilometers.

Sigh…

Haimo Lan sighed, his mind heavy with worry, and walked into Conference Room One.

The civilization’s high command was already seated, and every face in the room was grim.

“Supreme Leader, I must once again suggest that it’s time to consider scattering the fleet and attempting to escape.

If we remain clustered together like this, we’ll just be caught in one fell swoop. By scattering, we at least have a chance to preserve the spark of our civilization!”

Haimo Lan remained silent.

‘Scattering to escape would, of course, offer a greater chance of preserving the spark of their civilization. Who didn’t know that?’

‘Dividing the resources and population evenly, splitting the fleet into four to six separate groups, each fleeing on its own with its fate left to the heavens… it seemed to be the only viable plan.’

‘But making that decision was just so incredibly difficult.’

‘They had already lost half their population. Now, only about 150 billion people remained. Even if they split into four fleets, each would only have a population of around 37.5 billion.’

‘The smaller the population, the lower their ability to withstand risks.’

‘Perhaps after they scattered, even if they managed to escape their pursuers, they would simply perish silently in the vastness of space.’

‘Should they scatter now, or try to find a way to escape together?’

‘It was an impossible decision.’

Just as the high command was endlessly debating whether and how to disperse, a panicked secretary burst into the conference room unannounced.

“Supreme Leader! An emergency! We’ve received an electromagnetic message. We’ve traced the source… it was sent from less than 10 million kilometers away.

The content of the message is… it’s…

I’ve caught you.”