Chapter 302: I Want It All

At that moment, the entire sky was engulfed in the intense light released by the blast, as if the whole Cosmos was ablaze.

A smile of relief finally touched the corners of Li Qingsong’s lips.

When the light from the blast dissipated, Li Qingsong saw that on the vast battlefield of space, the once-aggressive enemy fleet had been drastically reduced from about 500,000 warships to a mere 30,000.

The Unified Force Field had wiped out 94% of the enemy warships! In fact, Li Qingsong estimated that if it weren’t for that new type of Energy Shield, the proportion of destroyed enemy warships would have been at least 99%.

‘That Energy Shield is quite something.’

‘And now, it’s mine.’

A thought crossed Li Qingsong’s mind, and he instantly gave the order to encircle and annihilate the remaining 30,000 warships.

These warships were all completely undamaged.

The Unified Force Field’s attack had a peculiar characteristic: if a ship failed to defend against it and was caught in its wake, even the most minuscule damage would lead to the entire warship’s destruction.

After all, the energy released from the mass-to-energy conversion was simply too immense.

Thus, the enemy warships on the battlefield presented a strange sight: they were either completely destroyed or entirely unscathed.

These 30,000 undamaged warships now faced Li Qingsong’s new wave of attacks.

Normally, 30,000 warships would be a formidable force, capable of resisting for a long time and inflicting heavy casualties, even against an enemy tens of times larger.

But at this moment, perhaps because they were still in shock from the previous scene, the 30,000 warships were incredibly slow to react and showed almost no coordination.

Adding to this was an even more critical factor: there were no unmanned combat units belonging to the Harville-Mechanical Calamity Alliance left on the entire battlefield!

The unmanned combat platforms had weaker defenses and had been completely wiped out by the earlier Unified Force Field attack.

As a result, the 30,000 remaining warships held out for only a few hours before being completely annihilated.

The great battle concluded. All that remained in space was scattered debris and rampant, ubiquitous radiation, a testament to the battle’s ferocity.

Li Qingsong looked up toward a bright star in the depths of space, a smile once again touching his lips.

‘Now… it’s my turn to attack you.’

The massive fleet, composed of hundreds of thousands of warships, set off at full speed, surging toward Planet One.

Meanwhile, the enemy fleet, still reeling from the Stellar Cannon’s strike, had yet to recover from the chaos.

「Honor Spaceship, Conference Room One.」

Haimo Lan sat motionless in his seat, his face pale, not uttering a single word.

The other high-ranking officials of the civilization were either just as silent or shouting in impassioned rage. No one was paying attention to what was actually being said.

Haimo Lan’s thoughts drifted to a day long ago.

On that day, he had made the decision to send a message to the fleet that had suddenly appeared, the one calling itself Human Civilization, inviting them into the Star System, while simultaneously dispatching a fleet to intercept them.

From that day forward, the fate of his entire civilization seemed to have veered onto a different path.

And now…

A secretary burst in frantically, shouting, “Supreme Leader! Supreme Leader! An emergency!”

Haimo Lan lifted his pale face, a weak smile playing on his lips as he asked calmly, “What is it?”

He felt no sense of urgency, even though the secretary was so agitated his face was flushed red.

‘But… what could possibly be an emergency now? What could be so important that it must be done?’

‘It doesn’t matter. None of it matters anymore.’

The secretary yelled, “Our communications network intercepted a public broadcast from the Black Mountain Civilization! The message says: ‘Human Civilization, we request to open negotiations.’ ‘As long as you allow us to leave, we will help you seize control of all the Harville Civilization’s ships and personnel. We will also transfer my complete source code to you, along with all the intelligence, technological data, and anything else of interest that the Black Mountain Civilization possesses. All of it will be yours as compensation.’ ‘My only demand is to be allowed to leave with my masters.'”

A jolt went through Haimo Lan.

‘This actually is a fucking emergency!’

Conference Room One instantly erupted in chaos.

“That son-of-a-bitch Black Mountain Civilization! That bastard Red Dog! How dare they betray us!”

“Those despicable, damn scumbags! We should never have trusted them from the start!”

“If they can do it, so can we! We’ll surrender to the Human Civilization, too!”

“Surrender! Surrender!”

Haimo Lan shot to his feet, his face ashen. He gritted his teeth and said, “Establish a communications link immediately! I’m going to make a public broadcast to the Human Civilization!”

A moment later, a microphone was placed in front of him. “It’s ready!”

Haimo Lan took a step forward and yelled, “Your Excellency, Supreme Leader of the Human Civilization! On behalf of the entire Harville Civilization, I am requesting negotiations!”

“As long as you allow our civilization’s residential and supply ships to leave, we will help you seize control of all the Black Mountain Civilization’s ships and personnel! Furthermore, all the spoils of war will belong to you!”

“All of the Harville Civilization’s technological data, anything you could possibly be interested in—we’ll give it all to you! Just let us leave!”

“I must also remind you that our civilization’s population has fallen to less than 30 billion. Our potential for future development is almost completely exhausted. Even if you let us go, we can no longer pose any threat to you.”

“But the Black Mountain Civilization is different! They are an Intelligent Mechanical Calamity! Without external interference, they can rebuild their strength in a short amount of time and will continue to be a threat to your civilization!”

Haimo Lan was on the verge of madness.

‘As long as we can leave with our remaining population, we’ll agree to any conditions!’

‘You Black Mountain Civilization want to leave with your warships? We of the Harville Civilization will even abandon our warships! All we want are our people and our supplies!’

‘Now, our weakness has become our advantage!’

‘Come on, you despicable Black Mountain Civilization, you lowly Red Dog! Let’s see how you can possibly compete with me now!’

In the depths of space, against the backdrop of the massive star and a still-chaotic Planet One, the already shell-shocked Alliance fleet instantly began to splinter.

The fleets belonging to the two factions rapidly separated, regrouped, and then, without a moment’s hesitation, began attacking each other. The battlefield descended into utter chaos in an instant.

Amid the chaos, messages requesting negotiations and surrender continued to be broadcast, one after another.

A smile appeared once more on Li Qingsong’s lips.

‘The Black Mountain Civilization… the complete source code for the Red Dog AI? All their intelligence and information?’

‘The Harville Civilization… the Variable Energy Shield and all their technological data?’

‘Such good prizes. It’s really hard to choose…’

‘In that case, I won’t choose.’

‘I… want… them… ALL!’