Age of Cosmic Exploration

The red ball dashed across the expanse of space with incredible speed. The AI fleet only managed to fire at it twice before the red ball entered the ranks of the AI fleet. The landing ships seemed to be made out of paper when faced with the red ball. There was no spaceship left after the red ball arched past the skies of the City of Light Moon.

"It’s the Chancellor. The Chancellor has returned to fight alongside us!"

Those who saw this red ball cheered and roared. Even though there was still fear and anxiety, they weren’t lost anymore. This war, be it victorious or failure, they would fight alongside Yao Yuan, so they weren’t lost anymore...

One had to admit that the energy particle flux system was incredibly powerful. This was another variation to use the super-powered energy shield. This super-powered energy shield was stronger than normal energy shields and it used a different manipulation of the particles to create an energy neutralization effect to enable the super-powered energy shield to phase through normal energy shields. Of course, this required an exhaustion of a certain amount of energy.

This super-powered energy shield was the peak of the usage of plasma shields. This was Bo Li’s pride. It’s technological advancement was on the same level as the psychological control system. However, when these two systems were used at the same time, the pressure on the pilot would be too high. Therefore, one shouldn’t use them in tandem unless the situation desperately called for it.

Yao Yuan understood why the password was called "Last Length", it was the last length after all the other options ran out. When he entered this mode, it was as if he had entered an energy world. In his vision was a glowing energy flow, and the space around him was limitlessly zoomed in or zoomed out. Every single one of his senses were enhanced by several hundred or thousand times, whether it was pain, colors, noises, even the elevation. In that one second, he would have experienced the amount of sensory simulation that would be compiled over several days. It was something that was really hard to be described by words.

But...

Yao Yuan tried to ignore his head that was spinning and controlled the Red Lightning as it rushed towards the group of landing ships. If this was a real battle, the Red Lightning should have gone to "bully" those large motherships, but since this fleet wasn’t controlled by a sentient lifeform, they wouldn’t be cornered by Yao Yuan. They wouldn’t call back their ships simply because the motherships were under attack. Humanity had to take down all the landing ships; otherwise, once the City of Light Moon was taken over, even if humanity later destroyed all the spaceships, the fate of extinction would be inevitable.

The war continued to rage on...

Zhang San piloted a Space Combat Jet and followed behind the main fleet carefully. He was looking for an opening, an opening to go deep into the enemy fleet. He was looking for a ship. It couldn’t be perfectly preserved spaceship because the ship’s energy shield would stop him from getting too close, and it couldn’t be a broken spaceship either because that would defeat the purpose.

In fact, Zhang San had actually snuck out. Since he was a Black Star Trooper, he was assigned a Space Combat Jet. The battlefield was covered with creator’s particles, so once he left the mothership, there was no way for Guang Zhen to call him back. The main issue now was how he was going to enter an AI spaceship. Pretend to be enslaved? But there was no telling whether the robots would capture him alive. After all, this was a battlefield...

" What to do now, what to do now..."

Zhang San was fretting as he piloted the Space Combat Jet. If his Anima power was as developed as Xi Kong’s, he would have contacted Yao Yuan to ask for his opinion. He was caught between a rock and a hard place. Infiltrating the ranks of the enemy spaceships was harder than he predicted. However, he knew he couldn’t drag this on. Zhang San could see the battles that were happening above the City of Light Moon. There was a ray of red that was dashing across the place, creating plenty of explosions. This was Yao Yuan fighting the good fight. It looked impressive, but everyone knew that the stronger the Homo Evolutis weapon, the bigger the exhaustion it would have on the pilot. It was the same for the strongest Homo Evolutis, Yao Yuan.

Zhang San had something akin to a blind faith in Yao Yuan. Even though Yao Yuan had openly banned personal idolization, since this faith had nothing to do with politics, it was practically a religion. He would sacrifice his own life to save Yao Yuan’s. Furthermore, the place those landing ships were going to land on was his home!

Suddenly, a silver ball flashed before Zhang San. Then a guardian spaceship shattered into pieces. Seeing this, an idea appeared in Zhang San’s mind. He immediately turned to ask Intel beside him, "That’s... a Steel Ball? Intel, can you contact that Steel Ball?"

Intel naturally had caught a glimpse of that Steel Ball. He asked instantly, "I can, Zhang San... you’re prepared to accept my suggestion?"

"Yes, this is our only chance, right? Intel..."

Zhang San smirked as he drove towards the Steel Ball. This ruined the formation of three jets per unit, but since Zhang San’s unit consisted of him alone, this wasn’t much of an issue. However, plenty of Black Star Troopers saw this, and they wondered why this Space Combat Jet was heading towards a Steel Ball.

However, the Steel Ball’s speed and agility was not something the Space Combat Jet could rival. Therefore, in the next few minutes, the only thing Zhang San could do was trail behind the Steel Ball. He couldn’t get close enough to the range of the Steel Ball’s creator’s particle zone. This caused him to be flustered and tickled. Finally, he had to try to use his Anima power to gain contact with the Steel Ball pilot. Of course, he didn’t dare to roar or do any such thing in the soul web, he merely nudged the fireball represented by the Steel Ball. As he expected, after the Steel Ball took down several battleships, it started to approach him.

Very soon, Zhang San entered the Steel Ball’s creator’s particle zone and Intel instantly established a channel of communication between them.

"Dear Black Star Trooper, I am trooper Zhang San and I need your help. I... I’ve received a secret mission to transport a computer virus into an undamaged enemy spaceship. However, that is impossible with my Space Combat Jet. I need you to help me lead the way. This is a secret mission and you have to accept it!" When Zhang San said these words, his face was so red. Thankfully, they couldn’t see each other, or the blatant lie would’ve been exposed.

The pilot of the Steel Ball was Amulo. He was so excited he could scream when he heard this. Finally, there’s a mission! Of course, there wouldn’t be just mob-killing, there had to be a main quest. This was normal, this was how a real war should be (?) so he replied, "It’s an escort mission then? No, no, no, you need me to escort you onto an enemy main spaceship? Okay, I understand, leave it to me, hahaha..."

It came as quite a surprise to Zhang San that the opposing Black Star Trooper had bought his lie so easily. Regardless, he didn’t have time to waste. He started to follow behind the Steel Ball that opened the way for him. All the spaceships, landing ships, and shuttles could barely survive for seconds facing the Steel Ball. The efficiency of the Steel Ball made Zhang San’s mouth fall open. Plus, the desire of the Steel Ball pilot was bigger than Zhang San’s. He planned to bring him onto an enemy mothership. However, since the mothership’s shield couldn’t be broken down, they had to give up. They then found a nearby main ship. The Steel Ball shattered the ship’s energy shield and Zhang San quickly rushed in. With the Steel Ball’s help, Zhang San drove the combat jet through a small opening on the main ship’s surface. After he got in, Amulo drove away on a high from completing the escort mission.

Zhang San walked out from the Space Combat Jet in his space armor. To his pleasant surprise, there wasn’t an army of robots to greet him. It was as if this spaceship had no mechanized infantry. Regardless, he didn’t let his guard down. He walked on tip-toes as he led Intel deeper into the spaceship. Then he followed Intel’s directions to locate an electrical port. Intel then connected himself to the spaceship’s system.

"...Data connecting, hacking, password cracked... Decrypting data, entering program, editing program..."

Just as Intel started working, Zhang San saw a group of robots with varying shapes rushing at them from down the corridor. There were about several thousand of them. He swallowed his saliva and pulled out his laser blade. However, suddenly, the eyes of these robots glowed twice before they stopped where they were like they had run out of battery.

"Have you done it? Wonderful! Intel, control this spaceship!" Zhang San yelled excitedly.

"Data decrypted... Discovery of strong data flow! Calculation error! The AI fleet is using the second mode of AI existence. Data overflow, anti-hacking program activated, failed, shut down program initiating, failed, self-destruct program..."

None of them discovered that...

Between these spaceships, no matter how big or how small, every AI spaceship was connected with thin, nano-level metallic wire to the pyramid-shaped motherships...

They were sharing information even within the creator’s particle range!