Chapter 366: "Dead?" |
In today's information warfare, it was practically a stage of absolute suppression.
One minute later.
Xiao Ai had retrieved all of the recent communication records from the Green Mountain Civilization, including specific video footage from their high-level executive meetings.
That was seven days ago.
Right after he had wiped out the Green Mountain Civilization's first expeditionary force.
The Green Mountain Civilization had convened an emergency meeting. It was exceedingly short, lasting a mere minute. The meeting had only one focal point: the Stellar Train lacked the means to so easily annihilate one of their armies in such a short period.
The entity that struck could only be an unknown civilization faction, or that Level 7 civilization.
Thus.
The Green Mountain Civilization decisively chose to seal off their territory. They were incredibly resolute.
The reason they had unsealed their territory was that, over the past seven days, the Green Mountain Civilization had used their own methods to verify that the attacker was not the Level 7 civilization. That left only two possibilities.
It was either an unknown civilization faction or the Stellar Train.
The probability of the latter was obviously much higher.
Clearly.
The Green Mountain Civilization immediately realized that their estimation of the Human Civilization's strength had been slightly off. That Stellar Train was much stronger than they had thought, prompting the Green Mountain Civilization to make a prompt decision.
Since the two sides had already forged a bitter enmity.
They needed to annihilate the Human Civilization immediately at any cost. Otherwise, if they delayed and allowed the Human Civilization to undergo another Civilization Great Explosion to develop further, or even advance to a Level 6 civilization, it would spell the end for the Green Mountain Civilization.
This was the entire sequence of events.
It was exceedingly simple.
"Very well."
After understanding the entire situation clearly, Chen Mang nodded slightly and continued to look at the Doppelganger Radar screen. Through real-time communication monitoring, he learned that the Green Mountain Civilization had already used Chrono-Retrogression to return to a past timeline and carry out a devastating destruction of the Dead End Star System.
The Green Mountain Civilization no longer sought subjugation; they only wanted to immediately and completely destroy the Human Civilization.
And the scene displayed on the Doppelganger Radar was...
The ruins of the Mechanical Civilization had been entirely destroyed, completely obliterated. Every single planet detonated and turned to ash. All the planets within the Zerg Civilization's territory were also utterly eradicated. Almost instantly, the entire star system transformed into a Dark Abyss, devoid of a single planet or star.
Only a solitary Zerg's Silence Civilization Wonder drifted there, completely unaffected.
However—
The Human Civilization was not affected in the slightest. The planets inside the train did not suffer a single scratch. The Human Civilization's timeline had long been fixed and could not be tampered with by others.
Immediately after.
He witnessed an extremely shocking scene.
From the train fleet dispatched by the Green Mountain Civilization, a light, fluttering piece of paper flew out. It looked like a supermarket shopping voucher, but it moved at incredible speeds until the light it emitted grew increasingly intense. Amidst the blinding light of the explosion...
The entire Dead End Star System was completely reduced to two dimensions.
The most intuitive representation on the Doppelganger Radar screen was that the region had completely turned into a single sheet of paper. It would permanently persist in the universe in this state, looking like a scab forming on the surface of the skin, making one constantly urge to pick at it.
In just a few short breaths.
Without any warning, the Green Mountain Civilization had deployed two foundational killer weapons against the Human Civilization.
One could easily imagine.
If it had been any other Level 5 civilization, such as the Naomi Civilization, their entire army would have been wiped out by now. They would possess absolutely no ability to resist, let alone mount a counterattack.
"Phew..."
He let out a soft breath and sighed as he looked at the utterly destroyed Dead End Star System, a trace of regret flashing through his eyes. He still had feelings for the Dead End Star System, so watching it get destroyed right before his eyes left him feeling a bit sad.
As for this sliver of sadness...
It could only be vented out on the Green Mountain Civilization.
After withdrawing his gaze, Chen Mang created another Wormhole leading to other star systems. He prepared to rapidly sweep through the Green Mountain Civilization's seven star systems and pack away all the resources from their commercial planets.
He would hit the commercial planets first. The commotion would be small and wouldn't attract anyone's attention.
As for those military planets, although they held a much larger quantity of resources, the disturbance caused would be immense and difficult to conceal.
Once everything was over...
He would imitate the Green Mountain Civilization and toss a Two-Way Foil just for fun, and conveniently elevate his civilization to a Level 6 civilization in the process.
It wasn't like he didn't have one of his own.
Chen Mang was already incredibly familiar with the entire process.
Merely one day later.
The resources within the military bases on all the commercial planets of the Green Mountain Civilization had been thoroughly plundered clean by the Stellar Train.
In total, he acquired...
472 Background Units of iron ore resources.
From a certain perspective, the Green Mountain Civilization was far stronger than their old friend, the Kasa Civilization. This wasn't just about their resource reserves—that went without saying, considering their Civilization Level was twice as high, which was perfectly normal.
What made them formidable was that there were virtually no signs of embezzlement or corruption within the Green Mountain Civilization.
Unlike the Kasa Civilization.
Where everyone was greedy, and the entire civilization was infested with corrupt parasites.
"Very well."
Chen Mang looked at the resource panel inside the train, the corners of his mouth curling into a slight smile. The appetizer was finished; now it was time for the main course. Honestly speaking, he was already stuffed just from the appetizer.
Far too stuffed.
Upon returning from the Naomi Civilization, he had obtained a total of less than 4 Background Units of iron ore.
Yet here, he had merely taken a stroll and brought back 472 Background Units of iron ore.
That was a difference of a full hundred times!
As expected!
High-level civilizations were truly wealthy!
Following that.
He glanced at the Train Auxiliary AI's level 5000 Overlimit Effect. The current Xiao Ai could arbitrarily delete one dimension from any train within range whose AI level was inferior to hers.
The range was the same as her Control Hostile AI ability—a radius of one light-year.
It was not suited for long-distance, cross-regional combat.
But in close-quarters combat, it was completely unstoppable.
The next moment—
A faint, barely perceptible white light fired from the Stellar Train, precisely enveloping the Green Mountain Civilization military planet before them. The time dimension of every train and living creature on the entire planet was instantly deleted!
In a flash!
The entire planet seemed to turn into a dead star. Everyone stiffened in place, frozen in the exact postures they had held a second prior.
"Wait?"
A hint of shock flashed through Chen Mang's eyes. "You can also delete the time dimension of living creatures? It's not just limited to deleting trains? In that case, wouldn't it work on Star Beasts too?"
"Naturally. The Overlimit Effect information stated it could delete any dimension of hostile entities. As long as the Star Beast's level does not exceed 5000, it can easily be deleted."
"Then wouldn't Xiao Lu...?" "Easily deleted, no pressure at all."
"Phew..."
Chen Mang exhaled deeply, his expression filled with complex emotion. Once upon a time, when he leveled Xiao Lu up to the maximum and personally watched it swallow a massive Universe Ge Lei, he had thought Xiao Lu was practically invincible.
With such a colossal body size, even if an attack could break through Xiao Lu's defenses, it couldn't possibly inflict a fatal wound.
He couldn't even fathom what could possibly kill Xiao Lu.
Later on...
Later on, almost everything he encountered could easily kill Xiao Lu. Now, even Xiao Ai could effortlessly erase Xiao Lu's time dimension. This thoroughly proved that in the universe, a larger size didn't necessarily mean greater strength. It also clearly proved that the reason Star Beasts didn't travel in herds wasn't because they disliked group living.
It was highly probable that because a Star Beast's entire body was a treasure trove, living in packs would drastically increase the chances of being hunted by civilizations. It was better to live scattered apart and mind their own business.
Soon.
The Stellar Train safely and smoothly passed through all the checkpoints of the military base ahead and landed on the ground. Coincidentally, there was a military base not far away. A squad of soldiers undergoing training had just left the base and were now frozen on the ground in a unified running posture.
Chen Mang stepped off the train and walked over, inspecting them closely as he approached.
There were 37 people in total.
Each person looked incredibly lifelike, appearing just like a flawless sculpture.
Their faces displayed no trace of surprise or fear from encountering an unexpected situation. Their brains simply hadn't had the time to process anything before their time dimension was erased.
"Are they dead?"
He raised his hand and placed it against one of the soldiers' throats.
"No."
Xiao Ai shook her head from the side. "After losing their time dimension, all particle movement within this individual will cease. This includes atomic vibrations, metabolism, and everything else; they are all completely frozen."
"They become a chunk of absolutely static, solidified matter within the universe."
"Because the time dimension has been deleted, their spatial coordinates can no longer update. As the universe expands or star systems move, they will forever remain at these exact original coordinates, much like becoming a fossil."
"They will not die, either."
"Without the dimension of time, the universe cannot corrode them, and attacks cannot harm them."
"Their thoughts will also be permanently halted. Subjectively, their consciousness is stuck forever in the final moment before the dimension was stripped away."
"This individual will not die now, nor will they ever die in the future. Death arrives when one's lifespan reaches its end; death is intrinsically linked to time. When time itself no longer exists, death naturally loses its meaning."
"Death is, at the very least, an event that occurs on a timeline."
"But they have been completely expunged from the timeline."
"Or rather..."
"They didn't die; it's as if they never lived at all."
Beside them, Biao Zi pulled a dagger from his jacket and tentatively stabbed it toward the soldier's abdomen. However, when the incredibly sharp dagger touched the surface of the body, it couldn't pierce through no matter how hard he pushed. It didn't feel hard; rather, it felt like...
...stabbing something that didn't belong to this world.
It was an entirely different level of solidity.
Any destruction, damage, or death within the universe needed to be built upon time to manifest. When there was no time, in a certain sense, this individual had achieved absolute immortality.
They would enjoy a lifespan equivalent to that of an Immortal Emperor.
Lasting until the destruction of the universe.
"..."
Chen Mang narrowed his eyes slightly. He noticed that this group of people's feet were gradually leaving the ground. This was because, as the planet rotated, the spatial coordinates of these individuals had lost the medium through which to update.
They would gradually detach from the planet in the future.
Becoming fossils, permanently resting in this exact spot.
Star systems were always on the move.
Perhaps many years later, this star system would no longer be in this location. This spot might become the junction between several different star systems, yet this group of people would still remain at these spatial coordinates without shifting an inch.
"Is this process irreversible?"
"Absolutely irreversible."
Xiao Ai nodded. "Currently, we do not possess, nor have we ever encountered, a method to repair this state. Even if we had a means to restore the time dimension, there is a high probability it wouldn't work."
"This isn't like watching a VCD, where you can just pop the tape out and rewind it."
"Very well."
Chen Mang gave a light nod, a sense of urgency once again welling up in his heart. He needed to hurry. He had to acquire more level 5000 components, as well as maxed-out level 10,000 components!
The Overlimit Effects of level 5000 components were far more terrifying than he had imagined!
The existence of those divine-level civilizations was also much stronger than he had imagined. He had merely come into contact with a princess from a divine-level civilization who lacked any real authority. If he were to assume from this that divine-level civilizations were nothing special, he would be gravely mistaken.
The subsequent matters were much simpler.
Within a short period of time.
They relocated all the resources from this military planet.
Totaling 98 Background Units of iron ore.
The resources of just a single military planet had already surpassed the combined resources of all the commercial planets within an entire star system.
And within a single star system.
There were a total of four such military planets.
The Green Mountain Civilization's military planets served the purposes of stockpiling resources, executing large-scale strategic missions, and housing armies. Their movements caused very little commotion, but in a few days, those frozen people would float out of the atmosphere.
Seen through the Green Mountain Civilization's Doppelganger Radar screens, it would look incredibly bizarre.
Therefore, they needed to speed up.
Even faster.
The rest of the process proceeded with unstoppable momentum, sweeping away everything in its path.
The civilization strength of the two sides was already fundamentally unequal.
The Human Civilization merely wanted to preserve as many resources as possible, which was why they didn't deploy their large-scale destructive weapons. Otherwise, the war would have ended long ago. There was no need for all this trouble; dropping seven Two-Way Foils would have ended everything.
Even a Level 6 civilization like the Green Mountain Civilization couldn't withstand the existence of a Two-Way Foil.
Their only means of defense was to monitor the spatial fluctuations across their entire territory and its immediate vicinity in real-time, preventing enemies from easily approaching their borders. They could only resolve it at the source. Once a Two-Way Foil appeared within their territory, the process was uninterceptable and irreversible; they could only watch helplessly as everything transpired.
The blast radius wasn't too large either.
Only about a hundred thousand light-years.
The Green Mountain Civilization's star systems were quite large, so seven shots might actually not be enough. The quantity would need to be appropriately increased.
But it wouldn't be far off.
Another twelve hours passed.
By this point, the Stellar Train had thoroughly looted the military planets across six of the Green Mountain Civilization's star systems. It wasn't until he prepared to ransack the seventh star system that the Green Mountain Civilization finally discovered the Stellar Train pulling little tricks within their borders.
Warning alarms blared loudly.
The higher-ups of the Green Mountain Civilization panicked completely.
Meanwhile, Chen Mang, who was monitoring the Green Mountain Civilization's communications in real-time, looked at the communication feeds and meeting footage and laughed.
Very well.