Chapter 864: Replicates |
Up to this point, Xiao Yu still had no plan for completely destroying the enemy and achieving final victory. He merely had a bit of confidence in holding his own position. As for how this war would end, that would still depend on a detailed analysis based on the subsequent course of the war. Although Xiao Yu already had a certain understanding of this virtual life’s combat power, he still did not know its form of existence, the abilities it possessed, and so on. These things would also have to be understood through later intelligence gathering.
The several hundred thousand surviving ships of Xiao Yu did not create the slightest ripple within the vast fleet cluster of the virtual life civilization. Even though their performance far surpassed that of the enemy, it was of no use. When several billion or tens of billions of ships surged over, no matter how advanced the ships were, they would not be able to stand against them.
Feeling the last ship lose contact with him, Xiao Yu felt a little more helplessness in his heart. Xiao Yu knew very clearly what would come next. The probing between both sides had already ended, so what came next would be large-scale war.
Within this defensive zone spanning several light years, Xiao Yu made one final adjustment to his defensive deployment and began waiting quietly.
“It seems that for a long time no one has taken the initiative to provoke me. It has always been me taking the initiative to provoke others. Especially this time, my combat strength is at a disadvantage. This feeling is really strange.” Xiao Yu sighed inwardly.
“You are a qualified opponent. I have noticed that you seem to possess the same ability as me. Are you also a civilization of the virtual life direction?” At this moment, somewhat unexpectedly, Xiao Yu received a message sent by this virtual life civilization.
Xiao Yu smiled faintly and replied, “You already know the answer clearly in your heart, so why ask again? Since you know that I am the same kind of existence as you, then why are you still launching this war against me?”
Xiao Yu knew that it was his mode of fighting that had caused the other side to mistakenly believe that he was the same kind of existence as it was. This was a wonderful misunderstanding, and Xiao Yu had no reason to expose it.
“I want that structure behind you.” the virtual life civilization said. “I would be very happy to exchange with you the results obtained in the process of researching how to escape the cage. So, if you are willing to give up protecting the Architectural Civilization, I can refrain from launching this war against you.”
“You still have not escaped the cage?” Xiao Yu asked, pretending to be casual.
“You have already escaped?” A trace of excitement suddenly appeared in the virtual life civilization’s reply. “Tell me, by what method did you escape the cage? As long as you teach me this method, I can repay you in any way.”
The doubts in Xiao Yu’s heart deepened even more, yet he still did not reveal anything. Xiao Yu responded calmly, “Tell me, what can you offer as terms of exchange to repay me? As a virtual life civilization, escaping the cage is a crucial stage, and this kind of technology is worth trading anything you possess for.”
Xiao Yu did not even know what escaping the cage referred to. But that did not stop him from making some inferences. Escaping the cage seemed to be something very important for civilizations of the virtual life direction. So Xiao Yu laid out some bait here, trying to use it to draw more intelligence out of its mouth.
This virtual life civilization was silent for a moment, then replied, “A virtual life civilization can only be born from a Level 7 civilization of the computation direction. Your former self must also have been a civilization of the computation direction. However, there will still be some differences in computer development technology between different computation civilizations. I can hand over all of my technology as repayment. At the same time, I can spare the Architectural Civilization. I can withdraw immediately. Or…”
As if making a very difficult decision, the virtual life civilization continued, “Or, I can hand over my replicate to you. I will completely restrict its abilities so that it cannot make any resistance and will accept your dissection.”
“Replicate?” Another doubt surfaced in Xiao Yu’s mind. Xiao Yu could not fully understand the meaning of this sentence, but from the current situation, this so-called “replicate” seemed to be something extremely crucial, and also the most precious thing this virtual life civilization could offer. This could be seen from its tone.
“Since it mistakenly believes I am its own kind, then in its view there is no way I would not know what escaping the cage and replicates are. In other words, it is unlikely to deceive me. Then what exactly does this replicate refer to?” Xiao Yu’s mind was racing, yet he still pretended to be casual and said, “You should know that I have already escaped the cage, while you have not. I am a more advanced existence than you. In front of me, you have no qualification to threaten me at all. I simply do not want trouble. Show your sincerity. Hand over everything you have. If I am in a good mood, perhaps I may give you some pointers about how to break through the cage.”
“What qualifications do you have to act arrogantly in front of me?” Xiao Yu said calmly. In the main base, several tens of billions of ships were slowly moving about, and Xiao Yu was displaying his strength in this way. Although Xiao Yu had no way to control so many warships simultaneously, “The performance of my warships is more advanced than yours, and my reserve of warships is greater than yours. Tell me, why should I accept your threat?”
What answered Xiao Yu was a long silence. Xiao Yu had been secretly maintaining his vigilance all along.
“If I could get what I want through this method, that would be ideal.” Xiao Yu thought to himself. “Even if I cannot get what I want, pulling out some information about it from this fellow’s mouth would be enough.”
“What is the frequency at which you clear out replicates?” In the midst of this silence, the virtual life civilization suddenly asked.
“You do not need to know.” Xiao Yu frowned inwardly and brushed aside this question with that sentence.
“What is the probability of a king being born among your replicates?” This virtual life then quickly asked the next question.
Xiao Yu still responded in a calm tone, “You do not need to know that either.”
What a joke. How could Xiao Yu possibly know what replicates were, what escaping the cage was, or what a king being born among replicates meant?
Xiao Yu believed his answer was flawless. No matter what the final answer was, this sort of reply could lightly push the question back while also maintaining the authority of a superior. But for some unknown reason, Xiao Yu’s reply seemed to have stirred up a hornet’s nest. After hearing this answer, the message sent by the virtual life civilization actually contained a trace of anger. “You despicable fellow! You have been deceiving me all along. You are not a civilization of the virtual life direction!”
Xiao Yu was inwardly startled. Xiao Yu did not know exactly how it had seen through him, but from the current situation, it was now impossible for him to fool this fellow into willingly offering up its technology and intelligence. Because Xiao Yu saw that the immense warship cluster had already surged toward him like a tide. The war was about to erupt!
“This fellow! How can it just start fighting the moment it says so?” Xiao Yu thought somewhat irritably, quickly controlling his warship clusters to prepare to meet the enemy.
“In those last two questions, at least one must have been this fellow trying to trick me. I originally knew nothing at all about civilizations of the virtual life direction, so I exposed myself all at once. Fine, then let us fight properly and see whether you are stronger or I am!” Xiao Yu thought rapidly. “The existence of replicates should be real, but in that last question, the so-called king born among the replicates is probably something that does not exist at all. It asked me what the probability of a king being born was, and I replied that it had no need to know. Yes, that sentence must have exposed me!”
Xiao Yu quickly found where he had made the mistake, but it was already too late. This sort of mistake was simply unavoidable, because Xiao Yu fundamentally did not know what any of this referred to.
“Even if you are not a civilization of the virtual life direction, since you possess abilities similar to mine, then capturing you will presumably be of great help to my escape from the cage… You and the Architectural Civilization will remain here together…”
Within the signal of the virtual life civilization, which held almost no emotional fluctuations, more than twenty billion warships simultaneously began advancing, launching attacks against Xiao Yu’s defensive position from different directions. In the next moment, the two enormous warship groups had already collided together.
On Xiao Yu’s side, those directly controlled by Xiao Yu numbered one billion warships, while those controlled by the Supercomputing Centers numbered nearly ten billion. On the side of the virtual life civilization, more than twenty billion warships surged forward all at once.
“Although my ships are stronger in performance, in terms of overall combat strength, I am inferior to this fellow! However, I have the star system’s defense system. With the coordination of the star system’s defense system, holding my position will not be a problem!” Xiao Yu rapidly made a judgment of the current situation.
The flames of war, almost in this very instant, ignited across this several-light year region. The silent and dark cosmic starry sky was swiftly engulfed by chaos. Within the chaotic space, large numbers of bizarre flashes began to appear, and endless energy began to burst forth…