Chapter 880: The Battle for the Retreat Route |
Xiao Yu had already become completely disheartened and no longer had the patience or confidence to continue entangling himself with the virtual life civilization. There was no doubt that his mode of existence was more advanced than that of the virtual life civilization. Merely being able to move through different computer systems, merely being able to continuously upgrade himself, was enough to completely surpass the virtual life civilization. Yet there was also one helpless fact. Although he was more advanced than it, in terms of combat power and computational power, he was not its match.
Because of the aging of machinery, every so often Virtual Life Number One would die, and its successor would take its place. This was a very tragic form of existence, but it was precisely this form of existence that gave it incomparably powerful combat strength. Xiao Yu had no choice but to admit one thing, among civilizations of the same level, the one with the strongest combat power was not himself, but the virtual life civilization.
To gain something, one had to lose something. Existing in such a painful way and then obtaining immense combat power from it did not seem like anything pleasant.
So Xiao Yu decided to flee. Even though the virtual life civilization might contain extremely advanced computational technology, enough to bring about another great leap in his development, Xiao Yu still decided to flee.
But the Architectural Civilization somewhat gloomily rejected this proposal.
“We know that your civilization is a benevolent one, and we are also grateful for your help during this period. Let us part here. We will not flee together with you.” the Architectural Civilization said.
Xiao Yu was slightly startled and said, “Why go to such lengths? Why are you unwilling to flee? If you remain here, you will inevitably be destroyed by the virtual life civilization, and I do not believe your destruction has any meaning.”
“Yes, it has no meaning. By remaining here and not fleeing together with you, we can avoid dragging you down.” the Architectural Civilization replied. “Because of our structure… our structure is too large, too magnificent, too conspicuous. With such a giant target here, it is impossible for us to escape the virtual life civilization’s pursuit. And this structure is the foundation of our civilization. We cannot abandon it and flee alone.”
“But the civilizations living inside your structure…” Xiao Yu murmured.
Xiao Yu fell silent.
“How many civilizations are living inside your structure in total?”
“Approximately one hundred thousand. Their civilization levels range from preliminary civilizations to Level 6 Civilizations.” the Architectural Civilization said.
“I can carry at most five thousand civilizations, and they must be Level 3 or below.” Xiao Yu said gloomily. “If they are Level 6 Civilizations, then I can only carry ten. After all, the higher the civilization level, the more space it occupies. Perhaps, even for the sake of those civilizations living in your structure, you should still try to flee… If you flee, there is still some hope. If you refuse to flee, then there is no hope at all.”
“Hope will eventually become despair. We have experienced that process too many times already. And we do not wish, in the process of hope turning into despair, to drag you, who once helped us, into despair as well. Let it be this way. These past few hundred years under your protection were very peaceful for us, and we have gained some new understanding of structure. We will give this technology to you. We hope our structural technology will not vanish in this universe. We hope that in the future, you can recreate the glory of our structural technology…” As the Architectural Civilization spoke, it sent a segment of information to Xiao Yu.
Xiao Yu let out a faint sigh. Xiao Yu had already decided to flee, but under such circumstances, he could not bring himself to flee. A kind and benevolent civilization had decided to remain here so as not to burden him. How could Xiao Yu simply turn and leave?
“Very well. If you are not leaving, then I will not leave for the time being either. The seeds sown by the virtual life civilization will require at least twenty years to grow. That means we still have twenty years. In these twenty years, I will make one final effort and try to find a way to defeat the virtual life civilization… although I myself have no confidence.” Xiao Yu thought for a moment and made this decision.
“That is fine as well… Your technology is after all a little more advanced than that of the virtual life. Even if you cannot defeat them, after twenty years you should still be able to escape.” the Architectural Civilization replied after a moment of silence.
“Ah.” Xiao Yu let out a deep sigh and did not reply again.
What lay before Xiao Yu was an exceptionally difficult road, one practically filled with despair. The material blockade had already been broken by the virtual life civilization. It also possessed what amounted to infinite computational power, and with infinite computational power came infinite construction ability. Given enough time, these infinite resources would turn into infinite warships.
On Xiao Yu’s side, by contrast, he had almost no way to deal with the virtual life civilization. Eliminating all of those warships was impossible. As for executing a decapitation plan, putting aside the slim chance of success, even if it could succeed in the end, Xiao Yu did not dare do it. Killing Virtual Life Number One would release quadrillions of uncontrolled virtual lives, and the situation Xiao Yu faced would become even more difficult.
“What exactly… should I do?” Xiao Yu thought silently.
Ahead, there was a bit of movement in the virtual life civilization’s base. Xiao Yu noticed that large fleets were beginning to be dispatched in different directions. These fleets did not directly begin engaging Xiao Yu. Instead, they detoured around Xiao Yu’s position, and some of them even moved to Xiao Yu’s rear.
“Hm, is it trying to prevent me from escaping?” Xiao Yu instantly reached this conclusion, and could not help but smile bitterly again. “It seems my strategic intentions have long been understood very clearly by Virtual Life Number One. It knows that I destroyed stars earlier to suppress it materially. It also knows how great a shock it would bring me once it demonstrated the ability to gather materials from stellar ruins. And a shock of that magnitude would absolutely cause me to lose confidence and choose to flee. So, in order to stop me from fleeing, it has already begun deploying forces in advance to block my retreat.”
Always leaving himself room to retreat was a necessary practice whenever Xiao Yu took risks or gambled. Xiao Yu would not, like a desperate gambler, place all of his chips on the gambling table. Xiao Yu’s willingness to remain here was also premised on being able to escape safely at any time. Therefore, the virtual life civilization’s actions at this moment were something Xiao Yu absolutely could not accept. If even his retreat route was blocked, then what would he do if some accident occurred? Was he really to die here?
Xiao Yu swiftly made his own arrangements. With the Nine Provinces Star Cluster-Class battleship and the Dream Star Cluster-Class battleship at the head, a massive fleet began advancing toward two strongholds the virtual life civilization had set up around him. Xiao Yu saw very clearly that as long as these two strongholds were uprooted, his retreat route would remain open.
While the main battlefield remained quiet, fierce flames of war once again erupted in the distant reaches of space. At each of these two strongholds, the virtual life civilization had stationed more than three hundred million warships, while Xiao Yu, to keep his retreat path open, had committed more than two hundred million spaceships to this campaign. Moreover, all two hundred million of these spaceships were under his personal control, which meant they could bring out their full combat power.
Lightsabers crisscrossed, space shattered, and intense battle erupted in an instant. In this battle, Xiao Yu sought complete annihilation of the enemy. That was his strategic objective. With this mentality supporting them, the offensive of Xiao Yu’s warships became fierce beyond description. This was only an empty void, with no stars present, yet on this battlefield there erupted radiance far brighter than stars. It was formed by the light emitted at the moment of death by countless warships converging together. Even distorted space could not completely block out these intense rays.
In this hard collision with almost no finesse involved, spaceships were being destroyed at an extremely rapid rate. Xiao Yu’s warships remained as fearless of death as ever, but a small portion of the virtual life’s warships showed signs of fear. When fear existed in the heart, it would inevitably be reflected in action, for example, failing to cut in when they should have, or failing to advance when they should have…
These warships showing fear generally only showed it for a moment. After that instant, they became brave again. Xiao Yu knew this was because the original replicate had been erased by Virtual Life Number One and replaced with a new replicate.
But something happened that was beyond Xiao Yu’s expectations. Among these ships that showed fear, there was one spaceship that continued to remain in that state. This meant that the replicate inside this spaceship had not been erased immediately by Virtual Life Number One. It had continued to exist until now.
A thought suddenly burst into Xiao Yu’s mind.
“Can I capture it? Since it fears death, then I can use death to threaten it…”