The veteran Pioneers in the conference room were momentarily stunned. Why would a newcomer take on a bounty mission? Couldn't they see that even the seasoned Pioneers had hesitated for so long?
"Share the intel for everyone to review, and promote the mission again to see if anyone else will take it," one Pioneer said with a furrowed brow, clearly in a foul mood.
After the information was shared, the group was astonished. This newcomer had just arrived and already encountered a fallen humanoid civilization, inheriting their territory and even receiving federal recognition as a reserve Lord.
"This newcomer is something else! Unbelievable luck," one Pioneer muttered after seeing Liu Hai's public profile, feeling deeply resentful. He had toiled for centuries to accumulate his current assets—a few resource-rich star systems—and his publicly acknowledged fleet barely exceeded three thousand ships. Meanwhile, this newcomer already had five thousand on record. And given the tradition of keeping reserves, the newcomer surely had hidden forces yet to be revealed.
"His strength already surpasses some of us, doesn't it?"
"No kidding. This newcomer leaves you speechless—a life planet! And a star system that once nurtured a humanoid civilization. Tsk tsk..."
"What do you think? Maybe we should grant him mission clearance and give him a shot."
"I agree. According to the intel, his fleet is newly acquired, and he's stationed in the latter half of the Third Spiral Arm. Probably anxious about our battle situation?"
"Must be. Once we pull out, no one will hold the line against the Katon Civilization, and his sector will face the brunt of their forces. It's only natural he'd want to intervene."
"Let's give him a shot. Once we withdraw, he'll have to abandon that life planet unless the military steps in to block the Katon Fleet."
"No chance. The military's focus is locked on the Katon's main forces. They don't have the resources to back us up. A token force wouldn't make a difference—better to conserve strength and wait for the right moment."
"Civilization wars... I've heard there's a graveyard of civilizations. Wonder if it's real."
"Hah, it is. You wanna go?"
"Not me. I just want to send all these alien civilizations there!"
...
Liu Hai smoothly obtained mission authorization and immediately linked up with the Seed Ship's Intelligent Nexus. Leveraging the ship's manufacturing capabilities, he produced a Space Stabilization Device and paired it with the previously manufactured Antimatter Bombs, loading them onto an Angel Destroyer.
A fleet consisting of three Angel Frigates and one newly commissioned Angel Destroyer was dispatched through a semi-functional Space Gate to a star region five thousand light-years away.
Manned entirely by Clone Soldiers, the Angel-series warships, with their exceptional performance, advanced at a speed of three thousand light-years per day, heading straight for the Katon Civilization's territory.
Half a month later, utilizing the Spatial Barrier activated by the Angel warships' wings, the Angel Fleet successfully masked its presence and stealthily infiltrated a position five thousand light-years from the Hera Wormhole in Katon territory.
This location was already within the Katon military's defensive zone, a mere fifty light-years from the target—the Explorers' main base.
At this point, attempting to advance undetected was no longer possible. The void was crisscrossed with detection devices of various models, weaving the entire starfield into a net where any unregistered spatial fluctuations would attract patrol fleets.
However, fifty light-years was nothing. Liu Hai first used the Warp Device to send a batch of nanobots concealed within probes into the system.
The spatial disturbance caused by the warp instantly exposed the fleet's presence, but the deployed probes still managed to transmit back information—albeit for only a few seconds before being destroyed.
Minutes later, Liu Hai activated the nanobots' communication codes, and a projection of the star system materialized before him.
A red dwarf star, five terrestrial planets, over a dozen massive shipyards floating in space, and hundreds of space stations.
Small and medium-sized vessels and various warships shuttled back and forth, while towering structures stretched into the sky from the planets. It was no wonder this was one of the thousand-year-old strongholds of the explorers—the scene radiated prosperity and vitality.
"Pity. It's about to be gone." Liu Hai's eyes grew colder. The more developed these hostile alien races became, the greater the threat they posed.
Linking his consciousness to the Intelligent Nexus, he assumed full command of the fleet.
His body, submerged in the safety pod, relaxed naturally. At this moment, the entire fleet became an extension of his own body—the Angel Destroyer as the brain, the three Corvettes as limbs. With a single thought, the Jump Engines began charging.
The Space Stabilizer installed in the Angel Destroyer forcibly smoothed out spatial disturbances within a thirty light-minute radius, restoring the surrounding space to normal conditions.
Once the Jump Engines activated, leveraging their ability to ignore 15% of spatial disturbances, they forcibly connected to the target star system, allowing the fleet to complete the warp seamlessly.
The moment the Angel Fleet appeared in the explorers' stronghold, piercing alarms blared across all Katon Civilization installations.
The Star System Defense System instantly awakened. Defensive weapons scattered throughout the system swiveled to lock onto the Angel Fleet, charging to full power, while space anchors activated at maximum capacity.
The Katon Civilization broadcasted an open transmission to the fleet, demanding immediate shutdown of the Reaction Furnaces and surrender.
"Tch! I've already warped right into your home, and you still think you can trick me into surrendering? Go eat shit!"
Upon receiving the message, the fleet projected a massive hologram of Xue Jiye, who spat a glob of vintage '82 phlegm toward the star system.
Instead of immediately opening fire, the Angel Fleet first deployed all defensive measures and activated the Space Stabilizer Liu Hai had specially prepared, suppressing the star system's spatial disturbances back to baseline levels.
"Antimatter Bombs ready. Hyperspace Deployment Gate fully charged. Targets locked: all planetary cities and factories, all star system space stations and shipyards."
"Targeting complete. Strike sequence finalized."
"Antimatter Bombs armed, ready for deployment."
"Gamma-ray initiation strike prepared. Target: red dwarf star."
"Commence attack!"
Under Liu Hai's command, intense spatial fluctuations rippled through the Angel Fleet as specially designed Antimatter Bombs were deployed to each target structure. Seconds later, as enemy attacks arrived, the bombs detonated in perfect synchronization.
Silently, waves of energy storms erupted abruptly from various target buildings, followed by the rapid expansion of Antimatter annihilation energy.
In an instant, the swiftly expanding Antimatter annihilation energy devoured the surrounding structures and continued to spread into the void of space.
A millennium of development was nearly obliterated in a single moment, all its essence lost in one fell swoop.
Without the city space stations serving as the control and computation cores, the Stellar Defense System's individual Armament units lacked the processing power to track the trajectories of the Angel Fleet.