Trisolaris, Monitoring Center.
Young Monitor 1379's thought waves carried a barely detectable trace of concern.
"Report. Abnormal energy fluctuations detected in the Solar System's main star. The intensity is rapidly climbing."
"Initial analysis indicates a massive coronal mass ejection. It is a rare stellar storm."
His superior, a veteran monitor, paid it no mind.
"Log it and file it away," the cold directive came.
"There is no need to report this. Why should we care about a stellar fluctuation of this level? Don't we experience this every day?"
"Our Droplet probe will still take decades to arrive. Until then, just keep a close eye on Luo Ji."
"Keep your eyes on your screen, 1379. Do not waste your energy on irrelevant natural phenomena."
"Understood."
Monitor 1379's thought waves instantly settled.
He continued to stare at the blue planet on his screen, and at the man who struck fear into the hearts of the Trisolarans.
Little did he know that the "boring natural phenomenon" he had just filed away would serve as the prelude to the death knell of Trisolaran civilization.
At that exact moment, on Earth.
New York, Paris, Moscow, Beijing...
One by one, the once-sleepless cities voluntarily extinguished all their lights.
The maglev trains that spanned the continents sat quietly in their hub stations.
The roar of factories and the hustle and bustle of the cities were all brought to a halt.
The entire planet seemed to fall into a deep slumber.
The Trisolaran monitors merely assumed this was an inefficient human countermeasure to mitigate the effects of the solar storm.
When it came to dealing with stellar anomalies, the Trisolarans were far more professional.
Billions of humans spontaneously shut down all non-essential energy devices. They stepped out of their homes and looked up at the starry sky.
They did not know exactly what was happening.
But the supreme directive of the PDC had been conveyed to everyone's hearts through various channels.
There were no riots, no questions.
All the energy and computing power on this planet had been temporarily commandeered.
Everything was for the hunt that was about to begin.
The solar storm arrived right on schedule.
A violent, destructive stream of charged particles rapidly swept across the Solar System, radiating outward from the sun.
Aboard the bridge of the space station *All Tomorrows*.
Through the massive viewports, the brilliant solar wind could be seen outside.
On the main screen, the communication link representing the connection between the Sophons and Trisolaris flickered and distorted violently before finally being drowned out by a sea of static.
The prying eyes that had hung over humanity's heads for decades were, at this very moment, blinded.
Luo Ji stood in the center of the bridge, his back to everyone.
"Commence the operation!"
In lunar orbit, two pitch-black ghost ships instantly detached from their docks.
The ships flew without the roar of engines or any conventional optical signatures.
Like two drops of ink blending into the night, they instantly entered a state of complete stealth, flying toward two pre-determined coordinates in Earth's outer space.
Aboard the command seat of the *Hunter*.
Zhang Beihai had his eyes closed.
His brain was deeply connected to the warship's main control system through countless microscopic neural probes.
In his vision, the entire universe was no longer made of stars and the void.
Instead, it was an ocean composed of endless data streams and quantum waveforms.
The ship was his body.
The cold universe was his hunting ground.
"Report! Target One locked!"
A squad member's consciousness transmitted through the probes. Due to their brains' overclocked processing, the speed of their communication was astonishingly fast.
"It's attempting to rebuild the communication link! Damn it, this thing's processing power is too strong!"
In their shared quantum sensory vision, a complex structure—indescribable in three-dimensional terms, composed of countless microscopic particles, and constantly unfurling and shifting—was writhing madly.
It was a proton unfolded into two dimensions.
It was a Sophon.
"Deploy the 'Cobweb'!"
Zhang Beihai's command, much like the man himself, held not a single trace of excess emotion.
Several warships simultaneously fired an invisible force field from their bows.
It was neither energy nor matter.
Rather, it was a rule-based weapon targeting space itself.
A giant net woven from quantum entanglement effects, covering several kilometers of space, formed in an instant.
This net descended upon its target at near light-speed!
The Sophon detected an unprecedented danger.
It attempted to flee.
But this net had no physical form, and its movement speed was close to the speed of light.
Where could it possibly run?
The entire space had become a cage!
Hum—
The Sophon was caught in the net! It began to struggle frantically!
It no longer maintained its eleven-dimensional monitoring state, but instead attempted to unfold its dimensions once more!
The entire "Cobweb" force field began to fluctuate violently. The energy index constituting the trap skyrocketed exponentially!
"Warning! Warning! Energy overload at three hundred percent!"
"The 'Cobweb' is about to collapse! Repeat, the 'Cobweb' is about to collapse!"
The system blared a piercing alarm.
Was the plan going to fail!?
They only had one chance!
Zhang Beihai's face retained its eternal, unchanging coldness.
Watching the quantum cage in his vision about to tear apart from the energy overload, he issued a command that no one could have anticipated.
A command of absolute madness.
"Overload the engines of the *Hunter*."
Dead silence filled the channel.
All the squad members thought their auditory modules had malfunctioned due to their brains being overclocked.
"Ram it with the ship!"
Zhang Beihai's voice, like a Siberian cold front, instantly froze everyone's thoughts.
"Then, we will use our hulls made of Strong Interaction Material to capture it!"
'Madman!'
That was the first reaction in everyone's minds.
But a second later, they understood Zhang Beihai's intent.
The Sophon was bound by the quantum trap in a semi-unfolded state, unable to complete its collapse.
And their armor's outer shell was composed of Strong Interaction Material—the hardest substance in the universe, something not even the gravitational pull of a neutron star could destroy!
It would be enough to temporarily trap the Sophon!
This was Zhang Beihai's plan!
"Copy that!"
"For humanity!"
After a brief moment of shock, the resolute responses of the squad members rang out in the channel.
Zhang Beihai disconnected his link with the other members and took over full authorization of the ship.
Like a black battleaxe, trailing the pale white flames of its overloaded engines, the warship charged without hesitation into the collapsing core of the quantum field, which was sparking with arcs of energy!
Ramming straight into the imprisoned Sophon!
Under the utterly horrified gazes of the squad members, and amidst the bated breath of everyone on the bridge of the *All Tomorrows*.
On Zhang Beihai's face, there was no fear, no tragic heroism.
There was only a near-fanatical calmness of one fulfilling his mission.
Using flesh and blood, using his own armor, and using the unyielding will of a human warrior to imprison the false god that hindered humanity's progress.