Rebirth of the Super Battleship-Chapter 592: The Mask

Everything progressed exactly as Xiao Yu had anticipated. After Xiao Yu dispatched roughly three million warships to attack the Level 5 Civilization Alliance’s defense network, the Level 5 Civilization Alliance swiftly sent about twelve million warships to meet the assault.

Perhaps because they knew that only by completely driving away Xiao Yu’s forces could they have a chance at survival and return beneath the cover of the planetary war stars before the power of the stellar detonation reached them, those warships fought with exceptional ferocity, which put a certain amount of pressure on Xiao Yu. But Xiao Yu’s intention was not to annihilate them. Xiao Yu only needed to pin these ships here and keep them from returning under the cover of the planetary war stars. So long as his three million warships remained in place, even if they did nothing, the Level 5 Civilization Alliance would be compelled to deploy a corresponding force to guard against him.

Thus, in a rare turn, Xiao Yu, though the one launching the offensive, adopted a defensive stance in this battle. Xiao Yu was completely on the passive defense. He knew that the power of the star’s eruption would take his place and wipe out the enemies before him.

That star was transported by Xiao Yu to the predetermined location, and then Xiao Yu decisively detonated it. Before the star exploded, Xiao Yu’s main fleet had already entered curvature space and withdrawn to a safe location. After the star detonated, the three million ships that had gone to harass and tie down the Level 5 Civilization Alliance, which at this point numbered a little over two million eight hundred thousand, all entered curvature space and fled.

Indeed, Xiao Yu’s ships already possessed the ability to conduct curvature flight within a planetary-level gravitational field, and Xiao Yu believed that with not much more time, he would also develop the technology to conduct curvature flight within a stellar-level gravitational field.

But the Level 5 Civilization Alliance did not have such technology. That meant those fleets exposed outside had no time to escape and no time to return to the cover of the planetary war stars. At such close range, those ships could not endure the fury of a star.

Thus, all twelve million warships were destroyed. Xiao Yu’s price was merely the loss of fewer than two hundred thousand ships.

And because the stellar transport work had already been underway for some time, this mode of attack would recur many times in the coming period. That meant the exchange of a small number of ships for the destruction of a vast number of the enemy’s ships would be repeated again.

That was indeed how events unfolded. Three years later, a second star overtook the fleeing fleet of the Level 5 Civilization Alliance. This time, the star destroyed eight planetary war stars of the Level 5 Civilization Alliance as well as countless industrial facilities, and the harassment tactic again consigned ten million warships of the Level 5 Civilization Alliance to death in the stellar radiance.

Then came the third, the fourth.

After the fourth stellar bomb strike. Within the Galloping Pegasus spaceship of the Level 5 Civilization Alliance.

The leader wearily removed the mask from his face. He splashed his face with clean water at random and collapsed onto the bed. Without the constraint of the mask, he felt much lighter.

Just moments earlier, wearing the mask, he had delivered a fervent speech to the entire public of the Level 5 Civilization Alliance, successfully stirring their zeal to resist to the end and once again firming their conviction of certain victory. Yet he could ignite the public’s passion, but he could not ignite his own.

During these decades of flight, due to endless strain and exhaustion, his appearance had changed greatly. According to the technology of a Level 5 civilization, he was in the prime of life at his age, yet now he looked like an old man at life’s end. His face was full of wrinkles that signaled age. His hair had gone gray, and his eyes were turbid and devoid of spirit. The change had been so rapid and so drastic that even the most advanced life sciences could not restore his features to their former state. As a result, whenever he faced anyone beyond the innermost circle, he had to wear a mask to go out.

As leader he had to be strong, unshakable, brimming with energy, and possessed of the firmest conviction of victory. For that reason, he had in utmost secrecy had this mask made. Fewer than ten among the nearly several trillion intelligent beings of the Level 5 Civilization Alliance knew that the leader had always appeared wearing a mask.

This was the highest secret of the entire Alliance.

He was simply too tired. Every day he racked his brains on how to defeat the Divine Ark Civilization, and indeed he had reaped many, many results. Under his leadership, the Alliance’s technology could almost be said to have advanced by leaps and bounds. If he could be given a period to recuperate and build strength, not very long, at most two hundred years would suffice to let him quietly develop technology. Then he would have absolute confidence in defeating the Divine Ark Civilization. Regrettably, the Divine Ark Civilization had never given him that chance.

The Divine Ark Civilization’s pressure was far too tight. It almost suffocated him. He felt he had exhausted his wisdom and still could not turn the situation around. When he discovered that the Divine Ark Civilization already possessed the technology to transport stars, he had foreseen the present situation. Yet he had no other choice. He could only take the initiative to destroy the star of the Death Flower Star System and then set out on the road of flight. He could only delay time in this way, delaying until the Alliance’s technology achieved a true breakthrough, delaying until the Alliance could put planets into curvature flight.

This was his only chance at victory, but he had waited long and it still had not come. While ensuring combat power, he had done his utmost to give those scientists the best conditions. Those scientists had indeed given their all, producing a large number of scientific achievements, even developing a spatial fluctuation weapon. But it was still not enough, still not enough. Without planetary curvature flight technology, all was empty talk.

The leader touched his already aged face, closed his eyes, and began to rest. Yet he could not fall asleep. His mind was a tangled skein of threads, intertwining and refusing to let him find calm.

He did not know how long it was before he drifted into a hazy state. At that moment he received a transmission, as if someone were speaking to him urgently. He tried his best to listen, but caught only scattered fragments, words like planetary curvature, great, science, success.

“Is it that dream again?” He smiled bitterly in his sleep. But he quickly discovered it was not so. Someone was shaking him violently, forcing him awake, and then he saw his assistant’s excited face and heard the assistant’s voice, made a bit shrill and piercing by overexcitement.

“Leader, leader, the latest news, we, we have received a report from the Central Research Academy of Science. The planetary curvature flight technology, under the leadership of the Alliance’s greatest scientist, Ruto, has finally been developed. leader, we have succeeded. We have at last waited for this day. We finally possess planetary curvature flight technology and can at last break through the Divine Ark Civilization’s blockade.”

The leader’s mind was still a bit hazy, but upon hearing these words, he immediately became clear-headed. He leaped from the bed, seized the assistant’s shoulders, and fixed his turbid old eyes on the assistant’s eyes, speaking in the sternest tone. “Is this true?”

“It is true, it is true.” The assistant’s face was full of excitement. “Ruto’s latest research result has already passed peer review at the Central Research Academy of Science. Everyone has been convinced by Ruto’s paper, and it has been verified by tens of thousands of experiments. This is absolutely true. It is real.”

“Notify Ruto at once. Have him come to see me. No, better that I go to see Ruto.” The leader felt as if a clear spring had appeared in his chest, moisture stirring from within awakening the vitality of his aged body.

“No, leader, Ruto says he will not see anyone now. He says he gained the inspiration to crack this difficulty because he dreamed of his deceased son, Russo. He only wants to be with his son now.” the assistant answered, somewhat sadly.

“Very well, that is no matter. Let him have some quiet time to himself.” the leader said. “Notify the press office to convene a news conference at once. I will announce to all that we have found the most powerful weapon to oppose the Divine Ark Civilization. Mm, yes, also notify the Central Research Academy of Science to coordinate with the Mechanical Construction Institute. Within one year they must put planetary curvature flight technology into practical use. Within five years they must convert all of our planetary war stars, and build the curvature engines.”

Laughing heartily, the leader was about to step out the door. The assistant hurriedly called after him. “leader, your mask.”

The leader froze for a moment, then waved his hand and laughed. “I will not need that thing anymore.”

Only then did the assistant notice that at some unknown moment, the leader’s appearance had undergone a certain change. No, rather than a change in features, it was a change in spirit and bearing. This transformation of the spirit made it easy for others to overlook the leader’s present visage.

Three hours later, a grand news conference was convened.

Neither the leader of the Level 5 Civilization Alliance nor Xiao Yu knew that, at this very moment, somewhere in the distant starry sky, an unknown existence was rapidly approaching.

“In roughly five more years, I will be able to reach my Main Civilization and join with my Main Civilization.” that unknown existence said in its heart.