Rebirth of the Super Battleship-Chapter 571: War and Doing Business

Ten percent of combat power may not seem like much, but on this kind of battlefield, ten percent is already enough to change the entire situation.

To use an imperfect analogy, suppose in an ancient battlefield each side has ten thousand soldiers and they are basically evenly matched. When the battle is stalemated and both sides have suffered heavy losses, what would it mean if one side suddenly received a reinforcement of one thousand troops?

It would mean the situation would be reversed in an instant, and the side that received reinforcements would gain an overwhelming advantage.

At this moment, that concealed ten percent of combat power played exactly this role. Xiao Yu fully released the hidden ten percent. As a result, his side’s warships immediately saw increases in mobility, offensive power, defensive strength, and other metrics.

In the earlier fighting, Xiao Yu had chosen to lose hundreds of thousands of ships rather than reveal that hidden ten percent. Because of this decision, an unknown number of ships that should not have been destroyed were indeed destroyed. Yet Xiao Yu believed that everything he paid was worth it. He paid such a huge price precisely for this moment.

Almost instantly, the situation on the battlefield changed.

A clearly damaged Town-Class ship that had been fleeing for its life under the pursuit of a County-Class ship from the Level 5 Civilization Alliance suddenly stopped running. Supported by powerful maneuverability, it traced a graceful semicircle in space, nimbly dodged several shells aimed at it, and counterattacked the relentlessly pursuing enemy County-Class ship. Under its fierce firepower, that County-Class ship, already somewhat damaged, exploded in less than ten minutes.

A City-Class ship, under attack from two enemy City-Class warships, had been barely holding on and was in grave danger. But after Xiao Yu issued this order, the City-Class ship seemed to have taken a powerful tonic. It immediately displayed great might, pressing forward through heavy fire and using its own fierce firepower to destroy the enemy ahead, forcing the other ship to flee.

Under such conditions, Xiao Yu’s fleet, whose advance had halted under the enemy’s numerous attacks, began to move forward again, and at an even faster speed than before.

At this time, Xiao Yu’s fleet was only eight billion kilometers from the star of the Death Flower Star System. With just another one billion kilometers, the stellar cannon could fire.

“Probability of success for the star-destruction plan increased to forty-five percent. If no accidents occur, my fleet will have a forty-five percent chance of getting close enough to the star and then destroying it.” This calculation result greatly encouraged Xiao Yu. Under his control, ships now fighting at full capacity launched even fiercer attacks against the enemy fleet.

The distance continued to shrink. The Alliance’s ships remained fanatical in their assaults, but even with their fearless frenzy they could not stop Xiao Yu’s advance. Sensing the anxiety and despair of the constantly destroyed Alliance warships, Xiao Yu seemed to see victory right before his eyes.

Yet for some reason, the situation began to change quietly. At some unknown point, in exchanges between ships of the same class, the weaker Alliance ships increased their average time to hold out from forty-five minutes to fifty minutes. His own ships’ damage rate rose from 3.9 percent to 4.2 percent. His average forward speed had to drop from more than thirty thousand kilometers per second to twenty-eight thousand kilometers per second, and it continued to decline.

This change emerged so subtly that at first Xiao Yu did not notice it. By the time he did, the change had already had a considerable impact on the situation.

Xiao Yu grew solemn. He knew exactly what this meant. It meant the Level 5 Civilization Alliance had likely adopted the same approach as he had. They had also concealed their combat power and had chosen to erupt at this moment.

In Xiao Yu’s earlier analysis, although he had considered the possibility, he judged the odds to be low. The Alliance’s ship combat power was inferior to his to begin with. If they also deliberately hid their strength, then in the initial engagement, a rout at first contact would be a severe blow to morale. Even if such negative effects could be dispelled by prior propaganda, what would be the Alliance’s motive for hiding warship strength ahead of time?

But matters had developed beyond Xiao Yu’s control. Perceiving the gradual shift, he immediately initiated a new round of data collection. This time the data collection lasted for half an hour. The final conclusion told Xiao Yu that within these few hours, after he had revealed his hidden ten percent, the Alliance’s average warship performance had actually increased by twenty percent.

In other words, the Level 5 Civilization Alliance had outdone Xiao Yu in audacity. He had hidden only ten percent, while the Alliance had ruthlessly hidden twenty percent.

What did this mean? It meant the lives of millions of ships and the lives of billions of soldiers.

By concealing ten percent of his fleet’s combat power, Xiao Yu had caused at least three hundred thousand warships that should not have been destroyed to be destroyed. But to Xiao Yu, warships were things that could be built with some computational power, materials, and time. To be frank, he did not truly feel distressed over the loss of warships.

The Level 5 Civilization Alliance was different.

Xiao Yu could estimate that because the Alliance deliberately concealed twenty percent of its warships’ strength, at least two million warships that should not have been destroyed were destroyed by him.

The Alliance did not possess computational power as formidable as Xiao Yu’s, nor did it have his robust development potential. Most crucial of all, the Alliance’s ships were piloted by intelligent beings. Depending on size and mass, each ship that should have survived but was destroyed because of concealment contained anywhere from twenty to tens of thousands of soldiers. Those were living lives.

Xiao Yu could not imagine what those soldiers felt when they had the ability to escape but, for the sake of hiding their strength, were not allowed to use that ability and ultimately died helplessly. He knew only that he himself could never do such a thing.

It was precisely because Xiao Yu had decided early on to conceal strength that he rejected the suggestion to send the biological army into this battle. He knew what it would mean and could not accept intelligent living beings dying for such an absurd reason. Yet this is what occurred within the Level 5 Civilization Alliance.

Xiao Yu seemed to feel a pair of icy eyes watching him from afar. In those eyes there was no emotion, no pity, no anger, only the calculation of profit. The lives of hundreds of millions of intelligent beings and millions of warships could be given price tags by this existence. When the potential gains exceeded the price of those beings and ships, and when he judged the risks controllable, he would abandon them without hesitation.

Xiao Yu remembered the former leader of the Pegasus Civilization.

In the first war between Xiao Yu and the Pegasus Civilization, when facing the Expeditionary Army the Pegasus Civilization had dispatched, because Xiao Yu displayed extraordinary power, the former leader abandoned the Expeditionary Army. In that instance, more than one billion soldiers and millions of warships were destroyed by Xiao Yu. The former leader of the Pegasus Civilization also achieved the result he wanted, which was Xiao Yu’s strength being reduced to a certain extent.

Then came the capital star system’s defensive circle. The former leader deliberately arranged the defenses in that way, using millions of ships, hundreds of millions of soldiers, and tens of billions of civilians to continue wearing down Xiao Yu’s strength. Then, when Xiao Yu’s power had fallen to a certain level, the former leader set the final decisive battle in the capital star system.

If not for Xiao Yu’s many trump cards, he actually would not have been the Pegasus Civilization’s match. In terms of ruthlessness, rationality, and command of the overall situation, he was no match for the former leader either.

The former leader of the Pegasus Civilization had always directed war with the mindset of doing business. Facts proved that while this approach was cruel, it was the most effective.

Think about it. Without four-dimensional shields, whether Xiao Yu’s fleet could have ultimately broken into the capital star system would have been unknown. Without space weapons, whether the four star systems in the defensive circle that Xiao Yu eventually broke could have been breached would also have been unknown. If Xiao Yu had not had the Blood Blade Squad, then in the final battle the Pegasus Civilization would not have transported the capital planet to the front, and Xiao Yu would not have been able to ram and break its planetary shield with a Continent-Class ship and thus win the war.

The former leader of the Pegasus Civilization had done his utmost and performed as well as he could. The final defeat was not because he was foolish or incompetent. It was only because Xiao Yu possessed too many pieces of equipment beyond the capability range of a Level 5 civilization.

Now, in the present battle, Xiao Yu encountered again this style with a strong personal imprint, one very familiar to him.

Xiao Yu turned his gaze toward the interior of the Death Flower Star System. Though he could not see it, he knew the Galloping Pegasus spaceship was there, and the former leader of the Pegasus Civilization was there as well.

“So it is you after all. The Level 5 Civilization Alliance was indeed organized by you. I had wondered how twenty civilizations could unite so smoothly. So you were the organizer. In that case I have no doubts. You do have this capability. Hmm. We face off again this time. I am very curious. Knowing that I have space weapons and four-dimensional shields, and that I have the Blood Blade Squad, what tactical arrangements will you make? In this war, who will be the final victor?”

“This deliberately concealed twenty percent of strength is your first move against me, is it not? You are still the same, unchanged, just as ruthless, just as rational.”

Xiao Yu knew that those million warships that should not have been destroyed, but were destroyed by him for the reason of concealed strength, were the former leader’s early investment.

With an initial investment there must naturally be later returns. This is evident. It is the basic principle every businessman follows. Xiao Yu believed the former leader would be no exception.

“In that case, I am very curious. Having paid such a huge price, what return are you seeking?”