Rebirth of the Super Battleship-Chapter 698: Space Gate
This battle lasted for a little over forty hours. More than two hundred million of Xiao Yu’s warships were destroyed, while the Guardian Civilization lost approximately forty five million ships. But Xiao Yu did not believe the Guardian Civilization had only this one hundred million ships available for combat. One must know that the number of intelligent beings within the Guardian Civilization was counted in the trillions. A vast population meant immense potential for war mobilization. If things became dangerous, Xiao Yu believed the Guardian Civilization could easily raise another force. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮
“But when it comes to war potential, I do not think anyone in the Milky Way can compare with me.” Xiao Yu thought with full confidence. “For me, computational power is war potential. I can build a massive number of ships at any time, convenient and fast. If they want a protracted war with me, I would be very pleased.”
“Specter, return to the small universe first and replenish your life force.” Xiao Yu said to his Specter companion. “The subsequent battles will be even fiercer. Before that, we need to adjust our state to the best.”
In the previous battle, the Specter companion had fully controlled the Micron Civilization’s corpse for at least twenty hours, which was already a considerable load. After receiving Xiao Yu’s message, the Specter companion responded, then maneuvered the Micron corpse back into the small universe, detached from it, and arrived at the center of dozens of stars. Massive instruments activated, and powerful stellar energy began to be converted, according to a certain pattern, into that strange energy, slowly restoring the Specter companion’s somewhat depleted life force.
At this time, Xiao Yu used some instruments to observe the Micron Civilization’s corpse. The conclusion showed that even after such an intense battle, the Micron Civilization’s corpse still maintained a structure close to a perfect sphere. Its surface remained exceedingly smooth, without a trace of scarring.
“Only something this powerful could be a match for the Neutron War Star.” Xiao Yu sighed inwardly.
The Specter companion needed several hours to recuperate. During this period, Xiao Yu rapidly reorganized a vast cluster of warships, preparing for the subsequent assault on the small universe.
Through monitoring of gravitational interactions at such close range, Xiao Yu could easily determine the direction of the Guardian Civilization’s small universe in four-dimensional space, then determine the point at which it was closest to the three-dimensional main universe. That point was without a doubt the optimal place to launch an attack. And because the small universe’s moving speed could not be very fast and could not escape Xiao Yu’s pursuit, the Guardian Civilization simply did not flee at all.
The Radiance possessed extremely strong maneuverability. During curvature flight, its speed could reach as high as one hundred and fifty times the speed of light. Precisely because of this, Xiao Yu had to pay a great price, luring the Radiance near the Tianyuan IV spaceship before deploying the Micron corpse to ambush it. Under normal circumstances, the Micron corpse simply could not catch up to it.
But the speeds of other conventional ships, as well as the small universe’s operating speed, could not be so fast. For example, when Xiao Yu towed his own small universe, its maximum speed was only one hundred and thirty times the speed of light, yet the fastest ships Xiao Yu had constructed had curvature flight speeds exceeding one hundred and forty times the speed of light.
In just a few hours, the Specter companion returned to peak condition, and Xiao Yu had already deployed his battle clusters. Thus the battle began anew, with the assault on the small universe.
Under the action of a special instrument, the space ahead was torn open within limits. Using a sheet of paper as an analogy, it was like tearing a strip from that sheet. A strip of paper has four edges. The structure of the Space Bridge was to separate three edges of that strip from the original large sheet, leaving only one edge connected to the large sheet.
For three-dimensional space, a cube has six faces. What Xiao Yu needed to do was separate five faces of this cube from the three-dimensional main universe, keeping only one face connected to the main universe as a passage.
This was precisely what Xiao Yu was doing now. As the instruments activated, it was as if a Space Gate appeared before Xiao Yu. This Space Gate could only be seen from the front. Looking from behind, one could not see any trace of it. When Xiao Yu’s ships entered the Space Gate, they vanished from the visible universe. Because the space inside this gate did not overlap with the main universe, the spaces did not coincide and thus light did not coincide. Therefore, from the main universe one could not see the situation inside the Space Gate, and from within the Space Gate one could not see the situation in the external main universe.
[A/N: It is somewhat difficult to describe the Space Gate precisely. It seems to require a certain foundation in spatial geometry and spatial imagination to understand clearly. However, it can be simplified by referencing the Anywhere Door from the Doraemon anime to understand the Space Gate.]
After entering the Space Gate, one arrived upon the Space Bridge. The Space Bridge had not yet been fully constructed. It had not yet extended to the Guardian Civilization’s small universe. Due to the property of space being finite yet boundless, the view inside the Space Bridge was extremely peculiar, as if mirrors had been installed everywhere within it. Up, down, left, and right were all virtual images of Xiao Yu’s warships. A single warship within the Space Bridge, after countless reflections of its light, would appear as countless warships.
This had certain similarities to a small universe, but there were also differences. Because one face of the Space Bridge was still connected to the main universe, light from the main universe could enter the Space Bridge from a certain direction. Therefore, within the Space Bridge, looking backward one could see various scenes from the main universe, and looking forward one would also see various scenes of the main universe, because when the main universe’s light advanced to the top of the Space Bridge, it was reversed again.
Amid such a bizarre scene, Xiao Yu’s warships, trailed by countless phantoms, waited quietly. This was the motion of space itself. Xiao Yu’s ships only needed to remain here and let space carry them along.
The first vanguard landing force consisted of ten million warships. The Micron Civilization’s corpse was not among them. Xiao Yu planned to send these ten million warships first to observe the situation inside the Guardian Civilization’s small universe, then make further decisions. The Micron corpse was the most important asset to Xiao Yu and could not be risked. Dispatching it before the situation was clear would not be a wise choice.
The space reinforcement instruments had begun operating. The space that constituted the Space Bridge was being continuously reinforced. This was absolutely necessary, because the Space Bridge had only one face connected to the main universe, making it extremely fragile. A single spatial rift attack could sever it completely from the main universe, forming an independent small universe. Moreover, because such an accidentally formed small universe could not have energy replenishment devices preinstalled, it would quickly undergo heat death, and the warships inside would undoubtedly be destroyed.
Using spatial weapons inside the Space Bridge was a very dangerous act, but if used properly, they could also inflict tremendous damage on the enemy and achieve the effect of moving a thousand pounds with four ounces.
Before them was a kaleidoscopic, illusory world. Observation through visible light or various radiation could not determine the Space Bridge’s current state at all, but mathematical tools could clearly tell Xiao Yu the Space Bridge’s current length, its distance to the destination, the current stability of the space, and a whole series of other data.
“The Guardian Civilization should also be laying a Space Bridge, preparing to ambush my Space Bridge.” Xiao Yu pondered silently. “Using spatial weapons within the Space Bridge is a highly dangerous behavior, and the primary weapons of a Level 6 Civilization are spatial weapons. That means our war will still revolve around spatial weapons. But this is inside the Space Bridge. It is like fighting with thermal weapons inside an ammunition depot. The slightest mistake can cause enormous losses. Just thinking about such a battle is exhilarating.”
The best weapon against a Space Bridge was also a Space Bridge. Xiao Yu could lay a Space Bridge from the main universe end, and the Guardian Civilization could likewise lay one from the small universe end. When the two Space Bridges met, space would instantly merge, forming a situation similar to a tributary flowing into a river’s main channel. This provided convenience for ambushes. It was entirely possible that while Xiao Yu’s Space Bridge was being laid, a Guardian Space Bridge would suddenly merge in from behind, then use spatial weapons to sever Xiao Yu’s Space Bridge and consign the warships inside to destruction.
Detection and destruction of the enemy’s Space Bridge, as well as defense and reinforcement of one’s own Space Bridge, would be the main themes of the small universe siege.
Up to this point, Xiao Yu had not yet suffered an attack from the Guardian Civilization, but he did not dare to be careless. The Space Bridge he was laying continued to extend forward bit by bit. At this moment, progress had reached roughly forty percent.
Time ticked by. The Space Gate continued to hang quietly in the main universe’s void. Xiao Yu’s warships filed in one after another. The instruments stabilizing the Space Bridge and the instruments probing for any other Space Bridges approaching were operating at maximum power and highest sensitivity.
“Hm? At roughly three hundred and ninety thousand kilometers in the four-dimensional direction from the Space Gate, there is a slight spatial fluctuation. It seems a Space Bridge is being laid toward us. Has the Guardian Civilization finally made its move? Good, they have finally come.”
Xiao Yu exhaled lightly and maneuvered his warships to make ready for battle.
