Inside the 8384 merchant ship, Qu Jianlei watched the myriad sizes of starships ahead expressionlessly.

"Xiao Hu, the other side should still have quite a few personal weapons, right?"

"It should be like that," Xiao Hu replied softly, then asked, "Are you planning to engage in boarding combat?"

Qu Jianlei thought about it and shook his head, "No, who knows what other tricks they have up their sleeve."

Xiao Hu's voice turned slightly strange, "So, you're saying you want to destroy these starships?"

Having control of these warships, yet the boss intends to destroy them; as a miser, one can imagine its feelings.

"Just leave two intact attack ships," Qu Jianlei replied indifferently.

"When I was A-level, I made quite a few Supremes turn their ships, so there's no need to gamble."

Xiao Hu was speechless for a moment before softly muttering, "Feels like you're being overly cautious."

Qu Jianlei felt conflicted inside; he understood that what he said was somewhat insincere.

In the end, he did not want to massacre so many people up close; bullying the weak didn't give him any sense of achievement.

But killing them all was a necessary evil.

The other side specially sent a Space-Air Carrier, staking heavily to forcefully rob him; if no one was killed, it would be hard to reconcile.

More importantly, this time Xiao Hu was completely exposed; as long as one person escapes, it would pose a huge hidden danger.

When Qu Jianlei formulated the battle plan, he already anticipated this outcome.

From another perspective, wasn't he also trying to force himself not to let even one person go?

In comparison, saying "worried about unexpected failures" was just an excuse he found for himself.

He didn't even know when he started to become a bit soft-hearted.

Could it be that staying in the Prosperous Star Realm for too long had eroded his murderous aura?

However, this excuse was indeed valid, aligning with his fragile sense of security.

It's just that so many starships would be damaged... Thinking about it feels a bit heart-wrenching.

Nevertheless, Qu Jianlei was ultimately not an indecisive person. The next moment, he issued the attack command.

"Fire at will, oh, and don't damage the important parts."

"Hit them first, then repair them?" Xiao Hu couldn't help but murmur, "Do you think I'm free enough?"

At this moment, on the Space-Air Carrier, someone exclaimed in surprise, "Found it, there's a manual signal light!"

Just like Kitchen Maid's reaction, Third Butcher, upon finding all their systems malfunctioning, quickly decided to surrender.

The unfortunate part was that the Space-Air Carrier's control signal system was also malfunctioning, so they could only look for the manual switch.

After all, although Xiao Hu could control many systems, it was only a segment of data.

By controlling so many systems of starships, it used extremely high computational power, and many systems were brutally shut down.

For example, the signal light system, Xiao Hu didn't deliberately shut it down, just inadvertently included it.

And the manual signal switch wouldn't be affected by data.

The Space-Air Carrier, needing to guide attack ships for take-off and landing, had some manual independent signal lights.

However, before the call finished, a white beam swept over, incredibly fast.

The next moment, the Space-Air Carrier shook slightly, a bowl-sized hole opened on the top.

The top was the crew's resting area, which indeed didn't house many critical devices.

The rushing airflow madly spewed outward from the ship's body, someone shouted, "Close the hatch!"

However, with the control system malfunctioning, most hatches couldn't be closed.

Luckily, with the starship's design, various safety measures were in place for emergencies, allowing some hatches to be manually closed.

The hatches closed, and someone screamed in despair, "We surrender, we want to surrender."

Someone else, quick-witted, grabbed lifeboats and life support pods, among other life-saving equipment.

Some even fought each other to save their skins.

This chaos played out in various cabins, ultimately showing that they were amateur robbers, with a definite gap compared to professional Star Thieves.

Xiao Hu attacked methodically, in its words, "No different from hitting fixed targets."

The two Armed Merchant Ships fared better, even though they were both penetrated, none were critical areas, allowing compensations to be made.

The small attack ships were unlucky, their small hulls had limited defensive space, and the cabin gases instantly vented.

Some had prepared ahead of time, wearing spacesuits or jumping into Space Mechas, narrowly escaping death.

But how long could this last? With the control system malfunctioning, they couldn't even leave the cabin!

Two attack ships weren't attacked, one being an assault type and the other a raid type.

The crew inside desperately signaled surrender, but unfortunately, the other side simply couldn't notice them.

However, Xiao Hu had another finding, "Tsk, making such a small hole is still not enough."

Qu Jianlei nodded slightly at the words, "The internal structure of these starships is complex, make a few more holes."

The internal structure of standard starships isn't particularly complex, even having similar unified standards.

But these armed merchant ships have all been modified, and their internal structures altered significantly.

Xiao Hu spoke up, "However, I can observe that making more holes will make repairs quite troublesome."

Qu Jianlei replied somewhat helplessly, "You're right to listen to me. Do you know what 'the longer the night, the more dreams'? It means the longer you wait, the more things can go wrong."

The Big Head Butterfly rotated its body slightly, "The control systems have failed, what else can they do?"

Facts proved that Qu Jianlei's worries were indeed not superfluous.

The next moment, a heavy-assault type attack ship experienced an explosion internally, and subsequently triggered a series of violent explosions.

Upon seeing this, Xiao Hu didn't hesitate, emitting one beam of white light after another, continuing to create openings in other starships.

Qu Jianlei was also a bit surprised, "Goodness, they really went for self-explosion? These guys are as fierce as Star Thieves."

Xiao Hu's soft voice rang out again, timidly expressing, "It's not what you think..."

It turns out that on that attack ship, there was a crew member who was wearing a spacesuit but had seized only a small amount of oxygen.

He requested more Oxygen Generating Agent from his colleagues, but unfortunately, no one was so selfless.

As he watched the oxygen dwindle bit by bit, he became frustrated. Bad fortune strikes: he was rather skilled at explosives.

Normally, such combat ships are equipped with self-destruct devices, but unfortunately, the control systems had failed, making it impossible to set self-destruct.

The crew member made an impulsive decision, creating a Fire Bomb and detonating the self-destruct device—if he couldn't survive, then no one could!

Xiao Hu sensed the whole sequence of events, so without waiting for Qu Jianlei's further instructions, decisively delivered the finishing blow.

After hearing this, Qu Jianlei was quite speechless.

"It's really true that adversity reveals true feelings... Forget it, those two attack ships should have openings made too."

He truly wanted to preserve two intact attack ships, but witnessing this twisted human nature, he felt it was better to be cautious.

Xiao Hu refrained from uttering complaints like "we'll need to continue repairing later," and fired straightforwardly.

After a series of operations, each attack ship was left with three or four openings.

The two armed merchant ships fared worse, each sustaining more than ten openings, rendering them utterly unable to prevent gas leakage.

After finishing this, Xiao Hu sighed, "The boss is indeed wise."

"If during the boarding battle, they had triggered a starship self-explosion, you might not have escaped unharmed."

That might not necessarily be the case! Qu Jianlei disagreed slightly; once inside a starship, whose actions could escape his perception?

However, those words weren't entirely without merit.

If the timing was right—say, the moment before he entered the bridge—the opponent might indeed have a chance to detonate the starship.

In such a scenario, whether he could escape unscathed was uncertain; injury was likely.

He really was forgetful! Raising his eyebrows, he recalled how, during his weaker days, he had repeatedly used explosives as a countermeasure against enemies.

But now, having become strong, he had forgotten such tactics as a magical treasure!

His initial decision wasn't due to a soft heart, after all, but rather an instinctive sense that such operations carried risks!

He chuckled, "So you've finally understood; do you still want intact starships?"

"No more," Xiao Hu replied candidly, "Thinking about it, repairing isn't too much trouble after all."

According to the prior plan, what they needed to do now was to wait, waiting for the starship crew to slowly perish.

The whole process would last some time, but would Qu Jianlei lack the patience?

Before the battle, they had meticulously observed the surroundings, hoping no other passing starships would interfere.

Xiao Hu indeed asked thoughtfully, "Boss, what if starships pass by now?"

Qu Jianlei remained silent for a long while, then shook his head, sighing lightly.

"Interstellar navigation is already dangerous enough; captains should learn to focus. Excessive curiosity undoubtedly increases danger."

He couldn't directly say "silencing is necessary"; that's not in his nature.

Thus, he emphasized the necessity of safe driving, something Blue Star people all understand, and Imperial people should as well.

However, if someone really did intervene, then he could only... act according to circumstances.

Facts proved their time estimation was wrong; less than an hour later, internal conflicts emerged on various ships.

Because Xiao Hu shut down the starship's power systems, the survival materials on the ships dwindled.

For instance, the air circulation system... Well, there was already no air left on the ships, and everyone fought over the Oxygen Generating Agent.

To Qu Jianlei, this was a bloodless killing method, out of sight and out of mind, avoiding a heavy moral burden.

But for the crew aboard starships, watching the countdown of life, such feelings were truly terrible.

The intense psychological pressure was enough to make people collapse!

Two hours later, the Kitchen Maid's warship had its hatch manually opened.

—During interstellar navigation, hatches can only be opened from inside, and for the sake of security, manual confirmation is required.

If not, Xiao Hu would have opened the hatch a long time ago!

With the hatch opened, a dense swarm of lifeboats, space mechas, etc., were ejected.

The scene in that instant was enough to make anyone with a fear of crowds tremble!