Chapter 289: Chapter 54: Carol: Welcome the Arrival of the Supreme Lord! Diana’s Despair! (Part 2)

In her words, though there was some surprise, what prevailed was the teasing of a cat playing with a mouse.

"How do we divide up this fortress..."

"Drawing lots? Or combat?"

The medium-sized fortress had yet to fully burst out of the nebula, but already the assembled civilization forces had started discussing how to divvy up its ownership.

Elsewhere.

In the Carol Fleet, which stood alone facing the other civilization fortress fleets from a distance, showing its independence.

At the very front, inside the Super Large Fortress codenamed S-1, Carol’s sharp eyes locked tightly onto the distant nebula.

"Lord?"

"No, that’s not right..."

Carol muttered to herself.

Moments before.

She had received a communication.

Yu Jin had told her—

Dawn Fortress was about to depart from the P-8808 Star Realm and she was to ready the fleet for war.

Yes, ready for war—not for a welcome.

Simply because—

One month earlier.

Following Yu Jin’s orders, Carol had spread an explosive message throughout this patch of starry sky.

"There’s a new player in the P-8808 Star Realm who has unexpectedly obtained a fixed ascension quota from the Wasteland!"

"Kill that player and occupy their fortress to snatch their ascension quota!"

"There’s no ranking requirement for the quota—after five months, when the time is up, you ascend automatically!"

The moment this news was released, it sent shockwaves through the starry sky.

All the major high-level civilization forces were skeptical—after all, none had ever heard of a ’fixed ascension quota’ before.

But...

The appearance of the Carol Fleet and their silent vigil here was enough to make them take it seriously.

It was precisely because of this.

That over the past month or so,

Closter and other civilization forces had dispatched more fortresses, even Super Large Fortresses, to this patch of sky.

Whoosh—

Carol let out a long breath, and her thoughts returned to the present.

She watched as most of the medium-sized fortress had already surged out of the nebula, about to lose the "Newbie Village rules" protection, her eyes indifferent and emotionless.

That was not the Dawn Fortress where the Lord was; Carol now knew that for certain.

So...

Its fate no longer concerned her.

Beep—!

Suddenly,

inside the S-1 fortress control cabin,

a piercingly urgent mechanical alert sounded.

[Warning!]

[Warning!]

[Detected ultra-high-level energy fluctuation!]

[Assessing energy level...]

[Assessment failed!]

[Energy level suspected to exceed Super Large Fortress limit!]

In the control cabin awash in red lights, Carol’s eyes suddenly shone brightly.

Swish—

She snapped her head around, staring relentlessly at the vast, dense nebula.

"It’s here, it’s coming..."

"The Supreme Lord is about to arrive!"

The face that was usually stern and cold could not help but show intense excitement and elation.

Ever since being saved, she had never met the Lord face to face...

But now?

She felt it!

Just behind the nebula, the Lord’s aura was getting closer and closer!

[Beep—!]

The prompt sounded again in the control cabin.

This time, it was coming from all the fortresses in the fleet.

"Lady Carol!"

"Y-01 Fortress has sounded the alarm—an ultra-high-level energy fluctuation detected!"

"Should we evade? Awaiting instructions!"

"Lady Carol!"

"Y-02 Fortress..."

"..."

Every fortress and fleet commander was simultaneously requesting instructions from Carol.

Carol forcibly calmed her racing heart, took a deep breath, and issued her soaring order to all fortresses and fleets—

"No need to evade!"

"That is..."

"The Supreme Lord is about to arrive!"

"All fortresses and fleets, all commanders and team members, prepare yourselves!"

"Prepare..."

"To welcome the Supreme Lord!"

...

Inside the Y-03 Interstellar Fortress.

Tang Yunxuan, who’d spent over a month lying around out of sheer boredom, suddenly bolted upright in the commander’s seat.

"It’s here?"

"Really here?"

Tang Yunxuan’s heart was pounding fast, too.

All the past month, in his mind he’d imagined countless times what it would be like to see the Lord.

But now that the moment had truly come, he was still nervous—uneasy.

"Please be a good Lord, please be a good Lord..."

He silently prayed over and over in his heart.

Taking deep breaths, he gazed out the port window.

In the starry sky,

the medium-sized fortress had truly emerged from the nebula.

What awaited it was a deluge of energy beams and warships and spaceships swarming like locusts...

Though he had seen this scene too many times over the past three days,

it never failed to make Tang Yunxuan’s heart clench with unease. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Not for himself, but for his good brother Yu Jin.

"With Old Yu’s achievements back on Wasteland Planet, unless something went terribly wrong, he should’ve been able to ascend to Star System Wasteland..."

"But to ascend to Star System Wasteland, you have to face these high-level civilization forces who are worse than pirates..."

"Old Yu, I’m really worried about you, bro!"

Now, Tang Yunxuan no longer had any intention to show off his fortress commander status in front of Yu Jin if they met again.

What he truly wished was for Yu Jin to ascend peacefully...

Above all, he hoped Yu Jin wouldn’t meet the same desperate fate as this medium-sized fortress, getting encircled by high-level civilization forces.

But...

According to Commander Carol, situations like those in the P-8808 Star Realm were actually very commonplace.

It’s those Newbie Villages that escape a high-level civilization siege that are truly rare.

"Sigh!"

Tang Yunxuan exclaimed in frustration.

No matter how worried he was about Old Yu, he had no idea where he was—and even if he did, that Lord who was about to descend wouldn’t allow him to fly a fortress off to rescue his brother...

"Better focus on the task at hand!"

"From what Carol says, there’s a big war coming next—the opponents are all the other high-level civilization forces here..."

"It’s honestly unimaginable, how powerful that Lord must be to dare take on a hundred Super Large Fortresses in this starry sky..."

Tang Yunxuan mumbled away, but his hands didn’t slow for a moment.

One order after another was issued throughout the fortress.

In the fortress launch bay,

the Blue Star players, who had practiced for days, boarded the warships, readying for battle.

A similar scene played out in the other fortresses at the same time.

In Y-02 Fortress, Yin Zhenzhong, who served as Commander-in-Chief, wore a solemn, square face full of anxiety.

About to meet the Lord—whom he’d never seen nor knew the temperament of—he, too, was intensely nervous.

Boom—

Kaboom—!

In the endless starry sky, a deafening roar erupted.

Theoretically, sound cannot be transmitted in a vacuum.

But when the energy level’s high enough, even the laws of physics cease to matter.

At this moment,

outside the outermost nebula of the P-8808 Star Realm,

the medium-sized fortress, Moonlight Fortress, was engulfed by a deluge of energy beams.

The lord of Moonlight Fortress, Diana Hill, wore only despair on her pretty face.

"Why..."

"Why are you doing this to me?"

"Why are you doing this to Moonlight Fortress?"

Diana’s voice was filled with rage, with refusal to submit.

She’d already weighed the risks of leaving the star realm and had specifically promoted her fortress to medium-sized to prepare.

But alas!

In the vast starry sky, a medium fortress didn’t even qualify to be at the table.

Over a thousand large fortresses, hundreds of Super Large Fortresses...

Such a terrifying array—if Moonlight Fortress were Super Large Level, it would still be lost under such a siege!

Diana activated the fortress’s maximum energy defenses, but could only watch as the energy shield shattered visibly, piece by piece.

She thought of all she’d been through in recent days...

In truth, her original plan was to keep quietly developing for a while longer, to see if she could promote Moonlight Fortress to large level before leaving the star realm.

But fate...

Within the star realm, something truly horrific was germinating!

Likely an extremely high-tier, Star System-Level Mutant Beast, more than capable of wiping out the entire star realm with ease!

It lurked in the void, maybe amid companions or offspring...

It was getting closer and closer to waking; Diana had glimpsed its outline from afar, felt its aura.

At that moment,

Diana gritted her teeth and made the decision to steer Moonlight Fortress out of the P-8808 Star Realm.

"If I don’t flee, I die."

"If I flee, I die too."

Diana looked up at the shattered energy shield, her face filled with despair.

She had already seen—

the starry sky littered with shredded limbs and broken corpses.

Those belonged to the players who had tried to leave the star realm before her.

"If I’m going to die, I’ll die standing!"

Diana clenched her silver teeth so hard they audibly creaked. Within her, the Tier Twelve energy surged wildly.

But...

Just as she prepared to make a last stand and fight to the death against the fleets and Evolvers from the high-level civilization forces—

she saw—

the locust-like fleets in front of her suddenly freeze, then...

retreat at full speed in the opposite direction!

"What?"

Diana was stunned on the spot.

Instinctively,

standing above the fortress, she slowly turned to look behind her,

in the direction of the P-8808 Star Realm.

And at that instant,

what entered her vision was a silhouette so gigantic it defied words, its form alone enough to instantly annihilate a Super Large Interstellar Fortress...