Their fleet had, without them realizing it, stumbled into a stellar battlefield!
And the attack they had just suffered was merely a stray projectile from the conflict!
Innumerable spacecraft, from the Warrior-class, as small as spores, to the Invincible-class, comparable to the White Emperor, could be seen. The control panel indicated thousands of light spots!
"Fuck!"
Li Shimin let out a harsh expletive and turned to Fang Er.
"Kid, what are you still staring at? Hurry up and find a way to get out!"
[Too late!]
Xi Tong, seated at the control panel, replied without turning his head, then pointed to a corner of the holographic screen.
[We've been noticed. There are at least ten Invincible-class battleships and over a hundred Fearless-class battleships converging on us!]
Ten Invincible-class battleships!
Even with its optimizations, the White Emperor's strength was nowhere near enough to contend with them!
Fang Er was speechless.
To ensure the White Emperor's safe passage, before every jump, they meticulously calculated the orbital trajectories of celestial bodies within a million-li radius, deliberately avoided asteroid belts, and even predicted solar flares.
Yet, the space that had been empty before the jump had suddenly transformed into a battlefield with two opposing forces!
This was utterly absurd!
The enemy fleet's forward speed left Fang Er no time to think.
He could only grab the communicator and attempt to initiate contact.
"We are a warship from the great Trisolaran civilization. We are merely passing through and mean no offense. The great Trisolaran civilization harbors no hostility towards you!"
Announcing their true origin was out of the question. But since he had to communicate with the enemy, he needed some identity.
Thus, the Trisolaran civilization from Earth's science fiction novels was casually adopted by Fang Er.
His clear Mandarin Chinese was automatically translated by the White Emperor into a special language, transmitted as radio waves to the enemy warships.
This language, it was said, was the common tongue within the solar system. The language pack had been copied from a captured spacecraft found on the dark side of the moon.
As soon as the message was sent, the enemy warships immediately slowed down considerably.
In fact, moments later, those spacecraft even turned and flew away!
Fang Er: ???
What the hell?
Were they that easy to deal with?
"Hey, hey, hey, don't leave! Can we borrow your star charts to copy your homework?!"
"Damn it, why are you running so fast!"
"We're not bad guys..."
But no matter how he called out, the enemy warships showed no intention of stopping.
Not only that, even the other ships still engaged in combat quickly ceased fire and then also disappeared from the area.
Fang Er was stunned!
What in the world was going on?
They fired a shot at us, and didn't even give us money, and now they won't even let us copy their homework?
Why the hurry to leave?
Li Shimin rubbed his chin with his cigar, musing, "An Zhi, do you think... they were scared away when they heard about this Trisolaran civilization you mentioned?"
"Impossible!"
Fang Er vehemently denied this speculation.
"That Trisolaran civilization is just something fabricated by novelists. How could it scare them?"
But Li Shimin shook his head, "What I mean is, this Trisolaran is not that Trisolaran!"
"Is it possible that in the universe, there really is a civilization named Trisolaran, coincidentally sharing the same name as the one in the novel?"
Fang Er: ...
This...
Who could possibly say for sure?
The vast universe, without boundaries, anything could happen!
"Quick, open a wormhole and exit this star system!"
Thinking too much was useless. The most crucial thing now was to leave here to avoid being ambushed if they decided to return.
Xi Tong nodded at his words and his fingers danced rapidly across the control panel again.
Celestial bodies spanning millions of miles instantly appeared on the holographic screen.
Lines of code flashed across them, calculating the safest jump route.
This calculation was immense but necessary, as otherwise, no one could guarantee that the White Emperor, upon exiting the wormhole, wouldn't crash into a planet.
Time ticked by, and the two fleets that had departed showed no intention of returning.
[Route determined...]
[Hull structure re-examination in progress...]
[Structure stable, jump possible...]
[Formation energy charging to 38.6%, charging initiated...]
[Wormhole opening countdown: 30 seconds...]
As the White Emperor's voice sounded, energy began to condense in the formation ahead of the ship.
When the countdown reached zero and a new wormhole was opened, just as the ship was about to surge into it, its engines, which had just activated, inexplicably halted.
[Warning! Warning! Route obstructed, jump aborted!]
Fang Er and Xi Tong snapped their heads up, their gazes scanning outside through the viewport in unison.
"Holy shit!"
[My fucking god!]
"I'll be damned!"
The last exclamation came from Li Shimin, who was beside them.
And the cause of all this was a terrifying spacecraft that had appeared from nowhere in front of them, its size several times larger than the White Emperor!
[This is... a World-Ending class battleship!]
Xi Tong's eyes widened as he looked at the spacecraft ahead, his expression even tinged with a hint of panic!
World-Ending class battleship, this was the classification of spacecraft by civilizations within the Milky Way, equivalent to the Tan-class warships of Andromeda!
Regarding warships of this caliber, the information Fang Er and Xi Tong had gathered could be summarized by three words.
Big, Strong, Fast!
The spacecraft was massive; its hangar could accommodate ten White Emperor motherships!
Its weapon systems were powerful enough to easily destroy a star!
And its flight speed was incredibly fast; despite its colossal hull, its maximum speed could reach twice the speed of light!
And this limited information was gathered from the black market in Andromeda and from previous alien captives.
Beyond that, they knew nothing.
Fang Er was completely bewildered. They could barely handle those small fry, and now a boss had suddenly appeared!
ps: My apologies to everyone. I was back home during the Spring Festival, and the network signal was terrible. I have now returned to Zhengzhou, and updates will resume~