Thought Poisoning

With a command from the Commander, the warships of the Fourth Fleet turned course and charged toward the pursuing Great Fleet, sounding the call to fight to the death.

Suddenly, the faint beams of light in the starry sky crisscrossed once more, and Electromagnetic Railgun shells, like ghosts, silently traversed the Void.

The explosions continued, and the fireworks that had just dimmed in the cosmic Void lit up again. The brief silence was like a lull in the fireworks display during the Spring Festival night sky.

After a brief pause, the fireworks came even more intensely.

After human technological upgrades, the Nair Civilization's warships are clearly more powerful than before. Take the Fourth Fleet for example; if their main guns hit an Artificial Intelligence warship, even if they don't kill it instantly, they can still severely damage it, and then it will be blasted into space debris by the subsequent laser cannons and Positron Cannon.

The Fourth Fleet, which fought back fiercely, Fearless of Death. The advantage brought by their courage was not only theoretical but also reflected in the accuracy of their shooting.

Warships that were originally meant to maneuver and evade for their own safety are now willing to risk being hit by a single shot from the enemy in order to complete their targeting calculations. While this behavior may result in them taking a hit themselves, it is more likely to kill the enemy ship in one shot.

Thus, at the moment the Fourth Fleet turned to fight desperately, the Artificial Intelligence fleet suffered heavy casualties. Some of the leading warships did not even have time to execute the instructions transmitted by the Main Consciousness before they were hit head-on by an Electromagnetic Railgun, and then turned into brilliant fireworks adorning the starry sky in the subsequent internal Big Bang.

It was a chaotic battle, but not a disorderly one.

The desperate counterattack launched by the captains and crew of the Fourth Fleet against the Artificial Intelligence fleet with a death wish was also unexpected by the Artificial Intelligence Consciousness, which clearly did not expect the Nair Civilization, which it had always looked down upon, to take such action.

Because in the database of the Artificial Intelligence Consciousness, the Nair People would not behave like this. When they are seriously injured, they should run away without looking back. Instead, they are charging into battle and dying. This is Artificial Intelligence Consciousness cannot understand.

It tried to find the answer in the database, but all the data told it that life is precious and that such suicide clearly violated the rules of biological survival, so it did not understand.

Trying to understand when you don't.

At that moment, its computing power, under its conscious control, was partially redirected to thinking about this problem, which led to some warships falling into confusion the instant the Fourth Fleet turned to fight desperately.

In just that short time, many warships that had been behaving strangely were picked off one by one by the Fourth Fleet, and the losses of the Artificial Intelligence fleet increased in vain.

Fortunately, the Artificial Intelligence Consciousness had broken through the limitations of Artificial Intelligence and was no longer just a program. So, in the next moment, it came to its senses, temporarily put aside the problems it couldn't understand, and focused its attention on controlling its fleet to launch an attack on the Fourth Fleet.

Given the numerical disparity, the Fourth Fleet's desperate counterattack, though sudden, ultimately only led them to an even more hopeless predicament.

After the initial excitement, the thrilling scene of breaking through the enemy lines did not materialize.

Conversely, after the Artificial Intelligence Consciousness came to its senses, the Fourth Fleet's losses surged, with as many as four hundred warships destroyed in just half an hour.

Of course, the Artificial Intelligence fleet suffered even greater losses, three times that of the Fourth Fleet.

The initial 1:4 casualty ratio was achieved through coordinated efforts of three fleets. Now, the Fourth Fleet alone can achieve a 1:3 casualty ratio, which is quite impressive.

However, that was all. In the subsequent battles, the Fourth Fleet suffered increasing losses of warships, leading to a sharp decline in its firepower. Meanwhile, the enemy's firepower was strengthened by the continuous replenishment of warships. As a result, the remaining fleet faced increasing pressure every quarter of an hour.

Ultimately, their only fate was to have their blood spilled across the starry sky.

Due to the distance, by the time the Allied Forces Command's advice reached the Fourth Fleet, it was too late for them to turn back, as they had only a little over a hundred warships left.

Even their flagship, where their Commander was stationed, had been destroyed. The one who relayed the accurate information back to the Allied Forces Command was one of the ship's captains.

When the Allied Forces Command received this information, they also remained silent.

In particular, the actions of the Fourth Fleet were unexpected by the Grand Governor of the Nile. Not only him, but also all the military experts of the Nile had not anticipated it.

It's not that they're stupid, but rather that in the culture of the Nair People, there's no concept of fighting to the death. Not only is there no such concept, but this has never happened in the long history of Nair People.

Even if the Nair Civilization had split into three at that time, none of the Nair Civilization, which were in constant warfare, would have shown such behavior from their fleets in any of their star systems.

So when humans learned of the Fourth Fleet's desperate actions, they didn't think much of it. On the contrary, the Grand Governor of the Niel and his group of high-ranking officials were stunned for a moment.

They were similar to Artificial Intelligence Consciousness, somewhat bewildered as to why the Commander of the Fourth Fleet and the captains of the various ships would make such a choice.

Even the Grand Governor of the Nile had some suspicions that, during the fleet's tactical coordination training, humans had secretly instilled some strange ideas into the Fourth Fleet.

"Commander-in-Chief, what is the Fourth Fleet doing here?" Governor-General Niel looked at the human on the screen with some suspicion as he reconnected the communication.

He wanted to ask the question that was on his mind, but for a moment he didn't know how to say it.

Yue Yuan was naturally unaware of his thoughts, and he didn't know much about the culture of the Nair people. Seeing the Nair Grand Governor's hesitant manner and the mention of the Fourth Fleet, he assumed that the Grand Governor was about to say that the Fourth Fleet had made great contributions.

So he solemnly said, "The Fourth Fleet is brave and fearless, a model for the Allied Forces and an example for all captains. Facing an invincible enemy, they are Fearless of Death, decisive, and disregard life and death. They are heroes of the Nair People and important contributors to this war."

After hearing Yue Yuan's words, the Grand Governor of the Nier people, who had initially been somewhat skeptical, became even more certain that the humans had said something to the Fourth Fleet.

If the Fourth Fleet is like this, then will the Fifth and Sixth Fleets be the same? The Grand Governor of the Nier was a little flustered. He didn't have time to question Yue Yuan on the screen. He hurriedly greeted him, then turned off the video call and went to discuss with the Nier high-ranking officials.

"Gentlemen, I'm wondering if forming an alliance with Human Civilization is a mistake. As you've seen, this Human Civilization seems to have more than just formidable fighting power; they also seem to possess some kind of ability to Nair People."

Governor-General Nair said with concern, "The situation of the Fourth Fleet must be related to human civilization. I worry that it's not just the Fourth Fleet; the Fifth and Sixth Fleets may also have been misled by some kind of ideology."

At this moment, Governor-General Niel felt that he had lost actual control of the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Fleets. He felt that the three fleets had truly put the orders of the Allied Command first, rather than him, Governor-General Niel.

"Your Grand Governor, such thinking in the fleet is not necessarily a bad thing. At least it raises the level of combat effectiveness. In the words of Human Civilization, this is the spirit of sacrifice, the backbone of soldiers."

"You!"

The governor of the Nile looked at the Nile who had spoken and felt that this Nile had also been misled by the ideas of human civilization.

It was clearly a violation of the Nair People's consistent code of conduct, yet a Nair People said it so matter-of-factly.

Just as Grand Governor Niel was struggling with his decision, a voice appeared in his auditory senses. "Report, Your Excellency, news from the Fifth and Sixth Fleets: they have shaken off the AI squadron and are now heading towards the Second Planet."

Meanwhile, in their engagements with the Artificial Intelligence- controlled squadrons, they discovered that the coordination between the two Artificial Intelligence- controlled squadrons was significantly weaker than that of their main fleet. Therefore, the Commander of the Fifth and Sixth Fleet concluded that it was not a copy of the Artificial Intelligence, but rather some kind of combat program it had temporarily programmed.

Upon hearing this report, Governor-General Niel felt much better. At least the Fifth and Sixth Fleets weren't fighting to the death with the AI fleet like the Fourth Fleet had, indicating that they hadn't yet been poisoned by the ideas of human civilization.

"Has the Allied Commander-in-Chief received the message?" the Grand Governor asked.

"The information was sent synchronously through the communications and command system of the Allied Forces Command. We received it, and the Commander-in-Chief must have received it as well!" the communications officer replied.

"What about the Fourth Fleet?" the Grand Governor asked again.

The communications officer hesitated for a moment, then said, "Fourth Fleet. No news."

Upon receiving no news, Governor-General Nielsen's heart sank. He felt that the Fourth Fleet was likely doomed.

"Turn the camera back to the battlefield, to the engagement positions of the Fourth Fleet," the Grand Governor said after a moment of silence, his voice heavy with emotion.

In his eyes, although the Fourth Fleet had been misled by the ideas of Human Civilization, it still belonged to the Nair Civilization.

The starry sky quickly appeared on the big screen.

At this moment, his fleet was still several Astronomical Unit away from the front line, but with the detection capabilities of Level 2 Civilization, some clues could still be seen.

Just like the explosions and flashes of light we saw from the warships before.

But at this moment, there was not much light appearing on the big screen.

This means that the battle at the Fourth Fleet's location was nearing its end, or even possibly already over. In other words, the Fourth Fleet may indeed have been completely annihilated.

Because everyone knows that the Fourth Fleet's small fleet is no match for tens of thousands of Artificial Intelligence warships.

Seeing the scene on the big screen, the Grand Governor of the Nair People already had the answer in his heart, but he still found it hard to accept the result.