Sudden Injury

Unexpectedly, the moment those 2,993 warships appeared, Dynamic Image Civilization's Level 5 Civilization spacecraft moved. Having been stationary relative to the Lyra, it immediately activated Warp Mode. This startled Humanity—what happened to the promised year?!

The Lyra received a Tachyon Broadcast the very next moment.

"Detestable Human Civilization, we nearly fell for your trick. It wasn't just one flagship that obtained the Pioneer Treasure—all the warships in your fleet did. Otherwise, how could you have escaped Orange Star Civilization's pursuit without losing a single ship? We almost let you fool us. What nerve. What incredible nerve. And now you've delivered yourselves right to our doorstep!"

Those two thousand-plus warships had not yet reached the vicinity of the Lyra, but they had already entered Tachyon Detection range. Dynamic Image Civilization scanned the surrounding star systems with Tachyons at regular intervals, and thus discovered them.

Humanity immediately understood what this meant.

Back then, Dynamic Image Civilization had indeed watched Orange Star Civilization's 1.8 million warships chase Humanity's 2,994 warships away. Under equal Warp conditions, only Humanity's warships had now returned. That meant the Orange Star Civilization fleet had either been persuaded by Humanity or defeated by Humanity's fleet.

The latter was more likely. Dynamic Image Civilization knew Humanity had obtained something from the Precursor, so it must have been that Precursor artifact that allowed Humanity to defeat Orange Star Civilization despite its overwhelming numerical advantage.

Following that logic, this human warship had definitely been Delaying Time. Fine then!

"There really is only one." The Lyra replied through a Tachyon Broadcast. It was indeed telling the truth.

At the same time, it pushed up its Warp Gear and began Warp maneuvers. The other side had torn off all pretenses. Any further hesitation would mean defeat, and surrender was absolutely not an option.

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