Brutal and Simple Interstellar Melee

The starry sky stretched empty and boundless, within a belt of countless asteroids forming a nebula.

Countless particles of light silently appeared, then dissipated without a trace.

Five massive star warships emerged, orbital railguns encircling them, their main cannons resembling enormous, perfectly structured crystals emitting a dreamlike luster.

"Activate optical stealth, stealth mode engaged," Qingyang ordered immediately.

The outer armor of the five warships shifted rapidly, blending completely into the surrounding environment, making it hard to spot anything amiss even up close.

As for energy fluctuations, they were even more concealed—unless facing a high-level civilization or another datafied starfleet.

Otherwise, the energy stealth granted by datafication was extremely difficult to detect.

Qingyang signaled Guxing to check for datafication, confirming it before activating his own talent.

Although the Star Net was down, the starfleet and Commander Talent did not exist because of the Star Net.

To be precise, the Star Net was born from the starfleet and countless commanders.

[Local Star Net Channel activated. This channel can only be accessed by starfleets of the same dimensional world.]

[Local Network Node (1)—Eternal Truth Fleet]

Qingyang was momentarily stunned, then delighted: "This way, even communication won't risk interception or detection."

Once all crew members were connected to the local network, Qingyang, holding sole authority, quickly divided the network into several sections.

Facilitating command and communication between crew members.

The five warships, led by the Huiyue Type Battleship, swiftly exited the asteroid belt.

The detection matrix activated, and a star map spanning dozens of light-days gradually took shape.

The region where the Eternal Fleet was located was a small stellar system, with only one star about a million kilometers across and seven or eight planets.

No habitable planets.

However, Qingyang and the others spotted several planets covered in metal buildings.

"We need to determine the life forms before making a decision," Qingyang said with a frown.

If they were human, it would be best to avoid killing if possible. The universe was vast, with countless races and civilizations.

Races similar to humans were extremely rare, let alone those nearly identical.

Thus, encountering sub-humans meant prioritizing a policy of negotiation. Those with 80% similarity even had privileges to join the alliance.

Loyalty? After at most a few dozen generations, a civilization integrated into the alliance would be fully devoted.

"Star of Truth, probe the general intelligence of this dimensional world," Qingyang decided to exploit a loophole.

[Probe: Four civilizations—two technological civilizations, one metal civilization, one plant civilization. Images below.]

Qingyang scanned the images.

One of the two technological civilizations resembled an octopus, while the other was a massive meatball with countless tentacles undulating up and down.

The other two civilizations were completely unrelated to humans—metal reptiles made entirely of cyan metal, and a group of dwarf trees floating in the air.

Qingyang relaxed and said, "This means we can go all out. Head to the nearest location with energy signals!"

Guxing and Guxue had no objections.

Different cultures, different appearances—language could be translated but wasn't necessary.

Just start killing; they had no psychological burden.

The Star Sea Human Alliance had always been this way. Humanoid civilizations were fine, but vastly different civilizations either surrendered and became vassals or were enemies!

Unless the other side had the strength to qualify as an alliance ally.

The Eternal Fleet easily broke through the Light Speed Barrier, entering the world's FTL lane, charging straight toward their target.

Hum~

An oversound of countless energy particles raging filled the air, silent explosions and bright light clusters rising and spreading across the starry sky.

This was a massive galaxy, its conspicuous multi-star system making it a landmark of this world.

Thousands of warships were locked in chaotic battle here, missiles, lasers, rays, covering every corner of the starry sky.

The dark void itself seemed dazzling because of it.

The overall melee showed four factions, with warship designs clearly distinct.

A triangular warship, about three kilometers long, emitted strange syllables from a twelve-tentacled octopus-like creature.

As if roaring in fury.

"Fire! Fire! Blast those foolish meatballs to pieces!"

The triangular warship continuously fired red beams, heavily striking a rugged warship opposite it.

Shields flickered, blocking the incoming attacks.

The rugged warship immediately counterattacked, its three massive triple naval guns rotating mechanically.

Quickly calibrating on the triangular warship.

At the same time, the colossal hull smashed through obstructing asteroids, as if intent on mutual destruction.

The Octopus Person showed no fear, likewise ordering their warship to charge, exchanging cannon fire.

In the instant the two warships were about to collide, they both veered slightly left, energy particles from the scraping shields wildly leaking out.

The shields dimmed at a rate visible to the naked eye.

The warship shook violently, the Octopus Person staring at the rugged warship ahead, as if they could see the enemy on the opposite bridge.

They roared savagely: "Fire at close range! Fire!"

Beams exploded at close quarters, both warships opening fire nearly simultaneously!

The already heavily depleted shields grew even dimmer, as if they would shatter at the slightest touch.

This frantic dogfight between two warships was merely a microcosm of the entire star system.

Thousands of warships from the Four Directions Civilization had already gone bloodshot with rage.

No allies, no intricate schemes—in this world, four civilizations had gathered the bulk of their forces and launched into direct battle.

Even on the planets, one could see vast ruins of anti-ship turrets, along with dense mechs, fighters, and even soldiers locked in combat.

At the edge of the battlefield, Qingyang watched the conflict erupting within.

"This is practically a brain-bashing brawl, right? A Level 3 Civilization has at most three thousand warships, and here there are over eight thousand."

Of those eight thousand, over three thousand were wreckage, spread across dozens of light-days around.

Beside him, a woman in a sterile research suit, wearing a pair of black-rimmed glasses, looked over the available intelligence.

Her tone was peculiar: "It's completely by the textbook. Low-level dimensional worlds have scarce resources, so the civilizations within slaughter each other to seek ascension, consolidating all resources."

She was one of Qingyang's newly recruited researchers, Bellia, a Civilization Researcher.

Specializing in studying civilization ecosystems and situations.

"Ascension?"

Qingyang asked curiously.

Bellia nodded: "Breaking through the barriers of a low-level dimensional world and finding other dimensional worlds is ascension. A very few powerful dimensional worlds can breach the main universe barrier and enter the main universe."

"Also, according to Level 3 Civilization metrics, as long as our fleet isn't surrounded and bombarded by seven or eight hundred warships, we'll basically be fine."

Bellia's addition made Qingyang's eyes light up.

"Let's go straight in!"

Qingyang's spirits lifted, and five warships charged directly into the battlefield, then deactivated their optical stealth.

Their striking, ornate hulls immediately caught the attention of dozens of warships from the four civilizations nearby.

Even the exchange of fire paused for a moment.

Which civilization's warship was this? A secret weapon?

Before the dozens of surrounding warships could react, the orbital ship cannons on four cruisers flickered with bright radiance.

In an instant, hundreds of ship cannon beams simultaneously struck over a dozen warships.

The local warships, only a kilometer long, shuddered slightly, and their shields shattered in an instant!

Then another volley of cannon fire followed, and the armor of those warships burst apart.

Dozens of warships exploded at once, the glaring firelight drawing the attention of even more creatures from the four civilizations.

Light-speed devastation raged, cannons roared.

A silent massacre unfolded in this region. No matter how these local warships counterattacked, they couldn't inflict any damage on the joint shield.

Conversely, each volley from the five star warships blasted warship after warship apart, shields and all.

Every time a ship exploded, thousands of corpses of various creatures emerged into the starry void, while even more turned to ash along with the vessel.

This was without Qingyang using the main cannon; otherwise, the slaughter would have been even swifter.

In Qingyang's eyes, the firelight of warship after warship exploding was reflected, and beyond excitement, he felt nothing else.

The vast majority of Alliance Humans were racists—and he was no different!