The reason for the failure was absurdly simple—so simple it left one speechless.
They had lost because they could not win.
This was not some so-called legion clash or a collision between fourth-tier weapons. They had been ruthlessly hammered on the Virus Mechanical Civilization's most core technology.
Those exposed "black boxes" were undoubtedly a new type of planetary computer, one specifically designed to counter them.
At the height of the Vessel's arrogance, someone had slammed a fist squarely into its face.
And beaten it to death.
"Let's set everything else aside for now. I'll just say one thing," a neutral Virus Mechanical Grand Duke spoke up.
"What do we do next? Do the methods they've displayed mean that our transformations will be unusable from now on?"
Whether they transformed themselves or others, their targets would be sealed by the enemy.
"It's not that exaggerated. They aren't an information civilization, so they can't easily complete 'virtual information conversion of all species.' All we can say is that they developed an extremely targeted hardware system. At most, we'll have to engage in head-on clashes within the coverage of their planetary computers from now on."
Another research-oriented Virus Mechanical Grand Duke spoke.
"..."
The others were rendered even more speechless.
When the Vessel had been deployed, wasn't it precisely because they believed this kind of "transformation" completely countered the enemy and would catch them off guard?
What was going on now?
Had they just given the enemy a free technological evolution while also disabling their own most threatening weapon?
"Any good news?"
"There really is one." Rootstalk Grand Duke spoke calmly. "According to my tests, the self-optimization progress of the 'Supreme Algorithm' has advanced by 3%."
The Virus Mechanical Grand Dukes were initially astonished, then delighted.
The so-called "self-optimization of the Supreme Algorithm"