A strange, eerie creature appeared. Its one restless eyeball kept twitching, as if wary and trying to avoid something.
"They... They're here!"
"Quick, run!"
"They're—they're the 'Hunters,' symbols of death... The 'Death God' is here!"
"They've nearly wiped out the main body of our race. Even us last survivors have been hunted down from one era to the next..."
"They'll find this place sooner or later. We have to feed as quickly as possible, so that before they arrive... we can flee into the darkness of the universe again..."
"So hungry, so hungry... Food. Find food..."
The captain of the Gonggong was taken aback, visibly surprised.
How could they have encountered the Presolin Zerg in this universe too?!
Why "too"?
Because in another universe, they had already suffered an infestation once.
Back then, nearly half of the Star Sea Community had been ravaged by the swarm. But during those years, the Human Federation's fleet had risen to prominence, not only suppressing the swarm's threat but also winning the title of "Star River Guardian" within the Star Sea Community.
How could an interstellar regime that was extremely isolationist and treated alien species with cruelty be recognized as the "Star River Guardian" by those Community councilors who did nothing but spew bullshit?
It sounded unbelievable, but it was true.
The Human Federation had won that title through sheer strength.
In another universe, the Federation had used a fleet so vast it blotted out the sky to rid the entire Star Sea of the Presolin Zerg, which had become a "natural disaster" and devoured countless interstellar regimes!
It was an unimaginably brutal war, and the battle that had marked the Human Federation's rise.
The captain of the Gonggong swore he would never forget what those bugs looked like for as long as he lived.
During the war to exterminate the Solin Zerg in another universe, the captain of the Gonggong had received a great deal of intelligence about them.
They had even captured a Zerg Queen during the war and sealed several Zerg planets with the Peace Angel, conducting in-depth studies of the species.
As he recalled, the Presolin Zerg they had encountered in the previous universe had also called themselves the so-called "last survivors."
Why was it the same in this universe?
How could there be so many "last survivors"?
Did these bugs only know how to repeat the same lines?
Or was this "Presolin" before them merely the parallel-universe counterpart of the "Presolin" they had encountered in the other universe?
And what exactly were the "Hunters" and the "Death God" they kept talking about?
"You..."
The Navigator of the Gonggong was about to use Psionics to ask them some specific questions.
Unexpectedly, after the other creature's restless eyeball spun in a hair-raising circle, it focused on them.
"You're 'food.' So hungry..."
Whoosh!
The communication link was forcibly cut, and the ship's alarms blared.
Countless dense life-sign readings appeared in the Heavenly Dao Galaxy, which had just been blasted into a black hole.
"Fuck!"
The captain of the Gonggong couldn't help cursing. They had arrived at just the right time.
The number of Presolin Zerg pouring into the galaxy was beyond belief—over a thousand times greater than the so-called fleet of the Lieyang Civilization!
The Zerg's space units were divided into several tiers, from largest to smallest: Zerg Queen, Broodmother, Warrior, and Larva!
They corresponded to four classes of warships: battleships, cruisers, destroyers, and frigates. A massive swarm could pose a threat on par with a fleet of comparable size.
Most importantly, once they encountered these bugs, it meant that the fighting ahead would be nearly endless.
Clearly, the swarm the Gonggong had encountered had already reproduced through several generations.
There had to be a Zerg nest somewhere in the nearby star sector. Otherwise, the Zerg wouldn't have appeared with such planning and preparation.
Damn it. If that Anomalous Spacetime Effect hadn't interfered with their detection systems, they wouldn't have been in such a passive position.
The Gonggong now faced a swarm of tens of millions, seemingly without end.
It was true that a Sky Burning Divine Weapon could take on ten thousand ships alone, but that depended on the enemy.
The kind of fleet made up of Lieyang Civilization warships couldn't even be called an interstellar fleet in the face of any Federation warship.
Their speed was slower than a tortoise's. Their shipboard weapons couldn't penetrate enemy defenses. Their attacks couldn't travel faster than light, and their effective range couldn't span light-years. How could that possibly qualify as an interstellar fleet?
The captain of the Gonggong was confident he could defeat another million enemy warships like those.
But against a Zerg fleet, things were entirely different.
Against the former, they could fight lying down. Against the latter, they had no choice but to sit up and fight.
The Sky Burning Divine Weapon's cannons were powerful, but a swarm of this size could overwhelm even a seasoned veteran with sheer numbers.
The Zerg's weapons could inflict real damage on the Sky Burning Divine Weapon.
The swarm filled almost every inch of space within the star system, charging at the Gonggong without fear of death.
Unfortunately, the star in the Heavenly Dao Galaxy had already been destroyed. Otherwise, they could have used the Star Blaster to trigger a supernova and ease the crisis.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The Gonggong unleashed its full firepower. The first Zerg ships to approach were torn apart by its terrifying barrage, but the swarm behind them kept pouring in, forming an impenetrable encirclement.
The situation had turned dire in an instant.
"Captain, that immense gravitational source has changed again. The engine and weapons systems are being irreversibly suppressed..."
"Faster-than-light weapons' rate of fire has dropped by eighty percent. The Sky Burning Divine Weapon's conventional speed has fallen by fifty percent!"
"Phew..."
Driven to the brink of life and death, the captain of the Gonggong remained exceptionally clearheaded.
Three paths to certain death and one way out lay before them.
The first was to keep fighting until they were swallowed by the dense swarm.
The second was to abandon all resistance, shut down every system running aboard the ship, and let the Sky Burning Divine Weapon fall into the newly formed black hole in the Heavenly Dao Galaxy, choosing a more spectacular kind of funeral.
The third was to fight to the very end and self-destruct, taking a group of Zerg with them.
The Sky Burning Divine Weapon had previously collected a vast quantity of Dark Matter.
This Dark Matter had been stored using a quantum-storage technology in an independent subspace bound to the Sky Burning Divine Weapon.
Detonating it would cause damage across the entire Star System, dealing a devastating blow to the tens of millions of Zerg before them!
Better to shatter like jade than survive like a tile.
The only way out was to forcibly activate the ship's Psionic Engine and make an emergency faster-than-light escape, using its immense Psionics to send the Gonggong somewhere else in the galaxy.
Though this wouldn't let the Gonggong escape the Hou Shen Galaxy entirely or free the crew from the Zerg threat, it would buy them enough time. With luck, they might even make it out alive.
But these Solin Zerg also wielded Psionics. Escaping them with the Psionic Engine wouldn't be easy.
Only a Psionic of over ninety rings, willing to give everything they had—even sacrifice their life—might have a chance of breaking through the enemy's Psionic blockade and getting the Sky Burning Divine Weapon out.
Three certain deaths, one chance to live.
Four outcomes didn't necessarily mean four choices. In the captain of the Gonggong's eyes, this could also be a ranking question—and it had to be.
"My fellow humans... If you get the chance, give my regards to the Grand Marshal and United Star!"
The captain's calm voice passed through the mind channel and reached every crew member.
"Activate the Psionic Jump Engine!"
A terrifying Psionic pressure erupted, spreading from the command room throughout the entire ship in less than a nanosecond.
A gigantic bubble of Psionics enveloped the space occupied by the Sky Burning Divine Weapon.
The boundaries of time and space were ripped apart!
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