What They Knew

In a slow-motion video at 128x speed, the speed of the B-3 engineering repair robot has been slowed down to the extreme, almost to the point of stopping.

However, the wide-eyed onlookers still saw a fleeting black shadow in the video, which instantly struck a B-3 bomber not far away. But before they could see the result, the B-3 that captured the footage went black.

"What is that? Has anyone seen it clearly?"

Everyone shook their heads. One of them said, "Do we have something like this on our ship? Did we carry some kind of secret weapon that's now out of control?"

"Have you been watching too many movies, or has your head been squeezed by a hatch? That's clearly not our stuff."

"That's hard to say. After all, your access isn't high enough to know anything too confidential."

"You!..."

"Alright, I've already reported the situation to the captain. We don't need to worry about it anymore. Gwendolyn, slow it down further, slow the video down to 256 times. I want to see what that dark shadow is."

A moment later.

"Did you see it clearly?"

"No..."

"It looks like a whip?"

"... Judging from its whipping attack method, it's clearly something shaped like a whip. But what we need now is a concrete answer, not just the word 'seems like'."

"..."

"Gwendolyn, slow this video down by 512 times!"

Slowing down the scene by more than 500 times, everyone finally saw what it was. To be honest, even after seeing it clearly, they could only conclude that it resembled a whip; they knew nothing about the material or other details of the attack.

However, although they didn't know what material the whip was made of, its style was quite familiar to everyone.

"The Zerg?" After all, they had been at war for a long time. Since many civilizations in the Star Sea Alliance mainly followed the mechanical route and were deeply influenced by the Epoch Clan during their development, they often had to use paint schemes to show their unique style.

However, the Zerg do not need to do that; their style is so unique and distinctive. Moreover, the Zerg love to add tentacles, a type of melee weapon, to their units, such as the Space Octopus, Space Squid, Space Cannon Fish, and even the Desolate Class Mothership, all of which have tentacles to varying degrees.

The whip-like striking motion before them was almost a signature move of the Zerg's tentacle attacks. In fact, when the video was slowed down to 64x at the beginning, everyone already had some guesses about it.

However, a tiny sliver of hope lingered in their hearts, a desire to disprove their suspicions through facts. Unfortunately, the final outcome proved them right; it was indeed something from the Zerg.

But how did Zerg artifacts end up on warships? Due to their location, their warships have never had close contact with Zerg forces.

"No, we've had contact with the Zerg before."

"Huh? When? I don't remember."

"Have you forgotten? When they launched those Space Octopus cannons before, you all mocked the Zerg for this kind of troop-sending behavior."

"I remember now, but we intercepted and destroyed them long ago; they never had a chance to get close to us."

"Hmph, that's because you lack the necessary permissions and didn't know about this information."

"Who do you think you are? We have the same level of authority. What do you know that you don't?"

"I know what you're talking about. We did release some Zerg Octopus Monster because of orders from above. We fought them in close combat for a while, and our fleet suffered some damage."

"Huh? How come I didn't know?"

"This matter did indeed require a very high level of access at the time, and we couldn't see it, but it was unlocked not long afterward. You don't know because you haven't been paying attention to these things."

"That's true, but the ones that came into close contact with the Zerg were the H-159 medium-sized warship formation to the east, and it had absolutely nothing to do with us. Our warships never came into close contact with the Zerg from beginning to end, not even allowing them to come within 300,000 kilometers."

"Although I don't want to believe it, the fact remains that they are now on our warship."

"Something must have gone wrong. I've heard that the Zerg's cloaking technology is incredibly advanced. Maybe they sneaked in after becoming invisible."

"Impossible. The more famous something is, the more it will be guarded against. The Zerg's cloaking technology is so advanced, we can't possibly not take precautions, although I don't know the specific measures."

"I am aware of that. Our warships have been equipped with gravity detectors in some areas, creating a complex gravity detection network across the entire fleet. The Zerg are skilled in Optical Camouflage and energy absorption deflection technology, but they lack methods to shield themselves from gravity detection. The possibility of them penetrating this gravity detection network is virtually zero. Therefore, they could not have infiltrated our warships through stealth."

"To reiterate, the fact is, they have indeed entered."

"I'm not denying that fact, I'm just saying they definitely didn't get in using stealth technology."

"Is this yet another technology we've never seen before?"

"It's very possible that the Zerg are different from conventional civilizations as we understand them. None of us currently know their limits or how much unrevealed technology they possess."

"That's not surprising. Everyone says they inherited the legacy of a rather powerful civilization, so it's normal for them to have some things on hand."

"That's so enviable."

"What's there to envy? With so many forces entering the fray one after another, the Zerg are definitely doomed."

"Yes, possessing a treasure beyond one's own strength is not a good thing. I'd rather play it safe than have this trial card."

"Alright, regardless of the circumstances, although it's hard to admit, this young civilization is no longer someone we can contend with. Even if it's on the verge of destruction, we should still respect its strength."

"Heh, you don't know if your respect will be enough to earn you their lives."

These are two different things.

"..."

At this point, many crew members were still unaware of the gravity of the situation. After all, they had never truly witnessed the Zerg's melee capabilities. Or perhaps they were aware of the seriousness of the matter, but being of low rank, they were powerless to change anything and could only wait for further instructions.

The captain of the warship had already deduced these things before the crew reached a conclusion. He knew that the Zerg were powerful in close combat, but he didn't know what kind of Zerg units were on the warship.

If it were a large combat unit, their best course of action right now would be to simply flee. However, judging from the size of the tentacle that attacked the B-3, there might still be room for maneuver.