Who Said Pies Don't Fall from the Sky

"Let's go take a look first."

After hesitating briefly, Feng Xiao immediately decided to join the excitement.

As an explorer, curiosity and decisiveness were essential traits. Otherwise, what kind of explorer would he be?

Besides, given the Star Origin's condition, there might be a chance to pick up some gains. After all, the Star Origin was extremely misleading.

Its hull was less than two thousand meters long.

Although hull size did not completely reflect a ship's strength, it was obvious that the Star Origin had definitely not reached the level of an advanced starship (lv21).

Who would pay attention to a newbie starship?

Boom! Boom!

Dazzling cannon fire ravaged the starry sky, while countless missiles danced like a fine rain. Violent explosions and energy shockwaves filled this region of space!

Even large numbers of asteroids and several rocky planets had been battered full of craters. On the planets' surfaces, explosions spanning thousands of kilometers continuously surged into the air.

The cause of all this was the several hundred starships of various classes in the void!

There were also numerous adventure fleets made up of ordinary warships. Most of them were subordinate fleets affiliated with some of the starships present.

The three most eye-catching starships, each six thousand meters long, continuously fired more than a dozen beams, wearing down thousands of Level 2 and Level 3 Star Beasts.

They were all elite-class starships!

The thousands of Star Beasts these fleets faced looked remarkably like rats—except these "rats" were one or two hundred meters long and possessed hard bony armor.

Countless white rays gathered on the foreheads of these rats, constantly trading fire with the starships.

With several Level 4 rats and a large number of Level 3 Star Beast rats, even the starship group had suffered some losses. More than a dozen low- and mid-level starships had sustained severe hull damage, lost their combat capability, and withdrawn from Star Lake.

Boom!

"Captain Wang, there are simply too many Aurora Rats. They're still gathering without end. At this pace, we won't be able to take them down in less than three days!"

Inside the pyramid-shaped elite starship, the young adjutant spoke helplessly to the bearded captain.

Captain Wang's expression was grim. "If this were an Alliance military force, the starships present could absolutely crush these Aurora Rats within an hour!

Unfortunately, these are all private starships. There's no way they'll listen to a single person's command. Besides..."

The adjutant understood what his captain meant. The energy emitted by the wreckage of that Star-Land Class starship in the rat nest was limited. There was a high chance that it had only left behind a single Star Weapon!

Faced with the temptation of a high-quality Star Weapon—especially when there might be only one—cooperation was nothing more than a joke.

Who knew whether someone would use you as cannon fodder?

They might even directly turn on each other and attack.

The Alliance allowed starships to fight and plunder one another, so long as they did not go too far.

For instance, using level suppression to massively destroy low-level first-generation starships, or refusing the unconditional surrender of mid- and high-level first-generation starships.

Those actions, such as deliberately refusing surrender and directly destroying ships, could potentially weaken the foundations of the entire Human Alliance.

Other than that, as long as one did not violate Alliance Law, they could do whatever they wanted.

Even these few protective clauses applied only to first-generation starships. Second- and third-generation starships were not included.

First-generation starships were the main force of the Human Alliance.

Among the starships currently present, there were probably no more than seven or eight first-generation starships. The rest were second- or third-generation ships, with second-generation ships making up the overwhelming majority.

It could not be helped. Not everyone wanted to become a powerful, high-risk, and extremely expensive starship captain. Every year, among all civilians who awakened starship captain talents—

Sixty percent chose to sell their starships.

Beyond those who simply did not want to participate in war and killing and only wished to become wealthy, even with the Alliance's substantial subsidies and support, it was difficult to sustain a starship's normal growth.

An ordinary, peaceful life was what most people wanted.

Even among hot-blooded young people, quite a few had no desire to fight or kill.

And that was the source of most second-generation starships. The starship fleets of many weak and ordinary nations consisted mostly of second-generation starships.

For example, although the Blue Crystal Federation produced more than ten first-generation captains willing to strive every year, only one of them was likely to survive to the elite level or above every two or three years.

Even fewer managed to join the government. Thus, even in the Blue Crystal Federation, there were only around twenty first-generation captains capable of serving as the main combat force.

Some commanded starship fleets, while others guarded important planets.

The rest had either died in other universes or dangerous regions, or become adventure starships traveling across various places. However, it was worth mentioning that official starships had average combat power far beyond private starships.

There were gains and losses.

In short, for all sorts of reasons, even though everyone knew they could resolve these Aurora Rats by joining forces, no one brought it up.

"Forget it. Keep firing!"

Captain Wang waved his hand. Two main-cannon Star Weapons and ten ship cannons roared once more, continuously killing Level 1 and Level 2 Aurora Rats with their powerful firepower.

Occasionally, a Level 3 Aurora Rat that failed to dodge in time would be erased by the main cannons of the three elite starships.

In terms of power, elite-class starship main cannons surpassed the Star Origin's current firepower by a fair margin.

Of course, aside from Star Weapons, the conventional energy cannons and missile systems of the ordinary fleets also inflicted considerable casualties on the Level 1 and Level 2 Aurora Rats.

Although the Star Sea Human Alliance's main force consisted of starship fleets, its conventional technological strength was enough to surpass many civilizations of the same level!

There were countless starships, and quite a few were research or support vessels. A top-tier research starship could even advance a certain field of technology for an advanced technological civilization all by itself!

As thousands of warships and more than a hundred starships unleashed all-round firepower, they still inflicted significant casualties on the Aurora Rats despite lacking efficient unified command.

Although their all-out firepower output caused many warships, and even a few starships, to be forced back by the endless Aurora Rats' concentrated attacks.

Judging by the casualty ratio, the fleets would reach the vicinity of the rat nest in at most two days. By then, the second round of infighting would likely erupt immediately.

Not far away, everyone aboard the Star Origin, hidden within the asteroid belt, stared in shock. Even Feng Xiao looked at the "war" before him with some amazement.

In every sense, this was the first time he had watched an interstellar war from such close range—especially one involving so many starships!

Within a radius of a million kilometers, warships firing continuously and swarms of Aurora Rats madly assaulting fleets could be seen everywhere.

Countless explosive flames and energy waves had ravaged the surrounding region beyond recognition!

Suddenly, an energy beam went off course and slammed into an asteroid dozens of kilometers wide beside the Star Origin. Amid a violent explosion and a slight drop in shield value, the entire asteroid shattered!

Wang Hao and Ilde exchanged glances, then unexpectedly became somewhat eager.

The former was naturally adventurous and also wanted to experience interstellar warfare, while the latter had become completely obsessed with controlling the main cannon.

As someone with the Artillery Master talent, he was fine as long as he did not come into contact with artillery. But once he did, he became utterly captivated by weapons like massive warships and giant cannons.

Right now, he just wanted to find a target and continue controlling the Fierce Star Main Cannon to attack.

However, Feng Xiao glanced toward the direction the Aurora Rats were pouring in from, and a sharp gleam flashed through his eyes.

He turned to the two of them and said, "Do you dare to come with me and play big?"

Wang Hao immediately replied, "Haha, of course! I love playing bi—what?"

"From the looks of it, those warships and starships seem to be held back by the Aurora Rats. In contrast, there probably aren't many Aurora Rats left in the rat nest right now...

You heard the ordinary starship captains chatting on the local channel earlier. That destroyed Star-Land Class starship is inside the rat nest!

Only those three elite starships have blue-quality Matrices, allowing them to locate the rat nest hidden by the Aurora Rats..."

"I get it. Boss, let's go! Maybe we really can snatch some leftovers!"

Wang Hao suddenly understood, then said excitedly.

Was there any adventure more thrilling or fun than taking the treasure those starships wanted right from under their noses?

There was not!

The Star Origin slowly backed away, rapidly leaving the battle zone.

"The pie is falling now. All that remains is to see whether we can catch it..."