The Star Sea Human Alliance's, the Storm Piercer's, the Human Alliance's, the Cosmic Zerg, the Starfire Humans, the Starfire Alliance's, the Heart of Dawn's

Feng Xiao froze for a moment, then immediately understood what Wang Hao meant.

They only needed to enter another universe and gather Star Points, then return and upgrade. With four more Star Weapon slots, they could equip the Storm Piercer as soon as they reached that starship.

What was a level-four Aurora Rat?

Even a level-five Rat King wouldn't be able to catch the Star Origin!

They just happened to have three or four chances each month to capture spacetime signals. For other starships, it might amount to little more than trying their luck.

But for the Star Origin, every signal capture was practically a guaranteed ticket in.

Feng Xiao explained the ability to Wang Hao and Ilde as a power he had awakened himself.

The Heart of Dawn's origins were mysterious. He'd better keep it secret if he could. Who knew whether it was a treasure coveted by some mysterious cosmic entity or powerful faction?

"This is the only way for now. We shouldn't delay—let's set out immediately!"

The Heart of Dawn activated at once. To Feng Xiao's surprise, this time it had captured a full eleven spacetime signals from other universes!

Three options were extremely dangerous—in other words, almost certain death. Of the rest, five were high-risk, one was safe, and two were medium-risk.

They first ruled out the extremely dangerous and safe options. After thinking it over and asking Wang Hao and Ilde for their advice, they also ruled out the medium-risk Space Anchors.

After all, the Star Origin was an exploration starship through and through. The safe and medium-risk options would pose almost no challenge at all. High-risk was naturally the best choice.

The higher the danger, the greater the rewards. The high-risk options would certainly yield a rich haul.

The Heart of Dawn assessed danger based on the Star Origin's current combat strength. A high-risk warning meant the destination would pose a genuine challenge.

Feng Xiao gazed intently at the starship. "Choose a high-risk anchor at random. Enter immediately."

In the next instant, mysterious energy dragged the Star Origin into a nearby anchor. It vanished completely from the Main Universe!

Deep inside the nest, the Aurora Rat—which had long resembled a black marten, with fur like steel and purple patterns across its body—suddenly opened its eyes.

Its roughly two-kilometer-long body twitched slightly, then it closed its eyes again, puzzled.

Another universe.

The Star Origin's streamlined hull emerged from the starry void without stirring so much as a ripple.

"Hm?"

Wang Hao, who was using the Matrix to observe their surroundings, was baffled. The number of lifeforms within the Matrix's range had actually exceeded ten billion!

Dozens of drones spread out, continuously sending back the footage they captured.

A once-blue planet was now shrouded in smoke. So many fires and plumes of smoke covered its surface that the abnormal devastation could be seen even from space.

Outside the planet were three heavily damaged small starports. The blackened, badly corroded wreckage of countless warships and fighters was still visible.

The dozens of vast cities on the planet's surface were filled with corpses and rubble. The bodies of countless war machines and human soldiers lay scattered on the ground.

One after another, grotesque creatures that looked like killing machines carried the bodies toward towering, hundred-meter-tall organic structures in the center of each city!

In an instant, Feng Xiao and Ilde's expressions changed drastically. They stared in disbelief at the swarming insect beasts, their bodies covered in vicious spikes and hard armor, every inch of them a weapon of slaughter.

"You've got to be kidding me. The Cosmic Zerg!

The Cosmic Zerg are only high-risk?!"

Weary, Feng Xiao rubbed his forehead and turned his attention to the intelligence report.

The Cosmic Zerg were perhaps the most terrifying race in the universe. They were all controlled by a super lifeform called the Overlord.

Their horrifying reproductive rate and near-invincible biological technology made them the nightmare of countless civilizations. They devoured every resource they could find to expand.

The Cosmic Zerg could even travel in groups between other universes and the Main Universe. They had left terrifying traces in both!

Forget the entire Zerg race—even insect swarms of every rank were natural disasters in their own right!

Even the smallest, small-scale swarm could easily destroy the Blue Crystal Federation!

Whenever the Zerg acted, they sent at least a small-scale swarm!

And that was nothing compared to the medium, large, and even super swarms.

Even the elite nations within the Human Alliance were deeply wary of super swarms.

The several Origin Swarms above the super swarms might even be powerful enough to contend with the great powers of the Human Alliance!

If this really was an intact small-scale swarm, the Star Origin would probably have to find somewhere to hide and wait for the hunt to end.

Unless a starship was Star-Land Class or higher, it couldn't possibly defeat a small-scale swarm.

As Feng Xiao racked his brains for a plan, the intelligence report finished loading.

[Intelligence: The Starfire Alliance is a human civilization that has developed for tens of thousands of years. Its civilization had once thrived, with technology flourishing.

Its territory had even expanded to encompass an entire star sector. It had a population of hundreds of billions, hundreds of life-bearing planets, and nearly ten thousand resource planets!

But then a small-scale swarm discovered them—and the war began!

In just a few decades, they lost nearly half the territory they had spent tens of thousands of years developing. Despite the Starfire Humans' desperate resistance, they were gradually heading toward defeat.

At the current rate, the Starfire Humans would be wiped out within twenty years at most.

The areas around their territory had all been destroyed by the swarm... The Starfire Humans had nowhere left to run!

The planet before you was recently destroyed by the swarm. Its main force is heading to the front lines to fight the Starfire Alliance.

Recommendation: Starships above lv. 20

Mission: None

Note: Any starship that kills a Zerg Queen for the first time will receive a random title.

All such titles are specifically aimed at the Zerg, but their quality and effects vary. Equipping one will grant a boost when fighting the Zerg.

Warning: The swarm will lock onto the title's owner if they enter its detection range!!]

Wang Hao and Feng Xiao had just learned how terrifying the swarm was. They looked at each other, then breathed a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, someone else was drawing its fire.

But...

The Starfire Humans...

There seemed to be many humans, but in truth, they were exceedingly rare in the universe!

In the Main Universe, no one besides the Star Sea Human Alliance had ever encountered another human civilization or faction.

Across countless years of history, they had only encountered a dozen or so, and all had been absorbed into the Alliance.

Human civilizations were a little more common in other universes than in the Main Universe, but the odds of encountering one were still less than one in ten thousand.

Meeting two in such a short time was enough to show the bond between the Star Origin and human civilizations. Watching this vibrant human civilization face extinction left a bitter taste.

In the beginning, the predecessor of the Star Sea Human Alliance had been nothing more than a level-two civilization driven from its home planet by other civilizations...

Even now, the Star Sea Human Alliance still hadn't found its way back to its home planet.

The universe was simply too vast...

Twenty years...

"The time flow between this universe and the Main Universe is roughly five to one. That gives us four years..."

That was enough!

"Prepare to deal with the swarm left behind on this planet. Have you detected any biological warships or life signals from the Zerg Queen?"

Wang Hao connected to the Matrix, then nodded solemnly. "Both. Ten biological warships in total, and one Zerg Queen."

Biological warships were the swarm's main force for dealing with human starships. Their strength was measured much like that of Star Beasts, but every one of them had the combat strength of an elite Star Beast of the same level!

Some even had perfect-level or king-level strength!

Of course, there weren't many.

"According to the data, all ten biological warships are War Centipedes, between one and two thousand meters long. Eight are level two energy class, and two are level three.

The Zerg Queen isn't very strong, but we can't pinpoint its exact location without first destroying the biological warships."

Wang Hao gave a detailed report.

Feng Xiao nodded, his expression grave. A cold glint flashed in his eyes.

"Are there nuclear weapons in the weapons bay? They're not much use against starships or Star Beasts, but they should be good for clearing out cannon fodder and ordinary insect soldiers."

Ilde checked the data at once, then nodded excitedly. "There are ten three-hundred-megaton nuclear bombs, kept as a precaution. Their attack speed and margin for error make them ineffective against biological warships.

But against surface-dwelling insects without biological energy fields, they'll wipe them out!"

"Good. Prepare to move out!"

"Yes!"