Psionic Cheats Are Absurdly Overpowered

Space warfare was this cruel. There were no blood-pumping charges, only cold physics. If you could not make it, then you could not make it. There was no way a single rallying cry could send morale soaring and instantly turn the tide of battle.

By then, the Galaxy Alliance fleet, realizing that it was severely outmatched, had already begun attempting to withdraw.

But Lu Shang had considered that from the very beginning. Any normal person could have predicted it—if they could not win, they would definitely flee and preserve as much of their fighting strength as possible.

"Trying to run? I spent so long planning this. What gave you the confidence to think you could get away so easily?" Lu Shang sneered, then issued an order to all the solid planets.

The solid planets immediately used psionic power to interfere with spacetime, imitating the gravity-interdiction ships and releasing strands of gravitational waves that cut off any possibility of forming warp bubbles.

The ships attempting to leave the star system through acceleration had their momentum neutralized by the immense psionic power released by the solid planets. No matter how they accelerated, they remained where they were.

Within the star system, the vast fleet of more than a hundred million warships became turtles in a jar!

Lu Shang called for the captured ships to surrender. "I am Lu Shang, commander of the Swarm. Those who want to die may die. The Swarm will only keep those who wish to live. As long as you accept infection by Swarm spores, I will guarantee your right to survive."

A miserable life was better than a good death. Among the Galaxy Alliance's hundred-million-plus warships, those who wanted to live still made up the overwhelming majority.

As for the small number of aliens who kept declaring, "Galaxy Alliance soldiers will never submit to inferior lifeforms," Lu Shang mercifully commanded the psionic brains to send psionic power through the warship armor. Before the horrified eyes of the surrounding aliens, the stubborn elements still babbling on were crushed alive into dense balls of flesh.

Psionic power could move objects from afar and was unaffected by material obstructions. This meant that the thick armor of warships could not provide even the slightest defense. Based on this principle, Lu Shang had developed this "Psionic Grip."

As long as you were inside a vehicle, it did not matter how strong your defenses were.

Honestly, psionic power was simply too useful. Many times, Lu Shang could not help suspecting that the Babel Swarm's former ruler and main brain had actually been spies planted by the Galaxy Alliance.

After a single battle, Lu Shang had easily acquired a large number of intact Galaxy Alliance warships.

As for the aliens unwilling to leave their warships, Lu Shang humanely allowed them to voluntarily choose to leave.

With the troublesome matter settled for the time being, Lu Shang brought part of the captured starships into Hathe's orbit and contacted Hathe's governor once more.

Poor Hathe's governor was still shaken to the core even after the space battle had ended.

"Governor of Hathe, what do you think of these starships?" Lu Shang once again put on the smile he considered very friendly.

"Uh... they're all very good. Very good."

"Is that so? I told you my eye was spot-on." Lu Shang nodded in agreement and shamelessly began praising himself.

Then his tone shifted. Looking at Hathe's governor with an amused smile, Lu Shang asked, "Then, Governor, what do you think the Imperial higher-ups will do next once they learn that this industrial planet of yours has been completely infected with Swarm spores?"

"This..."

Hathe's governor hesitated and did not finish his words, but from his four wide-open eyes, Lu Shang could see the turmoil in his heart.

Lu Shang did not care what the other side thought. As long as the seed of suspicion had been planted, that was enough.

"Don't be nervous... what should I call you?" Lu Shang asked.

"Soland."

Lu Shang nodded and continued, "Soland, I said before that I would give you a way to live. Of course I would not force you onto a dead end. We Swarm have no use for these things anyway, so I'm planning to make a trade with you."

After Lu Shang's reminder, no matter how thick-skinned Soland was, he could no longer place complete trust in the Empire's upper ranks.

What was more, the Imperial fleet had previously shelled Hathe, directly destroying a major city on the planet and sending more than ten million people to their deaths in a sea of fire.

No matter what it cost Hathe, even if they had to sell everything they owned, they would buy the warships Lu Shang was selling.

"Then what should we use to trade with you?" Soland asked tentatively. He could not imagine what on the planet could be valuable enough to purchase such a number of warships.

Lu Shang froze. He had not even decided what to buy. He had only wanted to hand over this portion of the warships in a reasonable manner, so as to muddy the waters.

After pondering for a moment, Lu Shang gave a dry cough and asked, "You... sell toilet paper here, right?"

"Huh?"

News of the disastrous defeat in the Bogu Grand Nebula reached the Galaxy Alliance General Staff in an extremely short time, then rapidly spread among the Galaxy Alliance's member powers.

Thirty Galaxy Alliance interceptor fleets, along with seven Dias Empire garrison fleets—more than a hundred million ships in total—had been wiped out without any ability to resist!

The news undoubtedly caused an enormous uproar within the Alliance.

Such a result could already be called a one-sided massacre. To the Alliance's various members, who had grown accustomed to easily slaughtering the Swarm, it was simply inconceivable.

The Galaxy Alliance leadership attached great importance to the records of this battle and repeatedly studied the psionic combat methods that had appeared on the battlefield.

After the battle, the Dias Empire was the one that could least sit still.

Although the two agricultural planets in the Bogu Grand Nebula were not particularly important, they were still part of their territory. With two agricultural planets gone just like that, they were desperate to strike back.

Thus, at Alliance meetings, Dias Empire representatives constantly clamored for the Alliance to commit an even larger military force and resolve the Swarm mutation in the Bogu Grand Nebula.

As for the unluckiest people, they had to be the staff officers responsible for the Bogu Grand Nebula battlefield.

Such a painful failure naturally required someone to take responsibility in order to quell public outrage, and the staff officers in charge of that battlefield unfortunately became the targets of everyone's anger.

Command errors, misjudging the situation, ignoring military intelligence... one of those charges had to stick.

In truth, those staff officers were also quite wronged. How were they supposed to know psionic power could be used like this? Even when the Babel Swarm had been beaten into a rout before, it had never used it this way.

At the Galaxy Alliance Military Tribunal, the staff officers responsible for the Bogu Grand Nebula battlefield were brought before the court.

After a series of presentations of evidence, the presiding judge announced, "All of you responsible for the Bogu Grand Nebula battlefield are guilty!"

"Your misjudgment of the battlefield situation and severe underestimation of the disparity in strength between ourselves and the enemy directly led to the destruction of thirty Alliance interceptor fleets and seven Dias Empire fleets."

In the courtroom, a staff officer named Stan stepped forward.

Stan swept his gaze across the judges and said solemnly, "I will not offer many excuses. I did indeed make a grave and inexcusable error in strategic decision-making."

"But as one of the planners of the encirclement operation, I hope everyone in the Alliance will give serious consideration to my assessment."

"The Swarm mutation in the Bogu Grand Nebula will become an unprecedented disaster. It will be the second Swarm calamity to ravage the galaxy. I implore the Alliance to restart the dormant war machine clusters as soon as possible and completely snuff out this source of unrest before it develops into an irreparable catastrophe."