The Hive Minds Were Too Naive

A planetary creature had been killed!

As news of the first planetary creature's death under the Galactic Alliance's black hole-induced strike spread through the Babel Swarm's psychic network at faster-than-light speed, it caused quite a stir.

All the hive minds knew that planetary creatures were an improved creation developed by Lu Shang's swarm after the Battle of Kao Star, specifically designed to counter the Galactic Alliance's black hole-induced strikes.

Lu Shang had also explained to them the principles behind planetary creatures countering the Galactic Alliance's new warships. While they admired Lu Shang's wisdom, none of them believed planetary creatures would lose to the Galactic Alliance fleet.

Yet reality shattered that belief into pieces.

The planetary creatures' scout nebulae were actually useless?!

Did that further mean that the entire planet-killing manufacturing nebula plan would also become useless?

"Why are you panicking? This was something Hive Mind Lu Shang anticipated long ago."

The Overlord reprimanded them through the swarm network, while also feeling boundless admiration for Lu Shang's wisdom.

The Overlord still remembered what Lu Shang had told it before: their current military strategy against the Galactic Alliance lacked long-term sustainability, and the Galactic Alliance would soon find a solution.

What was this? Foresight bordering on prophecy!

Such foresight was not uncommon in human history, but nothing like it had ever existed in the history of the Babel Swarm.

There were few swarm individuals capable of thinking in the first place, which directly limited the foundation for cultivating talent.

On top of that, hive minds had virtually no lifespan limits and were difficult to kill, making the odds of a resourceful and clever talent being born within the Babel Swarm lower than winning a lottery jackpot.

"Hive Mind Lu Shang, the Galactic Alliance has already developed a strategy to counter the swarm. What should the swarm do next?" the Overlord asked Lu Shang through the psychic network.

Lu Shang, who had barely participated in the conversations between the hive minds, suddenly said, "Before I answer that, I want to know what you've learned during this period."

"Suppose the swarm were under your command right now. How would you decide?"

The Overlord and the hive minds froze, not expecting Lu Shang to suddenly ask them this.

The hive minds did not answer. For the moment, they could not think of any good way to deal with the Colossus Fleet.

The swarm relied on nebulae to contend with the Galactic Alliance's new warships. Now that the Colossus Fleet had joined the battle and was hiding beyond the range of psychic influence to destroy the nebular environment—

They could not possibly order the swarm out of the nebulae to fight the Galactic Alliance fleet head-on, could they?

They definitely could not win that way.

After thinking for a long time, the Overlord and the hive minds finally answered hesitantly, "Well... increase the number of planetary creatures?"

"Why is it always increasing the numbers? Use your brains! Think!"

Lu Shang slapped his forehead. He now understood exactly how his elementary school math teacher had felt when he could never memorize the multiplication table.

"Then... what should we do?" one hive mind asked cautiously.

Lu Shang fought down the urge to crack a whip and answered as kindly as possible, "Watch closely. I'll teach you one more time how to use your brains to wage war. This time, if there's anything you don't understand, ask directly. I'll explain it clearly."

Seeing that the Overlord and the hive minds were still blankly standing there without reacting, Lu Shang's irritation flared.

"What are you all standing around for? Take notes! Do I have to write them for you too?"

"Oh, oh! We'll write them down right away!"

Remembering their earlier experience of being whipped into shape, the Overlord and the hive minds hurriedly picked up pens and notebooks with their tentacles, putting on an earnest appearance of study.

Under Lu Shang's command, the swarm began to move. Every five planetary creatures formed a group and acted together, with roughly three light-years between each planetary creature.

Light would need three years to cross that distance, but planetary creatures could arrive at their respective positions through faster-than-light travel in less than a second.

The Galactic Alliance fleet repeated its old tactic. Using new warships in coordination with the Colossus Fleet, it launched another surprise attack on a planetary creature in space.

Outside the planetary creature's scout nebula, a massive fleet suddenly appeared. Its gravitational disruption ships immediately released gravitational waves, interfering with the formation of the planetary creature's faster-than-light warp bubble and completely sealing off the possibility of faster-than-light travel.

The Colossus Fleet began charging as one, intending to clear away the scout nebula surrounding the planetary creature in a single sweep, just as it had done last time.

The next moment, four planetary creatures that had just completed faster-than-light travel abruptly appeared near the Colossus Fleet.

"Damn it! We've been caught! It's a trap!"

"Retreat! Retreat immediately!"

Seeing the enormous, half-hidden eyes of the planetary creatures staring at them from within the scout mist, the Colossus Fleet's chief commander realized something was terribly wrong. In a panic, he ordered the fleet under his command to enter faster-than-light travel, while also telling the nearby Galactic Alliance fleet to abandon the attack and lift the faster-than-light blockade.

However, reports from his subordinates soon drove the chief commander of the Colossus Fleet into despair.

Even after the allied gravitational disruption ships ceased operating, the Colossus Fleet still could not enter faster-than-light travel. The four planetary creatures released the same disruptive gravitational waves as the gravitational disruption ships, completely sealing off the Colossus Fleet's chance of escaping faster than light.

Under the combined firepower of the four planetary creatures, the entire Colossus Fleet was annihilated in mere minutes. Although the nearby Galactic Alliance fleet kept pouring out fire, trying to draw the planetary creatures' attention away from the Colossus Fleet, it was completely useless. The black hole-induced strikes all landed at the edge of the scout nebulae and could not inflict much damage on the planetary creatures.

After the Colossus Fleet was destroyed, the remaining Galactic Alliance fleet became fish on the chopping block.

Although the fleet was outside the planetary creatures' range of psychic influence, preventing the planetary creatures from simply crushing every enemy warship into metal balls drifting through space—

The planetary creatures could still prevent the enemy fleet from escaping through faster-than-light travel. Then, with a continuous stream of scouts, they induced large numbers of microscopic black holes within the enemy fleet to strike them. The enormous Galactic Alliance fleet was rapidly destroyed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The entire battle lasted less than half an hour from beginning to end. Everything had happened too suddenly: Lu Shang's side had planned this for a long time, while the Galactic Alliance fleet was utterly unprepared.

Once the battle was over, Lu Shang immediately ordered the planetary creatures to enter faster-than-light travel and withdraw from the battlefield.

The instant the planetary creatures departed, large numbers of Galactic Alliance fleets finally arrived late to the scene, only to see a battlefield in ruins...

After personally demonstrating to the swarm's Overlord and hive minds what it meant for unity to be strength and why coordinated warfare mattered, Lu Shang converted the memories of the battle into a video in the form of electrical signals and sent it to the Galactic Alliance through the network of connections in the Dias Empire's occupied territories.

At the end of the video, Lu Shang deliberately added the word "lousy," written in Alliance script.

The clichéd term for it was taunting.

The professional term for it was psychological warfare.

Attacking others did not necessarily have to mean attacking their bodies. You could attack their minds too.

As the saying went, anger harmed the body. Lu Shang could not do much to the Galactic Alliance's military decision-makers for the time being, but he could at least anger those aliens. If he could make them sick with rage, or even anger them to death like Zhou Yu, then Lu Shang's side would definitely profit.

There was no downside anyway, so why not give it a try?