"Sigh, let's give the scientists a break. They've worked so hard, never having a single day of rest while working with me. Now let them spend some quality time with their families and friends and enjoy these last three years together."
"No, Minister, you can't give up, you can't just give up like this!!!" Suddenly, a middle-aged man rushed in, supported by two assistants. He broke free from his assistants and stumbled to Luo Zhigao.
" Academician Gao, I don't want to give up either. Even if you find a way to escape the space vortex, what then? We can defeat the Xuan Star Civilization's fleet, right? They've been Small Star Sector Civilization for hundreds of years, while we only have some technology that has reached the advanced stage of the Star System Level; other aspects are still at the early stage of the Star-Level."
"In the more than a thousand years I've traversed the Milky Way, have I, Luo Zhigao, ever uttered the word 'give up'? We've overcome countless desperate situations. But Old Gao, this time is truly different. The opponent's strength surpasses ours, and they launched a premeditated attack. If it weren't for this spatial vortex, we would have perished long ago. These past 50 years have been a windfall for us."
" Luo Zhigao! I will not give up. Even if I die, I will die in the laboratory, you coward!" Gao Zhengyang began to curse.
"You stubborn mule." Seeing Gao Zhengyang pointing his finger at him and cursing, Luo Zhigao smiled with relief. He and Gao Zhengyang had been through thick and thin together, and if anyone in the fleet dared to curse Luo Zhigao, it would be Gao Zhengyang.
Luo Zhigao did not intend to give up, but given the current situation and looking at his people who had followed him all the way, Luo Zhigao hoped they could spend some time happily and easily. They had suffered too much over the past thousand years, and now there was no hope of salvation. Luo Zhigao preferred to make things easier for them.
"Minister, didn't General Hu Yu and his men say they were coming to rescue us? They might be on their way right now. Should we abandon some of our warships and concentrate our energy so we can hold out longer?" Li Wenfei suggested from the side.
Li Wenfei, like Hu Yu, was an outstanding officer in the fight against the Insect Race. However, Li Wenfei later followed Luo Zhigao and is now the fleet's chief of staff, while Hu Yu was given a separate important mission by the leader and has persisted until now.
" Wenfei, do you think General Hu Yu can save us?"
Didn't General Hu Yu say in his reply that they had already entered the Small Star Sector Civilization stage?
"Absolutely impossible, Wenfei. Think about it. General Hu Yu knows our route. Even if there's a deviation, it wouldn't be far off. With the strength of the Small Star Sector Civilization, they should have reached this airspace and found us long ago. But more than 30 years have passed, and they haven't arrived. What does that mean? General Hu Yu only said that to get me to reveal the spatial coordinates. How can we possibly drag them into this?"
"Furthermore, if they have truly reached the stage of Small Star Sector Civilization, they could absolutely deduce our spatial coordinates directly from the tail of the spatial vortex without even needing to ask. Therefore, we should not harbor any hope of external assistance. Even if General Hu Yu arrives here, without the strength of Small Star Sector Civilization, it will not change the final outcome."
"It's a pity we can't share our technology with them, otherwise they could have reached the Small Star Sector Civilization sooner, and it would be safer for them in this universe."
"At least what you said makes sense." Academician Gao Zhengyang, who was furious, finally calmed down a bit.
" Academician Gao, Old Gao ~~~"
"Don't call me. I don't want to talk to cowards. Anyway, I'm going to hold on until the very end. I'm leaving. I'm too lazy to waste my time talking to you." After saying that, Academician Gao turned around and walked out the door, so angry that he didn't need anyone's help.
"That Old Gao, sigh," Luo Zhigao shook his head and sighed helplessly.
" Wenfei, abandon some warships and concentrate our energy to buy Academician Gao and his team some time, and also to give the people more time."
"Hmm." Li Wenfei replied in a low voice. He knew that every warship here was Luo Zhigao's hard work, and every warship bore the blood of his soldiers. Now, to give up on it like this, Luo Zhigao Luo Zhigao, though he didn't show it, must be very reluctant in his heart.
Over the past thousand years, the fleet has attacked the lone fleets of dozens of civilizations. However, Luo Zhigao is very measured in his actions. Even when he attacks the fleets of other civilizations and captures their people, he will leave one or two warships for these civilizations to return to, while he himself will take the captured warships and escape.
Luo Zhigao knew that although the Milky Way seemed vast, it was actually quite small in the eyes of advanced civilizations. Making too many enemies would not only bring him death but also endanger the other two human fleets. Therefore, Luo Zhigao never killed indiscriminately during operations. He would not even launch an attack if the other side was willing to hand over one or two warships.
As a result, the civilizations attacked by Luo Zhigao would not seek revenge on Luo Zhigao on a large scale. Some civilizations were even too lazy to send fleets to pursue him, and instead suspected that their own people were lying and had sold their warships.
Obtaining one or two warships from civilizations of the same level was enough for the fleet to perform reverse engineering. It was with these few warships from various civilizations, plus the fleet's own research, that Luo Zhigao's fleet reached the Star System-Level Civilization faster than Hu Yu's. In order to maximize the attack effect of some technologies, Luo Zhigao's fleet did not carry out standardized production like Hu Yu's, but retained many styles from other civilizations.
In order to reach the Small Star Sector Civilization as soon as possible, Luo Zhigao has gone through several fierce battles over the years. Luo Zhigao's fleet does not have a four-dimensional communication network for holographic remote control. Each warship has a different number of crew members. The number of crew members killed and wounded in the several battles is countless. On one occasion, even several civilian ships were destroyed, resulting in the loss of hundreds of millions of civilians. Fortunately, they managed to escape in the end, otherwise they would have suffered a tragic end long ago.
More than 250 years ago, Luo Zhigao rested and reorganized his fleet in a planetary system. Having just experienced a major battle, Luo Zhigao urgently needed to expand his fleet again. This time, Luo Zhigao planned to expand the fleet to 100 million ships, with no time limit. After all, he had always been in control, able to fight or stay as he pleased, unlike Hu Yu who was being pushed back step by step. 200 years have passed, and the fleet has expanded from the initial 30 million ships to 60 million ships. At this rate, it will be able to set sail in a maximum of 300 years.
Just as Luo Zhigao watched his fleet grow larger day by day, a fleet of 50 million warships appeared 50 light-years away and was detected by reconnaissance satellites. Sensing something was amiss, Luo Zhigao immediately destroyed the planetary base and led his fleet to escape. Luo Zhigao was puzzled; he hadn't provoked such a being, so why was this fleet targeting him?