The diameter of the collapse finally reached 5 billion kilometers. The collapsed space became clean, and even the insect corpses disappeared. The Insect King was powerless to reverse the situation. It glared angrily at the fleet, and then led several giant insects to disappear into the three-dimensional universe. Apart from the escaped insects, there was no trace of any insects that had ever been there in the airspace.
Hu Yu tried to keep a Reaper equipped with the Fourth Reversed State stationary. The Reaper was stretched into a giant strip like an insect, and then slowly dissolved and disappeared.
" Zhonghua, have the fleet continue to retreat, taking those stars with them. We don't need them anymore, and we shouldn't waste them."
"Didn't you say the spatial collapse would gradually stop? How come there's no sign of it stopping at all? Will it cause the entire universe to collapse?"
"I'm not entirely sure about this either. Let the fleet retreat first."
The collapse of space showed no signs of stopping, and Hu Yu Wen Zhonghua were both panicked. It was like when they were kids playing with fire and setting a wild mountain on fire. The flames quickly rose up and burned everything, and they could only watch helplessly, not knowing how long the fire would burn.
"General, Chief of the General Staff."
" Academician Zeng, you've come at the right time! Come and see what's going on!"
"That's why I'm here. The terror of spatial collapse far exceeds our imagination. Even after the energy dissipates, space will continue to collapse for a long time. Judging from the energy released by this antimatter star, the final collapse area may exceed one hundred light-years."
"One hundred light-years? Doesn't that mean our base is also in danger of being affected?"
"The base is 150 light-years away from the center of the spatial collapse. I just did a rough calculation, and the base should be safe. However, the collapse is very slow, so even if there is danger, we have enough time to deal with it."
"Academician, is there any way to develop a corresponding weapon?"
"Not yet, but this has broadened our thinking. I will lead the research in this area from now on; this kind of destructive power is indeed fascinating."
The Insect King commanded several giant insects to return to the center of the collapse. The space here had returned to normal. The real destructive power of the spatial collapse was only at the edge of the collapse, just like waves. The surface of the water remains calm after the waves have passed, but only the ring around the wave's spread has powerful destructive force.
Enraged, the Insect King stared at the empty void and entered the fourth dimension once more. The fourth dimension was also empty; most of the insects that had been wandering in the fourth dimension during this massive invasion had entered the three-dimensional universe. It moved rapidly forward in the fourth dimension, frantically swimming towards the coordinates of the Star Ring Alliance.
The civilization's fleet annihilated its entire swarm, yet it didn't even damage a single one of the civilization's warships. This enraged it so much that it decided to risk entering the civilization's territory to wreak havoc.
Soon the Insect King and several giant insects arrived near the fourth-dimensional coordinates of the Star Ring Alliance. Just as it was about to descend into the three-dimensional universe, strands of energy-like threads drifted by, and the Insect King and several giant insects were neatly cut into pieces, instantly losing their life force.
At this point, except for a very small number of insects that escaped, the rest of the insect swarm had been completely wiped out. The collapsed space destroyed all evidence of the insects' existence, and the sky here became exceptionally clean, so clean that not even a single particle could be found.
The Allied fleet returned to the vicinity of the base. This great victory came somewhat suddenly, but the result was ultimately good. There were zero losses of warships, only some weapons and energy were consumed. Apart from the two stars that exploded, the other 800,000 stars were also intact. They were taken to the outside of the galaxy by the fleet and were also protected.
The fleet hadn't been quiet for more than a few years when news came from the micro- Wriggler: a new swarm of insects was about to form. The direction of the swarm's attack was still unknown. The swarm was located far from the central black hole, where there were no Small Star Sector Civilization. If the swarm was allowed to form, it could eventually gather billions of insect units.
There are no more large insect colonies within 5,000 light-years of the Alliance, only some scattered groups, generally no more than ten units of insects. Hu Yu ordered the Aquila Civilization fleet and the Crystal Civilization fleet to patrol around the territory and wipe out all the insects. At the same time, the Reaper also accelerated the laying of the Fourth Reversed State.
When the Reaper deployed in the Fourth Reversed State reached 20 billion, Hu Yu decided to deploy these Reaper to the new insectoid swarm two to five thousand light-years away. Regardless of whether other civilizations were attacking the new swarm, as a member of the galaxy, Hu Yu decided not to wait any longer and to take the lead.
There wasn't enough time to quickly manufacture the consciousness shock device. Number One originally wanted to join the battle, but Hu Yu stopped him. Without effective defense, the losses would be severe. Number One listened to Hu Yu, so since he wasn't going, he simply removed the consciousness shock device and installed it on the Reaper.
After the first phase of the battle, all the Small Star Sector Civilization combined have eliminated more than 5 billion insect units. The Star Ring Alliance eliminated the fewest insect units, with the insect swarm and other scattered insect units combined only amounting to about 100 million units. After all, the Star Ring Alliance doesn't even have Small Star Sector Advanced Civilization.
Although humanity can be considered Small Star Sector Advanced Civilization, its fleet size is far from sufficient. Only 20 billion Reaper have completed the deployment of the Fourth Reversed State, a number that is negligible compared to other civilizations.
When the fleet set off, Academician Zeng repeatedly instructed that if they discovered mechanical beings from Mechanical Civilization, they should try to capture a few alive. This would be of great significance for improving the intelligence of human mechanical equipment, and the number of human fleets would increase significantly in a short period of time.
Although Hu Yu didn't quite understand Academician Zeng's meaning, Academician Zeng's instructions naturally had their reasons, and since it involved the speed of fleet manufacturing, Hu Yu was naturally more concerned than anyone else.
The fleet traversed a distance of 25,000 light-years at 4,500 times the speed of light. Along the way, countless swarms of insects could be seen converging towards the center of the insect cluster. The Reaper were not idle either, and they strangled any insects that rushed towards the insect cluster. Although it took a lot of time, it was much easier to kill them now than to kill them after they had gathered.
The Reaper fleet advanced relentlessly, replenishing its energy ten light-years from the giant insect swarm before charging directly at it. As the Reaper fleet clashed head-on with the insect swarm, Hu Yu noticed that another fleet was already engaged in battle with the swarm, their attacks slicing the insects into pieces.