Although Mechanical Civilization can travel through the fourth dimension, the fourth dimension is currently occupied by fleets of Great Star Region Civilization. If Mechanical Civilization were to appear in the fourth dimension Great Star Region Civilization would definitely prioritize taking care of them. Hu Yu judged that Mechanical Civilization must still be hiding in the three-dimensional universe, and that the insect plague was probably caused by their previously dispersed and hidden mechanical entities.
Over the course of hundreds of years, Hu Yu searched through tens of thousands of celestial bodies but found no trace of Mechanical Civilization. Instead, he casually wiped out hundreds of millions of insect swarms. Most of these scattered swarms consisted of only a few dozen or a couple hundred units, a number that was utterly insignificant in the face of the Reaper equipped with the Fourth Reversed State and consciousness-shattering weapons.
The repeated failures in their search did not diminish their patience, since the search for the Mechanical Civilization and the elimination of the insect swarm were proceeding simultaneously.
Finally, after the fleet destroyed ten units of the swarm, it discovered an anomaly in a star where the swarm was gathered. Through analysis of the star's radiation, the fleet found that the radiation in an area of about 300 square meters was reduced by one billionth. This anomaly immediately caught Hu Yu's attention.
Although stellar radiation is unstable and highly variable, the region of reduced radiation exhibits several regular geometric shapes, which is definitely not naturally formed. The fleet immediately rushed into the blazing star.
A large number of RoboCop were released by the Reaper and, together with the Reaper, followed the source of the radiation to find the cause. Sure enough, after penetrating several hundred kilometers, the fleet discovered a fiery red machine less than half a meter tall and only the size of an ordinary microwave oven. The machine did not make any move in response to the arrival of the fleet.
A RoboCop flew over and grabbed the mechanical object, which was now glowing red from the scorching sun. Hu Yu immediately confirmed that this was indeed a mechanical object from the Mechanical Civilization.
To be on the safe side, Hu Yu called in Academician Zeng to analyze the mechanical object on the spot. Academician Zeng judged that the mechanical object might have been damaged for some reason. Although the probability of Mechanical Civilization malfunctioning was so small as to be almost negligible, the environment of the universe is extremely complex, and even the smallest failure rate can become a reality.
This mechanical entity is now a malfunctioning machine; it has no energy whatsoever and no mechanical consciousness whatsoever, just like a paralyzed ordinary machine.
Although it was initially determined that the mechanical object was safe, Academician Zeng still had the fleet use the Fourth Reversed State to build a large box on-site and put the malfunctioning mechanical object directly into the box to ensure that nothing went wrong.
The Reaper fleet immediately dispatched 2 billion warships, carrying a large number of giant insect corpses and the box, to return to port, while the remaining 15 billion Reaper continued to annihilate the insect swarm and search for other mechanical entities.
The insect swarms within thousands of light-years of the base have been wiped out by the Crystal Civilization and the Aquila Civilization. The subsequent 30 billion Reaper have also completed the deployment of the Fourth Reversed State. Deploying the Fourth Reversed State Armor is countless times faster than building the Reaper. Of the Reaper that have completed deployment, only 10 billion remain to defend the base, and the rest have all been deployed to the insect extermination war in the nearby airspace.
Not only did the Reaper set off, but later the Gemini Civilization fleet and the Carina Civilization fleet also left the Alliance base and appeared in various airspaces to search for the insects.
As long as the insects don't form massive insectoid civilization fleets, they can be easily dealt with. Even if they occasionally encounter a few high-level insectoid civilization fleets, they can still make the high-level insects suffer due to their overwhelming numbers. Some particularly high-level insects can be made to retreat even if they can't be killed. After eliminating the cannon fodder of these high-level insects, they can only enter the fourth dimension. If they don't enter the fourth dimension, they will not have a good outcome.
The airspace was gradually cleared, and the starry sky slowly returned to the hands of civilization. In the 300th year since the swarm's arrival, the civilization's fleet finally reclaimed the original starry sky. According to post-event statistics, the actual number of swarms that descended reached 60 billion units. There were nearly 20 super swarms with more than one billion units, one swarm with more than ten billion units, and countless other scattered swarms. Fortunately, none of the 21 super swarms targeted the Star Ring Alliance.
To win this cosmos, civilizations also paid a heavy price. Tens of millions of Planetary-Level Civilization were destroyed. Although Stellar-Level Civilization and Star System-Level Civilization suffered less damage, a severe gap emerged in their civilization levels, which will greatly reduce the number of Stellar-Level Civilization and Star System-Level Civilization that emerge later.
In addition, the Small Star Sector Civilization also lost nearly two trillion ships, and countless other weapons and other stockpiles. Many Small Star Sector Civilization have almost exhausted their reserves accumulated over many years. Under such a tense situation, two trillion warships of Small Star Sector Intermediate Civilization civilizations are extremely important to civilizations, and these weapons are equally important.
Millions of stars and planets were destroyed, leaving the galaxy in chaos as high-intensity radiation and energy swept across it.
However, after this insect plague, almost all the insects that escaped the defenses of the Great Star Region Civilization in the fourth dimension have been wiped out. No matter how much the Mechanical Civilization tries to sabotage, it won't be able to attract insects. Moreover, the loss of these insects has also had some impact on the overall insect swarm. The galaxy is likely to go through a relatively stable period.
To this day, no civilization has found a leader for the Mechanical Civilization. It's possible that the Mechanical Civilization won't give the galactic civilization much time to settle down; they will definitely find an opportunity to develop and unleash a bloodbath upon the galaxy.
Academician Zeng has been studying that malfunctioning mechanical object for a long time. The design concepts and technological level of the Mechanical Civilization far surpass those of humans, at least in the field of mechanics. After all, it is Great Star Region Civilization and specializes in playing with machines. It would be strange if it did not surpass humans.
The mechanical body had lost consciousness. The sudden malfunction caused its energy to be exhausted before it could repair itself. Academician Zeng had already repaired the damaged parts of the mechanical body, and then he and Academician Xiao tried to power the mechanical body to see if it could regain consciousness. Although a mechanical body without consciousness is also very valuable, it is worlds apart from a conscious mechanical body.
Academician Zeng removed all parts of the mechanical body that were unrelated to consciousness. Firstly, if the mechanical body could really regain consciousness, it could prevent it from moving around randomly or even attacking. Secondly, he was afraid that it would self-destruct through means unknown to humans. Most importantly, he was afraid that it would make contact with the Mechanical Lord.