The 250,000 civilizations within the territory could not possibly know this, and these civilizations are all under strict, clandestine surveillance by Hu Yu. They have no means of contacting the outside world, so news of humanity's attack on the Mechanical Civilization could not have leaked out from here.
Aside from that possibility, the Mechanical Civilization itself might have discovered the existence of the human fleet. However, that's also unlikely, since the Conqueror Fleet set sail directly from its base and operated entirely in the fourth dimension. It's improbable that the Mechanical Civilization's fleet would rashly enter the fourth dimension to spy on them; otherwise, they wouldn't have been so cautious even when extracting energy.
Could it be that the miniature spaceship has been discovered? That doesn't seem likely. The closest the miniature spaceship has ever come to the Mechanical Civilization's fleet is more than 50 light-years away. To discover a spaceship the size of a fingernail at such a distance, especially since the miniature spaceship wouldn't make any noise, Hu Yu is certain that even the Great Star Region Advanced Civilization of the galaxy couldn't have done it, unless they had also deployed other observation devices near the miniature spaceship.
However, the miniature spacecraft surveyed the surrounding airspace but never found any matter. It was difficult to even detect a single particle here, let alone large blocks of matter.
Hu Yu carefully analyzed the situation. The only explanation was that the Mechanical Civilization fleet had randomly changed its route. Although there was another explanation, Hu Yu was hesitant to believe it. Right now, the only option was to search for the Mechanical Civilization fleet again, find them, and destroy them. Although the fleet was half the size of the Mechanical Civilization's, the Conqueror definitely had the capability to do so.
Hu Yu ordered the Conqueror to return to their base and dock in the Kuiper Belt. He also deployed more micro-ships to the outer airspace around the Milky Way. Billions of micro-ships were already patrolling the upper, lower, left, and right cross-sections of the galactic disk. After waiting for hundreds of years, there was still no trace of the Mechanical Civilization fleet. The micro-ships had traveled as far as 200,000 light-years away from the galaxy. According to the previous movement patterns of the Mechanical Civilization fleet, the Mechanical Civilization would definitely pass through this area when flying around the galaxy.
The miniature spaceships began to disperse, sailing in all directions. These miniature spaceships were not Wriggler, but ordinary miniature spaceships with the ability to travel faster than light. Miniature spaceships are characterized by good stealth and low energy consumption, making them difficult for even Great Star Region Civilization to detect unless they are very close. Therefore, they are often used for covert tracking, reconnaissance, patrolling, and so on.
After a long period of tracking, one of the miniature spaceships finally detected traces of spatial fluctuations. Data analysis revealed that these traces were left behind by the Mechanical Civilization's fleet after its high-speed journey.
The miniature spaceship tracked them all the way, but the traces of these spatial fluctuations were intermittent. After tracking for thousands of light-years, the miniature spaceship lost track of the Mechanical Civilization again. It is very likely that the Mechanical Civilization's fleet switched from warp drive to conventional power to eliminate spatial fluctuations and avoid being tracked. Hu Yu did not expect the Mechanical Civilization to be so cautious.
"That's strange. We've been tracking them for so long, dispatched so many miniature ships, and faced such a massive fleet of Mechanical Civilization, yet we can't even find a trace of them."
"Forget about the Mechanical Civilization, Old Hu. More than 50,000 Small Star Sector Civilization have already started building ships. The project of providing materials for them is enormous."
"If all else fails, we'll have to use some stars. We can't afford to use planets, but stars are fine. However, we absolutely cannot let material shortages affect the shipbuilding speed. You need to plan the material allocation carefully."
"Clear."
"General, the place where the Mechanical Civilization disappeared is rather strange," Gao Jianchuan suddenly said.
"Hmm? Is there a problem? That's airspace outside the river."
"I just analyzed the spatial fluctuation data. If the Mechanical Civilization stopped using warp drives and switched to conventional engines from here, no matter how far they go, we will definitely be able to track them down again, because the intensity of these spatial fluctuations indicates that the Mechanical Civilization was here a year ago."
"A year ago? That recently?"
"Yes, it definitely won't be more than 500 days. The miniature spacecraft surveyed the surrounding airspace and didn't detect any new spatial fluctuations, so the only possibility is that the Mechanical Civilization's fleet entered the fourth dimension from here."
Jianchuan, are you sure?
"I'm sure. I've repeatedly compared the spatial data left by the Mechanical Civilization; there's no mistake."
"This is getting a bit complicated."
"What's the trouble? Just chase after them and take them out."
"This isn't the place to talk. Let's go check on the shipbuilding progress," Hu Yu said. The group boarded the spaceship and traversed the three-dimensional universe to enter the fourth dimension.
" Old Hu, why are you being so secretive?"
Don't you think the Mechanical Civilization's fleet is a bit too small?
"That's quite a lot, over a trillion."
"Alright, even if the Mechanical Civilization's development was slow due to the pursuit of the Great Star Region Civilization, accumulating trillions is reasonable. Now there are three suspicious points. First, why did the Mechanical Civilization disappear just when we sent out a fleet to attack them? Second, why did the Mechanical Civilization dare to keep orbiting the galaxy? The Great Star Region Civilization also searched for them on the outer edge of the galaxy. Third, while we were searching for the Mechanical Civilization, they actually entered the fourth dimension. There's only one explanation for all of this: the Mechanical Civilization fleet we discovered was being controlled."
"What?! Old Hu, are you kidding me?"
"What do you think? If there's no third-party control, why did the Mechanical Civilization's fleet disappear as soon as our fleet was deployed? At first, I thought the Mechanical Civilization's fleet was highly vigilant, but now it seems that someone informed the Mechanical Civilization about our actions in the fourth dimension. Also, the Mechanical Civilization was flying around the galaxy, and the Great Star Region Civilization was also pursuing them outside the galaxy. Why did they still dare to do this? It's the same logic; someone informed the Mechanical Civilization of the pursuit route in advance."
"That seems reasonable, Old Hu. Could it be that they've taken control of the lord?!"
"That possibility cannot be ruled out. It's also possible that they obtained low-level mechanical bodies like we have. If we can get mechanical bodies, it must be even easier for other civilizations."
"Whether it's a lord or a machine, sneaking around like this is definitely not a good thing. Which civilization could have done this?"
"It's hard to say, any of the five are possible."
"So what do we do now? Should we continue searching?"
"No need. Our key task now is to expel the bugs. We must not disrupt the current balance before the bugs are strangled. Once the bug issue is resolved, those that are meant to emerge will eventually do so. We don't have enough robots right now. Prepare more Reversed State hollow spheres and manufacture more Superintelligent Robot. Let Academician Xiao work a little harder. The Superintelligent Robot need the support of the Little Crab they cultivate."