Recaps

Luo Zhigao’s fleet briefly reunited with Hu Yu’s, but the two fleets separated again when their timelines diverged. Hu Yu focused on rebuilding the alliance and searching for the Mechanical Civilization while waiting for the academicians trapped in the Matter River, where a giant glowing object appeared before their flagship.

• Qin Yin and Hu Yu realized Luo Zhigao’s fleet was fading as it began separating from the greater universe’s timeline, and Luo Zhigao sent them a brief burst of technology before vanishing.
• Luo Zhigao accepted that his fleet was stranded in a meaningless timeline and gave the Academy of Sciences ten years off while they explored the Milky Way.
• Hu Yu stayed near the alliance’s exposed territory, abandoned plans to rebuild its defenses, and deployed Wriggler miniature spacecraft to search for the Mechanical Civilization.
• Hu Yu distributed the battle wreckage among small star sector civilizations as the alliance began a major construction effort.
• More than fifty thousand Reapers surrounded the academicians’ flagship inside the Matter River as a gigantic glowing object appeared ahead of them.

After more than a hundred thousand years lost in the Mirror Sub-Universe, Human Civilization encountered a luminous sphere that called itself Zu and revealed there was no defense system. Zu explained that the supposed system was a deception intended to draw it out, then began answering questions about the forces behind the scheme and the universe’s origins.

• The fleet detected a huge luminous sphere, and Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong prepared the warships to fire.
• The sphere engulfed the fleet in white light, withstanding the Reapers’ barrage and speaking directly into everyone’s minds.
• Zu asked who had sent the fleet, and Academician Zeng learned that the promised defense system did not exist.
• Zu said it would send the fleet back and explained that the false information was meant to confirm its existence.
• Zu revealed that a force beyond a Great Star Region Civilization had entered the Mirror Sub-Universe and that the fleet’s true purpose had been to find it.
• Zu described the Mirror Universe as a space that split from the greater universe and reached heat death.

Zu explained that he came from the greater universe and offered the humans a stabilized region where they could study the connection between the universes. After fifty thousand years of research, Academician Li Youwei discovered how to combine the basic energies of the Fourth Reversed State.

• Zu told the humans that he had come from the greater universe, wanted to return, and hoped they would help him take revenge on a powerful enemy.
• Zu expanded the ball of light around the fleet, then explained the Matter River, the cone-shaped region he had stabilized, and the danger of leaving without his help.
• Zu warned the humans to be cautious of the first person who asked about him, then departed and left them to explore the region.
• The academicians chose to study in the cone-shaped space, while Li Zhixiong and Chen Peng stayed near the greater universe to experience its slower time flow.
• Fifty thousand years passed at the narrowest part of the region, and Academician Li Youwei announced that he had found how to combine the basic energies of the Fourth Reversed State.

Academician Li Youwei completed the Fourth Reversed State, a powerful defensive material, while the academicians discussed its military use and energy costs. Academician Liu Bo then identified the Universe Membrane and a possible spatial-structure anomaly as clues to their lost contact, and chose to investigate alone.

• Academician Li Youwei successfully created the Fourth Reversed State and estimated that its defense rivaled an early-stage Great Star Region Civilization.
• Academician Liu Bo calculated that producing enough Fourth Reversed State armor would consume vast amounts of matter, and Li Youwei described a system for collecting Basic Energy from the universe.
• Academician Zeng urged Li Youwei to pause his experimental work and help the others reason through their investigation.
• Academician Zeng proposed that the junction between the two universes, which he called the Universe Membrane, might hold the clue they sought.
• Academician Zhou Xiaohua suggested that the inability to enter from the other side could result from a problem with the spatial structure, and Academician Zeng agreed.
• Academician Liu Bo ordered the others to return to the general and the people while he stayed behind to investigate the spatial anomaly.

The fleet returned from the mirror universe to the greater universe, leaving Academician Liu Bo, General Chen Peng, and volunteers behind to continue studying the cosmic membrane. After the fleet sent word of its return, Human Civilization and the Carina Civilization began opening a four-dimensional passage for the Reception Plan.

• Academician Zeng ordered Academician Liu Bo to remain behind with General Chen Peng and several dozen logistics personnel while the rest returned to the fleet.
• The fleet passed through the cosmic membrane into the Matter River and found no sign of Li Shun or the bugs.
• Li Zhixiong navigated the fleet toward the original entrance, where it retrieved a functioning four-dimensional communications device and sent a message to the greater universe.
• Old Hu received the signal and arranged to activate the reception system.
• Wen Zhonghua and Dongdong coordinated the Reception Plan as Reversed State instruments around more than two hundred stars began converting their energy into the Third Reversed State.

Human and Carina Civilization scientists opened a temporary four-dimensional channel to bring the academicians back from the insect zone. The two shuttles sped through the channel at twice the speed of light, confirming that the fourth dimension followed different physical rules.

• Carina Civilization scientists used energy from more than 200 stars to expand and stabilize a four-dimensional channel around a photon.
• Li Zhixiong packed the academicians and support personnel into two shuttles and ordered them to depart when the reception signal arrived.
• The shuttles entered the channel one after another, and the opening disappeared within seconds.
• Li Zhixiong drove the shuttles’ conventional engines at full power, accelerating them to twice the speed of light.
• The academicians confirmed that light behaved differently in the fourth dimension and recognized how far Human Civilization lagged behind in understanding it.

The Reaper fleet used a burst of stellar energy to retrieve Academician Zeng and the other scientists from the danger zone, but they returned without Academician Liu Bo and Chen Peng. Hu Yu grieved their loss, while the academicians kept the secrets of Zu and the cosmic membrane from him and resolved to continue working for the fleet.

• The Argo Navis scientist ordered stars inside the Dyson sphere detonated to open a channel, and the Reaper fleet retrieved the academicians before closing it and retreating.
• Academician Zeng told Hu Yu that the group had found no defense system and that Academician Liu Bo and Chen Peng had been separated from them in the danger zone.
• Li Zhixiong told Hu Yu that Liu Bo and Chen Peng might never return, prompting Hu Yu to blame himself and the academicians for their loss.
• Hu Yu admitted to a companion that his anger came from losing Chen Peng, his longtime comrade, and Academician Liu Bo, a valued colleague.
• Academician Zeng lamented the failed journey with Li Zhixiong, and Li Youwei encouraged him to accept the setback and keep working for the fleet.

The rescue fleet destroyed the swarm units that arrived inside the super Dyson sphere, and the returning academicians were welcomed home. Hu Yu briefed Academician Zeng on the alliance’s recent crises and growth, while Zeng revealed that the fleet had solved the Fourth Reversed State problem and proposed quickly advancing its weapons technology.

• An instrument detected more than 30 swarm units inside the super Dyson sphere and ignited the stars, whose explosion destroyed the sphere and reduced the bugs to ashes.
• The academicians returned to the fleet after five years, and Hu Yu and Academician Xiao welcomed them while mourning Academician Liu Bo and General Chen Peng, who had not returned.
• Hu Yu told Academician Zeng that Li Shun had spread news of the defense system and that nine small star sector civilizations had attacked the fleet before Minister Luo intervened.
• Hu Yu explained that the Star Ring Alliance had grown stronger and was preparing for the Mechanical Civilization, whose whereabouts remained unclear.
• Academician Zeng revealed that Academician Li Youwei had solved the Fourth Reversed State problem and said the fleet could use its research, Minister Luo’s technology, and a Flying Bear Civilization warship to advance its weapons.
• Hu Yu asked whether the fleet could open a timeline to gain time, and Academician Zeng explained that the available options were the dangerous Matter River zone, Alliance Space, or black holes.

Hu Yu learned that the Mechanical Civilization had activated more than a billion devices across the galaxy, marking it in the fourth dimension and enabling insect swarms to descend. He ordered the alliance to gather vulnerable civilizations and form a defensive line as more than 30 billion insects began arriving at over a billion coordinates.

• Academician Zeng left to study the data from Minister Luo and the others, while a being aboard a fourth-dimensional warship wondered whether it had misjudged the secondary universe.
• Academician Xiao asked Wen Zhonghua for another hundred planets to feed his evolving biological warriors, and Wen agreed to find larger ones and increase garbage deliveries.
• In 45000 AD, Hu Yu received a report from the Yun San Civilization that more than a billion high-energy physics testing sites had appeared and hundreds of thousands of stars had been detonated.
• Hu Yu recognized the events as the Mechanical Civilization's plan to mark the galaxy in the fourth dimension and ordered fleets to recall, relocate low-tier civilizations, and establish a spherical defense around the alliance.
• Within ten days, returning fleets found insect swarms descending at more than a billion coordinates, with the first wave exceeding 30 billion units and still growing.

Hu Yu coordinated the Star Ring Alliance’s defenses and prepared to shelter lower-level civilizations as the insect swarm spread. The Crystal Civilization joined the alliance’s perimeter, while attacks on rescue fleets showed that the swarm had become increasingly difficult to evade.

• Yun San told Hu Yu that the five Great Star Region Civilizations would rescue lower-level civilizations and urged smaller civilizations to form defensive alliances; Hu Yu agreed to accept the Crystal Civilization and the Gemini Civilization.
• Hu Yu ordered the alliance’s fleets to bring nearby civilizations into its territory and received the Crystal Civilization’s request to settle beside the alliance and defend one side.
• The 549th Fleet lost Planetary-Level Civilization No. 241 when the swarm attacked, and the 2873rd Fleet later reported that Stellar-Level Civilization No. 37 had lost more than half its population.
• Hu Yu ordered fleets to avoid the swarm and protect the civilizations they were moving as attacks made it clear that even the Reaper fleets could not evade the growing swarm.
• Yun San’s fleets brought in more civilizations, while the Reapers continued local rescues, and Hu Yu ordered advanced Stellar-Level and Star System-Level Civilizations to reduce the number of planets they occupied.

Hu Yu coordinated the Star Ring Alliance’s defense after the Yun San Civilization relocated lower-level civilizations into its territory, and he agreed to let the Xuan Star Civilization join the fight against an approaching swarm. As the alliance prepared its fleets, Academician Xiao arrived and said the biowarriors could not yet be used.

• The Yun San Civilization finished relocating nearly 100,000 lower-level civilizations and entrusted Hu Yu’s Star Ring Alliance with their protection.
• Hu Yu sent four Reaper fleets and all Stingers to intercept a swarm of about 5,000 units before it reached alliance territory.
• Bi Cha asked to deploy the Xuan Star Civilization’s fleet, and Hu Yu approved 20 billion warships to fight alongside the alliance.
• Hu Yu and his companions discussed why Academician Xiao had not deployed the biowarriors, and Academician Xiao arrived to say they could not be used yet.
• Hu Yu questioned Academician Xiao because he had previously said the biowarriors could handle tier-20 bugs.

Academician Xiao explained why his unfinished biological warriors had to remain secret while the alliance prepared to fight a vast insect swarm. The fleet’s opening attacks tore through the swarm, but the insects regrouped around their stronger members and surged forward.

• Academician Xiao told Wen Zhonghua and the General Staff Chief that the biological warriors were incomplete, too few in number, and could not be deployed until humanity could protect itself from other Great Star Region Civilizations.
• The General Staff Chief assigned Li Zhixiong, Gao Jianchuan, and Yang Fan to command fleets and arranged a pocket formation with the Xuan Star Civilization.
• The alliance fleet opened fire on the 5,000-unit insect swarm, whose long-range attackers launched corrosive, explosive, and sticky substances at the warships.
• Forty billion space cannons fired Space Shockwaves that cut bloody paths through the swarm and pulverized countless insects.
• The swarm contracted into clusters, shielding high-tier insects with low-tier ones as it charged the fleet and made the fleet’s attacks less effective.

Wen Zhonghua's fleet struggled to hold back the overwhelming bug swarm until the Xuan Star Civilization deployed its Space Barrier, which devastated the low-level bugs. When a giant multiheaded bug broke through and threatened the Xuan Star fleet, Bi Cha refused to retreat, and the first squadron of Fourth Reversed State Armor Reapers charged in to attack it.

• Wen Zhonghua ordered the fleet to concentrate fire and retreat in formation, then sent Stingers into the swarm to draw its attention.
• The Xuan Star Civilization's warships activated their coordinated Space Barrier, shredding the bugs that approached it.
• A giant multiheaded bug withstood the Space Barrier, destroyed Xuan Star warships, and opened a gap for high-level bugs to surround the fleet.
• Wen Zhonghua urged General Bi Cha to withdraw, but Bi Cha refused to retreat and asked him to kill the multiheaded bug.
• Wen Zhonghua sent the first squadron of 200 million Reapers into the swarm; one rammed the bug, and its Fourth Reversed State Armor resisted the creature's bite.

The Reapers and Xuan Star Civilization fleet destroyed a massive worm swarm, then joined forces with the arriving Crystal Civilization and Gemini Civilization fleets. With the swarm cleared for now, Hu Yu ordered the alliance to repair its ships and prepare to attack before the worms could gather again.

• The Reapers used Virtual Matter arrows and antimatter bombs to wound the multi-headed giant worm and three other giant worms, which the swarm then devoured.
• The Xuan Star Civilization fleet used its active Space Barriers to crush worms across the swarm while the Reapers attacked the larger targets.
• The Crystal Civilization and Gemini Civilization fleets arrived with planets and helped the alliance clear the swarm from the surrounding space.
• Hu Yu assigned the Crystal Civilization and Gemini Civilization fleets positions on opposite sides of the alliance territory, and the Gemini Civilization asked to join the Star Ring Alliance.
• Hu Yu ordered the fleets to repair their losses and prepare to attack before another swarm could gather, while the Reapers and Xuan Star Civilization fleet planned to divide their targets.

Academician Zeng and Academician Zhou Xiaohua discovered how to draw energy from the fourth dimension, enabling rapid production of Fourth Reversed State Armor. After the first billion Reapers were equipped, they attacked an insect swarm and destroyed more than twenty units before the survivors fled.

• Academician Zeng showed Wen Zhonghua how the academicians had opened a passage to the fourth dimension and begun converting its energy into Fourth Reversed State blocks.
• Hu Yu thanked Academician Zhou Xiaohua, then ordered more production bases, armor installations on Reapers, and energy spheres for Alliance warships.
• Transport fleets delivered Fourth Reversed State blocks, and robots rapidly fitted the first batch of one billion Reapers.
• The armored Reapers attacked an insect swarm 150 light-years from the base and drew its members into close range.
• The Reapers destroyed nearly ten units with their first attacks and eliminated more than twenty units before the surviving insects fled.

The Star Ring Alliance faced an 80-million-unit insect mass advancing toward its territory, and Hu Yu called a meeting to decide how to respond. Although the Xuan Star Civilization raised the possibility of leaving the Milky Way, the alliance leaders chose to stay and fight for now, then turned to planning against the approaching threat.

• The Reapers and Xuan Star Civilization warships cleared insect swarms within 300 light-years of the base, easing pressure on the alliance.
• An insect mass grew from 50 million to more than 80 million units as it absorbed nearby swarms, while the region’s Wrigglers were lost.
• Hu Yu called an alliance meeting and showed that the insects were advancing despite attacks from five billion Reapers.
• The Xuan Star Civilization leader proposed leaving the Milky Way, arguing that the galactic civilizations were unlikely to win the war.
• Hu Yu and other leaders rejected abandoning the Milky Way for now, and the alliance began discussing how to stop the insect mass.

The allied civilizations planned to stop the insect swarm by detonating stars, including the Xuan Star Civilization’s antimatter star, while coordinating their fleets to drive the insects into the blast. Lord Yun San warned them not to interfere with black holes or try to leave the Milky Way, but did not explain why.

• General Bi Cha proposed using enormous numbers of stars to destroy the swarm’s low-tier insects, and the Xuan Star leader agreed to sacrifice the antimatter star.
• The allied civilizations committed their fleets to the battle, and Wen Zhonghua assigned them roles in a plan to hold back, flank, and funnel the swarm.
• The Gemini Civilization asked to fight on the front line, but Wen Zhonghua assigned it to the flanks instead.
• Lord Yun San appeared at the conference and warned the civilizations not to meddle with black holes or attempt to leave the Milky Way.
• The Xuan Star leader asked why they could not leave the Milky Way, and Lord Yun San’s reason remained unanswered.

Lord Yun San explained that the great star region civilizations protected the Milky Way because destroying its central black hole would kill every species in it, then ordered the civilizations to destroy the giant bug masses quickly. The fleets began their assault on the swarm, with the Reapers holding their position against attacks from giant bugs.

• Lord Yun San told the small star sector civilization that the Milky Way's central black hole had to survive for its species to live, and revealed that the swarm held fifty billion bugs across multiple masses.
• The allied civilizations prepared to fight by moving more than 800,000 stars near the bug mass so they could detonate them.
• The Reapers, Xuan Star Civilization, and Crystal Civilization charged the swarm while other fleets scattered to carry out their plan.
• The Reapers and allied fleets killed bugs as they advanced, but the packed swarm eventually stopped their progress.
• The Reapers formed a defensive sphere with Fourth Reversed State ships on the perimeter and continued attacking as giant bugs charged into the formation.

Wen Zhonghua and Hu Yu learned that the Aquila Civilization was using a consciousness-impact device to drive the insects back, and negotiated with Number One for the technology. The Aquila leaders agreed to share it and began working with Academician Xiao and Academician Zeng to strengthen the device.

• Wen Zhonghua arranged for the Gemini and Aquila fleets to position 300,000 stars around the swarm while the Crystal and Xuan Star Civilizations held the front.
• Wen Zhonghua and Hu Yu noticed that insects retreated from the Aquila fleet and questioned the Aquila leaders about their unusual combat strength.
• Number One revealed that the Aquila Civilization had built a consciousness-impact device based on technology used by the Wind Star Civilization.
• Wen Zhonghua ordered the Aquila fleet to surround the swarm and drive it inward, and offered technology in exchange for their device.
• Number One agreed to share the device technology, and Hu Yu sent him to work with Academician Xiao and Academician Zeng on improving it.

Wen Zhonghua coordinated the Aquila and Gemini fleets to use consciousness shocks and repositioned stars to weaken and contain the swarm while the Reapers prepared their trap. After the Reaper fleet broke through, the antimatter and ordinary stars collided, setting off the planned explosion.

• Wen Zhonghua ordered the fleets to use the moved stars to contain the swarm and make both waves of energy hit it together.
• The Aquila fleet's consciousness shocks slowed the swarm as the fleets retreated, while the Gemini fleet moved more than eight hundred thousand stars into position.
• Wen Zhonghua sent the Aquila fleet close to the swarm, where prolonged directed shocks incapacitated elite bugs.
• The Aquila fleet pressed the shrinking swarm until enormous bugs blocked its advance, and Wen Zhonghua gave the signal to begin.
• Hu ordered most of the Reaper fleet to break out of the swarm, leaving one billion ships to protect the two stars.
• After the Reapers withdrew, gravity pulled the antimatter and ordinary stars together, and they collided.

The annihilation of the matter and antimatter stars triggered a space collapse that began devouring the surrounding region and destroying the insect swarm. As the collapse spread, the insect king ordered a desperate escape, but the civilizations’ fleets blocked nearly all of the insects.

• The matter and antimatter stars annihilated, wiping out the nearby insects and causing their fragments to fly backward as space began to collapse.
• Hu Yu identified the phenomenon as a space collapse and ordered the fleets to retreat while explaining that space was healing itself.
• The collapse spread 18 million kilometers in ten minutes, and Hu Yu realized the explosion had exceeded space’s limits rather than releasing energy into the fourth dimension.
• The Xuan Star Civilization’s leader and chief scientist Feng Ye watched in shock and relief that they had not detonated the antimatter star earlier.
• When the collapse’s radius exceeded a billion kilometers, the insect king ordered the swarm to scatter, but the civilizations’ fleets and Aquila Civilization’s consciousness-impact devices prevented nearly all of them from escaping.

After the spatial collapse annihilated the bug cluster, Hu Yu learned that another cluster was forming 25,000 light-years away and dispatched 20 billion Reapers to destroy it. The Reapers reached the new cluster and found another fleet already fighting the bugs.

• The spatial collapse continued after the bugs fled, and Academician Zeng estimated it could spread more than a hundred light-years while sparing the Alliance base.
• The bug king returned through the fourth dimension toward the Star Ring Alliance, but energy-like threads sliced it and the giant bugs apart before they could attack.
• The Alliance fleets returned safely, protecting 800,000 stars, and Wriggler later warned Hu Yu that a new bug cluster was forming far away.
• Hu Yu sent 20 billion Reapers to attack the new cluster, while Number One transferred its consciousness impact device to a Reaper and Academician Zeng requested captured Mechanical Civilization bodies.
• The Reaper fleet killed bugs along its route and charged toward the cluster, where Hu Yu discovered another fleet already attacking the swarm.

Hu Yu recognized a hundred-billion-ship fleet as belonging to the Fish Horse Star Civilization and kept the Reapers focused on killing bugs while both sides avoided open conflict. As more civilizations gathered, the bug swarm continued to grow, leaving the fleets fighting an apparently inexhaustible enemy.

• Hu Yu recognized the unfamiliar warships as belonging to the Fish Horse Star Civilization and stopped his fleet from attacking its much larger force.
• Hu Yu and the Fish Horse fleet fought the bugs without contacting each other, each aware of the other's identity, until the Fish Horse Civilization messaged the humans days later.
• Hu Yu reminded the Fish Horse Civilization that humanity would not forget its past actions, and both fleets resumed killing bugs at full speed.
• Dozens of other civilizations arrived, and Hu Yu observed their varied reactions as he greeted them.
• The gathered fleets exceeded three trillion ships, but the bug swarm kept growing instead of shrinking.

Ten years later, a swarm of more than ten billion bugs moved toward the galactic defense line, forcing civilization fleets to fight and retreat as they struggled to hold it back. Hu Yu and the Fish Horse Star Civilization finally used their Consciousness Field impact weapons together, slowing the swarm and revealing that the Fish Horse Star Civilization’s research had surpassed the Aquila Civilization’s.

• A swarm of more than ten billion bugs began moving toward the galactic defense line, and fleets from across the galaxy attacked to stop it.
• The Reapers and Fish Horse Star Civilization fleets fought effectively, while other civilizations’ ships began suffering damage from higher-tier bugs.
• Hu Yu noticed that the Fish Horse Star Civilization’s fleet avoided the Reapers and suspected its interest in bugs and Consciousness Field research went beyond its current weapons.
• As the fleets struggled and retreated, Hu Yu challenged the Fish Horse Star Civilization to stop holding back and reveal its Consciousness Field weapons.
• The Reaper and Fish Horse Star Civilization fleets unleashed their Consciousness Field impact weapons, halting bugs at the swarm’s front and slowing its advance.
• Hu Yu recognized that the Fish Horse Star Civilization’s Consciousness Field research had surpassed the Aquila Civilization’s.

The Consciousness Field weapons stopped the insect swarm’s advance, but the insect king counterattacked with devastating four-dimensional hyperspheres. After destroying nearby warships and failing to damage the dispersed fleets fast enough, it abandoned the dimensional strikes and seized a Reaper.

• The Fish Horse Star Civilization and Reapers used Consciousness Field impact weapons to halt the swarm, allowing the fleets to attack its high-order insects.
• The insect king sensed the impact weapons, flew to the front, and used four-dimensional hyperspheres to destroy nearby warships, including a Reaper.
• Hu Yu realized the dimensional strikes destroyed even Fourth Reversed State Armor, while their limited range and brief impact gave them little effect against dispersed fleets.
• The insect king abandoned its hypersphere attacks, charged into the Reaper fleet, and caught one of the warships.