Inside the Forging Alliance's homeworld, within the ' Furnace Core ' of the civilization's newly completed deployment, piercing alarms were already blaring, but no one paid any attention.
All the scientists, officers, and even the high-ranking Master of the Furnace Core were frozen in place, staring blankly at the incomprehensible scene on the main screen.
There is no longer a need to look at the signals from the Stellar Integrated Array. As long as you are on the surface of the day hemisphere of all the planets in this star system, you can see the brightness of this sub-star, which is dimming at a rate visible to the naked eye.
The light is fading.
The heat is dissipating.
Like a light bulb whose brightness is constantly decreasing.
The boiling convection cells, like frozen bubbles, gradually stopped churning and solidified into a lifeless, gray, mottled landscape, even the core nuclear fusion reaction was extinguished.
"The radiation level in Babuta is plummeting exponentially."
"The core temperature... has disappeared? The star's own energy signature is vanishing?!"
In the culture of the Forging Alliance, ' Babuta ' means 'rage' and ' Molten Core '.
Unlike the stable host star Tara, Babuta has been both a blessing and a challenge from the universe since the rise of the Forging Alliance civilization.
The bounty came from the heavy elements in the ejected material of this red giant, providing the Forger civilization with exceptional mineral resources for its early industrial explosion.
The challenge lies in its instability; its powerful stellar winds and radiation storms constantly assault the Forgers' territory, forcing them to install heavy protective layers on all ships and space stations and to be constantly vigilant against potential stellar flares.
Therefore, conquering and controlling ' Babuta ' and transforming its violent energy into tamed and usable energy has become the ultimate goal in the Forging Alliance's technology tree, and also the mark they use to measure whether they have truly stepped into the next stage of civilization.
The Forging Alliance has established a massive integrated array in the orbit of the red giant. The principle of its ultimate weapon, the ' Stellar Mass-Energy Projector ', is to instantly release the natural radiation energy of a red giant equivalent to about ten Ancient Wilderness days.
Its power is enough to vaporize several planets like Blue Star, or to completely strip the atmosphere of a gas giant.
But at the current rate, ' Babuta ' will lose hundreds of millions of years' worth of natural radiation energy in less than ten minutes!
This is not just a matter of the Forging Alliance losing its ultimate weapon; it is a comprehensive blow to the resources and creations of their entire home star system.
"Report! The surface temperature of all planets and colonies within Babuta's gravitational influence will drop by more than 100 degrees Celsius within the next 6 Sos, and all ecosystems that depend on its light will be frozen."
"Urgent Warning! We have lost more than 35% of our baseline energy supply, and our outer colonies' energy reserves can only sustain us for 72 standard hours!"
"A violent disturbance has occurred in the Gravitational Field! Over 60% of the navigation systems on our ships require urgent calibration! Orbital defense platforms are operating for less than 5% of their effective combat time due to energy shortages!"
Catastrophic assessments from various departments flooded in, playing on the giant screen of Parliament, and chaos and panic spread like a virus.
At this point, let alone preventing the star from going out, just dealing with the disasters caused by environmental changes would require an all-out effort.
"Is this the technology of that mysterious civilization?"
When the alarm first sounded, the Forging Alliance thought they had encountered some kind of unknown cosmic disaster, but as this obviously 'unnatural' phenomenon occurred, an even more terrifying thought gripped the hearts of the Forging Alliance leaders.
The impact of this idea is more terrifying than the fact that stars are dying rapidly.
Contact her! Contact her immediately!
The roaring hum of the Master of the Furnace Core made the Furnace Core vibrate, "Use all frequencies, maximum power, tell her we surrender! Unconditional surrender! We accept all rules! Beg her to stop! Stop immediately!"
However, there was no response.
The only response was that the star on the screen continued to dim relentlessly.
That grand goal for which the Forging Alliance has strived for countless generations, symbolizing the future of civilization...
That raging celestial body they both revered and longed to conquer...
From dark red to deep red, then to a dark orange like a dying ember, it finally turned into a deathly darkness, becoming a black dwarf star mainly composed of carbon and oxygen.
Bathed in the afterglow of the main star, it resembled a huge, ugly scar.
As scientists predicted, the entire process lasted less than ten minutes.
For a star's lifespan, this is as fast as an instant, but for the forging civilization that witnessed it all, it was as slow as a slow, agonizing death.
When it all ended, all their will to resist, all their technological pride, and all their dreams of expansion were extinguished along with the death of the star.
Faced with this planet that had transformed from extremely hot to extremely cold, Wen Jing withdrew from his Gluttony state.
The energy of a red giant star allowed her to devour matter in the material universe for the first time, gaining over a hundred attribute points.
The first three attributes, which were already approaching 2,000 points, broke through the 2,000 mark and reached over 2,300.
At the same time, the long-awaited notification of acquiring the trait sounded on the panel.
[Gained the ' Cellular-Level Regeneration ' trait]
[Gain the ' Spatial Cutting ' trait]
[Gain the trait ' Bullet Time ']
These three characteristics are clearly enhanced versions of Resurgence, Sharpness, and Extreme Speed, resulting in a qualitative leap in power.
"The first node was 200, the second was 2000, will the next one be 20000?"
Looking at the cold, black dwarf star, the Strongest Clone stopped devouring and instead traveled back to the Ancient Wilderness.
She could indeed devour the entire black dwarf, but doing so would destroy the entire Forging Alliance star system and significantly impact civilizations in the surrounding regions.
Wen Jing is not some kind of demon; this action is a deterrent to achieve his own goals, not an attempt to truly destroy a civilization.
The gravity of this 'dead' star still influences the entire galaxy, but it no longer emits light, heat, or ejects matter.
Given the technological level of the Forging Alliance, it would cause a huge loss of economic resources, but it wouldn't lead to their demise.
This is the most drastic measure Wen Jing has ever taken. If the Forging Alliance still refuses to submit after this, she, as a 'mysterious civilization individual,' will truly abandon them.
After all, she had barely achieved her goal—the strike that extinguished the star was enough to greatly impact the civilization, preventing them from expanding for a short period.
Secondly, even if she doesn't acquire the complete technology of the other side's civilization on this trip, she can still take some with her.
Of course, the reason she ultimately chose this deterrent method was also because she was somewhat tempted by stars...
In the past, she had only eaten minerals from the planet, but she didn't dare to eat them whole. Through this opportunity, she finally satisfied a curiosity, and the news spread to other civilizations, which was something that a mysterious 'advanced civilization' had done.
The Strongest Clone only needs to eat, and then retreat. The Reconnaissance Clone will take over the rest.
Fortunately, the forging civilization wasn't really that tough.
When the Reconnaissance Clone returned from the Ancient Wilderness, it immediately received a surrender letter broadcast frantically throughout the entire galaxy by the enemy.
Regret and despair enveloped this civilization. What counterattack, what seeds of civilization, all became a joke in the face of this absolute power.
If you can destroy one star, you can destroy another.
And all of this was accomplished in such a 'gentle' way, demonstrating a level of technology far greater than detonating a star.
If Wen Jing had chosen to detonate the star instead of extinguishing it, the Forging Alliance's civilization seed, " Abyss Echo Plan," would not have had time to leave the star system and would have been buried along with the entire civilization.
At this point, their only hope was that Wen Jing would appear and be willing to accept their surrender.
Therefore, when Wen Jing's figure teleported to the surface of the Forging Alliance's home planet, he was immediately greeted with the highest level of treatment from the Forging Alliance.
Inside the ' Furnace Core,' the symbol of civilization and politics of the Forging Alliance, the engineering units on the outermost perimeter, which had undergone more than half of mechanical modifications, removed the modified machinery and tried their best to reveal their original bodies.
Those high-ranking officials in the front row, whose brains were completely mechanically modified except for their external weapons and non-survival-essential armor plates, had their energy cores exposed after being stripped of their external weapons.
At the very center, the six Master of the Furnace Core had completed the consciousness upload, along with the core of their consciousness, were displayed next to all the organized information about the civilization.
At the same time, even though they knew Wen Jing could easily kill everyone here, they still voluntarily reduced the energy level of all their equipment to the minimum level required to maintain basic functions.
Showing weakness is a universal sign of surrender for all living beings.
"Knock knock knock!"
The six Master of the Furnace Core jointly controlled a highly symbolic pincer-shaped weapon in the center, striking the ground three times.
In the ancient fighting traditions of the Forging Alliance, when a warrior concedes defeat in a duel, he touches the ground in this way to signify surrender.
"Thank you so much for accepting our submission..."
"The Great Star Extinguisher ".
Chapter 184
" The Star Extinguisher?" Wen Jing repeated the title with an ambiguous meaning.
"Yes," said the Master of the Furnace Core, his attitude very humble. "This is the honorific title used by my Kelike Tribe. Of course, it would be our honor if you would tell us your name."
"Call me whatever you like."
Wen Jing said nonchalantly, but in reality, he was not good at naming things and hadn't thought of anything yet.
"Yes, great Star Extinguisher," the Master of the Furnace Core replied hastily.
Although they were very curious, they dared not pry any further at this moment.
From a sociological perspective, the names of ethnic groups contain certain information about civilization, and perhaps even more so in the eyes of more advanced civilizations.