Central part of the Gaolu Star Cluster.
After encountering the scout force, the expeditionary force regrouped, adjusted its course, and leaped toward the location of Atimo's fleet. At the same time, Atimo's fleet was also heading toward the direction where the scout force lost contact. Both forces were closing in on each other, and the distance between them was constantly decreasing.
After two days of teleportation, the two forces finally met in a region of space.
"Finally, we've found the enemy." Among the tens of thousands of ships in the expeditionary force, many players looked out the portholes at the dense array of steel warships, their spirits lifted, rubbing their hands together, eager to fight.
Players formed teams one after another, including the four major clubs and top-tier guilds in Huaxia. Club team members formed their own teams, while guild leaders and peripheral members formed teams that rode in spaceships to protect their own team members. This was not for protection, but to help their own team to steal the BOSS.
[Eliminate the Great Cosmos Army] is a faction-based questline with many sub-requirements. It is primarily a team quest, and the highest-rewarding requirements involve killing enemy combatants, big bosses, or even leaders. The number of these targets is limited.
Especially for "Great Emperor" Atimo, there is only one kill, so it's not a solo mission, but at most one player team can share the mission reward. Every club hopes to help their team players get the highest reward.
The contestants from the four teams —Dynasty, Temple, Long Sky, and Fish-Fragrant Eggplant— are all in their respective groups, with Long Sky's three mainstays discussing tactics.
Long Sky stroked his chin, "Based on the reward level, the enemy leader Atimo, should have Grade A combat strength. Only overwhelming numbers can defeat him."
Frenzied Sword Fried Rice: "In that case, the team that goes up to attack him first is in the most danger. If we want to steal kills, we'd better just sit back and do our own damage while others draw aggro... Only the team with the highest damage output counts as a kill. If we get killed by the BOSS, it takes too much time to revive and run back. We can only deal damage if we're alive."
Hao Tian nodded. "That's right."
On another spaceship, Frenzied Saber also teamed up with his team members and even brought Maple Moon along, as the two had always had a good relationship.
Frenzied Saber Blade glanced at the side window, where rows of legion warships stood in formation. Guilds were clearly clustered together, distinct from ordinary players. Seeing this, Mad Frenzied Saber shook his head helplessly, "So many guilds want to fight for the BOSS, I think our chances are slim."
Jiangcheng's vice-captain Xie Xiaojian, was in high spirits. "As long as we don't die, we might not lose in terms of damage output. This kind of unique BOSS isn't just going to stand there and let us attack. Whoever deals more damage will be a greater threat and will be prioritized by the BOSS. We might be able to survive until the end."
Players are experienced; the bosses in Galaxy are extremely difficult to deal with. For normal people, battles are unpredictable, and it's rare for one person to draw aggro. Instead, whoever plays the biggest role in the battle will be attacked first, eliminating the most troublesome opponent. The combat mode is very realistic.
Therefore, when players fight a BOSS, it is easy for aggro to become confused, requiring them to adapt to the situation.
Maple Moon stood silently to the side, smiling, glancing around at the large group, secretly excited.
She created this grand scene herself, single-handedly propelled the plot, and single-handedly initiated the faction's expedition mission. She felt a great sense of accomplishment and gained double the joy.
Because she was the one who initiated the conquest mission, she has a unique task compared to other players. When the Great Cosmos Corps is destroyed, she receives an extra reward that other players don't have—a large amount of experience and exploration points, as well as 300 Crimson Dynasty contribution points and 1000 Black Star Army contribution points.
This is probably the reward for handing over the mission items to the government.
This extra reward is extremely generous. Maple Moon calculated that she might suddenly become the highest-level player.
Meanwhile, in the Russian and Australian forces, both Strong Vodka and Captain Old Henry, along with their guild members, were fully prepared and ready to go, also harboring ambitions to seize the BOSS.
Although their own club's players didn't come along, preventing the Huaxia professional players from getting the BOSS rewards would be a way of indirectly helping their own players. Although Lao Ru and Lao Ao suffered a loss on Planet Pangurid, it was their duty not to let the Huaxia professional players get all the benefits in front of them.
Meanwhile, Atimo, who was confronting the expeditionary force, was also observing the Black Star Army's troops.
"The enemy only has a little over ten thousand warships; we have an overwhelming numerical advantage..." the adjutant said.
Atimo nodded slowly. He had 100,000 warships, nearly ten times the number of his opponent's, and the disparity in strength between the two sides was too great.
However, the Black Star Army actually had 10,000 ships, which was quite a large number, and Atimo was somewhat shocked by this. In his memory, each warship consumed a huge amount of resources and took a long time to build. The strongest race he had ever encountered only had a few hundred warships.
He had initially thought that quantum technology was the Black Star Army's only advantage, but now he hadn't expected that the Black Star Army's fleet was also quite strong.
"No wonder they blocked information; they didn't want me to know they had such a large force. They probably wanted to catch me off guard." Atimo thought to himself, breaking out in a cold sweat, but feeling incredibly fortunate.
The enemy must have mobilized their entire force to gather tens of thousands of spaceships. Fortunately, I brought all my troops with me. If I had only sent a small detachment as usual, I would have been in trouble this time.
Indeed, personally leading the expedition this time was the right decision.
Atimo's eyes flashed, and he slowly said, "Send a message to the other side: I want to speak with their leader."
In his eyes, this was a battle in which both sides had mobilized all their forces. The commander of the Black Star Army had always been mysterious and had never shown himself. Atimo wanted to see what kind of person the leader of the Black Star Army was... possessing tens of thousands of warships, he felt that this guy was qualified to talk to him.
After a while, the adjutant said tremblingly, "Yes, the other side refuses to communicate with us. They said... they said..."
"What did you say?" Atimo squinted.
"They said you are not qualified to speak with their legion commander."
Atimo laughed hoarsely, not angry at all, but rather with a hint of mockery in his laughter.
I'm not qualified? Who is more qualified than me?!
Oh well, people are going to die anyway, so there's no point in arguing.
Atimo shook his head, losing interest in further discussion. He waved his hand and slowly said, "Attack! Annihilate them all!"
The order was given, and the next moment, 100,000 spaceships opened fire simultaneously. Countless shells, trailing flames, rained down on the expeditionary force's formation, causing numerous explosions.
Atimo expected to witness heavy losses on the enemy, but what he saw next made his gaze freeze.
As the flames subsided, not a single one of the expeditionary force's tens of thousands of warships was destroyed. They spread out under their shields, and although their numbers were small, they were attempting to encircle a fleet ten times their size!
The next moment, tens of thousands of spaceships accelerated simultaneously. Due to their speed and performance far exceeding that of the spaceships of the Great Cosmos Corps, Atimo's forces had little time to react before tens of thousands of spaceships charged into their formation, instantly entering close-quarters boarding combat... This is the combat style most favored by players. They are actually unwilling to use the ship's onboard annihilation weapons to quickly end the battle because they don't get the experience.
Players use the assault pods to continuously storm enemy ships, wiping out the enemy crew in one fell swoop.
The enemy ships' concentrated fire failed to penetrate the shields of the legion's warships. The crew had no fear of being isolated and surrounded; only one incredibly exciting thought remained in their minds:
--Let me unleash my unparalleled dance!
Most players had never experienced such a satisfying monster-slaying experience before. Thanks to the superiority of their faction's technology, this campaign practically turned into a hack-and-slash game.
Tens of thousands of spaceships rampaged through the bloated fleet of the Great Cosmos Corps, charging madly toward the center of Atimo, unstoppable and tearing the enemy's formation to shreds in an instant.
Charging forward is exhilarating, and charging forward continuously is even more exhilarating!
On the fleet's flagship, Atimo suddenly stood up, ripped off his mask, and his expression changed drastically, filled with disbelief.
Their weapons were completely useless against the enemy!
Reports of losses poured in; in just a short time, nearly 20,000 warships had been captured by the enemy, while not a single enemy spaceship had been destroyed!
"This... this is impossible... how can there be such a huge gap in technology... how can they all be superhumans?!"
Atimo was no longer calm and confident. He was horrified and suddenly realized that he had run into a brick wall. The enemy was a more advanced civilization... one that could completely crush his own!
He had roamed this universe for far too long, and had not encountered an opponent who could pose a threat to him. He had long forgotten what awe and fear were. But now, the scenes of the fleet's rapid defeat had once again awakened the fear in his heart. His hands, which had once killed countless lives, began to tremble uncontrollably.
He foresaw his entire army's annihilation.
Atimo suddenly remembered something from long ago, when the Great Cosmos Corps was just an ordinary wandering civilization with only a few spaceships. They were still very weak, cautiously exploring the universe, overcoming one difficulty after another, and gradually becoming stronger. But he didn't know when it started, he had lost this caution that he relied on for survival.
If only we hadn't been so Reckless, and had planned things out properly before the war started...
If they weren't so arrogant, they would have cautiously sent people to gather intelligence on them...
If he weren't so easily angered, if he weren't swayed by the Black Star Army's provocations, if he didn't personally lead the expedition...
Perhaps things wouldn't have turned out this way...
However, he didn't know that this was just wishful thinking on his part. Faced with overwhelming combat power and intelligence advantages, no matter how much initiative he exerted, the objective outcome would not change.
Now, it's too late for Atimo to regret it. The excited players unleashed their bloodlust, decimating Atimo's fleet with overwhelming force, and casualties quickly exceeded one-third.
The defeat was swift and devastating. The overwhelming force shattered the morale of the remaining enemy ships. No one wanted to stay and be slaughtered, so they began to flee in disarray. The massive fleet disintegrated and scattered in all directions.
"Retreat! Retreat now!" Atimo snapped out of his daze and roared the order.
Soon, the main ship and the surrounding escort ships turned around and joined the fleeing army.
The Great Cosmos Corps arrived with overwhelming force, only to flee in utter panic, the entire transformation taking no more than twenty minutes.
The ships of various major guilds abandoned the fleeing enemy vessels and Pursuit straight for the main ship, all eager to claim the BOSS's head. As for the enemy ships that fled in other directions, they were intercepted and pursued by many ordinary players who had not yet completed the requirements of other branches, and were quickly devoured.
Phillip had already locked the location of every warship through the quantum link, so even if the enemy could escape now, players would still Pursuit after them after a while.
At the start of the war, Phillip hacked into the flagship's database and copied all the data within the Great Cosmos Corps, including information on the various planets they had plundered over the years. The intelligence the Empire needed was now in hand; all that remained was to eliminate them completely. Phillip would only provide assistance; the rest was entirely up to the player.
Soon, Atimo's escape fleet was separated from the main force. He was surrounded and pursued by numerous players, and could only flee in a sorry state.
Phillip remotely controls Atimo and his crew's spaceship, crash-landing on a desolate planet. The Pursuit players arrive one after another and surround Atimo.
At the center of a newly formed crater, the massive flagship, as large as a mountain range, lies upside down in the ground, billowing black smoke, surrounded by countless parts and the wreckage of other escort ships.
This ship was Atimo's flagship. When Phillip made an emergency landing, he thoughtfully turned off the enemy ship's engines to save them energy.
Click click click--
One by one, figures emerged from the wreckage of the warship. Their armor had shielded them from the impact, but it was now almost completely destroyed. However, the fall from such a height still killed most of the ordinary crew members, leaving only one in ten survivors.
Flames and black smoke billowed from the wrecked ships, emitting a pungent stench. Atimo emerged, clutching his head. Despite his formidable strength, he had been thrown around and was now dizzy and aching from every bone in his body. Looking at the devastating scene around him, Atimo could only gaze around, his heart filled with bewilderment.
Whoosh—just then, a fierce wind arose, and legionary warships descended along the edge of the crater, surrounding Atimo and the rest of the crew.
Atimo looked up and saw countless figures on the towering mountain walls all around him, all players Pursuit, their eyes fixed on him with desire.
The first wave of players to arrive numbered over 300,000, including players from various guilds.
"There's no escape..."
Atimo was a proud man, and faced with this situation, he couldn't help but feel a sense of despair and indignation at his dead end.
"Want to kill me? Come on!" The next moment, Atimo suddenly roared, and the dozen or so mechanical tentacles behind him spread out like a peacock's tail, their tips shooting out beams of yellow laser light in all directions at an astonishing speed—these were his personal weapons, used to assist in controlling his superpowers.
His superpower is to emit energy lasers from his body. The form of the attack changes depending on the area of the emission point. For example, an energy laser emitted from a wide area like the palm of his hand will become an energy shockwave, while a precise beam can be emitted from points like his fingers, toes, tentacles, or penis.
In close combat, his punches and kicks can also carry energy attacks. If he releases energy from his whole body, it forms a protective shield. This is a practical and versatile superpower.
Atimo is the strongest member of the Great Cosmos Corps. His Calamity Grade superpowers make his lasers far more powerful than ordinary energy weapons, making him essentially a super-enhanced humanoid turret.
His arrogance stemmed from his confidence in his own strength. Among the natives of the Shattered World, very few had reached the Calamity Grade. He had never met an opponent and had once single-handedly wiped out a species on a planet.
Despite being surrounded, Atimo was not completely desperate. He was confident in his own fighting ability. Although these enemies were all superhumans, it seemed that none of them could be his match.
If I kill all these pursuers, I might still have a chance to survive!
With this in mind, Atimo regained his spirits, his face filled with murderous intent, and launched a frenzied attack.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh--
As the lasers struck, players scrambled to avoid them. Each laser hit the ground, blasting out craters tens of meters in diameter. If a fragile player above level 100 were hit, they wouldn't be instantly killed, but would be left with only a sliver of health.
It really is Calamity Grade! Many players felt a chill run down their spines.
This was the first time they had ganged up on a Calamity Grade character without the help of NPCs.
The group was somewhat uncertain. They had seen many elite Calamity Grade in the Secret War, and almost all of them could be killed instantly. They wondered if, with their current level, they could kill a genuine Calamity Grade figure by sheer numbers.
"The boss is coming!"
Without much hesitation, more than 300,000 players jumped down from the mountain walls on all sides and launched an attack.
Whether we can win or not, we'll find out by going all in.
Since we won't die anyway, let's just go all out!