Chapter 1055: Chapter 1054: Stop Right There, You’re in the Wrong Set!
While Lieutenant General Anderson and Tilia were negotiating, the battle continued in the Nomadic Galaxy.
"Charge forward! Wipe out these bastards! Launch directly after hatching!"
Reapers continuously swarmed toward the Nomadic Galaxy, while the Zerg also surged out from there. These two seemingly infinite groups clashed fiercely in the Nomadic Galaxy. So far, casualties on both sides could be counted in the billions, and even the dark cosmos was filled with scattered remnants of exploding Reapers and broken bodies of the swarm.
Yet under Fang Zheng’s command, the swarm relentlessly pushed forward, step by step, slowly expanding.
Fang Zheng’s strategy against the Reapers was simple: the swarm explodes in waves to sweep through the advancing Reapers, immediately occupies the surrounding planets, then asteroids are packaged and sliced up for mining by the Stone Village, with larger ones used for setting up new bases. Resources are rapidly accumulated, ready to explode again when the Reapers assault once more, clearing them out and taking over new territory to establish more bases...
The Reapers may be numerous, but they didn’t gain much ground against Fang Zheng’s swarm. In fact, the Reapers brought many advantages to Fang Zheng. You see, the territories he’s occupying now have long stretched beyond the Nomadic Galaxy, technically entering the Turui Empire’s domain.
However... hehehe, there’s no one here.
Before the Reapers attacked Fang Zheng, they had already "harvested" the Turui people from this area, leaving these planets ownerless. In fact, Fang Zheng even sent the swarm to search these planets, finding "unfortunately" not a single survivor.
Logically, since the Turui lost their territory to the Reapers’ invasion, the land should belong to the Reapers. But since I defeated the Reapers and occupied these lands, they should be mine.
Reasonable and justified, no problem!
Of course, these planets are just "temporarily" occupied for Fang Zheng. If the Turui people want them back, he would certainly return them.
After all, he’s a Paladin.
But if the Turui discover the planets’ minerals have been devoured, that’s not his problem. After all, you see, spawning the swarm requires resources too. Fang Zheng couldn’t bear to use his own Dimensional Points, so he had to solve the problem on-site.
Moreover, Fang Zheng also snagged some goodies.
"Yui, how’s the sorting going?"
"Mm, everything’s been found. There’s so much, so much!"
In her fairy form, Yui sat on Fang Zheng’s shoulder, waving her hands quickly in the air as she organized the data in front of her.
"Dad, should we pack all these to take back?"
"Of course, but leave out the artistic stuff."
"Okay!"
Of course, while stripping the Turui of their resources, Fang Zheng didn’t forget to have Yui and Nymph pack up the Turui’s knowledge as well. Although much of it seemed primitive to Fang Zheng compared to the Forerunners, it was still somewhat interesting and might provide insights.
Besides, a thief never leaves empty-handed. How did those thieves of old manage? They’d sneak into homes with a sack, stealthily stuffing it with goods, and only upon returning home would they slowly peruse the loot.
What Fang Zheng’s doing now... is obviously different!
He’s a Paladin, not a thief; how could he stoop to such petty behavior?
Yet Fang Zheng is not just a Paladin, but also a Dimensional Mage, and knowledge is a mage’s greatest wealth. To Fang Zheng, this was the most valuable treasure!
Moreover, he wasn’t stealing, just having Yui and Nymph hack into their database to copy it. After all, the original is still there; he’s just making a backup. That’s not unreasonable!
Besides, a scholar’s pursuit can’t be called theft, can it?
Due to having seen the Forerunner’s "Animal World" previously, Fang Zheng deleted all the arts and entertainment content this time. The Turui are even uglier than the Forerunners, and Fang Zheng couldn’t bear the thought of seeing two Turui getting intimate after shedding their armor.
"Captain, we’ve detected Reapers again ahead."
While perusing the Turui’s warship blueprints, Iona, sitting on the table beside Fang Zheng, widened her eyes again and looked forward, speaking up.
This Mind Model never sits on chairs properly, always duck-sitting on the table beside Fang Zheng’s captain’s chair. In battle, Iona would control the warship there; when bored, she’d play with starfish there...
"They’re here?"
Fang Zheng averted his gaze, looking forward to see the radar filled with dense red dots. This time, five thousand Reapers were dispatched... seems they’ve finished harvesting elsewhere and came here for trouble?
Or reinforcements?
Holding the "Ratziel," Fang Zheng naturally knew the Reapers’ true numbers. He almost hesitated to tell Shupard that the real quantity wasn’t in the thousands, nor the tens of thousands, hundreds of millions, or even trillions.
But in quadrillions...
The total Reaper count across the universe is roughly around six to eight quadrillion...
In fact, after investigating the quantity of Reapers, Fang Zheng understood why the system wouldn’t allow Black Katie.
Speaking of which, if he hadn’t come, would the Milky Way be doomed for sure?
At least since entering this world until now, from Fang Zheng’s investigation, no race in the Milky Way could match the Reapers, be it in quantity or quality.
Only his own Swarm could stand against them.
"Mass produce, charge!"
With a command from Fang Zheng, the Swarm, too innumerable to count, suddenly surged forward, entangling with the Reapers once more.
Fang Zheng didn’t particularly focus on the frontline battles. To be honest, he felt like he was repeatedly grinding a map with increasing numbers of creatures and escalating intensity... other than that, there was nothing.
This reminded Fang Zheng of the time he spent an entire night grinding the Cow Level in Diablo 2 at an internet cafe.
He played until he was about to throw up.
"Alert! Unidentified spatial anomalies detected!"
As Fang Zheng was chatting with Nymph and Yui while half-heartedly paying attention to the battlefield, Iona suddenly widened her eyes and swiftly issued a warning!
"Space is expanding!"
"I feel it too. What’s going on? Investigate immediately!"
Hearing Iona’s voice, the previously drowsy Fang Zheng suddenly straightened up, eyes wide as he looked forward. He too could sense a chaotic spatial disturbance coalescing over the distant battlefield. At the same time, he could even see a swirling circular void gradually forming.
It was as if the room were filled with gas, ready to explode with just a small spark!
Yet this spatial disturbance drew no attention from the Zerg and Reapers; neither feared death. For them, annihilating each other was the sole objective!
"Spatial fluctuation reaching a critical point, five, four, three, two, one..."
As Iona’s voice fell, Fang Zheng saw the battlefield ahead twist abruptly, and then a black hole-like swirling sphere emerged, mercilessly devouring the surrounding Swarm and Reapers, tearing them apart, crushing, engulfing them. And then... it vanished.
"Spatial disturbance has disappeared, spatial distortion is recovering..."
Saying this, Iona curiously glanced at the front screen.
"Unidentified warship detected at the center of the fluctuation!"
"Oh?"
Now Fang Zheng finally perked up. He stood and stared at the screen.
"Put it on the screen."
"Yes, captain."
Soon, an image appeared on Fang Zheng’s screen. It was a white warship, its shape somewhat peculiar, different from any warship Fang Zheng had ever seen. It resembled a white fork, with two protruding sections on either side, looking like some kind of weapon...
"Interesting, a warship just popped up after a spatial burst?"
Fang Zheng stroked his chin as he looked at the warship on the screen.
However, for the Reapers and the Swarm, the recent spatial pulse and the sudden appearance of the warship posed no problem. They quickly reorganized and charged at each other once more. Before long, that white warship was swiftly surrounded.
Though it wasn’t attacked by the Swarm, in such masses, the warship obviously wouldn’t last long.
"Iona, establish contact, have them come out."
Fang Zheng certainly wasn’t one to sit by and watch people perish. Seeing the warship teetering amidst the Swarm and Reaper crossfire, he quickly issued an order.
And just then, something unexpected happened.
Suddenly, several humanoid robots painted in strange colors flew out from the white warship and began attacking the Swarm?!
"Huh? What are those? Gundams?"
Watching the screen’s display and the bizarre robots, Fang Zheng was dumbfounded.
You’ve come to the wrong set!