Chapter 110: Accelerate, Accelerate!

Xiao Yu stared blankly at the white dwarf, mesmerized by its smooth, flat surface adorned with aesthetically pleasing structures. He was utterly captivated.

Wrapped in a haze of reddish cosmic dust, the white dwarf and a red dwarf seemed to be holding hands, performing a graceful stellar dance.

“What a beautiful place. Only a being as great as the Modifier deserves to reside here.”

“A white dwarf! To move freely on such an extreme celestial body—this level of technological prowess is beyond my imagination. How laughable that I actually doubted it earlier.”

“As long as I follow the Modifier’s instructions and deliver this hundred million tons of deuterium into orbit, I will be rewarded.”

Xiao Yu’s mind was completely immersed in this enchanting fantasy, unable to extricate himself.

At that moment, a message was sent from the Paradise, transmitted via superluminal communication. It reached Xiao Yu’s mind almost instantly.

“Master! Master! Do not give these ships to it! It’s a demon! It’s a demon!”

The message struck Xiao Yu like a thunderclap, jolting him awake.

Xiao Yu murmured, “It’s a demon… A demon? It’s a demon!”

“I was controlled by it again. I was bewitched by it again! Damn it! What exactly is this Modifier?” Xiao Yu seethed with rage and fear.

But he had no time to be angry. As he regained his clarity, Xiao Yu immediately assessed the situation.

“What? Only two and a half minutes remain before the ships enter orbit!”

The immense gravitational pull of the white dwarf was accelerating the ships. At this point, escaping its gravitational field was already impossible.

“No! These ships must not fall into the Modifier’s hands!” Gritting his teeth, Xiao Yu’s vast computational power activated as he devised a countermeasure.

“Slowing down is no longer an option! Moreover, the power of my ships’ engines is insufficient to counter the intense gravity of the white dwarf. Attempting to decelerate would only buy a little time—it’s completely ineffective.”

“In that case… don’t slow down! Accelerate!”

Xiao Yu issued this audacious command.

The command was sent from the Yanjing to the first relay satellite in the Aquila One system. This satellite relayed the information to the next one.

With each relay, the signal covered a vast distance of billions of kilometers.

The signal processing speed of the relay satellites was exceptionally fast. The command was transmitted from the Aquila One system to the Aquila Two Binary System almost instantaneously.

Finally, the message reached the control centers of the thousand-plus ships accelerating toward the white dwarf.

“Accelerate! Accelerate! Full power acceleration! Even if these ships are completely destroyed, it doesn’t matter. The Modifier must not obtain these materials!”

Xiao Yu’s fleet was now traveling toward the white dwarf at nearly 6,500 kilometers per second. At this point, slowing down was no longer feasible. The only viable solution was one—If deceleration was impossible, then acceleration was the answer!

Under the combined forces of the white dwarf’s gravity and the ships’ engines, the fleet’s velocity would reach a terrifying magnitude. At that point, instead of entering orbit around the white dwarf, the ships would bypass it entirely!

Of course, having already entered within five million kilometers of the white dwarf, the ships no longer had the capacity to escape its gravitational field. Such extreme acceleration would inevitably destroy the ships’ hulls. But Xiao Yu had already resolved himself to one belief.

“My ships are many! Losing over a thousand ships is nothing! The most important thing is to ensure the Modifier doesn’t get its hands on these materials!”

Following Xiao Yu’s command, the engines of over a thousand ships simultaneously ignited, releasing bright blue flames. The fifty county-class ships, laden with liquid deuterium, began showing signs of structural deformation first.

Under such extreme conditions, even ultra-high-strength steel forged from Liquid Gold Material couldn’t withstand the overwhelming gravitational pull.

Instantly, the fleet’s acceleration reached terrifying levels.

Already speeding up under the gravitational force of the white dwarf, the ships’ velocity was now increasing even faster with the engines providing an additional acceleration of 4 kilometers per second per second. Within a minute, the fleet’s speed had surpassed 7,000 kilometers per second!

“Not enough, still not enough!” Xiao Yu thought anxiously.

The escape velocity of a white dwarf is generally no more than 7,000 kilometers per second, meaning the current speed was just sufficient for the ships to avoid falling into orbit.

But there was another critical problem: the direction of acceleration.

The white dwarf had been accelerating Xiao Yu’s fleet for hours with its gravity. If the fleet’s trajectory was likened to a straight line, the white dwarf’s gravitational acceleration had bent that trajectory into a curve.

Between the straight line and the curve lay an angle. Xiao Yu calculated that if the angle was less than 20 degrees, the fleet would not enter orbit but would still pass within 100,000 kilometers of the white dwarf’s surface.

Xiao Yu had no doubt that the Modifier’s specified orbital distance of 100,000 kilometers wasn’t arbitrary. If it had chosen that range, it must have its reasons—likely because it had the means to secure the materials at that distance.

To ensure the Modifier’s plans were thwarted, Xiao Yu needed to increase the angle to 25 degrees. This way, the fleet would pass at a safer distance of 150,000 kilometers from the white dwarf.

Everything Xiao Yu did now was to achieve this angle.

The county-class ships, due to their massive size and relatively low density, could endure a maximum acceleration of 3 kilometers per second per second. But being fully loaded with liquid deuterium had reduced this limit to 2.5 kilometers per second per second.

Yet now, with engines running at maximum capacity, their acceleration had surged to 4 kilometers per second!

This created an immense tearing force. Xiao Yu watched as the hulls of the fifty county-class ships underwent severe deformation, and their energy shields began to dim.

“They must hold on, they must hold on!” Xiao Yu thought urgently.

Inside the county-class ships, trillions of nanobots surged from their nests, desperately working to repair the breaches.

Although the nanobots couldn’t restore the ships entirely, they could buy some extra time.

At this point, the angle had already increased to 23.5 degrees. With only a minute remaining until the closest approach, Xiao Yu had to raise the angle by another 1.5 degrees to achieve his goal.

The nanobots’ repair speed couldn’t keep up with the rate of damage. Xiao Yu saw that the containers holding the liquid deuterium had ruptured, spilling vast quantities into space. The liquid deuterium was quickly vaporized by the white dwarf’s intense radiation, forming massive clouds of gas that began to orbit the star like cosmic dust.

This was an unforeseen development. Unable to prevent it, Xiao Yu silently prayed, “The Modifier wanted me to deliver one hundred million tons of deuterium, rather than extracting it directly from the red dwarf. There must be a reason. Most likely, it cannot utilize the red dwarf’s materials. I can only hope it also cannot use the leaked deuterium.”

From the moment Xiao Yu received the young Luka scientist’s warning to his full acceleration efforts, less than a minute had passed.

Seemingly noticing Xiao Yu’s sudden actions, the Modifier’s voice turned frenzied: “Weak technological civilization, what are you doing?”

“Do you want the Grand Unified Theory? Do you want Faster-than-Light Travel? Do you want—”

The voice was laden with an unnatural allure, causing Xiao Yu to momentarily lose focus. But having mentally prepared himself, Xiao Yu snapped out of it instantly and furiously roared, “I want your mother’s head!”

“Your insolence has angered me. I have decided to kill you and eradicate your civilization!” The Modifier’s voice was now icy and chilling.

“Bring it on! Who’s afraid of whom?” Xiao Yu shouted as he continued to push the ships’ acceleration to their limits.

The angle was slowly increasing. Finally, just before reaching the critical point, it reached 25 degrees.

This meant the fleet would pass at a distance of 150,000 kilometers from the white dwarf—50,000 kilometers farther than the Modifier’s specified distance.

“No!”

At that moment, Xiao Yu received a message from the white dwarf. The message was filled with despair.

“I failed once 300,000 years ago. Now, against such a weak civilization, I am about to fail again?! No! I refuse to accept this!”

Accompanying this frantic message, Xiao Yu saw a horrifying scene.

On the surface of the white dwarf, all the elegant structures and graceful robots vanished in an instant. In their place appeared an enormous, bizarre creature.

The creature squatted on the white dwarf’s surface. In the next moment, its powerful hind legs launched it into space like a cannonball.

As it leapt, it extended its massive claws. Each claw spanned tens of kilometers, and in comparison, Xiao Yu’s county-class ships looked like insignificant flies.

In Xiao Yu’s stunned gaze, the enormous claws reached toward the fleet passing 150,000 kilometers above the white dwarf’s surface!