Gemini Star, Extreme Night City.
Standing in a city alley, Chen Mang was holding a telescope, looking up at the star-filled night sky. At this time, the city streets had few pedestrians. Though there was no curfew, the situation was evidently too unusual for anyone to leave their homes.
Sporadic groups of pedestrians were on the streets.
The stars rapidly streaked across the sky.
He couldnât tell which corner of the universe Gemini Star was in currently; there were no coordinates or points of reference.
Nor was he aware of the distance to the ruins of the "Kasha Civilization Federation".
The refrigerator wouldnât display the distance between them.
The one thing he was sure ofâ
By now, it was at least more than 100,000 light-years away from the ruins of the Kasha Civilization Federation!
He had also brought the Constant Star Train along. The Star System Map revealed that this was an entirely unfamiliar area, with not a single civilization in sight.
And not many planets or fixed stars either.
The place appeared somewhat barren.
The resource richness was far inferior to the area of the Kasha Civilization Federation, with much fewer mineral stars as well.
This region was completely uncharted for him.
Pretty impressive escape indeed.
Chen Mang thought to himself. He didnât know how the "Kasha Civilization" managed to relocate their planets in such a short time, but he was certain that it wasnât a method used by a Third-level Civilization.
This had to be a unique technique of the Kasha Civilization.
Otherwise, the Mechanical Civilization would have retreated already and not fought foolishly to the death back then.
And it wasnât as if they used the fleeing method of fitting planets through the "Gate of Space"; rather, they used some method to first perform a space warp with their planets, continuously accelerating them to escape further.
The Gemini Starâs speed was gradually decreasing.
Clearly, the Kasha Civilization intended to temporarily camp in this resource-poor area. The resources were truly lacking, and without the annexed resources, the Kasha Civilization would soon perish on its own.
Donât forget.
The Kasha Civilizationâs population was rather sparse, and most people depended on the "Medical Cabin" for survival, which consumed vast amounts of resources. Without sufficient resources, they wouldnât need an external force to wipe them out; theyâd die off themselves.
Under normal circumstances.
Itâs difficult for a civilization to flee directly after a war breaks out.
Itâs not a simple matter.
Nor can one just run at will.
Many considerations come into play.
Like the shortage of resources during the escape, or whether to take their planets with them? If they abandon their planets and flee alone, how long can they survive? If they bring the planets through the void, how many can survive on them during long stretches without any fixed stars? Planets will surely be slower than enemy trains, so how could they outrun them?
And various other issues.
Only civilizations like the Kasha Civilization with the means to perform space warps with their planets can escape so easily. Of course, the cost isnât small; it means handing over territories accumulated over the years to the Insect Race.
Of course.
These arenât the most critical things.
"So blatant indeed."
Standing in the alleyway, Chen Mang looked at the screen, where trains were speeding over the ground towards the strategic resource depots in various citiesâstoring the newly annexed resources in batches.
This time thereâs no subtlety.
On Gemini Star, the originally vacant 17 city strategic resource depots were once again filled to the brim.
Heâs not sure how much resource the Kasha Civilization has annexed this time, but it surely is a staggering amount.
"This time Iâll get full."
Looking at the scene before him, Chen Mang laughed.
Hungry.
So hungry.
Although he had gathered many resources recently, he still felt hungry for some reason; it was far from enough. This time heâd finally have a feast.
It was obvious.
The Kasha Civilization seemed relaxed at this point, without much vigilance.
The ongoing short war between the "Insect Race Civilization" and the "Kasha Civilization" was being monitored in real time by Ai. The highest defensive level of the Kasha Civilizationâs strongest train was 160, and the highest attack energy range was 180.
Of course.
The war hadnât completely reached the point of a meat grinder.
Both sides were still fairly rational, gradually increasing their forces.
But given the capabilities shown by the Kasha Civilization, they wouldnât be able to match him. Perhaps they still had a trump card, but as long as he was fast enough to seize this batch of resources, he could upgrade his armor to 250 or even 300.
Then no matter how big the Kasha Civilizationâs trump card was, it wouldnât match his.
He could then grab all the remaining resources.
Everything was perfect.
At that momentâ
"Alright then."
In the alley, Ai stood beside a refrigerator, a cable plugged into it and linked to the trainâs control platform. The words "Ancient" and "Strange" appeared on her cheeks: "Iâve tried taking over the cityâs AI, and I can invade successfully at any time if I want."
"Then all the infrastructural facilities monitored by AI in this city would be under my control."
"The previous vulnerability wasnât patched at all."
"The AIâs return confirmation command is still once an hour; they donât even want to change it to every half hour or ten minutes."
"Pretty lucky, indeed."
Chen Mang sighed lightly, glancing at his wristwatch, and then turned towards the refrigerator: "Combat groups, get ready. The plan starts in seventeen minutes as scheduled. Follow the same combat orders as last time, everyone will handle their own areas. Wrap it up after the mission."