Chapter 163 Entrapment

In the depths of the base cluster, Naktal Continent was the last large fortress that had not yet been transferred.

The transformation project of this fortress-type floating continent was actually not completed yet, mainly because Hao Ren had no experience in designing a giant fortress. He took the suggestion scheme deduced by the data terminal and directly put it into practice, arranging many functions with great effects but difficult to achieve on the blueprint of Naktal Fortress. It was only when the actual construction started that he realized that the basic framework of Naktal was not compatible with those newly added devices, so additional transformation projects had to be carried out, which eventually led to the delay of the construction period—until now, it has only completed two-thirds of the transformation goals in the blueprint.

But even so, the main functions of this fortress were already in place. The most important continental-level shield, giant engine group, hyperspace unit, power furnace, and weapon array had passed the acceptance. After realizing that the design drawings must conform to realistic conditions, Hao Ren decisively stopped all unrealistic "cutting-edge technology projects" and instead loaded Naktal with a large number of drone storage depots and fortress missile launchers, and then announced that the fortress was ready for battle.

"Naktal - control center online, control center operating normally, power furnace efficiency - 100%, basic system normal, protection system normal, weapon system normal, navigation system normal, hyperspace engine starts charging... 30%, 60%... Hyperspace engine enters critical state, ready to activate at any time..."

The system log from Naktal Fortress was sent to the main engine of the Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace, and then broadcast by Nolan. With the crisp and sweet voice of the ship maiden, Hao Ren saw that the entire space continent was gradually covered by a layer of texture like water waves. It began to shake like a reflection in the water, and the edges showed obvious signs of blurring: the working mode of the super-large jump engine was completely different from that of a small spaceship. This device with terrifying power could drag celestial-level units into a hyperspace state. Even before it was fully activated, the anomaly it caused was enough to distort the real world. The change of Naktal Continent was like this.

"How are the imps doing?" Vivian asked casually.

The data terminal turned on the communicator: "Listen for yourself."

A noisy sound immediately sounded: "Vibration! The ground is vibrating!" "Dust is rising, dust is rising, Naktal is finally rising dust!" "That's called taking off! When can your accent be corrected--" "Nonsense, where did the imps get their accent?" "Eh? Don't we have this setting?"

"The passengers are in a stable mood. It seems that the vibration before takeoff is completely within the acceptable range," Hao Ren nodded. "Start the jump."

"Naktal - hyperspace engine activated, jump begins--"

Along with Nolan's voice, the blurring and shaking of the entire space continent suddenly reached its peak, and then the entire space seemed to tremble. All things around "sloped" towards Naktal, and Naktal, which was located in the center of the slope, quickly "compressed" into a ball. In less than a second, this huge celestial fragment shrank to the size of a ping-pong ball, and then completely disappeared from view.

"Naktal - has entered hyperspace state, estimated to arrive at target point in five minutes, and start the second jump in fifteen minutes."

Hao Ren nodded with satisfaction: "Very good, let's set off too."

Three minutes later, the Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace entered a hyperspace state and disappeared into the vast universe.

Two hours later, the armed drone swarms left behind here activated cluster jumps and completed the transfer within thirty minutes.

Six hours later, the last functional building inside the "Naktal Fortress Group" completed self-disassembly and packaging, and was transferred to a drone nest deep in the X star cluster through hyperspace transmission. So far, the entire fortress group was cleared.

Only the warning facilities on the periphery of the fortress group were still operating normally, and the gravity well generator was operating at full power as always. A medium-sized drone force was patrolling in the warning circle, making a false impression that this place was still heavily guarded.

Twelve hours later, the traces of those corrupted monsters finally appeared on the periphery of the warning circle. This was still a scouting force, but its size was larger than any previous probing force, and this scouting force did not take cautious actions like before after contacting the warning circle—their commander seemed to realize that no matter how cautious the actions were, they could not bypass the surveillance of the drone bunkers, so this probing force chose to directly rush through the blockade.

The remaining drones waiting in the blockade resolutely intercepted them. The battle lasted for a full forty minutes. When the battle was about to end, according to the script set by Hao Ren in advance, a "huge drone legion" swept past the edge of the combat area, activating the acceleration engines in the places where the monsters could barely sense them, in order to create the appearance of a large-scale military mobilization in the base.

In fact, it was just a bunch of engineering drones running past with several extra-large gravity well generators, but at a distance where optical observation could not work, the ultra-high-quality fluctuations they emitted were enough to simulate the movement of a large army jumping.

Hao Ren had no way to grasp the actions of those mad howler minions, and he was not sure when those monsters would completely lose their patience and launch a large-scale attack, so the best way was to take the initiative into his own hands: in the past few days, he had been observing the action patterns of those corrupted monsters, and he had also exchanged a lot of information about the enemy with the legion commander Salamander in the distance. Although he could not figure out the detailed situation of the command layer of those monsters, it was more than enough to formulate a plan to lure the enemy.

In the dark and dead depths of the universe, a water-like ripple suddenly appeared out of thin air, and then the entire space was filled with countless ripples in an instant: that was a unique phenomenon caused by the distortion of starlight in the distance by a strong gravitational aberration. As this "rippling wave" spread, large swaths of shadows emerged from the virtual to the real, and eventually stood tall as an army.

Drone swarms No. 1 to No. 666 combat clusters, armored floating artillery swarms, drone acceleration transfer stations, Naktal floating fortresses, Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace... one combat unit after another left the hyperspace state and entered the main material world.

This was the "stepping stone" space before heading to the battlefield, located at the last gravitational collapse point near the hub. The mad howler minions would never have imagined that the "heavily guarded drone base" was actually empty, and the real main force had already touched under their noses.

"The drone swarm has annihilated the invading enemy reconnaissance force. According to the 'script', several monsters approached the final blockade and observed the 'army' illusion we created," the data terminal floated beside Hao Ren and reported, "This unit believes that they must have sent the intelligence back."

Vivian was a little unsure: "Will they take the bait?"

"There is a 99% chance," Hao Ren replied, "Legion Commander Salamander made a move to shrink the defense line in the last battle, so those corrupters will have plenty of extra troops and energy to pay attention to things 'outside', and we just happened to create the illusion of adding more troops again. If I were the enemy commander, unless my brain was full of shit, I would not let go of this window of opportunity..."

Vivian rolled her eyes at Hao Ren: "Do you have to use such a disgusting statement?"

Hao Ren cupped his fists and bowed: "Vivid, vivid..."

Facts proved that the plan was successful.

"Salamander sent a secret communication," Nolan's figure appeared on the bridge, "A large-scale gravitational collapse was detected from the direction of Amantir, and it was determined that an extremely large legion of corrupters had just left the hub airspace."

"The moths have gone to the flame..." Hao Ren looked at the deep and dark space, and said slowly in a self-talk tone. After a moment, he turned his head and gave instructions to Nolan, "The drone swarm turns, accelerates towards the hub, and waits for my order to enter the hyperspace state. Naktal engine charges, ready to enter the field with the second echelon. Nolan, you can switch to the war module."

"Nolan understands."

Countless sparkling lights shone in the huge drone legion. The light spots formed by the ignition of tens of millions of engines gathered together, surging in the space like a giant wave. Driven by this giant wave, the machine group as a whole began to accelerate slowly—and outside this gathering place, in the more distant depths of the universe, countless drone swarms that responded to the call to gather also entered the acceleration state at the same time.

After a moment, the data terminal said, "Report from the 'base cluster', the remaining troops detected a large-scale space distortion, and a very large legion of corrupters is approaching the warning circle."

"Do a full set of tricks, don't let them in too easily," Hao Ren nodded, "Let the remaining troops intercept with all their strength, don't turn off the gravity wells and jamming devices, and lead them to the deepest part."

The control platform in front of the captain's seat made a slight buzzing sound. Nolan activated the war module of the Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace. The original operation panel was shrunk to the side, and the combat command interface specially used to control the drone legion appeared in front of Hao Ren.

Hao Ren looked calmly at this brand-new control interface. Although he had never used this system, he believed that he could easily grasp the operational essence of this module.

"The remaining troops have engaged with the invading corrupted legion, confirming that the enemy army has left the border." "Salamander sent a message that the Guardian Legion is pushing the front line forward, the corrupters stationed in Amantir have been dispatched, and the two sides are about to make contact." "Received the auxiliary guidance signal sent by the Guardian, the signal is clear, the coordinates are correct." "The drone legion is ready to enter the jump at any time."

Hao Ren gently placed his hand on the operation interface of the war module and whispered to himself: "f2A is not a bad tactic after all..."

The two command keys of the war module emitted a faint light, and the concise letters and numbers shone with tempting brilliance.

"The reason why those monsters were piled to death by drones in the last battle was not because there was something wrong with the tactics, but just because there were not enough of them..."

The sacred f2 was pressed down, and the figures of all the drones entered a blurring state at the same time...

"If your number of troops is enough to fill the opponent's entire screen, then boxing a wave of A over is the fiercest operation."

Hao Ren raised his hand high and suddenly slammed down the big red button with the capital letter A written on it.

"Now, I have grasped the future in my hands!"