Chapter 1 The Uncountable

Millions, even tens of millions—when the nests are large enough and the production lines enter a cycle, the number of drone swarms becomes irrelevant. Their proliferation speed even exceeds the attrition rate of a large-scale battle. When the swarm begins to warp, there may only be a few million drones in the ranks, but by the time they reach their destination, the swarm, constantly replenished from various nests, has expanded that number by an entire order of magnitude.

Therefore, there is only one accurate word to describe a drone swarm that has reached scale: uncountable.

Uncountable drones entered warp. The shimmering light emitted when the warp engines started made the entire space fluctuate violently, as if it were an ocean in a storm. Starlight swayed and twisted into knots, and rifts opened in the universe. This vast legion operated simultaneously under the control of a single command, pouncing towards that clear and unmistakable coordinate point, welcoming their mission with a carnival-like fervor…

“This is the first time I’ve seen someone use f2A with such epic grandeur,” the data terminal’s voice was filled with despair. To express its feelings, it even activated its long-unused “Patian” form this time, a brain-clotted girl with long, straight golden hair lying on the console next to him, her face full of apathy. “Partner, you only pressed two buttons in total, can you not show such an aura of commanding the battlefield?”

Hao Ren rolled his eyes at Patian: “Damn it, don't underestimate these two steps. Timing is very important, okay! And I'm just a security guard, where am I going to learn the skills to command a battle—the drones can fight on their own, I just need to box-select and A-move them!”

After speaking, he lowered his head and continued to fiddle with the battle module in front of him, f2 then A, f2 then A… Because there was always a steady stream of drones rolling off the production line, even rushing from distant space outside the X star cluster to the front line to support the battle, he was quite busy…

“Speaking of which, should we just set it back to fully automatic? Manually f2-ing is quite tiring,” Hao Ren spread his hands. “I'll just be responsible for A-moving…”

Patian “bang” transformed back into terminal form, slapping Hao Ren in the face with a *pa* sound: “You bastard, you can't even handle two buttons! Who was it who was excitedly messing with this battle module before!”

In the end, Vivian couldn't stand it anymore: “Can you two be serious? We're about to go to the front lines, you know.”

“We have to find a way to relieve the pressure before the battle,” Hao Ren saw that Vivian was indeed a bit serious, so he had to wave his hand and explain, “After all, it’s the first time participating in a battle of this scale.”

Don't be fooled by how steady he looks on the surface, he's actually as panicked as Lily inside (no problem).

At this moment, Nolan suddenly jumped out: “Boss, the Hub has sent a battle report. The Guardian Legion has made full contact with the Corruptors, and the drone swarm will arrive on the battlefield in forty-five minutes—should we move out too?”

Hao Ren looked up at the report showing the situation in each theater of war: at the location of the base cluster, the remaining drone forces had already engaged the enemy. Those Corruptor legions were still rushing into the blockade line headlong. Even with the "Hub" already at war, they showed no intention of retreating—everything was as planned. The Guardians of Salaman had shown a tendency of decline in the long war which led those mad claws to make an overly aggressive judgment, they believed the Guardians were not to be feared, and they still had a huge advantage even if they fought on two fronts. The weakening of the defense strength of the base cluster gave them even greater encouragement. This time, they were determined to pull out this suddenly emerging nail.

“Let's set off too.”

Accompanied by the spatial distortion caused by space warp, the Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace and the Nakdal Fortress, along with the second combat echelon consisting of millions of armed drones, disappeared into the vast space.

The "Hub" star system, above the Guardian's line of defense.

The fierce battle had been going on for tens of minutes. After the battle shields on both sides were depleted to the threshold, a large number of wreckage fragments began to appear and accumulated more and more in space. Salaman stood on the bridge of the flagship "Eyr," monitoring the progress of the battle through countless holographic images and his own telepathic abilities.

The "Hub," shrouded in a crystalline barrier, was left far behind. Even looking back, one could only see a bright little ball smaller than a ping-pong ball. The towering figure of Agudal stood on the edge of the battlefield. That huge starship hovered like a beast lurking in the darkness, constantly providing fire support to the Guardian Legion with various ultra-long-range weapons built on its surface. The black and mighty starship shuttled across the battlefield, constantly pouring heavy annihilation bombs and scorching high-energy beams onto those twisted monsters—how long had it been since this scene had appeared?

Since Nakdal was destroyed, and Agudal was also severely damaged and lost power in that battle, the Guardian Legion's line of defense had repeatedly contracted. The numerical disadvantage and the enemy's ability to corrupt had made Salaman and his legion miserable. In the long war of three thousand years, the number of times the Guardians had taken the initiative to attack was very few—and they were only limited to the early centuries. After that, the Guardian Legion, which had failed to retake the lost territory or break through the blockade, could only huddle in a small area of several astronomical units around the Hub. It was said that they were persisting in resistance, but it seemed equally correct to say that they were eking out a living.

Until today, the Guardian Legion finally took the initiative to advance the battle line again.

Salaman himself was also thinking, wondering if this was a blind gamble—that suddenly appearing "Observer" and his drone legion were completely unknown. The Guardian Giants had never heard of such a force in this universe. It was unlikely that any gifted race could have suddenly developed to such a powerful level in the short ten thousand years since the Mother left. Therefore, the Observer and the drones were likely from outside the world, or at least from outside the known world.

The concept of "outside the world" was not unfamiliar to the Guardians. Although they had not yet confirmed the existence of the world barrier, nor had they found a way to cross the world, various data models and certain experiments done by the Creator Goddess had confirmed the existence of the "world limit" and "the rules outside the world." Therefore, Salaman could make a sufficiently bold guess about that suddenly appearing Observer.

Then, can such a force, which is very likely from outside the known world, be trusted?

In any case, in order to cooperate with this mysterious Observer, the Guardian Legion had taken the initiative to push the battle line forward. The scale and method of the advance were decided by Salaman and a group of think tanks after carefully weighing the risks. Faced with a possible opportunity, the Guardians could not do nothing, but they could not put all their eggs in one basket: if those drones really came to help, then this advanced battle line would become a springboard for the Guardians to counterattack. If those drones did not come, then the Legion would have ample opportunity to retreat back into the Hub's defensive circle.

Salaman shook his head, throwing the useless thoughts out of his mind: after making the decision to attack, there was no point in looking back or regretting anything. This was not the behavior of a qualified commander.

He looked at the tactical map on the holographic projection. The battle line had stalled, and this stalemate would not last long: the Guardians were unable to maintain such a battle line. They were able to launch this raid only because the Corruptors had sent a large army to attack those drones' "nests," but even so, the Corruptors' combat power from Amantir still far exceeded that of the Guardian Giants.

The Guardian's Agudal Fortress sat on the edge of the battlefield, and so did the Corruptor's Amantir. It floated at the end of the battlefield, that dark star shrouded in an ominous crimson light, staring at Agudal's every move like a malicious eyeball. Although its doomsday weapon was damaged and could not be activated, as a planetary fortress, its other firepower was still enough to deal with Agudal, which was also in a semi-damaged state.

The two planetary fortresses faced each other, and the comparison of the strength of the conventional armies was clear at a glance. Under such circumstances, the Guardian Legion would soon be unable to sustain itself.

"When will those drones appear?"

The young adjutant asked, a little impatiently.

Salaman's voice remained calm: "Don't panic, there's still a while before the agreed time."

"Hopefully those things will appear sooner," the adjutant said. "Otherwise, this will be a meaningless sortie."

For many races that have just become spacefaring civilizations and are still in the "low-speed civilization" stage, a space battle is long. The huge battlefield and the slow weapons and equipment mean that each engagement can last for days. However, for demigod races that have entered the superluminal era and mastered near-law powers, a battle of tens of minutes is enough to determine the outcome of the entire war—the Guardian Giants and the Corruptors know each other inside and out, and the closer the battle line, the more true this is.

The Guardians were already showing signs of decline across the board.

But before the adjutant could report even worse news, Salaman suddenly looked up at a certain direction in the universe, as if sensing something.

A silvery-white light flashed and disappeared there.

Reports from all areas of the battle line instantly converged on the flagship's bridge—

"Ultra-large-scale space distortion observed! It's ultra-large-scale, unprecedentedly large-scale!"

"Drones are entering the battlefield from the KS35-26 area. Their numbers... cannot be determined!"

"Drones have been detected entering the field in other areas as well!"

"Drones, they're here too. They're going directly around those freaks to their rear!"

"It's impossible to visually observe the Corruptors here anymore. Drones, the entire field of view is filled with drones!"

Salaman looked up blankly, watching the space scene directly transmitted back from the external viewfinder.

He saw the entire universe rippling, and the silvery-white waves were not coming from any particular direction, but were surging simultaneously in all directions.

He inexplicably thought of the words that the "Observer" had sent during the last contact:

"Tactics, you don't have to worry about that. The drone swarm's tactics are just to be reckless. With my management, just box-select and A-move, right?" "Everyone just jump in and attack. That's how I command, first throw in ten million armed drones to smack their faces. If they don't die, throw in another ten million..." "You can crush them to death with numbers. What tactics do you need, what tactics do you need? You just need to consolidate your own battle line. You don't need to coordinate with the drone swarm—you can't coordinate with that thing." "I'm telling you, I'm a professional commander. You have to trust me. How can a professional commander be wrong..."

The man who called himself "Observer" gradually became blurred in Salaman's mind. His face seemed to merge with the silvery-white waves in space, but those unbelievable remarks gradually became clear. The initial doubts and worries had all dissipated at this moment. Salaman finally understood what those unreliable remarks meant. He now had only one thought: so that's how it is.

"Drones! Drones everywhere! They've occupied more than 90% of the sky!"

The adjutant's voice was distant, as if it were coming from the horizon...