186: Madmen who believe in "destruction"

"Report! The Destiny has finished rebooting."

"Hull integrity is 37%, core integrity is 79%."

"Engine installation complete, ready for departure!"

I don't know how much time had passed when Keith's voice came through the headset—

That megastructure from the Human Federation certainly did not disappoint.

Xi Hai took one last deep look out the window, then turned and walked away.

This star system had no more value, nor any reason to remain—

The wreckage of the space station, left behind who knows how long ago, was nothing but a hard shell now; everything inside crumbled at the slightest touch.

White Shark had already led his team to salvage anything of potential value, and their hard shells were recycled for their elements, becoming the metal used to build the Pioneer Ship.

As for the traces of their presence, they had long been wiped away, leaving nothing behind.

It was time to leave.

Xi Hai walked to his desk, picked up the communicator linked to the entire fleet, and ordered:

"All fleet units! End the rest period! Prepare to return!"

"Begin retracting the Pioneer Ships!"

Immediately, red indicator lights lit up across the six thousand newly built Pathfinder bases clustered together, and the ten-minute retraction process began.

...

...

["BOOM!!!!"] (Onomatopoeia)

Just as Xi Hai was weighing anchor and departing on the other side, in a star system also located in Balaena Sector V66,

a massive cleavage void bomb filled with void energy, after gliding silently for nearly a month, finally erupted into a brilliant firework display above the massive transport hub of Cetus V66.66—

Well, perhaps those pitch-black cleavage voids didn't quite count as fireworks.

The principle of an unprotected void energy self-reaction is simple: it is the cross-boundary entanglement of void energy in the material universe with an equal amount of void energy in the void.

Then they initiate a "loving embrace," spinning frantically under powerful forces until they break through the boundary between the material universe and the void.

(This is also why the void energy in Alexei's hands didn't explode back then; that guy might have been the first to extract an entire "vacuum zone" from the void.)

The other type relies on artificial detonation—this kind of detonation is even simpler and more brutal.

It uses a simple simulation device to wrap a tiny, tiny, tiny... tiny pinch of void energy inside a force field that simulates a void environment.

Then, that void energy tricks itself, starts spinning frantically, and blasts straight through the membrane between the void and the material universe.

Of course, that simulated force field just uses irregular and constantly changing gravity to mimic the "gravitational disorder" of the void environment—

Yes, it explodes with just a simple provocation, much like the plastic friends of certain people.

In any case, the cleavage void bomb that detonated in Cetus V66.66 was loaded with a full five cubic meters of void energy.

After the eruption, it produced an effect even more defying of heaven than the one in Ursa Major V12.22—

Because the explosive yield in Ursa Major V12.22 wasn't large, it only produced such a heaven-defying effect due to a certain siphon effect.

In other words, basically all the violent reactions there occurred within the void.

But this time in Cetus, it was different—

It took the full force of a five-cubic-meter void energy explosion head-on.

And so—

First came the initial reaction—

A pure and massive stream of energy surged in all directions, directly blasting away all matter in its path.

Then, a super-strong space tremor caused by the tearing of the void instantly swept through the entire star system.

And then—the cleavage void unfolded.

Cetus V66.66, in just an instant, went from a prosperous transport hub to an ever-expanding living hell.

Meanwhile, in a Gravity Conduit headed toward a nearby star system—

On the Bridge of one of the destroyers in that same sneaky fleet,

a guy wearing a black hood stood up from his seat, holding an electronic tablet, ran a few steps to the captain's seat, and whispered:

"Captain Li, the cleavage void bomb has detonated!"

"The observers we previously placed in those residential areas have all been destroyed at the same time—"

"So we can conclude that this demolition operation was extremely successful."

"I can guarantee that not a single living person can be found in the entire Cetus V66.66 anymore."

The person sitting in the captain's seat nodded, showing no other reaction.

No, it wasn't that he had no reaction.

He furrowed his brows, looking at the electronic tablet with a worried expression.

Just as the person in front of him put away the tablet and was about to leave, he suddenly called out to the hooded man—

"Wait a moment, Kim Jun-hee,"

"How many people do you think we... killed on this trip?"

Kim Jun-hee, who had been called, froze for a moment.

He looked at Captain Li, his eyes seeming to ask, "You're asking me?"

The captain nodded and said affirmatively:

"That's right, I'm asking you."

Kim Jun-hee lowered his head, thought for a moment, and uncertainly estimated a terrifying number—

"If we only count normal 'humans'... it should be around eighty billion."

"If we include those Slave Laborers, the underclass, parasites, Amnesty Soldiers, and the like, it should be over one hundred and forty billion."

Hearing this number, Captain Li silently lowered his head, his fingers tapping the armrest one after another.

After a long while, he raised his head again and said with a hint of complex emotion:

"Millions of people, all lost their lives because of such a small bomb,"

"This is the original sin of humanity..."

"Oh, right—"

"Do you know, our old predecessors, our old idols, and also our old rivals,"

"They were recently rounded up."

Kim Jun-hee nodded and echoed:

"Report, that is indeed the case."

"Their eleven apostles are already prepared to be executed by fire at the Order Seat, and I hear they are going to use a slow fire."

"..."

Another silence. After a long silence, Captain Li said indifferently:

"Now, are we the only ones left?"

"The rotten and unbearable humanity should not have continued to exist in the first place."

"Even if it's just us, that's fine."

"We will continue to tirelessly uphold our philosophy of 'Destruction'."

"You are right," Kim Jun-hee immediately bowed and replied, "We will eventually, with our own hands, push this long-dead civilization and race into the grave."

"Yes—push them into the grave."

Listening to Kim Jun-hee's words, Li Puchang once again thought of his family, who had been demoted to debt slaves by the Empire and then shoved directly into missiles as wetware.

The thoughts from back then once again crept into his heart:

Yes, humanity has no hope, no future; other than the oppression of their own kind, they have nothing—

Then why let so many people stay and suffer?

Thinking this, he dismissed Kim Jun-hee, then opened the comms and shouted—

"All units! The demolition mission is complete! You may proceed with rotating cryosleep!"

"When you all wake up!"

"We will continue together, for this rotten civilization!"

"Bring about its destruction!"

...