59: Holy crap! What a rip-off!

Hearing the communication from the other side,

Xi Hai's closed eyes snapped open.

This void energy they mentioned, could it be the raw material for those void cleavage bombs?

39 cubic meters of void energy? Serious consequences?

(At this moment, Xi Hai didn't realize what 39 cubic meters of void energy truly meant.)

He thought for a moment and asked in his mind:

"night lamp,"

"What kind of effect would 39 cubic meters of void energy exploding have?"

night lamp:

"According to available data,"

"If concentrated and fully reacted,"

"It could create a cleavage void with a radius of 17-27 AU,"

"And concurrent spatial tremors and other phenomena,"

"With an affected radius of 4.5-5 light-years."

"…"

Just this little bit of void energy,

Could it produce such an exaggerated effect?

"How is this not nerfed? Can it even be played??"

After being utterly shocked by the extreme beauty of the data,

Xi Hai quickly used night lamp to

Have all the Warships heading for explosive mining stop at their designated positions.

This can't be fought, damn it.

He thought for a moment,

Didn't those people say they surrendered at first?

Alright, now he admitted that these guys had the right to surrender.

He switched to the communication panel, deliberated over his words,

And said,

"We accept your surrender,"

"Lock down all weapon systems,"

"Following our command, pilot your Warships to the designated location and then shut down your engines."

"Accept our personnel boarding."

----

Watching the massive Warships still approaching him,

Salman's nerves grew tighter and tighter.

Just then, the communication panel chimed,

The message from the other side accepting their surrender came through.

Immediately after,

The four silver behemoths in the observation instrument began to decelerate,

Followed by the dark green and silver-white smaller ships.

Looking at the fleet that had finally stopped and was hovering in mid-air,

Salman's heart, which had been practically in his throat,

Finally dropped a little.

It wasn't that he hadn't considered threatening to detonate the void energy to make the other side let him go,

But the sudden appearance and disappearance of technology on the opposing Warships made him doubt whether this method could truly threaten them.

Furthermore, even if, by some miracle, the other side really let him go,

With the Void Channel around Ursa Major V12.22 already locked down,

His current battered small ships would have no chance of survival whatsoever—

The fuel in three of the Warships had almost completely leaked out, at most they could only accelerate to 1/20 of their full speed,

And this was even ignoring the fuel needed for deceleration.

"Attention all units,"

"The enemy has accepted our surrender."

"Shut down all fire control radars and lock all attack systems."

"Pilot the Warships according to the command on the public channel,"

"And shut down the engines once at the designated position."

"Accept the enemy boarding."

He switched to the fleet's internal command communicator and ordered.

----

Xi Hai stared straight ahead,

Five dilapidated ships, which could barely be called starships anymore, slowly emerged from the dark side of that small asteroid,

And, following the command of a clone navigator on a CAS066,

They sailed within his visual range.

"This... still counts as a Warship?"

Seeing these Warships, which looked like space junk, drifting along,

One missing an engine, another lacking a piece of armor,

And constantly shedding debris as they flew.

Seriously?

They're not falling apart?

Two FG300s, pushing forward, approached the enemy vessels and stopped alongside the largest Warship.

A temporary docking Bridge was erected between the two Warships,

Marines in powered armor walked across, opening the cameras on their helmets,

And instantly, the scene inside the enemy ship appeared before Xi Hai's eyes:

Gold-painted floors, bright white walls,

And crew members, each wearing a white headscarf—

"Holy crap!"

"camel countryman?"

Looking at this familiar attire,

The reputation of a certain 2K-era skin inexplicably came to mind—

A thousand armies avoid the white robe, not just a description for generals in the cold weapon era.

A mysterious feeling kept reminding him,

He had just almost faced a huge bomb made from 39 cubic meters of void energy.

Instantly,

A suffocating sensation, like being coiled by a python, came over him,

Making him break out in a cold sweat.

He had to quickly get those void energies under control!

Otherwise... that batch of void energy,

It was simply a ticking time bomb.

Thinking this,

He quickly connected to that Marine's powered armor headset and ordered.

"Find their spokesperson,"

"You all search as well,"

"Quickly get that batch of void energy in their possession under control!"

In less than a second, a brief and powerful response came from the other side:

"Yes."

Subsequently,

For insurance, Xi Hai

Also sent a communication to White Shark, asking him to come over.

On the Marines' side,

Whenever they passed an unseen corner,

Several spherical drones, the size of grains of rice, quietly detached from their powered armor,

They rolled into the darkness and quickly disappeared.

----

On the Bridge of the 'Lord of the Desert',

As a group of Marines in dark green powered armor just entered the door,

Salman's deep voice rang out,

"The void energy is on this Warship."

"I have a request,"

"First, let our crew go to your ship."

"Then I will personally lead you to the container where they are stored."

The Marine didn't react,

But Xi Hai, sitting in the back, raised an eyebrow.

Was he distrusting him?

Afraid that after he got the void energy, he would just blow them up along with their ship?

If that was the case,

Why did he launch torpedoes at him directly without even a single inquiry contact back then?

That firepower was clearly aimed at crushing him in one go!

"Agree to him, stabilize him first."

"Wait for the drone's message."

Xi Hai's commanding voice sounded in the headset.

Upon receiving the order,

The Marine looked at Salman,

And the external broadcast of his powered armor emitted a cold mechanical sound:

"Alright,"

"Your people have ten minutes."

Salman breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this,

And bowed, saying:

"Yes."

Soon,

Under the organization of the Marines,

The crew members of the 'Lord of the Desert' lined up,

After undergoing a full security check one by one,

They were taken to the FG300's pressurized cargo hold, restrained and confined.

The Marine connected to Xi Hai sat quietly,

Silently staring at Salman,

Between the two of them,

It was as if a low-pressure center had formed.

Salman's actions broke the silence of the scene first—

He took out the mechanical pocket watch given to him by his mentor from hisIn my arms,

Flipping open the front cover,

He found that the watch had stopped long ago because it hadn't been wound,

The hands were frozen at "7:21".

It was time for the sunset prayer, he thought.

"Seven minutes left,"

The Marine saw Salman look at his watch,

And suddenly spoke,

"Your people have seven minutes left."

Salman was startled, then nodded gently,

Closed the stopped pocket watch again, and carefully put it back into his pocket.

—

Xi Hai had been staring at Salman and the Marine he was connected to on the screen,

So much so that he didn't even notice a large cylindrical tank gradually appearing in the drone's perspective beside him.

"Drone detected large energy storage tank!"

Suddenly, a prompt sounded from the console beside him,

Startling Xi Hai,

Followed by joy—

He had found the biggest source of danger!