84: Combat strength reduced by 40%

"Prepare for battle."

Inside the cockpit where Commander-in-Chief Xi was located.

His eyes were like two completely unrelated components, each scanning the real-time data displayed on the main screen and rapidly feeding the information into his almost machine-like brain.

Xi was admitted to the Dragon Country National University of Defense Technology at ten, graduated at twelve, was commissioned as a second lieutenant at thirteen, and was exceptionally promoted to the military's command system at fifteen.

In the same year, during a red-blue confrontation in a certain military region, he achieved an almost complete victory despite being at a disadvantage in equipment, numbers, and information.

He was a born commander.

His comrades jokingly called him an emotionless robot.

This was indeed the case; Xi was congenitally missing the emotions of fear and joy, which are normal for ordinary people.

Heaven took away his emotions as a normal person, perhaps as compensation, granting Xi an ultra-high IQ of nearly 180.

He issued commands at an extremely fast pace.

During this process, the data analysis and temporary suggestions provided by jarvis were of great help to Xi.

Xi adopted jarvis's optimal solution in most cases, but he also had his own ideas, which was the courage that super-intelligence lacked.

In situations where there were more enemies than allies, jarvis's advice was usually to avoid their strengths and defend rather than attack.

But Xi could always create local advantages, and even victories, with a minimal force.

On the main screen's detection radar, hundreds of thousands of dense red dots surged in like an overwhelming tide, moving extremely fast.

Thousands of Hai Star mechs were the first to appear in sight.

Behind the mech cluster was a swarm of drones so dense it made one's scalp tingle, numerous enough to obscure the starlight.

The so-called 'black clouds pressing down on the city' was nothing more than this.

Facing such dense enemy units, all the Dragon Country Corps soldiers felt a suffocating sense of oppression.

Even after experiencing it countless times, they still couldn't dispel the fear constantly welling up from deep within.

Battle was imminent!

The Dragon Country faction broke down into smaller units, scattering like a giant rock hitting water, with ten aerospace fighters forming a combat group, rapidly segmenting the dense Hai Star Faction formation.

If they couldn't confront them head-on, then guerrilla warfare was the answer.

The aerospace fighters used their absolute speed advantage to maneuver, circling and penetrating the dense enemy clusters, gradually eliminating the Hai Star's living forces in a 'boiling frog' strategy.

In the distance.

He Ming watched this battle of vastly disparate strengths through jarvis's God's-eye view.

The Dragon Country Corps, with only twenty thousand troops, still held a slight advantage, which greatly surprised He Ming.

The combat power of the Dragon Country Corps was so strong, and Xi's command was indispensable, but it also involved more than thirty practical combat drills.

During the day, these mech pilots had to attend two major classes.

The first: reviewing the reasons for the previous day's combat failures.

The second: in-depth analysis of the detailed parameters, combat modes, behavioral logic of each Hai Star fleet's firepower unit, and the optimal countermeasures provided by the think tank.

Although under the advantage of foresight, the Dragon Country Corps' battle damage ratio could consistently be maintained at around 1:9, it couldn't withstand the sheer number of the Hai Star fleet.

In the command communication channel, information constantly poured out in text form, all reports of groups being annihilated.

But their sacrifices were not entirely without value; the Hai Star Faction's momentum was continuously being weakened and eventually guided to a location further from the main battlefield.

This was Xi consciously guiding the Hai Star's main mech fleet to disperse its firepower, laying the foundation for a subsequent charge.

Seeing this, He Ming largely understood.

The Dragon Country Corps had no intention of returning alive from the moment they stepped onto the battlefield.

This fighting style clearly meant, 'It doesn't matter if I die or not, but I must kill you.'

Although He Ming deeply respected this combat method, only he knew that this was merely the Hai Star's vanguard exploration fleet.

Even if they won this battle, what about the next time?

The reason he hadn't revealed the full strength of the Hai Star to Dragon Country was fear that some might feel despair.

He Ming wanted not just victory, but a complete victory!

But for now, it seemed that the only way to win was through such a tragic form, offering a glimmer of hope.

"It's our turn to enter the fray."

Zhang Zhifei and Bai Xiaofei, who had been observing the battle near the battlefield, had long been unable to hold back.

"Is it finally my turn to enter the fray!"

"Go!"

Three dazzling beams of light swiftly cut into the front lines of the battlefield.

The chest armor plate of [Kunpeng] slowly slid open, revealing a chilling muzzle where energy surged violently.

A pale green light was rapidly condensing, and the engine hummed frantically.

Three seconds of charging!

A brilliant white beam of light, spitting electricity, blasted towards the densest area of the Hai Star Faction, and the powerful recoil pushed [Kunpeng] frantically backward.

[Azure Dragon] and [seraph] had intended to charge in from the left and right, but seeing this scene, they instinctively changed direction to brace the continuously retreating [Kunpeng].

In [Kunpeng]'s cockpit, He Ming's face was almost distorted, but he still endured it.

If it were an ordinary person under such immense pressure, they would instantly be crushed into a bloody mist.

"This power..."

He Ming stared intently forward; wherever the brilliant white beam passed, all Hai Star units were completely annihilated the moment they made contact.

After the attack, a vacuum zone, over a hundred meters in diameter and stretching as far as the eye could see, was plowed through the dense Hai Star formation.

This world-shattering blow not only caused the Hai Star forces' offensive to pause, but even the Dragon Country Corps soldiers were stunned.

"Isn't this... too much?"

"The Hai Star scum our group fought so hard to eliminate probably isn't as much as this one strike..."

"It's terrifying. Is this the generational gap?"

"Fortunately, it's a friendly unit. If this were a Hai Star mech..."

In [seraph]'s cockpit.

Zhang Zhifei's facial muscles twitched uncontrollably; the scene before him was simply too shocking. This one strike probably annihilated no less than ten thousand Hai Star units.

"This is a damn human cannon, isn't it?"

"Don't dally, keep up!"

At Bai Xiaofei's reminder, Zhang Zhifei piloted [seraph] to cut into the battlefield from the left flank.

The eight-wing thrusters on its back erupted with brilliant dark green light, accelerating to the extreme, like a green comet streaking across the sky.

"Watch me!"

"Sister Bai Ze, I'm counting on you!"

Eighty floating cannons ejected from the wing-span slots. Each unit seemed to possess self-awareness, instantly constructing a vast net, several kilometers in radius, directly in front of [seraph].

Under Bai Ze's control, the floating cannons were incredibly precise, each energy beam aimed at the enemy's weakest point.

At the same time, [seraph] held a heavy autocannon that spewed a furious torrent of fire, each high-explosive shell clearing a large area in the dense enemy clusters.

Although it couldn't compare to [Kunpeng]'s instantaneous firepower suppression, [seraph]'s sustained firepower was the strongest among the three mechs.

Almost every second, nearly a hundred Hai Star units were turned into space junk under [seraph]'s firepower.

In [Kunpeng]'s cockpit.

He Ming raised an eyebrow slightly. He remembered that the Hai Star drone swarms and mechs he encountered last time weren't this weak; their overall strength had decreased by at least forty percent.

"jarvis, why have the Hai Star fleet's stats dropped so much?"

"Sir, there are no issues with the stats."