106: Small bullet bow

After ending the emergency communication, Lei Wen returned to his home. He sat in his familiar gaming chair; the soda on the table no longer bubbled.

He opened that special laptop again. With a light touch of his fingertip, the screen lit up.

The familiar UI of "stellar universe" unfolded before his eyes. As soon as he entered the interface, a series of striking event pop-ups jumped out one after another, accompanied by urgent notification sounds.

【Event: Unknown Civilization Attack】

【Activation Correction: Counterattack.】

【Correction Effects: Ship construction speed +33%, ship weapon damage +15%, national cohesion +20%, war exhaustion growth rate -50%.】

Looking at these familiar data points, Lei Wen couldn't help but let a complex curve tug at the corner of his mouth.

In the game, this was numerical inflation brought about by a "crisis," but in reality, this would be the potential explosive power of the entire Faleim Civilization once provoked.

At this moment, Tianqiong City was deep in the slumber of night, while 13 light-years away in the Faleimland System, the light of the star "Holy Fire" was illuminating a fully awakened behemoth.

In orbit near the star, that massive shipyard had now turned into a seething volcano of steel.

Countless engineering drones, like swarms of glowing fireflies, shuttled and danced between the massive shipyard frames.

Thousands of warships were docked at the berths, not for routine maintenance, but for frantic modifications.

Ship after ship of massive warships were having their engines and other modules upgraded in the shipyard.

And in the more distant starry background, countless bright bands of light were converging toward the home system. Those were the engineering fleets urgently returning from more than thirty surrounding resource star systems.

Dragging heavy cargo holds, their engine nozzles spewing long blue exhaust trails, they merged like a blue river into the massive furnace that was Faleimland.

Lei Wen zoomed out his view and clicked on the newly added icon in the top left corner of the Star Map interface — 【sentry surveillance array】.

The Star Map on the screen changed.

The "fog of war" that had originally shrouded the surrounding star sector dissipated rapidly, like morning mist dispersed by the scorching sun. Centered on the Faleimland System, a massive spherical region with a radius of one hundred light-years became clearly visible.

This was an omniscient perspective that transcended the limit of the speed of light.

Lei Wen saw the Solar System; Earth was still blue, humanity's space factories were working intensely, the industrial bases on Mars were billowing smoke, and massive transport ships were shuttling between planets.

There was also the Kari Star System, where the Kari People were still immersed in a carnival of art, completely unaware that in the starry sky above them, Grey Wind was coldly watching them.

And when Lei Wen cast his gaze deeper in the direction of Barnards Star, he discovered an unmarked, strange signal source on the edge of the Star Map, approximately 81 light-years from Earth.

"What is this..." Lei Wen curiously zoomed in on those coordinates.

The image zoomed in rapidly, crossing dozens of light-years of void, and locked onto a planet orbiting an orange dwarf star.

The atmosphere of this planet appeared a pale cyan, its landmasses fragmented and scattered, and on that continent, Lei Wen saw an astonishing sight.

Massive stone castles stood atop sheer cliffs, knights clad in heavy plate armor patrolled the air riding creatures similar to wyverns, and on the ground were busy markets and sprawling farmland. In the oceans, wooden warships with huge sails were bombarding each other; those were early prototypes of black powder weapons.

"A civilization in the Middle Ages." Lei Wen muttered to himself, looking at the analysis report that popped up on the interface.

【Civilization Level: Pre-FTL Civilization (Middle Ages).】

【Note: This civilization seems to have mastered some inefficient form of psionic usage, with no spaceflight capabilities yet.】

A distance of 81 light-years was still an insurmountable chasm for humanity today.

Even if humanity had mastered antimatter engines, it would take an extremely long time to reach there; just traveling at full speed would take three to four hundred years, and realistically, it might take humanity thousands of years to arrive.

Moreover, a civilization still in the Middle Ages posed no threat to humanity, which had already stepped across the interstellar threshold.

However, psionics...

Consul Price had once told Lei Wen that some special individuals from the Faleim Civilization could still use psionic powers after coming to this universe, and the psionic equipment preserved by the Faleim could also function normally, which meant the power of the Void god could also connect to the real world.

It felt a bit scary, but at least the Void god was better than the Chaos Four Gods of the Warp, otherwise, Lei Wen would have to consider whether this universe was worth staying in.

...

Falem Homeworld, High Command.

The holographic projection of the star system defense map was suspended in the center of the conference table. The original plan was to assemble all engineering ships to build that massive deflector lens capable of deflecting gamma-ray bursts at the edge of the star system.

But at this moment, Chief Scientist Zeral was pointing at those rows of complex equations, reporting to Consul Price and Military Commander Talon.

"Your Excellency Consul, after repeated simulations by the 【Ring of Truth】, we have discovered a problem of diminishing marginal returns."

Zeral's finger swept across the long list of engineering ships, "Although the construction of the deflector lens is a massive undertaking, its structure is modular and repetitive."

"When the number of engineering ships we deploy exceeds five thousand, due to space constraints and logistical scheduling congestion, the construction progress does not grow linearly; instead, it slows down due to mutual interference."

"In other words, more than half of the ten thousand engineering ships we have currently assembled are in an ineffective standby state?" Price frowned slightly. As a materialist leader who pursued efficiency to the extreme, wasting resources was the thing he could least tolerate.

"Yes." Zeral nodded, "Moreover, pure defense cannot win a war; we need a means of offense."

Talon took over, his gaze turning to a star system numbered B-79 adjacent to Faleimland on the Star Map.

There was a young and restless blue giant star of type B there, releasing astonishing light and heat.

"Since we have excess engineering capacity," Talon's voice was sonorous and powerful, "I suggest building a small 【Quantum Slingshot】 in the B-79 star system, orbiting that blue giant star."

Quantum Slingshot.

As soon as this term was uttered, the councilors present began to whisper.

In the technology library of the old universe, a true Quantum Slingshot was a megastructure capable of changing the strategic landscape of the galaxy.

It usually needed to be built around a neutron star or pulsar with an extremely strong magnetic field, utilizing the terrifying gravity well of the neutron star and the pulse energy generated by its high-speed rotation to compress and curl spacetime like a spring.

When a fleet sailed into the slingshot's launch field, this compressed spacetime elasticity would be released instantly, "throwing" the entire fleet with precision into a distant star sector hundreds of thousands of light-years away in a way that surpassed conventional jump.

It was a strategic delivery artifact of the interstellar era.

"But B-79 is not a neutron star." A councilor raised a question.

"Yes, there is only a type B star there." Zeral explained, "Although its gravity cannot be compared to a neutron star, it is sufficient for our current needs. We do not need to project the fleet to the other side of the galaxy; our target is just that sneak attacker a few dozen light-years away."

"According to calculations, a small Quantum Slingshot built relying on a type B star has an effective delivery radius of about 100 to 150 light-years." Zeral brought up the simulation diagram, "This just happens to cover the star sector where the enemy that launched the gamma-ray burst at us is located."

"But why don't we just use the ship-borne Jump Drive?" Another councilor asked, puzzled, "Our capital ships have already started replacing them with new engines; can't we just jump over?"

Talon shook his head, his eyes becoming unusually sharp; it was the tactical intuition unique to a career soldier.

"Although the Jump Drive is powerful, it has a fatal weakness — Jump penalty."

Talon pointed to the energy reading model of the warship and said: "When a warship performs a long-distance space jump, its reactor will undergo a period of intense recharging. During this time, the warship's energy shield strength will drop by 50%, the charging speed of weapon systems will also be significantly reduced, and even the output of the sub-light speed engines will be affected."

"This is the Jump weakness period, which usually lasts for more than half a year."

"We are facing an unknown civilization. We do not understand their specific situation, so rashly jumping directly into their hinterland is not a wise act."

Then Talon's voice raised a few notches: "But the Quantum Slingshot is different."

"The Quantum Slingshot applies thrust to the fleet from the outside; it uses the star's energy to distort spacetime and catapult the fleet out. Throughout this entire process, the warship's own reactor does not need to bear the burden of tearing space."

"This means that when our fleet arrives at the enemy star system through the Quantum Slingshot, our energy is full, our shields are full, and our weapons are preheated."

"We will descend like divine soldiers in our prime, and directly output damage while riding in the enemy's face!"

These words completely dispelled everyone's concerns.

This was a retaliatory expedition spanning dozens of light-years. The Faleim People not only wanted to win, but they wanted to win beautifully, to win with overwhelming force.

"Approved." Price made the final decision, "The excess engineering fleet will immediately head to the B-79 star system."

...

The next day, Lei Wen saw the event of the Faleim People building the Quantum Slingshot on the electronic screen.

After pondering for a while, he understood what the Faleim People wanted to do, and couldn't help but marvel once again at the heritage of the Faleim Civilization.