262: Chapter 262 How do we fight this?

The moment Chen Xi pressed his palm down, that ancient console, which had been silent for hundreds of thousands of years, let out a harsh electronic rumble!

Immediately after, the hundreds of dim energy crystal pillars surrounding it, as if meeting sweet rain after a long drought, lit up one by one with a faint, deep blue glow!

"Bzzzt... Authorization confirming... Biological genetic map comparison in progress..."

"Comparison match rate: 99.99%... Confirmed as the final sequence host of the 'Seed Project'."

"Highest authority command received... Welcome back, respected... [Your Excellency, Supreme Administrator]."

A synthetic female voice, extremely mechanical yet carrying a sense of vicissitudes that seemed to span endless years, echoed eerily throughout the hall.

Following this, countless blue data streams converged above the console, condensing into a holographic virtual female figure that only had half a body and flickered constantly with static noise.

"Who... who are you?" Li Murou looked in surprise at this AI that had suddenly appeared.

"I am the central control AI of the Sirius Sector's First Defense Line and Deep Space Garrison Fortress, codenamed 'Morning Star'."

The holographic image flickered slightly. Its voice was devoid of emotion, yet it carried a deathly silence that made one feel sorrowful:

"Your Excellency, Administrator, I have been here... waiting for two hundred and seventy thousand years and four thousand six hundred days. Finally... I have waited for the rekindling of the Seed."

"Two hundred and seventy thousand years..." Chen Xi and the others felt a sudden jolt in their hearts. Human civilization on Earth was only a mere few thousand years old, yet this star graveyard had already been dead for two hundred and seventy thousand years!

"Morning Star, tell me, what exactly happened back then?" Chen Xi took a deep breath, staring at the surviving AI with a burning gaze:

"Was it those high-dimensional silicon-based organisms—the 'Stargate Arbiter' that we encountered on Earth—that destroyed the ancient human Ascendant Empire and shattered this star sector?"

"High-dimensional silicon-based organisms? Do you mean those 'Void Marauders'?"

AI Morning Star's projection flickered, and its voice unexpectedly simulated a rare hint of extremely human-like disdain:

"No, Your Excellency, Administrator. Those inferior silicon-based parasites were merely low-level laborers we used to mine ore during the Empire's prime. They had neither the qualifications nor the ability to destroy the Empire's First Defense Line."

"What?!" Su Xiaoxiao and Lin Shan looked at each other in dismay.

Those monsters that had nearly driven Earth to the brink of extinction and claimed to be High-dimensional Deities were, in the eyes of the ancient humans, merely low-level laborers?!

"The one that truly destroyed this star sector and split this war-star in two was... [It]."

AI Morning Star's voice suddenly became extremely unstable, and a large amount of red warning data streams frantically coursed across its virtual body, as if merely mentioning that existence was enough to cause its underlying code to collapse.

"Your Excellency, Administrator, please review this final video record that I have saved on my core motherboard for two hundred and seventy thousand years. This is also the only reason I never initiated the self-destruction sequence and have been struggling to wait for your arrival!"

"Hum—!"

As Morning Star's voice fell, the holographic projection in the center of the hall suddenly expanded, completely enveloping Chen Xi and the others.

They felt as if they had instantly traveled back to that doomsday battlefield from two hundred and seventy thousand years ago!

In the image.

The Sirius Sector was flourishing to the extreme. Countless space fortresses comparable in size to planets formed a brilliant interstellar Great Wall. Hundreds of millions of ancient human warships were arranged in tight formations, standing ready.

However, their enemy was not piloting any warships, nor did it have any grand army.

In the deep space in front of the defense line, at some unknown point, a... [Terrifying Shadow], so vast it could not be measured by physical units, had appeared!

That shadow had no fixed form; it was like a conceptual aggregate pieced together from countless destroyed planetary cores, endless dark matter, and various distorted cosmic rules! It was even several times larger than the star at the center of this star sector!

"What the hell is that..." Lin Shan's eyes widened; just by looking at the holographic image, he felt a suffocating sense of oppression.

In the image, that terrifying shadow did not launch any flashy magic or technological weapons.

It just slowly, and extremely casually, opened its abyss-like "maw," composed of countless stellar cores, toward the direction of the Sirius Sector.

"[High-dimensional Reaper · Star Abyss Tyrant]!"

AI Morning Star's voice narrated outside the image, filled with endless despair.

The moment that abyss-like giant mouth opened!

Chen Xi and the others watched in absolute horror as the huge star in the image, radiating endless light and heat... was swallowed in one bite by that shadow, just like an insignificant candy bean!!!

The star was extinguished!

The entire star sector instantly plunged into absolute darkness!

Following this, after devouring the star, the [Star Abyss Tyrant] let out a silent roar that could not be heard but could shatter the laws of the universe.

A visible "concept erasure ripple" that appeared absolutely black swept across the entire defense line at faster-than-light speed!

The ripple swept past.

Those space fortresses capable of withstanding supernova explosions, those hundreds of millions of ancient human warships, were like fragile sandcastles meeting a gale; they were instantly cut in half, then disintegrated, vaporized, and completely annihilated! There were no explosions, no resistance, only unilateral dimensional-reduction harvesting!

"This... how are we supposed to fight this? Eating a sun?! Killing an entire galactic fleet in one strike?!"

Xia Qing's voice came through the communication channel, directly carrying a despairing, tearful tone.

The image stopped abruptly at this moment.

The holographic projection turned back into the broken AI Morning Star.

But at this moment, Morning Star's virtual projection had turned a glaring blood-red, and a shrill, highest-level alarm echoed frantically throughout the entire underground hall, and even through Chen Xi's communication channel, throughout the entire Earth Expeditionary Fleet in outer space!

"Warning! Warning! Warning!!!"

AI Morning Star's voice was no longer calm; instead, it carried an extremely anthropomorphic, intense fear, as if a living person facing death:

"Your Excellency, Administrator! [Its] hounds... those cosmic parasite swarms that feed on metal and psionic energy have already caught the faint scent of the Seed!"

"They... following the trajectory of your spatial jump... have already descended!"

"They are right above your heads!!!!"