The next moment, its doubts were shattered by the increasingly shrill and piercing alarm.

Without any warning, the previously incredibly strong enemy ship signal suddenly disappeared into the thick, yellowish smoke!

"alarm!"

"Enemy ship's signal has disappeared!"

At the same time, a completely emotionless synthesized electronic voice rang out in the command center!

Having experienced countless battles, large and small, the little gray commander realized the problem the moment he saw the enemy ship lose its signal!

"alert!"

"All starships, retreat at full speed and expand the encirclement!"

"Launch the giant flare!"

"They're trying to break through!"

The order has been issued.

Huge flares were fired from the cannons of these starships.

They dragged a bright and perfect curve through the universe.

Finally, a powerful light emanated from within the encirclement.

Thanks to the smoke bombs fired by the human fleet, the light from the flares was successfully illuminated in this star field after countless diffuse reflections amidst the endless dust!

In the pitch-black universe, a cloud of "stardust" emitting a yellowish-brown light suddenly appeared!

At the same time, the tails of the Grey starships, which had stopped firing laser weapons and were flying in their designated orbits, suddenly lit up with blinding light!

High-powered Hall thrusters, combined with vectoring nozzles, allow these starships to change course rapidly.

However, no matter how powerful the thrusters are, it would take a lot of time to complete such a large-scale turn and retreat.

Will the human fleet let this perfect opportunity slip by?

The answer is clearly no.

Just as these starships turned around and prepared to retreat.

A fleet with scorch marks on its armor pierced through the yellowish smoke!

If you look closely, you'll see that the burn marks on these starships are slowly fading.

Although the decline is not very fast, it all means one thing!

They can perform a certain degree of self-repair!

On the large screen in front of the command center of the Little Grey flagship, this amazing scene was displayed!

Extremely fine yellow dust particles swirled around the human starship.

The Hall thruster nozzles at the stern of the starship emitted an incredibly bright light!

The combination of the two forms a striking contrast with the dark cosmic background.

The commander of the Grey Fleet suddenly held his breath.

A look of disbelief flashed in his eyes.

"What kind of technology is this?!"

He exclaimed in shock.

But the next moment, it frantically pressed the fleet broadcast button next to it.

"Activate the protective shield!"

"Prepare for the impact!!"

...

Human fleet.

As the vanguard fleet broke through the yellowish smoke, illuminated by countless flares, the enemy fleet's appearance was fully revealed to Lü Yongchang.

As he watched the images transmitted back by the optical telescope array, Lü Yongchang's doubts and confusion deepened.

Suddenly, an unbelievable guess arose in Lü Yongchang's mind.

His eyes widened slightly, and his breathing became rapid.

Cool, deep-sea fluid continuously flowed into the lungs through the pulmonary ducts and was then continuously expelled from the body through the pulmonary ducts.

The abundant oxygen in the deep-sea fluid made Lü Yongchang's thinking increasingly clear.

'Zero, let's count how many starships have different design styles?'

He quickly issued the order to Zero.

The holographic projection in front of me instantly magnified.

One by one, squares of different colors appeared on the star map.

Each colored box represents an enemy ship with a specific design style.

After more than ten seconds, looking at the colorful, spherical net surrounding him, Lü Yongchang fell silent.

“Professor, based on observations from the optical telescope array, 147 different starship designs have been discovered so far.” Zero’s voice traveled through the deep-sea fluid to his ears. “Of these, 113 are small starships.”

A look of realization dawned on Lü Yongchang's eyes.

Just as I expected!

'Zijie, the other side is not an alliance of multiple civilizations!'

Lü Yongchang quickly sent a message to Zhao Zijie.

Zhao Zijie, who was inside the deep-sea cabin, was preparing to issue an attack order when he saw an urgent message from Lü Yongchang.

He paused for a moment, a hint of doubt flashing in his eyes.

Before he could even send a message, a second message appeared in the holographic projection in front of him.

'They're pirates!'

'No, to be precise, it should be called a space pirate civilization!'

Along with this message came a statistical report produced by Zero.

Looking at the report which listed as many as 147 starship design styles, Zhao Zijie felt a chill run down his spine!

Judging from the known types of starships alone, the enemy has won at least 147 interstellar wars!

Looking back at human civilization.

Since leaving Earth, they have only experienced one interstellar war.

No, that doesn't even qualify as a real interstellar war!

After all, the Proxima Centauri civilization, like human civilization, was a novice in interstellar warfare.

What is this?!

In my first ranked match, the opponent was a Challenger?

Zhao Zijie swallowed hard, his pupils trembling slightly.

The First Fleet has arrived at the target area.

[Enemy starship has entered our attack range.]

Two lines of text flashed across the holographic projection in front of me.

He quickly came to his senses.

With a formidable enemy at hand, thinking about these things would only slow him down the speed at which he drew his sword!

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!