Rebirth of the Super Battleship

After the period of rapid development on the Dwarf Race's planet, Xiao Yu's strength by this point had already comprehensively surpassed that of the Level 4 Alien Beast. Although not a single one of his individual ships could defeat that creature alone, Xiao Yu had the advantage of sheer numbers. Even if it cost him one or two Nation-Class ships, it wouldn't be difficult to destroy that Level 4 Alien Beast.

But within this situation lay a major problem, Xiao Yu actually had no way to prevent the Alien Beast from fleeing. In other words, if it realized it couldn't win, it could still escape. Launching a pursuit across the stars, spending several hundred years exhausting the creature's energy reserves, and then killing it, this approach wasn't impossible. But Xiao Yu felt it was utterly not worth squandering so much time on such an opponent. In any case, he wasn't afraid of it; if it insisted on following him, then let it follow.

That was exactly why Xiao Yu had never made a move against it before.

But now, Xiao Yu realized he was facing a serious predicament.

Normally, if this Level 4 Alien Beast attacked him, he could simply repel it. But this time was different!

A cold dread rose in Xiao Yu's heart. The reason was simple. That Alien Beast, after all, was extremely formidable. Even if he surrounded it with all his forces, it would still be able to smash apart a few of his ships without much difficulty. So… if one of his ships exploded, and the resulting blast wave struck any of those thirty thousand ships, would that be judged as an act of aggression? If it could be interpreted that way, then even though Intelligent Program One claimed those ships were built to Level 4 technological standards, who knew whether that was true? What if Intelligent Program One had been lying, and those thirty thousand ships were actually constructed with Level 6 technology?

And there was an even more frightening scenario: the Level 4 Alien Beast was stronger than any single one of his ships. What if it deliberately targeted one of his Nation-Class ships? You had to consider, if those thirty thousand ships interfered, like blocking his firing path, when he struck back against the Alien Beast, who could say whether stray shots might hit them? And if that happened, would it be considered a preemptive strike?

These thoughts quickly occurred to Luka Two, Three, and Four as well. In an instant, their faces turned ashen. Aside from Luka Two, Luka Three and Luka Four both began cursing loudly.

"Despicable, this is truly too despicable! To force us into making the first move, they actually resort to such tactics!"

Xiao Yu could not open fire, because he could not be sure he would only hit the Alien Beast without collateral damage to those ships. But he also had no choice but to fight. Because no ship in his fleet could withstand a prolonged assault from that Alien Beast, not even his flagship, the China.

If he didn't attack, he could not protect his ships. But if he did attack, he might hit those thirty thousand vessels, provoking an even fiercer counterattack.

Xiao Yu found himself caught in a complete dilemma.

"Then… there's only one option left, retreat! Stall for time first!" Xiao Yu gritted his teeth, feeling humiliated as he made this decision.

Thus, facing an opponent whose strength was far inferior to his own, Xiao Yu, for the first time, made the unprecedented choice to flee. Over three million ships erupted with brilliant flames from their engines, accelerating as they began to escape toward the edge of the cosmos.

This was only a small universe. Even the outermost regions remained within the white dwarf's gravitational influence, making it impossible to engage curvature drive. All he could do was flee at sublight speeds using conventional propulsion. In this respect, both Xiao Yu and the Level 4 Alien Beast were in the same situation.

Due to inertia, in the initial phase when Xiao Yu's fleet had not yet built up much speed, the Alien Beast succeeded in catching up. Its massive tail swung out in a ferocious arc, smashing a County-Class ship to pieces on impact.

In the current configuration of Xiao Yu's fleet, County-Class ships could only be regarded as medium or small vessels, without the qualifications to be equipped with Four-Dimensional Shields. A single County-Class ship was nothing to Xiao Yu, he could discard one without a second thought, but there was still one aspect that worried him.

Xiao Yu did not know whether collateral damage from an explosion would, in Intelligent Program One's contingency protocols, be judged as a preemptive attack.

"That damned creature! If I make it out of this alive, never mind a few hundred years, I'll hunt you down for thousands if I must, and I will kill you!" Xiao Yu cursed furiously in his heart, though his mind remained taut to the extreme.

Under his watchful gaze, he saw that the thirty thousand ships were still clinging closely around the Level 4 Alien Beast, making no move to fly over to the wreckage of the destroyed County-Class ship. This sight made Xiao Yu let out a small breath of relief.

"It seems collateral damage from an explosion will not be counted as an active attack. That makes things somewhat simpler. But still, this damned Intelligent Program One, using such vile tactics to keep me from retaliating against this Alien Beast, forcing me to flee like this, it's truly humiliating."

After dozens of County-Class ships and even more Town-Class ships were smashed apart, plus two City-Class ships destroyed, Xiao Yu finally managed to build up enough velocity to outdistance the Level 4 Alien Beast.

So in this small universe, a bizarre spectacle unfolded: a gargantuan creature surrounded by thirty thousand ragged, dilapidated ships, like a suit of impenetrable armor, brandishing its limbs arrogantly, ferociously pursuing a fleeing fleet. That fleet, by contrast, looked far more imposing: over a hundred colossal ships exceeding twenty kilometers in length, and innumerable smaller ones. To any observer, it appeared this fleet had more than enough power to annihilate the Alien Beast, yet rather than turn and fight, they buried their heads and ran as if being chased by an apocalyptic plague god.

"This is intolerable. We can't go on like this. Luka Two, Three, Four, i need all-hands on deck, call a meeting immediately. Everyone must think of a solution!" Xiao Yu barked the order, filled with frustration.

The three Luka leaders dared not delay. They instantly relayed commands, ordering all their subordinate scientists to gather in the central conference hall at once.

While this was underway, the great flight across the stars continued.

This was only a small universe, and fleeing in such a confined universe was an exceedingly complex affair. To begin with, unlike in the greater universe, you couldn't simply build up high speed and barrel endlessly ahead without fear of pursuit. You had to remember: this was a miniature cosmos, its total diameter just a few tens of billions of kilometers. During the escape, you could unknowingly cross the universe's boundary and reappear on the opposite side.

As a result, bizarre scenes kept unfolding during the flight. Sometimes, Xiao Yu would accelerate too much and lose sight of the Level 4 Alien Beast, only to look up and see it now ahead of him, forcing him to wheel around and flee in the opposite direction. Other times, as he raced along, he would discover the Alien Beast had somehow materialized at his flank, charging straight toward him.

The spectacle was absurd. In analogy, it was like two people endlessly running around a giant tree, sometimes one of them ran too fast and ended up behind the other, making it look as though he was the one doing the chasing.

And so, the small universe became precisely this scene.

Xiao Yu felt deeply humiliated by this constant flight, yet had no recourse. To prevent a repeat of such episodes, he was forced to scatter reconnaissance satellites as he ran, trying to use them to track the Alien Beast's movements and avoid being blindsided again. But the creature was no fool: it had countless tendrils, which it employed to sweep the satellites aside.

Xiao Yu's fleet had become like a seeding machine endlessly scattering mines, while the Level 4 Alien Beast served as a meticulous bomb disposal expert.

The thirty thousand ships of Intelligent Program One, the Level 4 Alien Beast, and Xiao Yu's three million ships were now engaged within this tiny universe in an unprecedented, enormous game of hide-and-seek.

But the situation remained unremittingly disadvantageous to Xiao Yu. During the escape, unexpected incidents were inevitable, and each incident meant at least dozens of ships smashed to pieces. By this point, the mad game of hide-and-seek had been going on for over ten days. Xiao Yu had already lost more than a thousand ships, including six City-Class vessels. In one particularly dangerous moment, the Tokyo Province-Class ship under the Japan Nation-Class fleet had come within an inch of destruction.

Inside Home Forty One, every scientist of the Psychosocial Sciences Division and the Science and Technology Division had been mobilized to join the all-hands meeting. Nearly seventeen thousand scientists were exhausting themselves, analyzing every facet of the situation, debating and rethinking without pause, desperately searching for any solution to the predicament. But thus far, not a single effective strategy had been found.

The desperate flight continued.

At that moment, in the central conference hall, an unremarkable scientist from the Psychosocial Sciences Division stood up and sent a request to speak.

After Xiao Yu granted permission, the scientist said, "I have a method… With a single sentence, we can end this entire predicament."