Xyrin Empire

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Lan came here to seek help from people at the research institute, as she has tried every method to restore her tail but failed, including high-temperature ironing, washing, sun exposure, and applying safflower oil. Currently, all these methods have declared failure. Cheng Miao found hair gel somewhere, whose effectiveness defies physical logic, and now the pile of sword tombs behind Lan's rear shines with a chilling light, truly fierce and intimidating as it moves. To tell you, if the research institute increases her security level by one percent, she might not be allowed in with those sword tombs.

Poor fox, managing to walk all the way from the teleportation point with such post-modern stuff—the burden of raising a troublesome child, imagine the ordeal! A decent Nine-tailed Fox wakes up to find herself turned into a porcupine!

"Is Cheng reflecting at home?"

I look at Lan's slightly embarrassed face with a smile, noticing her ears drooping, furry and delightful.

Lan twists her body, and the peacock screen behind her shifts stiffly: "She's stuck to the bed. I came to find a solvent to rescue her."

I was shocked, and after inquiring, I realized that the hair gel Cheng Miao had was swapped from a Sister Misaka chemical society member at Shadow City. It takes ten minutes to set, and Cheng Miao went to sleep on it—she's still stuck to the bed.

I kindly suggested Lan let the troublesome child stay stuck for one day to learn a lesson, only to receive a giant eye-roll. The Nine-tailed Fox said, "Cheng is just immature," and then dragged her stiff sword tombs into the research institute.

I pout from behind: serves her right. I wonder what show she'll put on at the store next month—I just saw her fur split!

After a chance encounter with the open-screen Lan, I suddenly remembered my main task after sending her away, and hurriedly went to find Sandora. On the way, I'd already shared the research institute's issues with her, and upon reaching her room, Her Majesty the Queen was waiting.

"Is the container on the Brown Earth Star empty?" Sandora seemed surprised by the result, yet somewhat indifferent, as if sensing it's inevitable. "Then Milia appears to be unique. But what's the ancient people's intention in leaving that thing? An empty box..."

Could it be that the builder of the Brown Earth Star relic forgot to put someone inside while nearing completion, and just placed the box in the cave? I doubt this possibility is high.

Besides the container being empty, another noteworthy thing is Milia's sudden teleportation phenomenon. It turns out Milia can move instantaneously between two containers, a process called "upload" by the container's AI. Though these words seem mundane, appearing in this context naturally triggers various thoughts.

"Using the word upload instead of time-space jump isn't contradictory," Sandora thought aloud. "The Xyrin Host often uses this term to describe their space-jumping behavior. As high-density information collections, they instinctively view themselves this way, so during super space-time transmission, they often say they 'got uploaded'."

"Could Milia be a Xyrin Host?" I raised an eyebrow. "She looks just like a regular human."

"Bubbles also looks just like a regular human. Xyrin Hosts excel in controlling information units, thus they're also adept at hiding their power and life form, an instinctual talent. Their created 'appearance' even reaches the level of replacing reality, becoming 'truth', the fact Little Baobao can disappear before Bingdisi is proof. If Milia is a Xyrin Host or a similar unit, special detection is needed to see through it. Of course, 'Xyrin Host' here is just a metaphor; Milia isn't an Angel Envoy, but she's definitely not a normal life form." Sandora said this with a hint of emotion. Feeling her thoughts, I quickly waved my hand: "Don't worry about her, that girl is strangely cheerful; she doesn't take her race seriously at all."

Indeed, you can't expect someone who burst out from a box to be emotional. Zaku had a significant impact on this, never hiding such shocking facts from Milia, leading her to develop extraordinary nerves from a young age, even rivaling Qianqian.

Pandora and Visca's battle report returned this afternoon near dusk, when I was at the command hall listening to Sivis's report on the Celestial System Fleet's launch. The fleets led by two short individuals were already at the front line with the enemy, currently in fierce battle. During video communication, explosions filled the outer space behind them, while they busily did something, showing the unqualified Great Generals had again arrived at the battlefield. Yet, seeing their happy faces, I knew these war lunatics were beyond saving, and could only sigh.

Due to Pandora's brief speaking style, unsuitable for reporting, she focused fully on combat and battlefield command (really?), leaving her sister Visca to report.

"Brother, the probe has been successfully deployed, but the battlefield interference is severe, and it's uncertain whether it's safely reached the Shadow Space," Visca's voice sounded distorted, not due to interference, but because she was exposed to outer space without using sound waves, directly transforming spirit signals into voice, which distorts compared to real speech, "However, feedback signals show the probe is still alive; it should have entered the enemy's space."

"Can the signal from the probe locate the entrance to the Shadow Space?" Big Sister was very concerned about this issue.

The cat-eyed Loli looked towards a dazzling direction, then answered: "Oh, they shouldn't have attacked the left wing; the enemy is confused... Ah, the probe, well, unfortunately, no. The probe's computational capacity is limited, and data transmission is minimal. The enemy's Shadow Space and real space are severely misaligned; opening a pathway requires an enormous amount of calculation, beyond the probe's capability to serve as a coordinate. Ah, brother, the probe is sending back some blurry images! It successfully entered the Shadow Space!"

After Visca's words, a very blurry image appeared in the second main video area of the holographic projection, accompanied by severe interference noise; the image shook and distorted intolerably, like a broken-down black-and-white TV. I could hardly believe this was a video made by an Imperial technology product.

The image was very brief, lasting only six or seven seconds. We saw some meteorite-like black lumps swiftly pass across the screen—that was the probe moving forward—and then a mechanical device resembling a Space Fortress appeared at the center, lasting less than two seconds before the probe moved quickly away to maintain concealment.

"Seems like Gwent-33, a comprehensive arsenal-type Space Fortress," Sandora softly said, "Unexpectedly, they transferred real-space Space Fortresses into the Shadow Space."

"How's the battle situation over there?"

The signal from the probe was intermittent, with no valuable information yet, so I refocused on the ongoing battle with the two little ones.

"Very, very, very good! The enemy didn't anticipate so many troops ambushing in this frontier base, now suffering greatly. They attacked the Mirror Fleet near the fortress right upon emergence. By the time they sensed something wrong, they'd already expended the Galaxy Main Gun's charging mode, then my foolish sister and I joined in, catching them off guard. Earlier, Kaos took control of the Mirror Fleet, lining the ships at the front as firepower points, while we are launching a saturated bombardment from the flank—enemy lines will soon collapse! Brother, remember to reward me when I go back!"

Visca's voice sounded very cheerful, and it was reflected in the image: the little one's cat-like eyes were so bright that they were nearly emitting laser beams over twenty meters long.

Then I noticed she actually did emit laser beams from her eyes... This girl is just like her sister, there's not a single part of her that can't be weaponized...

Listening to the front-line battle report from the other side, I couldn't help but exchange a glance with Sandora, then shrugged and chuckled: "Who said those two little crazies don't know any tactics? Aren't they using a beautiful ambush strategy here?"

"They're just a bit militaristic at their core, plus they're used to charging into battle personally," Big Sister commented objectively from the side, "but they've been fighting wars for so many years now, surely they aren't the type of reckless generals who are all brawn and no brains, since countless soldiers can safely entrust their lives to the two of them."

I kept nodding while listening, then suddenly remembered something: "Hey, Sis, wasn't it you at noon who said you were worried about Sivis, with her external thought circuit not being by their side, and that those two little ones might suffer on the battlefield?"

Big Sister immediately lowered her head pretending to check her shoelaces—she was wearing zip-up boots!

On the other side, Sivis abruptly coughed, clearly startled by my portrayal of her as a fierce figure.

"The enemy reinforcements have been blocked?"

While we habitually digressed, Sandora still remembered to handle business. Watching the high energy beams and explosions constantly flashing across the video background, she asked solemnly.

Since confirming the enemy's unpredictable space assault capability, we've made blocking the enemy's endless reinforcements an absolute priority when engaging in direct confrontations with the Revenge Army. Continuous detonations of high-yield space internal bombs in a small area can destroy normal space order, turning a section of the universe into a lawless zone to prevent the enemy from "surfacing." Sandora's mention of this almost procedural matter puzzled me a bit, but I soon realized why she brought it up: Visca actually let out a silly giggle!

"Um... the enemy's reinforcements are still increasing... we didn't shut down their reinforcement channel."

What are those crazy girls thinking?!

"That's too risky!" Sure enough, Sandora immediately said sternly. In such a situation, she wouldn't pamper the two little sisters as usual, "Your current battlefield advantage is entirely based on ambush and numbers. If you don't cut off the enemy reinforcements, soon your ambush will turn into a war of attrition, and the casualties will soar."

"It's okay, we're ready to retreat."

Visca suddenly stuck out her tongue, revealing a mischievous smile like a little demon.

"That space rift will remain open, allowing as many enemy reinforcements to come as they wish, the more they come, the more will die. My silly sister and I have already turned the back space fortress into the biggest self-destruct bomb. Two Xyrin Hosts are still assembling reactors and space internal bomb production lines inside it, and the space around here is littered with hidden mines. I've almost emptied the ammo stock of every battleship here; there's definitely enough explosives to turn this entire sky zone upside down!"

I was stunned, suddenly realizing something: Visca, this girl, really has experience working in the biggest terrorist organization in the multiverse...

"Now we're holding this space fortress steadfastly to make the Revenge Army think it's an important military base. They'll think we'll defend it at any cost, obviously not expecting us to prepare for a retreat. Scanning devices show large enemy reinforcements will jump into the battlefield in ten minutes. Our ships' jump engines are already prepped; as soon as they appear, we'll turn right around and leave, haha, and then... boooooooom!!!"

Visca spread her arms wide, making an exaggerated explosion gesture, with her blood-red cat eyes gleaming against the pitch-black space backdrop. I noticed on another screen, the Imperial Army's formation was indeed shifting, with the marked Mirror Fleet stealthily exchanging positions, replacing real Pandora Heavy Equipment Corps ships at the front. Although the mirror versions have only about a third of the capability of the originals, in the short term, those mother ship-level mirrors can still withstand enemy fire. Meanwhile, the Imperial ships slowly moving to the rear quietly switched engine modes, just as Visca said, they are set to make their escape.

On the battlefield radar, the red dots representing enemies grew increasingly numerous, gradually overwhelming the Pandora Sisters' fleet. They had already passed the near defense guns' defensive line. At this distance, even the Frontier-class main cannons could be fully exerted (due to its role, the Frontier-class is one of the few main battleships with near defense guns as its main armament, since its vicious special shield needs full power to operate; even equipping it with a super long range main gun wouldn't unleash half its power. In fact, the Frontier-class's long-range attack method relies solely on jumping warheads). Behind Pandora's fleet was a giant explosive device packed full of space internal bombs and ghost energy reactors—a space fortress with a main axis reaching 237 kilometers.

Who said those sisters don't use their brains?

Their explosion artistry is quite sophisticated!

Now I understand: the Pandora Sisters aren't lacking strategic minds; they just love explosions too much, leading me to overlook the fact that these two youngsters are even shrewder at warfare than I am. When necessary, they can devise deadly strategic tactics, and yes, the central theme is, of course, explosions.

Eleven minutes later, as planned, the Imperial Army suddenly retreated. The mirror ships left at the front line used self-detonation to cover this action, while the Revenge Army swarmed the space fortress still counterattacking with guard towers, just as Pandora and Visca anticipated. For such a "strategic location," the Revenge Army chose occupation over remote destruction. Had they used the latter method, they might have still suffered damage from self-detonation, but at least over half their ships could have been spared. However, they pushed their main force forward, enveloping the two- to three-hundred-kilometer space fortress and the large surrounding array of roaming factories with motherships.

The space internal bomb's flash came from behind them just seconds later; hidden within space folds, the internal bombs swiftly and precisely demolished the passages from shadow space to reality, halting further enemy reinforcements to prevent the situation from spiraling out of control, while also blocking the enemy's retreat path. Then, an unprecedented explosion erupted at the galaxy's edge—a blast more intense than a hundred stars exploding combined.

An explosion occurring at the Milky Way's edge may take tens of thousands of years before Mobrans could observe it with the naked eye. If a civilization within a constant star system exists there by then, they would surely be astonished as to why a bright star suddenly appeared in the sky, and why it was so short-lived. Thousands of ghost energy reactors, tens of millions of space internal bombs ranging from infantry-use to battleship deployment, and even all explosive compressed crystals dug out from a weapons depot by two one-meter-twos, all crammed into one battlefield to be triggered. The energy produced by ghost energy explosions spreads at speeds far exceeding that of light, disrupting local space's foundational rules, causing the mega-explosion and subsequent shockwave to tear through the nearby three light years of space, of course also annihilating all tangible matter within this space, and finally leaving a visible dark spot along the Milky Way's brightest spiral arm. Pandora and Visca's warfare art shone vividly in this textbook-perfect ambush, despite the two passionate, self-willed sisters transforming the ambush into a direct battle, the direct battle into a slaughter affair, and eventually escalating the slaughter to a full-scale sky zone campaign, then capping it all off with an explosion potent enough to wreck multiple constant star systems...

Quite fitting of their combat style, those unbridled one-meter-twos truly are peerless. It seems that if there's ever combat near civilized zones in the future, I'll have to stick with the two of them at all times. My role is the reins! (To be continued. If you enjoyed this work, please consider visiting Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)