Cyber ​​Heroes

Chapter 1176 City-State Residents: Life and Hatred
The Space City-State, the central area of ​​Chaldea, the Chaldea Internal Conference Room.

Li Liang looked helplessly at the twelve people arguing in front of him through the window.

Li Liang gently tapped the table at the window: "Gentlemen, esteemed gentlemen! This is indeed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—you usually do business with us, right? It's perfectly reasonable to accept employment at this time, isn't it? Don't you think we should put aside all arguments and work together to deal with the light-speed highway?"

The light-speed highway is a continuous region of sparse matter on the ecliptic plane of the solar system. It is closer to a true "vacuum" than anywhere else in the solar system, with very little interstellar dust.

Humanity's current near-light-speed travel relies primarily on light-speed highways. Near-light-speed travel outside of these highways is simply too dangerous.

However, the light-speed highway itself is constantly changing. The light-speed highway itself is not a physical entity, but rather a "region lacking a physical entity." The eight planets of the solar system and their moons, dwarf planets, asteroids, Oort cloud objects, and even interstellar dust and gas particles orbiting the sun are all constantly revolving. The light-speed highway itself is also constantly changing.

Without considering other factors, the orbital speed of a celestial body is determined solely by its orbital shape and the mass of the central celestial body; the celestial body's own mass only determines the stability of its orbit. Ideally, all celestial bodies on the same orbit would have the same instantaneous velocity at the same position. The operation of a light-speed highway would be essentially stable.

Thanks to this characteristic, once a specific space has been cleaned, it can generally remain "clean" for a long time.

However, this is only an ideal situation.

The gravitational perturbation of Jupiter is a problem that must be considered. Jupiter is 2.5 times the mass of all other planets in the solar system combined, and its gravitational influence is extremely powerful.

Jupiter once dragged a massive number of primordial planetesimals from the outer solar system into the inner solar system. It also violently disturbed rocky planetary embryos and planetesimals, causing them to collide violently with each other, shatter, and eventually be ejected from the inner solar system or crash into the sun.

The asteroid belt contains both rocky and icy bodies, a masterpiece of young Jupiter.

Mars' cramped space is also because Jupiter plundered its mass in the distant past.

Even now, Jupiter's disturbances to small bodies in the asteroid belt are still enormous. Sometimes it "throws" objects out of the asteroid belt, and occasionally it captures and tears apart objects from the outer solar system, adding icy portions to the asteroid belt.

For dense cosmic dust, we must also consider the light pressure from the sun and the solar wind.

The light-speed highway itself is complex and unpredictable, and requires human maintenance.

Not to mention, the human element must also be taken into account.

That is what Li Liang is doing right now.

King Agni's fleet is approaching. It will accelerate over several days, then slow down for a period before reaching the exit of the asteroid belt. If the entire process goes smoothly, the Celestial Fleet will reach the battlefield of Jupiter's moons in just twenty days, delivering a devastating blow to the righteous fleet.

However, things took an unexpected turn.

An armed force that had been silent in the inner solar system for a long time suddenly sent out a signal, saying that it was prepared to interrupt the enemy's acceleration process.

This chivalrous force has only made contact with Earth once; prior to that, no one knew they were there, and there were no records of them whatsoever.

This is quite absurd. Although the heroes have maintained a decentralized organizational structure since the time of the Martial Ancestor, they always rely on various technological means to leave traces on the network, and each hero is connected to other heroes. Most of the time, heroes can cross-verify their identities through this localized organizational structure.

Of course, there is also the possibility that the hero had endured a grueling battle, and all his comrades had already perished.

But such a thing is impossible for a group of chivalrous heroes the size of a "fleet"—it's impossible for every hero in such a group to have experienced the "death of all their contact persons."
But there is absolutely no record to prove that this chivalrous force within the inner solar system ever existed.

It seems it never made any move, only preparing to thwart King Agni this time.

In the realm of martial arts, some even refer to this force as "deus ex machina."

At that moment, Chaldea suddenly became a key position.

If this chivalrous force's interception operation succeeds, King Agni's acceleration process will be interrupted. The Celestial Fleet will thus miss the orbital window of the light-speed highway.

If they were to break away from the ecliptic plane, the Celestial Fleet would not only need to consume more energy to accelerate and decelerate, but would also lose the cover of all small celestial bodies and dense dust clouds, facing directly the ultra-long-range energy weapons from the outer solar system.

In other words, if their operation succeeds, the Tianxing fleet will be delayed for forty to fifty days.

If they replan their route, the Celestial Fleet will pass through an open area only hundreds of millions of kilometers from Chaldea.

In this region, only the neutral city-state of Chaldea currently possesses the power to influence the battlefield and, consequently, the future course of the war.

The White Ship retinue is currently still in the Jupiter region, cooperating with the Red Ship retinue. The Black Ship retinue is traveling along the asteroid belt, and it will take at least thirty days to reach this location.

Before the Black Ship Legion arrived at this window, Chaldea was the most powerful organization in this area.

Preliminary work in the early stages of the battle is equally important. Jupiter's perturbations have a certain influence on the orbits of asteroid belt objects, and deep-space fleets clashing here also need to conduct reconnaissance in advance and correct star maps in real time.

If the battlefield can be prepared in advance—whether it's spreading clouds of metallic dust that can interfere with radar, setting up booby traps, building artillery emplacements, or transporting and stockpiling supplies—a greater advantage can be gained on the battlefield.

After the death of the Seventh War God, King Agni became the sole master of military formations. The Black Ship Righteous Army's rebuilt command team is not yet strong enough to directly confront the Celestial Star Fleet. However, with prior preparation, the Black Ship Righteous Army might have a chance of victory.

This is an unexpected event, and the only person here who can negotiate is Li Liang, a young swordsman who hasn't even touched the first level of the Heavenly Realm.

Upon hearing Li Liang's words at the window, the twelve members of Chaldea's management finally stopped arguing.

Li Like said helplessly, "Sir, you can move three meters and see. Right there, on that floor, there's a hole."

"That was a wound left by the Swift Army soldiers several months ago, a wound that pierced through Chaldea."

The Swift Army Sergeant Palmer's large gun has a similar structure to the Swift King's usual weapon, but different specifications.

The Speed ​​King's javelin is larger, and its central part also has an energy storage structure that can absorb the impact like a spring and then launch the alloy kinetic energy weapon in the opposite direction. Ordinary members of the Swift Army cannot control the Speed ​​King's speed, so this structure is difficult for them to use—the reverse-launched kinetic energy weapon is not powerful enough.

Their weapons are more focused on direct combat.

After the outermost layer of the spear collided with the outer wall of Chaldea, the metal melted instantly under the powerful kinetic energy, forming several streams of liquid metal under the guidance of the spear's structure and the martial artist's skillful force.

It's important to understand that all the raw materials used by asteroid belt city-states are the wreckage of spaceships—even the wreckage of ships from 120 years ago was once a high-strength material.

This stream of liquid metal, containing immense kinetic energy, actually pierced through several layers of the warship's armor.

A single strike from the Swift Army at high speed can completely penetrate a warship.

With good technique, it might even be possible to penetrate multiple targets at once.

After all, there is no atmosphere in the universe, so the power of the liquid metal stream condensed by skillful force will not be reduced much even if it crosses a distance of tens of kilometers.

The key components of a modern deep-space warship are the reactor, the main gun, and the onboard warriors.

The warriors are free and flexible, and the reactor can be repositioned, but the main gun must be on the warship's central axis.

As the swift army passed by the ordinary fleet, several of the opposing warships' main guns would fall silent.

To the inhabitants of the city-state, all of this seemed like a miracle.

“That attack caused our entire city to lose 7% of its air, and we’re still replenishing it this month by digging out icy celestial bodies…” Li Like said sincerely. “Furthermore, the very core of our city was attacked by metal jets.”

"We are truly afraid, hero."

Li Like, a martial artist from the first level, addressed Li Liang as "Great Hero" at the window, which sounded somewhat strange, but Li Like seemed unaware that there was anything wrong with it.

Li Liang asked from the window, "Is this the first time you've heard that the Swift King's army is so strong?"

Chaldea's logistics chief: "Our city was almost completely crushed—we survived only because of their mercy..."

“Mercy? I’ve never heard of such qualities in government lackeys,” Li Liang said from the window. “Everyone knows that the Swift Army’s strongest move is only ‘one strike.’ Even if you let that Palmer come again, he couldn’t deliver a second such attack.”

Two anonymous signals were sent to everyone via the router.

[The Swift Army is not just one person.]

The knights on Earth were just wiped out several times by the Godspeed King.

"It seems you all have a sense of shame, knowing this kind of information requires anonymity." Li Liang's tone was tinged with disdain. "Since you know what happened on Earth, you should also know that the Speed ​​King himself was defeated by the Twelfth Martial God!"

"Even the avatar of the Father of All Machines died on Earth!"

Li Liang stood on the table by the window: "Is this the first time you've realized that the Speed ​​King is very strong?"

"The last time the Speed ​​King made a move was five years ago, in the Jupiter region. When Xinglin Gong Tao Enhai faced the Speed ​​King, he was powerless to fight back."

"You are not the only ones who have witnessed the power of the Swift Army."

Li Like stood up and said, "We need to discuss this matter further..."

"Don't forget, your existence is entirely due to us on the outer edge of the solar system," Li Liang said from the window.

One of them said in an icy tone, "I believe you won't perish because of this—isn't the Twelfth Martial God a very promising prospect?"

His subtle gesture seemed to say, "Just like the previous eleven."

Li Liang clenched his fist involuntarily at the window.

But the opponent was a first-level martial artist. She couldn't possibly use force.

Li Liang had no choice but to leave the meeting room.

After passing through a passageway, she arrived at an open space.

Here, she met an unexpected acquaintance.

Asga was walking towards him with a tall warrior, and they seemed to be exchanging information.

Sandrel nodded to Asga: "Thank you for the information, Ms. Asga. Please give my regards to your friends as well."

As he spoke, he walked into the passageway from which Li Liang had just emerged from the window.

Li Liang asked curiously from the window, "Asga, who is that? A first-level martial artist? I've never seen him here before. Is he here to see the Chaldea management?"

“The Chaldean administration is having a meeting there,” Asga nodded. “Sandrael, the guardian of Ur, is said to be here because of intelligence from the Hermite Merchant Guild. He sent me a message before, hoping to exchange information with me.”

"The Hermo Merchant Guild?" Li Liang was fairly familiar with the power of this neutral city-state. "I remember intelligence indicating that the Hermo Merchant Guild's ships left en masse a few days ago... What are they up to?"

................................................

"What are you trying to do?" a first-level warrior from Chaldea exclaimed as he stood up.

“To avenge my fathers,” said young Sandel. “Do you remember the story of the founding of Ur?”

Ur was the first space city-state.

Aresosa, the 11th asteroid discovered and named by humans, was discovered on November 23, 1867, and has a diameter of 136 kilometers.

Around this planet, the Old Celestial Fleet and the Sixth War God engaged in a direct battle. But just as the battle was reaching its climax, King Agni abandoned the fleet without warning, leading to the destruction of the Old Celestial Fleet.

A large number of soldiers from the old Celestial Fleet were forced into hibernation.

Forty years later, a group of space refugees from Mars arrived at Aresosa and piled up the wreckage of the old Celestial Fleet on Aresosa, which has a diameter of 136 kilometers, thus creating the city.

They rescued the warriors of the old Celestial Fleet.

“My fathers were overjoyed when they learned that the New Star Fleet was going to pass by,” Sandel said calmly. “It was an opportunity for our souls to find the solace they deserved. They were not only trapped in the war, but also in abandonment and betrayal. Even after being cybernetically enhanced, the heavy labor could not dull the pain in their hearts. They had a need to fight this battle.”

“You’re courting death!” a Chaldea administrator said. “Wasn’t Ur City only populated by veterans of the old Celestial Fleet? What about the others who joined the city? What about the younger children?”

“Everyone hates King Agni,” said Sandel. “Since you remember how the ‘veterans’ came to be among the founders of Ur, you should also remember how the ‘vagrants’ came to be, right?”

One hundred and sixty years ago, the Fourth War God occupied several space cities in the Jupiter region. The Protectors launched several unsuccessful attacks, but after King Agni arrived on the battlefield, he abandoned the conquest and directly used the main cannons of his warships to blast all of the Fourth War God's space cities to pieces.

At that time, a small group of people were not in the city. They were carrying out various construction tasks in Jupiter's rings or moons, and thus escaped the disaster.

Fearing a massacre by the authorities, they did not have time to prepare enough fuel and hastily embarked on their escape, not arriving at the battlefield ruins of Aresosa forty years later.

“In our city, no one is unafraid of King Agni, no one is unafraid of King Agni,” said Sandell Jr. “Although most people do not have the courage to face King Agni, this is our collective decision. We are willing to do anything to harm that butcher, even if it is just a part or a gram of fuel consumed.”

“But… what about the children?” The Chaldean administrators were speechless. One of them said, “You should think about this… these children have nothing to do with this hatred.” “We have 4,172 children who were semi-naturally bred in Ur, and 12,000 children who were cloned. We plan to send them all to Etmananki—each one of them will remember how Ur came to be and how it perished. The Hermo Merchant Guild will handle part of the transport. The miners will carry basic supplies, and minerals will be stockpiled on nearby small celestial bodies as resources for reconstruction. The remaining people will carry all the resources they can, arriving near Chaldean in twenty days. We hope you will abide by the agreement and provide us with the necessary assistance.”

“Furthermore, there’s no need to worry about our actions threatening Chaldea’s safety.” Sandrel took out a blue block-shaped object from his storage space; it was likely a folded piece of fabric. He unfolded the fabric, revealing several white pentagrams arranged in a specific pattern on a blue base, with irregular patterns painted on top in red. The red parts were clearly hand-painted, clashing with the original icons.

"We'll bring this with us."

Li Like couldn't help but shudder: "This is... the icon of the Celestial Star Fleet? You guys care so much about this identification code?"

“No, rather, most of my fathers’ generation loathed this symbol,” Sandel shook his head. “But it’s a symbol that makes King Agni immediately understand who we are. We weren’t willing to wear that guy’s symbol directly, so we modified it.”

“Wait a minute, this is too hasty,” another Chaldea administrator said. “We should first…”

"I'm not here to discuss 'whether or not to fight' with you all—that's already a done deal. I'm just here to inform you."

One of the managers looked at Lilike. Lilike shrugged and smiled wryly: "I had only heard that Sandeler was coming—I didn't expect him to send out this kind of news."

"Friends, we've gotten along very well in the past. I'm also very happy to have been friends with you all. This may be our final journey. I hope our friendship... will have a good beginning and a good end."

..........................................

Asga's consciousness detached from the Hermocratic Merchant Guild's reception page, and she shook her head: "The highest level of Hermocratic members I knew before was only B-rank. I don't know any more details, only that this operation was planned by the higher-ups of the guild. It is said that they have been preparing for two or three days and are still revising the plan—there's not much more to say about that."

"The Hermo Society... " Li Liang pondered at the window, "They've been preparing for three days... and they received definite information three days ago? That means they're in contact with Martian forces? But things are very chaotic on Mars right now, they've almost completely cut off from everything outside of Mars, and there aren't many channels. Who exactly is the Hermo Society in contact with on Mars?"

Li Liang's understanding of the Hemecrat Merchant Guild in Chaldea was limited. He only knew that it was a force that had always been close to chivalrous heroes, but it could not be equated with chivalrous heroes. They provided services to the vast number of warriors in the free city-states and also did business with the Research Knights, showing signs of selling data to the Research Knights—some in the chivalrous camp believed that the latter was the Hemecrat Merchant Guild's main source of income.

“Little Sandrel probably just took advantage of the fact that his prosthetic body’s absolute mass is much smaller than that of the warship, so he got there first,” Asga said. “As to know the specifics… we’ll probably have to ask Jeanne.”

Jeanne and Asgard reached an agreement with a group of local knights several months ago.

Jeanne, as the "hunter of the Six Dragons Cult," is extremely sensitive to the Six Dragons Cult and has developed the ability to identify them—this is Jeanne's public identity.

The chivalrous figures who have a deep connection with Kotonoha Kambara are now the backbone of the chivalrous forces on the outer edge of the solar system, and therefore they are very concerned about the Six Dragons Cult.

Jeanne's ability to identify the Six Dragons Cult led them to decide that "we should at least give it a try."

However, according to Xiang Shan's analysis, the most meaningful thing for Xia Ke in this cooperation is actually the fact that "we are cooperating with a hunter from the Six Dragons Cult".

Jeanne only discovered the existence of the Six Dragons Cult during her Mars hunt and could vaguely sense the "aura" of its members. The heroes couldn't trust such accuracy, nor could they expect those in key positions to line up and go through Jeanne's description one by one.

In that case, Jeanne would have a more detailed list of heroes than the list used by the chivalrous forces themselves.

They won't allow that.

The news that "someone has the ability to identify the Six Dragons Cult" and that "the knight-errant is cooperating with him" may prompt some of the Six Dragons Cult members who are lying in wait to take action.

Indeed, the facts are just as Xiang Shan analyzed.

Over the past few months, fifty martial arts heroes have come here and made contact with Jeanne. Apart from that, the heroes haven't asked Jeanne to do anything; they just want her to stay.

But this sudden event has made Asgard feel the need to wake Jeanne.

Jeanne is now asleep.

Jeanne's brain tumor continues to worsen, and there are even signs that it is accelerating.

Li Zheyuan asserted that if the illness were allowed to continue to progress, Rana would definitely not survive long enough for him to complete the research and development.

If we want Na to live longer, we need to forcibly suspend all life activities in Na's brain—that is, the so-called "apparent death".

The baseline human's ability to resist hibernation damage seems to be designed specifically for this purpose.

Jeanne handed over the power of awakening to Asgard, and for the past month, she has only been active about one day a week.

Asgard made an excuse, asking Li Liang to wait at the window while she went into a laboratory beneath Chaldea.

This place was established by a wandering knight. Compared to the outer reaches of the solar system, neutral city-states are more likely to receive resources from Mars. Many similar institutions are located here.

According to the agreement between Jeanne and the Knights, this place is now used by Lee Cheol-won.

Upon entering the lab, Asja's first complaint was from Li Zheyuan: "I'm telling you, you came to me for help, so at least you should have given me all the data, right? Do you realize that by concealing data, you're essentially..."

"Yes, yes. You can tell Xiangshan yourself later." Asga waved her hand and began the wake-up procedure.

Jeanne's prosthetic body hung quietly in this microgravity environment, connected to her open cranial cavity by a cylindrical device—a simple hibernation aid. Jeanne achieved a state of suspended animation using a combination of receptor antagonists and a cryogenic environment.

The assistive device is slowly withdrawn while drugs are injected into the brain, along with electrical current delivered at a specific frequency.

Twenty minutes later, Jeanne's prosthetic eye lit up, and then she turned off the light herself.

Asja waited another ten minutes for the results of the psychological self-assessment procedure.

Xiang Shan specifically instructed Asga that if either of them showed a significant deviation in their psychological profile readings, or if Asga felt that either of them had developed abnormal feelings towards Li Zheyuan, then Li Zheyuan should be killed immediately.

Xiang Shan spoke his first words: "Li Zheyuan, you've escaped death again."

Asga paused for a moment: "Why did you speak first?"

“Because he reacts faster… I haven’t even thought about speaking yet,” Jeanne said. “I… I shouldn’t be that sick yet.”

Asgard breathed a sigh of relief.

Li Zheyuan said sarcastically, "Then congratulations! To be honest, I'm starting to doubt Xiang Shan's motives for capturing me."

Jeanne looked at Li Zheyuan's camera. Strictly speaking, Li Zheyuan's biological brain wasn't here. He wasn't even remotely commanding via the internet. Asga had connected a closed-circuit data cable to this location, linking Li Zheyuan's brain to this point. Li Zheyuan didn't know where his brain actually was; he only knew the physical latency was negligible. Asga, on the other hand, could destroy that brain at any time.

Jeanne asked, "What do you mean by this?"

"I also have some doubts about your will to live, girl. Xiang Shan may not want to heal you, he just wants to humiliate me."

[Heh.] The phantom of the old man facing the mountain chuckled coldly at the edge of Jeanne's field of vision. [A clumsy attempt to sow discord.]

"Why do you say that?" Jeanne asked Lee Cheol-won.

“I’ve seen your records. You and Xiang Shan once searched for a drug cocktail to suppress your brain region in order to achieve the goal of ‘rapidly raising Xiang Shan’s consciousness if necessary,’ right?” Li Zheyuan said.

Jeanne nodded: "That's true... but we need to change some of the medications every now and then—and I don't need that anymore."

Jeanne is now able to consciously raise her consciousness towards the mountain.

“I don’t care whether you use that cocktail or not!” Li Zheyuan said. “What does this cocktail mean to me? It means that there are a large number of known targets—that only exist on Jeanne’s cells, and not on Xiangshan’s part!”

"In you, a monster that is not even sure should be considered a chimera—there is no doubt that the 'Towards the Mountain' part was transformed from 'Jeanne's' cells, which means that in this transformation process, the cells with active proto-oncogenes lost those specific molecular structures."

"This result alone allows us to deduce many details!"

"Your records of the drug mixture experiments could save me at least several years of time—you've clearly done all the preliminary preparations, yet you won't hand over the crucial data to me! Are you really not planning to just find some excuse to kill me?"

Asga and Jeanne exchanged bewildered glances; frankly, they only half-understood what they heard. But the phantom of the mountain in Jeanne's mind lowered its head and covered its face: [Holy crap, that makes so much sense...]

Jeanne gazed toward the mountain.

Xiang Shan sighed silently: "It must be because I've lost too much of my research skills—daughter, you understand, right? You're not exactly a cultured person."

Jeanne was shocked: "You overlooked it?"

"I'm not a god, making mistakes is normal..." Xiang Shan said. "Besides, after we got our hands on the lab, we've basically been dealing with the Six Dragons Cult—by the way, was waking us up just for this data? You should have the data stored in the cloud, right? That's all."

Seemingly feeling ashamed, Xiang Shan didn't intend to say anything more.

As Jeanne searched through the documents, she asked, "Did you wake me up just to ask this? Has something important happened recently?"

“Big things…” Asgard said, “Actually, quite a lot. When you woke up last time, you should have known that something big had happened on Earth, right?”

Jeanne nodded. Xiang Shan also said, "Well done, Twelfth Brother!"

"Then, just a few days ago, we confirmed that a major event occurred on Mars..." Asga said, "The Fifth God of War, who had been missing for over a hundred years, has reappeared and stirred up chaos on Mars. At the same time, large-scale AI anomalies have appeared on Mars, and some suspect that the Fifth God of War is consciously orchestrating all of this..."

"Wait...who?" Jeanne asked, "The Fifth Martial God?"

"The Fifth Martial God..."

“According to reliable sources… he should be…” Jeanne slapped her forehead, “As internal training material, you should still remember, right? The execution scene…”

“Logically speaking, he shouldn’t still have the ability to think.” Asga nodded. “Perhaps… he actually believes himself to be the Fifth God of War, uh, another individual?”

"I knew this kind of setting would come sooner or later." Tumor Mountain sighed heavily. "Since the original Martial Ancestor could be reborn time and again through the thoughts of others, there's no reason why other Martial Gods couldn't be the same. Many people suspect that the Seventh Martial God's prototype wasn't the Martial Ancestor, but the Sixth Martial God, right?"

"Then, there's another big event related to this place..."

Asgard recounted the story of King Agni, the mysterious chivalrous forces, and the events surrounding Ur and the Hermocratic Merchant Guild.

[A small fleet that no one had ever heard of suddenly appeared in the inner solar system?] Tumor Mountain fell into deep thought, then shook his head. [It's unimaginable that such a power exists... and what exactly is behind their sudden appearance...?]

“The Cube Angel Niaguti broadcast a message to the inner solar system, imploring all heroes to find a way to delay King Agni’s actions. They only appeared after receiving this message, and they have only contacted Earth once,” Asga added. “No other heroes have been able to contact this fleet. It seems only telescopes have gathered some intelligence; there is indeed a mysterious force sabotaging the Celestial Fleet’s acceleration process…”

"But judging from the observations from afar, that small fleet's countdown to death is almost over."

No one knows the origins of that small fleet, but they are absolutely no match for the Tianxing Fleet. All they can do is lay booby traps or launch kinetic weapons to disrupt the Tianxing Fleet's acceleration process.

That's not too difficult. Conventional low-light-speed warships can currently only accelerate within the "clean zone" near a planet's orbit. This area is cleaned year after year by planetary gravitational wells, with the vast majority of interstellar matter captured by gravity, making it extremely "clean." Only after accelerating here will the fleet choose the "entrance" to the light-speed highway to proceed.

During the acceleration phase, the fleet's trajectory is relatively predictable. As long as kinetic weapons and booby traps orbiting the sun are launched in the direction from which the Celestial Fleet is flying, or weapons launched in advance based on calculated trajectories, it is possible to hinder the Celestial Fleet.

As long as the launched weapon is not destroyed by the maintenance fleet of the light-speed highway during its flight, which lasts for several days.

Generally speaking, booby traps and kinetic weapons can evade many detection methods by being coated with electromagnetic absorption coatings and interstellar camouflage.

However, while the launched weapons have a good chance of successfully hindering the Tianxing Fleet, once they make contact with the fleet, the fleet can immediately analyze their flight path over several days based on their trajectory, thereby locating the launch site from several days ago, and then searching along the astronomical observation data.

In the vast, empty universe where there is almost no shelter, doing this would be suicidal.

Without the cooperation of allies, this isolated force of chivalry will only be utterly crushed by the enraged Tianxing Fleet.

Xiang Shan hesitated: [They only contacted Earth once? Are they really...seeking death? Are they truly knights-errant?]

With the cooperation of heroes from Earth and other space cities, this small, hidden fleet still has a chance to conceal its presence.

But they didn't.

They deliberately chose to refuse the help of other heroes.

It's hard to imagine that this is the kind of thing a chivalrous person would do.

It gives the impression that... they had been lying low for many years, just waiting for a chance to die, and then they just happened to encounter such a chance.

“Sandra, a first-level warrior from Ur City, specifically sought me out to exchange information. According to the information he provided, the Hermo Society seems to have made a deal with them. The Hermo Society wants everything that Ur City has in its reserves, and in return, the Hermo Society will transport the supplies that Ur City ‘currently’ needs to them at the most suitable price…”

“Oh, then they must really need hibernation-related drugs,” Li Zheyuan said. “The price of these drugs has almost doubled in just two days. This is one of the few large-scale commodity transactions in this era.”

[Hibernation-related medicine...] After pondering for a moment, Xiang Shan asked Jeanne to ask Asga for more information.

After a moment, Xiang Shan said, "The organizers behind the Hermo Society know far more about this situation than the heroes here. They know who we should contact first."

To be honest, I originally planned to mention this "mysterious fleet" when Dugu Beiluo Shimen discussed intelligence with the other heroes, but in the previous chapter, to keep the topic focused, I couldn't find a suitable place to insert it...