I started by watching videos, and I chose 10,000 combat power.

The captain slowly raised his head, his gaze sharp, and gently swiped across the holographic projection platform, which was glowing with a deep blue light.

A 3D map of the area surrounding Earth was displayed.

On the map, the locations of particle cannons, laser cannons, and energy shield generators are marked with red dots, densely packed together like a giant, spread-out net.

"The deployment locations of these weapons were not chosen randomly."

The captain's voice was deep.

"They form a perfect firing matrix in Earth's orbit, with the firing angle of each cannon precisely calculated to ensure there are no blind spots. Such precise deployment is beyond the capabilities of Earth's current technology."

His gaze shifted from the holographic projection table to the debris clouds outside the porthole.

Countless spaceship wrecks and metal fragments float silently in the desolate space. They were once the pride of the Karda civilization, but now they have become cold garbage.

These fragments are drifting slowly and silently in the surrounding area.

Inside the conference room of the United Government building on Earth, images were continuously playing on the projection screen.

The particle cannons and laser cannons have run out of energy, and the attack has ceased.

Those weapons deployed in orbit, on the moon, and at Lagrange points were not designed with the need for sustained combat in mind.

They are designed as "one-shot" weapons, capable of releasing all their energy in a short period of time to inflict maximum damage on the target before becoming completely ineffective.

In the conference room, most people stood up at the same time.

They thought the battle was over, the fleet had been annihilated, and Earth was safe.

They opened their mouths, ready to cheer, ready to clap, ready to hug those around them, ready to say, "We won!"

The words were stuck in my throat before I could even say them.

On the projection screen, the floating debris and thick smoke were slowly dissipating.

The debris drifted further and further away, its density decreased, and the view became clearer and clearer.

Behind the debris, the massive mothership still hovered in place.

It is safe and sound.

The dark gray hull was free of any scratches or dents, showing no signs of attack whatsoever.

The deep blue shield on the mothership's surface remained, even brighter than before the attack began, like a freshly polished sapphire, silently floating in this space filled with debris and corpses.

The people who had just stood up in the conference room slumped back into their seats, as if they had been shoved hard. Their legs went weak, and their buttocks slammed heavily onto the chairs with a series of dull thuds.

Director Qin lifted his hand from the table and gripped the thermos tightly.

The representative from the United States suddenly sprang up from his chair, leaned forward, braced his hands on the table, and stared intently at the screen.

The representative from the Northern Bear Kingdom remained seated upright, but his hands, resting on his knees, were clenched into fists, his nails digging deeply into his palms.

Everyone on the planet Earth witnessed this scene.

The mothership, that colossal warship far larger than all the other spaceships, remained intact despite the attack that destroyed dozens of other spaceships.

Its shield withstood the bombardment of all particle cannons and laser cannons. All beams of light were refracted, absorbed, and dispersed the moment they came into contact with the deep blue light film, leaving not even a tiny scratch.

In the conference room, some people began to tremble uncontrollably.

Fear began to spread.

Inside the bridge of the mothership, the captain's expression was grave.

He stood in front of the holographic projection table, his hands supporting him on the surface, his dark gray fingers leaving deep fingerprints on the smooth surface.

His gaze was fixed on the vanished dots of light on the projection table—twenty-nine dots, representing twenty-nine spaceships, all of which had now disappeared.

Twenty-nine spaceships and thousands of soldiers from the Calda civilization vanished in just a few minutes.

The adjutant stood behind him, gripping the data tablet tightly in his hand.

His lips trembled slightly, and his dark gray skin appeared even more so under the dim red light.

He lowered his voice, so low that only the captain could hear: "Captain... we... have lost our entire escort fleet. The mothership still has a considerable amount of shield energy left, but the other ships are all gone."

The captain did not turn around.

His body was trembling slightly, not from fear, but from anger.

The tips of his horns gleamed coldly under the light, like two sharp blades poised to strike.

"The Blue Star civilization does not possess such weapons. Particle cannons and laser cannons of this level are definitely not something a civilization below level one could manufacture. There must be a more advanced civilization supporting them."

His voice was deep, and each word seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth.

The voice of the mothership's AI came through the loudspeakers, its tone flat and devoid of any emotion:

"Captain, the space jump system is charging and is expected to take some time to complete. During this period, the mothership will be unable to perform a space jump."

The captain slammed his hand on the holographic projection table, leaving a shallow dent in the gray-black surface.

"how long?"

The voice of artificial intelligence rang out again, still unhurried and deliberate.

"Based on current energy reserves, recharging is expected to take some time. The mothership has just completed a space jump, and its energy system needs time to recover."

The captain opened his mouth, revealing two rows of dark yellow fangs.

He wanted to order a counterattack, to use the mothership's main guns to blast Blue Star into dust, to completely erase this small blue planet from the universe, to vent his hatred.

The voice of artificial intelligence rang out again, this time bringing news that made the captain's pupils shrink.

"Captain, an unknown spaceship has been detected. The spaceship model is not in the Karda civilization database. Technical level assessment in progress... Assessment complete."

"The spaceship's technological level is between that of a Type III and Type IV civilization. It is similar in technological level to the mothership. There is only one of these spaceships."

On the holographic projection platform, a silvery-white dot of light quietly appeared in the direction of the moon near Blue Star.

The captain's pupils suddenly shrank to a thin line.

The spaceship was between level three and four, with a technological level almost identical to that of the mothership.

In a one-on-one fight, he is absolutely confident of winning.

But once the enemy coordinates their attack with the particle cannons and laser cannons in orbit around Earth, how long can the mothership's shields hold out?

His finger gently drew a circle on the holographic projection table, circling the silvery-white dot of light.

"Prepare the main guns. Once the shields are fully charged, fire immediately and destroy that spaceship."

His voice echoed through the dark red bridge.

However, before he could finish speaking, the AI's notification sounded urgently again: "Captain, a humanoid object has been detected outside the mothership."

The captain suddenly looked up, his gaze not falling on the holographic projection table, but on the porthole.

Outside the porthole, a figure hovered nearby the mothership.

That wasn't a spaceship, an escape pod, or any other vehicle; it was a person.

He was dressed in dark clothes, with his hands in his pockets and his body slightly leaning forward. His posture didn't seem like he was floating in space or standing outside an alien mothership; rather, it looked like he was standing on the ground, leisurely enjoying the scenery.

His eyes were black, and his pupils were round, not vertical.

His skin was not grayish-black.

He had no horns, no sharp teeth, and none of the characteristics of the Karda civilization could be found on his body.

His face was facing the porthole, facing the captain, and facing those dark red vertical pupils—which were now contracting violently.

The person who arrived was Luo Fei.

Seeing that the mothership was intact in the conference room, he used teleportation to arrive outside the mothership.

He wasn't wearing a spacesuit, helmet, or any life support equipment; he simply floated in space, gazing out of a porthole of an alien mothership at the captain.

His expression was calm, not a deliberate attempt to appear composed, but rather a detached indifference.

The captain's horns trembled slightly under the dim red light, almost imperceptible without close observation.

But upon closer inspection, one would discover that it was not trembling, but resonance—his body was emitting extremely subtle, unconscious tremors in an uncontrollable fear.

His mouth was still open, revealing two rows of dark yellow fangs, but his previous smile had vanished without a trace.

"How...how did he end up in space?"

The adjutant's voice came from behind the captain; it wasn't loud, but it reached the captain's ears clearly.

He didn't answer, because he himself wanted to know the answer.

How could a carbon-based life form, which has not even reached the level of a Type I civilization, survive in a vacuum without any protection?

This is simply a fantasy. Even with their bodies having undergone multiple genetic modifications since birth, they would still need to wear specialized equipment to survive in space.

However, the scene before him was undeniably real—the person was right outside the porthole, less than a hundred meters away.

The mothership's AI voice sounded again, this time with a hint of confusion: "The target's biological characteristics are completely identical to those of humans on Earth, and no traces of genetic modification or mechanical enhancement have been detected. However, its body energy readings far exceed the normal range for humans on Earth, and cannot be quantified, analyzed, or explained."

The word "inexplicable" should not appear in the dictionary of artificial intelligence.

It can say "the target is outside the detection range" or "there is insufficient data to draw conclusions," but it says "it cannot be explained."

This means that it encountered something it couldn't resolve itself.

The captain raised his hand from the holographic projection table, not to order a counterattack, but to wipe the sweat from his forehead.

He raised his hand halfway, but suddenly stopped—he realized that there was no sweat on his forehead at all.

The physiological structure of the Karda civilization prevents them from sweating when they are afraid. Instead, they secrete another substance—a pheromone, a colorless and odorless chemical that can spread fear among companions.

At this moment, his body is releasing this substance.

His adjutant smelled it, his soldiers smelled it, and everyone on the mothership knew that their captain was afraid.

This fear did not come from the twenty-nine destroyed spaceships, nor from the hundreds of weapons that fired simultaneously, but from the expressionless carbon-based life form floating in space outside the window.

One, just one.

Luo Fei hovered outside the mothership's porthole, gazing at the gray-black alien creature with horns and dark red eyes inside the cabin.

He could see the captain's pupils suddenly contract, the muscles at the corners of his mouth twitching, and the adjutant behind him retreating step by step, one step, two steps, three steps, each step moving further away from the captain.

Luo Fei's hands were still in his pockets. He slowly stretched out his right hand, pulled it out of his pocket, raised his index finger, and gently hooked it towards the porthole and the captain.