The Last Sentinel

on the screen.

A dark brown, scorpion-shaped spaceship was carefully navigating through the asteroid belt, its tail radiating layers of red gravitational waves as it attempted to locate the Heart of the Trisolarans.

Just then, a huge meteorite above the scorpion-shaped spaceship hissed and vibrated as it crashed down on the spaceship.

The spaceship hurriedly moved to the other side to evade.

No sooner said than done, boom!

The scorpion-shaped spaceship suddenly exploded out of thin air, and crimson flames shot into the sky. After the flames formed energy ripples, a bizarre scene unfolded.

At the site of the scorpion-shaped spaceship's explosion, there was no wreckage or even the bodies of the spaceship's crew. Only some shattered debris remained, indicating that a spaceship had just exploded there.

Inside the bridge of the "King Billy," Captain Billy was present, while the two first mates stared wide-eyed.

White Hair rubbed his eyes. "What just happened? Wasn't this spaceship dodging? How did it suddenly explode!"

Red Hair said, "I didn't see it clearly either, it was too fast! And shouldn't there be wreckage after a spaceship explosion? How come the wreckage and bodies are gone?"

Billy snapped his fingers. "Rewind the video, slow down the frame rate tenfold! I refuse to believe we can't see what happened!"

The video was played in reverse again, and the scorpion-shaped spaceship suddenly began to dodge. The dodge was extremely slow, as if it had been frozen.

In the direction the scorpion-shaped spaceship was dodging, a meteorite suddenly exploded. The meteorite exploded at an extremely fast speed, and a strange red shadow suddenly shot out. Then the scorpion-shaped spaceship exploded in mid-air, and the strange red shadow disappeared.

Billy slammed his hand on the table. "So fast? Slow it down fifty times!"

The scorpion-shaped spaceship began to dodge, but a meteorite suddenly exploded in the direction it was avoiding, and with another whoosh, a red shadow streaked past. Slowed down a hundredfold, this time the red shadow could be vaguely seen to be a carbon-based life form in human form.

Billy said, "Slow down by eighty times! No! Slow down by a hundred times!"

This time, Billy and his brother finally saw the entire process of the Scorpion spaceship exploding.

The scorpion-shaped spaceship began to dodge, its movements slowing to almost a standstill. The three stared intently at the meteorite opposite them, only to see it suddenly explode from the middle, revealing a crimson steel mech. It possessed the form of a carbon-based humanoid, wielding a liquid-flowing chainsaw sword in its left hand and a ship-slaying blade in its right. With a leap, it laid the chainsaw sword flat and slashed vertically with the ship-slaying blade, unleashing a simple yet powerful cross slash. The overwhelming blade and sword energy struck the scorpion-shaped spaceship's engine reactor!

The crimson mech swept past with a flourish; a true man never looks behind him, and vanished without a trace.

The scorpion-shaped spaceship suddenly exploded, about to turn into countless fragments!

At that moment, a gigantic steel maw appeared out of thin air. This terrifying steel maw devoured everything like an abyss, completely covering the embers and wreckage of the exploded scorpion-shaped spaceship and swallowing it whole!

The crimson behemoth flicked its tail, then suddenly caught up with the crimson mech and disappeared.

The battle time displayed on the screen is 85 milliseconds, or 0.085 seconds!

In less than 0.1 seconds, it dismembered and devoured a level 1.0 scorpion-shaped privateer!

Such speed can only be described as highly efficient!

The red-haired and white-haired men were dumbfounded. It wasn't that they hadn't seen mechs before; on the contrary, coming from Civilization 2.0, they had seen countless types: beast-type mechs, modular mechs, fortress mechs, war mechs, and even humanoid mechs resembling carbon-based life forms—they had seen them in the database. Strictly speaking, humanoid mechs were a very physics-defying type of combat mech. The human form's high center of gravity made them unsuitable for combat or close-quarters fighting. They lacked both the charging power of beast-type mechs and the defensive capabilities of fortress mechs. Therefore, creating humanoid mechs was an extremely irrational act.

But the human mechs they are seeing now, with their sharp cross slashes and carefree backs that never look back, have shattered the traditional theory that human-shaped mechs are unsuitable for combat.

Bi glanced at his two deputies with an expression that suggested they were looking at an idiot, and asked, "Gentlemen, do you still have any desire to fight it one-on-one?"

White Hair forced a smile and said, "Billy, this, this was an accident! The Scorpion VII privateer is too weak, we need to use another ship..."

Billy raised his hand and waved it, and the huge three-dimensional holographic projection screen above his head suddenly split into hundreds of sub-screens. Almost simultaneously, a strange red shadow appeared on each sub-screen. Then, before the spaceship could explode and burn, it disappeared. The scene was extremely bizarre!

One split screen after another!

A flash of red light appeared first, followed by a cross-shaped slash that revealed the monster's fangs and gaping maw, and the spaceship vanished.

The entire process was standardized, streamlined, efficient, and clearly defined.

The target is only the 1.0 spaceship. The battle is over in an instant, the spaceship disappears in an instant, and the next battle begins in an instant!

On the navigation map, along the ring of meteorites, white anchor points are constantly being created.

In a star chart, white anchor points symbolize disappearance, vanishing, and annihilation.

The number of white anchor points increased exponentially, one per second, sixty per minute, and after half an hour, there were more than three hundred white anchor points!

Of the more than 500 spaceships that entered, more than 300 instantly turned into white anchor points. They disappeared before they even had a chance to send out a distress signal.

This scene instantly aroused fear in the other spaceships. How did a perfectly good treasure hunt competition turn into a wilderness survival challenge!

This is different from what was said when we arrived!

"Damn it! What happened? Space demons? How come so many spaceships suddenly died!"

"It's a sneak attack! They lured us into the asteroid belt and are using the complex environment to hunt us down!"

"Quick, run! Don't get entangled with demons here. If they kill us, the spaceship and our corpses will be devoured together!"

Just then, Billy turned on his microphone and addressed the more than two hundred ships, "Public Broadcasting Channel, this is Billy, captain of the [Billy King]! My ship is outside the asteroid belt. I have located the killer. This killer is very interesting; he is targeting level 1.0 civilization ships, and so far he has not targeted level 2.0 civilization ships. If you don't want to die, contact the nearest level 2.0 ship as soon as possible and gather together. That way, he might not attack you for the time being."

Billy's words instantly detonated the remaining two hundred-plus spaceships.

"Is this guy only capable of ambushing 1.0 civilization ships? Where's the 2.0 ship boss? Give the underlings a hand!"

"Level 2.0 civilization ships, please raise your defensive shields so our ships can take cover inside!"

"Hide? Do you think our 2.0 civilization's spaceships don't charge for activating their energy shields? Who's going to reimburse us for the colorless crystals in the energy modules?!"

"I'll reimburse you for the colorless crystals! I'll give you three small colorless crystals so I can hide for a bit and hurry up!"

"Ten! Ten colorless crystals, not one less!"

Amidst the haggling, over thirty more 1.0 spaceships exploded on the spot, vanishing without a trace!

"Alright, ten colorless crystals!"

"Quickly, the ten small crystals have been transferred. Activate the 2.0 overclocking shield immediately!"

"..."

The remaining hundred or so spaceships continued to converge, gathering around the three 2.0 spaceships. The engines of the 2.0 spaceships were fully overclocked, and the terrifying plasma defense shields unique to the 2.0 spaceships were deployed, enveloping all the 1.0 spaceships.

The three 2.0 spacecraft all voiced their support.

"Don't panic, everyone! We're all seasoned space pirates on the Grand Line, how can we be intimidated by a greenhorn!"

"That guy is from Civilization 1.0, not 2.0! Don't worry, he can't break through our plasma shield!"

"As long as he shows up, we'll attack together. Even if he can instantly destroy a spaceship of the same class, he can't possibly kill us all!"