Everyone's playing Red Giant? I, Black Hole, devour everything!

The moment those words were spoken, the entire public channel of the British Empire fell silent.

The polar jets of a quasar.

They had certainly heard of that name.

After the fall of the Sakura Kingdom, all countries frantically gathered information about black holes and quasars.

They know how bright the accretion disk of a quasar is, how strong the gravitational field of a black hole is, and how large the event horizon is.

But they had only heard of it.

I haven't seen it with my own eyes.

And now, that light is hanging right above their heads.

Winston's fingers trembled slightly on the microphone.

He wanted to say something.

He wanted to tell everyone not to be intimidated by Lin Tian's threats.

He meant that no matter how powerful Lin Tian's quasar was, it was impossible for it to destroy all the detonation points on the artificial supernova chain at the same time.

But he himself didn't believe these words.

Just then, Lin Tian's voice rang out again.

"Prime Minister Winston, I am here today to announce only one thing."

"If you persist in pushing forward with the Supernovalink project, then I will personally light up a supernova for the London sector."

"The stellar explosion triggered by the jets at the poles of my quasar has enough energy to sweep across the entire London Sector!"

You have twelve hours to consider.

"If the Supernovalink project hasn't been canceled in twelve hours—"

"You'll bear the consequences!"

"Don't say you weren't warned!"

The broadcast has ended.

The public channel fell silent again.

……

Lin Tian's ultimatum exploded like a bomb in the upper echelons of the British Empire.

The emergency parliamentary session was reconvened less than ten minutes after the broadcast ended.

But this time, the atmosphere in the conference room was completely different from before.

As Winston delivered his tough speech, lawmakers applauded him.

But at this moment, the applause had long since turned into silence.

"I propose that the Supernova Chain project be cancelled immediately. Lin Tian's threat is not just empty talk; he means what he says! Japan is a prime example!"

"Cancel it?" another senator immediately retorted. "Supernova Link is something we've invested countless resources to deploy! If we cancel it now, all our previous investments will be wasted! What about the other member states of the alliance? How are we supposed to explain this to them?"

"Explain? You're still thinking about explaining? Did you see that light just now? Did you hear what he said? That's something we can't fight!"

"Calm down!" another person joined the argument. "He said the polar jets of a quasar could trigger a star explosion, but even the most powerful quasar can't trigger multiple stars simultaneously. Thirty-four detonation points, and he's just one person! He couldn't possibly—"

"Are you sure?" The senator's voice turned cold. "What makes you so sure? Are you betting the lives of everyone in the British Empire that he can't do it?"

The conference room fell silent.

No one can answer this question.

Because they know too little about quasars.

All they knew was that quasars had strong gravitational fields, that they were very bright, and that a single quasar had swallowed hundreds of thousands of stars on the battlefield in Japan.

They knew nothing else.

They dare not gamble.

Because if the gamble is lost, the price will be the destruction of the entire British Empire.

"Could we contact the United States?" a congressman asked cautiously. "Didn't they reach a cooperation agreement with the Great Xia Kingdom? Perhaps the president of the United States could mediate—"

"The beacon of democracy?" Winston suddenly sneered. "You think the beacon of democracy will help us?"

The congressman was taken aback by his question.

Winston offered no explanation.

Because everyone present knew perfectly well what was going on.

When the land of cherry blossoms perished, the land of the beacon of light chose to remain silent.

This time, they will be no exception.

The debate between the pro-war and pro-peace factions lasted for a full four hours.

Both sides presented a wealth of arguments.

However, these arguments are fragile and easily shattered in the face of the brilliance of quasars.

"That's enough," Winston suddenly said.

The argument in the meeting room abruptly stopped.

All eyes were on him at the same time.

"Connect me to the president's hotline—the president's hotline of the United States."

……

The communication was quickly established.

But the person who answered the phone was not the president himself, but the president's aide.

"Prime Minister Winston, the President is currently in an important internal meeting and is unavailable to take calls. Is there anything urgent you wish to convey?"

Winston's grip on the microphone tightened slightly.

An important internal meeting.

He knew what that statement meant.

The president of the United States is avoiding him.

Just like the emergency communication from the Prime Minister of Japan, it was rejected for the same reason.

"No," Winston's voice was extremely hoarse. "There's no need to relay that."

He hung up the call.

Then he dialed a second number.

President of the Russian Bear Country, Novikov.

This time, the call was answered.

"Prime Minister Winston, are you calling at this time to ask me to reconsider my decision to withdraw from the league?"

Winston did not answer the question, but instead asked in a very soft voice, "President Novikov, why did you withdraw?"

Novikov remained silent for a moment on the other end of the communication.

"There's no reason why, I've already quit."

"Since the Russian Bear has withdrawn from the alliance, we will no longer participate in any military operations against the Great Xia Kingdom."

"Prime Minister Winston, you should also step down."

The call was disconnected.

beep - beep - beep -

Winston held the microphone, listening to the monotonous busy tone, his expression gradually turning ashen.

"Your Excellency the Prime Minister," the Defense Secretary spoke cautiously from the side, "we still have the pulsar storm matrix, and eight thousand pulsars deployed outside the London sector—we still have the capability—"

Winston did not speak.

Eight thousand pulsars.

Just hours earlier, he had used this figure in parliament to boost morale.

But now, he doesn't even have the courage to say those words.

Because he knew that eight thousand pulsars were nothing compared to quasars.

Charles Gray's 1,200 pulsars didn't even last ten minutes in the outer reaches of the Moscow star sector, while the quasar named Lin Tian didn't make a move at all.

How long can eight thousand last?

twenty minutes?

Still thirty minutes?

What's the point?

……

Time passed by, second by second.

There are less than two hours left until the twelve-hour deadline.

Winston sat in his office, his eyes fixed on the light screen in front of him.

The light screen displays real-time detection data of primordial quasars.

Although Lin Tian's gravitational lens suppressed most of the light, the British Empire's most advanced gravitational wave detector was still able to capture some peripheral signals.

Those signals were very stable, consistently stable.

The polar jets of the primordial quasar entered a charging state.

"Your Excellency the Prime Minister!" The Defense Minister burst into the office, his face drained of all color. "The intelligence report—you must see it yourself!"

Winston took the data panel from him and looked at it.

Then, he froze completely.

The energy readings exceeded the upper limit of the range of all detectors.

"Warning! Warning! The polar jets of the primordial quasar—are now charging!"

"Energy reading—The energy reading cannot be displayed! It exceeds the upper limit of the range of all our detectors!"

The alarm lights in the command center were flashing frantically.

"How could it be so fast? There were still two hours left—he clearly said there were still two hours!"

"He didn't detonate it prematurely," the technical director's voice was extremely hoarse. "He simply put the jet into a charging state!"

"He did it on purpose; he wanted us to see him charging up, to see it clearly with our own eyes..."

The Defense Minister opened his mouth wide, unable to utter a single word.

Winston silently put down the data panel.

"Connect me to Lin Tian's communication channel."