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

The moment the Charter of the Cosmic Domination War was released, it was as if the whole world had been muted.

On the public channel, unusually, no one spoke.

This is not a sector battle, not a guild war, and not a simulation exercise.

This is war, a real war.

A life-or-death space war fought between nations.

The silence lasted for about ten seconds.

Then it exploded with a bang.

"Holy crap! The war's already started?!"

"Five years?! A war going to last five years?! Who the hell can withstand that?!"

"All safe zones have been removed? What are we newbies supposed to do? We've only been awakened for less than three months!"

"Newbie protection is gone... Isn't this just sending us to our deaths?"

"What's the panic! The government will definitely have a plan! Don't fucking lose your composure!"

"Arrangements? What arrangements could possibly withstand a global siege? Didn't you see the announcement? The nation's comprehensive strength rating fluctuates in real time! What does this mean? It means that from today onwards, every single person in the Great Xia Kingdom is a target!"

……

Lin Tian stood next to the observation chamber, surrounded by all the members of the Black Hole Crash Course.

People's expressions were very solemn, and everyone was prepared.

They had been preparing for this day for three whole months.

Just then, an encrypted communication was established through the quantum channel of the Black Hole Research Institute.

Encryption level: Highest.

Sender: Military Department of the Great Xia Kingdom.

Chen Wang's voice came from the other end of the communication.

"Lin Tian, ​​get into the observation chamber right now."

"I'm next to the observation chamber, what's up?"

"A large number of unidentified gravitational signals have been detected in the outer perimeter of the seventh star sector."

Lin Tian's gaze sharpened slightly.

"How many?"

"Currently, 3,600 have been identified, and the number continues to increase."

Three thousand six.

And it's still increasing.

Chen Wang took a deep breath: "These signals are not from the Great Xia Kingdom's observers! War has begun!"

This number far exceeds the scope of ordinary military exercises.

This is not a test, nor a provocation; it is a long-planned, full-scale attack.

The moment the war charter took effect, someone held a knife to the throat of the Great Xia Kingdom.

"Whose people are they?" Lin Tian asked.

"They belong to at least four different countries: the remnants of the Amaterasu Society of the Sakura Kingdom, the Iron Cross Legion of the Hans Kingdom, the Royal Hunters of the British Empire—and a high-density stellar formation whose origin we cannot identify."

Lin Tian frowned slightly.

Source could not be identified.

"What characteristics?" Lin Tian asked.

"Extremely high density, far exceeding that of neutron stars." Chen Wang's voice was very low. "At least 10 to the power of 15 grams per cubic centimeter. There are no known celestial bodies in our database that match this parameter."

10 to the power of 15 grams.

Almost instantly, a word popped into Lin Tian's mind.

Quark Star.

"That high-density formation is most likely the Quark Planet reconnaissance team from the Lighthouse Nation," Lin Tian said, a hint of coldness in his voice. "I'm setting off immediately!"

Lin Tian hung up the call and glanced at everyone present.

Lu Xuejian, Su Li, Fang Yan, Li Changying, Zhao Zheng...

Three months ago, they were still groping their way forward in their respective star sectors; three months later, they have become the first group of seeds in the Great Xia Kingdom to embark on the black hole route.

Now, it's time to test the results of their training.

"Everyone, get into the observation chamber."

……

Border of the Seventh Star Sector.

This is one of the most bustling newbie areas in the Great Xia Kingdom.

Every few hundred billion kilometers, there is a primordial star for novice observers, emitting a quiet glow.

But now, this area has become a desolate ruin.

Everywhere there are the remains of stars.

The shattered star core drifted slowly in space, its outer gas stripped away, leaving only clumps of cooling interstellar dust.

Those specks of dust were once someone's star, someone's hope that they painstakingly cultivated over months or even years.

But now, they are just a bunch of data.

"Help! Someone help me! My star has been locked onto—by someone from the Land of Cherry Blossoms!"

"I'm in sector B-12 on the edge of the Seventh Sector, and this place is full of red giants! At least hundreds! They're all from the Hans nation!"

"My star was swallowed... my brother's star was swallowed too... we've only been awakened for less than two months!"

"Damn it! Damn it! My observation module just popped up a warning—my star has lost forty percent of its mass! I haven't even seen a glimpse of the enemy! Where are they?!"

"Southwest of the Seventh Star Sector. I'll post the coordinates in the channel. Don't go there!!! The British Empire's Royal Hunter Corps is there, with at least fifty pulsars. I just escaped from there and almost got killed."

"Help...help..."

SOS signals kept coming through the public channels.

But all that responded to these signals were more cries of anguish.

"Gone...all gone...my star has been swallowed up—!"

"I've been swallowed too... The observation module popped up a warning... Observer qualification has been revoked..."

"I'm not reconciled! I trained for three years! Three years! And it's all gone!"

Similar cries echoed throughout the channel.

And accompanying these cries were lines of cold, hard data.

[Overall Strength Rating of the Great Xia Kingdom: -30]

[Overall Strength Rating of the Great Xia Kingdom: -15]

[Overall Strength Rating of the Great Xia Kingdom: -28]

……

Each drop in rating means that another observer from the Great Xia Kingdom has lost their star in this asymmetrical war.

From the start of the war until now, only about twenty minutes have passed.

The Great Xia Kingdom has already lost over a thousand new recruits in the Seventh Star Region.

Thousands of stars, thousands of observers, and thousands of hopes that were fought for day and night.

That's it, gone.

……

Meanwhile, at the other end of the Seventh Sector, in a star field that has not yet been affected by the war, four fleets are quietly hovering.

Their formation was extremely orderly, maintaining a subtle distance between each other.

They are neither so distant as to fight their own battles, nor so close as to interfere with each other.

Four fleets, four countries.

Amaterasu-sha, the land of cherry blossoms.

The Iron Cross Legion of the Hans.

The British Empire's Pulsar Royal Hunters.

And—that entirely black formation.

Their stars are extremely small, each only a few tens of kilometers in diameter.

Compared to the surrounding red and blue giant stars that span hundreds of thousands or even millions of kilometers, they are like a few sesame seeds scattered among a herd of elephants.

But these few sesame seeds were enough to make the commanders of all the countries present take them seriously.

Because their density is too high.

It has reached a level high enough to render any conventional detection method ineffective.

Lighthouse Nation, Quark Planet Reconnaissance Team.

The commander-in-chief of the four-nation coalition was a middle-aged man named James Carter.

He is a colonel in the U.S. White Eagle Secret Service and one of the key promoters of this "Supernova Project".

At the same time, having immersed himself in the Quark Star route for fifteen years, he was among the earliest Quark Star route advocates in the United States.

"Gentlemen, the recent results are quite good." James Carter's voice rang out simultaneously in the minds of the four commanders through the encrypted communication channel.

……

P.S.: A pulsar is a rapidly rotating neutron star that periodically emits electromagnetic pulses. While Japan was the first to research neutron stars, it wasn't unique to them; the British Empire (the "Empire on which the sun never sets") was ahead of Japan in this area. Since the subsequent plot doesn't primarily involve the British Empire, treat it as background information.