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

The communication signal echoed through the starry sky for the last few seconds.

Then, Tanaka's command star was captured by that vast, ocean-like gravitational field.

He couldn't escape, nor did he intend to.

His neutron star was stretched into a long strip within the event horizon of the black hole, only to be completely swallowed up in the next moment.

At the moment he disappeared, dozens of new celestial bodies slowly emerged in the sky above the battlefield of the Eighth Star Sector.

That was the last trump card of the Sakura Kingdom—a superneutron star.

They were urgently transported from the country, originally intended to launch a suicide attack when the Black Hole Legion broke through the last line of defense.

But Su Li didn't give them that chance at all.

Before the superneutron stars had even completed their fusion, her gravitational field had already locked onto their core nodes.

Then, the collapse began.

The superneutron stars were shrinking inward at a visible rate, their density soaring dramatically, and the spacetime structure was being crushed at their cores.

Then, they turned into black holes.

It is a black hole that is beyond anyone's control.

Their observers frantically adjusted parameters in the observation chamber, trying to control their collapsing star.

But it's no use.

The gravitational field of a black hole is like a wild beast that has gone out of control, and it begins to devour everything around it.

"Ya-me-lo!!!"

"What—what is this?! Aren't we allies?!"

"It's superneutron stars! Those superneutron stars have collapsed into black holes! Run—run!"

But where can we run to?

The entire battlefield has been surrounded by the Black Hole Legion of the Great Xia Kingdom.

There was a butcher's knife in front of him, a butcher's knife behind him, and an even bigger butcher's knife hanging overhead.

Those out-of-control black holes raged and crashed around the territory of the Sakura Kingdom, devouring everything in their path.

Then they started devouring each other.

Without precise control from observers, the gravitational fields of the several runaway black holes quickly began to interfere with and pull on each other.

The instant the two black holes collided, an extremely dazzling light exploded on the battlefield.

That was a gravitational wave tsunami released when two black hole singularities collided.

Wherever the shockwave passed, all the struggling Sakura Kingdom planets were shattered into fragments.

The successful collapse of several superneutron stars not only posed no threat to the Black Hole Legion, but also accelerated the complete collapse of the Sakura Defense Line.

When the last star of the Cherry Blossom Kingdom was reduced to interstellar dust in the gravitational wave tsunami, there were no more enemy signals on the battlefield of the Eighth Star Sector.

Eight thousand neutron stars, one hundred thousand red giant stars and blue giant stars.

completely annihilated.

Meanwhile, the Black Hole Legion of the Great Xia Kingdom suffered zero losses.

……

Tokyo, the land of cherry blossoms.

"Prime Minister... Eighth Star Sector, gone."

The Defense Minister's voice came through the communications channel.

"General Junichiro Tanaka died in battle, and eight thousand neutron stars and one hundred thousand red and blue giant stars were all... all gone."

The Prime Minister paused, his hand holding the coffee cup still.

He looked down at the cooled brown liquid in the glass and suddenly found it somewhat amusing.

"The Eighth Sector is gone... Do you know what that means?"

The Prime Minister put down his coffee cup and slowly stood up.

The Defense Minister lowered his head.

He certainly knew what it meant.

The Eighth Star Sector is home to nearly half of the industrial power of the Sakura Kingdom.

There are hundreds of high-quality star mines, more than a dozen large starship manufacturing centers, and countless scientific research facilities and data reserves.

Losing the Eighth Star Sector will mean the complete loss of star currency and star mineral resources for the Sakura Kingdom.

Without Star Coins, there are no Speed-Up Cards.

Without star minerals, there is no equipment.

Without equipment, there are no war resources.

Without war resources, even survival becomes extremely difficult.

This is not a strategic retreat.

This is a body that has been cut in half.

"Is there any other way?" the Prime Minister asked.

The Defense Minister remained silent for a long time, then slowly shook his head.

"It's over. We have no chance of winning anymore."

The Prime Minister slowly sat back down in his chair.

He stared at the light screen in front of him for a very long time.

Then, he picked up the encrypted communicator on the table and dialed a number.

"Start the Amaterasu Project ahead of schedule."

There was silence on the other end of the communication.

Then, a trembling voice rang out: "Prime Minister, are you serious? Once Project Amaterasu is launched, the entire Tokyo metropolitan area—"

"I said, let's start Project Amaterasu ahead of schedule."

The Prime Minister's voice was calm, so calm it was chilling.

"One hundred million jade fragments! Since we can't win, then let the entire Sakura Kingdom and the Great Xia Kingdom perish with us."

The call was disconnected.

The atmosphere in the meeting room plummeted to freezing point in an instant.

"Prime Minister...please reconsider."

Vice Minister Kameda finally couldn't help but stand up.

"Once Project Amaterasu is activated, not only Tokyo, but the entire First Sector will be—will be—swallowed up by that thing! We won't even be able to evacuate!"

"Withdraw?" The Prime Minister turned to look at him, his gaze devoid of any warmth. "Withdraw to where? To the United States? They won't even answer the phone, and you expect them to leave the door open for us?"

Vice Minister Kameda opened his mouth, unable to speak.

But he knew in his heart that the Prime Minister was right.

The United States has abandoned them, and the whole world is laughing at Japan.

"Go and relay the order. Have Amaterasu open all the superneutron star fusion chambers and dump every neutron star that is still operational into them."

"This time, we will create a supermassive black hole that no one can control in front of the Black Hole Legion of the Great Xia Kingdom."

"A black hole large enough to swallow the entire First Sector."

"One hundred million jade fragments, I mean it."

……

The successor forces of the Ninth Legion and the Black Hole Legion of the Great Xia Kingdom began to take over the entire Eighth Star Sector after it fell.

The appearance of the Eighth Sector is completely different from that on the battlefield.

Everywhere there are abandoned space mining facilities, vacant research stations, and data storage facilities that haven't been moved yet.

Those data repositories contain technical information accumulated by Japan over the past decade or so, ranging from basic stellar physics to cutting-edge neutron star routes, research manuscripts, experimental data, and unpublished papers—everything imaginable.

One batch of data, which was highly encrypted, was quickly extracted by intelligence officers.

After Su Li and her team unlocked the first encrypted folder, the usually jovial Su Li fell silent for a long time.

"This is... all the core data for the neutron star route? The complete skill point allocation plan, the full evolution path, the practical formation array... and the analysis data from hundreds of failed experiments..."

She looked up at the coordinates of the Cherry Blossom Country on the holographic star map, which had already dimmed.

"They really left everything here."

Fang Yan stood next to her, his gaze lingering on the data for a long time.

He didn't say a word from beginning to end.

Because no one understands the significance of these data better than him.

Ten years ago, the Cherry Blossom Country used this path to squeeze the Great Xia Country out of the top five, and since then it has suppressed the Great Xia Country on the international stage for more than a decade.

Now, this path is laid bare before the Great Xia Kingdom, like a textbook that has been dismantled.

"Send all this data back to China." Su Li suppressed her usual playful smile, her voice more serious than ever. "Use an expedited encrypted channel to send it directly to the military and Xinghua University."

Fang Yan nodded and turned to make the arrangements.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Eighth Sector, the Ninth Legion's mining specialists were extremely busy.

"This is the largest batch of spoils to date—according to statistics, there are more than 300 high-quality star mines that have been discovered, and more than 200 suspected undeveloped mineral veins."

"The star ore refining plant, starship manufacturing equipment, and logistics supply warehouses remain largely intact."

"The only regret is that too many old residential areas remain here. Judging from the evacuation traces, they must have been evacuated long before we arrived."

The commissioners were silent for a brief moment.

But they quickly rallied and continued adding new numbers to the inventory.

The value of these spoils of war was so immense that it enabled the Great Xia Kingdom to achieve a qualitative leap in its overall strength.