Chapter 40: The So-called Unlimited Rules, Section 9

The reality was almost exactly as Black Hair had predicted.
The massive warship, acting like a moth drawn to fire, immediately alerted both sides in the conflict. When one side realized that this suddenly appearing warship was attacking their enemy, their wariness turned into ecstasy.
After all, at the end of this competition, with all participants suffering heavy losses, a single warship held immense significance. Although neither side could currently do much to the other, the addition of this new force would severely tip the balance. It was hard to say what else it could achieve, but breaking through the enemy’s defenses was definitely possible.
Thinking this way, the fleet that Black Hair had ordered to provide support could no longer contain their growing desire. With the firepower support from Black Hair’s warship, they launched a full-scale attack.
In an instant, the density of fire from both sides’ warships reached a terrifying level. In the silent starry sky, energy cannons with diameters of dozens of meters swept across like storms, striking the enemy warships and causing bursts of flames. The massive warships swayed, struggling to maintain their formation, yet they were forced to retreat under the increasingly intense bombardment. Their once-mighty hulls were now riddled with wounds. These warships, as large as meteorites, now resembled small boats struggling in a raging sea, no longer displaying their former strength.
Amidst the chaotic gunfire, the attacked side finally began to falter. One of the most severely damaged warships was about to be destroyed by a main cannon with a diameter of a hundred meters, which unleashed a massive fireball. That cannon pierced through its already damaged stone armor and shattered its energy conduits. Under everyone’s eyes, the warship exploded violently, with bursts of flames shooting out from its various holes. The entire warship swayed as it slowly disintegrated.
First, the bridge collapsed, then the bow split. Large sections of armor, each square kilometers in size, peeled off and shattered, revealing the internal structure of the warship to all. As more gunfire struck it, even more intense explosions ensued. Suddenly, a small pure white light sphere appeared deep within its hull.
“It’s the energy core!” shouted the chubby man beside Black Hair from a distance of a light year away.
Hearing this term, everyone on the flagship’s deck paled.

The energy core—that’s the most crucial part of any warship. It carries the power source for the entire ship; calling it the heart of the warship is no exaggeration. Even a slight vibration could cause problems under normal circumstances, let alone an attack! If it exploded at such a moment, it would be a catastrophic disaster.

Everyone knows that given the power of the Moore giants, the energy concentrated in their cores must be astonishing. If it exploded suddenly, even a planet nearby would be completely destroyed!

And that’s exactly what happened.

With the appearance of that small glowing sphere, almost everyone on the battlefield was stunned. Especially the attacked side, which immediately took action. Ignoring the barrage of gunfire, they all turned their ships around, trying to escape from the collapsing giant ship.

Their movements were frantic, as if they were fleeing from a terrifying plague. But it wasn’t that easy. The dense formations they had built for defense became obstacles to them. In their panic, several giant ships collided with each other, creating even greater chaos. For five full minutes, not a single ship managed to escape. On the contrary, they were compressed even tighter under the attacking side’s fire.

Five minutes passed in an instant. While the attacked fleet was still struggling for survival, the small white sphere finally exploded.

First, there was a visible rapid search, followed by sudden expansion. In just three seconds, the small sphere turned into a huge hollow sphere spanning thousands of kilometers. Countless blue electrical currents burst forth within it like a storm, creating a sight as beautiful as fireworks.

But those were fireworks of death… Inside the hollow sphere, almost all of the attacked ships were engulfed. Through the images transmitted by the mosquito-sized reconnaissance drones, Black Hair could even see the ships being torn apart by those currents in slow motion.

There was no sound, no tragic screams. In less than ten minutes, the original formation of the attacked fleet was gone. Inside the huge hollow sphere, dozens of ships, large and small, were being destroyed one after another. Flames flickered inside the ruined hulls. Then, one after another, even more violent explosions erupted from those broken warships. The glowing spheres of explosion flickered continuously, forming a continuous chain.

“That fleet is finished,” Black Hair sighed deeply, lowering his gaze, unable to bear to watch any longer.

As an experienced commander, if he still couldn’t see the outcome, there was no point in continuing. Yet he never expected the energy core of the Moorish giant ship to possess such terrifying power. That enormous hollow sphere, thousands of kilometers in diameter, was simply a nightmare for every commander.

It should be noted that the attacking side had maintained a dense formation at that time. In the face of this death-filled hollow sphere, there was hardly any room to evade. Although its diameter of thousands of kilometers might seem large, it was more than enough to accommodate a formation of just dozens of warships. Moreover, that strange energy sphere seemed to have a peculiar gravitational pull, causing the ships trapped within it to lose even the strength to move.

It could be said that up to this point, the attacking side had achieved a complete victory. All they had to do was wait for the explosions of the attacked fleet to subside before reaping the fruits of their success. Though the ships of the attacked side were now in ruins, careful searching could still yield many spoils—enough to ensure no shortage of supplies.

But at this very moment, the seed planted by Black Hair finally sprouted. The dilapidated giant ship that had been aiding the attacking side suddenly began moving at high speed. Leveraging its strong inertia from the battle, it managed to break through into the midst of the attacking fleet. Before the opponents could react, an even more terrifying explosion occurred. Visibly, that blue hollow sphere, covered in countless lightning bolts, reappeared in the universe. But unlike before, its appearance this time became a nightmare for the attacking side.

Ship self-destruction. Black Hair’s long-hidden trump card finally appeared before everyone at the most critical moment. Perhaps influenced by that giant ship earlier, Black Hair’s own ship also chose to detonate its core.

It must be said that compared to traditional ship self-destruction, the explosion of an energy core was an even more terrifying form. When highly concentrated energy is unleashed from a confined and stable environment, the resulting changes are enough to shock everyone. The highly compressed energy spread within the hollow sphere in the form of lightning, delivering tens of thousands of strikes to objects within its range in just a second. Though each strike might not be extremely powerful, and its suddenness wasn’t as fierce as that of traditional self-destructions, the lasting damage it caused was comparable to that of a small cosmic storm!!!

What does this mean? It means that as long as one is within the range of the core explosion, even the most proud giant ships of the Moor Empire cannot survive!!
The reality matched Blackhair’s predictions exactly. After the giant ship he abandoned exploded, the fleet that had just won met the same fate as the losers. Only because their formation was relatively loose did two ships manage to escape. Their comrades, on the other hand, were completely destroyed in that virtual cosmic storm.
Watching those once-mighty fleets turn into cosmic debris in just half an hour, watching the remnants of those ships that had once been the pride of the empire drift through space, the atmosphere on Blackhair’s flagship was dead silent, oppressive as if frozen. It took a long time before everyone could pull themselves away from that catastrophic scene. Their faces were as pale as paper, and even the usually talkative chubby boy stopped speaking.
“Is that it… it’s over?” Deputy 57’s voice broke the silence on the flagship, hoarse as if worn down by countless grinding wheels.
“Mm.” Blackhair nodded, his expression solemn. Although, from a factual standpoint, he was also the architect of this tragedy, for some reason he couldn’t feel any joy at all at this moment.
Both fleets consisted of dozens of warships of various sizes. If crew members were counted, the total number must have been in the tens of thousands. Yet in the blink of an eye, they all vanished completely. Faced with such extreme cruelty, Blackhair felt a bitter taste in his mouth. At the same time, he developed an indescribable hatred for the Moor Empire, which had created this assembly.
Just to select the elite of the empire, so many lives had to be sacrificed every hundred years. Was such a high price worth it? Although these lives were merely subjects of the Moor race, considered inferior beings by the nobles, it was still too cruel to simply erase them like that.
After all, these crew members, these beings, were also sentient beings with feelings and families… Perhaps right now, in some corner of the universe, their wives and children were still waiting anxiously for their return. Maybe their families were poor, struggling even to afford basic meals. But they were still a family. Now that the man was gone, how could the widows and orphans survive?
Gazing at the distant stars, Blackhair felt confused for the first time about his own acts of killing.

And by his side, Adjutant 57 gradually regained his composure. He began a new round of busy activities as planned. The four stealth warships were like four ghosts, silently gliding forward toward the chaotic battlefield in the distance… Survival or destruction? That was not a question the Moors needed to consider.