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Chapter 33: The Battlefield of Alien Civilizations
Chapter 33: The Battlefield of Alien Civilizations
The engine activated, and the Azure Sky began its swift journey through the silent expanse of the star sea. The drop-off location was far from ideal; the sky radar's range detected no celestial bodies.
For hours, Song Chi wandered aimlessly, like a headless fly, with no other discoveries. His heart sank to the bottom. He had invested heavily in this exploration, purchasing another Raging Tiger Type Floating Land Mining Vehicle and two vehicle-mounted prospecting instruments, spending a total of four hundred strands of zero-stage Floating Land Essence to significantly boost mining efficiency.
Now, apart from the temporary emergency resources, he had only three hundred strands of zero-stage Floating Land Essence left.
If this exploration yielded insufficient results, the profits from the subsequent market opening would be severely diminished.
Just as he was growing anxious, the sky radar suddenly emitted a rapid alarm. A dense cluster of red dots appeared in the upper left of the radar, indicating two vast fleets of warships engaged in intense combat.
Unbeknownst to him, the Azure Sky had stumbled into the battlefield of two alien civilizations.
The Azure Sky's speed was reduced to its lowest, and Song Chi concealed his presence as he observed the battle from the edge. Both sides had more than ten thousand warships, and the energy fluctuations from their ship cannons indicated that most were of the zero-stage level, with a few hundred first-stage warships mixed in. Overall, it was one of the least intense interstellar wars.
However, even such a scale was extremely dangerous for Song Chi. He had no intention of getting involved. The Dark Matter Energy Shield was strong, but in a battlefield with tens of thousands of warships, a single misstep could mean being overwhelmed.
Additionally, the Azure Sky's firepower was weak. Its thick hull might offer some protection, but the chances of reaping significant benefits from the chaos were nearly zero.
...
For about ten minutes, Song Chi continued to hover at the edge of the battlefield. He then spotted an alien warship that had mostly disengaged from the conflict and seized his opportunity. The already heavily damaged warship was easily destroyed.
Although he had decided not to participate in the war, he wasn't just there for the thrill. His goal was to obtain the star maps from these warships. He was unfamiliar with this completely unknown star domain, but the local civilizations were not. Instead of wandering aimlessly, it was far more practical to spend a few minutes acquiring a star map.
With the star map in hand, Song Chi quickly directed the Azure Sky to flee, without a moment's hesitation.
A few minutes later, the Azure Sky, now far from the battlefield, turned and headed toward the nearest small fragment belt marked on the star map.
The star map covered a vast area of the star domain. Besides the small fragment belt, there were three Floating Lands, one of which was a second-stage resource-rich Floating Land, teeming with various resources, including several large and medium-sized metal veins.
However, the distance was too great. Twelve light-years was beyond the reach of the Azure Sky, which lacked a "hyperspace drive." The only feasible option was the fragment belt, which could be reached within a short time, albeit reluctantly.
Another hour passed, and the Azure Sky finally arrived at the target small fragment belt.
Compared to the one he encountered during his previous exploration, this fragment belt was significantly smaller in diameter, but Song Chi was not concerned. The fragment belt contained an estimated several hundred thousand celestial bodies, and with only about twenty hours left, he could only explore a tiny fraction of it, not to mention the time required for mining.
Knowing there was no time to waste, Song Chi entered the market and brought out an Anger Tiger mining vehicle. Then, the Canopy sailed straight into the debris field.
Time passed, and the onboard AI of the Anger Tiger mining vehicle kept providing updates.
"Ten kilograms of refined gold, skip."
"Gas ore, unfortunately, only a few hundred kilograms, skip."
"Stellar Cold Iron, fifty tons, will take about half an hour to mine."
...
Mining time always flew by quickly. In the blink of an eye, five hours had passed. While there were some gains, the quantities were not significant, and there was no need to bring out a second mining vehicle yet.
After all, if the ore deposits were insufficient, it would take only about half an hour to finish mining, and the back-and-forth would be a hassle.
The Canopy continued to wander aimlessly, as the debris field was vast and didn't require any specific exploration plans.
Surprises came suddenly. Just a few minutes later, Song Chi discovered a fragment with over a thousand tons of refined gold.
"Radiation reaction detected on the fragment at coordinates xxxxx. Preliminary estimate: over a thousand tons of refined gold."
Carefully maneuvering the Canopy to stop on the target fragment, Song Chi deployed the Anger Tiger mining vehicle from the shuttle and assigned three first-tier Fire Chrysanthemum soldier puppets to guard it. Then, he brought out the second mining vehicle from the market and continued exploring with the Canopy.
A thousand tons of refined gold would take several hours to mine, giving the Canopy enough time to survey a large area.
...
"Damn, this place is cursed. The density of the fragments is way too high."
After a violent tremor, the Canopy narrowly passed through the narrow gaps between several closely packed fragments. The shuttle, which had been repaired just a few days ago, sustained some minor scratches, though not a major issue, it still earned a string of curses from Song Chi.
If it weren't for the special radiation detected by the exploration instruments, he wouldn't have ventured into such a dangerous area.
However, the instruments couldn't provide specific results, only detecting a unique energy fluctuation. This piqued Song Chi's curiosity, and after releasing two general-purpose drones to confirm there was no immediate danger, he rushed in.
Surveying the area, Song Chi's brow furrowed. A quick glance revealed no abnormalities behind the dense fragments. The onboard AI continued to prompt, "Unknown energy fluctuation, further exploration required."
Looking at the dozen or so fragments, each at least ten meters long and wide, Song Chi felt a headache coming on.
Manually inspecting each one would take several hours.
Seeing no other option, Song Chi directed the Canopy to move closer and instructed the exploration instruments to pinpoint the exact source of the energy fluctuation.
After about fifteen minutes, Song Chi had ruled out most of the fragments and began deploying the mining vehicle to systematically excavate the remaining five.
An hour later, the first three fragments were ruled out, and the Anger Tiger mining vehicle started working on the fourth.
(End of Chapter)
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