CHAPTER 1077: CHAPTER 86: SPEED

"What’s that?"

Tumor Xiang Shan was the first to notice the anomaly in the starry sky. That eerie bright star must undoubtedly be an artificial creation.

During the era that Xiang Shan belonged to, unidentified human-made objects in space often brought deep-seated disaster to battlefields—the brighter they were, the more terrifying they became.

Because "bright" also meant it was impossible to hide, which simultaneously implied that this artificial object possessed "high performance worth losing concealment over."

Or perhaps...

"Super high performance that achieves its goal even without concealment."

Either way, it was pretty grim.

Tumor Xiang Shan hurriedly asked, "Is this thing one of your Chaldean weapons? Is it..."

"It must be that one..." Li Like’s synthesized voice in the signal was filled with dread, "The prior reports didn’t mention this thing being so bright!"

"That one?" Xiang Shan shook his head, "No matter which one, since it’s not your stuff, it means we’re in big trouble!"

The thing grew brighter and brighter. At the same time, it began to sway, like a beautifully flickering blue candle flame.

But Xiang Shan understood that it wasn’t the flickering of a candle flame; rather, it was the momentary ery to of irregular movement of the artificial object.

A straight-line trajectory can be easily anticipated, thus enabling sniping, so any high combat power solo machine performs such movement in space. There’s no air resistance in space, and gravity is incredibly weak; the force exerted in any direction allows movement in the opposite direction.

But being able to easily observe such irregular movement means one thing—the thing is fast.

"Wait, comparing with reference,... eight hundred Mach... How is that possible? Why is it so fast? This isn’t..." Li Like was exceptionally shocked.

In the Asteroid Belt, the greatest obstacle to modern spacecraft isn’t actually asteroids but rather micro-rock particles and dust.

If a human spacecraft crossed the Asteroid Belt on a normal trajectory, the probability of hitting an asteroid would be infinitesimally close to zero. The Asteroid Belt contains five hundred thousand asteroids over three meters in diameter, but the average distance between these asteroids is still greater than the distance between Earth and the Moon. To collide with such asteroids indeed requires some technique.

For those high-speed Prosthetic Bodies, such distances equate to about ten seconds of reaction time. This is even easier than driving on Earth.

Small meteors smaller than one meter in diameter, particularly ones mere centimeters wide, and those cosmic dust particles imperceptible to the naked eye, pose greater threats than larger celestial bodies. They are more numerous and harder to detect.

A planet, in its year-by-year orbit, has long since cleared the vicinity of its path of interstellar material. The Asteroid Belt is different; it is part of the Solar System’s original accretion disk, with evidence showing it had the chance to gather into a planet, but was pulled apart by Jupiter’s gravity, forming floating interstellar material. In this region, the density of interstellar material far exceeds that of other areas.

A stream of gravel zooming in at one percent of the speed of light means literal "bone-grinding erosion."

Moreover, all Space Cities are battleground relics from the chains of battles fought by the Sixth and Seventh Martial Gods across the entire Asteroid Belt. Heroes chose areas dense with material to maneuver against their foes. The exploded warship wreckage added a layer of matter to the interstellar material of the Asteroid Belt.

Similar sub-light speed travel generally only occurs on "Lightspeed Highways." These are paths meticulously maintained by Protectors, devoid of small celestial bodies. Otherwise, with the current strength of human materials science, no creation could traverse dense interstellar dust at sub-light speeds.

And eight hundred Mach is already close to one percent of the speed of light...

.......................................

Protector Shi, facing two foes, effortlessly wiped out several artillery positions. He knew this time he could retreat normally.

The one who stole half his Prosthetic Body was a true master, but did not take the equipment. Without auxiliary flying plugins, relying solely on the propellant within the upper body memory was simply insufficient for pursuit.

He laughed loudly in mid-air, "It’s not much! We still have personnel in Chaldea who haven’t withdrawn. In the following days, I hope you withdraw the blockade of the ports and the sentry posts between areas yourselves, or else, don’t say we didn’t warn you!"

Saying that, he turned to leave.

But the eyes of the two Chaldean Guardians went beyond him, looking towards his back.

Simultaneously, a light source appeared behind him, a faint blue light casting his shadow on the cracked Battleship Outer Armor.

Protector Shi turned around, also seeing the rapidly pulsating Demon Star.

"What’s this?"

Protector Shi turned around immediately, as the Flying Wings plugin flew over from afar, automatically docking to the interface on his back. This process took less than a second.

Then he turned again, intending to leave.

Then he intensified his spin, and his sense of direction was disoriented in an instant. The universe turned into a chaotic whirl of light in his eyes. It took him quite some time to realize he was being spun mid-air by a tremendous force.

He tried to control his direction and noticed a horrifying scene.

Giant cracks spread like webs across the surface of the warship, as if it were dried clay rather than steel.

The frightening force turned into seismic waves, striking the entire city. It was probably the first "earthquake" since the birth of this Space City for a hundred years.

Like a natural disaster, the force showed silently in the universe.

And causing all this was indeed...

A metal stake-like...

Weapon...

—It’s... Only in a momentary lapse, the blue bright light had already appeared behind him.

Fast, too fast...

Protector Shi roared angrily, turning to deliver a kick.

But what met his leg wasn’t the weapon, but light flames and shock waves.

That was...

Deceleration spray.

The enemy sprayed fuel directly towards the front for deceleration. Their speed was genuinely too fast. Even when they started decelerating several light seconds away, the speed was still terrifying upon reaching here.

No, and beyond that, they even threw out a pile driver-like cold weapon, that massive weapon of mass!

And the spray used to decelerate such a Prosthetic Body was truly overwhelming. Protector Shi directly engulfed. His Prosthetic Body was torn apart, exploding in high temperatures everywhere.

Then the guy pulled back this spray, flashing past.

Continuing to decelerate, taking an enormous turn in the distance, then turning around again to keep decelerating.

By this moment, Protector Shi was almost on the verge of joining the roster of space debris.