177: The Tragedy of the Stars (Part 1)

"What do you mean!"

The smile on Karmot's face froze, and a bad premonition suddenly arose in his heart.

"Heh, it's obviously to thank you for your generous sacrifice, and for gifting us half of the Orr Empire's military reserves."

Another, different voice rang out.

"Who are you?"

Karmot was shocked and immediately adopted a defensive stance.

"You may address this lord as Asroth, or..."

"Why waste words on such useless lifeforms."

Statue of Liberty coldly interrupted, truly deactivating the virtual illusion.

In an instant, everything before their eyes underwent a drastic change as a ripple swept across.

There were no mechanized positions or artillery batteries.

There were no Free Star Alliance warships.

They hadn't even moved from their original position!

Everything from just a moment ago was fake!

The only similarity was the piles of corpses, wearing familiar standard-issue combat suits—they were allied troops.

They each wore relaxed smiles as they plunged kinetic daggers into each other's throats. Even some S-Class Transcendent were no exception.

Blood dripped, staining a large expanse of the starry sky red.

"No... this is impossible! This is impossible! Why didn't I sense anything unusual!"

Karmot widened his eyes and looked up in disbelief.

"And besides, weren't you controlled by the master's 'Puppet' virus!"

"What about the overseer? Why didn't it sound an alarm!"

"It's very obvious that your so-called master is far inferior to my master."

Asroth said matter-of-factly.

You must know that Statue of Liberty, after multiple upgrades, was already comparable to a peak intelligent lifeform under level 2 rules, and with the addition of the replaced 'spatial topology server', it already possessed certain capabilities of level 3 rules.

A virtual world created by such an existence would be hard to distinguish even for an ordinary level 2 rules expert, let alone one of the Class 3S Experts.

As for the "overseer", it would have originally taken some effort to deal with it.

But they were too confident in the "information virus" they brought, actually connecting the pretending-to-be-controlled Statue of Liberty directly into the system.

Having lost the protection of the firewall from the higher world, it was instantly suppressed under the combined internal and external attacks of the Statue of Liberty and Asroth.

"No! How could this be, how could this be!"

"This is an 'information virus' from the upper world; it's impossible for it to fail!"

Karmot muttered like a madman, his eyes bloodshot, and his spiritual energy fluctuating unstably.

This was nearly half of the Orr Empire's main armed forces!

Just like that, they were all gone... No, it was even worse than being gone.

He scanned his surroundings.

Those elite warships and mecha weapons made of precious materials were docked to the side, intact, dense and endless as far as the eye could see.

The other side was clearly planning to seize this equipment, and even, judging from the detection images deliberately displayed by that damned intelligent lifeform.

On the edge of where the fleet was docked, people from the Free Star Alliance had already started moving his fleet!

"Damn you, you thieves, don't even think about it!"

Karmot roared, his 3S-Class Transcendent power erupting instantly as he tried to rush over.

"Tsk... save some strength to deal with your own people."

Asroth threw out a disdainful remark.

The next moment, a terrifying pressure surged towards him.

Karmot instinctively retreated rapidly.

He saw a spherical creature with a belly four or five times the size of a normal person push open the ship door and enter, with a contemptuous smile on its face.

"Weak native, is running away all you can do?"

Apparently, he was still caught in the illusion.

"My Lord, it's me! Wake up!"

Karmot's expression changed drastically, and he swung a full-power strike, wanting to shatter the receiver on the side of the opponent's ear, but before he could get close, it was easily slapped away.

"You dare to resist."

The spherical creature sneered, its figure flashed, and it rammed into him like a giant tank.

Karmot felt as if his whole body had fallen apart, and he was sent flying violently.

"Perhaps those Outsiders are not as powerful as I thought..."

Watching the sphere, who was still unaware that it had fallen into a virtual illusion, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind.

Then everything went black before his eyes, and he lost consciousness.

On the other side, the Star Dome Empire.

The fierce battle had already been going on for a year.

More and more Galaxy Beast gathered from their nest in the north, while on the empire's side, troops from various star sectors were all mobilized to the battlefield.

Statue of Liberty also dispatched two legions to provide support.

The decisive battlefield was like a bottomless abyss, devouring the vital forces of both sides.

The starry sky was piled everywhere with various Galaxy Beast corpses and mechanical wreckage.

The five main legions sent by the empire had already suffered more than half casualties.

Of the seven 3S-Class Transcendent, two had perished in Mutual Destruction with Galaxy Beast of the same level from the enemy side.

Within the beast horde, due to the fierce offensive, the losses were even greater.

The total number of fallen Galaxy Beast had already exceeded two billion, and even five SSS-Class ones had fallen.

However, the empire side was gradually falling into a disadvantage.

The command of the beast horde completely disregarded casualties, and those Galaxy Beast seemed to have gone mad, caring only about attacking.

As the constructed defensive facilities were gradually destroyed, the casualties of the imperial army increased day by day, and morale continued to sink.

And even worse, there were other trial taker squads secretly sabotaging from within the empire.

At this time, the Star Dome Empire's First Prince's residence.

A man with a cold expression was scrolling through projection screens, carefully deliberating.

The news that reached him was all important documents that had first been screened and processed by the intelligent brain, and checked and recommended by the minister of regency.

In the past, it was naturally reviewed by Emperor Luo personally.

But now he was on the front line confronting the master of the beast tide, so this task fell to the First Prince of the empire.

"Resource consumption is too fast. Are even some garrison troops being mobilized? It seems the pressure on the front line is increasing."

The First Prince looked at a document and couldn't help but mutter in a low voice.

Garrison troops were elite units stationed in important areas, such as ruins, Research Institute, imperial mausoleums, etc., and were usually not moved.

If even they had to be mobilized to the front line, one could imagine how great the pressure was.

"Your defeat is only a matter of time; Your Highness should make plans early."

A dry voice came.

"Who!"

The First Prince's pupils constricted slightly, and he turned his head sharply.

He saw a figure slowly emerging from a shadow.

His body was covered with strange patterns, and his eyes were a demonic purple.

"Let me introduce myself. I am from the 'Cursed Mark' squad, serving as the captain. Of course, you may also call me God directly."

The purple-eyed youth smiled elegantly: "After all, to you natives, I am no different from a god."

"So you are the Outsiders my father mentioned. What is your purpose?"

The First Prince quickly calmed his expression and said in a deep voice.

"I advise you not to do anything unnecessary."

The purple-eyed youth glanced nonchalantly at the hand the other party had placed behind his back, his words filled with a sense of superiority:

"I came here just to give you a chance to survive."