Chapter 664 - 664: Damn It, Haruhi Suzumiya! Why Does Your Imagination Have to Be So Good?!

"Attention, all Astral Express crew members. Prepare to intercept the Trisolaran fleet."

"Repeat, Train Crews One and Six are entering combat status."

Rumble—

Both Astral Expresses deployed all their weapons modules. Their carriages shuddered as they departed the Solar System, racing side by side into the starry sky.

"..."

"Whoa—what are we doing?"

"Are we going to intercept an alien fleet?! Are aliens really invading Earth?!"

Haruhi Suzumiya had only just woken up. She rubbed her bleary eyes, only to immediately hear this explosive piece of news.

She instantly became wide awake and eagerly crowded over, her face practically radiating excitement.

"According to sensor scans, spacetime discontinuities and reality distortions were observed around Alpha Centauri yesterday."

"A new extraterrestrial civilization appeared there. The First Trisolaran Fleet has already departed and is advancing toward the Solar System at one percent of the speed of light."

"They are expected to reach this star system in four hundred years. We have to intercept them in advance."

Himeko wore an expression as though she had seen a ghost. She had already confirmed the results with Sophon and the onboard AI countless times.

They had scanned the surrounding star systems yesterday. Within a radius of more than a hundred light-years, forget aliens, there hadn't even been a single unicellular organism.

And then, overnight—or more precisely, in a single instant—

The "Trisolarans" had been resurrected 4.2 light-years away.

Together with their enormous fleet, they had once again launched an invasion toward the Solar System.

"Detailed information?"

Setsuna asked.

Sophon once again conducted a detailed scan of the surrounding star systems.

"This civilization differs slightly from the Trisolaran civilization in the database. Its technological level and social structure are highly similar to those of the Trisolaran civilization from the Three-Body world, though there are minor differences in population, planetary development, and several other aspects."

"The moment the Trisolaran civilization detected Earth's civilization, it launched a sophon toward the Solar System with the objective of disrupting fundamental scientific experiments and thereby locking this star system's technological development."

"Ten additional small space probes are scouting ahead of the Trisolaran fleet. Comparative analysis confirms them to be droplets."

After finishing the report, Sophon paused.

"My performance exceeds that of their sophons. I can destroy theirs through high-energy particle bombardment or capture it."

"..."

Setsuna had the strange illusion that he was playing through the Three-Body universe for a second time.

And Sophon was standing right beside him this time. It felt so weird.

"Did someone tell you stories about the Three-Body world last night?"

He picked Haruhi Suzumiya up and brought her over.

"Alien Big Brother, you even know that?"

Haruhi looked curious and nodded.

"Yeah, yeah! Ritsuka Fujimaru told me all about the Starsea Empire's campaigns in the Three-Body universe for ages."

"She started from Red Coast Base and told me how the sophons locked down Earth's technology, and that if the Starsea Empire's fleet hadn't arrived, humanity's space forces wouldn't even have been able to beat the droplets!"

"It was so interesting! I was actually a little disappointed that I couldn't see a real Trisolaran fleet, but it turns out this universe has Trisolarans too?!"

As she spoke, little Haruhi scratched her head.

"We stayed up too late yesterday, so she didn't finish the rest of the story. Besides the Trisolarans, are there other aliens in the universe too?"

"..."

Setsuna sighed.

On the very first day they met, Haruhi Suzumiya had already pulled something ridiculous.

Back when she watched movies and played games, her common sense had told her that "aliens don't exist, and neither do all those random monsters."

After encountering the Starsea Empire, Haruhi Suzumiya's worldview had been shaken. She now sincerely believed that extraterrestrial civilizations existed.

Then, driven by an unconscious wish, all it had taken was the fleeting thought I kind of want to see the Trisolarans with my own eyes, and she had conjured the entire Trisolaran civilization into existence from nothing.

"Good thing I hadn't gotten to the later parts yet. Things like the Dual-Vector Foil, Singer, and the Zero-Homers... And the wars of the Pastoral Age were too complicated, so I didn't explain those either."

Gudako whispered to Setsuna.

"Otherwise, wouldn't this entire universe have turned into one gigantic war zone?!"

"Couldn't you have told her about Nekopara instead?!"

Setsuna knocked her on the head.

"Let's deal with the Trisolarans that popped into existence first, then handle Haruhi Suzumiya's problem."

"Now that she's started believing in aliens and all kinds of absurd things, if this ability remains uncontrolled, we're going to have no end of entertainment—and disasters—in the future."

...

"Whoa!!!—"

Amid Haruhi Suzumiya's cheers, the Astral Express fulfilled her wishes by activating its jump engine and rapidly leaping through the sea of stars.

"An alien fleet! It's really an alien fleet!!"

It was her first interstellar journey, and she was exceptionally excited, completely unaware that this entire mess had actually been imagined into existence by her.

According to the sensor scans, more than a thousand enormous interstellar warships waited on the far side of the star system.

The First Trisolaran Fleet.

An alien fleet Haruhi Suzumiya had imagined based on her own impressions.

Its general appearance bore some resemblance to what was stored in the database, though there were subtle differences in the finer details.

"Ohhhhhhhhh—"

Little Haruhi pressed herself against the observation window, practically trying to stick her head outside.

"That's them! That's them!!"

"Commander, are we going to fight the aliens now?! Can we win? Shouldn't we call over more fleets?!"

She was both excited and exhilarated.

For the first time, an Earth native was personally witnessing a genuine interstellar war.

"No need. We'll finish this quickly."

Clack-clack-clack—

Every weapons module aboard the Astral Express unfolded and locked onto its targets.

Boom!!—

Miniature Tachyon Lances and focused arc emitters crossed the vast reaches of space in an instant, blossoming into fireballs on the opposite side of the heavens.

Back then, a faster-than-light fleet had already been enough to crush the Trisolaran fleet effortlessly. Now, the technological gap between the two sides had grown even wider.

Although the Astral Express was much smaller than a proper space warship, its firepower was not weak in the slightest.

Dense energy beams and artillery fire tore more than half of the fleet into wreckage within minutes.

"Whoa!!!—"

Haruhi Suzumiya's astonished cries never stopped.

"That's amazing!! Even better than in the movies!!"

Against this kind of trash, Setsuna couldn't even be bothered to project the Eternal Snowfall.

"Schwi."

"Understood. Executing annihilation order."

[Lösen: Imperial Armament Database]

[False Epigraphy: Warship Structure.]

Clack—

Enormous ship rigging unfolded around her, countless turrets scattered across its surface weaving a dazzling net of fire.

The axial main cannon swept across the cosmos. A torrent of energy scoured a region spanning several light-years, annihilating every fleet and asteroid in its path.

Bang—

Finally, aiming at Alpha Centauri, a Photoid struck one of its three stars at near-light speed. The resulting stellar collapse and massive explosion completely destroyed that world.

"..."

"It's over."

An hour later.

The Angeloids went to clean up the battlefield.

They dragged some of the starship wreckage back to the Astral Express, while two spacecraft went to investigate the situation around Alpha Centauri.

Setsuna glanced over the statistical report and compared it with the spoils from the expedition into the Three-Body world years ago.

As expected, the two were highly similar.

They had been born from Haruhi Suzumiya's wishes. For details that hadn't appeared in whatever materials she'd seen, or that she couldn't remember or understand, reality had simply filled in the blanks on its own.

The ruins of magnificent Trisolaran cities could still be seen on their homeworld, along with enormous shipyards and various facilities surrounding the celestial bodies.

"She can create an entire civilization with nothing but her consciousness?!"

Himeko and the others grew solemn, and the way they looked at Haruhi immediately changed.

Destroying the Trisolaran fleet had been a matter of course. There was nothing worth discussing about beating down sublight-speed natives.

The important part was Haruhi Suzumiya.

They had witnessed it firsthand. This could truly be called a miracle of reality warping and creation itself.

"I told you Haruhi Suzumiya isn't that simple. She was fine while she stayed on Earth. As long as she followed common sense, she couldn't stir up anything too serious."

Setsuna smiled.

"But once she's exposed to more things... an ordinary person really wouldn't be able to handle her."

"Get Herta over here. I have a task to assign her."

Nearby, Haruhi Suzumiya was still immersed in the excitement of entering space and witnessing an interstellar war up close.

It was as though she had discovered a whole new world. She felt that the Starsea Empire and the universe held countless secrets waiting for her to uncover.

She crowded around the spacecraft wreckage, looking everywhere and touching everything.

"Oh..."

"I knew it! There are lots of aliens in this universe, right?! Besides the Trisolarans, there must be lots of alien civilizations even farther away, right?"

"The Trisolarans are stronger than humans, so doesn't that mean there are civilizations even stronger than the Trisolarans? There definitely are, right?!"

Little Haruhi tilted her head back and curiously questioned Gudako.

In her eyes, this older sister who told her stories knew a great deal and was easy to get along with.

"Huh?"

Gudako no longer dared to say anything carelessly, terrified that Haruhi might once again develop some bizarre idea.

Especially that final question. If she answered "yes," Haruhi might genuinely imagine several god-tier civilizations into existence just to increase the difficulty for the Express crew.

If the Commander hadn't been here, Gudako would already have wanted to call for reinforcements from the capital.

"Uh... yeah, maybe, perhaps, probably..."

She mumbled a few vague, noncommittal responses while constantly shooting Setsuna meaningful looks.

Commander, think of something!!

At this rate, the aliens are going to start holding group activities on Earth!!!

Judging by Haruhi Suzumiya's personality, Gudako felt there was no chance she would stop until she'd had her fill of fun.

In the future, Earth might end up fighting Trisolarans on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Zero-Homers on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, then get hit by a Swarm invasion on Sunday.

"Oh!"

Haruhi Suzumiya remained completely unaware of her own supernatural ability. After brainstorming for a while, she remembered something else.

She skipped over to Ariel's side.

"Um... they said you can use magic, and that you're even a Demon Lord. Is that true?"

"Huh?"

Ariel found the question a little strange and subconsciously nodded.

"Demon Lord?... I really was called that in my old world, but we've already broken free from that system now."

"I'm just an ordinary passenger aboard the Astral Express."

Haruhi Suzumiya only registered the first half.

"It really is true!!"

"So besides aliens, that means gods, demon lords, hell, heaven, and things like that exist too?"

...

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