Chapter 330: Dilemma

If they hadn’t suddenly come to life, how could they have broken away from the main fleet on their own? How could they still be fighting in perfect coordination, even without any communication devices?

‘Damn it… if that’s the case, are they attacking me to… to… rescue their “oppressed” brethren who are still under my control?’

‘Isn’t that just too absurd?’

Li Qingsong couldn’t bring himself to accept this theory, but no matter how he looked at it, it seemed to be the only possible explanation for now.

“Whatever. I’ll capture one of their ships and inspect it first!”

After another round of fighting, an “enemy” Warship’s Thrust Device and weapon systems were destroyed, leaving it without mobility or attack capabilities.

After towing it back to the docking bay, Li Qingsong immediately began the most thorough inspection possible.

The results of the inspection seemed to further support Li Qingsong’s earlier theory.

Li Qingsong found no equipment on the Warship that he hadn’t manufactured himself.

No foreign communication devices, no external breaching systems—nothing at all.

As for the Super-distance Communication and electromagnetic communication devices he had built, they had overloaded, overheated, and burned out for some unknown reason.

This must have been why he had lost contact with these Warships.

And yet… aside from the destroyed components, the remaining systems still functioned perfectly.

“Functioned perfectly,” in this case, meant they operated according to Li Qingsong’s will.

Take the main control computer, for instance.

After Li Qingsong restored its communications, the tactical-model Primordial AI within the main computer could once again receive his commands and execute them flawlessly.

There were absolutely no signs of it being controlled by another entity!

In fact, there were no signs whatsoever that these ships had “come to life”!

It was, for all intents and purposes, just an ordinary Warship that had been damaged in battle!

‘Perhaps… because it was damaged, it “died,” and that’s why it returned to normal and he could control it again?’

‘And those Warships still fighting him… are they still “alive”?’

‘Why? What could have caused them to suddenly “come to life”?’

Li Qingsong still couldn’t wrap his head around it. But he had a growing suspicion that this wasn’t some advanced civilization playing a trick on him. Rather, he had stumbled upon some phenomenon or event that he just didn’t understand yet.

‘This Cosmos really is fraught with hidden dangers. To think I’d run into something so unbelievable… Whatever. I’ll just destroy these Warships first!’

Right now, the ships that had “come to life” totaled only 400,000, with Warships accounting for about 350,000 of them. Meanwhile, in his main fleet, Li Qingsong still had control over more than 1.6 million Warships that had not “come to life.”

Crucially, he still had a Flying Star for resupply, while the “enemy” had nothing beyond what was on their transport ships.

From any angle, dealing with these treacherous Warships should have been no problem.

With his strategy set, Li Qingsong no longer hesitated, immediately intensifying his assault.

In an instant, the vast, deep void of space thundered with cannon fire. Massive numbers of Warships, unmanned combat units, and other assets were rapidly destroyed.

In the past, Li Qingsong would only ever complain that his Warships’ defenses and firepower weren’t strong enough. But now, that very fact was causing him immense trouble.

‘Damn it, why are they so hard to take down? After all that, I still haven’t broken through the Energy Shield?’

‘This maneuverability… Is this really a Warship I built?’

‘You’ve got to be kidding me. Were my Energy Cannons always this powerful?’

At this moment, Li Qingsong finally understood what it felt like to be his own enemy.

But he had no choice. As difficult as the fight was, he had to see it through.

And so the battle raged on.

Soon, Li Qingsong noticed something else was wrong.

He had expended a great deal of effort and lost tens of thousands of his Warships to finally reduce the enemy’s numbers to around 300,000. But to his shock, tens of thousands more of his own Warships suddenly “defected,” joining the enemy’s ranks.

The enemy’s Warship count was once again back to around 350,000!

Between combat losses and defections, Li Qingsong had just lost a total of nearly one hundred thousand Warships.

‘What the hell is going on!?’

After fighting for a while longer, he estimated the enemy must be running low on resources and thought the battle would get easier. He never expected that several transport ships, fully loaded with supplies, would also “come to life” and defect!

The total number of ships that could “come to life” through this unknown phenomenon or event seemed to have a cap. Li Qingsong observed that whenever the enemy’s total ship count dropped below 400,000, a few ships from his own fleet would “defect,” bringing the enemy’s numbers back up to around 400,000.

The type of ship that “defected” seemed to depend on what type of ship the enemy had lost.

When the enemy lost Warships, his own Warships would defect. When they lost transport ships, or when a transport’s supplies were depleted, his own transport ships would defect to replace them.

The transport ships that had expended their resources would then “die,” no longer under the enemy’s control.

No matter how many enemy ships he destroyed, the opposing force always maintained its numbers at around 400,000 vessels.

‘How am I supposed to fight this!?’

Li Qingsong’s heart grew heavy.

If he couldn’t figure out why the ships were “coming to life,” he couldn’t stop his own vessels from joining the enemy. This meant it was virtually impossible to annihilate them.

But not fighting wasn’t an option either. The enemy was relentlessly attacking him—was he just supposed to surrender and wait for death?

After fighting for a while longer, Li Qingsong had no choice but to begin a massive shipbuilding operation right there in the middle of space.

He had no other choice. The attrition rate for his Warships was simply too high. If he didn’t start construction, he would soon be overwhelmed.

But soon, another infuriating situation arose.

Using the Flying Star as his base, he painstakingly constructed one hundred new Warships, only for all of them to “defect” to the enemy’s side in the blink of an eye.

On average, for every two Warships built, one defected.

This rendered Li Qingsong’s shipbuilding efforts almost meaningless.

‘All this hard work manufacturing Warships… am I building them for myself, or for you?!’

And yet, even so, Li Qingsong had to keep building Warships.

If he stopped, he wouldn’t even have enough Warships left to defend against the enemy’s assault…

‘I can’t let this go on.’

Li Qingsong’s mind raced. ‘Should I enter an Interstellar System and deploy the Electric Calamity? Let it use a star’s power to help me fight?’

‘No, there probably isn’t enough time for that.’

‘Then… what about activating the Unified Force Field?’

‘But what if the ships carrying the Unified Force Field equipment, or even… the equipment itself, also defect?’

Li Qingsong was trapped in a dilemma.