Chapter 332: Free Fall

In an instant, every construct in his fleet was subjected to a gravitational acceleration equal to roughly half that of Earth. This was already astonishing, far beyond what Li Qingsong could have imagined.

After all, even when accelerating under its own power, the human fleet’s maximum overall acceleration was only about 0.9 meters per second squared—just one-sixth of that figure.

Through the Long-range Communication Equipment, Li Qingsong also discovered that just a few seconds ago, his Warships over nine million kilometers away at the edge of the battlefield had suddenly detected an acceleration of roughly 2,000 meters per second squared!

The most maneuverable Warship Li Qingsong had ever built only had a maximum acceleration of 1,000 meters per second squared, equivalent to about 100 times Earth’s gravity.

But this new figure was equivalent to roughly 200 times the gravity of Earth!

Under such immense gravity, even a Warship’s hull, built with Strong Core materials, would be instantly crushed and destroyed.

Not only that, but closer to the heart of the battlefield, Li Qingsong’s Warships detected even higher accelerations.

Moving inward from the edge of the battlefield, at a depth of about 100,000 kilometers, the Warships there sensed an acceleration of roughly 3,100 meters per second squared—a staggering 316 times the gravity of Earth. Further in, the gravitational acceleration climbed again. At a distance of only 10,000 kilometers from the battlefield’s core, the acceleration Li Qingsong detected reached several hundred kilometers per second squared, tens of thousands of times Earth’s gravity, comparable to the surface gravity of a White Dwarf Star!

And yet, despite facing such immense gravity, not a single Warship was damaged.

Two words suddenly flashed through Li Qingsong’s mind.

‘Free fall!’

Earth’s gravitational acceleration is approximately 9.8 meters per second squared.

So, how could one experience weightlessness within Earth’s gravitational field?

The method was simple: fall toward Earth with an acceleration of 9.8 meters per second squared.

Right now, everything in Li Qingsong’s fleet was accelerating toward the center of the battlefield at different rates depending on their distance, yet none of them felt any g-forces. ‘The only explanation is that my entire fleet is in free fall!’

But free fall could only occur within a gravitational field. To generate a field capable of such immense gravitational acceleration, how massive would the celestial body have to be?

After a quick calculation, Li Qingsong had his answer. The completely invisible celestial body at the heart of the battlefield had to have a mass approximately 3.75 times that of the Sun.

‘3.75 Suns’ worth of mass concentrated in such a tiny region, creating such a powerful gravitational field, and yet I can’t see a thing?’

This seemed to imply only one possibility.

‘A Black Hole has appeared out of thin air!’

Only a Black Hole could have such immense mass packed into such a small volume while emitting no detectable radiation.

‘But there was nothing there before. Why would a Black Hole this massive suddenly appear?’

Li Qingsong’s mind flashed back to the mysterious civilization he’d encountered earlier—the one he suspected had already reached the Gravity Stage—and the tens of thousands of Interstellar Missiles it had launched.

‘Could this Black Hole have been created by that Gravity Civilization?’

‘But why?’

‘Whatever the reason, I need to accelerate now and counteract this Gravity.’

The Warships in the middle of the battlefield were expendable. They were just remote-controlled drones anyway. Besides, they weren’t all his—the enemy’s ships were there too.

But if his main fleet was pulled in, the losses would be catastrophic. All of his constructs, all the species under his command, all the Clones, and even the Flying Star—everything would be destroyed.

In that instant, every Space-Air Carrier, transport ship, habitat ship, industrial vessel, and Warship—including the Flying Star—ramped its thrusters to maximum power.

There was no time to worry about maintaining formation; escaping the gravitational field was the only priority.

Some of the smaller ships had enough thrust to break free from the gravitational field. But the larger vessels, especially the Space-Air Carriers, could barely manage an acceleration of two meters per second squared even with their engines at maximum. This would only buy them a little time; in the long run, they were still doomed to be pulled into the invisible Black Hole.

‘But… I can’t worry about that now. I’ll save what I can.’

Li Qingsong’s main fleet began pushing at full power, while the Warships in the heart of the battlefield were abandoned to their fate.

Even the Warships at the very edge of the battlefield, where the pull was weakest, were experiencing a gravitational acceleration of 2,000 meters per second squared. Their own maximum acceleration was only 1,000 meters per second squared. They couldn’t possibly break free, and Li Qingsong wasn’t about to waste effort trying.

His opponent, however, did not seem to share that sentiment.

Li Qingsong watched as, the moment the invisible, high-gravity source appeared, the roughly 400,000 Warships under his opponent’s control simultaneously engaged their thrusters at maximum power, desperately trying to escape the gravitational field.

Li Qingsong had built those Warships himself. He knew their capabilities intimately; he knew just how powerful they were.

Across the vastness of space, the exhaust plumes flaring from the rear of the countless Warships and vessels shifted from brilliant white to a searing blue—a sign that their engines’ power output was now exceeding their design limits.

Under the strain of such immense thrust, the ships looked like raging behemoths of infinite strength, struggling with every fiber of their being.

But…

The invisible Gravity was like a set of impossibly thick and durable chains, holding these furious beasts fast.

No matter how hard they strained, they could not break these gravitational chains and were still being relentlessly dragged back.

One force pushed with all its might, while another pulled with equal ferocity. Caught between these two opposing forces, the ship hulls, forged from highly advanced Strong Core materials, imploded in an instant, collapsing and utterly disintegrating.

But even the wreckage could not escape the pull of the gravitational chains. The massive, brilliant fireballs were dragged mercilessly toward the heart of the battlefield.

In just a dozen minutes, the vast and fiercely contested battlefield had been wiped clean, as if scoured by a powerful vacuum cleaner. Nothing remained.

Except for one thing.

A sphere, perfectly smooth, radiating a brilliant blue light. It was an almost perfect orb, with a radius of only about twenty meters.