Chapter 334: Super War

The unknown civilization, which claimed to belong to the Red Star Alliance but hadn’t revealed its own name to Li Qingsong, remained silent for a moment. It didn’t reply immediately, but the spatial fluctuations enveloping their fleet—the ones that suggested an imminent jump to superluminal speed—gradually dissipated.

A message was sent over, but it wasn’t a reply to Li Qingsong. Instead, it was an inquiry: “What is your civilization? Where are you from?”

‘Are they trying to judge whether we possess any intelligence that might interest them?’

Li Qingsong thought for a moment and replied, “We are the Blutuk Civilization, from the Gliese 625 Star System.”

The Gliese 625 Star System was where the Blutuk Civilization had originated. Of course, what Li Qingsong sent was not just the name “Gliese 625,” but a series of coordinates, stellar characteristics, and surrounding star chart data.

With this data, the civilization before him—one that was at least at the Gravity Stage—would surely be able to pinpoint the coordinates with ease.

“The Gliese 625 Star System… a distance of over 2,000 light-years. For you, that’s a very, very long way.”

Li Qingsong sighed inwardly.

Unbeknownst to him, over ten thousand years had passed since he left the Solar System. After all this wandering, he had traveled such a great distance.

“We can exchange some intelligence with you. The Silicon-Based Calamity can be considered a type of parasitic Celestial Calamity, similar in nature to the infamous Demon Eye. You’ve already reached the Strong Core Stage, so you should have passed the Demon Eye Tribulation, correct?”

‘Demon Eye Tribulation?’ That was a new term, but it was easy enough to understand.

Li Qingsong thought for a moment and understood.

For the fledgling civilizations within the Milky Way Galaxy, once their technology developed to a certain point, they would inevitably discover the anomaly of the Demon Eye Star System. They would then begin to observe it, and a Demon Eye parasitic event would almost certainly occur.

This was a tribulation for every civilization.

Survive it, and they could continue to develop. Fail, and they would be parasitized by the Demon Eye, transformed into a Demon Eye Civilization.

Calling it the Demon Eye Tribulation was quite fitting.

“Yes, we have passed it.”

“The Demon Eye Civilization parasitizes intelligent lifeforms themselves. The Silicon-Based Calamity, on the other hand, parasitizes the technological creations of intelligent civilizations. Their targets are things like starships, Warships, and the like.”

Li Qingsong was slightly taken aback.

‘Those things can be parasitized? They aren’t even alive, so how can they be hosts?’

“The Silicon-Based Calamity appears as a cloud of interstellar dust. It’s difficult to distinguish from ordinary dust using conventional methods. They possess very little self-propulsion and cannot engage in Interstellar Travel on their own. They usually hide in a Star Domain, waiting for the fleet of an intelligent civilization to pass by. Once a fleet does, they will parasitize these technological creations. The main body of a Silicon-Based Calamity is similar to the neurons in an intelligent being’s brain. You can think of them as individual brain neurons. After attaching to the technological creations of intelligent life, these different neurons use the creations as a framework to connect with one another. They are then activated, gaining a certain degree of intelligence. This intelligence allows them to understand the operating principles of the technology they’ve parasitized. Then, they sever the communication links between these creations and their original system, claiming them as their own. Using their own intelligence, they gain control over them. From the outside, it looks as if these technological creations have gained their own consciousness and ‘come to life’.”

Li Qingsong had a sudden realization.

‘No wonder my Warships defected! No wonder that as soon as I destroyed one renegade Warship, another would immediately defect. It was because they were switching parasitic targets!’

‘What a fucking strange—no, bizarre—form of existence.’

“The intelligence of a Silicon-Based Calamity can also increase along with the technological level of the creations it parasitizes. A rudimentary Silicon-Based Calamity might only be able to parasitize the creations of an electromagnetic civilization. But after doing so once, they master the operating principles of that technology. With this foundation, the next time they encounter the technological creations of an Electroweak Civilization, there’s a chance they can successfully parasitize them as well. In this way, the Silicon-Based Calamity can continuously grow. If not eliminated early, its destructive power and lethality will continue to increase. There are even rumors of a Silicon-Based Calamity in our Milky Way Galaxy that can parasitize a Space Civilization, but we cannot confirm if this is true or false.”

‘A Space Civilization? I wonder what level of civilization that is.’

‘The next stage after a Strong Core Civilization is a Gravity Civilization. This Space Civilization seems to be even higher than a Gravity Civilization.’

‘Then it must be a true super-civilization within this Galaxy… If it can even parasitize a super-civilization, this Silicon-Based Calamity is truly troublesome.’

“Fortunately, the Silicon-Based Calamity you encountered this time was not of a high level. We also had the ‘High-Power Gravity Cluster Bombs’ prepared for us by a more advanced civilization. Plus, the Calamity happened to be parasitizing all of your Warships, which allowed us to eliminate it in one fell swoop. Otherwise, even for us, it would have been much more troublesome.”

Li Qingsong had been feeling frustrated by his helplessness against the Silicon-Based Calamity, but now, he only felt relief.

An advanced civilization, even more advanced than a Gravity Civilization, had prepared “High-Power Gravity Cluster Bombs” for this Gravity Civilization to carry, and only then could they eliminate the Silicon-Based Calamity in one strike.

He was only from a Strong Core Civilization. The fact that he could hold out for so long against this Silicon-Based Calamity without being wiped out was already quite impressive.

Li Qingsong consoled himself with this thought.

The message from the Gravity Civilization continued: “The danger of the Silicon-Based Calamity is undeniable. Civilizations below the Gravity Level have virtually no way to deal with it. But… there are so many dangers in this Cosmos, so what’s one more?”

“As for the Red Star Alliance… my apologies, but we cannot disclose too much to you. However, we can reveal a few things about why this Star Domain will no longer be safe for the next few millennia. Our Red Star Alliance is preparing for a war with a Spatial Level Demon Eye Civilization, and the battlefield will likely be this very Star Domain. The interstellar wars of Space-level Civilizations are tremendously destructive. Even we, who have reached the Gravity Level, or even more advanced civilizations that have reached the Dark Force Level, can only handle logistical preparations in this war. We are completely unable to intervene directly. If you were to be accidentally caught in the crossfire, the consequences would be unthinkable. We have a duty to participate. You, however, have no need to get involved in these troubled waters. It’s best if you leave soon.”