The starry river shimmered brilliantly, like a winding, endless ribbon of light flowing through the cold, silent cosmos.
It began with infinity.
And stretched through eternity.
Invisible spatial distortions surged, caught in the pull of gravity, and in their ultimate frenzy, they tore everything apart.
The stars were overturned.
It was as if a true tempestuous sea had roared, lifting colossal waves made of stars, engulfing and sweeping away entire fleets of starships, obliterating everything in their path.
The external armor was instantly shredded, and the engines exploded outright.
In less than a second.
Everything.
Was reduced to twisted, shattered ruins.
Just like the starry graveyard Xu Xi had once seen through Ailei's perspective, long ago.
Now, the interstellar fleet he had built had become a part of it.
This explosion was like a grand cosmic fireworks display, scattering billions upon billions of radiant lights, affecting multiple star systems nearby, leaving their celestial bodies riddled with countless holes.
A long time passed.
Amid the dense debris of starships, Xu Xi's figure slowly reformed.
The moment he revived, mechanical energy surged through his hands, attracting the surrounding starship fragments, quickly molding them into a small, makeshift space refuge.
He needed to avoid exposure to the vacuum of space.
Next, he manually crafted a space oxygen generator.
A carbon dioxide collector, a hydrogen reactor, and a water electrolysis device.
Combined, they formed a simple electrolyte recycling system.
"Mechanical energy, truly omnipotent," Xu Xi murmured with heartfelt admiration.
After finishing his tasks, he finally had time to observe the outside situation. Through the observation port, he could see an endless sea of starship debris, floating and colliding in the cold void of space.
The scene was far too chaotic to discern any specific details.
But Xu Xi felt.
That the fleet had likely been completely annihilated.
"So, everything has returned to zero…" Xu Xi sighed softly.
The sheer magnitude of the attack, even after dividing the fleet into three sections, had still wiped them all out.
Fortunately, Xu Xi had prepared for the worst. Sensing something amiss from the strange behavior of the insectoid race, he had left some deeper contingencies.
Thanks to his unique nature and the preparations he had made in advance.
Ailei would be safe.
She was likely in the process of reorganizing and consolidating quantum data. All Xu Xi needed to do was wait for her arrival.
Yes, all he had to do was wait.
This was the comfort of relying on Ailei—reassuring and worry-free.
The outer cosmos remained in chaos. Xu Xi watched the colliding and scattering starship debris, his heart utterly unmoved.
For a calamity like the Mechanical Catastrophe, productivity was nothing out of the ordinary.
With just a little time.
These destroyed starships could be salvaged, their remnants used to produce newer, stronger models.
The only thing that troubled Xu Xi was the mysterious, otherworldly attack.
"Why now…"
"Although I had anticipated it, why now? This moment holds no special significance. I haven't done anything unusual; everything is the same as before."
"What exactly is this…"
Xu Xi paused, his expression freezing for a moment.
Time?
Time…
Time!
His behavior, the technological development of the fleet—none of it differed from before.
This suggested that the reason for the attack wasn't on his side.
But lay with the hidden orchestrator.
"I should have realized it sooner. Beyond the development of civilization and the advancement of technology, there's one truly critical factor: time."
"People despise rats and insects. They often take measures to control them, but they don't constantly monitor them."
"Because people have more important things to do."
"The harm caused by rats and insects isn't the top priority."
"Similarly, the entity lurking in the shadows, constantly destroying emerging civilizations, couldn't possibly keep a constant watch on this starry expanse."
Xu Xi muttered to himself.
Sitting on a makeshift seat.
His expression grave, he continued to ponder, feeling as though he was closing in on the truth.
This explanation made perfect sense.
It clarified why those civilizations had been destroyed so suddenly.
The lucky ones, like Civilization 02, might have sensed something amiss in the cosmos beforehand, but they still couldn't escape their doom.
When a civilization became aware of the anomaly, it earned a place in the hidden orchestrator's line of sight.
"The red dots that triggered the Mechanical Rebellion."
"Strong gravitational fields and kinetic strikes."
"Remote attacks resembling spatial collapse."
"This battle is going to be tough…" Xu Xi's eyelids twitched slightly. Fortunately, after this wave of attacks, there was no follow-up strike.
The behavior was too rigid, likely a pre-programmed automated system.
Once the time came, it would detect and strike in one seamless motion.
This was both good and bad news.
The good part was that, until the next strike, Xu Xi didn't have to worry about another massive explosion raining down from the heavens.
The bad part was that, until he found a way to counter it, every strike would result in his death.
"Either evade, defend, or destroy the source of the attack."
"Waiting for death is not an option."
Xu Xi stood up.
Through the observation port, he could already see a starship approaching.
It was one of his contingency plans, a large starship separate from the three-sectioned fleet, hidden on a remote planet.
Now, under Ailei's control, it was crossing the starry sea to retrieve him.
"Boom—!!"
"Boom—!!"
The massive interstellar warship activated its energy shields, plowing through the space debris at full speed, rushing to Xu Xi's refuge.
"Master, please rest assured."
"Ailei will always protect your safety."
Ailei, controlling a backup body, rushed to Xu Xi's side at lightning speed, pouncing on him and conducting a thorough inspection.
After confirming that Xu Xi's revived body was unharmed.
She returned to her usual calm demeanor.
Xu Xi hesitated, unsure of what to say. Had his education gone awry?
...
[You encountered an unknown strike, and your fleet was annihilated as a result.]
[Your loyal mechanical servant, Ailei, rushed to your aid at the first sign of trouble, piloting a backup starship. You were relieved.]
[At the same time, you were troubled.]
[Even now, you still couldn't get used to Ailei's enthusiastic inspections.]
[Ailei asked if you wanted to flee to a more distant location. You rejected the proposal, instructing her to set up recycling equipment on-site to collect the destroyed starship fleet.]
[Waste would be reused, materials reclaimed, and the fleet restored to its former glory.]
[Ailei was puzzled. She expressed her concerns, fearing that staying in the same place would invite another strike.]
[You explained your reasoning to her.]
[You shared your theory about the cosmic strikes.]
[Ailei suddenly understood. After calculations, she concluded that your theory had a 64.8% chance of being correct.]
[For safety's sake, you were sent to a more secure location while Ailei remotely controlled engineering drones to salvage and rebuild the starship debris in space.]
[Simulation Year 57, you are 76 years old, and Ailei has been by your side for 55 years.]
[Ailei recovered all the starship debris, regrouped, and with a smaller fleet, set sail across the starry sea once more, carrying you with her.]