This result was not outside of Xiao Yu’s expectations. After all, at least half of him could be considered a Technological Civilization—and Technological Civilizations had always won through quality. So, a loss ratio of 1 to 3.6 was well within Xiao Yu’s predictions.
After the total loss of the first batch of ultra-miniature starships, Xiao Yu began construction of the second batch—improved models. At this point, on the primary moon, Xiao Yu had already established over two thousand large manufacturing plants, capable of producing no fewer than five million starships per day.
Producing five million ultra-miniature starships daily had reached this moon’s maximum carrying capacity. Thus, Xiao Yu accelerated construction on the second moon.
The second moon had a smaller mass than the first, with significantly fewer mineral resources. Its maximum capacity was roughly three million starships per day.
In this regard, Xiao Yu couldn’t match the Swarm Queen. For example, given a moon with enough resources to build one billion ultra-miniature starships or an equivalent number of bugs, the Swarm Queen could directly swallow the entire moon and digest it at a rate of ten million bugs per day—finishing in one hundred days. Xiao Yu, however, could only build one million starships per day and would require one thousand days to consu the sa resources.
But Xiao Yu held a different advantage: the Swarm Queen could only devour one celestial body at a ti, while Xiao Yu—so long as his computational power was sufficient—could simultaneously carry out construction on ten, or even a hundred celestial bodies.
Thanks to the stockpiles from the first moon, the construction speed on the second moon was much faster. With billions of robots working tirelessly, the entire construction of the second moon was completed in just one month, and mass production of micro starships comnced. Xiao Yu’s production capacity soared to five million starships per day.
At this mont, the Swarm Queen completed its own power buildup and launched its first offensive. In this attack, it mobilized ten billion bugs and charged toward planet two in an overwhelming tide.
At this point, Xiao Yu’s stockpile of ultra-miniature starships had just reached twenty million. Even assuming a one-to-four kill ratio, they were still no match for such a massive number of bugs. Left with no choice, Xiao Yu deployed his trump card: over one hundred thousand large starships, along with the less-than-twenty million micro starships, all mobilized to confront the enemy.
During the construction of these moons, Xiao Yu had already prepared a sufficient number of space turrets and ground-based laser cannons. In addition, tens of millions of ground combat robots stood ready to defend, ensuring stability in the rear. With this assurance, Xiao Yu could confidently lead his fleet to et the Swarm.
Another apocalyptic battle erupted. Due to being outnumbered, it took Xiao Yu two full days, sacrificing all twenty million ultra-miniature starships and paying the price of several dozen County-Class ships and several thousand smaller ships, to completely wipe out the Swarm.
Once again, the Hebei perford outstandingly. In fact, if not for Hebei serving as the fleet’s nerve center, Xiao Yu would have had to sacrifice at least two City-Class ships to achieve similar results.
During this battle, Xiao Yu discovered sothing unusual.
This anomaly caught his attention: the Swarm Queen’s body seed to have shrunk slightly compared to before.
The first ti Xiao Yu had seen the Swarm Queen, it had already swallowed an entire moon. Later, it fled once and returned again. During that ti, it had produced roughly fifty billion bugs.
“Judging from the gravitational influence it exerted on planet three back then, its total mass at that ti was about two thousand five hundred trillion tons. fifty billion bugs, each weighing about two tons, adds up to one hundred billion tons. Hmm…”
Xiao Yu recalculated the Swarm Queen’s current mass, and soon arrived at the answer.
After comparing the numbers, Xiao Yu confird that the Swarm Queen’s mass had indeed decreased—and the reduction was precisely around one hundred billion tons.
With this result in hand, Xiao Yu began to consider a question: how many bugs could a celestial body with a total mass of two thousand five hundred trillion tons be used to produce?
“Of course, a planet’s total mass doesn’t an all of it can be used to create bugs. Producing bugs requires a precise ratio of various elents. For example, their forelimbs are made of a material similar to special-grade steel, their blood consists mainly of water, and their muscles are ford of high-strength cellulose…”
“Missing even one of these materials would make bug production impossible. So the number of bugs a planet can produce depends on its limiting elent. But since I don’t know the exact elental composition of that moon, I can only estimate.”
“Currently, it’s known that this moon is primarily composed of silicon and aluminum—together accounting for seventy percent of its composition. Typically, trace elents in a planet don’t exceed one part per million, and many of those are buried deep in the core and hard to extract. So, overall, this moon could probably be used to create one trillion bugs! After producing one trillion bugs, the moon would no longer provide usable resources, and at that point, the Swarm Queen would be forced to spit out the leftover husk and seek another celestial body to consu.”
“Around planet three, there are more than a hundred celestial bodies with masses exceeding five trillion tons… These bodies are generally larger than ten kiloters in each dinsion. Anything below that mass isn’t worth swallowing. So it’s simple: destroy the ones that can be destroyed, and occupy the massive ones that can’t. That way, once the Swarm Queen exhausts the moon inside her, she won’t have anything else to consu—starve her!”
Through this observation, Xiao Yu formulated a new operational strategy.
After this massive battle ended, both sides needed to recuperate. So during this ti, aside from minor skirmishes and probing attacks, no large-scale conflicts broke out again.
This gave Xiao Yu ample ti to develop. He invented a new robot type designed to operate on the surface of moons. He nad it the Ground-Type Mark II Robot. It differed slightly from the Ground-Type Mark I Robots from the Arrow Beast howorld, being more suited for combat in low-gravity vacuum environnts. In the coming period, Xiao Yu would mass-produce these robots and, together with the ultra-miniature starships, they would occupy every large celestial body surrounding the Swarm Queen.
“Let’s fight a war of attrition. After all, you’re just one organism. You can’t devour two celestial bodies at once. Once the resources inside your belly’s moon are depleted, let’s see how you’ll continue to produce bugs.”
Xiao Yu thought darkly, speeding up his construction efforts once more.
By now, construction of the Supercomputing Center had reached approximately eighty percent. four moons had been fully developed, and the remaining five were being rapidly built.
In an extrely short ti, Xiao Yu completed the blueprint developnt for the Ground-Type Mark II Robot. Along the way, he resolved several technical issues and imdiately began mass production. The nine moons and nearby planet two provided Xiao Yu with virtually limitless resources, allowing him to waste and expend as he pleased.
Amid this fervent construction effort, Xiao Yu and the Swarm Queen clashed several more tis in massive battles. Each battle involved hundreds of millions of bugs and ultra-miniature starships. The scale of these wars turned the entire Aquila Three Star System into a colossal junkyard. On the Arrow Beast howorld, no fewer than a dozen massive teor showers occurred, each ti with thousands of teors streaking across the sky.
Xiao Yu knew those were fragnts of Swarm limbs and starship wreckage drawn in by planet one’s gravity. As they collided with its atmosphere, they ignited in fiery trails.
The remnants of the large-scale battlefields beca multiple asteroid belts orbiting the Aquila three System. These war remnants would bombard the major planets of the Aquila system continuously for the next tens of millions of years—none would be spared.
Under these war conditions, Xiao Yu and the Swarm Queen entered a deadlock. The Swarm Queen’s child-bug production rate reached an unprecedented fifty million per day—and continued to rise. From the countless spawning vents all over her massive body, bugs were constantly being ejected.
anwhile, Xiao Yu’s ultra-miniature starship production had reached thirteen million per day. In the factories on his occupied moons, starships were being moved off the assembly lines every second. After fueling, they launched into space, instantly becoming combat-ready.
Overall, both sides were evenly matched.
In this scenario, neither could overco the other. But Xiao Yu felt no anxiety—for he had a plan.
The moon inside the Swarm Queen would, eventually, be depleted of resources. But Xiao Yu’s resource supply was practically infinite. Sooner or later, the Swarm Queen would no longer be able to create bugs. And when that ti ca, it would be the mont of her demise.
Xiao Yu firmly believed—that day wasn’t far off.
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