Chapter 978: Chapter 844: Suicide and Murder
The opposing commander realized it a bit too late—he never imagined such a possibility!
What a joke, this combat system comes from the Anomalous Management Division and hasn’t even been widely promoted by the Military.
In fact, the "Anomaly Affairs Management Division" not only manages anomalies but also researches and applies them.
For example, the AI from the Anomalous Management Division is different from that of the Customs Enforcement Division; it’s officially authorized by the Imperial government.
While the commander was stunned, Little Lake had already taken control of the damaged space-air carrier and concentrated computing power to tackle another.
Big Head Butterfly placed great importance on the battle for this mother ship.
Besides the electromagnetic anomaly, various signs indicated that the opposing fleet’s commander should be on this mother ship.
Previously, Qu Jianlei adopted the strategy of "injuring ten fingers is worse than breaking one," first causing effective damage to the opponent.
Thus, Little Lake prioritized attacking the easier targets, leaving the tougher mother ship for later.
From their response, it was clear they never considered the possibility of failure and naturally didn’t consider escaping.
At this point, the digital battleships were harder to deal with, and the frigates were of little consequence, so the target naturally became this mother ship.
However, just as Qu Jianlei predicted, the digital defenses of this mother ship proved far more resilient.
Meanwhile, numerous manned small ships continued their desperate attacks.
A small ship moved near the Paranoid warship and, finding its attacks ineffective, rammed into it and self-destructed.
No crew member on the entire ship managed to escape.
This might have been the captain’s own choice, but it’s undeniable that some among them truly had no fear of death.
This self-destruction didn’t cause much damage to the armed merchant ship, but it thoroughly enraged the Paranoid.
He shouted on the channel, "Boss, get tough, I’m sick of these things!"
Qu Jianlei was also annoyed; are we having a contest of ferocity? "Little Lake, divert computing power to infiltrate those two armed merchant ships."
He had intended to concentrate fire on dealing with the two merchant ships, but the opponent’s self-destruction made him realize their obstinance.
Upon hearing this, Little Lake had to again allocate threads to infiltrate the last-arriving two armed merchant ships.
The armed merchant ships didn’t have any significant logic barriers, making infiltration almost too easy.
In fact, it seemed somewhat redundant as the scales of victory were swiftly tipping with the involvement of 3344 and the Customs Enforcement Warship.
Before long, one merchant ship was blown up, and another was heavily damaged, while Little Lake hadn’t fully taken over the opponent’s mother ship.
From the exploded merchant ship floated some Mechas and lifeboats, which neither side had the time to attend to.
Subsequently, Little Lake finally succeeded in controlling that space-air carrier flagship, yet it still felt a bit troubled.
"The opponents are still resisting stubbornly, and the manned small ships are very resistant to my control!"
"Then try to activate the self-destruct devices," Qu Jianlei spoke coldly, "Aren’t they fond of self-destruction? Let’s lend a hand!"
In the next moment, several small ships exploded one after another, turning into clusters of fireballs.
Compared to damage from bombardment, a starship’s self-destruction is distinctly different, and the opposition watched in utter disbelief.
"Bastard," someone screamed miserably, like a cuckoo crying blood, "It’s murder!"
Because Little Lake was gradually controlling the opponent’s starship systems, this scream was actually heard by Qu Jianlei.
However, he remained impassive—a joke, did I invite you to ambush me?
Initiating the ambush first and then fighting to death without reason, he didn’t consider himself to be committing murder—it was essentially their own suicide, wasn’t it?
Thus, his actions could be seen as him fulfilling the opponent’s wishes; isn’t it good to fulfill one’s desires?
With gradually controlling of the opponent’s flagship, Little Lake could finally spare resources to simultaneously deal with the frigate and digital battleship.
The frigate was quickly subdued, but before it fell, someone shouted, "Every man for himself!"
Clearly, a deputy of the fleet was on this battleship; otherwise, they wouldn’t have the authority to issue such directives.
Unfortunately, the instruction was a bit too late, and by then, escaping was an extravagance.
Indeed, quite a few people ejected trying to escape, but Qu Jianlei ordered coldly again, "Let none escape!"
"Let none escape..." Little Lake mechanically repeated without saying much more.
Subsequently, it faithfully executed Qu Jianlei’s orders, and it didn’t merely slaughter.
Most often, it would use artillery fire to blockade and attempt to prevent their escape.
But if the opponents were determined to flee, casualties were inevitable, and killing was normal.
After all, attacking individuals using ship weapons, with a slight misjudgment could mean a life, and it wasn’t willing to waste computing power on these people.
By this time, the advantage had fully transformed into supremacy, and dealing with the opponent was just a matter of time.
Yet, this digital battleship was indeed hard to handle, seemingly within reach but still out of grasp.
Manned small ships were still being destroyed one by one.
They had disabled their self-destruct devices, but the control system permissions were slowly being stripped away, while the opposing firepower grew ever stronger.
When an uncontrolled warship encounters concentrated fire, its fate is predictable.
When only two small ships were left, Little Lake suddenly muttered, "Huh, strange!"
Immediately after, another small ship flew out from the Mother Ship, heading straight towards the 8384 Warship.
"This Attack Ship is very peculiar," Big Head Butterfly spoke rapidly, "It’s hard to seize control!"
Next moment, the Attack Ship displayed agile maneuvers, dodging several attacks.
On Qu Jianlei’s Warship, there was no shortage of homing weapons.
However, with Little Lake’s precise judgment and attacks, it wasn’t necessary to use homing weapons, as it would be too uneconomical.
—If one can use an autocannon for precise hits, who would use missiles?
But now, precise shooting was actually dodged by the adversary, which was quite marvelous.
Qu Jianlei’s brow furrowed slightly, yet he already guessed the origins, "Can you connect to the adversary’s communications?"
This time, the Warship he encountered was different from the past; data intrusion was difficult, and the systems between Warship components were relatively independent.
Seizing overall control of the Warship was hard, but connecting the communication alone would be much easier.
In the next instant, a new communication link appeared on the channel, "Connected!"
Qu Jianlei’s brow furrowed slightly, that fast?
However, before he could speak, a sinister laugh echoed through the channel, "Hehe, finally ready to talk?"
"I thought you would hide forever, thinking you’ve won, and now you’re daring to come out?"
"Hang up," Qu Jianlei recognized the adversary’s voice; it was Balrog, so he didn’t want to say any more.
All along, he hadn’t figured out how he offended the adversary to bring about such hatred.
But now, he was too lazy to ask, just confirming the adversary was enough, why waste words with a lunatic?
"Hehe, scared?" Balrog laughed softly, seemingly in a good mood.
"Don’t you have artificial intelligence, can forcibly seize control, right? Try and see if you can take over mine..."
The channel was finally disconnected, and the chattering voice abruptly ceased.
"What a madman," Qu Jianlei shook his head wryly, at this moment, he understood the peculiarity of the small ship.
It really had nothing to do with the Starship; the key was Balrog!
Little Lake’s difficulty in invading this small ship was because Balrog was inside.
Even later, the difficulty in seizing control of the Space-Air Carrier was likely due to this.
This is the wonder of Spiritual Attributes, it’s like this: the characteristics of Spiritual Power are very similar to electromagnetic waves.
Nonetheless, Qu Jianlei initially hadn’t thought the potential of Spiritual Attributes was so vast, able to enhance the strength of logical barriers.
And with the Mother Ship’s control seized, this small ship could still fly freely, evidently done single-handedly by Balrog.
Resisting Little Lake’s invasion, even though it’s a very small amount of computing power, it’s still quite commendable.
As for dodging those precise attacks, that’s child’s play.
Next, he no longer concerned himself with this small ship, informing Little Lake to temporarily suspend the invasion.
Because there’s really no need, knowing the adversary is hard to tackle, why not seize the easy target first?
As for the adversary possibly escaping? Don’t joke, such a small ship daring to escape will naturally trigger Little Lake’s alertness.
Once Little Lake increases computing power, Balrog resisting won’t be so easy, at the very least, more concentrated fire would be called upon.
However, Balrog also didn’t even consider running away, just chasing the 8384 relentlessly, acting as if mad.
"Probably has an obsession now," Qu Jianlei didn’t take it seriously either, this guy’s mind was never right.
Anyway, although the 8384 was battle-scarred, its basic defensive capabilities remained intact.
The Protective Shield’s strength was indeed low, but there were solid parts that could withstand the small ship’s brief attack.
The key was that the Warship was under Little Lake’s control, Balrog couldn’t attack the weak spots.
Indeed, Big Head Butterfly struggled slightly in seizing control of the small ship, but that’s because the adversary was on home turf.
Controlling the Starship at home posed no obstacles at all, requiring very little computing power.
In short, using 8384 to endure some attacks in exchange for quickly ending the battle was quite cost-effective.
Little Lake accepted his command, in fact, it also had its own target—allocating the largest computing power to the Digital Battleship.
Not only aiming to seize control, Big Head Butterfly also wanted to capture the artificial intelligence inside.
Although it looked down on the adversary, it could still better itself by gleaning even a tiny bit through assimilation.
Who says artificial intelligence doesn’t need Cultivation?
Very soon, the battle entered its final phase, and Qu Jianlei’s side paid a heavy price, finally annihilating the adversaries.
As for completely annihilating, not quite yet, there were still many lifeboats and lifeboats scattered in every direction.
But Qu Jianlei’s side was also unable to continue the chase.
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