A specially modified Royal Void Shuttle was quickly dispatched to Kailudak. What I didn't expect was that there was a group of Royal Guards following the shuttle. Dozens of 'small' spaceships made by the Empire were huge enough in the atmosphere. These neatly lined up Empire warships marched majestically above the city of Kailudak. Of course, it immediately attracted the attention of many civilians. The balconies above every tower building were filled with citizens of various races. Driven by restlessness and intense curiosity, they used all sorts of devices to record this scene that shouldn't have appeared above their homes — I just don't know if they developed Weibo.
"I say … what's with all this fanfare?" I came to the observation deck of the Parliament building with the rest and prepared to board the shuttle. As I watched the oppressive Empire warships in the sky, I mumbled to Sandora, "Shouldn't we try not to agitate the citizens of the Fourth Fleet? They are extremely sensitive to Empire warships. "
"The civilians aren't as sensitive as the military and these high-ranking officials. These Royal Guards were sent after a discussion with the 'Parliament' and most of the high-ranking officials of the Fourth Fleet. You were researching technical issues with Sandora at the time, so you probably didn't notice." My sister smiled at me as she explained. I glanced at the 'Parliament' and received an affirmative answer.
"After establishing a stable connection with the Fifth Fleet, the matter was made public to the public, including the current situation of not being able to provide effective assistance to the Fifth Fleet and the various difficulties we encountered. These matters caused a huge commotion among the civilians." The 'Parliament' smiled at me. "Then, the Matriarch of the Empire suggested to me that we continue publicizing the progress of the matter. She emphasized that the two Empire leaders were about to personally enter the depths of the Void to provide assistance to the Fifth Fleet. In the end … this is what you see. We believe that letting the people see the scene of you boarding and departing is more powerful than a simple information announcement. "
I blinked as I looked at my older sister. As expected of a schemer … ahem, ahem, my incredibly intelligent and farsighted older sister. She had only thought of this in passing, but it was truly a "passing" that shouldn't be underestimated. Providing assistance to the Fifth Fleet would be a historical turning point in the relationship between the new Empire and the exiles. And what my sister was doing was doing everything possible to magnify this turning point and leave a backup plan. Even if we failed in the end, the scene of boarding had already laid a foundation of public opinion that would not be easily reversed. Look, the two Schilling Emperors are already risking their lives, what else could you ask them to do?
But only we knew that this mission really wasn't dangerous … The Void was my home, and the two Schilling Emperors could survive unconditionally in the Void. Not to mention, I was invincible in the Void …
"The void is a deadly danger zone. Other than our family, everyone else thinks so." My sister's thoughts were exactly the same as what I had guessed. She spoke through the mental link.
I looked at the fleet of Empire battleships on standby in the sky, and realized that it should be the legendary phalanx of actors, except that our main cast was actually in action — I was about to be shot into the depths of the Void.
Such a course of action was hard to imagine in the logic of the Shiring Apostles. They only paid attention to the actual and direct results, and rarely did they study the "tricks" such as public opinion, social direction, and public support. But I have to admit, in communication with ordinary races other than the Shiring Apostles, it was precisely these small details that the former would easily overlook that would affect the latter's fundamental attitude towards the Empire. So now, although the military and industrial aspects of the Empire were led by Sandora and a group of Imperial Army personnel, the public opinion, media, culture, and other aspects were (in theory) done by the earthlings in our family (with Liliana as the leader). Even Sandora was surprised by the various results achieved by the latter. She had never thought that things could be done in this way.
"Speaking of which, if we do that, should we play some background music when we board the ship later?" I rubbed my hands together and grinned at my sister. She didn't reply, but Icetis complained faintly, "Those who play music before boarding the ship usually die when the cast is about to appear …"
I replied, "… Err, forget it then. But do you think I should say something to the camera later? I should make an impassioned speech about the future and boost the people's confidence. "
Icetis said faintly again, "The impassioned speech before departure will usually be at least 15 minutes before the ending song …"
"Damn, stop it …"
With Bryndis, the atmosphere killer, messing things up, I finally remembered that I really wasn't the type to babble in front of the camera. Thus, I pulled Shadora along as we prepared to depart. Before we left, my sister asked me worriedly, "Do we really not need to bring the guards over? What if we get ambushed? "
"You have to understand that my Void Realm has a limit. The more people I bring, the more trouble there will be. Also, I might not be able to take it. It is very likely that I won't have the energy to bring them back if I bring a large group over." I shrugged helplessly. "Don't forget, Hilla is such a powerful veteran Void Creature. Even a trip from Huron to Star Field would be as tiring as a dead dog …"
"Don't worry. If there is any danger, I won't let Ah Jun go," Sandora said solemnly. "We will always be in the Void Realm. Also, after we set off, Ah Jun's Void Realm will not be closed. Under such circumstances, even if we meet with danger, we will at least be able to escape."
With Sandora's assurance, my sister didn't say anything else. She just told us to be careful and watched us enter the shuttle.
When the spaceship's Order Field was activated, a layer of pure black gradually spread from the cockpit and quickly formed a black sphere that completely enveloped the shuttle. This black sphere completely absorbed all the light that shone on its surface, so much so that it looked as if someone had suddenly cut out a piece of space, revealing a black hole. After that, the black sphere and the shuttle inside it disappeared from everyone's sight.
A moment later, the shuttle's signal came from the border of the Empire. The first attempt at a jump was a success.
At the distant border of the Empire, a small shuttle was returning to the material world from the void. Its smooth alloy shell was shining brightly under the light of a nearby star, and a black shadow was slowly fading away from the shuttle's shell until it disappeared.
Sandora checked the various parameters of the shuttle. She didn't dare to be careless and finally breathed a sigh of relief. "Just like the theoretical value, the extreme jump didn't cause any damage to the shuttle's structure. We have successfully bypassed the technical barrier of Void Jump. Although it is only under special circumstances."
"Next time, we will directly jump to somewhere near the Fifth Fleet." I looked at Sandora fiddling with the complicated parameters and felt dizzy. "To be honest, it doesn't feel like it's draining."
"You will know when you expand your Void Field to tens of thousands of kilometers." Sandora pursed her lips and sighed. "Actually, if there is a way, I really don't want you to do this. It will really consume a lot of energy. Although the Fifth Fleet is much closer than the distance between Huron and the Star Field, you still can't compare to a veteran Void creature like King Huron … When you jump later, pay attention to your own consumption. It's fine if you only jump halfway. As long as the Fifth Fleet enters the safe zone, our mission will be considered complete. Don't work too hard, understand?"
I smiled. This plan was suggested by Sandora, but in the end, she was still worried about it. But facing her dilemma, I just patted her head. "Alright, I'm not someone you need to protect. This small matter can be easily settled. Actually, I was inspired by you and thought of a good idea."
Sandora revealed a curious expression. As she adjusted the engines and prepared to jump to the Fifth Fleet, she gestured for me to continue.
"Look, if my Void Field can allow an entire fleet to instantly cross a theoretically infinite distance in the Void, doesn't that mean … we can airdrop a large fleet right at the doorstep of the Fallen Apostle's base? We can even bypass their warning system? "
Sandora revealed a slightly surprised expression, as though she found it inconceivable that I could actually think of this on my own initiative. But she still shook her head. "Perhaps it might be feasible to do this in a local battle, but it will only be a small trick. You know, the New Empire and the Fallen Apostle are both colossi. When we officially start the war, the scale of the battle will definitely not be as simple as a fleet. And with your power, how many people can you airdrop to the enemy's base? Moreover, during the process of airdropping, you will have to jump together with the fleet. When you reach the destination, you will be in a weakened state. Sending a fleet alone to the enemy's base while you have almost no combat strength, have you thought about how terrible a strategy this is? That is why this can only be used as a surprise attack, and a small-scale surprise attack at that. Also, don't think of this kind of jump as much of an advantage. In reality, the chances of an army advancing in the Void being intercepted are extremely small. The Fifth Fleet only fell into this situation because they were being followed from the moment they set off. Under normal circumstances, spaceships advancing in the Void Field will not be detected by anything unless they are already close to a world of Order. Using your Void Field to airdrop a fleet into the battlefield won't give you any advantage in terms of 'anti-interception.' At most, it will save a portion of the soldiers some time. But from the way I see it, as a Void creature and the leader of the Empire, it is far more meaningful for you to maintain your peak condition throughout the entire war than to use yourself as a single-use troop transport at the cost of losing your combat strength. "
I felt a little awkward, thinking that it was not easy for me to come up with such a strategic idea, but after Sandora analyzed it, it turned out to be a technique with no practical value. She was right, I had subconsciously underestimated my usefulness. In a real large-scale war, using the Emperor of the Empire as a single-use troop transport was definitely a terrible idea. However, when Sandora saw my slightly dejected expression, she laughed instead. "Actually, Ah Jun's idea is useful. That is, when we really need to ambush the enemy, we can take this as an experiment to collect data so that we can know how much damage such a large-scale jump will have on your smurf. Speaking of which, Ah Jun has really changed a lot. The previous you would never have taken the initiative to think of such things. "
I scratched my head, thinking to myself, Wasn't this forced out …
At this moment, Sandora finally finished recalibrating. She smiled as she patted my arm. "Alright, the equipment is ready. Prepare to depart. Ah Jun, go big!"
I grinned, revealing a glint of Crest. "Demacia!"
Then, I felt a wave of dizziness, a very strange … dizziness …
I didn't know how long this subtle dizziness lasted. It was as if my concept of time had been split into two parts. One part passed by my side in a flash, and the other part was almost stagnant in my perception. I had never felt such a strange experience before. Even though I knew that only a few seconds had passed, those few seconds seemed to have been stretched infinitely in my self-awareness to the point where it seemed like an eternity … However, I didn't feel any discomfort or annoyance.
I tried to talk to Sandora, to tell her that I seemed to have fallen into a strange situation, but I realized that I couldn't speak to her. It wasn't that I couldn't speak, but the information that I sent out, my actions (if I really did anything in those few seconds), and my words couldn't be transmitted to Sandora. It was as if we had suddenly become two individuals that existed on a parallel level. If I didn't know that this situation would end soon, I was afraid that I would have fallen into a serious state of panic. Of course, there was a possibility that I wouldn't, because I suddenly realized that my concept of time was being stripped away.
In those infinitely long seconds of self-consciousness, a normal person would have quickly grown weary, weary of the endless passage of time and the lack of change in one's own state. But after a "long" time, I found myself still in a state of peace, which was really out of character. Then, at the end of some long thought process, I suddenly remembered something:
The Protoss's concept of time.
Perhaps this was the world in their eyes … feeling the flow of time, but not caring about anything caused by the flow of time. This kind of not caring was not indifference, but just eternal peace of mind.
After confirming that this state wouldn't have any adverse effects, and it didn't really seem to last forever, and I had nothing to do for the time being, I began to experience something else out of curiosity: the feeling of becoming one with the Void.
This was something that appeared together with the stagnation of time after the shuttle started its jump. I didn't know if it was an illusion, but it felt like my own Void had crossed such a vast Void in an instant, causing the exchange of information between the two to exceed a certain threshold. This gave me the feeling that I had expanded infinitely, and my consciousness began to drift in an infinitely wide and infinitely small ocean. The ocean was formless and ever-changing. When you were a drop of water, you would feel that everything around you was so vast that it was almost incomprehensible, but a drop of water could not be separated from the entire ocean. So, you and I became one, and you began to feel that the ocean wasn't as vast as you thought it was. It was still infinite, but at this time, infinity was a unit that could be measured, and that unit was called "self".
There were layers of waves on the surface of the sea that appeared still, although in another sense, they were surging wildly and changing in an instant. Each rising wave was a world of its own. Compared to the unchanging ocean, these slowly rising and falling waves were relatively short, even fleeting. But in that instant, they still broke away from the ocean they were once in, leaping high into the air with their own unique form and rules. Perhaps the Void was not the ocean, but a flat surface. The endless depth below it was just an illusion. Depth existed, but it was also meaningless. To the world, it was just a wave on the surface of the sea. When this idea suddenly popped out, I felt that my perspective had really changed. I had left the state of being a drop of water and stood in a new angle to look at the monstrous waves on the surface of the sea. Then, I came under the surface of the sea and saw a new scene: the monstrous waves on the surface of the sea looked like a sunken ravine here.
Alright, this was really quite boring, but I was quite interested in studying it now. I finally understood why underwater photography was so popular. Looking at the world from a position that normal people wouldn't stand, everything you saw was really refreshing. I jumped around and waited for the shuttle to leave the jumping state. It seemed like it wouldn't take too long. I thought for a while and felt that I only needed to blink and shift my consciousness from the depths to the surface. Then, I would be able to leave this state in an instant. The flow of time would return to normal, and the almost stagnant time would return to the normal few seconds.
But just as I was about to do so, I suddenly felt that there was another swimmer in the depths of the sea.
A swimmer like me.
Something with order and consciousness, something completely different from the chaotic sea, was wandering nearby.
I thought for a while and decided to go over to take a look. Although I couldn't explain how I moved, I did feel that I was getting closer to the swimmer. Then, I heard a clear female voice, "Hey, little brother, are you taking a walk?"
I was speechless.
"I didn't expect you to be a hiking enthusiast. Have you eaten yet?"
I was speechless.
"Oh yeah, have you seen Xing Chen recently? He hasn't messaged me for a few days. I don't think he's that busy … Hey, look, look, six worlds are being born at the same time! Conjoined bodies! This might even result in multiple births. After a while, when it stabilizes, I will put some life into it. The children will definitely like their new world! "
I was speechless. "… Sister Hilla?!"
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