Chapter 157: Chaos

Obena’s first wave of warships fired at the distant planets. His only goal was to destroy all these planets emitting powerful magnetic fields, nothing more.

To destroy these planets, Obena was mentally prepared to lose up to 50% of his fleet. After all, once the planets shattered, the exploding fragments would definitely cause some damage to his own warships.

But compared to having all electronic equipment disabled, it was better to sacrifice some light warships to eliminate the magnetic field than to become useless scrap metal drifting in space.

Although Tad and others looked down on Obena, that didn’t mean Obena was completely worthless.

Tens of thousands of light warships in the front fired together. Dark blue energy beams shot from their cannons and struck the planets, leaving deep, bottomless black holes on their surfaces. Unfortunately, the attack power wasn’t strong enough, so a single assault couldn’t completely destroy the giant planets.

What were giant planets? The distant planets were extremely large—strictly speaking, they were about five to six million times the size of Earth, which was why they were called giant planets.

Planets of this size were actually quite common in the universe.

In Lei Yaotian’s original world, the Solar System, apart from Earth, planets like Pluto and Neptune also had similar sizes, and there were even planets with volumes millions of times larger.

Obena watched as the energy cannons continuously bombarded the planets. The surfaces bubbled like boiling water, blooming with “bubbles” created by the explosions.

“These planets are just too big. My warship firepower isn’t strong enough, and I can’t destroy them completely!” Obena thought to himself.

At that moment, the alarm sounded in the command room.

“Report, Commander! Massive destructive energy detected ahead! The enemy has opened fire. Should we evade?” the deputy officer turned and shouted, asking Obena for tactical instructions.

Before Obena could react, Lei Yaotian’s first wave of energy cannons had already destroyed the frontline of the light warships.

Countless thick energy beams instantly covered the light warship battle line. Pale yellow energy rays streaked across the dark space, and under visible observation, Obena’s light warship legion began to disintegrate, explode, and even vaporize without a trace.

“Return fire! Return fire! Forget the planets, focus on counterattacking now!”

Obena saw that the neatly arranged battle line of his warships now had empty gaps after the enemy’s assault, indicating severe losses in the frontline fleet.

Seeing this, the corner of Obena’s eye twitched uncontrollably.

War in the Great Cosmic Era was incredibly brutal. Though there was no blood and gore, each disintegrated, exploded, or vaporized warship represented hundreds of thousands of lives vanishing just like that.

Compared to ground combat, space battles might not involve close-quarters fighting, but they were far more cruel and devastating.

According to standard configuration, each light warship carried 12,000 mechas, along with crew for piloting, maintenance, logistics, and more, totaling at least over 20,000 personnel per ship.

For medium and heavy warships, the numbers were several times higher.

Therefore, when a warship was destroyed, over 98% of its personnel perished along with it.

In just the first wave of Lei Yaotian’s attack, Obena’s fleet lost over 30% of its strength, with at least over a million warships destroyed.

This meant that in a mere moment, millions of lives disappeared into space—the cruelty couldn’t be more extreme.

But for those in power like Obena, soldiers’ deaths were merely statistics. They didn’t stir even a ripple of emotion in his heart. Obena thought exactly this way.

Currently, Obena didn’t care at all about the loss of lives. He only felt some pain because the warships were destroyed. After all, in his world, there were plenty of people who could pilot warships, but warships weren’t always available for purchase.

Even though he was a Dimensional Merchant, he wasn’t as well-off as Lei Yaotian. Above him was the exploiter Tad, and the warships he had brought were essentially his entire fortune.

Unlike Obena, Lei Yaotian didn’t view these enemies as living beings. In Lei Yaotian’s eyes, they were like ants. Would someone feel pain or pity for stepping on an ant while walking?

Obviously, such a thing wouldn’t happen, and that’s exactly how Lei Yaotian saw the other side.

Moreover, Lei Yaotian was a Transmigrator. Apart from people from his original world, he didn’t care about anyone in this world at all.

To add, Tad and these enemies were actually from another world entirely.

Therefore, Lei Yaotian felt no cruelty or burden about so many lives vanishing all at once.

If you asked who Lei Yaotian cared about now, Wangcai was one, Monica far away in the Barren Star Domain was another, and even Audrey, who regarded him as her father, was included.

As for Elder Mensa, he couldn’t even be counted as someone Lei Yaotian remembered.

Boom!

Boom! Boom!

Warships in the frontline vanguard exploded one after another, vanishing. From a distance, their explosions looked like flowers blooming in the dark universe, though each of these “blossoms” represented countless lives extinguished.

“Report, Commander! Our warship numbers have drastically decreased. The enemy’s attack has reduced our forces by over 30%!”

Just as Obena was burning with anxiety, the deputy officer reported another piece of news that nearly suffocated Obena.

“I ordered immediate counterattacks! Are we just going to sit here and be target practice for the enemy?!” Obena yelled furiously at the deputy officer.

“Commander, the flagship has lost contact with all fleets. This star field is filled with intense magnetic fields, completely blocking our transmission signals,” the deputy officer replied, his face pale.

“What a disaster!” Obena slammed his fist hard on the metal console in front of him, producing a loud “thud.”

Due to the magnetic fields, the flagship could no longer communicate normally with the fleets, which was terrible news for Obena.

Communication between warships in the Great Cosmic Era wasn’t like in other eras. If signals were truly blocked, it was very serious—it meant Obena’s commands could no longer be relayed.

Thinking of this, Obena’s head throbbed painfully.

“What is the System doing, setting the battlefield in such a strange place?” Obena really couldn’t understand it.

But then Obena reconsidered, “If our fleet is facing this situation, the enemy probably isn’t any better off. After all, the enemy is on the opposite side of this star field, separated by these very planets.”

Ha ha!

Obena immediately perked up, thinking the enemy’s situation couldn’t be much better than his.

But Obena had no idea that this battlefield and these planets were actually purchased from the System and arranged by his enemies.

“Dispatch a fast shuttle ship immediately. Head to the rear and inform them. Until the magnetic fields are cleared, do not advance recklessly!” Obena quickly had the deputy officer retrieve data of the nearby star field, then sent him with a team on the fast shuttle back to the rear to inform Hudi and the others.

There was no time to worry about the rest; they had to keep attacking!

Obena knew he couldn’t contact the other warships anymore. He could only hope they would continue following his orders and keep attacking the planets, aiming to destroy these magnetic field-emitting nuisances as soon as possible.

…

“Enemy frontline warships reduced by 30%. Should we continue the attack?”

Bob watched the real-time transmitted scene with a serious expression, carefully observing the battlefield situation.

“Continue the attack! Increase energy output by 20%, switch to heavy particle cannons! Dispatch anti-particle mine-laying ships to deploy anti-particle mines ahead!” Bob issued several commands without turning his head.

“It seems the enemy intends to destroy that planet region. But I’m confident we can completely eliminate their vanguard forces there!” After giving orders, Bob withdrew his gaze from the real-time feed and walked over to Lei Yaotian and Andrew, speaking to Lei Yaotian.

Lei Yaotian smiled slightly, looking out at the occasional flashes of explosions in the universe.

“In this battlefield, our firepower is increased by 50%. If we attack at full force, I doubt the enemy can withstand even this wave. But to be safe, I think we should proceed step by step.”

Bob deeply agreed with Lei Yaotian’s words.

“Having an employer like you is my honor. Overconfidence often leads to failure. I’ve seen many cases where victory was within grasp but turned into defeat because of arrogance.” Bob nodded to Lei Yaotian. “Although our approach is conservative, it’s safe and secure.”

Bob also looked out at the starry battlefield beyond the warship, saying slowly, “The left-wing fleet is completely hidden, and the right-wing fleet has reached the enemy’s left flank. Now we’ll slowly eliminate the enemy’s vanguard fleet. Even though our tech level is much higher, who knows if they have hidden reserves?”

Just as Bob expressed his concerns to Lei Yaotian, in the dark void far behind Tad’s army, countless pitch-black warships appeared one after another, densely packed and silently stationed in the emptiness.

These warships were like ghosts, entirely dark and without luster. All electronic instruments inside them were silent, as if waiting for something.

After these sudden warships appeared, Tad, sitting in Hudi’s flagship, allowed a faint, unnoticed smirk to curl his lips.