Chapter Thirty-Three: The Battlefield of Alien Civilizations

With the engine activated, the Sky Vault began to shuttle rapidly through the silent sea of stars. The drop-off point was once again lackluster, as the long-range survey radar detected no celestial bodies in the vicinity.

After wandering aimlessly for several hours like a headless fly with no further discoveries, Song Chi’s heart sank to the bottom. To prepare for this exploration, he had specifically purchased an additional "Rage Tiger Mk I" floating continent mining vehicle and two vehicle-mounted scanners, spending a full 400 strands of Rank-0 floating continent origin—all to significantly boost his mining efficiency.

Now, aside from his reserve of emergency resources, he had only 300 strands of Rank-0 floating continent origin left. If this expedition failed to yield sufficient gains, the profits from the subsequent market openings would inevitably be severely diminished.

Just as anxiety began to set in, the survey radar suddenly emitted a sharp, urgent alarm. A dense cluster of red dots gathered in the upper left of the radar screen; two massive fleets of warships were locked in intense combat. Unbeknownst to him, the Sky Vault had stumbled right into an interstellar battlefield between two alien civilizations.

Song Chi reduced the Sky Vault’s speed to its minimum. While desperately masking its signature, he watched the large-scale conflict from the edge of the battlefield. Both sides possessed over ten thousand warships. Judging by the energy fluctuations erupting from their cannons, most were Rank-0, with about a hundred or so Rank-1 vessels mixed in—overall, the lowest intensity of civilization-level warfare in the star sea.

Even so, it was still a war between civilizations. For Song Chi, a battlefield of this scale was extremely dangerous, and he had no intention of participating. While the dark matter energy shield was impressive, it would not stand up to the concentrated fire of tens of thousands of warships, where one slight misstep could lead to destruction. Furthermore, the Sky Vault’s current firepower was relatively weak; it was essentially just a ship with a thick health bar. The chances of looting any significant spoils in the chaos were near zero.

After lingering at the edge of the battlefield for about ten minutes, Song Chi spotted an alien warship that had largely broken away from the fray. Seeing his chance, he struck quickly, easily destroying the already damaged craft. His purpose in hanging around wasn't to spectate; he needed a star chart. He was unfamiliar with this sector, but these local civilizations were not. Rather than flying around like a headless fly, why not spend ten minutes securing a map?

With the star chart in hand, Song Chi immediately maneuvered the Sky Vault away without a second thought. A few minutes later, the ship turned and headed toward a small debris belt marked on the chart as the nearest point of interest.

The star chart recorded a vast area, containing not just small debris belts, but even three floating continents—one of which was a Rank-2 resource continent rich in various materials, featuring multiple medium-to-large metal veins. Unfortunately, it was 12 light-years away, an unreachable distance for the Sky Vault, which was not currently equipped with a jump drive. The debris belt was his only practical choice.

Over an hour later, the Sky Vault arrived at the target debris belt. It was significantly smaller than the one he had encountered during his last exploration, but Song Chi didn't mind. The number of celestial bodies here was conservatively estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands. With less than twenty hours of remaining time, he would be lucky to explore a fraction of it, even excluding the time required for mining.

Knowing there was no time to waste, Song Chi entered the market, retrieved one of his Rage Tiger mining vehicles, and dove into the debris belt.

As time passed, the vehicle's onboard AI provided constant updates:
"Ten kilograms of Adamantine, skipping."
"Gas deposits, unfortunately only a few hundred kilograms, skipping."
"Star Sea Cold Iron, fifty tons, requires half an hour to extract."

Mining time always passed quickly. In the blink of an eye, five hours had elapsed. While there were gains, the quantities were not large enough to warrant deploying the second mining vehicle. When deposits were small, extraction finished in about thirty minutes, making the hassle of managing two vehicles unnecessary.

The Sky Vault continued to drift aimlessly. Since the debris belt was vast, there was no need for a complex survey plan. Then, a surprise came: just minutes later, Song Chi discovered a fragment containing over a thousand tons of Adamantine.

"Radiation reaction detected from 'Adamantine ore' on a fragment at coordinates xxxxx. Preliminary estimate: over one thousand tons."

Carefully parking the Sky Vault on the target fragment, Song Chi deployed the Rage Tiger mining vehicle and dispatched three Rank-1 Fire-Sunflower Puppets to guard it. He then retrieved the second mining vehicle from the market and continued his survey. A thousand tons of Adamantine would take several hours to extract, giving the Sky Vault plenty of time to scan the surrounding area.

"Damn it, this place is hellish. The debris density is way too high."

After a violent shudder, the Sky Vault narrowly squeezed through a gap between several tightly packed fragments. The ship, which had only been repaired a few days ago, suffered some new minor scrapes. Though nothing critical, it still drew a string of curses from Song Chi. If his scanner hadn't detected a peculiar radiation signature from within this cluster, he never would have ventured into such a zone.

However, since even the scanner couldn't pinpoint the source—only identifying a unique energy fluctuation—Song Chi was immensely curious. Otherwise, he wouldn't have rushed in after merely deploying two general-purpose drones to confirm there was no immediate danger.

Scanning the area, Song Chi frowned. At a glance, there was nothing unusual behind the dense debris. The AI confirmed: "Unknown energy fluctuation, further investigation required."

Looking at the dozen or so fragments, each at least ten meters wide, Song Chi felt a headache coming on. If he had to check them manually, it would take hours. He moved the Sky Vault closer, instructing the scanner to pinpoint which fragment the energy was radiating from.

Ten minutes later, having ruled out most of them, Song Chi deployed the mining vehicle to carpet-mine the remaining five fragments. Within an hour, the first, second, and third fragments were cleared, and the Rage Tiger began working on the fourth.