Chapter 30: Massive Capture

Words : 1541 Updated : Sep 12th, 2025

Xiao Yu named the three “County-Class” spaceships the Voyager, the Solar, and the Proxima. Among them, the Solar was the largest in tonnage and served as Xiao Yu’s flagship. These three ships formed the core of Xiao Yu’s fleet. Each was equipped with an array of weapons, including hydrogen bombs, atomic bombs, laser cannons, missiles, and high-velocity machine guns. Xiao Yu’s goal was to transform these spaceships into war fortresses. If possible, Xiao Yu had even considered building a “City-Class” or “Province-Class” spaceship. However, after careful consideration, he abandoned the idea. Constructing such large ships was unnecessary; given Xiao Yu’s current technological limitations, their propulsion systems, defensive systems, and maneuverability would fall short, making them less practical than the “County-Class” ships. Compared to the three “County-Class” ships, the seventy “Town-Class” ships were equipped with less advanced weaponry, though they still packed significant firepower. The “Village-Class” ships, however, were not armed with nuclear weapons. According to Xiao Yu’s plan, in the event of an interstellar war, the “Village-Class” ships would primarily perform escort duties and engage in close-quarters combat with enemy forces. Equipping them with nuclear weapons was deemed unnecessary. Xiao Yu had already boarded the Solar and commanded a fleet of 1,073 spaceships to leave Titan and head into deep space. As he gazed at the massive fleet behind him, Xiao Yu couldn’t help but feel a surge of pride in his heart. “These are all products of my effort! They will carry me on a great voyage!” “But before embarking on this journey, there’s one thing that must be done.” “That is... reaching Jupiter and capturing the Phantoms!” “Set course!” With Xiao Yu’s command, the colossal fleet began its journey, advancing mightily toward Jupiter. To construct this massive fleet, Xiao Yu had nearly exhausted his reserves of Phantoms. To ensure future construction efforts, Xiao Yu needed to capture more Phantoms and bring them along to the Proxima Centauri star system. Although the Phantoms had undergone mutations, developing a slight degree of intelligence beyond their instincts, Xiao Yu was unconcerned. With such a powerful fleet at his command, he was confident that even Phantoms as formidable as the ones that had previously forced him into retreat could now be annihilated in seconds. The laser cannons on a “Village-Class” ship like the Hope were nowhere near as powerful as those on the “County-Class” ships. As the size and mass of a spaceship increase, its maneuverability inevitably decreases. A “Village-Class” ship could withstand up to 230 times the force of gravity during acceleration, while the largest “County-Class” ships could endure no more than 100 times. This meant that the Voyager, Solar, and Proxima could only handle accelerations of up to 500 meters per second squared. The enormous fleet accelerated together, eventually reaching a cruising speed of 400 kilometers per second as they raced toward Jupiter. During the two-week journey through space, Xiao Yu practiced various formations with his fleet, gradually mastering the intricacies of space maneuvers. Finally, Jupiter’s immense form appeared on the horizon. Xiao Yu commanded the fleet to decelerate and gradually enter an orbital trajectory around Jupiter. The densely packed fleet resembled a legion of reapers, bringing destruction to the lifeforms on Jupiter. With Xiao Yu personally directing the operation, the Phantoms on Jupiter were drawn toward the fleet, attracted by the presence of an intelligent aura. In no time, both mutated and ordinary Phantoms swarmed madly toward Xiao Yu’s ships. Their numbers totaled nearly 100,000! Detecting countless radiation sources exhibiting strong blue shifts, Xiao Yu remained utterly unflustered. Leveraging his immense computational power, he calculated the approach velocity, radiation intensity, and current position of each Phantom in an instant. For every one of the 100,000 Phantoms, Xiao Yu devised a detailed response plan. Some would be destroyed outright, others allowed to approach for capture, and still others slowed down using laser cannons. Under Xiao Yu’s meticulous planning, the capture operation proceeded smoothly. Among this enormous group of Phantoms, there were hundreds of mutated Phantoms, each with radiation levels at least a hundred times stronger than those of ordinary Phantoms. Xiao Yu was deeply intrigued by these mutated variants. The thousand “Village-Class” ships and seventy “Town-Class” ships began firing simultaneously, with each targeting different Phantoms. Xiao Yu’s immense computational power ensured maximum optimization of output. If seven laser cannons firing for 3.5 seconds could eliminate one Phantom, then Xiao Yu ensured that no laser would fire for 4 seconds. Similarly, if a Phantom needed to approach the fleet within 30 seconds for capture, Xiao Yu’s calculations guaranteed it would arrive exactly at that time—not at 29 or 31 seconds. Xiao Yu’s control over the fleet was precise to such an extent that the coordination between the more than one thousand spaceships was flawless, with not a single resource wasted. Under the overwhelming power of the fleet, the Phantoms were like lambs to the slaughter. Mutated or ordinary, none had any chance of resisting. All were either destroyed or captured and locked inside specially designed containers aboard the ships. In less than three hours, half of the 100,000-strong Phantom swarm had been exterminated, while the remaining half were captured. Looking at his haul, Xiao Yu beamed with satisfaction, muttering to himself, “Finally, I’m the one in control! Weren’t you pretty arrogant last time, chasing me down? Well, where’s that arrogance now? Come on, bring it!” Chuckling at his own remarks, Xiao Yu directed his massive fleet toward the next Jovian Phantom gathering point. The Phantom population seemed inexhaustible. Jupiter, with a volume thousands of times that of Earth, was simply too vast. Xiao Yu didn’t even dare estimate the total number of Phantoms inhabiting the gas giant. Tens of millions? Hundreds of millions? Billions? Who knew? Jupiter was like a massive, unguarded orchard filled with fruit-bearing trees laden with sweet, ripe fruit. Xiao Yu was now a harvester, plucking these fruits one by one and placing them into his pockets. Considering the thousands of years of interstellar travel ahead, no amount of preparation could be deemed excessive. With this thought in mind, Xiao Yu steeled himself and continued his rampage across Jupiter. During transitions, Xiao Yu didn’t even bother with lone Phantoms, blasting them into oblivion with a single laser. Such was the extravagance of someone flush with resources. After ten minutes, Xiao Yu located another Phantom gathering point. This one orbited Jupiter at an altitude of tens of thousands of kilometers, centered around a small asteroid roughly 20 meters in diameter. With a cold laugh, Xiao Yu directed his fleet to charge. The Phantoms, sensing the presence of intelligence, swarmed toward Xiao Yu’s fleet under their instinctual drive. Xiao Yu laughed heartily, saying, “Come closer. It’ll be easier for me to capture you.” Immediately, Xiao Yu commanded his fleet to fire laser beams, strategically spreading out the Phantoms while sending “Village-Class” ships to capture them one by one. This operation netted Phantoms with a combined radiation intensity equivalent to 3,000 ordinary Phantoms. Satisfied, Xiao Yu secured them and moved on to the next target. For Xiao Yu, the Phantom capture operation was a final feast before the long famine of 6,300 years of interstellar travel. Determined to seize the opportunity, he hunted relentlessly. Over the course of a month and a half, Xiao Yu rampaged across Jupiter like a ferocious tiger in a flock of sheep. His appetite was insatiable, and sustainability was the last thing on his mind. Phantoms that could be captured were taken, while those he couldn’t capture were simply destroyed. After all, Jupiter’s “orchard” seemed boundless, offering endless “fruit” for Xiao Yu to harvest. During this period, Xiao Yu captured millions of Phantoms, including several thousand mutated ones. He deliberately confined each mutated Phantom with hundreds of ordinary Phantoms, allowing them to devour the weaker ones. Within half a month, his fleet contained only a few thousand Phantoms, but each had radiation levels thousands of times higher than ordinary ones. Xiao Yu had already learned that mutated Phantoms could evolve. His experiment was meant to see just how far they could develop and what level of intelligence they could achieve. The results, however, were disappointing. Even with radiation intensities thousands of times greater than ordinary Phantoms, their intelligence was only comparable to that of ants. At most, they could perform simple information exchanges and basic cooperative tasks. Beyond that, they exhibited no higher cognitive abilities. “Hopeless,” Xiao Yu sighed, shaking his head. He abandoned the idea of cultivating their intelligence for his own amusement. The capture operation continued for another month and a half. Xiao Yu only stopped when he ran out of storage space for the Phantoms. Looking at the still-inexhaustible number of Phantoms on Jupiter, Xiao Yu couldn’t help but feel a twinge of regret. “Don’t overeat, or you’ll make yourself sick,” Xiao Yu consoled himself as he commanded the fleet to leave Jupiter. Xiao Yu’s next destination was Titan, where he would conduct a final round of maintenance. Afterward, he would head to Saturn for one last fuel resupply. Then, it would finally be time to leave the solar system and embark on humanity’s first-ever interstellar voyage.

Chapter 30: Massive Capture

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