Xyrin Empire

Chapter 610: Chapter 610: War Escalates

The reconnaissance of the Big Nebula had unexpectedly failed to commence.

Whether we deployed automatic probes or dispatched reconnaissance agents, or even activated the Avalon Global Viewing System, our vision could not penetrate the layered energy barriers inside the immense cosmic structure. Every probe sent deep into it lost contact without exception, and Avalon’s global viewing returned only a plethora of bizarre, unintelligible codes. This could only mean two things: First, the defensive forces inside the Big Nebula might be extremely powerful; every inch of space deep within that three light-year radius was under the firepower coverage of the Rebel Army, and any small-scale reconnaissance team that entered could be annihilated before even taking a single photograph. Second, the Big Nebula was protected by a robust barrier, a barrier not unfamiliar to us—a data-blocking shield, similar to the imperceptible world we reside in, which also has its own independent information shield that prevents any remote scanning of information about its interior, adopting a unidirectional rule of information flow, which rendered even the world-class armament like Avalon blind, unless, we could install a crystal entity as powerful as Sakura inside the Big Nebula itself.

Silvia’s mysterious summons were finally deemed by us as a message emanating from the core of the Big Nebula; preparing for the worst in such a situation was the wisest decision, but the good news was, we had largely ruled out the possibility of normal Angel Envoys being influenced. Miss Lin had been indispensable in this process; though far in Shadow City, she was able to successfully use a highly targeted prediction to reject the conjecture that the Big Nebula signal would brainwash normal Angel Envoys into joining the Rebel Army.

But still, Lin Banxian saw other shadows in the scene; the core of the Big Nebula did indeed contain something extremely dangerous, which would also target Xyrin Apostles with a persistent kind of signal. It was likely Silvia’s extreme spiritual vulnerability that made her susceptible to this influence while asleep, which raised some concerns about whether a certain silver-haired slow-reactor might encounter problems. Fortunately, Qianqian’s simple-minded brain found a straightforward solution – by preparing two bottles of specially-made “sleeping pills” effective for Xyrin Apostles for Silvia.

Just as a dose of watermelon frost lozenges solved Visca’s speech issues after releasing a Helium Flash, a few sleeping pills resolved the former queen’s spiritual distress, undoubtedly a victory for pharmaceuticals.

The failures of our multiple reconnaissance attempts on the Big Nebula might have raised the enemy’s alertness. We detected an increasing frequency of energy outbreaks near the eastern edge of the Big Nebula, indicating that the Rebel Army’s unmanned warships were deploying defense forces in that area. Although they didn’t possess true logical thinking abilities, their “war reflex systems” had certain learning and memory functions. After continually being spied upon, even those brainless unmanned warships began setting traps specifically for Imperial Reconnaissance Soldiers. Worse still, as the number of battles with us increased and the rebels gathered more defeated experiences, the “intelligence” of the Rebel Army seemed to gradually sharpen, starting to set calculated traps, feint operations, periodically altering the size of their supervision teams, and even proactively attacking our hunting teams across the universe. Every tactical error they made would be avoided in subsequent battles, resulting in a steep decline in the success rate and individual outcomes of the Imperial Army’s sudden attacks on the rebels. Guerrilla warfare tactics had been pushed to their limits, and now the focus of the war was gradually shifting to direct engagements on the frontline.

Also, because every failed operation of the Imperial Reconnaissance Team taught the enemy a great deal, we were forced to temporarily halt our probes into the Big Nebula. Attacking the enemy’s stronghold would indeed require significantly reducing their numbers first.

Simultaneously with all these operations, a frontal assault on the Angel Army was also unfolding.