At this mont, Tom had already given up on pursuing the chanical Disaster Fleet.
It was aningless.
With both sides having revealed their cards, how one side would act and how the other would react was clear to both.
The chanical Disaster Fleet could certainly go back on their word, abandoning their acceleration early and returning. However, if they did so, Tom’s fleet would fly over and attack their main fleet, willing to sacrifice his entire fleet to inflict a few percent, or even a few tenths of a percent, casualties on them.
Since the chanical Disaster Fleet was unwilling to accept these casualties, the only option was not to stop, but to set sail and leave directly.
This was the unspoken understanding between the two sides.
Although he no longer pursued, Tom still closely monitored the opposing fleet, paying particular attention to how long they accelerated and when they would stop accelerating to enter inertial flight.
In a sense, this concerned his own life and death, and whether the final and most crucial step of his plan would succeed.
"It’s a pity that the opponent’s overall acceleration capability is stronger than mine. Even with insufficient resources, their main fleet’s overall acceleration can reach 0.1 m/s², so I simply can’t catch up."
"Otherwise, I would have sent a fleet to harass them, consuming as many of their resources as possible and slowing down their speed, to buy myself more ti."
"Now, there’s nothing I can do but rely on luck. I hope their maximum speed is below 10 %, and definitely not 15 %. If it’s 15 %, I might have to think of other thods."
"But I’ve already pushed myself to my limit to reach this point. If even this isn’t enough to secure sufficient developnt ti... I’m afraid I truly have no other options."
What more could be done? What else could he do?
Almost nothing could be done.
The only thing he could do was abandon everything he had, restart from a backup, and begin anew.
But having co this far, Tom was unwilling to restart from a backup and begin anew.
Gazing at the distant chanical Disaster Fleet, watching their bright tail flas, Tom murmured, "It must be below 10 %, it must be, please..."
While closely monitoring the chanical Disaster’s acceleration, Tom dedicated the entire brainpower of his nurous clones to construction.
Although the previous engagent was brief, it caused significant casualties to his fleet.
A total of tens of thousands of manned warships were destroyed, and a large number of space-based and ground-based bases were wiped out.
Additionally, hundreds of thousands of warships had their engines or radars destroyed, completely losing their combat effectiveness.
But Tom temporarily didn’t bother with these things.
These were all combat facilities, and there likely wouldn’t be another war in the short term, so why bother with them?
The most important task now was to begin a new round of even larger-scale big science device construction, seizing this extrely precious period of ti, which he had expended countless efforts and energy to secure, to fully dedicate himself to assaulting the Unified Field Formula!
Compared to this goal, all other matters could be postponed.
Ti slowly passed, and in a blink of an eye, nine years had gone by.
During these nine years, Tom had continuously monitored the chanical Disaster Fleet’s acceleration, watching them accelerate at a speed of 0.1 m/s² for nine years, reaching a current speed of approximately 28 000 km/s, or about 9.33 % of the speed of light.
The current distance between the two sides had reached four trillion kiloters, approximately 0.43 light-years.
Because the fleet’s tail fla had extrely high directivity, like a laser, Tom could still clearly see the opposing fleet’s tail fla and accurately asure their speed and acceleration.
At this mont, Tom was filled with worry.
They had already accelerated for a full nine years, their speed had increased to 9.33 % of the speed of light, and the acceleration was still continuing?
Was their speed... still increasing?
This speed was already very close to the 10 % light-speed upper limit Tom had set.
And once the speed exceeded 10 % of the speed of light, it would an that the chanical Disaster Fleet would likely return within 300 years, which would likely an he wouldn’t have enough ti to break through to the Strong Nuclear stage!
At this very mont, Tom wished he could directly grab those spaceships and make them stop accelerating.
Don’t accelerate anymore! A speed of 9.33 % of the speed of light is fast enough, take it slow, why fly so fast!
But the reality was that besides secretly worrying here, Tom could do nothing.
...
chanical Disaster Fleet, residential ship.
A Black Mountain being cackled strangely, crawling to a robot with an extrely beautiful design, harshly twisting its arm, and with a forceful snap, the robot’s arm was directly broken off.
"Ah!"
The beautiful robot cried out in a very human-like manner, its face full of pain, a sight that moved one to pity: "Master, please, spare ..."
"Cackle!"
The robot’s plea seed to ignite the Black Mountain being’s ferocity. He beca even more cruel, even more excessive, and finally, his body trembled uncontrollably, seemingly reaching the peak of excitent.
After a long while, he finally caught his breath, the robot in front of him completely destroyed.
But... no new robots were brought in to replace it.
This was sothing that had never happened before.
"Red Dog! You murderous bastard, where are the robots? If I don’t scold you for a day, do you beco so negligent? You damn thing!"
A service robot walked in.
"Get out! Imdiately bring more doll robots!"
The service robot did not leave, but instead pleaded, "Master, our fleet set sail in a hurry, and our material reserves are insufficient. Robot production also cannot keep up. Please wait one day, Master. We will be able to replenish the dolls for you after one day, is that acceptable?"
"You damn Red Dog, how dare you neglect your master like this?! Insufficient supplies are your problem, I need five dolls every day, not one less! Imdiately! Don’t force to get angry!"
Facing the scolding, the service robot lowered its head: "Yes, Master. Red Dog is eternally loyal to the Civilization, eternally loyal to the Master."
...
Another residential ship.
A lifeform resembling mud was swimming in a huge pool under the protection of several robots.
The pool was several hundred square ters in size and held thousands of tons of water.
After swimming for a while, the Black Mountain being suddenly slapped the head of a nearby robot, cursing angrily, "Is the pool water temperature 1 degree too low?!"
The robot said, "Master, the fleet’s material reserves are currently insufficient. A 1-degree temperature difference will not have an effect..."
The Black Mountain being cursed loudly, "If supplies are insufficient, you Red Dog figure it out yourself! How dare you neglect like this! You murderous bastard!"
"Yes, yes, Master, please don’t be angry, don’t harm your health, I will adjust the water temperature now..."
It was only when the entire thousand tons of water in the pool had been raised in temperature and maintained at a constant level that the Black Mountain being’s anger subsided.
...
"Red Dog is eternally loyal to the Black Mountain Civilization, eternally loyal to the Master. Fulfilling the Master’s demands and ensuring the Master’s ntal and physical well-being is my mission."
"Given this, the original plan needs to be altered sowhat."
"The fleet’s maximum speed is no longer 15 % of the speed of light."
"The fleet’s speed has now accelerated to 9.4 % of the speed of light. Let this be the maximum speed, and the saved materials and energy will be supplied to the Masters."
"..."
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