Unknown Encounter

A distance of 12 light years would take a year and a half to travel.

Thinking about it, that was quite a long time.

If the Zerg continued to develop steadily at their current pace, the number of ships in the Swarm would likely increase significantly by the time they reached their destination.

“Perhaps I can try to upgrade a few more Hives and create more Hive Carriers.”

Fortunately, as long as the first Hive reached the required level, subsequent ones did not require the same massive consumption of metals and minerals for the initial research and development.

Based on her calculations, a Hive Carrier of the same level could now be produced for 24.5 billion units of high-energy crystals.

Doing it this way saved far more resources than the initial upgrade.

Of course, the time required was still considerable. Xia Jin estimated that it would take one month for a complete Hive Carrier to fully form.

With a current monthly resource harvest of 15.3 billion units of high-energy crystals, and after accounting for production costs in other areas, they actually could not afford to build one every month.

“Then I will take it slow. In a year and a half, I should aim to have eight of them.”

Her current actions were essentially laying the foundation for the future.

Every Hive Carrier was a perfect production unit for the Swarm. Even if only one remained, the Zerg could survive and thrive.

Therefore, the more she had, the safer Xia Jin felt.

As a Small Leviathan carrying a full load of insects departed for the designated area 12 light years away, Xia Jin settled into a relaxed and leisurely state on her home planet.

Life was exceptionally pleasant.

The city, preserved in its original form, gave her a place to wander whenever she pleased.

During those eighteen months, more Hive Carriers were successively birthed on Insect Guard 1.

Ultimately, their number reached six.

Once these new motherships took to the sky, they traveled to different locations within the star system. As production units, they continuously birthed new insects to support resource collection in various regions.

In the neighboring system, over the same year and a half, three valuable planets and five moons were completely covered in creep.

In the end, the production of high-energy crystals reached a staggering 600 million units per day.

While the first Small Leviathan headed toward the target system, Xia Jin had actually sent four more after it, planning to establish a harvesting fleet in the target area.

To any self aware cosmic civilization, energy tidal zones were of paramount importance.

They could drastically accelerate resource accumulation and drive technological progress.

The weapons of certain civilizations required minerals like Stellar Azure Crystals. Therefore, once a mining site was discovered by multiple civilizations, there was a high probability of intense conflict breaking out over the territory.

“I hope my luck holds out.”

Xia Jin took a deep breath.

Stellar Azure Crystals could be considered a universal currency of sorts in the universe.

Zero Point Nuclei, on the other hand, were incredibly rare strategic resources.

Beyond these, there were over a dozen other strategic resources that were enough to catch the attention of various civilizations.

However, those were still a bit out of reach for the current Zerg.

...

After a year and a half of navigation, the Small Leviathan finally entered the target area.

This was a binary star system.

A massive yellow dwarf sat at the center, while a smaller red dwarf orbited the larger one from a distance.

In reality, upon closer inspection, the two stars orbited each other, but their common center of mass was located just beneath the surface of the larger star.

Despite this, the surrounding planets still maintained stable orbits.

Several orbited the large star, while others orbited the smaller one.

If one viewed the small red dwarf as a very large planet, this orbital arrangement became easier to understand.

Clearly, the environment here was not very suitable for the proliferation of life.

When a planet passed between the two stars, it would become incredibly hot, with almost no night cycle.

Conversely, when stars were only on one side and the planet reached its aphelion, it would become freezing.

All the planets here were relatively small and solid.

None of the planets possessed moons or rings.

However, from Xia Jin’s perspective, these planets were all extremely valuable.

Even setting aside the potential Stellar Azure Crystals, the sheer amount of thermal energy alone could provide the Zerg with a massive supply of high-energy crystals.

“Begin the scan.”

Xia Jin’s projection, which had been dormant inside the Small Leviathan, yawned and sat up.

Her consciousness extended through the flesh of the ship toward the distant deep space, where a pale red planet came into view.

“It looks a bit like Mars.”

It had no atmosphere, or rather, the gases were extremely thin.

The surface temperature peaked at over 200 degrees, and the geology was relatively stable.

The leviathan flew nearby and launched 100 drop pods toward the surface. After deploying a few overseers, it turned and flew toward another region.

“The area with the highest concentration of Zero Point Energy Tides is 80 million kilometers from here. Let’s go see.”

The ship soon arrived before the new planet.

A simple scan quickly revealed an area of highly concentrated energy beneath the surface.

“Presence of Stellar Azure Crystals confirmed. Density is extremely low.”

Low density did not mean low total volume.

In fact, crystals formed in most tidal zones were fragmented, distributed evenly over a vast area like sesame seeds. Collecting even one unit would take a long time.

If one were to discover a complete, large crystal block, it would be nothing short of miraculous. Relying on such resources alone could elevate a primitive cosmic civilization to the level of a primary civilization.

Just as the Small Leviathan was preparing to launch drop pods toward the target, an overseer positioned above the red planet suddenly sensed a faint ripple in deep space.

It was very weak, but the Zerg, who were highly sensitive to such things, analyzed the nature of the target almost instantly: space time curvature.

No large celestial body was passing by, yet space was heavily distorted, with the distortion concentrated in a very small area.

The gravitational deflection caused by the curvature was still detected by the overseer.

Final conclusion: a 99.2% probability of curvature flight.

The lack of subspace fluctuations meant the opponent was not using, or had not mastered, subspace navigation methods.

In truth, subspace navigation was a form of black technology. It was far more nonsensical than curvature flight because it involved structures outside of the world. The Zerg were only able to achieve this by relying on their own psionic power.

Upon confirming this information, Xia Jin’s heart skipped a beat.

“Small Leviathan, shut down all engines. Enter silent mode.”

The fusion devices were quickly extinguished, and the ship’s subspace navigation and curvature flight organs went dormant.

Then, the overseer opened all its observation organs and focused on the target area in deep space.

Finally, from over 300 million kilometers away, the overseer captured a blurry image.

It looked like an aircraft with horns on its head and folded wings. It was entirely metallic, with a dark silver luster, exuding a strong sense of advanced technology.

“An alien civilization?”

Xia Jin’s expression turned solemn.

This encounter had happened much faster than expected.

Even though this region was relatively quiet compared to the bustling parts of the universe, she hadn’t expected a spacefaring civilization to already be here.

“They might have already discovered me.”

This was the first thought that crossed Xia Jin’s mind.