Chapter 1 Glimmering World, A Certain Barren Universe Belt

A secret stargate station was hidden on the north side of a desolate planet, precisely the stronghold of the Virtual Church's smugglers. This stargate was equipped with various stealth devices, concealing its energy reactions and maintaining its anonymous state to prevent remote detection by any type of radar.

The Virtual Church's technology was no worse than the empire's, just with different focuses and each having its strengths. During this time, the empire's exploration team had been tracking down the traces of smugglers from some super-star cluster level civilizations, but had never found the secret stargates of the Virtual Church and the Radiant Federation.

In order to maintain secrecy, the Virtual Church did not frequently transport military forces through the secret stargate, and the stargate station was mostly in a dormant state.

But today, this stargate station was activated. The rotating blue space energy within the stargate ring suddenly accelerated, and warships came through the stargate one after another.

These warships were not the Virtual Church's standard vertical disc-shaped spacecraft, but rather tetrahedral shuttle-type warships, with red light flowing along the edges and dark black external armor.

This type of tetrahedral shuttle warship was one of the dozens of common advanced armed ship models in the galaxy, circulating on the market on a large scale, so it was impossible to identify its identity by the model. The hull surface was also not engraved with any emblems representing its identity.

The stargate continuously spat out warships, totaling more than one million, forming a huge fleet.

The Virtual Church officers at the stronghold silently watched this scene. He did not know the origin of this force, only that it was a direct order from the higher-ups, telling him to do nothing and let the fleet leave.

This mysterious fleet also did not intend to communicate. The stronghold officer watched helplessly as the fleet turned its direction and quickly moved away, disappearing into the distance like streaks of light.

"I wonder what secret operation the higher-ups are planning again. One million warships... are they going to fight the empire?" the stronghold officer couldn't help but mutter.

...

The stargate station disappeared from the fleet's view. In the command room of the main ship of this mysterious fleet, a hooded man raised his head, revealing an Other God avatar.

"Hmph, Virtual Church," the Other God avatar snorted softly, with the Other God's main consciousness controlling this avatar.

This fleet was a detachment of the Fallen Ark.

The Other God's forces were located in the gap between the central star seas, and they would not leave easily. To quickly cross multiple star fields to reach the Glimmering World, they could only use stargates. In order to help the Other God deceive the heavens, the Virtual Church had secretly built stargates in the barren universe belt of the central star sea a long time ago, secretly providing stargate services to the Other God's forces... of course, this was temporary.

This detachment used the Virtual Church's stargate to quietly arrive in the Glimmering World. However, although the two sides were temporarily cooperating, the Other God did not easily trust the Virtual Church.

To prevent the Virtual Church from ambushing him, he only sent an avatar plus a branch fleet to scout the way. The task of this detachment was to build the Fallen Ark's own secret stargate in the Glimmering World, taking control of the retreat route.

Stargates were technology of star cluster level civilizations, but the meaning of the black market was to allow people to buy things that could never be bought through normal channels. The Other God's stargate equipment was purchased from the black market at a high price, because throughout the universe, the number of star cluster level civilizations was not particularly small, and it was difficult to completely keep stargates secret.

Only by controlling the retreat route would the Other God's main body personally come to the Glimmering World.

"Open the star chart."

The subordinate next to him operated and opened the three-dimensional star chart, which was the star chart of the Glimmering World. This was the intelligence provided to them by the Virtual Church.

Although this was the empire's star chart, cosmic civilizations infiltrated each other, and the Virtual Church had ways to get their hands on the star chart. However, this star chart did not show the empire's military defense layout in the Glimmering World. This was classified information, and it was not so easy for the Virtual Church to figure it all out.

However, the defense force of the empire's outpost, Beacon Star, was highlighted on the star chart. The planetary garrison was about three million warships, and there were more than one million warning warships patrolling everywhere.

The empire had invested hundreds of millions of warships in the Glimmering World, but most of them were tasked with exploration, so it was naturally impossible for all of them to guard Beacon Star. Being able to have more than four million fleets as a permanent garrison, Beacon Star was already the planet with the strongest defense force of the empire in the Glimmering World.

"Four million... it seems we still need to send some more people over."

The Other God avatar's tone was calm. The Fallen Ark was said to have sixty million fleets, and the actual number might be even more. There was a reason why he was feared by the three major civilizations. In terms of power alone, he was also a top-tier large armed organization in the galaxy. He could afford this manpower.

After a pause, the Other God avatar took out a communicator and contacted the Virtual Church's agent liaison—the higher-ups of the Virtual Church would not personally contact a villain like him, and the middleman was the Virtual Church's secret agent, the benefit of which was that they could claim at any time that there was no such person in their organization.

"My vanguard force is already in place. When will you take action?"

"In twenty days. The exact time will be notified to you in advance. We need you to cooperate with our forces."

The Other God avatar's tone was playful, "How to cooperate?"

"According to the meaning of the higher-ups, we will not appear together, so we must act separately. You will launch a frontal attack to attract the guards of Beacon Star, and we will launch a sneak attack."

The Other God avatar nodded, understanding the Virtual Church's concerns. He also did not think that the Virtual Church's Beyond Grade A would act with him. Separate actions were expected, and the Virtual Church's tactics were also as he expected.

However, the warning line of Beacon Star was spread throughout the entire sector. His troops could not avoid the empire's monitoring, and the Virtual Church could not do it either. A real sneak attack did not exist. The Other God felt that this was just an exaggerated statement, just to create a time difference for him to attract more firepower, and then the Virtual Church would cut into the battlefield from another direction.

The Other God was not worried that the Virtual Church would sit back and watch him attract firepower, because once his troops touched the warning line of Beacon Star, the empire would dispatch the surrounding fleets to come to support. As an empire outpost, Beacon Star was a node in the stargate transportation network, and the troops exploring outside could quickly return. He believed that the Virtual Church would not lose sight of the bigger picture and miss the opportunity.

However, the Other God did not know that the Virtual Church's action plan was very different from his guess.

...

In a dark room, there was a round table with a total of a dozen seats, but at this time, only six seats were occupied.

It was not quite accurate to say "people". These six figures were all remote projections, and one of them was actually Sisko.

Each of these seats represented the seat of a Beyond Grade A powerhouse of the Virtual Church.

For this operation, the Virtual Church mobilized six Beyond Grade As at once!

These six people were most of the combat power that the Virtual Church could produce in the short term. The other Beyond Grade As had their own responsibilities and were guarding their own territories. They could not act quietly without attracting attention.

On the Virtual Church's side, there was also an external aid, the Other God, while the opponents were only Black Star, Milizaus, and Bayon, a completely crushing advantage in combat power. The Virtual Church was planning to carry out a thunderous strike against the enemy!

At this time, the six people in attendance were chatting casually.

"I haven't encountered such a big operation in a long time."

"Milizaus... that dragon is not easy to deal with. I fought him before, and we couldn't kill each other, so we drew. But this time, even the Scepter of the Gods is being used, so his chances of survival are very slim."

"The Virtual Church is crazy. Are they planning to start a war? Killing three Beyond Grade As of the Crimson Empire at once, how could the Crimson Empire swallow this, it might evolve into a full-scale war."

"That's what the Radiant Federation wants to see, so they are fueling the flames, agreeing to help, and even allowing us to borrow their cosmic treasure."

Several Beyond Grade As shook their heads. The Virtual Church was obviously going to make big news this time.

What they were worried about was not the outcome of the operation. The combat power ratio was so disparate that it was basically impossible to fail. What they were worried about was the impact after the success of the operation.

It was foreseeable that killing three Beyond Grade As of the empire would cause a head-on conflict between the Virtual Church and the Crimson Empire. They, the participants, would be counterattacked by the empire and settled after the fact.

Although as allies of the Virtual Church, they were not afraid of the Crimson Empire, some people's territories were in other star fields. If they were targeted by the empire, they would be in trouble, so some people were not very willing to participate in this operation.

But as allies, they had received so many benefits all along, so even if they were unwilling, they could only helplessly respond to the Virtual Church's call.

"If Sisko hadn't lost the Evolution Cube, there wouldn't have been this operation." Someone snorted, throwing the blame on Sisko.

Sisko glanced at him, confirmed his gaze, that he couldn't beat him, so he didn't refute.

"Since the Virtual Church has launched such a large-scale operation, even if the Evolution Cube is taken back, it will not be returned to you," another person said in a deep voice.

"I know." Sisko did not change his expression. "As long as it's not in someone else's hands, I can accept it."

"Tsk tsk, if Black Star had returned the Evolution Cube to you back then, he wouldn't have gotten into trouble today. It seems that Black Star is the fastest Esper to reach Beyond Grade A in history. He's too greedy, what a pity," one person shook his head, his tone regretful.

"He deserves it for taking what he shouldn't have," Sisko said coldly.

He knew that after the Virtual Church succeeded, the Evolution Cube would not return to his hands, but because the Evolution Cube was isolated by Han Xiao, his soul connection with the Evolution Cube was broken, thus losing the strengthening of his psionic power, so his current requirements had been lowered.

Even if the Virtual Church took back the Evolution Cube, as long as he maintained the strengthening of his soul connection, Sisko could accept it. And Han Xiao was the instigator of all this, causing him to lose the Evolution Cube. Sisko's heart was filled with anger, and he would not let go of this opportunity to eliminate Han Xiao.

Personal grudges were one thing. On the other hand, Black Star's power was also in the Shattered Star Ring. Due to the hostile relationship between the two, Black Star had become an obstacle on the road to the Star瞳族's development. The last Civilization Assembly was an example. Even for the development of the civilization, Sisko had to eliminate this obstacle, Black Star.

A Beyond Grade A sitting next to Sisko seemed to understand what Sisko was thinking. He patted Sisko on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry, I will help you kill Black Star."

"Thanks, Dillon." Although Sisko was in a bad mood, he still forced a smile at this person, "We'll deal with him together then."

Dillon nodded, and his seaweed-like dark green hair swayed with it.

His skin was blue, his face was covered with small scales, his facial features were a bit like fish, he had a pair of bright eyes that would occasionally blink a nictitating membrane, and there was a crack on his forehead, with a conspicuous third eye. He had web-like structures on his hands and feet, and each palm had an eyeball, which was quite strange. His spine was curved, making him look hunchbacked, and he also had a dorsal fin on his back, looking like an aquatic creature. No one knew what his ancestors did to the fish... or maybe the fish did something to his ancestors.

Having grown into this appearance, his abilities were also inseparable from water. Dillon was an Esper, nicknamed "Sea Spirit" or "Ocean Sovereign". His ability was to control water. It sounded ordinary, and it seemed that he had no combat power in the universe, but there were no weaklings among the Espers who reached Beyond Grade A.

Due to the unique ability strength of Beyond Grade A, Dillon could extremely compress water, forming an indestructible cutting force that could easily cut through warships. Not only that, he could also convert water into high-energy laser beams, with power comparable to ship-borne weapons. At the same time, his body could store a huge amount of water, which, when sprayed out, was enough to submerge the surface of a planet, turning it into an ocean planet.

This kind of ability was not suitable for single combat, but it was good for team battles, and he was best at control.

Having joined the Virtual Church for many years, Sisko also had friends, and Dillon was one of them. He was the best friend among the Beyond Grade A allies with whom Sisko had the best relationship... perhaps because they both had more eyes, so they had a common language.

...

And on the Radiant Federation's mother planet, Federation President Badr was also paying attention to the Virtual Church's actions. It was his decision to provide assistance to the Virtual Church.

"With our help, as long as the Virtual Church is not careless, the success rate of this operation is higher than 95%. At least one Beyond Grade A on the Crimson Empire's side will die," Badr said in a tone of assuredness.

"Yes, the life of a Beyond Grade A is enough to provoke a conflict between the Virtual Church and the Crimson Empire, which is very beneficial to us."

The Chief Elder of Parliament nodded approvingly.

The reason why the Radiant Federation helped the Virtual Church was precisely because it had the intention of sitting on the mountain and watching the tigers fight. If the Virtual Church and the Crimson Empire fought, they would benefit.

And the Virtual Church also knew this, but still decided to continue the operation, which was intended to take what they needed. Moreover, cooperating with the Other God was always an unsavory thing, and the Virtual Church did not tell the Radiant Federation about it. And the Radiant Federation provided assistance, and was also dragged into the water, so it was difficult to use this handle against them.

Although the two sides had their own plans, they also had the same goal, which was to put pressure on the Crimson Empire, further involve the empire's energy, test the empire's attitude, and see if there were any opportunities for encroachment.

As for whether the empire's Beyond Grade A being killed was Milizaus or Black Star, it made no difference to Badr. He didn't care at all.