Rebirth of the Super Battleship
Chapter 215: Army of Robots

What appeared before the first successfully boarded robot was a long corridor. The corridor stretched for several dozen meters, measured three meters wide, and stood five meters high. On both sides of the corridor were a series of tightly sealed metal doors, giving off a strong sci-fi atmosphere.

From this, Xiao Yu was able to make a rough estimation about the physique of the Molian Civilization beings. His conclusion was that the beings of the Molian Civilization were generally over two meters tall. After all, if their average height were less than two meters, there would have been no need to construct corridors and doors of such massive dimensions.

The first combat robot did not linger. Under Xiao Yu’s control, it advanced swiftly until it reached a door that cut the corridor in two, blocking the path of the robot army.

It was unclear whether the energy modules had been damaged or if this had been a deliberate move by the Molian Civilization, but the entire corridor was pitch black and freezing cold. However, all of Xiao Yu’s boarding combat robots were equipped with complete multi-spectrum detection systems, so the darkness had no impact on their movements.

“Let’s break through this door first,” Xiao Yu thought, as he directed the incoming robots to attack the door using their material disintegration beams.

Perhaps the attack power of these combat robots was simply too low, or maybe the material of the door was too resilient, but in any case, the assault had little effect. According to Xiao Yu’s estimates, breaking through this door would take at least half an hour.

That amount of time was unacceptable. Outside the ship, countless vessels were continuing their assault on the flagship. Xiao Yu was constantly incurring heavy losses, and he had paid a tremendous price just to buy this much time. To have the entire operation stalled by a single door was something he could not tolerate.

“Then we’ll use elemental decay grenades…” Xiao Yu decided, and commanded the robots to retrieve the small elemental decay grenades they carried, attaching several dozen of them to the door. After the robots retreated to a safe distance, he issued the detonation command.

Several dozen grenade-shaped elemental decay bombs exploded simultaneously. The tremendous force of the blast tore the door off its hinges, and the pressurized gases trapped behind it gushed forth, kicking up a fierce gale through the corridor.

Beyond the door, three more corridors appeared, each stretching into the unknown distance. Xiao Yu divided the robots into three teams, each taking one path forward.

Not long after advancing, they encountered another locked door. Xiao Yu didn’t hesitate, he had it blown open just as decisively.

Each sealed door led to between two and five branching paths. Xiao Yu made sure none were missed, dividing the robots again and again to press onward. Behind each group of robots were endless reinforcements flooding in; there was no need to worry about numbers.

Under Xiao Yu’s command, the combat robots surged like a flood, filling every corridor they could find.

After breaching the interior, Xiao Yu also began to target the door-like structures lining the corridor walls. Still leading with elemental decay grenades, he blasted open one door after another. Most of the rooms inside were empty, devoid of both lifeforms and machines.

“The Molian Civilization’s response speed is truly impressive. They must’ve anticipated an attack here in advance and emptied everything out ahead of time…” Xiao Yu murmured as he continued sending the robots forward.

While the robots advanced, Xiao Yu also began constructing a 3D passageway model of the ship. In his mind, he visualized a ship model identical in exterior to the flagship before him. The model was pitch black, but within it stretched countless dark red lines. Each of those lines represented a robot squad currently exploring part of the ship’s interior.

At the moment, the area occupied by dark red lines still made up only a minuscule portion of the entire ship. The total explored radius was less than five hundred meters.

“Speed it up,” Xiao Yu ordered.

In one of the corridors diagonally above the breach, a squad of robots was advancing in neat formation at high speed. As they moved forward, a door suddenly descended from above the corridor, cutting the squad in half. At the same time, flashes of light erupted from the upper corridor, and several moving entities suddenly appeared ahead.

“So, they’ve finally shown up?” Xiao Yu sneered internally as he immediately had the robots ready themselves for battle. The rear units began attaching elemental decay grenades to the door, preparing to blast it open.

Once the moving entities drew closer, Xiao Yu got a clear look at them. Their metallic-colored exteriors, tall frames, and strange configurations all indicated one thing, they were robots.

“These must be the internal defense forces of the Molian Civilization,” Xiao Yu thought, utterly unfazed, and commanded his robots to open fire.

At that moment, only five enemy combat robots stood before Xiao Yu’s units, whereas his own numbered nearly a hundred.

But the battle’s outcome was far from what Xiao Yu had expected. He saw that his own robots’ weapons, such as material disintegration beam rifles and elemental decay grenades, could only deal minimal damage to these tall robots. In contrast, the enemy’s weapons were frighteningly accurate; each shot took down one of Xiao Yu’s robots with ease.

“The technological gap really shows in every aspect,” Xiao Yu sighed. “Losing in large-scale cosmic ship battles is one thing, but even my robots are no match… how frustrating. But it doesn’t matter. I have plenty of robots. I wonder how many combat robots this ship holds?”

The first boarding skirmish ended quickly. Xiao Yu’s nearly one hundred robots were wiped out. Of the five enemy robots, one was destroyed, and the remaining four were all damaged to varying degrees but remained combat-capable.

At that moment, the sealed door was blasted open, and several hundred more combat robots surged in…

The battle erupted once more. After sacrificing three hundred additional robots, all five enemy units were finally eliminated. The corridor, now riddled with flying shrapnel, had become a wreck. Several circuits that had been hidden within the walls were now exposed.

Upon seeing the tangled mass of wiring, a thought stirred in Xiao Yu’s mind.

“I wonder if any of these are data lines. If so, I might be able to attempt a system intrusion…”

With that in mind, Xiao Yu had the robots inspect the wiring. After sorting through them, a pale yellow cable caught his attention. Xiao Yu directed one of the robots to sever the line and carefully analyze its internal structure. Relying on the knowledge he had gained from previous intrusions into Molian Civilization computer systems via data interfaces, he quickly linked the data line to the robot’s onboard systems.

Using this combat robot as a relay station, Xiao Yu attempted to transmit a packet of data. However, no response came back.

“These data lines must have been disconnected,” Xiao Yu thought. “Then we’ll accelerate the search and locate a usable line to initiate an intrusion…”

With that, Xiao Yu once again sent his vast legion of scouting robots surging forward.

This encounter had merely been a small skirmish. In truth, at the same time, similar small battles were breaking out at nearly a hundred different locations. The Molian Civilization could no longer tolerate the external forces running amok inside their ship and began deploying their own forces to snipe at these troublesome invaders.

But just as Xiao Yu had suspected, they didn’t seem to have many combat robots available internally. As a result, even though each of their robots was dozens of times more powerful than Xiao Yu’s, they were still unable to halt the advance of his robot army.

The red lines on Xiao Yu’s internal ship model, representing the movement of robot units, continued to spread. And the number of red lines kept increasing. Each new branch indicated that a new squad had split off from the main force to begin fresh exploration.

This mode of exploration was only possible thanks to the massive numbers at his disposal. It was likely that even other Level 5 or Level 6 Civilizations would struggle to deploy such a vast and intelligent robot army to explore a single ship. But under Xiao Yu’s unique mode of existence, it had become reality.

In fact, by the standards of most civilizations, this flagship already had a considerable number of combat robots. But unfortunately for them, they had encountered Xiao Yu. His tactics bordered on shameless, but he didn’t care in the slightest. In warfare between civilizations, what mattered was effectiveness.

The massive robot army continued to push forward. Nothing could stop their advance.

The number of enemy combat robots was increasing. They emerged from various internal passages, engaging in ambushes against Xiao Yu’s forces. At the same time, all sorts of internal defense weapons began to make an appearance, mounted on walls and ceilings, these included miniature antimatter bombs based on Level 5 Civilization technology, micro-gravity explosives, and Gauss-based kinetic weapons.

These defenses inflicted tremendous casualties on Xiao Yu’s robot army.