Chapter 256: Chapter 255: A Heavy Price
The computational load was too immense, the real-time processing demands were too strict, and the need for communication between units was too great.
Every Clone participating in the biological supercomputer had to solve their assigned computational task in an incredibly short time, perfectly coordinating with their peers.
It was like two billion people simultaneously manufacturing a single component of a complex machine made of two billion parts. They had no time to communicate or coordinate, yet when they were finished, all two billion components fit together perfectly. The machine assembled itself and even ran smoothly.
This was a problem that went far beyond what mere training could solve.
No amount of training or coordination could allow ordinary intelligent beings to truly share a single mind or achieve such perfect unity.
But… Li Qingsong was different!
He was the one person who could.
After solving this problem, Li Qingsong faced his next challenge.
The engineering requirements for constructing the “Unified Force Field” were immense and exceedingly precise.
Li Qingsong needed to manufacture over a billion different devices and have them all operate in perfect, unified coordination. Only then would it be possible to precisely influence a region of space.
If a single one of them malfunctioned, it would be like tipping the first domino, causing the entire structure to collapse.
The level of precision this project demanded far surpassed the limits of any conventional civilization.
But for Li Qingsong, this was yet another obstacle he could overcome.
‘Because all the Clones are under the control of my consciousness. All the Clones are a part of me. All of them can coordinate as one, as if a single entity!’
Thus, Li Qingsong possessed the foundation needed to construct the “Unified Force Field” and unleash this unprecedented attack.
But for now, it was only a foundation.
There was another problem that needed to be solved.
The price for unleashing this unprecedented attack, which Li Qingsong had named the “Unified Force Field,” was simply too immense.
It was a cost that no conventional civilization could possibly bear. Even Li Qingsong himself could barely afford it.
But… at this moment, Li Qingsong had no other choice.
The situation had become desperate. All that was left was a final, do-or-die gamble.
‘If that’s the case, then no matter how great the cost, I have to use it!’
Li Qingsong had truly made his decision.
‘You forced my hand!’
At that moment, inside two billion smart cockpits, special chemical agents flowed through the IV needles connected to the neck-vessels of two billion Clones.
The agents instantly breached the blood-brain barrier and flooded the Clones’ brains. In the next moment, their minds flared with unprecedented activity, like sick kittens suddenly becoming fierce tigers.
Data flooded in from every corner of the battlefield—from every spy satellite, every Detector, and every ship’s sensory system. Data from every telescope and radar in the main fleet surged like a torrent into the corresponding Quantum Supercomputers, and simultaneously, through neural chips, into the brains of the Clones.
Under the command of this unimaginably powerful computational network, and with Li Qingsong providing unified coordination and synthesis, the numerous Quantum Supercomputers and two billion brains began their work. Based on the current battlefield data, they began to predict the state of the battle approximately thirty-three seconds into the future.
Li Qingsong needed to calculate where every Warship would be in thirty-three seconds, what actions it would take, and what its orientation would be. He had to predict the future of every Cannon Platform, every unmanned drone ship, even every cluster of Interstellar Mines—virtually every single element on the battlefield.
This immense computational task had to be completed in no more than two seconds. Any longer, and the calculations would lose their real-time relevance, becoming meaningless.
And so, two seconds later, the resulting decisions were transmitted via Super-distance Communication. They arrived almost instantaneously at the more than one billion devices of all sizes that Li Qingsong had prepared, controlling them to adjust their power and orientation.
Tens of thousands of high-power nuclear fusion power plants roared to life, running at full capacity. A torrent of energy surged into the devices. The next moment, a deployment strategy for the “Unified Force Field” was executed in real time. It was a strategy custom-tailored for the quadrillions of variables on the battlefield—for the precise position, velocity, and heading of every ship, for every explosion, for every single maneuver.
The immense energy transformed into countless X and Y Bosons. Following specific trajectories and orientations, they surged forth at nearly the speed of light, racing toward the battlefield.
After firing off these X and Y Bosons, the more than one billion devices—devices that Li Qingsong had painstakingly manufactured, devices that had cost him enormous energy and resources to assemble and coordinate—simultaneously exploded from the energy overload.
It wasn’t just the devices. The hundreds of power-supply ships that fed them energy also exploded. The instantaneous, massive energy demand caused their Nuclear Fusion Reactors to destabilize and detonate.
In an instant, Li Qingsong’s entire fleet was engulfed in a blinding flash of light.
This was one of the costs of unleashing the “Unified Force Field.”
All the equipment was single-use only.
Only by overloading them to the point of explosion could the devices be pushed to their maximum power output, maximizing the strength of the Unified Force Field.
For a conventional civilization, this was almost unimaginable.
‘To expend such vast manpower and resources to create so many devices, only for them to be used just once?’
‘What level of industrial power would be required to support such a strategy?’
But for Li Qingsong, this was only part of the cost, and the most insignificant part at that.
The true cost was far, far greater.
On the Space-Air Carriers that Li Qingsong had specially modified, inside the two billion smart cockpits, were two billion Clones. The instant the Unified Force Field was unleashed, their eyes shot wide. Their bodies convulsed uncontrollably a few times, and then they fell still.
Blood began to trickle from their ears. A clear, snot-like fluid ran from their nostrils.
Li Qingsong knew that it wasn’t snot. It was… cerebrospinal fluid.
The data torrent and computational load had been too immense. After completing the calculation, their brains had simply collapsed. They were completely and utterly brain-dead.
The drug Li Qingsong had injected them with had indeed unlocked their brains’ potential. But even with the drug, their minds could not withstand the consequence of contributing such immense computational power in such a short time.
In fact, only with the drug could their brains handle the task at all. Without it, their minds would have collapsed without ever coming close to completing the required calculations.
In a single instant, Li Qingsong lost a staggering two billion Clones, two-thirds of his entire population.
This was the true cost!
For any conventional civilization, the loss of two billion of its most stringently trained and elite individuals in a single offensive… what civilization could possibly bear such a cost?
Even his current adversary, the Harville Civilization, only had about 150 million warriors in total, by Li Qingsong’s estimate.
If all those warriors were to die, their entire civilization would collapse!
And now, the attack unleashed at such a grievous cost would reach the battlefield in approximately thirty seconds.