In the live broadcast footage, the Mantis is slowly recovering water droplets from its extra-long robotic arm.

At this time, a strange contrast was discovered:

The robotic arm is obviously a functional thing in terms of design, with rugged steel bones, coupled with those exposed hydraulic equipment, full of complicated technical temperament and crude industrial feeling.

The water droplet has a perfect shape, this crystal smooth solid droplet, with exquisite aesthetics to eliminate all functional and technical connotations, showing the lightness and detachment of philosophy and art.

The steel claws of the mechanical arm grasp the water droplets, like the hairy hands of an ancient ape grasping a pearl. The droplet looked so fragile, like a tear in space, that everyone feared it would shatter in the steel claws.

But that didn't happen, and the arm began to retract.

Water droplets were slowly pulled into the main cabin of the Mantis, and then the two open bulkheads slowly closed.

Once again, the crowd on Earth erupted in cheers, but this time the celebration was not as fanatical and forgetful as the last, for the end of the war and the victory of humanity were no longer a surprise.

Take 10,000 steps back and say that even if the upcoming negotiations break down and the war continues, humanity will still be the final victor.

The appearance of the United Fleet in space gave the public a visual awareness of the power of humanity.

Now, the civilization of the earth has the self-confidence to face all kinds of enemies calmly.

The arrival of water droplets has made people's feelings about the three-body world begin to undergo subtle changes, and more and more people have begun to realize:

The race that is trekking into the solar system is a great civilization that has survived the cycle of more than two hundred catastrophes with incredible tenacity with humanity.

They have traveled four light-years through space in search of a stable sun and a home to live in......

The public's feelings for the three-body world began to shift from hostility and hatred to sympathy, pity and even admiration.

People are also aware of the fact that the ten droplets of the three-body world were emitted two centuries ago, and humans have only now truly understood their meaning.

This is of course because the behavior of the three-body civilization is too subtle, and it also reflects the mentality of human beings distorted by their own bloody history from another aspect.

The most exciting thing for people is not the fact in front of us, but the bright future that has already taken shape: what kind of dream paradise will the solar system be transformed into by the combination of the technology of the three-body civilization and the power of human beings?

However, this ridiculous illusion was shattered in less than a minute.

The Mantis's hull, which had recovered the water droplets, suddenly glowed red, and from the outside, it looked like a candle inside a paper lantern had been lit.

At the same time, the metal hull melted like wax, and all the metal of the hull turned into an incandescent liquid state, which exploded and flew out in space in an instant.

Everyone's first reaction was that the droplet had self-destructed, and although they were sorry, they were not particularly surprised, just disappointed that the droplet was not a messenger of peace.

However, all mankind is not at least psychologically prepared for what is to come.

Qiao Lu sighed deeply, even though he already knew the result, he still felt very sorry for it.

He turned back to 2B, who was standing behind him, and said, "Sit down and watch the fireworks with me." ”

Just when people thought that it was only the Praying Mantis that was destroyed, and that there was nothing more. A fire suddenly erupted from a corner of the Combined Fleet's rectangular queue, and then continued to spread like a lit fuse.

"What's going on? Why did it suddenly burst into flames? ”

Before the crowd watching the live broadcast realized what was happening, there was a big explosion on the first stellar battleship that caught fire.

Unlike the regular explosion of the Praying Mantis, which occurs in high temperatures, the stellar battleship is apparently due to a nuclear fusion reaction created by the detonation of a nuclear reactor.

The fireball of the thermonuclear explosion appeared on the hull of the quilted ship, expanding rapidly, and the entire fleet was illuminated by the bright light, protruding against the dark and silent background of space, and the entire galaxy was eclipsed by the sea of stars.

Before anyone else could react, the stellar-class battleships in the first row of the matrix queue exploded one after another, turning into fusion fireballs at intervals of less than a second.

The entire fleet array also shone as if it had been ignited, becoming a sea of light.

The crowd of onlookers was completely stunned, because until now they didn't know why this happened, was it an enemy attack? What the hell is that? Where did it come from?

All of them are in a state of extreme tremor and numbness, and in the past two centuries of research on space strategy and tactics, various extreme battlefield situations have been envisaged.

But witnessing a hundred warships blow up in a minute like firecrackers was still beyond their psychological capacity.

There are even quite a few people who believe that this powerful invisible enemy may be a third-party alien force other than humans and the Three-Body Problem, because the Three-Body Civilization is already a weak loser in their subconscious.

"Water drops! It was the water droplets who attacked! ”

Someone finally shouted this sentence in the picture, but people still couldn't understand how a drop of water, which was less than a ten-thousandth in size of a stellar-class battleship, threatened these behemoths.

After retrieving and matching a huge amount of battlefield images, the fleet finally discovered the existence of water droplets.

In the image extracted by the image analysis software, the water droplets have not changed except for the propulsion halo at the tail, and they are still perfectly streamlined.

It's just that its mirror surface reflects the light of nuclear fireballs and metallic magma in high-speed motion, and the bright light and dark red alternate frequently, as if it were a burning blood droplet.

The commander of the Combined Fleet immediately ordered: "All attacking units, aim at the target and open fire immediately!" ”

All stellar warships activated their interceptor weapons, using electromagnetic kinetic weapons to shoot at incoming droplets.

The metal projectiles fired by the electromagnetic cannon have a huge destructive power, and due to the huge kinetic energy carried by their high speed, each metal projectile is equivalent to a bombshell when it hits the target.

Such metal projectiles can be fired hundreds of them per second, each the size of a football, and the speed of ejection is tens of kilometers per second, which can sweep a mountain on the ground in a few minutes.

However, when it hit the water droplet, it only made a crisp and melodious sound, accompanied by a violent spark sputtering out, and these indestructible electromagnetic cannon metal projectiles shattered completely like an egg hitting a stone.

On the other hand, the water droplets have only slowed down a bit, and there is no dent in the smooth and flat surface at all.

If you look at the surface of the water droplet with an ultra-high magnification microscope, you will still see an absolutely smooth mirror surface, without even a trace of scratches.

The water droplets immediately adjusted their propulsion, quickly regained their speed, and flew towards the Combined Fleet under a dense hail of bullets.

(End of chapter)