The image follows the signal to a pulsar galaxy, which is one of the main battlegrounds of the battle between the two "Far Traveler" civilizations.

There is a neutron star that acts as a source of gravity, but unlike ordinary neutron stars, this neutron star rotates at a speed of up to 700 revolutions per second.

Such a high rotation speed causes it to release a large amount of pulsed radiation at all times, which is why this neutron star is also called a "pulsar".

Although the high-speed rotation of the pulsar does not affect the spacecraft's navigation, the pulsed radiation it emits has a huge impact on the spacecraft's shield system.

There was a famous interstellar battle in galactic history that took place in a similar pulsar galaxy.

At that time, the two sides of the war had similar fleets, but one of the sides had extremely high shield skills, and could often score a 1-2 or even 1-3 battle loss ratio in battle.

Although the other side has targeted the use of shield-ignoring weapons to counteract, the effect is not very good.

So they quietly set up a game and led the enemy's main fleet into a pulsed star system for a decisive battle.

The special cosmic environment here made the shield system almost fail, and they were prepared for a long time, and they temporarily thickened their armor and fought a beautiful victory, rewriting the balance of victory.

And this battle has also been selected into the interstellar war textbook, making the galactic civilization pay more and more attention to space warfare in different cosmic environments.

To this day, space wars between galactic civilizations tend to avoid these special environments, but a good war artist always gets the enemy to jump into the trap.

The "Ancient Travelers" had already built a dock in this pulsar galaxy, and boiled frogs in warm water to create a sense of imminence, giving the "Far Wanderers" the illusion that they could "closely" annihilate their enemies.

Coupled with the fact that the shipyard in this place is also a strategic point that cannot be ignored, the Far Traveler has put a main fleet into this place, aiming to quickly capture the next system.

However, even if a main fleet is invested, it is always "a little close" in this system, and the "Far Traveler" has to increase the amount of fleet investment.

This lost empire, which has fallen for a long time, still underestimates this group of "compatriots" who have not been eliminated in ancient times.

When the Far Travelers realized that their fleet could no longer get out of the system, the pulsars here were like swamps, dragging them into the quagmire.

The fleet invested in this pulsar system already accounts for 50% of their fleet, and the forces belonging to the "Ancient Far Travelers" are fighting them with more advanced and cheaper armor and hulls.

They have completely abandoned their shields, and have succeeded in bringing the Far Wanderers into decline with cheaper prices and stronger hulls, and the fleets that have been invested in the pulsars are being eaten away.

Now the "Far Travelers" cannot withdraw their fleets here, and there is basically no stable environment for jumping on the chaotic battlefield.

Although they also have the means to evacuate urgently, it is difficult for those troops who make the emergency jump to accurately locate the system, and they are more likely to come to the barren space without the connection of hyperspace shipping lanes, and can only wait for the next jump.

And this situation is no different from the disappearance of this fleet, more than 50% of the fleet is missing at one time, then they don't have to fight this battle.

So now the "Far Travelers" have to throw in more fleets to come here, hoping to defeat the enemy here.

However, most of their colonies have been controlled by the Robot Riot, which has cut off their production capacity, and the long-lost legions of "Prosthetics" have been unable to retake the occupied planets, which has made them acquiesce in the loss of these planets.

And the resources that have been accumulated over the years alone are simply not comparable to the seemingly endless fleet of "Ancient Travelers".

So the "Far Travelers" decided to take a desperate gamble, except for the fleet that was dragged in the pulsing galaxy, they abandoned the defenses of every other galaxy, and even the fleet of the "source of knowledge" of the home star was also withdrawn, forming a "decisive fleet", jumping to a galaxy closest to the "infinite lighthouse".

Their territory is very large, and they can rely on "tachyon suppressors" to stop the enemy's jump, and they can only use a relatively slow "hyperspace voyage" to propulsion, and it takes at least ten hyperspace voyages to reach the "source of knowledge".

In contrast, their enemy borders are much smaller, and it only takes three or four hyperspace voyages to hit their home planet.

This decisive battle fleet was personally commanded by the Supreme Commander of the "Far Travelers", aiming to besiege the home planet of the "Ancient Far Travelers" and force them to come to their rescue.

It seems that the main forces of the "Ancient Far Traveler" have all been transferred to the pulsed galaxy and the rest of the small battlefields, and they are completely powerless to stop the advance of this decisive fleet.

They successfully destroyed the outposts on the way, but they never waited for the enemy to come back to save them, but the news of the continuous fall of the former frontier kept coming, which gave the fleet commander an ominous premonition.

But he believes that the strategy of trading space for time is feasible, and even if there is a real problem, he will have time to go back.

Eventually, they came to the galaxy where the Infinity Lighthouse is located.

The ring world here seems to have been repaired, but each section of the ring world is lifeless and completely uninhabited.

Surprisingly, there are not too many fleets here, at least not a lot less than the decisive battle fleet of the "Far Travelers".

Only some of the old warships that looked very quaint and looked like they had been through the battlefield remained here.

And the foreboding of the commander of the fleet of the "Far Traveler" also reached its peak at this time.

“…… What about people? Presumably, their "old-fashioned feuds" could not have left these symbolic places of faith and ideals.

Soon, however, he received a familiar message from their former compatriots, artificial beings who had completed "synthetic evolution".

["Dear" compatriots, this may be the last time we will call you "compatriots"]

[For a long time, we have understood one thing, if the "Far Traveler" only insists on staying in one place, can it still be called a "Far Traveler"? 】

[In order to move forward, nothing cannot be abandoned, even the "Beacon of Infinity" that carries our lofty ideals.

[It is an honor to be able to witness the prosperity of the sea of stars with you in ancient times, but now, it is time for you to end]

With the termination of communication, the world of the "Infinite Lighthouse" began to collapse.

Originally, there was only one section of the Ring World that was still intact, but under the restoration of the "Ancient Traveler", at least it seems that every section of the Ring World seems to have been repaired.

Originally, the fleet commander of the "Far Voyager" still wondered why these former compatriots wanted to repair the world but not live in it, but now he understood,

These worlds just look like "worlds", but they are actually another kind of monostructure.

"You ......" The fleet commander sitting in the Titan flagship couldn't help but want to speak, he knew that the other party couldn't hear his words, but at this time he seemed to hear the response:

"Let's start a glorious duel......"

Along with them were the old warships that were moving again.

Their quaintness is not camouflaged, and the "Ancient Travelers" have recovered their warships from the remains of ancient battlefields, restored and transported here.

It is completely impossible for these old antiques to be the opponents of the "Far Traveler" new warship, but the "Ancient Far Traveler" has no intention of defeating this decisive battle fleet, their purpose is only for the "sense of ceremony" and to delay time.

Their real target is the unmanned home planet of the Far Traveler, the source of knowledge.

With the activation of a giant structure under the outer shell of the world, the entire "Infinite Lighthouse" galaxy seems to have been shielded and lost its trace on the star map.

Li Wenyuan, who was far away on Earth, also received this special fluctuation, and immediately sighed with emotion: "...... It's a ritual scene......"

He actually had a lot of good feelings about this group of "Ancient Travelers", and when they decided to wage war against the "Far Wanderers", he also asked if they needed help.

However, the "Ancient Travelers" declined his kindness, telling him that it was an ancient custom that had been circulating within civilization since they were even uplifted by humans.

In order to obtain a title, the owner of the title must be defeated in a duel.

After stepping into the stars, they had forgotten about this custom, but this time the alternation of the old and the new still made these "Ancient Travelers" rekindle this idea.

"-Of course, this is actually a 'conspiracy', and in the 'duel' we really can't defeat the current 'Far Traveler', after all, we still have a little less background."

"But since we have advanced to the interstellar age, it is okay for some 'interstellarization' of customs to appear, right? As long as whoever can capture the enemy's 'home planet' first, it will be considered a duel victory! ”

It's hard to imagine that these "synthetically evolved" mechanical beings occasionally have such naughty times, but Li Wenyuan couldn't help but laugh out loud when he heard their words.

He watched the Infinity Lighthouse disappear from the star map, and finally set his sights on a special technology in the tech tree:

[Fleet Doctrine: Glorious Decisive Battle]

[Tech Level: 6]

[Introduction: According to sociological research, the vast majority of living beings seem to have a strong influence on the image of a "decisive battle" that can determine the outcome of the victory. This kind of irrational behavior is obviously not suitable for use in the real cosmic battlefield, but ...... Coming here once in a while may be a great way to bring us together. We can lock up both the enemy and us in a "gladiatorial arena" that we can't leave for a short time, and then have a glorious duel]

[Possible Technology: None]

[Special note: This is actually a performative thing, why did we build this thing?] We need to build a megastructure that can fortify time and space while briefly blocking the passage of hyperspace. Once activated, at least any faster-than-light methods known to us will not be able to work in this area. Perhaps this is more appropriately called "shutting down the door and beating the dog" than some "glorious showdown"? 】

(End of chapter)