I chose the safe house, and the Human Alliance regretted it.

Wang Wei walked out of the shop and disappeared into the night of Emperor Star City.

The shop door behind him slowly closed with a soft sound.

Under the starry sky, at the front line of the Third Fleet.

Zi Chen shifted his gaze from the holographic star map and glanced at the latest casualty statistics.

The speed at which the numbers jumped had completely frozen his expression.

One second it was the same number, the next second it jumped a lot higher, like a line that can never be caught up with.

"Fifth mixed formation, take over the front line. Seventh echelon, fill in."

The Fifth Mixed Group is the most complete group of organized combat forces preserved in the Imperial Third Fleet's order of battle.

Five hundred thousand warships were lined up in the starry sky, their bow cannons pointing like a dense array of needles at the crimson tide of beasts.

Behind the fleet, 100,000 battle formations unfolded in the void, and billions of human soldiers floated in the vacuum, their energy shields glowing layer upon layer, like a sheet of luminous scales.

The control room issued the order to charge to the fifth mixed formation.

The message was short: "Take over the defensive line."

Five hundred thousand warships were ignited simultaneously.

The engine's blue light went from dark to bright and then to blinding.

The entire formation resembled a precisely operating killing machine.

The battle formation followed closely behind.

No one spoke; the only sounds on the communication channel were the low hum of the engine and breathing.

The beast tide crashed into us head-on.

The warships' main guns fired simultaneously.

The rays converged into a wall of beams spanning tens of thousands of kilometers.

The beam cut into the front row of the beast horde. The carapace of the star beasts vaporized upon contact, and the fragments of limbs and slime evaporated into gas under the high temperature, expanding into a spreading nebula.

That area was cleared of a vacuum sphere with a diameter of over 10,000 kilometers in a fraction of a second.

But the beast tide was too large.

New star beasts immediately swarmed around the cleared area.

The main gun recharged, while the secondary guns continued firing during the lull. The beams thinned out a bit, and the beast horde took advantage of this opening to surge forward.

The battle formation charged forward.

The imperial soldiers relied on the fleet and advanced in stages under the cover of firepower.

The battle formations and tactics were coordinated with such precision that they resembled meshing gears, with each link positioned precisely.

But even the most sophisticated tactics cannot withstand overwhelming numbers.

The beast tide was far larger than any tactical design could withstand; a battle formation of ten thousand men was wiped out in less than three minutes.

The battle formation markers disappeared from the star map, and only one sentence came through the communication channel: "Third battle formation gap, fourth battle formation to fill."

The troops in the rear would be brought in to fill the gaps, and if they fell again, they would be replaced.

Each disappearance only resulted in one communication record, and the archive numbers were so consecutive they were terrifying.

A middle-aged soldier had his chest pierced by the tentacles of a star beast.

He saw the tentacle emerge from his chest cavity, paused for a moment, and then used his last bit of strength to detonate himself.

One for one.

This became the most common transaction on the battlefield.

Under the cover of battle formations, the beast horde continued to engage the warships in close combat.

A frigate was simultaneously struck by dozens of high-level star beasts, and its energy shield shattered instantly.

The captain coldly ordered, "Full engine speed! Charge into the beast horde! Ram the biggest one!"

The helmsman didn't ask any questions and simply turned the control stick.

The frigate, trailing a trail of leaking energy liquid, traced an arc as it crashed into the densest part of the beast horde.

The self-destructing white light exploded in the crimson ocean, clearing an area for about four seconds.

Four seconds later, the beast tide filled the hole again, as if nothing had happened.

The fifth mixed formation held out on the front line for seven hours and seventeen minutes.

The overall loss rate exceeded 80%.

Zi Chen's order arrived: "Seventh echelon advance, fifth formation joins in on the spot."

The seventh echelon charged into the beast tide and remained on the battlefield for six and a half hours.

The star beasts were firmly pinned outside the defensive line.

But with every inch they held firm, they lost a group of men.

Six and a half hours later, less than 30% of the seventh echelon's personnel remained.

The first line of defense has always been firmly in the hands of the First Empire.

The star beasts didn't advance even a millimeter. The cost, however, was escalating rapidly—tens of thousands died for every second they held out.

Standing before the star map, watching the blue lights constantly fading, Zi Chen suddenly asked a seemingly random question: "How many people are left in the seventh echelon?"

The person next to him paused for two seconds before answering, "27%."

"How long until the First and Second Fleets arrive?"

"Seventeen minutes later."

Zi Chen fell silent.

He waited for seventeen minutes.

People on the front lines risked their lives to wait those seventeen minutes for him.

Virtual space networks: another front for the empire.

The battle reports are displayed in text format on various information nodes, each line concise to the point of being cold.

Next to the text was a small gold icon of the Imperial Star emblem, indicating official confirmation.

"The Third Fleet crushed a massive beast tide of billions."

"The beast tide still failed to breach the fleet's first line of defense."

"......"

These positive messages have caused a stir in the virtual world.

"The Empire is awesome"

Long live the soldiers!

"......"

But amidst the revelry, some scattered comments circulated:

"The civilian sector has shifted to military industry. Do you know what this means?"

"Has the energy fluid supply been cut off?"

"My friend's starship was requisitioned, supposedly to transport military supplies."

"The factory near my house has welded all the windows shut, and it's emitting smoke day and night."

The Empire's text battle reports are still being updated:

"The Third Fleet continues operations at the front lines, and the Star Beast tide has been halted outside the Imperial borders."

"The imperial soldiers fought bravely, and the beast tide that threatened to destroy the Caesar Empire failed to advance further."

"The defensive line remains stable."

The more resolute the words, the deeper the doubts in some people's hearts.

If the defense line is indeed solid, why is the entire country shifting from civilian to military industry?

If the battle situation is completely under control, why can't the civilians obtain even a single drop of energy liquid?

The Empire's written battle reports are genuine, but only half of them are reported.

It told the public that "the defense line is still in place," but it did not tell them that "the soldiers defending the line are dying at a rate of tens of thousands per minute and every second."

It told the people that "the beast tide has failed to advance," but it did not tell them that "the Imperial Third Fleet has already wiped out seven full-strength squadrons."

The virtual revelry continues.

But some people in the revelry stopped laughing.

Their son served in the Third Fleet.

Their husbands were in the third mixed formation.

Their father was in the seventh echelon.

These people have not received any communication for three days.

Meanwhile, along several strategic shipping routes from the heart of the empire to the frontier, the starry sky was illuminated by dense halos of jumps.

One after another, blue and white orbs of light bloomed in the darkness, each orb unleashing a dense, dark cluster of warships.

The First Fleet and the Second Fleet arrived at the front lines simultaneously.

The First Fleet has 3.12 million warships, and the Second Fleet has 2.5 million warships.

The starships simultaneously disengaged from their warp state, and 5.62 million warships filled the entire airspace, stretching from the nearest positions to the horizon, like a moving continent of steel.

The flagship "Blade of the Empire" was the first to emerge from the warp halo, and the captain sent a short message to the Third Fleet's control room:

"The First and Second Fleets have arrived at the front lines. The Third Fleet will maintain its current defensive line and advance in coordination."

Zi Chen replied, "Received."

The right flank of the First Fleet began its advance, with 700,000 warships forming a neat wedge formation and crushing towards the flank of the beast tide.

The beams of the main cannons fired simultaneously drew 700,000 straight lines across the starry sky, converging into a curtain of light that cut in from the right flank of the beast tide, like a knife slicing through a piece of writhing flesh.

The right flank of the beast tide was reduced by nearly 10% in the first volley.

But the beast tide is measured in trillions.

The tip of the right-wing wedge formation of the First Fleet had plunged into the beast tide, and the two sides engaged in close combat at the tip of the formation.

One after another, the warships at the front of the formation were overwhelmed by the beast tide, and the warships behind immediately took their place.

The entire fleet was like a drill bit propelling forward through giant waves, wearing down with each step it took, but it never stopped.

On the front lines, the casualty figures continue to rise.

After the mixed formation is broken up, the remaining people will automatically gather into a smaller circular formation.

Like water droplets gathering on oily noodles, the ever-shrinking circular formation eventually became a dozen or so soldiers standing back to back.

Finally, it turned into three or five people, and then into one person, all alone, suspended in the vacuum, facing the surging beast tide from all sides.

However, just as the two sides were locked in the most brutal battle...

—Another figure appeared on the battlefield.