Chapter 224: Battle Aftermath! 2 Billion Units of Power Fuel! Huge Profits!
As the barrage of energy cannons tore through the sky and shattered the transport ship ahead, the Reaper Queen was knocked to the ground by the powerful shockwave.
Somewhat surprised, she glanced at herself, only to realize that her energy shield system had failed—crippled by Song Zhaomei's virus infiltration.
The Queen let out a series of furious, unwilling roars.
With the command center of the Reaper mothership fallen, the network systems completely paralyzed, and even the escape shuttles destroyed, she now had no way to protect herself—her energy shield was gone.
Pinned beneath debris from various wrecked units, the Reaper Queen began to struggle free, pushing aside the broken remains and crawling out from the ruins.
Facing the Astartes warriors hovering above, she let out a furious howl and commanded the soldier ants below to launch a counterattack.
But no matter how furious she was, at this point, all she could do was flee in panic. One transport destroyed? Fine—she'd just pick another.
Without the protection of her energy shield, the Queen was little more than an oversized soldier ant—stronger, sure, but what did that matter?
Her size and threat level were roughly on par with a mid-to-small Kaiju beast—not even on the level of the Kaiju from the Progenitor Civilization!
With such limited capability, she was no match for the Astartes.
Under heavy escort from numerous soldier ants, the Queen rushed toward the docking port, intending to find another ship and escape.
But she hadn't gotten far when a blur streaked through the air and landed directly above her.
It was David Martinez, clad in Anti-Hulk armor!
In an instant, a wet "schlkk" sound rang out—David's Matrix Interface Device jabbed into the Reaper Queen's head.
Neural tendrils sprang from the connector port and stabbed straight into her brain. The whole process was over in the blink of an eye.
The Queen's body went rigid, as if her soul had been forcibly ripped out—leaving behind nothing but an empty shell.
Thud—!
Without ever seeing David's face, the Reaper Queen collapsed and died.
All around her, the soldier and worker ants froze, as though someone had pulled the plug on their power.
Aside from a few ants twitching slightly, the rest of the Reaper units fell completely still.
At that moment, LA Megacorp had decisively ended this interstellar war—one that had threatened the survival of human civilization. The entire operation had lasted just under two days.
But for the Megacorp warriors who took part, it felt like a vivid, exhilarating dream—one from which they were now awakening, with victory in hand!
---
Meanwhile—
Back in the Prime Universe, at the headquarters of the Myriad Realms Base, the central control room buzzed with activity.
Thousands of staff sat at their stations, receiving data from the frontlines and managing various operations.
Everyone was doing their utmost to provide real-time support to Megacorp's fleets.
Thanks to the FTL communication tech developed from the mimic entity "Omega," even across a parallel universe, real-time data transmission from the frontlines was possible.
As a result, Li Ang could receive up-to-the-minute updates and issue responsive commands without delay.
Even though the interstellar war had stabilized, the mood inside the command center remained tense and cautious.
Until total victory was confirmed, no one dared to relax.
Just then, a communications officer sprang to his feet, voice trembling with excitement:
"Boss! Report from the frontlines: the strike team has successfully taken control of the Reaper Queen!"
"All Reaper soldier and worker units have lost their unified command—they're frozen or convulsing. We've won!"
The moment the words fell, the entire command center seemed to exhale. Everyone's long-held tension evaporated.
But no one erupted in cheers. Instead, they all turned in unison to look at Li Ang, awaiting his next order.
Calm as ever, Li Ang gave a small nod before speaking:
"Notify the engineering team to steer the Reaper mothership toward the moon base of Earth-003 and begin repairs on the damaged systems."
"Also, order frontline personnel to take over all the soldier and worker ants aboard. Transport them all to the Ideal City's power plants."
Li Ang's plan was fully aligned with Song Zhaomei's—convert these alien captives into fuel for the power plants and use them to produce more AI units for Megacorp.
That's how you truly maximize profit.
In fact, this interstellar war had cost relatively little for both LA Megacorp and the Reaper civilization.
From start to finish, the entire battle had lasted less than 32 hours. It hadn't even escalated to a full-blown attrition war before the Queen was decapitated.
Only a few million—at most under ten million—Reaper units had died aboard the mothership.
Compared to the Reaper's 2+ billion-strong swarm, that number was insignificant—easily replenishable.
When civilizations of similar strength clash, long-drawn wars lasting decades or centuries can break out, with death tolls in the hundreds of billions—wars that drain entire generations.
For LA Megacorp, which was still developing and amassing strength, such a scenario would've been catastrophic.
Fortunately, Li Ang had prepared meticulously from the start, executing decisive and precise strategies.
A war that could have lasted years, even decades, was now settled in under two days.
And to LA Megacorp , those 2+ billion Reaper bugs were a goldmine of power-generation material!
Even better—this was just the vanguard force. The main fleet hadn't even arrived yet.
But now, with their Queen under Li Ang's matrix control, Megacorp could soon receive a guaranteed minimum of 5 billion more Reapers—
—and an entire swath of alien colonies!
Thanks to this generous "delivery" from their extraterrestrial friends, Li Ang could now simultaneously advance:
The reconstruction plans for Earth-001 and Earth-002
Megastructure development
Solar system colonization expansion
Time to break ground—starting today!!
"And one more thing," Li Ang added, "inform all departments to clean up the Reaper mothership and the battlefield."
"I don't want to see any heretical mongrels trying to escape the solar system of Earth-003 in some random ship."
"Thoroughly search and seal off that starfield!"
Even with a mountain of spoils incoming, Li Ang remained vigilant.
The Reaper Queen might have been captured, but there was always a risk—a lucky survivor might slip away, return to the Reaper homeworld, and sound the alarm.
Li Ang would not allow that kind of cheap sci-fi plot twist to happen on his watch.
He had to ensure absolute control over the battlefield—every intruder must fall under Megacorp's grasp!
"Understood!" the staff responded in unison.
Li Ang looked over the room and spoke solemnly:
"This 'Independence Day' victory belongs to LA Megacorp —belongs to human civilization. It's a historic moment."
"I know you're excited—elated, even. But now is not the time to let your guard down."
"The most dangerous moment often comes right after we relax."
"I want all of you to dispatch more troops to Earth-003 immediately. Assist the fleet in sweeping the battlefield and compiling a full casualty report."
"Once the tally is confirmed, arrange compensation and support for the families of the fallen!"
Because whether it's interstellar war or sword-and-spear combat—at its core, war is a resource grind. Strategy and tactics are built on the backs of soldiers and supplies.
Without brave fighters and abundant logistics, no war can be won.
And if you want continued support from the people, then you must never shortchange the soldiers' families—especially when it comes to compensation and benefits.
"Sir, yes sir!"
After receiving Li Ang 's clear orders, the staff members quickly reined in their slightly relaxed attitudes and returned to focusing on their respective tasks.
They resumed assisting the frontline fleet with personnel deployment and cleanup of the battlefield.
Li Ang , meanwhile, turned back toward the central control panel, shutting off most of the holographic screens and leaving only a few key data graphs visible.
As he studied the intel on the Reaper mothership, the Reaper Queen, and the Reaper civilization, he fell into deep thought.
Every dense line of detail on the screens was painstakingly extracted by Li Ang from the Queen's memory database using the Matrix, and imported into headquarters' precious archives.
Thanks to this information, Li Ang now had a complete understanding of the origins of the Reaper civilization, its standing within the Milky Way, and the broader ecological structure of this universe.
The bad news? The Reaper civilization was still wandering along the outer edge of the galaxy, harvesting other civilizations like nomadic scavengers.
They weren't exactly top-tier players in the interstellar game. In fact, there were likely civilizations out there far more advanced than the Reapers.
But the good news? The Reapers were by no means weak. After countless years of colonization, they'd built up an incredibly deep reservoir of resources.
Far beyond what Li Ang had imagined!
"Unbelievable… Who would've thought that little Universe 003, 'Edge of Tomorrow,' would be hiding such a wealthy old moneybag? This is a goldmine."
Looking at the Reaper influence map and the marked colonies displayed on the holographic interface, Li Ang couldn't help but grin with a "Dragon King" sort of smile.
Compared to the impoverished Pioneer Civilization from Pacific Rim, the Reapers were downright loaded—spanning across multiple star systems with a massive domain.
Just the task of fully taking over those territories and resource planets could take LA Megacorp decades—maybe even over a century.
"Good thing I didn't kill the Reaper Queen. Otherwise, taking over their legacy would've been a nightmare."
Li Ang chuckled. Fortunately, with the Matrix on his side, he was able to seize control of the Reaper civilization so smoothly, gaining command over its vast resources and territories.
This war? An absolute jackpot. A massive windfall!
Waging war was never LA Megacorp 's end goal—it was just a means to an end. Rapidly accumulating his first bucket of gold and expanding the corporation's reach was Li Ang 's true priority.
Only by establishing the first mega-corporation to span across multiverses and monopolize countless worlds could Li Ang qualify to lead human civilization into the high-stakes game of advanced civilizations.
To dominate and devour in the realm of the elites—that's when humanity would truly be secure.
But right now, the thing that delighted Li Ang most was the Reapers' territory, their resources, and their conveniently free power generation materials.
Not only would this bring in an enormous amount of company credits, but he'd also have ample labor to rebuild Earth-001 from spectre and Earth-002 from Pacific Rim in a short time.
And in just a few years, the people on those two Earths could catch up to Earth-003 from Edge of Tomorrow—stepping into the age of interstellar colonization.
Lunar bases, star-core mining, establishing forward outposts throughout the solar system!
On top of all that, Li Ang even had the spare resources to construct the Ringworld and the soon-to-be-acquired Death Moon.
With these two colossal megastructures in place, LA Megacorp would be closer than ever to taking off for real!
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Earth-003, "Independence Day" Battlefield Sector
"Good day, viewers! I'm your old friend, Gillian Jordan, and welcome to today's broadcast of N54 News."
"See the ruins behind me? This is the battlefield of the interstellar conflict codenamed 'Independence Day.' What you're looking at is wreckage from mechs and countless fragments of corpses scattered across space."
"Of course, most of the bodies belong to Reaper drone soldiers. LA Megacorp 's troops suffered minimal casualties—less than one percent!"
Through Gillian's report, humans from across the many parallel Earths got a detailed overview of the war.
"For those who've been following our coverage, you'll remember that two days ago we were observing from the Moon base when the Reaper civilization suddenly launched its assault."
"We were originally going to tour the Moon base aboard a cruiser, but the unexpected ambush forced us to hide inside the ship for two whole days."
"Thankfully, LA Megacorp 's powerful fleet managed to crush the Reapers in just over thirty hours, saving humanity in this sector."
"According to available data, the Reapers' technological resources aboard their mothership—as well as their colonial assets—will greatly boost productivity and social welfare for the corporation and humankind alike!"
"Now, please join our news team for a firsthand look at the aftermath of this war and the infamous Reaper mothership."
As she finished speaking, the cameraman turned the live feed toward the observation window behind her.
At that moment, under Song Zhaomei's programming, the Reaper mothership was slowly coming to a stop near the Moon base, expected to stabilize in three hours.
"See that colossal thing? That's the Reaper mothership—the invading juggernaut of this interstellar war!"
With the nearby Moon as a size reference, viewers from across the multiverse could finally get a sense of just how massive this mothership truly was.
Visually speaking, the mothership's 800-kilometer diameter almost seemed to overshadow the Moon itself, which spans just over 3,000 kilometers.
"In addition," Gillian continued, "we've received reliable intel that LA Megacorp 's research division has already taken full control of all Reaper tech."
"At the same time, the fleet from Ideal City in the Prime Universe is en route to Earth-003 at full speed, preparing to take custody of over two billion Reaper captives aboard the mothership."
"We don't yet know exactly what these alien prisoners will be used for, but we can safely assume the corporation won't let such a massive labor force go to waste."
"Alright, next up, we'll be taking this cruiser for a full loop around the battlefield remains to examine the scars left behind by this war!"
---
As her words ended, Gillian turned away, leaving the frame to the camera.
This Reaper invasion might have brought some trouble to LA Megacorp —but for Gillian, it was a twist of fate that made her the biggest winner among all reporters on the scene.
Watching LA Megacorp 's fleets clash with Reaper soldiers in brutal close-quarters combat was way more thrilling than any coverage of Ringworld construction.
Stanley, the usual top dog of Celestial Daily, saw his ratings get completely blown out of the water by Gillian's reports—by dozens of times, in fact.
But that was to be expected. After all, this was LA Megacorp 's first interstellar war. On one side, thrilling, explosive battles. On the other, the dull, repetitive coverage of megastructure building.
For the average popcorn-munching viewer, the choice was obvious—watch the war!
Thanks to this stroke of luck, Gillian Jordan was now the resident star reporter and host of Earth-003 from Edge of Tomorrow.
The awards and praise she received across industries put N54 News on front pages everywhere.
With the war now over, Gillian decided to squeeze out the last bit of its momentum and continue her hard-earned coverage—one final bite of the hype pie.
At this moment, the once-deadly battlefield—filled with energy blasts and shattered crafts—had returned to a dark, silent void.
Only a few medium-sized cleanup ships and swarms of small reconnaissance fighters moved through the debris.
Yet even through the thick layer of glass, standing inside the cruiser, Gillian could still faintly catch the acrid scent of gunpowder and scorched metal.
But she didn't find this odor of danger and death repulsive—on the contrary, Gillian quite enjoyed its allure.
This interstellar war, fought to protect human civilization and won with overwhelming force, might have ended—but countless hearts were still burning with excitement.
Having personally tasted the dual rewards of fame and fortune, Gillian now truly understood the joy of triumph—like an Astartes warrior reveling in glory after slaying their foes.
War, for all its death and destruction, also feeds ambition. It fulfills desires. It makes people want more.
And for many, it becomes irresistible.
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