Chapter 388: Dimensional Projection, Attack on the Imperial Capital
The strategy meeting convened by Ignaz lasted for several hours.
During the meeting, everyone spoke freely.
But no matter how much they discussed, they still couldn’t come up with an effective way to fend off the Players’ assault.
The root of the issue was that they couldn’t figure out how the Players were achieving infinite resurrection.
Was it Bai Fu who was providing them with a backup energy source?
If that was the case, then dealing with the Players was essentially the same as dealing with Bai Fu.
The problem was—no one knew where Bai Fu was hiding.
After several hours of brainstorming, Ignaz ultimately issued a stopgap directive that didn’t address the root of the problem.
——The focus wasn’t to strike the Players, but the ships the Players were riding in!
ㄴIt was known that Players didn’t resurrect on the spot, so as long as the ships they were using were destroyed, it would drastically increase the difficulty for them to return to the battlefield, giving those fighting against the Players a chance to catch their breath.
And that was enough.
With that bit of respite, the coalition forces could crush the remnants of the Apostolic Holy City.
Once the remnants were completely wiped out, and all the resources controlled by the Apostolic Holy City came under their command, Ignaz’s next move would be to use the plundered resources to construct superweapons like the Light of World’s End on a massive scale.
A single Light of World’s End wasn’t terrifying, but ten, a hundred, or even a thousand of them—now that would be horrifying.
When the interstellar curtain was drawn, and chokepoints between curtains were lined with massive quantities of Light of World’s End and similar superweapons—
—Forget a few million Calamity-rank Undying Ones; even if tens of millions of them charged forward, they’d all be slaughtered!
Ignaz made no effort to conceal his intentions and publicly announced this plan outright.
He had two goals in doing this.
One was to boost the morale of the Three Universal Civilizations.
“Why are you chickening out? Hold the line—just a little longer, and the good days will arrive.”
The second was to provoke Bai Fu.
“Bai Fu, oh Bai Fu—are you really going to stand by and watch me complete this grand plan? Once this plan is achieved, all your little tricks will become useless. If you don’t want to see that happen, then you’d best show yourself.”
On the very day he revealed his plan, Ignaz personally rushed to the Apostolic Holy City.
It was a highly targeted plan.
The Silent Alliance, after all, was only a newly risen universe-level force. Even if their expansion was rapid and they had plenty of resources under their control, much of their infrastructure hadn’t had time to be completed. As a result, converting these resources into ships capable of traveling across billions of light-years still couldn’t keep pace with how quickly the ships were being consumed.
This flaw was exactly what the Three Universal Civilizations were exploiting.
They deployed large quantities of ship-targeting weaponry from their home worlds.
They also formed an enormous virtual combat unit.
This virtual unit was led by a Transcendent-rank Mechanic from the Original Pact, and its members included renowned Mechanics from all three Universal Civilizations. Even Corona of the Shadow Storm, who had previously been jointly hunted by the Universal Civilizations, was invited as a special advisor.
The involvement of these Mechanics caused huge disruption to the Players’ operations.
Relying on their chat and map systems, the Players themselves weren’t afraid of electronic interference or data strikes—but the ships they rode in couldn’t withstand it.
Often, the moment war broke out, the Players would realize their ships were no longer obeying commands, trying to drag them off to strange, random places.
They didn’t have the power to wrest back control from the Mechanics of the Three Universal Civilizations, so they had no choice but to abandon their ships and fly through space with their own bodies to engage in bloody battle.
Thankfully, most Players had now reached Calamity rank and could survive—and even move—freely in space. Otherwise, this war wouldn’t even be winnable.
Even so, because their mobility was so severely limited, their full combat power could only be used at 10–20% at best.
After all, this was an interstellar war. Once the frontlines stretched out, they easily spanned several light-years.
The fleets of the Three Universal Civilizations kept pulling back across this vast battlefield, and as they pulled, they’d expose flaws in the Players’ formations.
Even if they didn’t manage to expose any weaknesses, they could still use the opportunity to retreat the main force safely at the cost of minor losses.
【Damn it, this is way too frustrating to fight like this!】
【They’re seriously inhuman—I’m about to go red-hot with rage.】
【Damn, damn, damn! Just wait, one day I’ll round up every one of you who’s helping the villains and shoot you all!】
A huge crowd of Players vented their frustration in the Community, emotions running high.
Thinking back to when they first entered the Apostolic Holy City—they had been unstoppable.
One wave of assault had not only crushed the Three Universal Civilizations’ dream of quickly annexing the Holy City, but also killed five Sovereigns.
You had to know, before Bai Fu entered the stars, the Three Universal Civilizations combined had only around a hundred Sovereigns worth showing off.
Later, even though the number of Sovereigns surged, losing five at once was still painful enough to leave you breathless.
These were Sovereigns, not dime-a-dozen Calamity-ranks.
Calamity-ranks could be mass-produced with special methods—albeit at high cost—but Sovereigns? Without Bai Fu’s miraculous guidance, they were entirely dependent on luck.
It was only recently that the Saints had brought the Secret-Seeing Sphere and defected to the Original Pact. With that tool’s power, the Three Universal Civilizations could slowly begin producing more Sovereigns again.
Otherwise, this wave of Player assault might have been enough to get Xiaoquan voted out of office.
With such a good start, naturally the Players had been full of hope for the future.
But the imagined steamroll didn’t materialize. The Three Universal Civilizations responded swiftly and dragged them into a quagmire.
Faced with such a stark contrast, it was hard for the Players not to be emotional.
But all of this had been well within Bai Fu’s expectations.
From the very start, she had never expected the Players to topple the Three Universal Civilizations directly. After all, they still had some foundation—and behind them stood the mega-force known as the Original Pact.
Bai Fu’s plan had always been to let the Players cause as much trouble as possible, buying her time to grow. And the Players had succeeded—even doing better than she’d hoped.
Not only had they inflicted major losses on the Universal Civilizations, but they had also brought her massive amounts of experience.
However——
“Looks like I really do need to take some action.”
Bai Fu idly scrolled through the posts in the Community.
The Players still held the upper hand—for now. After all, they could resurrect. As long as they reaped some rewards each time they attacked, it wasn’t a loss.
But morale was a strange thing.
If this kind of deadlocked situation dragged on, the Players’ morale would steadily decline—while the morale of the truly battered Three Universal Civilizations would only rise.
Bai Fu didn’t care about the morale of the Three Universal Civilizations—but she did have to consider the Players.
These Players had come from all across the stars just to join her, only to be disgusted and frustrated before the real fun even began—was that fair?
She had to do something.
Suddenly, Bai Fu recalled a new ability she had recently acquired: 【Dimensional Projection】.
Relying on this skill, she could instantly teleport from the Silent Alliance straight to the homelands of the Three Universal Civilizations.
—Then let Ignaz witness this power firsthand. It’d be a good test of her current strength as well.
After the Players returned, Bai Fu had gained a massive amount of XP in one burst.
She dumped it all into her second class, boosting this body-cultivation branch directly to level 201, making her the only dual-class Transcendent in existence—receiving two full sets of Transcendent-level bonuses.
Those dual bonuses transformed her stats entirely.
【HP】：51.2 million / 51.2 million
【Psionic Value】：104.2 million / 104.2 million
【Stats】Strength 27029, Agility 31553, Constitution 37331, Intelligence 26077, Spirit 34301, Inspiration 65780
ㄴEven her lowest stat, Intelligence, had now reached 26,077 points.
For reference, a Transcendent whose main stat was Intelligence would usually only reach 8,000–9,000 points upon promotion.
That alone illustrated just how insane Bai Fu’s current stats were.
This was truly a well-rounded development in all six aspects: virtue, intellect, physique, aesthetics, and labor.
And even so—Bai Fu was still some distance away from breaking through the Life Chasm.
To breach the Life Chasm, all six stats needed to exceed 30,000 points.
Given how difficult that was, no wonder no one in the Star Sea had reached the "far shore" of life evolution in tens of thousands of years.
“I guess it’s only because I’m built differently that I even have a shot. Otherwise, forget the Three Universal Civilizations—even the Supreme God’s disciples who’ve fully fused with the Double Helix Tree would still need decades, if not a century, to refine themselves enough to reach the ‘other side’.”
Bai Fu couldn’t help but sigh.
She was already incredibly strong now, but… she still wasn’t entirely confident she could defeat Ignaz.
Looking at just her highest stat, Bai Fu figured they were evenly matched. As for the rest of her stats, she’d completely surpassed him.
But Ignaz had a trump card—he could burn Sacred Relics for a temporary surge in power, allowing him to explode with strength far beyond his stat sheet.
Actually, if that were all, Bai Fu wouldn’t even bother waiting. She’d just lead her army to wear him down—once his stock of Sacred Relics ran dry, she’d win.
But she strongly suspected that Ignaz was hiding something.
Why? Because the recent quests she triggered—those involving the destruction of the Original Pact and defeating Ignaz—had extremely generous rewards.
So generous that even she found them a bit too generous.
As everyone knew in 《Beyond the Stars》, the better the rewards, the harder the quest.
Those quests were clearly warning Bai Fu: “There’s something fishy about Ignaz.”
She wanted to use this opportunity to find out exactly what it was.
Having made her decision, she immediately summoned all the Players closest to her and informed them of a special operation.
“This time, we’ve got two targets!”
Bai Fu tapped the map.
“The first target—Imperial Capital Star. That’s the heart of the enemy. If we take it, it’ll shatter their morale. Even if we can’t, we’ll strike fear into them.”
“The second target…”
As she spoke, Bai Fu pulled up a photo of Xiaoquan.
“That’s right. Her!”
In Bai Fu’s eyes, the least stable faction within the Three Universal Civilizations wasn’t the Empire that sided with Ignaz from the start, nor the shattered Supernova Warband—but Titan Industries.
And the reason was simple: Xiaoquan had zero charisma.
If Drano were still alive, there’s no way he’d have let her take over as president.
So if they could kill her now, Titan Industries would definitely fall into chaos.
And once Titan Industries was in disarray, Bai Fu could strike while the iron was hot—and dismantle the alliance Ignaz had formed.
“Got it?”
“Got it!”
Sword Qi Soaring, Black Bastard, Starfish-bro and the others all nodded repeatedly.
“Alright, then get ready.”
Under Sword Qi Soaring’s summons, the Calamity Legion Players quickly assembled.
Half a day later, Hei Fu arrived at the gathering point via projection.
Another half day passed. Once the cooldown finished, Hei Fu took half the Players and teleported them near the Imperial Capital Star via Dimensional Projection.
“From here on, it’s up to you!”
“Leave it to us!”
One by one, the Players puffed up their chests, overflowing with battle spirit.
After bidding farewell to Hei Fu, they charged headlong toward the nearby Imperial Capital Star.
This assault took everyone by surprise.
Upon receiving the report, Odoacre was so shocked he sprayed wine all over the floor.
“What the hell—why are they attacking here? Is this a rebellion? Or did the frontlines collapse and Bai Fu just bulldozed her way here?”
No one could give him a clear answer—not even the Radiant Mainframe, which had been monitoring the entire Shining Star Cluster.
Everyone could only scramble to organize defenses while urgently informing Ignaz of the situation.
With over ten million Calamity-rank Psionicists storming the gates, even the heavily fortified Imperial Capital Star was beginning to falter.
“If no reinforcements come, this place will fall sooner or later. And when that happens…”
Upon hearing his chamberlain’s report, Odoacre’s face turned green.
He didn’t know what would happen to the others—but he would be absolutely doomed.
“Hold the line—hold it no matter what!”
Odoacre shouted himself hoarse. Then he bolted around the palace like a headless chicken.
It was too late to run—he needed to find a hiding place. Fast.
While Odoacre was scampering like a stray dog, Ignaz and the others finally figured out what was going on—it was the Undying Ones attacking the Imperial Capital Star.
But the real question was—how did they get there?!
Ignaz was completely dumbfounded.
He could only hurriedly summon the Fate-Weaver and Child of Prophecy for divination—he had to figure out what Bai Fu had done.
Unlike the anxious Ignaz, Xiaoquan was absolutely delighted.
Good. Very good!
She couldn’t wait to see the Imperial Capital Star fall and Emperor Odoacre killed.
Only if the Empire was thrown into chaos could she climb higher.
“Those Undying Ones suddenly rushed to attack the Imperial Capital Star. That means there must be few left defending the Apostolic Holy City. Let’s seize this chance—launch a full assault on Cathedral Six!”
Xiaoquan issued her command excitedly.
And then—just a few dozen minutes later—a report came back from the frontmost warships.
“President, we’ve been intercepted. It’s Bai Fu.”
“？”