At this moment, Tom had already given up on pursuing the Mechanical Disaster Fleet.

It was meaningless.

With both sides having revealed their cards, how one side would act and how the other would react was clear to both.

The Mechanical Disaster Fleet could certainly go back on their word, abandoning their acceleration early and returning. However, if they did so, Tom's fleet would fly over and attack their main fleet, willing to sacrifice his entire fleet to inflict a few percent, or even a few tenths of a percent, casualties on them.

Since the Mechanical Disaster Fleet was unwilling to accept these casualties, the only option was not to stop, but to set sail and leave directly.

This was the unspoken understanding between the two sides.

Although he no longer pursued, Tom still closely monitored the opposing fleet, paying particular attention to how long they accelerated and when they would stop accelerating to enter inertial flight.

In a sense, this concerned his own life and death, and whether the final and most crucial step of his plan would succeed.

"It's a pity that the opponent's overall acceleration capability is stronger than mine. Even with insufficient resources, their main fleet's overall acceleration can reach 0.1 m/s², so I simply can't catch up."

"Otherwise, I would have sent a fleet to harass them, consuming as many of their resources as possible and slowing down their speed, to buy myself more time."

"Now, there's nothing I can do but rely on luck. I hope their maximum speed is below 10 %, and definitely not 15 %. If it's 15 %, I might have to think of other methods."

"But I've already pushed myself to my limit to reach this point. If even this isn't enough to secure sufficient development time… I'm afraid I truly have no other options."

What more could be done? What else could he do?

Almost nothing could be done.

The only thing he could do was abandon everything he had, restart from a backup, and begin anew.

But having come this far, Tom was unwilling to restart from a backup and begin anew.

Gazing at the distant Mechanical Disaster Fleet, watching their bright tail flames, Tom murmured, "It must be below 10 %, it must be, please…"

While closely monitoring the Mechanical Disaster's acceleration, Tom dedicated the entire brainpower of his numerous clones to construction.

Although the previous engagement was brief, it caused significant casualties to his fleet.

A total of tens of thousands of manned warships were destroyed, and a large number of space-based and ground-based bases were wiped out.

Additionally, hundreds of thousands of warships had their engines or radars destroyed, completely losing their combat effectiveness.

But Tom temporarily didn't bother with these things.

These were all combat facilities, and there likely wouldn't be another war in the short term, so why bother with them?

The most important task now was to begin a new round of even larger-scale big science device construction, seizing this extremely precious period of time, which he had expended countless efforts and energy to secure, to fully dedicate himself to assaulting the Unified Field Formula!

Compared to this goal, all other matters could be postponed.

Time slowly passed, and in a blink of an eye, nine years had gone by.

During these nine years, Tom had continuously monitored the Mechanical Disaster Fleet's acceleration, watching them accelerate at a speed of 0.1 m/s² for nine years, reaching a current speed of approximately 28 000 km/s, or about 9.33 % of the speed of light.

The current distance between the two sides had reached four trillion kilometers, approximately 0.43 light-years.

Because the fleet's tail flame had extremely high directivity, like a laser, Tom could still clearly see the opposing fleet's tail flame and accurately measure their speed and acceleration.

At this moment, Tom was filled with worry.

They had already accelerated for a full nine years, their speed had increased to 9.33 % of the speed of light, and the acceleration was still continuing?

Was their speed… still increasing?

This speed was already very close to the 10 % light-speed upper limit Tom had set.

And once the speed exceeded 10 % of the speed of light, it would mean that the Mechanical Disaster Fleet would likely return within 300 years, which would likely mean he wouldn't have enough time to break through to the Strong Nuclear stage!

At this very moment, Tom wished he could directly grab those spaceships and make them stop accelerating.

Don't accelerate anymore! A speed of 9.33 % of the speed of light is fast enough, take it slow, why fly so fast!

But the reality was that besides secretly worrying here, Tom could do nothing.

…

Mechanical Disaster Fleet, residential ship.

A Black Mountain being cackled strangely, crawling to a robot with an extremely beautiful design, harshly twisting its arm, and with a forceful snap, the robot's arm was directly broken off.

"Ah!"

The beautiful robot cried out in a very human-like manner, its face full of pain, a sight that moved one to pity: "Master, please, spare me…"

"Cackle!"

The robot's plea seemed to ignite the Black Mountain being's ferocity. He became even more cruel, even more excessive, and finally, his body trembled uncontrollably, seemingly reaching the peak of excitement.

After a long while, he finally caught his breath, the robot in front of him completely destroyed.

But… no new robots were brought in to replace it.

This was something that had never happened before.

"Red Dog! You murderous bastard, where are the robots? If I don't scold you for a day, do you become so negligent? You damn thing!"

A service robot walked in.

"Get out! Immediately bring more doll robots!"

The service robot did not leave, but instead pleaded, "Master, our fleet set sail in a hurry, and our material reserves are insufficient. Robot production also cannot keep up. Please wait one day, Master. We will be able to replenish the dolls for you after one day, is that acceptable?"

"You damn Red Dog, how dare you neglect your master like this?! Insufficient supplies are your problem, I need five dolls every day, not one less! Immediately! Don't force me to get angry!"

Facing the scolding, the service robot lowered its head: "Yes, Master. Red Dog is eternally loyal to the Civilization, eternally loyal to the Master."

…

Another residential ship.

A lifeform resembling mud was swimming in a huge pool under the protection of several robots.

The pool was several hundred square meters in size and held thousands of tons of water.

After swimming for a while, the Black Mountain being suddenly slapped the head of a nearby robot, cursing angrily, "Is the pool water temperature 1 degree too low?!"

The robot said, "Master, the fleet's material reserves are currently insufficient. A 1-degree temperature difference will not have an effect…"

The Black Mountain being cursed loudly, "If supplies are insufficient, you Red Dog figure it out yourself! How dare you neglect me like this! You murderous bastard!"

"Yes, yes, Master, please don't be angry, don't harm your health, I will adjust the water temperature now…"

It was only when the entire thousand tons of water in the pool had been raised in temperature and maintained at a constant level that the Black Mountain being's anger subsided.

…

"Red Dog is eternally loyal to the Black Mountain Civilization, eternally loyal to the Master. Fulfilling the Master's demands and ensuring the Master's mental and physical well-being is my mission."

"Given this, the original plan needs to be altered somewhat."

"The fleet's maximum speed is no longer 15 % of the speed of light."

"The fleet's speed has now accelerated to 9.4 % of the speed of light. Let this be the maximum speed, and the saved materials and energy will be supplied to the Masters."

"…"

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