It seemed he had no chance of escaping. All his previous schemes would come to naught, and activating his backup plan, starting anew in other star systems, would be his only option.

It just…

This seemed to contradict the current situation.

If they could truly achieve such a feat, why would they bother coming to the solar system? They could simply launch a probe to confirm the solar system's situation, then determine which star systems were likely targets for the next step, and another probe would confirm his location in the Altair System.

So, why didn't they just go directly to the Altair System instead of stopping in the solar system?

As Tom silently pondered, a possibility emerged in his mind.

"Perhaps… even with stellar communication technology, interstellar communication is still impossible.

Stellar communication technology might also be limited by distance. Although it has no delay, if the distance is too great, it might fail for some reason.

As for what that reason might be, I don't know yet, because my fundamental physics theories haven't reached that level.

It can only be this reason; otherwise, there's no way to explain why the Mechanical Disaster fleet, despite possessing stellar communication technology, still goes to such great lengths to send its main fleet to search each star system.

However, even if stellar communication technology has distance limitations and fails over long distances, it still holds extremely important significance.

Without stellar communication technology, even within a single star system, communication from one side to the other could have a delay of several days. With stellar communication technology, at least within a star system, there's no need to endure communication delays anymore."

Understanding this point, and confirming that he was still safe for now, Tom secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Since the arrival of this Mechanical Disaster fleet in the solar system, Tom had observed numerous details. And from the surface of these details alone, Tom had detected several types of technology far beyond his own.

Against such an enemy, everything Tom prided himself on was useless.

"Technology, technology, still technology! The gap between Unified Strong Nuclear Force and ununified strong nuclear force is like an unbridgeable chasm.

Unless it's an extremely special situation, no matter how powerful an Electroweak Civilization, it cannot be an opponent for even the weakest Strong Nuclear Civilization! Even if I could single-handedly contend with more than ten Electroweak Civilizations, I would not be an opponent for this Mechanical Disaster!

To find that sliver of hope for survival, I must also break through to a Strong Nuclear Civilization!"

Feeling the information from the solar system, Tom secretly gritted his teeth.

Construction in the Altair System was still proceeding with full effort, in full swing. Tom also did not relax his reception of information from the solar system in the slightest.

He saw that while the Jupiter System was undergoing large-scale development and resource collection, a fleet departed from there, flying toward Earth.

Furthermore, judging by the size of that fleet, it didn't look like a small-scale reconnaissance fleet, but rather one intending to make a big move on Earth.

Tom's heart gradually tightened.

Earth was his home. Before leaving the solar system, he had risked delaying himself to purify Earth and restore its ecology.

The importance of Earth in his heart goes without saying.

Now, what was this Mechanical Disaster going to do to Earth?!

Mine resources?

Unlikely.

The universe is never short of planets, never short of resources. And for a planet like Earth, with a thick atmosphere, it is naturally unsuitable for resource extraction.

The solar system clearly had four gas giants that could provide ample fusion fuel, and Mercury and Mars, two large planets, as well as hundreds of larger moons and dwarf planets that could provide mineral resources. This Mechanical Disaster truly had no need to undertake large-scale development on Earth.

Even if it were him, he would at most conduct a small-scale survey of Earth, perhaps collecting some biological genetic data or biological resources, but he would not waste time developing it.

This was also why he had insisted on rebuilding Earth's ecosystem, even though he knew the Mechanical Disaster was highly likely to come to the solar system.

"I also hid some clones on Earth and set up automatic activation conditions. Let them awaken."

Those clones were hidden in underground bases, underwater, and other places, and could observe the surface through extremely tiny optical devices.

Because the relevant equipment was extremely small and the surface environment was large enough, Tom believed that even a third-level Strong Nuclear Civilization, without specifically searching, would have a very high probability of not discovering them.

Once abnormal conditions on Earth's surface were detected, an automatic program would awaken the hibernating clones and automatically establish a consciousness link with him.

At that time, he would know what this Mechanical Disaster had done on Earth.

Time quietly flowed by. Sure enough, not long after, several more consciousness links from the solar system arrived, transmitting some images to him.

Tom saw some peculiar scenes.

He saw a group of mechanical constructs with multiple limbs, resembling dogs yet also plants, rushing across the surface in groups.

This was a grassland. On the grassland, countless creatures fled for their lives, pursued by machine spiders.

In the sky, small flying vehicles were soaring. Half of the flying vehicle was a transparent glass dome, and inside the dome was a seat, on which sat a bloated, fat-like mass.

That thing was extremely large and thick, yet it seemed to lack much toughness, being soft like fat or jelly.

Within that large mass of fat, one could barely make out some organs that seemed to be eyes, a nose, arms, and legs.

That strange creature, riding in this translucent small flying vehicle, flew around in the air as if playing, occasionally firing bullets that kicked up plumes of dust on the surface, and the fleeing animals died in droves.

Whenever this happened, the pile of fat would tremble, appearing very excited.

Beyond these flying vehicles with strange creatures aboard, there were also numerous clearly unmanned flying vehicles. Those unmanned flying vehicles, like escorts, circled the manned flying vehicles like stars surrounding the moon, loyally guarding the strange creature's safety.

Sometimes, when the direction of the animal herds on the surface deviated, those unmanned flying vehicles would fly over and shoot, forcing the animal herds to change direction so that the manned flying vehicles could shoot better.

After a moment of pursuit, a forest appeared ahead, and all the animals fled into the forest and disappeared.

The large, ugly creature seemed to get angry and used its short, thick arm-like organ to press a button. Immediately, numerous machine spiders on the ground swarmed forward, and in the next moment, thick trees fell one after another, exposing all the animals again, and the creature resumed its hunt…

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