Chapter 223: Despair That Even Defense Cannot Be Broken

The red laser beam struck the Penglai hull precisely.

On the Eight Branches Platform's monitor, that energy reading—enough to melt through half‑meter‑thick armor—slammed squarely onto the ship's silver‑gray hull.

Then——

A ripple‑like halo spread across the hull's surface, like a drop of water falling into a lake.

The beam seemed to be absorbed, dispersed, and dissolved by some invisible force, leaving not even a dark spot.

"Hit… hit!" Yamamoto shouted instinctively, but then froze, "Wait, why is the energy reading dropping?"

The gauges showed normal laser output, but the energy feedback from the target area was absurdly low.

It was like throwing a basin of water into the desert—gone in an instant.

In the Sea Mist command cabin, a technician stared at the screen, eyes wide: "The energy's actually being absorbed directly!"

Upon hearing this, Sato snatched the microphone and yelled, "Yamamoto! Crank up the power! Use maximum output!"

"It's already maxed out!" Yamamoto roared.

The laser beam's color shifted from red to white, and its energy reading spiked to the critical value.

The air along the beam's path ionized into an eerie bluish‑purple glow.

But over on the Penglai side…

…nothing happened at all.

Even the hull's temperature barely rose; monitoring showed the struck area's surface temperature increased only 0.3 °C—about as much as a little sunbathing.

Inside the Longyin Control Center.

Wang Hao pointed at the screen and laughed: "Look! They're still polishing us over there! This laser power isn't even enough to heat‑treat Dragon Scale‑Space II."

Chen Guang pulled up the data panel: "The energy‑absorbing coating on the hull works by converting incoming laser light into controllable plasma, then feeding it into the ship's fusion core for secondary use."

"The conversion efficiency is only 91.7 % right now—there's still room for optimization."

"In other words," Feng Yan summarized, "their laser attack on us is basically charging us up?"

"In theory, yes." Chen Guang pushed his glasses up, "but the amount of charge this time… is probably just enough to brew one cup of coffee in the bridge's machine."

Wang Hao burst out laughing: "What kind of bitter coffee would that be!"

On the Eight Branches Platform, Yamamoto was already on the verge of breaking down.

Their laser weapon was their proudest technological breakthrough, publicly claimed to be able to pierce any existing armor.

But now, not even a speck of paint on the enemy's hull has been scratched off.

"Switch to live‑ammo weapons!" Sato's frantic voice came over the comms.

"Use armor‑piercing rounds! I don't believe they can't be penetrated!"

"Understood!"

The platform's side ammunition bays opened, revealing four‑linked 30 mm machine guns.

These are specially designed for heavy targets, their shells made of a new composite material, and their penetration data is quite impressive.

Yamamoto pressed the fire button.

"Rat‑tat‑tat‑tat—!"

The ammo belt spewed out, dozens of armor‑piercing rounds screaming toward Penglai at kilometers per second.

Then……

The shells struck the hull, emitting a crisp "ding‑ding‑dang‑dang" like tapping a metal bucket.

The live‑broadcast camera zoomed in; the shells that hit Penglai all deformed and flattened, just like soda cans crushed by a hydraulic press.

As for the hull surface, not only was it not pierced, there wasn't even a scratch.

Yamamoto went dumbfounded.

Sato was dumbfounded too.

Everyone worldwide watching the livestream was dumbfounded.

The barrage of comments froze for a second, then burst onto the live chat:

"Is this just tickling?"

"This defense… is cheat‑level!"

"Who just said it could pierce any armor?"

"Eight Branches: I did my best. Penglai: Is that all?"

At Lao Wu's barbecue stall, in front of the projection screen, a bespectacled young man suddenly spoke up:

"This isn't right—according to the kinetic‑energy formula, a 30 mm AP round should have enough impact energy……"

"Enough my ass!" the nearby old man interrupted.

"Haven't you seen they're all flattened? What does that show? It shows our hull is harder than those bullets!"

Lao Wu turned the meat skewers with his robotic arm, not looking up: "I get that logic—it's like poking an iron pot with a disposable chopstick."

"All that happens is the chopstick breaks while the pot's fine; they're not even in the same league."

The young man opened his mouth, then said nothing more.

Meanwhile another customer raised his beer: "Screw the formulas—awesome is awesome! Cheers!"

"Cheers!"

The clink of glasses mixed with the crackle of charcoal, the atmosphere relaxed as if watching a comedy.

Meanwhile, inside the Sea Mist command cabin, things had descended into chaos.

Sato stared at the screen; the Penglai hull was completely unscathed, not even shifting position.

It just hung there silently in the air, as if saying, 'Any more tricks? If not, I'm outta here.'

Shame mixed with despair welled up.

The Eight-branch project poured almost the entire strength of Foot Basin Chicken Nation, the hope that Foot Basin Chicken had imagined for rejoining the ranks of space superpowers.

But now, in the face of the real technological gap, this hope is so fragile it is practically paper‑thin.

"Commander!" the adjutant whispered, "How about… withdrawing first? Discuss it at length…"

"Withdraw?" Zuoteng's eyes reddened, "If we pull back now, we'll become a joke to the whole world! Eagle Country won't let us off either."

He snatched the mic, his voice hoarse: "Shanben! They're only strong in energy, give me a physical impact! Just charge straight at them!"

"A ship that massive must be just a showpiece; I don't believe it can't be broken by a collision!"

The channel fell silent for a few seconds.

Then Shanben's trembling voice came: "Commander, this violates safety regulations…"

"This is an order!"

Another stretch of silence.

"Under…stood."

The Eight-branch platform's engines went to full thrust, the nozzle swiveled, and it accelerated toward Penglai.

On the monitor, the platform shaped like a strange fish resembled a moth flying into a flame, barreling straight at the steel giant ship hovering three hundred meters away.

Shanben closed his eyes, his hand gripping the control stick tightly.

He knew this was most likely suicide, but a military order is immutable.

Five hundred meters, three hundred meters, one hundred meters—

In the final instant before impact, the surface of the Penglai hull suddenly glimmered with a thin layer of light.

It wasn't a shield, but nano‑material that instantaneously hardened, its microstructure reorganizing, density soaring, and surface hardness increasing by three orders of magnitude within milliseconds.

Then…

A booming "Bang!" rang out.

The nose of the Eight-branch platform deformed, shattered, and disintegrated the instant of contact.

The impact force traveled through the structure, turning the whole platform into a glass vessel struck by an invisible giant hammer, with cracks spreading spider‑web like from the head.

The cockpit shattered, wing surfaces snapped, the engine detached…

Three seconds later, the once‑intact platform had become a heap of twisted metal fragments, scattering toward the sea surface.

Meanwhile, the Penglai hull's monitoring readout spiked: surface temperature rose 0.3 °C (still from the laser), structural stress increased 0.02 %, negligible.

Wang Hao whistled on the bridge: "An egg hitting a stone can at least splash some yolk, but this staged collision didn't even raise a speck of ash."

At the exact moment the impact occurred, in the Longyin Control Center, a screen before Chen Guang flashed a set of data.

"Torch Dragon detected an abnormal vibration frequency," he operated quickly.

"Originating from within the Eight-branch wreckage, this is a hallmark of material embrittlement, matching exactly the effect of our designed flaw formula."

Feng Yan walked over: "They actually used it?"

"They did," Chen You displayed a spectrogram.

"And they exceeded the dosage; perhaps they tried to compensate for performance gaps, but it only aggravated the embrittlement."

"During the earlier impact, the material's internal structure had already collapsed; the external collision merely tore it completely apart."

"In other words," Li Yang's voice came from the bridge.

"Even without a collision, would it simply disintegrate while flying?"

Chen Guang nodded: "Running at full power for over ten minutes, or performing two high‑overload maneuvers, will cause the material to start fracturing from within; the collision only accelerated that outcome."

Wang Hao grinned: "So we even saved them ten minutes of fuel costs?"

The worldwide live feed froze on the falling fragments; Penglai hovered above the wreckage, its hull a pristine silver‑gray, not a single scratch.

Below, on the sea surface, the Eight-branch fragments gurgled as they sank.

Zuoteng slumped in the command chair, his face deathly pale.

The intercom crackled; it was Ke Er's voice, laced with suppressed anger: "Zuoteng, what on earth are you doing?! You've embarrassed yourselves to the whole world!"

Zuoteng wanted to speak, but didn't know how to rebut.

At that moment, a stranger signal cut into the communications channel.

Li Yang's calm voice came over the channel: "Is the exercise continuing? Or do you need rescue assistance? We can provide salvage services, at reasonable rates."

It was Japanese translated in real time by Torch Dragon, precise and articulate.

Zuoteng, angry after listening, cut off the communication outright.

Inside Penglai's bridge, Feng Yan watched the fragments gradually sinking on the sea surface, deep in thought.

His phone suddenly vibrated; opening it revealed an encrypted call from Lei Jindong.

As soon as the line connected, Minister Lei's first words were: "The Foreign Ministry's phones are about to be blown up."

"Seventeen countries' foreign ministries simultaneously demanded urgent talks, saying our actions excessively displayed force and disrupted regional balance."

Feng Yan laughed: "That's just the beginning, really."

He paused, then said: "Tell them we were merely sailing normally on the high seas, and happened to watch a fireworks display."

"If the fireworks were too noisy… just let us know next time, we can set them off elsewhere."

The other end was silent for two seconds, then Lei Jindong's laugh came: "Alright, I'll convey that verbatim."

The call ended.

Feng Yan looked eastward.

At the horizon, the setting sun sank, staining the clouds blood‑red.

Beneath that crimson sky, the carrier Reagan was making an emergency turn, withdrawing from the exercise zone.

The maneuver was swift; calling it a frantic escape made no difference.

Wang Hao came over: "Brother Feng, they've all withdrawn; should we still give chase?"

"What are you chasing?" Feng Yan turned around.

"Going home; tomorrow the global cruise starts, so there's plenty to be busy with."

The bridge lights brightened, and Penglai began to turn.

Below, on the sea surface, the wreck of the Eight-Branch was slowly sinking into the deep sea.

On one of the larger fragments, the faint Japanese slogan "Wings of the New Era" could still be seen painted on it.