This was just one scene Tom witnessed.

Elsewhere, Tom saw numerous unmanned aerial vehicles, guided by another grotesque creature, directly collapse a mountain, seemingly just because the mountain was restricting a river.

As the mountain collapsed, the surging river water rushed down, forming a great flood. Countless animals fled for their lives, yet were still swallowed by the flood.

The strange creature's corpulent body trembled once more, appearing very excited.

Above the ocean, countless aircraft directly submerged into the seabed. Not long after, they reappeared, hoisting a gigantic whale, flying thousands of meters into the sky, and then dropping it directly.

At a geologically weak point, several high-yield nuclear bombs were dropped, and magma immediately began to erupt, killing countless animals…

Beside each strange creature, numerous ground-based machine spiders and unmanned aerial vehicles followed. They were like the most loyal lackeys, obeying every command from these strange creatures.

A chilling glint flashed in Tom's eyes.

"So, you were just playing…"

These alien lifeforms, now reduced to pets raised by the Mechanical Disaster, treated Earth as their playground.

Under Tom's close observation, new alien lifeforms continuously arrived, played for varying lengths of time, then departed. This continued for over a decade until Earth gradually became deserted, as if these alien lifeforms had lost interest in it.

Through the observations of his clone in space, Tom saw that Earth, whose ecology had fully recovered, now had vast deserts reappearing on its surface, forest coverage sharply declining, and even the atmosphere beginning to become polluted.

Earth's ecology once again suffered a heavy blow. While not completely destroyed, it looked like it would take at least a hundred years to recover.

"You're having a lot of fun in my home, treating it like a playground…"

Tom suppressed all his anger deep within, redoubling his efforts in fleet construction, while still closely monitoring the movements of the Mechanical Disaster.

He saw that, in addition to the lifeforms that went to various planets to "play" without undertaking any work, whose sole purpose in life seemed to be enjoyment under the protection and assistance of intelligent AIs, there were also immeasurable automated machines descending upon numerous planets suitable for resource collection.

Their scale was so vast that it sent a chill down Tom's spine.

In terms of industrial capacity alone, this Mechanical Disaster Fleet even surpassed his own!

The endless Jupiter aircraft-like vehicles used for collecting fusion fuel, the countless general-purpose robots, the innumerable factories, and the myriad transport spacecraft all demonstrated the formidable industrial strength of this Mechanical Disaster.

What Tom was most proud of was his industrial strength. But now, in the very area where Tom was most confident, he was being crushed by this Mechanical Disaster.

Their industrial strength was even greater!

Extrapolating from such a level of industrial strength, even for such a massive fleet, completing all supply missions would probably only take 20 years.

Fast resupply and fast navigation meant fast search speeds.

Upon seeing this, the Bluetoth, led by Clan Leader Momolans, all turned pale.

How laughable, they had previously hoped to escape the Mechanical Disaster's pursuit through interstellar migration… Now it seemed, even if they had truly defeated their master back then, could they really have escaped?

Impossible.

From the moment the Mechanical Disaster set its sights on them, their fate was sealed.

Only by pledging allegiance to their master, relying on his equally powerful industrial strength and technological drive—whose source they did not know—did they have that sole chance to survive…

—Currently, the Bluetoth already knew that Tom possessed industrial and research capabilities far exceeding ordinary civilizations, but they still did not know that this ability stemmed from every Human being a clone of Tom, only thinking that Human Civilization had some extraordinary encounter.

As for what this encounter was, no one dared to inquire, nor did anyone care. As long as their master held goodwill toward them, they were already satisfied.

In the face of this cruel reality, all the Bluetoth once again reaffirmed their determination to follow Human Civilization, and their loyalty to Tom unknowingly increased significantly.

Tom knew that it was understandable and quite reasonable for the Mechanical Disaster to possess such powerful industrial capabilities.

The reason was simple: the Mechanical Disaster possessed AI technology far superior to civilizations of comparable levels.

Why was their AI technology more advanced? The reason was even simpler: because this civilization handed over all decision-making power to AI systems.

The AI systems received more ample training and growth opportunities, so their capabilities naturally became stronger.

This was not replicable by ordinary civilizations. Because ordinary civilizations could not feed civilization development rights as training data to AI, and even if simulated, it could not be simulated to be as real as reality.

The Mechanical Disaster's AI technology was stronger, its industrial strength was stronger, and correspondingly, its war capabilities were also stronger than ordinary civilizations of the same technological level.

However, this came at the cost of sacrificing the civilization's development potential.

Clearly, those lifeforms Tom saw, like rotten flesh, had long lost the ability to drive technological development.

In their lives, there was nothing left but pleasure.

Without the ability to develop technology themselves, relying only on AI algorithms to achieve technological progress by capturing other civilized lifeforms… how much progress could they make?

However…

To maintain one's development potential, everyone in the civilization, from top to bottom, had to suppress their desires, force themselves to labor, and invest many resources into development, and at the same technological level, their combat power was inferior to the Mechanical Disaster.

Once they encountered the Mechanical Disaster, their fate was to be annihilated.

To lose one's development potential, everyone in the civilization, from top to bottom, could enjoy themselves to the fullest, fully enjoy life, and at the same technological level, their combat power was also stronger.

Between these two choices, it was truly hard to say which one was correct.

"Regardless of how other civilizations choose, regardless of whether other civilizations can resist the temptation of 'dumping all responsibilities and obligations onto intelligent programs and only being responsible for enjoyment,' at least for me, this question doesn't apply.

All intelligent programs in my hands are merely aids, merely tools for me to ascend to the peak of technology, and can never become masters.

As for this Mechanical Disaster…"

A sneer flashed in Tom's heart.

"Whether you are completely depraved, whether you still qualify to be called a wise civilization, is none of my business.

But you dared to try to capture me, hunt me down, and wantonly destroy things in my home…

You have chosen death!

Just wait, all of you will pay the price…"

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