249. Dormancy Period
If a member civilization provides a referral, it becomes even easier.
Moreover, Li Aozi has two special advantages:
First, he's the legend who repelled the [Mechanical Society], with notable fame and status.
Second, he's an ascendant of the [Domination] path.
As a relatively young Narrative, the Empire of Heroes doesn't have many fully controlled paths, only one—the path under the [Destruction] system, known as the "Twilight Sword Saint."
The benefit of this path is that it has almost no prerequisites—anyone can study it. The drawback is its limited future potential. Ascending isn't very difficult, and with Narrative support, it's even easier. Hence the Empire of Heroes' slogan:
「Everyone Ascends, Heroes Gather, Together Form the Empire.」
The Empire of Heroes leans toward the two paths of [Craft] and [Destruction]. In other words, anyone coming in under other paths faces little competition—no worries about internal rivalry. Of course, no one will guide you on how to climb your own path either.
With [Domination] as his path, Li Aozi wouldn't consume any of their ascension resources. The Empire of Heroes likely wouldn't give him a hard time.
Besides the Empire of Heroes, the other two Narratives in the Layered Abyss also control a final path each.
The path of the [Domination] system—[Radiant Torch Master]—is in the hands of the 「Temple of Annihilation」.
The entire inheritance of the [Plunder] system—[Plunderer] / [Gambler]—is under the 「United Group」.
Beyond these final paths, they also control vast numbers of branch paths.
Further down Star Abyss, the exploration and control of paths deepen, and the Narrative-level civilizations differ accordingly.
"I don't need to worry about lacking path guidance. Precisely for that reason, the more freely managed Empire of Heroes suits me best."
Since Li Aozi isn't aiming for ascension resources, it should be relatively straightforward with the Empire of Heroes.
"So next, it looks like there's nothing particularly urgent left for me to do."
Li Aozi breathed a sigh of relief.
Up until now, he'd been busy for over half a year.
During that time, dealing with both [Society] and his alternate character, he'd jumped back and forth between Azure Star and White Candle Star, fighting on various fronts, also tending to production and keeping an eye on player relations—this time, he'd lost more than half of White Candle Star's player base, and most were Professional players from the beta phase.
It would take at least a year to recover those losses.
By the way, he was short on teammates. He'd intended to train Lucite and Hobbs, but both remained adrift in some unknown extra-dimensional space.
Over on Azure Star, the "Grand Architect" Barnum he'd cultivated was still slacking off in the Gulante Republic.
His "bride" Alexia fully switched to judicial work and was basically out of front-line combat, which actually suited her well in the rear.
Gretorvo would happily follow him into space, but he was busy subduing the royalist bandits.
Du Zexin's life or death was unknown.
Yavanna, who made his costumes, left for training not long ago—she'd be gone for four hundred years.
"Why do I feel like I'm so bad at keeping teammates…"
Li Aozi muttered.
Just as Li Aozi was pondering whom to recruit next, Dean Nastisha's people came to visit him, bringing some food and books, along with a piece of news that surprised him:
"White Candle Star is about to undergo industrial relocation; this planet will no longer be used as an education planet. The highest council has revoked the Education Department's establishment here."
Doing so…completely reduces White Candle Star to an ordinary planet.
Abolishing the education department in a scholar civilization is akin to dissolving its government.
Which means… White Candle Star will become an independent planet, on its own, while the Crystal Tower finds a new favorite.
After thinking for a moment, Li Aozi quickly grasped the reason:
"They moved the fragments of the Identification Eye elsewhere."
The Night Butterfly Federation hadn't acquired the complete forbidden knowledge to assemble a piece of the Identification Eye. This assault on White Candle Star had already exposed its special nature to some extent. By relocating the fragment and resources in time, establishing a new site, they let White Candle Star draw the attention of prying eyes.
In the future, White Candle Star would likely serve as a decoy, attracting all sorts of bad intentions.
For Li Aozi, however, that was an opportunity.
"It'll be a while before the funds from the spirit larvae come in. One year from now, my savings will reach 100 million Anjin."
He calculated his future income and made a decision.
That sum would be enough to buy White Candle Star.
Then, legally, nominally, and practically, White Candle Star would be under his control. And once its star gates connecting to the Outside World were fully linked, Li Aozi could expand his trading ventures everywhere.
First, he needed to open up a route to Azure Star to bring in masses of players to the starfields.
Second, he needed to link White Candle Star to the Valkyrie Fortress transit hub. He'd strive to get Azure Star recognized as an independent planet at the Valkyrie Fortress station.
This, of course, would require technology, engineers, and a large workforce to build and maintain. Without the Crystal Tower civilization's support, maintenance costs would skyrocket, and he'd likely be bled dry.
On the bright side, he wouldn't have to worry about conscription anymore.
The situation was looking better by the day. Li Aozi's base foundation was strong, and all he needed was time to keep gaining ground.
"I'll lie low for a while. In fact, I should probably give myself a break."
With Nastisha's help, Li Aozi had been reading many memoirs of war veterans lately, and he'd noticed a difference from his past-life games:
In the Layered Abyss, Zeta-tier (6) is a peculiar threshold.
Below it, the masses are mere mortals with short lifespans, rarely exceeding a thousand years, lacking the accumulation of knowledge and wealth.
Above it, up until Kappa-tier (10), combat strength doesn't skyrocket that dramatically.
If Zeta (6) is akin to infantry, then Eta (7), Xi (8), and Iota (9) are like tanks, fighter jets, and missile destroyers. Once war erupts, Zeta-tier often relies on close-quarters fighting, face-to-face engagements, quickly suffering heavy losses.
Why is [Royal Car Shift] mandatory Omega Energy for Professional players?
Because it's the only Omega Energy that allows unrestricted movement in any direction, teleporting out any distance.
Not everyone is a [Medium] who can step into the spirit world to avoid damage.
Don't be misled by star-killer weapons that can wipe out tens of millions of cubic kilometers in one shot—the chance they target an individual is slim. Most casualties result from mass satellite cannon bombardments and meteor collisions—cheap weapons that actually kill people.
You don't need to flee that far—just far enough to outdistance those bombardment ranges. The truly massive WMDs won't be deployed against Zeta-tier targets.
It's not cost-effective.
In cosmic warfare, Zeta-tiers generally die easily due to slow movement and insufficient firepower. Without Eta-tier defenses as cover, they have a low survival rate under enemy bombardments.
Ground battles are even more brutal.
Plain old Zeta-tiers like Remaining Moon or Li Aozi are everywhere on the front lines—nominally tens of thousands of Zeta-tiers, but in truth, beyond the [Destruction] path, once you reach this level, most have some "summoning or troop-building" ability. In reality, it could be hundreds of thousands of troops clashing: colonial gear versus golems, machines versus ghosts.
Battles devolve into wars of attrition until ammunition is depleted, and only then might there be one-on-one duels.
Even those one-on-ones are dull—if it's come to duels, the logistics are probably gone. Both sides are at their limit, so it's common for someone to win the fight but then get surrounded and killed by the enemy's follow-up forces because there's no supply line left.
These war veterans' accounts gave Li Aozi a new perspective.
On interstellar battlefields, logistics matter more than raw strength.
One major flaw of magical civilizations is relying on teleportation to ship supplies instead of having proper orbital transport. If the other side kills the mage who handles teleportation, that supply route is finished until another mage is trained.
"Logistics, huh… Seems I need to build up a lot more in that area."
You never know what crisis may befall White Candle Star, and warfare could happen.
Li Aozi intends to become the master of this planet and must consider all scenarios.
When this dormant period ends, he will formally embark on his path of ascension under the [Domination] system.