"If I had to make the choice again, I would have chosen to die."
"Look at the cosmos, so vast and desolate. I don't even know what the point of our survival is."
Giotto sighed, aboard their dilapidated ship.
Toma K beside him shook his head, unwilling to listen to his complaints.
"If you crave that so much, wouldn't sending greetings to the past be better now?"
Send greetings to the past?
How does one do that?
Suicide, that's how.
Giotto didn't look at him, his gaze still fixed on the cosmos beyond the observation deck. "You don't understand."
"You were young then, but I'd already lived 328 years in the Federation. The Federation was truly good, excellent in every aspect."
"But, a giant civilization can't avoid being noticed. Unless we completely stop developing, maintain our weakness…but what's the difference between that and waiting to be slaughtered like sheep?"
"There was a moment when I wanted to stay, to coexist with the Federation."
"It was our civilization, our fertile land. But what are we now?"
"Wandering endlessly through the cosmos, not knowing when we'll die. How many years has it been? Perhaps 100,000."
Toma K understood Giotto's thoughts. He wanted to settle down, to find a planet and live out his farming dream.
But that's impossible. A single planet couldn't sustain this ship. If they really landed on a planet, they'd likely be trapped there.
At least now, with some kinetic energy, they could travel at 400 km/s. The ship also carries a few small fighters, allowing them to gather resources.
They were incredibly poor.
Theoretically, their ship could exceed 30,000 km/s, but they couldn't replenish the energy.
Only after leaving the Federation did they realize how difficult it was to obtain fuel.
They possessed the knowledge to obtain fuel; creating a simple nuclear fusion device wasn't a problem. But nuclear fusion couldn't provide long-term fuel for this ship. This ship used a more powerful antimatter propulsion system; they needed a large amount of antimatter—not just any antimatter, but N2834 antimatter. This is a type of superheavy element antimatter that was easily obtained by the Federation, but for a single spaceship, it was a Hellish difficulty.
According to their calculations, it would take them 20,000 years to develop the technology to obtain this antimatter.
Their only recourse was an energy source switch on board, modified to produce antimatter through the manipulation of corresponding heavy elements.
However, its efficiency was too low, so they needed to gather "UUb metal" every 100 years using their fighters. This element's atomic mass is approximately 277 times that of hydrogen, and it's quite rare.
Not only did they need to find it, but after retrieving it, they had to manipulate it, adding two neutrons and protons while maintaining its properties, and adding ten electrons.
Under such circumstances, completely altering its properties to transform the entire atom into an anti-UUb metal atom—this technology was relatively mature in the Federation; a few credits could buy it. However, they had left too hastily; they hadn't anticipated needing it, so they didn't bring any.
Now they regretted it.
It's like the technology for a lighter in the 21st century was mature; one could buy a lighter with a little money. But if you were dropped into a primitive society and tasked with creating a lighter for a single credit, even with the technological path, it would likely take hundreds of years.
Not to mention the ignition device and compressed gas technology; even the outer plastic casing would be difficult to manufacture.
And Federation technology is even more advanced. A single device might contain hundreds of components, requiring thousands of technologies working in concert.
Therefore, they could only remain poor.
Farming wasn't a bad option. They had almost unlimited lifespans, but farming would bring new problems: internal conflict.
Take Giotto; he might choose to stay, while Toma K would choose to leave.
If it were that simple, it would be easy to handle.
The ship, while seemingly dilapidated, is still their strongest fighting force. Could those who remain harbor ulterior motives?
Everyone dared not gamble, so it was better to maintain the current status quo. Everyone was in the same boat, eliminating other fantasies.
Of course, this still couldn't prevent factions and conflicts from arising on the ship. However, each faction now possessed the power to destroy the ship, so everyone remained relatively restrained.
Toma K and Giotto were representatives chosen by two factions. The ship's main server consumed too much power, so it was regularly shut down, leaving individuals to control the ship while others entered cryosleep. Interstellar travel was too monotonous; they couldn't afford the luxury of running the server to create virtual worlds.
"Only 100,000 years? I thought it was 130,000."
"Soon, we'll leave the Milky Way and enter true interstellar space." Toma K lay in his seat, visibly excited, having devoted himself to interstellar exploration.
"Is it meaningful?"
"Flying this way has no purpose; there must be an endpoint."
Giotto wanted to settle down somewhere, but like others, he wouldn't abandon the ship. It was too valuable, containing vast knowledge and immense computational power, capable of helping them quickly build a Type 1 civilization.
"But not here, old man."
"Retirement isn't that soon. Didn't we reach an agreement? Find a stable star in interstellar space and settle down."
Interstellar space isolates star systems. Even the farming faction wouldn't want to develop there indefinitely, thus resolving their conflict.
It was a compromise, but a necessary one.
At least they still had this kind of compromise. Most ideological conflicts ultimately end in a fight to the death; that's the worst outcome.
"Then we'll lose the opportunity for continuous development."
"We'll be trapped in an endless cycle."
Giotto now saw an incredibly desolate cosmos. He could only see the light from a few massive stars. The countless stars of the Milky Way, which had once filled his vision, had disappeared.
At that moment, a black dot appeared ahead.
His face grew serious as he locked the camera onto the black dot and zoomed in. It was a gigantic, flat, black warship.
"It's a civilization!"
Giotto felt a surge of intense breathlessness.
The warship was immense, perfectly flat, its flat surface calculated to be over 500,000 kilometers across—a planet-sized warship.
The civilization behind it could rival the Federation, and was highly likely to be even more powerful.
"What is it?"
Toma K was lying down and hadn't seen what was ahead.
"We're in big trouble. We're changing course now, hoping they don't bother with us little ants." Giotto immediately issued the order to change their trajectory.
Toma K also stood up, looking at the black dot ahead, stunned.
"Too late!"
Toma K's voice was firm as he spoke; their ship shuddered, then accelerated.
It wasn't a course change, but a direct approach towards the warship, at a speed exceeding 100,000 km/s. Within hours, they reached the warship.
An overwhelming sense of pressure hit them; Giotto and Toma K were speechless.
The ship's main server started up.
After more than 100,000 years, the two men were intimately familiar with this ship. They knew what the server startup meant: the other side was reading their data.
Sure enough, after just one minute, a message arrived.
"Greetings, visitors from human civilization."
Toma K was too nervous to speak. He had left the Federation as a young child, with little experience. He'd spent his entire life on this ship, bullying his family was one thing, but facing this situation, he was utterly helpless.
Giotto, however, had lived through the Federation's most turbulent times. He possessed the pride of a former Federation citizen. While nervous, he wasn't overwhelmed.
"Greetings. I don't think you're treating us as guests."
"You've left us alive, haven't blasted us to smithereens. That means we still have some use. Tell us, what do you want us to do?"
He knew they could hear him.
"Efficient, in your terms."
"Here's your information. Get to work. We'll offer some support, but don't expect too much; I think you understand our generosity."
Giotto and Toma K immediately received a data packet.
They both read it.
"To return? But our civilization is destroyed; we can't complete this mission."
The other side replied: "No, that's just your perception. Based on our information, your Galactic Federation still exists, and has eliminated your greatest enemy, the Olive Branch Civilization."
"While your civilization is still weak, it's not insignificant."
"As you've seen in the documents, a major war is imminent. You could become heroes of humankind, saving your civilization."
"I promise you, we will protect your civilization from destruction, at least until the pre-war period in three-dimensional space."
When Giotto heard this, his entire body trembled.
The Galactic Federation wasn't destroyed; they had defeated the Olive Branch Civilization?
Impossible.
The Galactic Federation had clearly surrendered in the end.
But he understood; the other side had no reason to deceive them. Perhaps the Federation had a hidden plan then, but its failure rate was too high, forcing the Federation to collapse prematurely.
He couldn't understand the reasons, but his heart filled with excitement.
"Old man, they're using us…"
Toma K understood; any promises were meaningless. The other side was simply using them as pawns, directing them towards their civilization.
The outcome might save their civilization, but the best-case scenario would be becoming slaves to that civilization.
Yet Giotto readily agreed: "Yes, I can help you with this."
"Old man…"
Toma K saw a gleam in Giotto's eyes. How long had it been since he'd seen Giotto so spirited?
Giotto truly missed home. In this vast universe, he felt that only his home could provide warmth.
He wanted to go home.
He wanted to go home.
In his dreams, he was still in the Federation.
Toma K remained silent; he knew they had no real choice.
"Then let's go. Don't consider this an attack; your civilization isn't significant enough to warrant our direct attention."
That was the other side's final statement.
Then they saw the entire warship begin to open, transforming from its original flat shape into a rhombus. From the center of that rhombus, an immense gravitational pull emanated—a colossal black hole.
The two exchanged glances, seeing a tremor in each other's eyes.
They understood what that black hole meant.
They were sucked into the black hole. Time, for them, ceased. The powerful gravitational pull dragged the entire ship; around them, only darkness remained, with a tiny, minuscule point of light ahead.
In a blink, that point of light grew, expanding into an entire expanse of stars.
The main server quickly provided their location: Gaia BH1, only a little over 1000 light-years from the Federation.
They had undergone wormhole travel.
"That civilization is far more powerful than we imagined, far surpassing the Olive Branch Civilization."
They knew the Olive Branch Civilization had only developed a wormhole weapon, while true, stable wormhole traversal required much more technological advancement.
The other side could safely transport them through a wormhole, and then further, meaning their mastery of wormhole technology was simply terrifying. Moreover, it was highly unlikely they had a wormhole passage directly connected to the Gaia BH1 black hole; it must have been temporarily established.
Such technology surpassed their imagination.
Even as they were still reeling from shock, ship after ship surrounded them.
"Please offer no futile resistance. Disarm all weapons."
Familiar human language. Giotto almost wept.
Federation ships were here; the Federation was truly powerful.
He disarmed the ship, discarding its weapons into the void.
"Follow the designated course to the assigned location…"
"Please awaken the cryosleep personnel on board for investigation."
Toma K woke everyone from cryosleep. After waking, the others on the ship asked: "Have we arrived?"
Facing the still-dazed individuals, Toma K shook his head. "No, we're returning to the Federation."
Everyone looked at him, question marks on their faces.
????
...
"Wormhole?"
Luna stared at Ayla incredulously, questioning the veracity of the information.
A dilapidated ship traveling through a wormhole to Gaia—that was something she'd only heard in late-night discussions.
As civilization advanced, she gradually understood the difficulty of creating wormholes.
Forget the readily available wormhole tunnels in science fiction films; even opening a wormhole passage in a black hole is as difficult as reaching the heavens.
After all, it involves the universe's ultimate power. Even now, the Federation doesn't have the capability to destroy a normal black hole.
Opening a wormhole isn't technically that difficult. Through generations of wormhole simulations, the Federation now has at least a 5% chance of creating one. The only constraint is negative energy harvesting.
Opening a wormhole requires vast amounts of negative energy. The Federation's current negative energy production capacity still needs improvement.
The Federation produces approximately 680 tons of negative energy annually, with an annual increase of around 0.5-0.8 tons.
Most of this negative energy is supplied to the Gravitational Energy Device near the black hole, as it needs to directly counteract the black hole's gravity, restraining the black hole itself.
A black hole is stable 99.99% of the time, but that 0.01% anomaly is far more powerful than all of the Federation's super-range weapons.
Furthermore, the closer the Gravitational Energy Device is to the black hole, the stronger the gravitational pull, meaning more gravitational energy can be obtained.
Negative energy is indispensable for resisting the black hole's immense gravitational pull.
Besides the massive consumption of negative energy for dimensional gateway research, the remaining negative energy is allocated to various Federation locations to maintain gravity control equipment and research projects.
For the Federation, this negative energy is too scarce; accumulating a significant amount would take many years.
To open a wormhole, according to Federation calculations, requires at least 400 million tons of negative energy—the Federation would need to accumulate this for hundreds of thousands of years before attempting a wormhole opening.
Too far-fetched, a wormhole, for the current Federation.
And yet, a ship managed to traverse a wormhole, a Federation ship, no less. The probability is extremely low.
"Have you checked those individuals?" Luna found the situation unusual.
Ayla nodded.
"Only two people were awake on the ship at that time; the others were in cryosleep."
"According to those two, they were sucked into a micro black hole. They had little energy, the ship's main server was off, and they could only rely on their visual observations to judge their surroundings; they couldn't detect the black hole."
"After being sucked into the black hole, they thought they would die, but in an instant, they found themselves in a different star system, at Gaia BH1."
"I directly accessed their data; the situation matches their account."
Theoretically, coincidence!
Luna herself didn't believe in coincidences. Even if it was a coincidence, Luna wasn't inclined to simply dismiss her thoughts.
"Keep an eye on them and transmit the Gaia BH1 data."
Regardless, the wormhole event is a valuable experience. Through this research, Luna estimated that their understanding of wormholes could improve by several percentage points.
While Luna and Ayla were conversing, Giotto and the others were being released.
"We've really returned to the Federation. There's no difference from the Federation of old."
Everyone on the ship was overjoyed.
The 130,000-year journey had been incredibly exhausting. Not just Giotto; Toma K and his faction also dreamed of returning to the Federation.
After leaving the Federation, they had almost eternal lifespans. So what?
130,000 years of wandering through space is no different from working in a factory for 130,000 years. Even trading 130,000 years of factory work for a single day of rest would find many willing participants.
It was excessive torment.
It wasn't just the day-to-day grind, but also the torment of complete uncertainty about the future.
"Whew, finally escaped that cursed journey. Everyone, I think I'll leave this ship and find a Star City to live in, marry, have children, and live a full life."
The leader of Giotto's faction on the ship spoke first.
The others were tired, but he was even more exhausted than others. He had to think far more than a regular crew member.
Distributing resources, maintaining the emotional stability of each crew member—these tasks had worn him out physically and mentally.
He'd wanted to leave for a long time.
Authority can sometimes be good, but for those not obsessed with power, in a confined spaceship, with no fanfare, no advancement, what use is power?
The crew, however, was astonished. They couldn't fathom the pain of those who had managed them.
The group was simply dissolving?
Everyone felt like they were in a waking dream.
Giotto then spoke, "What about this ship after we separate?"
On the ship, everyone saw the worn-out everything; many places had begun to rust. This was where they had lived for 130,000 years; it was hard to let go.
"The main server has connected to the Federation network. I just checked the ship's price."
"The server listed it at 1 Energy Credit."
Silence fell over everyone.
The ship was too old, too outdated.
Even so, it shouldn't be worth only 1 Energy Credit. The reason for this low valuation was the high maintenance costs. The buyer would have to spend thousands of Energy Credits on repairs and equipment upgrades, with even higher annual maintenance fees.
"The server only gave the ship's intrinsic value, but there's additional value."
"Don't forget, this is a ship that traversed a wormhole; it might be the Federation's only ship to do so. With this selling point, we might be able to sell it for a high price." Someone suggested.
But this quickly prompted opposition.
"This ship holds too many memories for us. Just sell it? I disagree."
Toma K stepped forward. "I agree to sell it."
"We can't maintain this ship anyway. Leaving it here is just letting it slowly decay."
"And if we sell it to an institution, they'll preserve it for us."
"We've just returned to the Federation; we have no money. Finding work in the Federation to support ourselves isn't difficult, but do you really want to live ordinary lives? Spend your entire life relying on a meager salary?"
The crowd fell silent, and Giotto gave Toma K a nod of approval.
They had discussed this beforehand; they couldn't remain in the Federation.
After the server connected to the Federation network, they learned that many star nations existed beyond the Federation. To complete their plan, they needed to leave the Federation system.
And to leave the Federation, they needed money.
"Toma K is right. We lack the resources to maintain this ship. If we sell it, it'll likely become an exhibit, possibly preserved for tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years. We can visit it then."
Everyone finally agreed, listing the ship online.
Indeed, about 20 years later, someone bought it for 100,000 Energy Credits.
However, they decided to wait. About 500 years later, the price rose to 700,000 Energy Credits, and 3,000 years later, it reached 4.2 million Energy Credits.
Ten thousand years later, they finally reached the Federation border sector from Gaia BH1. By then, the ship's price had risen to 6 million Energy Credits.
They sold it at this high price.
The current median Federation salary is 182 Energy Credits, more than seven times higher than at the time of the New Federation's establishment tens of thousands of years ago. 6 million Energy Credits is roughly the lifetime earnings of two people, not too little, nor too much.
There were 31 people on the ship. Originally, 130,000 years ago, there were 1887 people; internal conflict and suicides reduced the crew to 31.
Each person received 193,000 Energy Credits.
And at this point, they separated.
Only Giotto and Toma K met at a bar. Feeling the lively atmosphere, they felt a sense of relief.
"With our money combined, we could buy a relatively inexpensive second-hand ship." Toma K glanced at a Kate female.
Giotto grunted in agreement.
"The cheapest is 310,000 Energy Credits. Ships are more expensive now than in our time."
With advancements in passenger ship technology, the price of ships hasn't decreased.
While some old ships are cheap, nobody uses them. It's like in the smartphone era; who would use an old brick phone?
The Federation's average spaceship speed has increased to 60,000 km/s. While only twice as fast as their ship, other upgrades are significant.
For example, the fuel problem that plagued them. Modern ships commonly carry energy absorption and conversion equipment; basically, scooping up some soil and putting it in the device produces large amounts of antimatter for fuel. The fuel cost for a single acceleration is now around 40 Energy Credits, while their old ship required thousands of Energy Credits per acceleration.
Seeing the ship information Giotto sent, Toma K wanted to cry. If they'd had access to such ships, they wouldn't have suffered so much.
Modern ships are even better. Energy consumption hasn't increased compared to their old ship; in fact, it's lower. Modern ships can also support many main servers, with a processing power 30 billion times higher than their old server, while consuming 9.4 times less energy.
Especially with the numerous integrated miniature factories, a single miniature factory can develop a Type 2 civilization from scratch on a planet within 300 years.
"Technological progress."
Giotto and Toma K were deeply impressed by modern technology.
When they bought their second-hand ship, the previous owner looked at them as if saying, "Thank you for even considering this piece of junk."
The ship was indeed junk by modern standards—a 4000-year-old relic.
But to them, it was terrifyingly advanced.
The hull's composition, the defensive systems, the propulsion systems, the offensive weaponry, even the cryosleep compartments were exquisitely crafted; they even had an ejection function, allowing escape at speeds exceeding 100,000 km/s when facing a powerful enemy.
Even more outrageous, the ship also included a small bio-compartment, a breeding chamber for cultivating Swarm units.
Apparently, while most of the Federation's Swarm are still brain-worms, a significant portion have become combat pets, controlled by specialized implanted chips.
The Federation even has Swarm battle arenas; various types of Swarm units are sold. They say there are 4.7 billion Swarm species, with new variants constantly emerging through induced genetic mutations.
Beyond that, there are detection and other advanced equipment; it's utterly overwhelming.
The two were wide-eyed, like country bumpkins.
They registered their ship information on the Explorer's Net and recruited some explorers to leave the Federation discreetly.
"Old man, do you think we're being monitored?"
Monitoring them would be child's play for the Federation.
Toma K asked this question hoping for a different answer.
"Although we're insignificant pawns, they must want us to fulfill a certain role. So they must have left some means of monitoring us. Otherwise, our first background check wouldn't have been approved."
"Remember, the memories in our auxiliary brains weren't erased. The Federation could easily access them. But we're fine, which means there must be something in our bodies that even the Federation can't detect."
"Well, if we don't do this, we'll die anyway, and a pointless death at that."
"Perhaps our actions could add a glimmer of hope to humanity? Based on the current information, our situation is similar to the time we faced the Olive Branch civilization."
"Conveniently, with these miniature factories, we can also create a force. We can test these explorers on the ship. If they cooperate, we'll keep them; if not…"
Giotto didn't finish. They weren't exactly benevolent individuals.
What they didn't notice was a pair of eyes watching them from every corner of the ship.
The owner of those eyes murmured to themselves.
"This mission is vague. Protect those two? Who are those two? Why is there no information about them?"
"But the mission reward is quite lucrative…"
...
Giotto and Toma K arrived at their destination: the Rusty star nation, which wasn't part of the Twenty-Eight Nations Covenant.
They chose to distance themselves from the center of the war, opting for a weaker nation, hoping to forge a new path.
The journey was long, so long that Luna quickly dismissed them from her attention.
Meanwhile, news arrived from Bill.
After ten thousand years of relentless persistence, Bill finally opened the Flyer Civilization's tightly closed doors.
Actually, since the first contact with the Flyer Civilization, Bill had been waiting, but hope had repeatedly turned to disappointment, leading to thousands of years of waiting.
Now, on the Federation's border, the Flyer Civilization had begun trading with the Federation, using superior technology to extract enormous sums of money.
The Federation's best acquisition was space extension technology.
Space could be dented, allowing a massive amount of matter to exist within a very small volume. Of course, space could also bulge, allowing a similarly sized space to contain more matter.
This was essentially a type of white hole. If it reached its limit, continuous energy would erupt from the white hole. Luna learned this aspect of Flyer Civilization technology.
This was an entirely different direction. While the Flyer Civilization overlapped with the Federation in some technologies, their core focus was on smaller scales.
How to obtain more energy on a smaller scale?
White holes were clearly their civilization's answer.
Creating a white hole, however, is extremely difficult. Universal laws always favor black hole formation. A white hole, being the reverse, requires not only the fuel to create a black hole but also the immense power to reverse the black hole's properties—far more difficult than creating a black hole.
This technology can be simply understood as—storage space.
However, based on the Federation's current technology, it can only store approximately five times the volume of objects in the same space.
Any more would cause spatial instability, leading to the collapse of the entire region. The stretched space would instantly transform that area from a low-gravity region to a high-gravity region, crushing everything inside.
The Flyer Civilization's equipment only offered a 30% increase in volume compared to normal space, thus maintaining stability.
This technology was revolutionary for the Federation.
It meant that if stable large-scale space manipulation were possible, it could store significantly more energy within the same volume of a spaceship, allowing for greater acceleration.
...
Flyer Civilization Sector.
Bill now entertained several Flyer Civilization beings daily.
Through continuous study of their expressions and recordings of their vocalizations, he had deciphered some simple words.
It wasn't easy. The Flyer Civilization could communicate through technological means; these records were painstakingly compiled over thousands of years.
Like humanity at certain stages of its development, where consciousness sometimes led to spontaneous utterances, the Flyer Civilization was no exception. These words were gradually recorded and studied, slowly opening the Flyer Civilization's mouth.
However, it wasn't that simple. The Flyer Civilization was playing the long game, using this advantage to annually profit from 13-15% of various civilizations' energy production, not just the Federation but other star nations as well.
Especially after the war began, the Flyer Civilization secretly sold weapons to the Twenty-Eight Nations Covenant, earning nearly 80% of their energy resources.
Luna knew this. Without the dimensional war, this advantage would have been fatal.
But the existence of the dimensional war allowed Luna to absorb these losses. As long as their development remained rapid, the cost for the Flyer Civilization to earn their money would increase.
Moreover, the current situation should be resolved.
Bill found some Flyer Civilization beings and diligently began conversations with each one.
Those Flyer Civilization beings didn't react to him; they simply paid and left.
But Bill had his own methods. He would annoy and irritate them, provoking them to gain the information he wanted.
After 2,000 years of this, Bill's analysis of the Flyer Civilization's written language had reached over 40%. He used this leverage to begin negotiations with the planet's lord.
"Lord Brakk doesn't wish to meet you, but he sent you a book that might be helpful."
As the Federation leader, Luna could offer something in return. As a lord of the Flyer Civilization, he could also exchange something to get what he wanted.
Bill received the offered object: a book.
Bill was overjoyed.
"Tell Lord Brakk that he can seek my help in the future, if it's within my abilities."
This was a fair exchange. Many things could be obtained through time and research. The other party believed Bill would eventually acquire these things—at most, within a few thousand years—so they might as well exchange this time for something of equal value.
Bill had the server translate the book, discovering that it detailed Flyer Civilization history.
He was immediately engrossed.
Flyer Civilization history was ancient. They weren't a civilization known for innovation or bravery. They took 120,000 years to progress from a Type 0 to a Type 1 civilization, 40,000 years from Type 1 to Type 2, and 370,000 years from Type 2 to their current Type 2.6.
This is a civilization with a history spanning 530,000 years—meaning their history is comparable to the Olive Branch Civilization.
The Olive Branch Civilization was stronger in its early stages, but it went astray, leading to stagnation, allowing this civilization to surpass it.
Based on the Olive Branch Civilization's early development speed, it could have also reached Type 2.6 or 2.7.
This civilization's development could be replicated by any healthy civilization given enough time. The real differences between Type 2 civilizations lie in their understanding of black holes and dimensions.
This history book mentions some key turning points, showing how the Flyer Civilization gradually ascended. However, many details are clearly missing, likely deliberately erased.
An incomplete history, with limited information. The information Bill obtained was indeed attainable with sufficient time and effort, but it was enough for him.
...
The historical records revealed some of the Flyer Civilization's character.
The civilization's population was vast and diverse, but its leaders often tended to utilize certain historical precedents.
"Are you sure this isn't some kind of pulp fiction?"
Bill shared the document, expressing some doubt. After all, this was interstellar politics; it couldn't be ignored.
But Bill had already anticipated this.
"It doesn't matter. What we need to do now is test. Before, we didn't even have the chance to test."
"The existence of dimensional warfare prevents the Flyer Civilization from directly engaging us. This reassures us. Even if this is a trap, we must spring it. When we're bloodied, we'll know we made a mistake; finding the mistake is a gain."
He was optimistic about this.
Or perhaps he had already prepared for the worst-case scenario. By finding the greatest value within the worst-case scenario, what else could be feared?
"Besides, we've learned a lot from this history book, haven't we? This harvest is ten, perhaps twenty thousand years more than before."
The history book recorded much information, such as the current structure of the Flyer Civilization.
The Flyer Civilization is essentially a feudalistic, monarchical civilization. It has an absolute ruler, but also possesses vassal lords.
This structure is similar to the high-level structure of the Olive Branch Civilization, but the Flyer Civilization doesn't have absolute control over its individual citizens. Furthermore, the vassal lords aren't appointed; they achieve their positions through merit.
The Flyer Civilization has seven ranks. "Lord" is a translation; it means the owner of a territory, simply a title.
Lord is a fourth-rank title, not very high, but certainly not low.
Brakk Lord essentially controls this planet; the surrounding sectors don't belong to him but to the civilization's monarch.
Seventh-rank titles hold no land. Sixth-rank titles hold a section of the outer region. Fifth-rank titles hold a city. Fourth-rank titles, also known as Star Lords, hold a planet. Third-rank titles hold a star system. Second-rank titles hold ten star systems and the intervening deep space. First-rank titles hold one hundred star systems and the central deep space.
Though a relatively small civilization, the Flyer Civilization controls at least 100,000 star systems. Since the start of dimensional warfare, the total number of star systems under its control has likely increased.
Obtaining a title requires significant contributions to the Flyer Civilization. For example, a scholar who develops something greatly beneficial to the civilization might gain a title. These titles aren't hereditary; theoretically, upon the death of the title holder, their descendants must still earn their own titles through merit.
It's worth noting that the Flyer Civilization uses a similar lifespan restriction system to the Federation.
Ordinary citizens have a lifespan of only 500 years. Those holding titles have longer lifespans; each rank increase adds 500 years, mirroring the Federation.
However, a first-rank title holder only possesses a 4000-year lifespan, significantly shorter than in the Federation.
Their system isn't as good as the Federation's. Politics and scholarship are intertwined; once a scholar becomes a politician, can they still focus on research? This leads to a decrease in the number of top scholars in the Flyer Civilization.
This is a significant problem, but it also acts as a filter.
The research process is inherently tedious. If scholars can avoid political distractions and focus on their research, they're more likely to achieve greater success.
The number of titles is limited, creating some inequality, but it also curtails the politicization of scholars.
This system has advantages. Using scholars as administrators prevents many instances of superficial understanding. Administrators possess high levels of knowledge; even if it's not their specialty, they can easily learn it and avoid the situation where they're consulting textbooks while doing professional work.
In short, the regulations of a high-level civilization may not be perfect, but they are undoubtedly the most suitable for the civilization's development.
"This provides a lot of information. The release of this book implies that they'll open up to us completely. We need to prepare for negotiations."
"Our previous sales of small gadgets didn't involve much advanced technology. The Federation's actual advantage lies in manufacturing."
"The Flyer Civilization obtains various basic resources from us, in addition to energy sources."
"This is also the Flyer Civilization's weakness. Although they develop sectors, they're relatively restrained, unlike the Federation's large-scale development."
"We can undertake some basic manufacturing. This seems to be the old path of human civilizations. It seems that current human civilizations are only one branch of the original Earth humans."
Bill began devising plans, but his plans were considered too conservative.
If they started manufacturing, they'd undoubtedly be sending money to the Flyer Civilization. They needed to make money, to provide resources scarce to the Flyer Civilization and reap massive profits.
These resources included some special elements manufactured by the Federation, and some high-level energy sources mined by the Federation.
These are unique to the Federation, with a mature system that the Flyer Civilization couldn't achieve in the short term.
Bill didn't dismiss their plans but collected all proposals and transmitted them back to the Federation.
...
a19 Free Star City.
Luna again received information from beyond 5000 light-years, and she could finally breathe a sigh of relief regarding the Flyer Civilization.
The first hurdle was cleared; the rest would be easier. At least, it wouldn't take as long.
"Regarding the history book, it undoubtedly contains some false information. The Flyer Civilization wants to maximize its gains from this."
"However, we haven't gained nothing during this period. The Flyer Civilization is a relatively conservative civilization, while the Federation is comparatively more open, with a highly aggressive nature."
"We should leverage this advantage to slow the Flyer Civilization's progress."
In fact, in the border trade with the Federation, while the Federation continuously supplied fuel to the Flyer Civilization, it was also continuously infiltrating Flyer Civilization with its own culture, fostering interest. This interest would then translate into interest in culturally related products, stimulating consumption.
"Having avoided war, we can only explore each other through these slow, peaceful means."
"Let's use Bill's plan. Time is on our side."
If it were war, the Federation could have already used various methods to obtain the information they desired; that would have been brutal. Now, everyone must maintain a facade of amity.
Luna didn't mind taking more time to understand the Flyer Civilization, because their primary goal wasn't focused on this neighbor. They just needed to follow their own plan without interference.
"But we should make the Flyer Civilization nervous. Otherwise, they'll think the Federation is a soft target."