Translator: AnubisTL
The Green Mountain Civilization finally discovered the flaws within their own civilization.
But—
By then, it was already too late!
The Political Mother Planet serves as the power center of a civilization. For example, the human civilization's Political Mother Planet is Aquablue Star. Originally, it was the Stellaris train, but over time, it gradually relocated to Aquablue Star. Now that Aquablue Star fulfills this role, the Stellaris train primarily focuses on external military operations and territorial expansion.
He had not visited the Green Mountain Civilization's Political Mother Planet.
Those high-ranking officials were living comfortably.
However—
The resources stored on the Green Mountain Civilization's commercial and military planets had been completely plundered. The military forces and trains had their time dimensions erased, leaving the Green Mountain Civilization virtually a hollow shell.
No substantial resources remained for easy mobilization.
Only the Political Mother Planet and a few sentinel planets retained minimal reserves, or they could slowly mine resources from the mining stars, a process that would take considerable time.
The Green Mountain Civilization was now an empty husk.
Even if they realized it, it was utterly meaningless.
It was time to reel in the net.
"..."
Chen Mang sat in his chair, calmly observing the Green Mountain Civilization's high-ranking officials holding an emergency meeting. Since they had already been discovered, there was no need for further concealment. He swiftly and brutally seized all the remaining resources stockpiled on the military planets of the final galaxy.
With this, nearly all of the Green Mountain Civilization's resources were now in his possession.
In total, he had acquired 2,600 Foundation units of iron ore, along with various other resources. However, not a single murphy stone was found. The Green Mountain Civilization had strictly reserved all murphy stone reserves on their Political Mother Planet, but this was of little consequence to him.
The rest was simple.
Using the refrigerator, Chen Mang arrived near the Green Mountain Civilization's Political Mother Planet. The Tier 2000 Arcanon Light Energy Main Cannon began charging, its intricate patterns glowing with power. Consuming 700 trillion units of iron ore, it unleashed seven shots in rapid succession.
There was no blinding flash.
No violent recoil.
Instead, a flimsy sheet of paper, resembling a supermarket coupon, floated from the cannon's muzzle and drifted toward the Political Mother Planet.
At the same time, the Green Mountain Civilization's radar detected the attack, triggering countless alarms. Every high-ranking official who received the alert was instantly plunged into near-despair. They knew only that an enemy existed, but they had no idea who the enemy was or where they came from.
Like an invisible specter, the Two-Dimensional Foil was gradually devouring them.
The Green Mountain Civilization had no defense against it—at least, none that they knew of.
Twenty-seven minutes after Chen Mang piloted the Stellaris train away from the zone, a silent explosion erupted.
A blinding light, far exceeding the speed of light, rapidly engulfed the entire galaxy. The galaxy that had once housed the Green Mountain Civilization's Political Mother Planet now collapsed into two dimensions under the assault.
Until it became a two-dimensional galaxy.
A flat sheet of paper, permanently suspended in the cosmos.
No casualties were recorded.
This Dimensional Reduction, like the extraction of the Time Dimension, did not result in death or transport to the Second Universe. The inhabitants remained alive, albeit as two-dimensional beings living in a two-dimensional world. Devoid of thought or movement, they were like figures frozen in an oil painting.
Chen Mang observed the two-dimensional galaxy from directly above, his gaze lingering for a long time before he murmured, "It's quite beautiful."
From this perspective, the galaxy appeared as a magnificent painting.
A vast, exquisite artwork.
If this painting could be brought back to the train, it would indeed be a sight to behold. However, its immense diameter—nearly a million light-years—made it impossible to fit within the train's confines.
Each planet was like a brushstroke of ink, embedded in a canvas dominated by deep blues and blacks.
The Sixth-Tier Civilization, the Green Mountain Civilization, had officially met its end.
Chen Mang hadn't even met their Leader once before the war concluded. It was that simple.
Warfare among advanced civilizations was remarkably straightforward.
Just infiltrate the enemy's territory, deploy a few Two-Dimensional Foils, and the conflict would be resolved effortlessly.
In the next moment—
Several panels slowly materialized within the train.
["Human civilization has met the Advancement Conditions and has automatically been promoted."]
["The range of this Advancement Ripple is ten billion light-years."]
["All living beings within First-Level civilizations and above will receive this Advancement Ripple in their own way."]
["The transmission speed of the Advancement Ripple is the speed of light."]
["The Fifth-Tier Civilization, 'Human Civilization,' has successfully advanced to a Sixth-Tier Civilization."]
"A Sixth-Tier Civilization now," Chen Mang murmured, exhaling slowly. He sat back in his chair, lit a cigarette, and savored the moment of ease, as if he had completed a monumental mission.
Tier 9 Civilization seemed just a step away.
But he knew better.
That seemingly short distance was like chasing a mirage—it was far greater than it appeared.
The territory of a Sixth-Tier Civilization was, frankly, quite small. In contrast, God-Tier Civilizations could carve up entire universes. The difference was staggering. The path to becoming a God-Tier Civilization was still long.
Still...
It was getting closer.
No need to rush.
[Civilization Name]: Human Civilization
[Civilization Level]: Tier 6
[Civilization Leader]: Chen Mang
[Civilization Planets]: Aquablue Star, Black Tortoise Star, First-Class Mining Planet, Mining Star Two, Mining Star Three, Mining Star Four, etc.
[Civilization Population]: 59 trillion
[Advancement Conditions]: Maximum offensive energy range exceeding 300,000, possession of three Civilization Wonders, and a territory spanning 100 million light-years.
[PS: Upon advancing to Second-Tier Civilization and with each subsequent advancement, a detectable "Advancement Ripple" will be emitted, detectable by all surrounding civilizations. The higher the tier, the wider the range of the Advancement Ripple.]
[Civilization Means]: Murphy Stone Mines will spontaneously generate within the civilization's territory.
The methods of a Sixth-Tier Civilization were remarkably simple:
Help civilizations acquire more murphy stone.
In theory, the larger a civilization's territory, the more Murphy Stone Mines would naturally form within it.
For example, if the Niya Star System had once fallen within the Green Mountain Civilization's territory, Murphy Stone Mines would likely have formed there. But since it didn't, no such mines ever appeared.
A rather straightforward Civilization Means.
Strictly speaking, the Civilization Means of a Sixth-Tier Civilization were quite ordinary, even inferior to those of a Fifth-Tier Civilization.
The Fifth-Tier Civilization's means had saved him a considerable amount of resources:
"Halve the resource consumption for upgrading all train accessories, except for murphy stone. Defensive Components such as Armor and Energy Shields are excluded."
This meant—
"Wait a minute."
Chen Mang suddenly frowned. He had been so busy these past few days that he had completely forgotten about this. Only now did he realize that the resource consumption for upgrading accessories hadn't actually been halved.
For instance, he had just spent 5 Foundation units of iron ore to upgrade the Train Auxiliary AI from Tier 2000 to Tier 5000. This was the standard resource cost for such an upgrade. If it had been halved, it should have cost only 2.5 Foundation units of iron ore, right?
But then—
On the train control panel, he noticed a small red dot.
Clicking it brought up a panel:
[Backup Hidden Resources: 4.127 Foundation units of iron ore stored.]
[Available for immediate retrieval.]
"So that's how it works," Chen Mang murmured, nodding thoughtfully. It seemed the resource consumption reduction wasn't a direct halving during upgrades. Instead, you had to use 100% of the resources to craft something, and then half would be refunded.
At first glance, this might seem like the same thing, but there was a subtle difference.
This meant you first needed to possess enough resources to upgrade the accessory before the refund would be granted. It prevented you from taking shortcuts and upgrading the accessory before you actually had the necessary resources.
The war with the Green Mountain Civilization had essentially concluded.
Now came the cleanup phase.
The Stellaris train began tirelessly traversing the Green Mountain Civilization's remaining six galaxies, downloading all database information from military bases into the Train AI Database and loading complete mining stars onto the train.
For partially mined stars, large numbers of Mining Robots were deployed to accelerate extraction. Even small resource reserves on other planets, such as sentinel worlds, were collected.
Even a mosquito is still meat.
To acquire these meager resources through legitimate mining would have taken an eternity.
The cleanup phase proved particularly time-consuming.
A full month passed before Chen Mang completely purged the Green Mountain Civilization. In the future, these six star systems would fragment into six low-tier civilizations, slowly redeveloping and surviving in the cosmos. But that was no longer his concern; civilizations don't evolve in mere months.
Even tens of thousands of years might yield nothing substantial.
And so, it was finally over.
The war had come to its definitive end.
After deducting all expenses, the total yield was 2,872 Foundation units of iron ore!
One Foundation unit of iron ore was equivalent to 10 quadrillion units of iron ore!
A single Foundation unit of iron ore nearly matched the entire resource reserves of the Extreme Evil Civilization.
Destroying the Green Mountain Civilization was akin to annihilating 2,872 Extreme Evil Civilizations.
Killing 2,872 Satans.
Satan was disappointingly poor.
What a waste of such a grandiose title.
Seated in the locomotive cabin, Chen Mang tallied his gains while reviewing the Advancement Conditions for a 7th Tier Civilization.
[Advancement Conditions]: Peak attack energy range exceeding 300,000, possession of three Civilization Wonders, and a territory spanning 100 million light-years.
[Peak attack energy range exceeding 300,000.]
This was simple.
It meant a Tier 3000 Arcanon Light Energy Main Cannon. In reality, even a Tier 5000 would be easy to obtain, posing no difficulty whatsoever, especially given his current resources. In a word: wealth!
[Possession of three Civilization Wonders.]
This was a bit tricky.
He currently possessed only two Civilization Wonders: "Insect Silence" and "Divine Silence."
Although the Niya Star System had been flattened into a two-dimensional sheet by the Green Mountain Civilization's Two-Dimensional Foil, the Civilization Wonders remained intact. These wonders were absolutely indestructible and immune to dimensional reduction.
The problem was that acquiring Civilization Wonders had no specific requirements; it was entirely based on luck and random chance. He had no idea when he might obtain the third one.
[A territory spanning 100 million light-years.]
This wasn't too difficult.
Territorial boundaries could be arbitrarily drawn; he could claim as much space as he wanted, as long as there were no civilizations within that territory with a higher or equal Civilization Level to his own.
To claim this zone's territory, he needed to destroy the Tier 7 Civilization occupying it.
In other words, to advance to a Tier 7 Civilization, he first had to annihilate this Tier 7 Civilization and then find a way to acquire a Civilization Wonder.
"Sigh."
Chen Mang sighed helplessly. He didn't know what the path to civilization advancement looked like for others, but his own journey seemed devoid of any battles against peers, consisting entirely of fighting opponents far above his current tier.
A Fourth-Tier Civilization fighting a Fifth-Tier Civilization, a Fifth-Tier Civilization fighting a Sixth-Tier Civilization, and now that he had finally reached the Sixth-Tier, he had to fight a Tier 7 Civilization.
Was this the norm for other civilizations as well?
The Tier 7 Civilization occupying this territory was called the Rugged Civilization.
The name itself suggested a tumultuous and arduous path to development.
Over the past few days, Xiao Ai had been continuously collecting data from the databases of AIs that had perished within a hundred million light-years, and had managed to gather some information about the Rugged Civilization.
"Train Conductor," Xiao Ai's voice echoed through the train.
"By combining the Green Mountain Civilization's database with the data we've collected recently, I've compiled a summary of the Rugged Civilization's known information."
"This is a civilization ruled by the Sagittarius Clan."
"Their civilization type isn't a 'Train Civilization.' Although they use a small number of trains and accessories for support, their overall civilization type is a 'Body Refinement Civilization,' similar to cultivation civilizations. They primarily rely on their own physical strength."
"They concentrate immense power within themselves for combat."
"A casual strike from a strong individual can shatter galaxies."
"Their strength is extraordinary."
"Oh?"
Chen Mang's expression gradually turned strange. The Sagittarius Clan sounded like a very obscure race, one that few people would have heard of. But he happened to be familiar with them.
Unfortunately for him.
Just a few days ago, after consuming a Tier 500 Bread, he had randomly acquired the Sagittarius Clan's racial talent: exceptional archery aptitude.
However, this talent had proven completely useless to him so far.
"So, do members of this race primarily use bows and arrows in combat?"
"No."
Xiao Ai's voice slowly echoed through the locomotive cabin.
"This race is unique; every member is a 'Chosen One,' capable of class change through their innate abilities. They have two possible class changes: 'Berserker' and 'Divine Archer.'"
"In ancient times, the numbers of Berserkers and Divine Archers were roughly equal."
"But at some point..."
"The number of Divine Archers in the Rugged Civilization began to decline rapidly, and no new Chosen Ones with this path were born. Now, the position of 'Holy Arrow'—the highest honor in their civilization—remains completely vacant."
"No one holds the title of Holy Arrow."
"This civilization has always believed that the strongest Divine Archer, the Holy Arrow, should lead the civilization and guide its progress. Since the position has been vacant, the civilization has been in a state of headless chaos, relying on the Council of Elders to issue fragmented commands without unity."
"This is why the Green Mountain Civilization has survived."
"Otherwise..."
"The Green Mountain Civilization would have been annihilated long ago. A Sixth-Tier Civilization still poses too great a threat to the Rugged Civilization."
"According to the Green Mountain Civilization's database, long ago, they secretly initiated a top-secret plan called [Godslayer]"
(End of the Chapter)
📖Read [MAT] ahead on Pa.treon@AnubisTL. 💠COMPLETED💠
🎁All [3] Novels can be accessed for just $6/mo.
🔥Translated [1.1k+] Chapters and [2.46M+] Words.