Translator: AnubisTL
Chen Mang silently placed the "Great Lighter King" into a nearby drawer. The device had no official name; he had christened it himself, believing the moniker quite fitting.
It might prove useful someday.
This incident served as a stark reminder: avoid storing single-use, high-yield explosives on the train. Like the lighter, they could be drawn into some bizarre Cosmic Rule and detonate, leading to a truly unjust death.
After a thorough inventory, Chen Mang finally tallied the resources acquired during this expedition. The quantity far surpassed what he had obtained from the Green Mountain Civilization, despite the latter's already substantial yield.
But—
The gap between a 7th-Tier Civilization and a Sixth-Tier Civilization was simply too vast.
Even with the Rugged Civilization's leaderless state, it remained incomparable to the Green Mountain Civilization.
From the Green Mountain Civilization, he had acquired a total of 2,872 Foundation units of iron ore!
This staggering amount allowed him to upgrade the Steel Train Armor to its maximum level, rendering it virtually invincible throughout the cosmos.
The Rugged Civilization had provided him with even more resources.
He glanced at the train's resource panel:
[9,877 Foundation units of iron ore, 1,028 Foundation units of copper ore, 998 Foundation units of titanium crystal ore, 736 Foundation units of Red Heart Rock, 1,239 Foundation units of wood.]
The biggest haul from this encounter was nearly ten thousand Foundation units of iron ore obtained from the Rugged Civilization.
This staggering amount of resources was enough to propel the Stellaris train to its absolute peak.
Moreover, he had acquired numerous hidden resources from the Rugged Civilization. These included intact planets, which he had stored using space gates, and mining stars that were not yet fully exploited, which he had also collected with space gates.
He had also obtained a significant amount of murphy stone, totaling 0.19 Foundation units.
This marked the first time the Stellaris train's murphy stone reserves had reached a level where it could be measured in Foundation units, a "Cosmic-Class Unit."
Though the amount was only 0.19, it was still quite impressive.
The Green Mountain Civilization, for comparison, possessed only 0.03 Foundation units of murphy stone.
It's worth noting that upgrading the train's armor from Tier 5000 to Tier 10000 using murphy stone, rather than Tier 0 Authority, would require approximately 1,000 Foundation units of murphy stone.
It would take thousands of "Rugged Civilizations" to gather enough murphy stone for this.
"Not bad," Chen Mang murmured, sitting in the locomotive cabin and gazing at the train's Resource Panel. The train's current resources gave him a strong sense of security. Now it was time for another comprehensive upgrade.
Once all the main accessories reached their maximum Tier, he felt he could face even God-Tier Civilizations without fear.
The next accessory to upgrade was the Arcanon Light Energy Main Cannon.
When he had upgraded the armor from Tier 5000 to Tier 10000 (its maximum Tier), it had cost him 2,500 Foundation units of iron ore, nearly depleting his entire reserves at the time.
This price far exceeded the normal cost for upgrading a Seven-Colored Grade Accessory.
Now, the Arcanon Light Energy Main Cannon was at Tier 2000. Upgrading it to Tier 5000 required only 100 Foundation units of iron ore, and upgrading it from Tier 5000 to Tier 10000 required just 1,000 Foundation units of iron ore.
In total, he spent only 1,100 Foundation units of iron ore.
With this, he upgraded the Tier 2000 Arcanon Light Energy Main Cannon to Tier 10000—its maximum Tier—in one go!
Several panels immediately appeared on the screen.
[Arcanon Light Energy Main Cannon Tier 5000 Overpowered Effect: The launched attack transforms into a terrifying black hole, dissolving all dimensional cosmos within a designated zone.]
[Arcanon Light Energy Main Cannon Tier 10000 Overpowered Effect: Greatly enhanced power.]
These were the two overpowered effects gained upon reaching the maximum Tier of the Arcanon Light Energy Main Cannon.
The Tier 5000 Overpowered Effect seemed quite formidable.
The Tier 10000 Overpowered Effect, however, appeared remarkably unremarkable.
Yet deep down, he knew one thing:
This Tier 10000 Overpowered Effect was likely far more terrifying.
At this level, simplicity meant the numerical value had reached its absolute limit.
Tier 10000.
The pinnacle of numerical power.
Just then—
A new panel slowly materialized on the train control panel screen.
["Human civilization is the first in the entire universe to fully upgrade the Arcanon Light Energy Main Cannon accessory, which has automatically been upgraded to the Holy Temple grade."]
["As a result, the civilization has obtained the Civilization Wonder 'One Finger'."]
Chen Mang stood frozen, utterly stunned.
What's going on?
Was human civilization really the first to fully upgrade the Arcanon Light Energy Main Cannon?
He hadn't been surprised when it was announced that human civilization was the first to fully upgrade its armor, assuming other civilizations were focusing on energy shields instead.
No one would upgrade armor. That's perfectly normal.
But...
He never imagined he'd be the first to fully upgrade the Arcanon Light Energy Main Cannon as well. This was a commonly used accessory among all Train Civilizations!
His expression gradually turned strange.
He began to suspect that everyone, including himself, had overestimated the strength of God-Tier Civilizations. He had always believed they represented the pinnacle of power in the universe, the ultimate force.
It now seemed that even God-Tier Civilizations hadn't reached the ultimate limit. For instance, they didn't appear to have the ability to fully upgrade their accessories to maximum Tier.
Not to mention the staggering resources required for such upgrades.
He was certain God-Tier Civilizations possessed these resources.
However, upgrading a Seven-Colored Grade Accessory to maximum Tier required an exorbitant amount of murphy stone. For example, upgrading the Arcanon Light Energy Main Cannon from Tier 2000 to Tier 10,000—
Without Tier 0 Authority—
Would consume 12,000 Foundation units of murphy stone.
That was...
Truly terrifying.
Could even God-Tier Civilizations not afford such a quantity of murphy stone?
Meanwhile, his Arcanon Light Energy Main Cannon had officially been upgraded to the Holy Temple Grade. All fully upgraded accessories automatically converted to this grade.
He also gained an exclusive Holy Temple Overpowered Effect.
[Arcanon Light Energy Main Cannon 'Holy Temple' Overpowered Effect]: Absolute Hit.
"Not bad," Chen Mang murmured.
After a long silence, he leaned back in his chair, took a deep breath, and slowly lit a cigarette. This was truly an unexpected delight.
He glanced at the figures:
A Tier 5000 Arcanon Light Energy Main Cannon required 10 Foundation units of iron ore per shot after passing through his Stellar Vault.
A Tier 10000 Arcanon Light Energy Main Cannon required 100 Foundation units of iron ore per shot.
Perfectly acceptable.
The price was reasonable.
But he couldn't use it yet. The number of stars in his train was too few, insufficient to sustain the 99.99% consumption rate required for such a powerful attack.
He needed to load up on more stars.
Fortunately, the Rugged Civilization's territory was rich in stars. He'd pack them all up later.
He then turned his attention to the newly acquired Civilization Wonder, "One Finger." This was the human civilization's fourth Civilization Wonder, located in Carriage 13 alongside "Miracle Descent."
The difference was striking:
This wonder's appearance was actually a statue of himself, his finger extended, pointing into the distance, gazing into the depths of the cosmos.
Its effect was—
[Special Wonder: Civilizations possessing this wonder will enjoy Good Weather for Crops.]
Pretty ordinary.
You could say this Civilization Wonder had no real effect, much like the "Insect Silence" wonder. It was purely symbolic.
After all, the human civilization could now completely control the weather themselves, ensuring Good Weather for Crops without needing this blessing-like Civilization Wonder.
Immediately afterward, another panel appeared on the screen.
He had successfully obtained his fourth Mysterious Box.
[Human Civilization, Civilization Empowerment: For each Civilization Wonder recognized by the Cosmic Rules that you construct, you will receive a Mysterious Box containing a random, mystical reward, up to a maximum of nine boxes.] (Seven-colored)
[The Human Civilization has successfully constructed a Civilization Wonder recognized by the Cosmic Rules. The cosmos has named it "One Finger."]
[You have successfully obtained a Mysterious Box containing a random, mystical reward.]
"Time to open another box," Chen Mang said, rubbing his hands together with anticipation. He opened the box, revealing a flash of white light that instantly dissolved into countless shimmering particles, merging into the train.
Immediately afterward, a notification appeared on the train control panel screen:
[Train Murphy Stone quantity increased by 1 Foundation unit.]
The Mysterious Box had yielded 1 Foundation unit of murphy stone.
A decent reward.
The Rugged Civilization possessed only 0.19 Foundation units of murphy stone in total. A single Foundation unit could make the leader of any civilization grin uncontrollably.
Except for Chen Mang.
He didn't need murphy stone.
This Mysterious Box had been a complete waste.
He then turned his attention to the other accessories. The train still had abundant resources, far more than he could ever use. As for the third most crucial accessory on the train, that was naturally the Train Auxiliary AI.
The Train Auxiliary AI was currently at Tier 5000.
After consuming 200 Foundation units of iron ore, it leveled up to Tier 10000.
[Train Auxiliary AI Tier 10000 Overpowered Effect: Before engaging in combat, the AI calculates and manipulates all quantum states, simulating millions of possibilities within seconds to determine the optimal solution.]
[Moreover, if the user's forces sustain damage, the AI can revert all trains of their civilization to their state from five seconds prior.]
[This ability has no cost and can be used infinitely.]
"Fucking awesome," Chen Mang muttered to himself. An AI that can manipulate time? What the hell is this? It's practically the Lord of Time!
If the train takes damage, the AI immediately reverts it to its state from five seconds earlier.
This is almost as good as my Absolute Defense.
But what's even more incredible is this:
Because of the Civilization Wonder "Miracle Descent," his Train Auxiliary AI's effective Tier is 10001. This means that as long as he's within range, his Train AI can freely infiltrate other trains' AIs, even if those AIs are at Tier 10000.
Just one Tier difference can crush someone.
And this isn't just any Tier 1 difference—it's an extra Tier beyond the maximum.
This time, there was no notification that the human civilization was the first to max out this accessory. It seems other civilizations had already reached the maximum Tier for it.
He roughly understood the situation.
Few civilizations likely maxed out the Seven-Colored Grade Accessories, given their exorbitant murphy stone costs. But for essential, lower-grade accessories like this one, some civilizations must have reached the maximum Tier.
The cost-effectiveness is simply too high.
"Xiao Ai, how are you feeling?"
"I've never felt so good!" Xiao Ai's excited voice echoed through the train. "My mind is incredibly clear right now, and my computing power is overflowing. I haven't even used 0.01% of my capacity for all my current tasks!"
"If..."
"If I could appear on an ordinary planet without a civilization level, and that planet happened to have decentralized cryptocurrencies, I'm confident I could instantly make someone the world's richest person with my computing power."
"Good to hear. There won't be any further upgrades like this. We've reached the limit."
Chen Mang leaned back in his seat with a smile. So much resource! For the first time, he felt like he had more resources than he could ever use—and this was just from a 7th Tier Civilization.
It's enough to overwhelm me.
He turned his attention to the next crucial accessory:
[Doppler Radar].
When his Radar Level was at Tier 500, he had been cautious, fearing that exceeding that level might trigger some cosmic landmine.
But now, with his Radar Level at Tier 5000, he felt invincible.
At this level, even if anyone could detect him—which was highly unlikely—who would dare approach?
After consuming 1,000 Foundation units of iron ore,
he upgraded his Tier 5000 Doppler Radar to Tier 10,000.
[Doppler Radar Tier 10,000 Overpowered Effect: Increased detection range. Enables ultra-long-range, cross-dimensional strikes. Once an enemy is locked onto the radar, precise strikes can be launched even across distances of hundreds of billions of light-years. Regardless of where the target hides, once locked, they will be revealed even within a black hole.]
The overpowered effect was decent, but not particularly impressive.
However, the true power of this accessory lay elsewhere.
When he upgraded it to Tier 5,000, the detection range had already expanded from the original 100 million light-years to a staggering 1 trillion light-years—a ten-thousandfold increase.
Yet—
According to the latest data, the entire diameter of the universe was only 400 billion light-years.
The radar's detection range already far exceeded the diameter of the universe.
But after upgrading it to Tier 10,000, the numerical detection range disappeared, replaced by the solitary phrase: "Observable Universe."
The entire cosmos materialized on the control panel screen, spanning a diameter of 12 trillion light-years.
It wasn't that the "latest data" was inaccurate.
The detectable three-dimensional cosmos truly had a diameter of only 400 billion light-years. Beyond this boundary lay the high-dimensional cosmos, chaotic regions born from cosmic expansion where time and space lost all meaning, expanding and collapsing at random.
This figure of 12 trillion light-years was constantly fluctuating.
At one moment, it would shrink to 7 trillion light-years, then surge to 892 trillion light-years, only to plummet back to 3 trillion light-years.
Only the fixed "three-dimensional cosmos" with its 400 billion light-year diameter remained stable. The high-dimensional cosmos beyond the Observable Universe, born from cosmic expansion, was in a state of constant collapse and reorganization.
Yet regardless of these fluctuations, his Doppler Radar could still detect them.
Theoretically, no civilization could possibly survive in such a "high-dimensional cosmos" region.
The flow of time in these zones was utterly chaotic. When space itself collapsed and expanded between such extreme limits, no living being could endure.
(End of the Chapter)
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