Liu Hai, having obtained a communicator capable of connecting to the Star River Federation's network, eagerly instructed the Intelligent Nexus to begin cracking and reprogramming it.
By the time Liu Hai woke up the next day, the Intelligent Nexus had already established a seamless connection to the Star River Network. It had also purchased a house for him on Kono Administrative Star and registered a company in his name.
Now, Liu Hai's Star Sea Group was officially established—though currently, its sole employee was himself, and its business operations were nonexistent.
After breakfast, Liu Hai began reviewing the data the Intelligent Nexus had gathered about the Star River Federation and nearby civilizations.
It took him the entire morning to finally gain some understanding of the civilizations in this universe. Particularly striking was the fact that he couldn't locate the Milky Way in the publicly available star maps of the Star River Federation, which made him soberly realize that he might truly no longer be in his original universe. Fortunately, he had no lingering attachments—his family had long passed away in an accident.
The Star River Federation was a humanoid civilization, with its founding race bearing a strong resemblance to the people from Liu Hai's homeland, except for the absence of Black people. Racial integration had been completed as early as their home planet era.
Judging from the data on the Star Network, their current technological level was roughly at the early stages of interstellar civilization. According to the Star River Federation's classification of civilizations from one to nine, they were at Level Four.
Levels Three and below were considered elementary stellar system civilizations, Levels Four to Six were intermediate interstellar civilizations, and Levels Seven to Nine were advanced cosmic interstellar civilizations.
So far, the Star River Federation had not encountered any civilizations above Level Six. Within their supercluster, there was only one Level Six civilization that occupied three star clusters, twelve Level Five civilizations that each held one star cluster, and an uncountable number of Level Four civilizations.
Overall, this universe was vibrant, with life existing in nearly every galaxy. Thanks to the dominant civilization in this supercluster, relations between civilizations here were relatively peaceful, with rare occurrences of civilization-ending wars.
Within the commercial network established by the Level Six civilization, the most valuable assets were the unique technological concepts and systems of each civilization. There were also certain protective rules in place for intelligent biological civilizations.
It was as if this Level Six civilization, acting as the dominant power, was guiding its subordinate civilizations' development—opening wide the doors of commerce to facilitate their technological advancement while also safeguarding those that had yet to fully mature.
While promoting development, this Level Six civilization's Boss was also actively pushing for emergency interstellar exploration, searching everywhere for pathways to connect with other superclusters.
"This looks an awful lot like absorbing the wisdom of various civilizations to drive technological progress," Liu Hai mused about the Level Six civilization's intentions. No one would believe they were truly benevolent—after all, once any civilization developed, it would inevitably expand outward. So what would happen to the civilizations standing in their way?
Just the fact that this Level Six civilization was composed of a single race made it clear what had happened to the civilizations in the star clusters they occupied.
Looking at the internal situation of the Star River Federation and its surrounding environment, the Federation essentially operated under a feudal-like system with six ranks: Interstellar Lords, along with Dukes, Marquises, Counts, Viscounts, and Barons. While their titles differed, their statuses were equal. All lords collectively formed the Federal Council, and each was responsible for their own territory's economy, culture, and military—though they were required to contribute a certain proportion of resources for federal use.
What made Liu Hai happiest was that each lord's territory was acquired by forming their own military forces to seize or explore, and the original Star River Federation's star systems would not be parceled out.
This allowed Liu Hai to openly register armed forces, with the only requirements being supervision by the Federation's military and stationing outside the national borders.
Learning this, Liu Hai was overjoyed, though he knew he would first need to possess at least a standard fleet of a fourth-tier civilization—even just two frigates would qualify him to apply for a Pioneer Order or an Exploration Permit.
Additionally, the three civilizations with border disputes against the Star River Federation were all alien civilizations encountered through natural wormholes. Their size and strength were comparable, leading to frequent battles over control of the star systems within the wormhole's range.
One thing that struck Liu Hai as odd was the sheer number of humanoid civilizations in this supercluster. Over fifteen had trade relations with the Star River Federation alone, and most baffling of all, the majority of these humanoid civilizations had no reproductive barriers between them. As a result, connections between humanoid civilizations were far closer than those with alien ones.
Connecting neurally to the network to observe these civilizations, Liu Hai couldn't help but exclaim in amazement. There were angel-like Winged People Civilizations, elf-like biological civilizations, dwarf-like mechanical civilizations, mermaid-like aquatic civilizations, and even myth-inspired Energy Civilizations.
It was an eye-opening experience, but the dizzying array of developmental paths among these civilizations left him overwhelmed. The supercluster's civilizations were a riot of diversity. Even at the interstellar stage, while their scientific theories had converged, their technological applications were wildly inventive and vastly different.
The developmental philosophies of these civilizations also spurred progress in others, leading to more balanced growth and filling gaps in their evolutionary trajectories.
Liu Hai guessed this was why the sixth-tier civilization leaned toward peaceful development. With so many developmental paths available, as the supercluster's dominant civilization, they could only enrich their own scientific theories and knowledge by drawing from others.
By synthesizing the scientific thinking of various civilizations, balancing strengths and weaknesses, the spark of wisdom propelled them toward higher civilization at breakneck speed, leaving their subordinates in the dust, watching as their Boss grew ever stronger, trailing nothing but exhaust fumes in his wake.
"Amidst the flourishing blossoms, I seek tranquility. This universe is truly fascinating—interstellar pioneer lords, a myriad of humanoid civilizations, most without reproductive barriers. It's as if they were all crafted by the same creator. Unbelievable."
Liu Hai browsed through the biological images of various humanoid civilizations. He had to admit, at the interstellar stage, as long as a species was intelligent, their aesthetics tended to converge. At least in Liu Hai's eyes, many humanoid beings aligned well with his own sense of beauty.
"I must get my hands on their genes someday. Seems like being a collector of intelligent species wouldn't be so bad!" Staring at the radiant, gentle-faced elven beauty before him, Liu Hai was already plotting how to acquire the relevant genetic material.
With the Star Network to pass the time, Liu Hai became completely immersed in it. The films and shows from various civilizations had him enthralled, especially the interstellar war footage, which made him itch to take command himself.
Time slipped by unnoticed until half a month later, when the underground base's factory was nearly halfway completed, and construction speed increased once again.
A purchase order communication snapped Liu Hai out of the Star Network, reminding him that he was still on Garbage Star without even a cargo ship to his name.
"Igor, you said you have a big order?" Liu Hai was still savoring the images from the Star Network and didn't pay much attention to Igor's message.
"That's right—an order worth ten million Credit Points. Are you taking it?" Igor sat upright in his command chair, exuding confidence as he sent the order details to Liu Hai.