Upon receiving Liu Hai's summons, Li Yali hastily led the fleet back. After rendezvousing with the transport fleet, they left two corvettes behind in the Brolly Star System to continue deploying the detection network while the rest of the ships set off together for the small star region where Zhang Zhong was stationed.
Unlike Zhang Zhong's team who had to advance while searching, the Starsea Fleet reached the small star region in just over two months by following their explored path.
A rough projection of the star system layout unfolded before Liu Hai and his team. Among the eight star systems, one was a chaotic three-body system with disordered matter, currently lacking development value.
Another was a stable binary system with eight planets and relatively abundant resources, which Liu Hai tentatively marked as the primary candidate target.
The remaining six star systems were more ordinary—each featuring small yellow dwarf stars, standard planetary systems, and average resources, representing the most common type of star system in the universe.
The only one that caught Liu Hai's attention was a star system with a planet in an ideal position, possessing a thin atmosphere. According to Federation classification, it was a Category IV planet with potential value for terraforming into a life planet.
After reviewing the staff's recommendations and discussing with Li Yali and others, Liu Hai decided to establish their headquarters on the third planet of the binary system.
The projection expanded, revealing the binary star system named Pisces. Within it, two stars, each over 1.8 million kilometers in diameter, orbited each other at a distance of two light-hours.
Eight outer planets moved orderly along their orbits, increasing in size from the innermost to the outermost. The smallest was just over 8,000 kilometers in diameter, while the largest was a gas giant with a diameter of over 90,000 kilometers, accompanied by three satellites each about 7,000 kilometers in diameter.
The third planet, Liu Hai's target, was medium-sized with a diameter of 13,000 kilometers. It had a thin atmosphere, a climate within the standards for immigrant planets, and most importantly, its brown surface indicated abundant mineral resources.
Two cruisers and the transport ship descended into the planet's orbit. After a full scan confirmed no anomalies, Liu Hai selected the most resource-rich area to deploy the Pyramid Core and various factories.
Subsequently, the ships left the planet's orbit, dispersing to other star systems to survey environments and deploy reconnaissance satellites.
With the entire Starsea Fleet busy at work, Liu Hai remained in the Pyramid Core's Control Room to confirm the upgrade command. This was the first upgrade in nearly ten years since the Pyramid Core's release, filling Liu Hai with both tension and anticipation.
After the control center verified the command, a space bubble enveloped Liu Hai. Suddenly, the entire Pyramid Core began melting, decomposing down to the particle level.
Just as Liu Hai feared the Pyramid Core had vanished, the disassembled materials began reorganizing under an unknown force. Finally, a brand-new inverted Pyramid Core materialized before him.
Looking at the Pyramid Core before him, now nearly twenty times larger in volume, Liu Hai realized that his previous assumption about the pyramid's tip pointing upward was incorrect—it should have been pointing downward.
The entire pyramid now resembled more of a cone, with its top platform shrouded beneath a spatial barrier. Inside, a simple ecological environment had been constructed. The Intelligent Nexus had already generated a courtyard reminiscent of Jiangnan-style gardens based on Liu Hai's data.
"Inheritor Core: Serial No. 1024
Inheritor Core: Integrated Seed Ship
Control Core: Intelligent Neural Center
Energy Source: Vacuum Zero-Point Energy Reactor (Activated)
Production Center: Particle-Level Mechanical Forging Production Line (No Raw Materials)
Technology Database: Mid-Level Interstellar Civilization Technical Data
Inheritor Core Upgrade Progress: 0%"
Liu Hai examined the detailed data. After this upgrade, the Inheritor Core finally had its own name: "Integrated Seed Ship."
Simultaneously, the unlocked technological data had reached the level of a mid-level interstellar civilization. A quick glance revealed that most of the file directory names were beyond Liu Hai's comprehension, let alone their contents.
Additionally, the Inheritor Core's processing capability had been elevated to the particle level, granting it the ability to convert any energy or matter at or above the particle level—though the difficulty and resource consumption varied.
Liu Hai also noticed that all the factories he had previously established had undergone updates. Without delay, he prioritized upgrading the Biological Factory and the Armament Factory.
This upgrade had depleted all the resources stored within the Inheritor Core's internal space, but the results left Liu Hai thoroughly satisfied. Just the armor of the current Integrated Seed Ship was now so durable that even a Heavy Cruiser Main Gun would be powerless against it—a cause for celebration in itself.
Not to mention the processing and conversion capabilities now rivaling those of a sixth-level civilization. While interstellar civilizations must have theoretically achieved force field unification in scientific theory, theory is one thing—perfect practical application is the domain of advanced interstellar civilizations.
The same applies to developments in the microscopic realm. Nanobots might be commonplace in civilian applications, but progressing further is fraught with challenges. Liu Hai wasn't entirely clear about sixth-level civilizations, but according to Federation records, even the top-tier fifth-level mechanical civilizations had limited applied technologies at the particle level.
Now, with the Integrated Seed Ship's particle-level processing capabilities, it had surpassed the fifth level and reached the sixth—though how it compared to actual sixth-level civilizations remained unknown.
"Step one: Absorb energy, convert materials, and manufacture mining equipment to supply the Seed Ship with construction materials and energy."
"Step two: Expand the scope of energy acquisition. Having vacuum zero-point energy doesn't mean relying solely on it. Various factories still require diverse energy sources for optimal performance. Plus, let's not waste the energy emitted by the twin stars of this binary system."
"Step three: Focus on constructing various manufacturing and processing facilities to drive development and expansion."
Liu Hai methodically outlined his future development plans. The arrival of Irina's family was still about four years away, and the Katon Civilization wouldn't launch an attack on the Stardust Star Region so quickly—organizing such an effort would take time, and that timeframe wouldn't be any shorter than the Federation's.
After setting the general objectives, Liu Hai formulated a relatively detailed development plan. From expanding energy acquisition to increasing resource procurement, then to factory equipment manufacturing, and finally armament production—the entire timeline of this series of plans stretched several years into the future.
With the plan completed and transmitted to the Intelligent Nexus, Liu Hai once again browsed through the technology list of the Mid-Level Interstellar Civilization. Even if he couldn't fully comprehend it, he at least needed to familiarize himself with the descriptions to facilitate targeted development in the future.
While Liu Hai immersed himself in the ocean of knowledge, the seed ship, under the control of the Intelligent Nexus, had already begun extracting vacuum zero-point energy from the Pisces Star System to synthesize basic materials for manufacturing Fully Automated Mining Machines.
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