Just as Xiao Yu set out on the journey to the Small Magellanic Cloud, within the Milky Way Galaxy, about ten thousand light years from the Galactic Center, sothing bizarre was happening.
Dense ranks of warships stood motionless in the void. At the center of these warships was an extrely peculiar celestial body. If Xiao Yu could see this place, he would imdiately recognize what it was. Its diater was small, but its mass was imnse. It was invisible in the visible-light band. It possessed powerful radiation…
This was the Neutron War Star. For reasons unknown, the Neutron War Star had appeared here, and around it clustered more than thirty million warships. Clearly, after their conventional forces were wiped out in the battle against Xiao Yu, and after more than two thousand years of recuperation, the Sweepers had once again regained a considerable conventional combat strength.
In total, more than thirty million warships were stationed here. Ahead of them was a patch of space that looked sowhat illusory, as if a black hole existed there. Light bent when passing through that region, so it looked blurry and distorted, as though shrouded in a layer of fog.
“Divine Ark Civilization, since you have already separated from Xiao Yu, then we have no reason to target you. As long as you leave the Star Gate and relinquish control of the Star Gate, we can let you depart freely and will absolutely not interfere with you.” During this distant standoff, such a ssage was sent from a flagship of the Sweepers.
Ahead of the Sweepers fleet was still that blurry region. No one knew what was there, nor whether there was anything inside it. Yet the Sweepers seed to already know what was there.
A mont later, the Sweepers received a reply, “Stop dreaming. We believe you have also, in certain aspects, touched the Level 7 barrier. If you want to advance to a Level 7 Civilization, then honestly go and charge for it yourselves. Do not fantasize about obtaining the space energy formula by analyzing the Star Gate.”
“Enough talk. If you refuse to give up the Star Gate, then we can only drive you away… Neutron War Star, move out.” The voice representing the Sweepers’ will said calmly.
Within the distorted space, Ares stood before a gigantic display screen, carefully watching every minute detail on it, watching every piece of data. Behind him were dense ranks of staff. Each staff mber wore an electronic computing system directly connected to their nerves. At least tens of thousands of staff were busy processing all kinds of orders.
“It has already been more than two thousand years since Xiao Yu left here… I wonder whether you are doing well now… sigh.” Ares softly let out a sigh. Toward Xiao Yu, he did not know what he felt. Only after he beca the leader of the entire Divine Ark Civilization, personally leading a vast Level 6 peak civilization struggling to survive in the dark universe, did he understand how difficult it truly was.
His previous wish had been to lead his civilization to beco a Level 6 Civilization. Now, his wish had been fulfilled to a certain extent. The entire Divine Ark Civilization was under his leadership. Only at this ti did he truly feel the difference between a Level 6 Civilization and a Level 5 Civilization. Now, he even sowhat missed the kind of leisurely life he had when Xiao Yu was still around.
He was not the only one who felt this way. Because of Xiao Yu’s departure, so enormous computation tasks now required the scientists themselves to write programs and run the calculations. Without Xiao Yu, many fine details had to be solved personally. They could no longer be like before, focusing only on research, with everything else handled neatly by Xiao Yu.
There was no longer the spectacular scene of tens of millions or hundreds of millions of robots laboring together. Robots could only adapt to certain repetitive tasks with little technical content. Without Xiao Yu, so complex work had to be done by intelligent beings themselves.
Without the massive data support Xiao Yu provided, managing a regi also beca complicated. After all, aside from Xiao Yu, no one had the imnse energy to watch so many monitoring devices at once. With monitoring lost, so inevitable internal problems of a civilization were exposed, such as cri.
A large-scale survey showed that after Xiao Yu left, the happiness index of Divine Ark Civilization citizens dropped by at least one third. This did not even include those assigned to work in harsher conditions. It had to be known that in the past, all of these matters had been handled by Xiao Yu alone.
Under these circumstances, the idea that Xiao Yu should return beca the mainstream. After the theory of Luck Value was publicly explained in detail, and after learning that Xiao Yu’s Luck Value had already dropped to a certain level because of the death of his Specter companion, within the Divine Ark Civilization, large-scale public gatherings to pray for Xiao Yu took place every day. Although this did not really help, it at least provided them so psychological comfort.
When Xiao Yu left, he left behind a huge Intelligent Program modeled after himself. But a program was still a program. It was dead, while intelligent beings were alive. So it gradually beca unfit for the situation of civilization’s developnt. In the end, around five hundred years ago, it was abolished, with only so modules, such as the weather maintenance system and ecological cycle system, still in use.
The people of the Divine Ark Civilization were learning how to rely on their own strength to live, to independently complete research experints, to independently manufacture various models of spaceships, to build all kinds of enormous machinery, to decide their own fate, decide future plans, and so on.
In this kind of life, more than two thousand years passed. The war with the Sweepers left too much psychological shadow on the people, so during these two thousand years, they never relaxed the manufacturing of warships. Without Xiao Yu, these warships could only be personally operated by intelligent beings, and so a massive army was established. In this era, the Military Committee finally gained authority worthy of its status.
Up to now, the Divine Ark Civilization possessed more than ten million warships of all types, including two Star-Class warships. Active-duty soldiers numbered twenty billion, and reserve soldiers were about three billion. The reborn Divine Ark Civilization still maintained the basic policy of multi-ethnic coexistence and peaceful cohabitation. The highest leadership body was still the Social Committee, with Ares serving as the first-term chairman.
The enormous military reserve was only for the Divine Ark Civilization’s self-preservation. The Divine Ark Civilization had never proactively invaded any other civilization. This situation lasted for more than two thousand years, until now.
In the direction of Cygnus from the perspective of the Solar System, about ten thousand light years from the Galactic Center, the Divine Ark Civilization discovered a Level 7 Civilization ruin. This ruin had originally been well concealed, but a gamma-ray burst triggered by the photodisintegration supernova explosion of a supermassive star damaged the ruin, and it was discovered by the Divine Ark Civilization.
After preliminary analysis, Divine Ark Civilization researchers determined that this was a ruin of a travel-direction Level 7 Civilization. This was a Star Gate, that is, an ultra-long-distance instantaneous teleportation device. According to speculation, the travel-direction Level 7 Civilization used this Star Gate to complete distant journeys spanning countless galaxies.
Although the Star Gate had been damaged by the gamma-ray burst, a considerable portion of its instrunts remained intact. This ant that a Level 6 Civilization might still be able to analyze a large amount of technology here. So the Divine Ark Civilization imdiately stationed itself here, attempting to use these intact Level 7 Civilization creations to glimpse a bit of the mysteries of a Level 7 Civilization.
However, after technological analysis continued for a period of ti, Divine Ark Civilization researchers discovered that although these technological creations could bring a certain degree of technological improvent to a Level 6 Civilization, it was impossible to use them to glimpse the true mysteries of a Level 7 Civilization. At this ti, the Sweepers, for reasons unknown, also found this place. The Neutron War Star personally led more than thirty million warships to move out, attempting to drive the Divine Ark Civilization away and seize this Level 7 Civilization ruin for themselves.
The Divine Ark Civilization was undoubtedly not a match for the Sweepers, yet the current leader, Ares, had no intention of yielding this ruin. At a joint eting of the Social Committee and Military Committee, Ares said, “Our Divine Ark Civilization cannot rely on this ruin to advance to a Level 7 Civilization, but the Sweepers may not be the sa. And if the Sweepers use this to advance to a Level 7 Civilization, it will be a disaster for us, and for Xiao Yu who has already left. We cannot take that risk. Even if we are not a match for the Sweepers, relying on this ruin, we can hold out for at least one thousand five hundred years. Then let us fight to buy this ti for the departed Xiao Yu.”
“But we do not know whether Xiao Yu is still alive, nor whether in one thousand five hundred years, he can develop to the point where he can oppose the Sweepers. I worry that everything we do will be aningless.”
“Even if it is aningless, we must do it.” Ares said calmly. “Even if the Sweepers cannot use this ruin to step into the Level 7 Civilization domain, their strength will absolutely increase greatly once again. And I do not believe the Sweepers will spare us, who have close ties with Xiao Yu. So we can only do this, and not let the Sweepers obtain this ruin.”
That was the entire course of events. And after initial negotiations proved ineffective, the Sweepers now seed prepared to begin an attack and forcibly seize the ruin.
At this mont, Ares, standing before the gigantic display screen, calmly issued the order.
“Space distortion defense system, full power… all combat teams, take your positions, prepare at any ti to snipe the Sweepers’ warships…”
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