Chapter 210: Initiative Must Always Be Held In One’s Own Hands
“Mr. Fox, I’m sorry, but you can’t rest just yet.”
“No problem, you can ask me anything you want to know at any time.”
Fox’s attitude remained completely unchanged, that of absolute cooperation.
Regarding this, Fan Ren had some guesses in his mind, but this would require gradual understanding later.
He spoke up: “How much do you know about the construction technology of that Dreadnought Warship?”
Fox shook their head and said: “The technology of this Dreadnought Warship is a heritage of our civilization. I can provide you with the hull construction technology and theoretical technology regarding the structure.
But I’m sorry, the firepower configuration on this ship, as well as the Armor Repair Technology and other such technologies, are not our civilization’s own technologies. These were all technologies purchased by our civilization from the Starfield Market in the past.
I don’t know much about this. I was once just a combat personnel in our civilization, and I’m not skilled in technical matters.”
Hearing this, Fan Ren was immediately surprised.
He had always thought that the Fox Civilization could compete with the powerful Sirius Civilization. Although they were defeated and exterminated now, they at least had some strength in technology.
But he never expected that the other party’s Dreadnought Warship, aside from the hull materials and structural design which came from themselves, everything else was procured.
Wait, Starfield Market, this was a term he hadn’t heard before.
Fan Ren hurriedly said: “What’s the deal with the Starfield Market?”
Fox answered whatever was asked, immediately saying: “In the Central Galactic Region, as the area with the richest resources, there are the Five Great Civilizations that formed the Galactic Alliance organization.
Under the rules they established, broadly speaking, whether it’s the Sirius Civilization, your civilization, or other civilizations hiding in corners without revealing themselves, as long as they are carbon-based organisms born in the Milky Way Galaxy, they are all part of the Galactic Alliance.
Under this rule, all civilizations are qualified to go to the Galactic Core’s Starfield free trading market composed by them, to freely purchase any possible items or technologies.”
Fox said this and glanced at the Detention Room, sighing: “Even complete Titan-class Battleships, as long as you have enough Star Coins in hand, you can buy them.”
After his words, the Meeting Room fell silent instantly.
They had previously focused their attention on the nearby Sirius Civilization, thus ignoring other civilizations farther away in the Milky Way Galaxy.
They didn’t expect that in the Galactic Core, there was such an organization.
“Explain in detail everything you know about these Five Great Civilizations, as well as everything about the Starfield Market and anything involving the Galactic Alliance.”
Hearing this human’s somewhat urgent question, Fox nodded and began introducing calmly.
The history of the five high-level civilizations in the Central Galactic Region was already impossible to trace.
It was only known that they formed the Galactic Alliance and established a free trading Starfield Market. As long as a carbon-based civilization possesses preliminary star system navigation capabilities, it can go there to register as a formal member of the Galactic Alliance.
Not only that.
On several arms of the Milky Way Galaxy, there are Space Gates built by these Five Great Civilizations, allowing direct connection all the way to the central area.
These Space Gates can be passed harmlessly by any spaceship.
Their purpose is to promote trade and technological exchange among various carbon-based civilizations.
These Five Great Civilizations are like supreme beings high above, firmly controlling the Starfield Market and collecting taxes from it.
But perhaps because Fox’s knowledge was limited, or maybe because the distance was too far after all, even transiting through Space Gates would take an extremely long time to arrive.
Moreover, Fox also revealed that the road to the Galactic Core is not safe.
For example, a few Star Gates ahead of the Alpha Centauri Star Gate is the capital star of Sirius.
To pass through that Star Gate, one must obtain the consent of the Sirius Civilization.
Further ahead, various interstellar pirates lurk around the Star Gates at any time, waiting to plunder the spaceships of other passing civilizations.
Just as he said, the universe is not safe.
He had another point he didn’t say: they themselves were a Pirate Group.
But due to strength reasons, they could only huddle in a remote corner.
And Fox also said that the Star Gate in the Alpha Centauri Star System had not seen a spaceship pass through it for nearly a century.
This place is very poor!
Under the other party’s introduction, a larger cosmic chapter than the previous preliminary understanding slowly unfolded before everyone.
Not only the Sirius Civilization, but also the five Overlord civilizations in the Galactic Core exist.
From Fox’s introduction, these five Overlords seemed to have no ulterior motives, just sitting securely in their high positions, collecting taxes from transactions between various civilizations.
But in the Meeting Room, no one truly believed that.
“What is Star Coin?”
Fan Ren didn’t fall into prolonged thinking and asked a key question.
“It’s a type of virtual currency jointly issued by the Five Great Civilizations that can be used universally in the Milky Way Galaxy. The Central Bank is located in the Galactic Core star system. And there are branches set up on the capital planets of major civilizations in the region. The nearest branch from here is on Sirius’s capital star.”
Fox said this and spread their hands helplessly: “Unfortunately, I have to tell you that our Pirate Group account still has tens of thousands of Star Coins, but the value of these Star Coins… how should I put it?”
He thought for a moment and then said: “Let’s compare it to Silver-like Super Metal. One million tons of Silver-like Super Metal is approximately worth 1 Star Coin.
And these Silver-like Super Metals, after atomic-level processing technology, still can’t even build a cosmic Shuttle.”
Fox paused and then dealt Fan Ren another huge blow.
“This price is still for the selling price that must be personally transported to the central area.
Of course, there is also a Starfield Market set up by them in the Sirius capital star domain, but as for the prices, you understand.
There’s another way, which is to use private company transportation contractors. You can hand over your goods to them to transport to any destination you want.
Similarly, the price often exceeds the value of the goods themselves.
The ways I mentioned are the only ways for most low-level civilizations—sorry, I don’t mean your civilization specifically—to earn Star Coins.
Because you don’t have technologies or products in hand that can sell for a good price.”
From the other party’s words, Fan Ren finally understood why the Fox Civilization could build such a powerful warship just relying on Material Processing Technology and their own structural technology.
Sell resources, buy equipment!
This scene was so similar to the many small countries on the Blue Star Civilization back then.
After Fox finished speaking, not only him, but everyone present, including Ye Rongshan, was stunned.
“Oh right, I forgot to tell you, civilizations can freely declare war, but the premise is paying a huge fee to the Galactic Alliance.
To be honest with you, our home civilization collapsed economically because it couldn’t keep up with the financial resources. Rather than being defeated by the Sirius Civilization, it was a tragedy caused by being unable to afford weapons and resources after the economic collapse.
This is also why I ended up forming a Pirate Group.”
Fan Ren nodded, and his mind suddenly cleared up.
He finally understood why, from the meaning in Fox’s earlier words, Sirius looked down on the Solar System Civilization—the key point was here.
Declaration of War Fee!
Conversely, the current Solar System Civilization, in their view, was worth even less than the Declaration of War Fee.
“Thank you. If there are other questions later, I hope you maintain this cooperative attitude. This is your opportunity.”
Fan Ren spoke vaguely, but over there, Fox breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing it.
At least for now, their life was not in immediate threat.
As a wanderer who survived the civilization extermination war by clinging to life, they couldn’t just die here casually.
A’dai directly cut off the one-way communication on this side.
In the Meeting Room, Fan Ren looked at Ye Rongshan beside him and saw a hint of surprise on the other’s face.
Now they were shocked by the simple and crude galactic structure described by Fox.
Fan Ren was no exception.
This seemed quite fantastical, but upon careful thought, it was extremely real.
He steadied his mind and slowly said: “Based on the other party’s description, I think our future development must be adjusted.”
He looked at everyone in the Meeting Room and said gravely: “Obviously, in this universe, not only crises exist, even major crises threatening survival, but at the same time, there are various opportunities.
For example, this so-called interstellar market is our opportunity!”
“A’dai, our highest annual output of Silver-like Super Metal, converted to Star Coins at the ratio of 10,000 tons to 1 Star Coin, is approximately how much?”
“230,000 Star Coins! That is, 230 billion tons.”
Hearing this, Fan Ren’s mouth twitched.
So little!
In the Meeting Room, hearing A’dai’s response, not only Fan Ren, but everyone else showed various expressions on their faces.
Only now did they understand why the Sirius Civilization used means to oppress other civilizations in its sphere of influence to collect basic minerals for it.
The root cause was Star Coins!
And obviously, from Fox’s introduction, the Sirius Civilization’s own technical strength might not be particularly strong, but they could exchange massive basic resources for Star Coins to purchase weapons and equipment to maintain their absolute strength in this star domain.
By now in the entire meeting, the general situation was already very clear.
So next, they needed to discuss how to respond.
Ye Rongshan had been sitting beside without speaking. He looked at Fan Ren who was deep in thought, expectation in his eyes.
Noticing the attention, Fan Ren turned his head and gave Elder Ye a confident smile.
“Like this, proceed in two phases.”
“Since our civilization’s development is currently not eye-catching, continue maintaining the current scale of Electromagnetic Wave Signal leakage.
At the same time, in the coming time, we will vigorously develop the mining of basic minerals.
These minerals, part for our own consumption, part to be sold on the Starfield Market.
Regarding sales methods and contact plans with alien civilizations, we’ll discuss that later.
At the same time, we will continue to vigorously develop scientific research. On this point, Xinghai will maintain the attitude of the past 50 years, investing all our financial resources in scientific research.
From Fox’s description, everyone can see that even the Sirius Civilization might not be as strong technologically as we imagine. They just rely on purchased equipment and technology to maintain deterrence against surrounding forces and high-pressure rule over their subordinates.
We must realize that although our current technical strength is very backward, purchased technology and weapons and equipment ultimately require massive basic resources to exchange for.
From another angle, if one day in the future we can design and manufacture a spaceship of the same level, with performance equivalent to that Dreadnought Warship, then imagine, at that time, with just this one hand, we can hold our own against the Sirius Civilization.”
Fan Ren’s tone was somewhat excited.
For technology, he was extremely confident. He had the Civilization Seed System in his mind, giving him an absolute advantage in technical research, without getting stuck on any technology for too long.
The only thing missing was time.
However, now time could be exchanged with resources.
They could use resources to exchange for Star Coins, thereby purchasing some weapons and equipment, as well as affordable low-price technologies, to give the Blue Star Civilization self-preservation strength.
After all, within ten light years around, there were still some other civilizations.
Hiding like a turtle for too long, it’s inevitable to occasionally show a flaw. Blindly closing the door to hide, what if in the future other civilizations come knocking.
This time it was the Fox Pirate Group; they were poor, with only one Dreadnought Warship, and because of carelessness and underestimation, they suffered a big loss and were captured.
So what about next time?
Who could guarantee that other civilizations would also come with just one Dreadnought Warship like the Fox Pirate Group?
One must know, this thing might be very expensive, but for a civilization’s scale, it’s not unaffordable.
Right at Sirius’s capital star 30 light years away, there were several Titan-class Battleships.
Of course, from Fox’s description, this Titan-class Battleship from the pre-human civilization seemed even more advanced, as its size was 20 kilometers larger than a conventional Titan-class Battleship.
This was something Fox couldn’t understand, and neither A’dai nor Fan Ren knew.
But these weren’t important.
The Conqueror could only be used as a trump card in extinction crises. In conventional wars, it would remain in the state of a research laboratory or stealth mode, hidden away.
Fan Ren looked at everyone in the Meeting Room and, seeing no objections, continued: “When our development reaches a certain scale, we will build a Space Gate within the Solar System.”
Saying this, he saw some gravity in everyone’s eyes, but Fan Ren didn’t flinch and said firmly: “This is a road we must take. At that time, we will go to Sirius’s capital star and sell our producible materials there, which might be ore or our other materials. Use this to purchase the other technologies and weapons and equipment we need.”
Fan Ren paused, and in that moment in the Meeting Room, even the breathing seemed to stop.
“At that time, our Human Civilization will be completely exposed in the Milky Way Galaxy and will formally become a member of the Galactic Alliance.
At that time, perhaps for a period, due to the Declaration of War Fee, we might still have some safe development opportunities.
But a very cruel fact is that once we develop to a certain extent, we will inevitably attract the interest of other civilizations, and war will be unavoidable then.”
Speaking here, Fan Ren’s gaze turned to Fox in the Detention Room, a smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.
“Thank you, Mr. Fox, for bringing us such a massive amount of information.”
Immediately after, a hint of determination appeared in his eyes as he said: “Next is the other phase I want to talk about.
If we can stably develop to that phase, then after assessing the strength of surrounding star system civilizations, we will use the Alpha Centauri Star System as a hub to carry out trade and technological exchange with surrounding star systems.
Of course, wars might break out in this process.
But what I want to point out is that war won’t come any less just because you hide in the Solar System.
From Fox’s words, we can clearly see that when a civilization develops to a certain stage, the resources of its home star system fundamentally cannot satisfy their development needs.
At that time, it might be trade, or it might be war.
In short, expansion is the eternal theme of civilization development.”
Fan Ren finished speaking, and no one opposed. Everyone fell silent.
The meeting ended in this silence.
But Elder Ye and Liu Shengzhan did not leave.
Of course, when only the three of them remained in the Meeting Room, Ye Rongshan looked at Fan Ren very seriously for a long time for the first time.
Then he shook his head: “I don’t really support your idea. To be honest, it’s a bit too radical.”
At this moment, even Liu Shengzhan, who had always been radical, couldn’t help but nod in agreement.
Fan Ren’s eyes flickered, and he sighed.
From Fox’s words, a massive Galactic Alliance was revealed.
But at the same time, it also exposed a very realistic and cruel fact.
It’s not that having no value means absolute safety.
Just the Declaration of War Fee!
Why do so many forces under the Sirius Civilization toil resentfully on the poverty line?
Isn’t it because after defeat, they became the other’s slaves and could only survive this way?
So why assume that in the future, after the Human Civilization is detected by them, they won’t treat the Human Civilization the same way?
Rather than passively hoping for mercy, better to proactively and aggressively develop our own strength.
And development can perhaps slowly accumulate technology by closing the door to invent.
But who can guarantee the absolute safety of Human Civilization during that time?
No one can guarantee.
He has the System. As long as he can contact other technologies, whether reverse engineering or analogous learning, his System’s Experience Points will definitely surge massively.
His technology unlocking speed will also skyrocket in a short time.
At that time, having technology in hand will be the real protective umbrella for development, rather than like now, only relying on that exorbitant Declaration of War Fee to pray that the other party ‘looks down on’ them and lets them off.
That has too little sense of security.
Fan Ren’s expression was solemn, his gaze unwavering as he looked straight at Ye Rongshan, then slowly said: “Elder Ye, believe me. I will lead Great Xia to always walk the right path.
The initiative must always be held in our own hands.”
