The Orion Arm was one of the Milky Way Galaxy's Four Great Spiral Arms.
It was divided into ten star regions, each of which had once been home to countless civilizations of all sizes.
As time passed, some of those civilizations were conquered, annexed, or completely destroyed by others.
Other civilizations rapidly rose through conquest, plunder, annexation, and mergers, becoming hegemonic powers over their respective star regions—or even several star regions.
By now, the civilizations of the Orion Arm had more or less discovered a secret.
After reaching the Level 4 Peak, they began to realize that if they wanted to further elevate their civilization and reach the level of a Level 5 Civilization,
they needed to obtain a special item known as the "Key."
On the surface, it was something called the Secret Texts.
They looked like books.
The Key was not whole; it was made up of those Secret Texts.
This meant that any civilization wishing to obtain the complete Key had to conquer other civilizations.
In doing so, they could acquire the Secret Texts in their possession—or rather... Key Fragments.
Only after gathering all the Key Fragments could they achieve their goal: forge the Key, then advance into a Level 5 Civilization.
This discovery made relations between the various civilizations, which had already fought for millions of years over energy resources, territory, technology, and more, even more tense.
Quite a few civilizations even came to blows, launching campaigns against and conquering one another...
Such circumstances were not limited to the Orion Arm.
The spiral arms adjacent to the Orion Arm were the Perseus Arm and the 3,000 Parsec Arm.
They lay to the left of the Orion Arm and were among the outermost members of the Milky Way Galaxy's spiral arms.
To the right of the Orion