It was simply that, in the end, civilizations dominated by authoritarianism had been destroyed by internal strife; elitism had limited ability to integrate a civilization's overall strength and would erupt into infighting at critical moments; democracy was forever holding itself back through mutual squabbling; and as for the Northern Union's SH-ism... you should have already seen the outcome."
As she spoke, Empress looked at the shipgirl representatives, whose expressions were far from pleasant. She did not mock them further, merely drove the point home—
"After reviewing the histories of several civilizations that had headed toward self-destruction, the Mainframe launched corresponding second-phase experiments. It selected worlds that had already been discovered by the Insect Swarm, but where only secondary forces had been sent to gradually devour them. It controlled the intensity of the Insect Swarm's attacks, leaving the human civilizations in those test sites with pressure of only an appropriate level—
To see whether human civilization possessed the ability to grow under pressure when subjected to a certain degree of outside interference.
Yet when faced with an enemy that had initially only landed on the moon, giving them ample time to respond, human civilization, having received technological gifts left behind by the Sirens through special means, still continued its internal struggles between nations. In the end, the entire civilization was defeated and destroyed by the Insect Swarm, which consisted of nothing more than mining units."
"Mining bugs... MUV?"
Hearing several terms that felt strangely familiar, Gwen's thoughts stirred. He thought of the MUV series, which, if not for all the bugs eating people, would practically have been classified as erotic games—
Although Gwen had never personally played that supposedly extremely dark game, he had heard of BTEA's infamous reputation for constantly eating female characters.
Of course, the thought only flashed through