P.S.: Taiyi's intelligent assistant name didn't fit, so it was changed to Changxi.
A massive Dyson sphere-like starport built around a star.
The Eternal Truth Fleet was undergoing repairs and resupply.
At the same time, it was processing the huge stockpile of resources in its warehouses.
The vast quantity of resources had nearly burst a starport warehouse a hundred li wide and long. Dozens of transport ships were loading them.
If Spatial Technology had not already become commonplace in the Alliance, it would probably have taken hundreds of transport ships to finish loading everything.
Qingyang watched the transport ships in excellent spirits. Behind him stood a warship production facility roughly five kilometers across.
After exchanging all those resources for Starcraft manufacturing materials, he had unexpectedly received far more than anticipated.
It was enough to build at least two Chichen Battleships and five Stalwart Blade Ships!
Although that seemed like far less than the resources he had traded away, there was nothing to be done. The materials needed to build Starcraft had to possess properties capable of carrying high-dimensional Datafication, making them far more precious than ordinary resources.
"Brothers, five days off. This starport completely surrounding a star has plenty of good places to visit."
Qingyang said cheerfully, then closed the communications channel and found a large warehouse to manufacture warships.
Looking at the blueprint as it simultaneously generated the phantoms of several warships, Qingyang was slightly surprised. He had assumed he could only build one at a time, but it turned out he could build several at once.
This time, Qingyang did not wait. Instead, he returned to Taiyi and opened the Star Network.
He had received notice not long ago that the reward for reporting the Stan Civilization had been determined. Qingyang had been busy until now and finally had the chance to check it.
[According to Pan-Human policy, rewards will be determined based on whether the human civilization passes the Alliance admission review and its average Mental Will strength.] [Review results— Stan humans: Group Mental Will (Excellent) Estimated potential: Advanced Great Power (Insufficient population, uncertain) Due to the small population, development time will be greatly slowed. Evaluation lowered.] [Rewards: 50,000 Star Points, 80,000 battle merits, Star Crystal ×2 (Purple) Special main-cannon-type star armament ×1 (Purple), Level 4 merit (free military stargates and Star Ring Channels)]
Qingyang's eyes lit up. The rewards really were generous.
Including the seven Starcraft currently under construction, he now had sixteen in total!
Eighty thousand battle merits were just enough to make up four Changqu Cruisers. He would not spend the Star Points for now. Without a special opportunity, Star Points were the only resource capable of completing a Starfleet's rank transformation.
Whether upgrading Starcraft to T7 or directly purchasing T7 blueprints, both required huge amounts of Star Points.
Battle merits, meanwhile, came from unstable sources. Using battle merits for transformation carried too much uncertainty.
The four Changqu Cruisers soon appeared in the designated warehouse and successfully completed Datafication. Qingyang looked toward the star armament parked beside the warehouse.
"Huh? It looks like a weapon." Qingyang said in surprise.
This star armament did not resemble the crystal-like items from before. Instead, it looked like a miniature weapon.
Mysterious energy fluctuations flowed across its surface.
[Special Star Armament: Yuan Sha Main Cannon (Zero Star)] [Quality: Purple (Mass-produced)] [Description: A star armament that can only be mounted on combat-type special ships. It has no group effect.] [Base: 20,000 attack energy level, can grow (bound to special ship)] [Additional Effect One: Mystery +1 (damage against entities with Meme contamination +100%)] [Additional Effect Two: Superweapon +1 (beyond-visual-range strike, currently within one hundred light-years, energy consumption +500%, requires ten minutes of Cooldown)] [Base charging time: 60s (Datafication)] [Evaluation: It is said that its original star armament (unique) came from a legendary commander of the Fourth Epoch. Perhaps one might be fortunate enough to encounter Him in the depths of the Wasteland Area?]
Rubbing his chin, Qingyang truly had not expected a star armament like this to exist.
Qingyang asked, "What type of special Starcraft is Taiyi?"
Changxi's graceful figure appeared, her brows curving slightly. "Combat type, Commander."
Her gentle gaze paused briefly on the star armament before she pursed her lips in a smile. "It suits us perfectly."
Qingyang's gaze stopped on Changxi, and he blanked out for a moment before quickly regaining his composure.
"The qipao looks nice."
At the same time, he casually fused the Yuan Sha Main Cannon into Taiyi. Taiyi's original main cannon immediately changed.
The blazing white crystal became crimson gold, while the special metal framework surrounding it transformed into a sculpture-like structure made of Black Dragon Alloy.
Qingyang could not stop smiling as he looked at the panel.
Twenty thousand damage!
That was the level of an ordinary T7 battleship!
It was enough to shatter small asteroids over a thousand kilometers in diameter, not to mention that this star armament also possessed beyond-visual-range strike capability.
Unfortunately, without a star chart marker, the beyond-visual-range strike was completely unusable unless the Eternal Fleet's matrix detection range reached one hundred light-years.
At present, the Eternal Fleet's combined detection range was no more than twenty light-days.
Qingyang did not use the two Star Crystals. The Purple star armaments in his possession were strong enough for now. It would not be too late to raise their star rank when necessary.
Satisfied, Qingyang closed the data panel and looked toward Changxi, who was about to disappear.
"How about going down for a walk?" Qingyang asked with a smile, pointing toward the endless starport district outside.
Changxi hesitated slightly before finally nodding with a smile. "All right, Commander."
Alliance Central Starfield.
An incomparably vast and majestic creation stood in the cosmic starry sky.
The radiance emitted by this great creation illuminated the surrounding universe for dozens of light-years.
Tens of thousands of cities in space, each comparable in size to a planet, surrounded the creation.
Countless ships and Starfleets traveled back and forth nearby, including many Starcraft over a hundred or even nearly a thousand kilometers long!
This was the headquarters of the Alliance Education Directorate.
The Sprout Superstructure.
Or rather—it could be called Sprout Star!
In a conference room at the center of Sprout Star, hundreds of figures radiating powerful auras were in discussion.
"The date of the Youth League has been set: October 1st, Year 5-7095."
An elderly man seated third in the front row said with a smile.
The person in the main seat spoke wistfully. "It has only been five million seven hundred thousand years since the Fifth Era began. The breathtaking sight of the universe's Great Regression during the transition between eras still feels as though it happened yesterday."
"Quite a few Level 8 Civilizations survived that regression. It seems the quality of civilizations improves significantly after every change of era. The prodigies born in the Star Sea Alliance during the Fifth Era far outnumber those of the Fourth Epoch."
"Hahaha, enough small talk. How exactly are we planning to hold this Youth League?"
"Starfleet point matches, transcendent team battle royales, individual transcendent battle royales, support-type transcendent point matches, and research prodigy presentation contests. There will be roughly 4,500 events, with those first five being the most important."
The relevant officials had long prepared the plans.
"Isn't a direct battle royale for transcendent beings a little too brutal? And if they are all thrown together, the duration—"
The person in the main seat said, "It will proceed in stages. The first round ends once only 10% remain. The second round ends when only 10% remain, and so on, until only one million transcendent teams and individuals remain. Then the arena point system will begin!
"Also, the team event will be held after the individual event, with a limit of eighteen people per team!"
"As for Starfleets, since their enemies cannot possibly all be Starfleets, this time it will remain a point system," the person in the main seat said calmly.
"Then what about the enemies? Will they still be the Void Swarm and machine lifeforms? And what about the venue?" someone asked.
The middle-aged man in military uniform at the far left immediately stood.
"The venue will be a Dimensional World roughly five hundred million light-years in diameter. It has already been cleared and modified.
"In addition to deploying huge numbers of Void Zerg nests and machine engineering base clusters, some civilizations will also serve as enemies. The targets will be Level 5-6 Civilizations under advanced civilizations hostile to the Alliance.
"The Alliance Army will select those civilizations, then throw their entire territories into the Dimensional World along with them!
"Afterward, time within the Dimensional World will be accelerated by several months to ensure the Void Zerg and machines have time to develop."
The officer spoke as though he were discussing something utterly insignificant.
"The age limit for every event will be fifty!"
In the Alliance, fifty years old still counted as youth. Most people could participate in two leagues, once around the age of twenty and once around forty.
The first time was generally just to test the waters.
"The rewards will still be arranged by the financial department."
"Furthermore, only those whose Star Network ability evaluation reaches the standard may participate. Starfleets must at least reach the T7 Veteran Fleet level!"
"..."
"All right, the main matters have been confirmed. Begin preparations. Meeting adjourned!"
"May humanity's sprout flourish eternally!"
The plot and pacing seemed a little fast, but it would not matter before reaching the frontier. Once they reached the frontier, there would be more long story arcs, and the pace would naturally slow down.
Before you continue