Ye Chen rubbed the space between his brows, then turned to look at the enormous world map behind him.
The map marked the names of every country in the world during this era. The section belonging to the Yanhuang Empire stood out particularly clearly.
That was because, on the North American continent where the Yanhuang Empire was located, there was not a single other country surrounding it.
The map showed that the Yanhuang Empire's territory was absurdly vast, occupying two-thirds of the entire North American continent.
Yet most of this enormous territory was uninhabited. After all, the Yanhuang Empire had only so many people.
When the empire had first been established, its territory had amounted to only one percent of North America, and its total population had been less than a million.
Even the land it occupied back then had merely been hastily claimed and marked as part of the Yanhuang Empire. Many areas had been completely uninhabited.
Now, after two hundred years of development and population growth, most of the territory had gradually been filled with people.
Furthermore, ever since the Yanhuang Empire had been established, Ye Chen had continued developing the wilderness around it while expanding the population. In the past, however, poor transportation had limited the speed of expansion.
The empire's enormous territory had only reached this scale after entering the industrial age.
After the empire entered the industrial age, its economy took off. Once the transport routes became operational and the nationwide transportation network was connected, distance was no longer a problem. The empire's territorial expansion was practically like entering unoccupied land—there was not the slightest obstacle.
After all, across the entire North American continent, apart from the indigenous peoples, there was not even a mature country, let alone one capable of fighting.
After incorporating all of North America into the Yanhuang Empire, Ye Chen planned to begin forming the Three Armed Forces.
He would then launch a war of unification, using overwhelming force to swallow Asia, Europe, South America, Oceania, Africa, and Antarctica whole, thereby completing the unification of the world in the true sense.
By then, he would accumulate the resources and strength of the entire world, develop aerospace technology with all his might, prepare for the arrival of the Devourer Civilization several hundred years later, and keep the enemy beyond the stars.
As someone who knew the plot, he understood exactly what he would face in the future. The invasion of the Devourer Civilization and the war among the gods—neither would be simple.
Without the system, Ye Chen might have simply given up.
But now that he possessed the Civilization System, he believed that once the future events began, he would be able to raise the Yanhuang Empire's civilization level into the ranks of a second-level interstellar civilization. Dealing with the Devourer Civilization would then be no great problem.
As for dealing with the Demon Civilization and the Nether River Civilization, he would need to rely on the Angel Civilization to buy time and develop the Yanhuang Empire.
As long as he could stall for enough time to develop the empire into a third-level interstellar civilization and acquire spatial technology, then even if Kesha died, he would fear no civilization.
According to the Civilization System's classification, civilizations were divided into nine levels:
Below Level One was the Home Star Civilization. As the name implied, these were civilizations that were still unable to survive independently of their home star.
Home Star Civilizations were also known as low-level civilizations.
After the Home Star Civilization came the first-level interstellar civilization. Civilizations at this level were also known as Star System Level civilizations.
The dividing line was the initial resolution of the energy problem—that was, Controllable Nuclear Fusion.
Controllable Nuclear Fusion technology was the foundation for entering the stars. Without Controllable Nuclear Fusion, there was no way to obtain enough energy for long-distance travel through the universe.
A second-level interstellar civilization was known as Nebula Level. Its defining threshold was the development of a Faster-Than-Light Engine, namely a Warp Drive.
Within the second level, reaching the peak required the development of the three foundations of faster-than-light travel: a Faster-Than-Light Engine, a Faster-Than-Light Attack, and Faster-Than-Light Communication.
The hallmark of a third-level interstellar civilization was short-distance spatial jump technology, along with advances in various spatial weapons.
Civilizations at this level were also known as Galaxy Level civilizations. They were already capable of exploiting the resources of an entire galaxy.
The hallmark of a fourth-level galaxy civilization was possessing the technology for large-scale intergalactic jumps. Civilizations at this level were known as Star Territory Level civilizations.
As everyone knew, the distance between galaxies was astonishingly vast. Relying solely on faster-than-light travel or short-distance spatial wormholes to cross that distance was far too slow. A single round trip could take hundreds or even thousands of years.
The difference between third- and fourth-level civilizations was roughly divided according to the distance that could be crossed within a short period. In essence, it was a distinction based on the amount of resources they could obtain.
Just as an empire's strength was measured by the size of its territory, the larger its territory, the more resources it could exploit, and the stronger its civilization could become.
As for a fifth-level galaxy civilization, it was known as Inner Universe Level. A civilization at this level was an absolute ruler within the entire single universe.
That was because it possessed Dimensional Technology, allowing it to control the dimensional space of the parent universe. Through Dimensional Weapons, it could launch Dimensional Strikes against targets and even raise them to a higher dimension.
Such godlike methods were why civilizations at this level were also known as God-Level Civilizations.
A sixth-level civilization was known as Outer Universe Level. A civilization at this level could already survive independently of its parent universe. Even if the parent universe rebooted and returned to zero, it would not be affected.
A seventh-level civilization was known as Multiverse Level. As the name implied, it could traverse multiple universes.
According to the Civilization System's classification, the god-making civilizations in the Super God Universe could basically be compared to fourth-level interstellar civilizations. Both were capable of crossing large galaxies within a short period.
However, the god-making civilizations in the Super God Universe still differed from the fourth-level civilizations defined by the Civilization System.
That was because the god-making civilizations in the Super God Universe had developed in an extremely specialized direction, putting all their points into genetic technology and Dark Dimension technology. Their philosophy was that one person was a civilization—and an army.
Their method of development was a combination of genetics and the Dark Dimension.
To give an example, they had replicated every function of a spaceship within the Dark Dimension on a one-to-one basis.
Then, in the three-dimensional universe, they connected the data ports of those replicated functions inside the Dark Dimension to a person's body. Super God genes served as the password for those connections, making the human body equivalent to a humanoid spaceship.
That was the essence of the Super God system. As a result, it was very easy to counter. Once someone specifically severed the connection to the Dark Dimension, all those super soldiers and divine bodies would become nothing more than slightly tougher meat shields.
Moreover, the Dark Dimension in the Super God world was an extremely special existence. It was unique to that world. It both belonged to three-dimensional space and did not belong to three-dimensional space.
It was as if an artificially constructed object capable of storing matter and informational data had been placed around three-dimensional space like an outer shell.
As for the Dark Dimension, Ye Chen leaned toward the theory that it had been created by a fifth-level civilization with an enormous expenditure of resources, specifically to assist that civilization in ruling the universe.
Yet for some unknown reason, that God-Level Civilization had suddenly vanished, or perhaps left this universe, without destroying the Dark Dimension it had created.
If Ye Chen's guess was correct, then the Dark Dimension was equivalent to the legacy left behind by a fifth-level civilization.
When one whale falls, all things flourish. A single object left behind by a fifth-level civilization had allowed so many civilizations to benefit from it.
Sometimes, the gap between civilizations was truly absurdly vast.
This chapter contains quite a bit of worldbuilding and civilization classification, which should make things more intuitive for everyone. If any readers feel that something is inaccurate, I hope you'll point it out.
Before you continue