Intern Lord

After the twenty-third century, with artificial intelligence flourishing and numerous recyclable energy technologies becoming reality, coupled with the Earth Federation's population control measures, resources were no longer scarce. As a result, humanity's enthusiasm for exploring outer space had waned considerably.

The various countries' Mars Bases were often left unoccupied year-round, and map exploration had grown increasingly lackadaisical. In that lax state, no one noticed that a base had quietly been established somewhere on Mars.

A cold intelligent mechanical voice rang out inside the base: "Reporting to the host: the energy Conversion Device has been installed, the exploration vehicles have been assembled, and the essence extractor has been installed. All that's needed now is a group of well-trained miners, and we can begin organizing the extraction of Fire Ant Mine!"

The only living being in the base, a tall and handsome lord, sat helplessly on the ground. "Where am I supposed to get the manpower? What happened to those endless citizens you promised?"

"Please remain calm, host. According to the human market's organizational regulations, game approval takes four hours. Even after approval, the game will need some time to gain traction before entering the market."

"Is this plan really reliable?" The lord asked doubtfully.

"Given the host's poor conditions, this intelligence has already calculated that there are no other viable methods!"

At those words, the handsome lord's face twitched slightly, but he could not utter a single word of rebuttal...

His meager conditions were indeed his most pressing problem at the moment.

His name was Xi Ye Aierdia, an intern lord who had graduated from the Celestial Group's university in the Great Universe Federation. Although he had successfully graduated through his own efforts and obtained the Celestial Bloodline, earning the qualifications to become an interstellar lord under the Great Federation's regulations, his limited resources made it extremely difficult for him to compete with the other intern lords who had graduated alongside him!

The others either had money or connections. When recruiting interstellar citizens, they possessed enormous appeal. But what about him? Back then, in order to evolve himself, he had nearly exhausted his entire family's resources. After graduation, he could not even afford a poor Ninth-Grade Planet, making the task of recruiting underlings exceptionally difficult!

One had to understand that the harsher a planet's environment was, the lower the chance of recruiting outstanding citizens. Citizen employment in the Great Federation was based on mutual choice. If better conditions were available, why would anyone come work on your lousy planet?

A Ninth-Grade Planet was a wretched place where even the lowest-ranking Black Goblin would refuse to stay. Xi Ye had once inquired about it: to recruit a Black Goblin on a Ninth-Grade Planet, he would have to offer a monthly salary of at least thirty God Coins... What kind of joke was that? When he had been in school, his monthly living expenses had only been thirty God Coins!

Even for such a trash planet, he had only been able to purchase it by taking out a loan under his Celestial Group identity. Not many institutions were willing to lend money to an intern, and even when they were, the interest rates were terrifying. With no other choice, Xi Ye could only purchase a Space Battleship and begin the method most commonly used by impoverished lords: searching for a new Life Star System as an explorer!

This was practically the least secure method imaginable. Any lord with even a little family wealth would never choose it. The universe was boundless, yet star systems capable of forming a life belt were pitifully rare. Many lords who embarked on this path might drift through the universe until their deaths without finding a single Life Star System.

But he had been lucky. After drifting for less than ten thousand years, he discovered the Milky Way Galaxy while accidentally passing through a wormhole and found the azure planet known as Planet D!

Its structure was perfect. Whether it was atmospheric composition, terrain, water content, or any other aspect, everything was exceptionally favorable. By the usual rating standards, it was at least a Level 7 Star.

Level seven! In their Cosmic Federation, a Level 7 Star was worth a hundred times as much as a Ninth-Grade Planet. Moreover, it was something money could not buy. On the Black Market, even if you offered two hundred Ninth-Grade Planets in exchange, no one would likely agree to the deal!

Not only that, but the several planets orbiting this Solar System also possessed tremendous development value according to his scans. With proper development, they could at the very least become Level 8 Life Planets!

This was practically a perfect start!!!

His first thought upon discovering this place had been to conquer Planet D!

According to the laws of the Cosmic Federation, interstellar lords possessed the right to conquer and colonize worlds beyond their borders, as well as the power of life and death over civilizations that had not joined the Federation. This law had been established to encourage the Federation's already abundant Celestial Group members to explore the outer domains. Put bluntly, it was meant to trick a bunch of penniless paupers like them into venturing out and making their fortunes!

But after calming down, Xi Ye discovered a problem!

He seemed...

To lack the ability to conquer this planet...

When he had purchased the Space Battleship, he had spent all his money on basic infrastructure: a foldable primitive Base Vehicle, various sophisticated production and extraction instruments, high-quality biological specimens, and some basic materials. As for weaponry, he had only installed the cheapest Compression Cannon!

Because from the very beginning, he had never imagined that he could find a planet with a complete civilization. His best-case estimate had been to find a Ninth-Grade Planet near a naturally ignited star, then slowly transform its environment using the basic supplies aboard the ship, introduce biological specimens, gradually form a relatively complete food chain, and finally guide some high-quality organisms to evolve, striving to nurture a highly intelligent life-form within a hundred thousand years...

That had already been his best original estimate. Yet he had never expected to be this lucky—to stumble into a completely mature Life Star System with several billion intelligent life-forms!

He had never even dreamed that he would encounter such a natural treasure trove. It seemed all that goblin dung he had stepped in on To'er Planet had not been for nothing!!

The embarrassing part now was that he could watch such an enormous treasure trove right before his eyes, yet had no way to lay hands on it!

This civilization leaned toward materialism and possessed a complete anti-air missile system. With only his one Space Battleship, which could deploy nothing but Compression Cannons, and his rudimentary divine power, it was impossible for him to single-handedly conquer and rule this planet!

He could not win a fight, and that was seriously awkward...

After three months of observation, he and the intelligent system provided with the ship had calculated more than seventeen million invasion methods. Some even involved infiltrating the internal political sphere to control humanity. Yet none of them had yielded a success probability higher than twenty percent...

Should he send a signal and hand this planet over to the Federation in exchange for resources?

Given the planet's potential, the resources he received in exchange would certainly be substantial. But he was unwilling. He could not bear to watch such an obvious opportunity to rise to prominence slip away just like that!

Just as he was growing unbearably anxious, the ship's intelligent system proposed a method with a relatively high success rate!

It named this method Star Sea Mode. The idea was to deceive people into providing labor, then quietly develop his own forces under the watchful eyes of Planet D's federal government!

The method of deception was to make use of the virtual network game that had just begun gaining popularity on Planet D!

"Please take note, host. The Teleportation Device has been activated. Three life-forms are currently being teleported!"

Xi Ye's spirits lifted at the words. He hurriedly stood up, put on his helmet, and shouted with solemn enthusiasm at the humans who had just emerged from the teleportation gate: "Welcome to Star Sea, brave explorers! Come, quickly sign the contract and become citizens under the great Lord Xi Ye!"