Whether it was the Material Star Realm of the Lower Dimensional Time-Space back then, or the broader dimensional spaces of the Higher Dimensional Plane today.
All World Civilizations and races within them were, in essence, "participants" in this cross-dimensional competition.
The development of civilization had always been a race against time.
And the key that sustained this prolonged competition and determined the rise and fall of civilizations lay in that single word: "fight."
Some might wonder why those World Civilizations that chose conservative development and actively avoided Dimensional Plane Wars and related Interest Disputes would inexplicably find themselves losing money amid the increasingly white-hot conflict between Light Universe Time-Space and Gear Time-Space, even being unknowingly cast behind by the times and gradually forced into passivity.
To understand this question, one could begin with the simplest and most representative example.
Take Salamander Grayke of Bewilderment Time-Space. The interstellar merchant fleet he led had once purchased a batch of special metals produced in Gear Time-Space from the Mechanical Civilization ruled by the Mechanical God Emperor.
These special metals were extremely scarce and contained dimensional energy unique to Gear Time-Space, giving them exceptionally high practical value in Cross-dimensional Plane Transactions.
When Salamander Grayke purchased them from the Mechanical Civilization, the unit price he paid already far exceeded the average price of those metals in Gear Time-Space Homeland. It was equivalent to directly allowing the Mechanical Civilization to earn a hefty price difference, making it the first-tier beneficiary of the transaction.
Yet even after paying such exorbitant procurement costs, when the merchant group led by Salamander Grayke resold these special metals to civilizations in other Dimensional Time-Spaces, the dumping price they set was far higher than the overall average price of similar metals in the time-space where they were sold, thus earning even more