Research Underway

Maple Leaf Mining showed the Federation Ministry of Commerce's inspection team the utmost respect.

Even though they knew full well there was something fishy about it, they remained courteous throughout the journey and even took the initiative to dispatch a fleet as an escort.

Inside the observation deck, the Vice Minister watched the escorting warships, the smile from earlier gone from his face.

Although he was the Vice Minister of Commerce, anyone who regarded him as an ordinary official would be gravely mistaken.

The Blue Star Federation operated under both a parliamentary and cabinet system. The Minister of Commerce was a cabinet member, but the Vice Minister was unquestionably an elite who had climbed his way up step by step.

"A Dominator-class Battleship. What an ancient old relic."

Judging by its appearance alone, it was probably ninety percent similar.

Clearly, this was a new class of battleship developed on the foundation of the Dominator-class Battleship.

When it came to warship development, there was no need to preserve the exterior design.

Performance mattered far more than appearance, unless... someone wanted to conceal the source of the technology and had deliberately sacrificed performance.

That was why he had been willing to make the trip personally. If an alien civilization had intervened, it was not impossible for them to pull the wool over everyone's eyes.

Everyone said alien civilizations would never study the Blue Star Federation's technological path, because it simply was not worth the effort.

But what if the reward was an entire galaxy, or even more?

Then they would have the motivation. Deceiving everyone would not be impossible.

But he believed that a fake could never become real.

The fleet soon arrived at Maple Leaf Mining's warship factory.

This time, the warship factory opened a passage. All the Fortress Cannons retracted,