Ye Chen rubbed his temples, then turned to look at the enormous world map behind him.
The map showed the names of all the countries around the world at this time. The territory belonging to the Yanhuang Empire stood out in particular.
That was because, apart from the Yanhuang Empire, there were no other countries in the surrounding area of the North American landmass.
The map made it clear that the Yanhuang Empire's territory was unbelievably vast, covering two-thirds of the entire continent of North America.
Most of that enormous territory was uninhabited, after all, the Yanhuang Empire had only so many people.
When the empire was first founded, its territory had amounted to just one percent of all North America, and its population had been less than a million.
Even the land it occupied back then had merely been claimed on paper and incorporated into the Yanhuang Empire's borders. Much of it was uninhabited.
Now, after two hundred years of development and population growth, most of its territory had gradually filled with people.
Ever since the Yanhuang Empire was founded, Ye Chen had continued opening up the surrounding wilderness even as he developed the population. But poor transportation had once limited the pace of expansion.
The empire had only reached its current vast size after entering the industrial age.
Once the empire entered the industrial age, its economy took off, and transport routes became usable. With a nationwide transportation network in place, distance was no longer an issue. The empire expanded its territory as if moving through an empty land, without the slightest resistance.
After all, aside from the indigenous people, there were no established countries anywhere in North America. There wasn't a single opponent worth worrying about.
Ye Chen planned to incorporate all of North America into the Yanhuang Empire, then establish its army, navy, and air force.
After that, he would launch a war of unification, using overwhelming force to swallow up Asia, Europe, South America, Oceania, Africa, and Antarctica, thereby achieving the unification of the entire world in the truest sense.
Then, with the resources and strength of the entire world at his disposal, he would focus on developing Aerospace Technology and prepare for the Taotie Civilization's arrival centuries later, keeping the enemy beyond the stars.
As someone who knew the plot, he understood what he would face in the future. Neither the Taotie Civilization's invasion nor the gods' all-out war would be easy to handle.
Without the system, Ye Chen might have just given up.
But now that he had the Civilization System, he believed that by the time the future story began, he could raise the Yanhuang Empire's civilization level to that of a Level 2 Interstellar Civilization. Then, dealing with the Taotie Civilization wouldn't be much of a problem.
As for the Demon Civilization and the Styx Civilization, he would have to rely on the Angel Civilization to buy time for the Yanhuang Empire to develop.
As long as he could hold out until he developed the empire into a Level 3 Interstellar Civilization and acquired spatial technology, he wouldn't fear any civilization, even if Keisha died.
According to the Civilization System, civilizations were divided into nine levels:
Below Level 1 were Homeworld Civilizations. As the name suggested, they were civilizations that still couldn't survive away from their homeworld.
Homeworld Civilizations were also known as low-level civilizations.
The next level was the Level 1 Interstellar Civilization, also known as the Star System Level.
The benchmark was the initial solution to the energy problem: controlled nuclear fusion.
Controlled nuclear fusion technology was the foundation for venturing into space. Without it, a civilization simply couldn't obtain enough energy for long-distance travel through the universe.
Level 2 Interstellar Civilizations were known as Nebula Level. The benchmark was developing faster-than-light engines, or warp drives.
At the peak of Level 2, a civilization needed to develop three basic faster-than-light technologies: faster-than-light engines, faster-than-light attacks, and faster-than-light communications.
The mark of a Level 3 Interstellar Civilization was short-range spatial-jump technology, along with advancements in various spatial weapons.
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This level of civilization was also known as Galaxy Level. Civilizations at this level could exploit the resources of an entire galaxy.
The hallmark of a Level 4 Galaxy Civilization was large-scale intergalactic jump technology. Civilizations of this level were known as Star Domain Level.
As everyone knew, the distances between galaxies were immense. Crossing them using only faster-than-light travel or short-range spatial wormhole jumps took far too long. A round trip could take hundreds or even thousands of years.
The rough dividing line between Level 3 and Level 4 civilizations was the distance they could cross in a short time. At its core, the distinction came down to how many resources they could obtain.
It was like how an empire's strength was measured by the size of its territory: the larger its domain, the more resources it could mine, and the stronger its civilization could become.
Level 5 Galaxy Civilizations were known as Inner Universe Level. Within a single universe, civilizations of this level were absolute rulers.
That was because they possessed dimensional technology, allowing them to control the dimensional space of their parent universe and use dimensional weapons to reduce it to lower dimensions or raise it to higher ones.
Such godlike methods had also earned civilizations of this level the name God-level Civilizations.
Level 6 Civilizations were known as Outer Universe Level. They could survive beyond their parent universe, and even if it restarted and returned to zero, they would remain unaffected.
Level 7 Civilizations were known as Multiverse Level. As the name suggested, they could travel between multiple universes.
According to the Civilization System's classification, the God-making Civilizations in the Super God Universe could basically be equated with Level 4 Interstellar Civilizations. Both could cross vast galaxies in a short time.
However, the God-making Civilizations in the Super God Universe differed from Level 4 civilizations as defined by the system.
That was because the God-making Civilizations in the Super God Universe had developed in an extremely lopsided way, putting all their technological advances into genetic and Dark Dimension technology. They believed that a single person could be a civilization, a single person could be an army.
Their approach combined genetics with the Dark Dimension.
For example, they replicated every function of a spaceship, one-to-one, in the Dark Dimension.
Then, in the three-dimensional universe, they connected the data for those replicated functions in the Dark Dimension to a person. Super God Gene served as the password for the connection, making the human body equivalent to a humanoid spaceship.
That was the essence of the Super God system. As a result, it was easy to counter. If someone specifically severed the connection to the Dark Dimension, then all those Super Soldiers and divine bodies would be nothing more than meat shields with a bit of extra health.
The Dark Dimension in the Super God Universe was also very peculiar, because it was unique to that world. It both belonged to three-dimensional space and didn't belong to it.
It was like an artificially made object wrapped around three-dimensional space, capable of storing matter and information.
Ye Chen suspected that this Dark Dimension had been created by some Level 5 Civilization at an enormous cost, specifically to help it govern the universe.
But for some reason, that God-level Civilization had suddenly disappeared, or left the universe, without destroying the Dark Dimension it had created.
If Ye Chen's guess was right, then the Dark Dimension was a legacy left behind by a Level 5 Civilization.
When a giant whale fell, all life flourished. Even a single object left behind by a Level 5 Civilization had benefited so many other civilizations.
Sometimes, the gap between civilizations was truly absurd.
This chapter covered quite a bit of worldbuilding and civilization classifications, so everyone can get a clearer picture. If you spot anything that seems off, please point it out.
Before you continue