He Runxian nearly dropped his communicator. "Aren't you mining illegally? You're really... fighting the Insect Race?"
His confusion was understandable. The war between the Insect Race and the Human Race had not started yesterday; small-scale battles could be found almost everywhere. Fighting the Insect Race was nothing unusual. Not fighting them was what made one an oddity.
It was perfectly normal for Mr. Broker to clash with the Insect Race. Never mind that privately mined Energy Stone Deposits were bound to spark disputes among all sides; just the fact that they could tunnel a passage from outside the galaxy to Xingzheng Star and transport massive quantities of supplies meant they could not possibly be pursuing peaceful profits.
But simply saying they were "fighting the Insect Race" was no longer referring to an ordinary battle. It meant a certain battlefront had taken shape. Especially since Mr. Broker had specified a galaxy, it was obvious that the situation had reached a stalemate.
He Runxian steadied himself and asked for confirmation. "How large is the battle?"
"Wasn't I clear enough?" Feng Jun asked in return. "The Folding-Ruler Galaxy. An entire galaxy."
He Runxian could not help drawing in a sharp breath. "You mean the scale of the fighting... involves an entire galaxy?"
Feng Jun was a little puzzled. "Folding-Ruler Galaxy is the name we use by default, but people in the Federation recognize that name too. Can't you look up information about that galaxy?"
"The Federation's names for galaxies are really a mess," He Runxian complained before asking, "Could you roughly describe the scale of the Insect Race forces there?"
Feng Jun laughed. "Do you think... you're qualified to have me report to you?"
"All right, I was being rude," He Runxian promptly admitted his mistake, but he could not help asking, "Is