Military Spending and the Explosion of Technological Progress

A lengthy and comprehensive discussion, spanning both ancient and modern times.

Speaker Delrin first gave a brief overview of the Riken Person, and then spoke about the serious test they were facing.

Unlike before.

Previous wars were all civil wars among the Riken Race, so even if they lost, they had a way out.

But this is a war against a different race, and if we lose, we may very well face the extinction of our race.

When the nest is overturned, no egg remains unbroken.

Therefore, we must not harbor any illusions. This war against the alien race is a must, and it must be fought decisively, ideally resulting in a one-time annihilation of the enemy.

After stirring up public sentiment and righteous indignation, Delrin gradually shifted the focus to the crux of the problem.

Money!

War costs money.

Even launching a regular war requires a huge amount of initial funding.

Not to mention that this time, it is a war between civilizations, an intergalactic expedition.

And this will require an astronomical figure.

The Federation alone cannot afford such a huge military expenditure.

But this war concerns everyone. No matter who it is, whether for themselves, their families, or their race, everyone has an obligation to support this expedition.

At the end of his speech, His Excellency the Speaker called on all citizens to participate in this major event and contribute to the military budget to the best of their ability.

Of course, relying solely on self-discipline is definitely not enough.

Taking advantage of the situation, the Federal Council introduced a war tax, which was levied on all citizens.

Normally, such a thing would never have passed, and even if it did, the parliament building would be trampled to pieces by angry citizens. But now, the timing is perfect. In the midst of public outrage, even if a small minority disagrees, it's futile. Under the influence of public opinion, anyone who disagrees is seen as a traitor to their race.

Therefore, this tax was levied in a logical and straightforward manner.

At the same time, major corporations and families, as long as they have a reputation, made large donations.

The figures were laid bare, shocking the Riken Person who still harbored some complaints about the war tax. They couldn't understand why this group, usually so stingy, was now so proactive—were they truly so enlightened?

However, this spurred a wave of donations among the Riken Race. Under the covert guidance of various forces, it eventually escalated to the point where those who donated little were embarrassed to even go out and greet others.

With a massive influx of funds, any individual or group attempting to profit from the scheme were swiftly eliminated. All funds were ensured to be invested in the military's development.

All accounts were made public, and the use of funds was more transparent than in any previous project. The Riken Person were delighted to find that the council was truly doing something. In addition to giving the council high praise, they secretly speculated that the crisis might be more serious than they had imagined.

This sparked a new wave of donations.

The Riken Star System, also known as the M37 Star System marked by the Swarm, has ten planets. The Riken Race's Mother Planet is the fourth, and it has two moons. A hundred years ago, before the Cat's Eye spaceship even set sail, the Riken Race established their initial space city on their Mother Planet's first moon.

In the following years, the number of space cities increased, and Satellite One gradually developed into Colony One.

Soon after the Cat's Eye spacecraft launched, the construction of a space city began on the second satellite.

Just as the third space city was being built on Second Satellite, the Riken Person made some startling discoveries.

They unearthed a spaceship!

The spaceship is over 500 meters long and made of an unknown metal. The Riken Race deduced from the geological analysis of the area surrounding it that the spaceship had been buried there for tens of thousands of years.

Although we don't know how it got here, it's been unclaimed for tens of thousands of years, so it seems this spaceship is ownerless.

After several years, the Riken Race finally opened the ship's doors, only to find that the defenses inside had long since ceased functioning due to energy depletion.

This is practically a perfect start, straight out of a novel.

The technology contained in the spaceship was several levels ahead of the Riken Race. By reverse engineering the technology of these devices, it was clear that the Riken's technological level was advancing by leaps and bounds.

In just a few decades, their technological level has increased several times over.

A simple example is a spaceship that could only reach one-tenth the speed of light by relying on Light Sail and accelerating over long distances. Now, with the latest Propulsion Engine, it can easily reach that speed, and its top speed can even reach one-fifth the speed of light.

In other words, spaceships equipped with the new engines can reach the Proxima Star System in just over twenty years.

It was precisely because of this rapid technological advancement that the Riken Race successfully transformed the third planet in the star system, which was named Guiyun Planet, into their Colony Three and have kept it under their control ever since.

Now, in the outer orbit of the fifth planet named Liwen Planet, space factories have been completed.

These shipyards began construction more than a decade ago, which, if we calculate the timeline, should be around the period when the Cat Ear Spaceship approached the Proxima Star System and detected Godzilla's Thermonuclear Breath.

It seems this plan started a long time ago, and perhaps the previous speaker was involved. Even without the alien attack on the Cat Ear Spaceship, those people could probably fabricate some reason to achieve a similar effect.

If Rowan were here, he would surely comment, "That's right." After all, the Swarm Meteor had only been traveling for a few years from Proxima Star System and had only traveled about one light-year. It would still take decades to reach the Riken Star System. The fact that the other side faked a meteorite impact is practically an attempt to "prank" the Swarm.

However, their actions were a lucky accident. But what will they think when they actually reach the Proxima Star System and discover that a biological civilization is indeed hidden there, possessing Biological Weapon similar to Godzilla, or even stronger?

It must have been incredibly sour and refreshing.

The once quiet Guiyun Planet gradually became lively, with countless spaceships from companies, teams, and individuals arriving to sell asteroids they had towed back from other places to the shipyard.

The massive military spending raised is seen by these capitalist forces as a feast. No one will let this opportunity pass by and try to get a share of it.

The asteroids are heated directly in the shipyard's space smelting furnace using magnetic fields and melted into various metal solutions. These solutions are then assembled and cast into various metal modules and parts, before being sent to the shipyard's assembly center for splicing.

With the combined efforts of over 10 billion people of the Riken Race, warships of various specifications were quickly assembled, then taken over by the military, and personnel were dispatched to conduct operational drills.

As time passed, Delrin overwhelmingly defeated all his opponents and began his second term as Speaker of the Parliament.