The Purpose

The officials of the Riken Civilization, feeling that they had just established relations with the Epoch Clan, and that the matter was mainly a problem with the Swarm, launched into a barrage of sarcastic remarks. Although they spoke politely, their words were practically accusing the Koya Alliance of bullying the weak and fearing the strong.

This statement angered the Koya Alliance. What was originally a meeting where only the Duoqi Race spoke gradually turned into a verbal attack by multiple tribes. Even the leader of the Koya Alliance, the Koriato people, stepped forward.

The Koriato people are very robust. There were five members of the tribe present, all of whom, both men and women, were over two meters tall, and their hair was very thick and, after careful grooming, made them look as beautiful as lions.

Unfortunately, even with these "lions" personally taking part, the Riken Race remained unyielding in the face of their extremely demanding requirements.

The Riken Race are now experiencing the benefits of being surrounded by the Swarm; if they want to attack them, they must get past the Swarm. These fifty-odd warships were ignored by the Swarm because they posed no threat, but if the enemy were to launch a full-scale invasion, the Swarm would certainly not stand idly by.

Of course, the person in question needs to give a definitive answer first.

So the Swarm received sneaky inquiries from the Riken Race, though these were all done openly, for the benefit of the native Riken who hadn't yet been converted into Intellect.

After receiving a positive response from the Swarm, the Riken Race official in charge of negotiations immediately felt much more confident. Although he didn't know if the Swarm could actually withstand the Alliance of more than twenty civilizations, even if the Swarm couldn't hold out, it wouldn't be too late to back down after the Swarm were defeated.

With the Star Sea Alliance's rules in place, how could they possibly wipe out the entire Riken Race? As for compensation, the Riken Race only has 110,000 points. Even if they pay it all, it'll be about the same as what the other side is demanding now.

As a result of this mindset, the two sides were locked in a fierce standoff, refusing to yield to each other. The discussions continued for more than two months without any progress.

The Koya Alliance is sticking to its original conditions, while Ricken's side is saying they'll play along to the bitter end and won't compromise. At most, they'll pass on a message and let the Swarm talk to them themselves.

Meanwhile, Koya thought to himself, "If we can talk, why do we need you to pass on a message? Why don't we just go directly to their door?" But the Swarm had recently been getting closer to the Telo Civilization, and given their powerful physical bodies, they were far less easy to handle than Riken.

Moreover, their main purpose this time was to use the Duoqi incident to see if they could get some benefits from Ricken, or at the very least, obtain some materials related to the Life-Extending Serum.

No secret stays hidden forever. The Epoch Clan obtained valuable items from the Riken Race, so much so that even the warships left behind for missions had to be sent back. Furthermore, since the Epoch Clan is comprised of immigrants from various ethnic groups, news about the Life-Extending Serum had already spread like wildfire in various small circles.

The Koya Alliance, with its geographical advantage, naturally wants to get a piece of the pie first, and they need to hurry. Otherwise, once this data enters the Epoch Clan's exchange list, its value will be more than just double. No matter how crude the technology is on Riken's side, this thing was bought by the Epoch Clan for 10,000 points, so the selling price will be at least several times higher.

If we can exploit this time difference and extract some materials from the Riken Race, we can save a lot of points. Points are valuable; the more the better, and every little bit saved counts.

But now, as time goes by, the Ricken people remain unmoved by their attempts to persuade them with both soft and hard tactics, making the Ricken people furious.

Originally, they planned to launch a massive military offensive; the alliance could easily muster tens of thousands of warships. However, the Riken Race's location was somewhat awkward, surrounded by Swarm bases. Although the Alliance's data didn't reveal much about the Swarm's true strength, the Koya Alliance could glean some insights from the Telo Civilization's previous attitude towards the Swarm.

After all, the Telo Civilization Locke Mutual Aid Society civilization, is an old rival of their Koya Alliance. They are all vying for influence in the outer circle, and have engaged in countless open and covert struggles with each other, so they know each other inside and out. The Telo Civilization warriors may seem honest and simple, but they are actually quite shrewd. The fact that they are being so polite to the Swarm means that the Swarm must be quite powerful.

It's one thing to bully the weak over a matter of a few hundred thousand points, but it would be a loss to rashly offend a powerful force over it.

However, because of this incident, the various civilizations also had some reservations about the Swarm. In addition, the Duoqi Civilization kept stirring things up from the sidelines, and the feelings of the many civilizations in the Koya Alliance towards the Swarm gradually rose from reservations to resentment, and then to hatred.

Unfortunately, this world ultimately comes down to fists. Although their anger was rising, they dared not unleash it on the Swarm.

Strictly speaking, it's not that they dare not, but rather that they have reservations. The Swarm is, after all, a newly emerging civilization that appeared suddenly. To date, their only achievements are defeating a small, uncivilized tribe and fighting a war against the Duoqi Civilization. Moreover, in that war, the Duoqi Civilization only deployed a little over two thousand warships.

However, the Swarm's forces weren't large back then. Although they didn't know the Swarm's current strength, they had seen countless Space Octopus on their way to their Mother Planet, Recon, when they passed by the star. While these creatures didn't seem particularly strong in terms of combat power, their sheer numbers made them quite troublesome.

If their alliance sends troops but fails to annihilate such a new force as the Swarm in one fell swoop, wouldn't that make them a laughing stock in front of the Locke Society? After all, at their level, when they can't actually take action, saving face is the most important thing.

However, this is because they were unaware that the Duoqi Civilization had once organized an attack on the Swarm, only to retreat after a brief engagement. The Duoqi Civilization, feeling ashamed, deleted all records of that operation, and the official response was vehemently negative. Although some rumors circulated, few believed them due to the mix of truth and falsehood.

The Duoqi Civilization also had ulterior motives, not even informing their alliance of the true situation. If the Koya Alliance had known the true combat strength of the Swarm at that time, they probably wouldn't have these thoughts now.

With nothing much to do, Rowan focused some of his attention on the activities of the Riken Race. As one of the parties involved in their dispute, Rowan was actually hoping that they would reach a conclusion as soon as possible.

Because those Duoqi Race captives had been with the Swarm for decades, they were indeed very "homesick" and wanted to return to their mother tribe and to their relatives and friends. Unfortunately, the Duoqi Civilization was simply too unhelpful.

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