Chapter Summaries

Xi Yan and Bai Fengfeng negotiated a trade treaty between the Interstellar Human Military Junta and the United Nations of Earth, exchanging technologies and migrants for Energy Credits and military support. The two governments finalized the agreement, including a trade route, embassies, and corvettes, strengthening their alliance against the Dragon Offense Corporation.

• Xi Yan persuaded Bai Fengfeng to agree to embassies, passage for large vessels, and a migration treaty, offering 300 Energy Credits monthly and a future increase.
• Xi Yan told Secretary of State Ailiveer to begin preparing the treaty after their call.
• Bai Fengfeng convened the United Nations of Earth's cabinet, which approved trading technologies and sending surplus unemployed people to Xi Yan's empire.
• The Human Federation and the Interstellar Human Military Junta finalized a treaty providing 300 Energy Credits monthly for ten years, rising to 400 after two years, in exchange for technologies and one hundred million migrants.
• The treaty established embassies and a large-vessel trade route, and the United Nations of Earth agreed to provide escorts and transfer ten retired corvettes to Xi Yan.

Xi Yan exploited the migration treaty with the United Nations of Earth while putting the technology he had obtained to work across his empire. After two quiet months, a new diplomatic message from the M'tok prompted him to rush to the foreign ministry.

• Xi Yan ordered a campaign to attract United Nations of Earth citizens, planned to confine them to production jobs, and directed imperial agencies to create more work.
• Xi Yan gave the Academy of Sciences eighteen technologies from the United Nations of Earth, including resource-production upgrades and Starhold Technology, and urged the scientists to research them.
• Xi Yan learned that destroyer technology would take five to seven years to complete, then promised the Academy of Sciences priority access to imperial resources.
• Xi Yan set a development agenda focused on expansion, resource extraction, and scientific research, and approved plans to implement the new production technologies.
• Xi Yan assigned citizens to work at distant space-mining stations, rotating them out annually, while the M'tok made no moves for two months.
• Xi Yan hurried to the foreign ministry after learning that the M'tok had sent a new diplomatic communication with a different attitude.

Xi Yan received a sudden apology and trade proposal from the M'tok Union, then ordered his diplomats to remain courteous while he investigated their motives. He visited [Ashes] headquarters, where its agents pledged their loyalty, and met the spymaster Dias Stewart.

• The M'tok Union apologized to Xi Yan and proposed friendly trade, and Xi Yan agreed to discuss it through ambassadors.
• Xi Yan told the diplomats to stay calm and courteous toward aliens until he understood the M'tok Union's behavior.
• Xi Yan traveled to [Ashes] headquarters in the Ring World's undeveloped β segment to meet its spymaster.
• The masked agents at [Ashes] headquarters knelt before Xi Yan, and he delivered a speech urging them to serve him and the empire.
• Xi Yan met the organization's leader, Dias Stewart, who declared that [Ashes] would give its lives for him.

Xi Yan reviewed [Ashes]’ intelligence network and ordered its agents in the M'tok Union kept safe. The chapter then introduced Krauk Lee, a devoted agent sent there to gather intelligence, whose future accomplishments remained unknown.

• Dias Stewart told Xi Yan that [Ashes] had trained agents and planted informants throughout Imperial society.
• Dias reported that the first agents had entered M'tok Union territory under different identities to gather intelligence.
• Xi Yan asked to see the agents’ files and told Dias to protect them.
• Krauk Lee’s years of hardship led him to support Xi Yan after the Marshal ended capitalist oppression and provided for workers.
• Krauk joined [Ashes], trained as an agent, and was dispatched to the M'tok Union.

Krauk and his agents entered M'tok Union space and tried to begin their mission by presenting themselves as peaceful refugees. After the aliens discovered the valuable energy batteries aboard their ship, Krauk and his crew were invited to negotiate aboard the aliens' flagship.

• Krauk recalled pledging his life to the Marshal and told an agent their chances of surviving the mission were one in ten.
• M'tok Union warships intercepted Krauk's transport, and he ordered the agents to stop and surrender so they could infiltrate alien society.
• A member of the Stone People recognized Krauk as a human from a species with which they had recently established diplomatic relations.
• An alien discovered the transport carried tens of thousands of Eri in High-Energy Batteries, making the aliens wary of Krauk's possible powerful connections.
• After receiving a human-language translation file, Krauk explained that they came in peace and asked to speak with the aliens.
• The aliens lowered their weapons and invited Krauk and his agents aboard their flagship to negotiate.

Krauk and his agents posed as human refugees while meeting the alien Community Security Fleet. Gorpious accepted them as guests, though Greger remained suspicious of their identities.

• Krauk and the agents boarded a mixed-species corvette and were escorted to its bridge, where the insectoid Gorpious questioned them.
• Krauk claimed they were merchant-family refugees fleeing a coup in their homeland, and the Stone Person Greger challenged their story.
• Krauk described how Xi Yan had persecuted wealthy merchants and their families, answering Gorpious's questions while leaving deliberate flaws in his account.
• Greger warned Krauk that he would remain on guard, but Gorpious declared the humans guests and introduced himself as leader of the Community Security Fleet.
• Krauk introduced himself as Krauk Li and offered greetings on behalf of the human exiles, and Gorpious said he liked his politeness.

Krauk and his agents were coerced by Gorpious into investing their money in the Community Security Fleet and joining it, hoping to stay alive and gather intelligence for the empire. After the agents were moved to a transport, Gorpious’s crew searched their ship and found hidden high-energy batteries worth over a million Eri.

• Gorpious threatened Krauk and his agents with losing their safety unless they invested in the Community Security Fleet.
• Krauk agreed to invest and join the fleet, hiding his anger while remaining committed to the Marshal and the empire.
• The agents were moved to comfortable rooms aboard a converted transport, where Krauk warned them to speak carefully and publicly praised their new hosts.
• Gorpious’s crew searched the agents’ ship and found hidden high-energy batteries worth over a million Eri, along with inferior small weapons.
• Gorpious ordered his crew to treat the humans well and head back to the Stellar Base to arrange a banquet.

Krauk and the human agents attended a lavish banquet at the Stellar Base, where they blended in with the alien mercenaries while gathering intelligence. Gorpious suspected they were plotting and decided to assign Krauk a ship and disperse the humans among different ships.

• Gorpious welcomed Krauk and the human agents to the banquet and told Greger to treat them with respect because they had provided a transport ship and several million eri.
• Gorpious served and ate a roasted intelligent alien while the guests ate food suited to their different species.
• Krauk and the agents chatted with the aliens and quietly gathered intelligence without revealing their purpose.
• After the banquet, Krauk's group gathered in his room to pool their findings.
• Gorpious learned that the humans had met in Krauk's room and ordered an aide to assign Krauk a ship and split the humans among different ships.

Xi Yan arranged intelligence gathering on the M'tok Union, prepared a trade shipment and received ten retired corvettes from the United Nations of Earth. As the energy-credit transport began its year-long escorted voyage, Xi Yan turned to preparing defenses and jobs for the workers expected to arrive.

• Xi Yan learned that synth research would take ten years and berated the Academy of Sciences for its slow progress.
• Xi Yan received a joint report on trade and population transfers with the United Nations of Earth as his territory reached the Stone People's border.
• Xi Yan filled a specialized transport with 1K energy credits and sent it toward the United Nations of Earth under fleet escort.
• Ten retired United Nations of Earth corvettes arrived in Xi Yan's territory, and he ordered one ship's components dismantled for reverse engineering.
• Xi Yan began planning defenses against the M'tok Union and arranging jobs for the workers expected from the United Nations of Earth.

Xi Yan reviewed Krauk's intelligence on the divided M'tok Union and considered exploiting its corporate rivalries and species tensions. Meanwhile, the United Nations of Earth prepared to send workers to the Interstellar Human Military Junta by rounding up criminals and encouraging unemployed people to immigrate.

• Xi Yan read Krauk's detailed intelligence report and learned that the M'tok Union was an alliance of corporations with widespread alien populations and internal divisions.
• Xi Yan considered stirring up conflict between the M'tok Enterprise and rival factions, as well as exploiting tensions between M'tok and other species.
• Six months earlier, the United Nations of Earth's fleet returned to Deneb with the batteries, which were unloaded and sent to the colonies in exchange for energy credits.
• The United Nations of Earth promised to send at least ten million workers and began organizing immigration applications.
• The United Nations of Earth arrested gang members and transported them toward the Interstellar Human Military Junta, while advertising immigration to unemployed residents.

The United Nations of Earth sent a full colony ship of immigrants toward the Interstellar Human Military Junta, while a M'tok Union delegation arrived at Amaterro System. Sunxia Xiachuan welcomed the arrogant aliens under Xi Yan’s orders, and Xi Yan began planning how to deal with them.

• The United Nations of Earth filled twenty million immigration places, and the colony ship departed without a fleet escort.
• A disarmed M'tok Union stone destroyer docked at the Starport in the Amaterro System.
• Sunxia Xiachuan welcomed the M'tok ambassador despite the Stone People insulting humanity and Amat Eiro II.
• A short alien sage greeted Sunxia Xiachuan on behalf of the delegation, while Xi Yan watched through a hidden camera.
• Sunxia Xiachuan invited the aliens to their prepared embassy, and Xi Yan vowed to torment them.

Xi Yan arranged a deliberately hostile welcome for the M'tok diplomatic delegation, which had come to a northern human city built for lithoid envoys. The delegation entered its embassy and was immediately surrounded by reporters, leaving the M'tok Ambassador angry and Xi Yan delighted as his show began.

• Xi Yan gleefully imagined exploiting the Stone People while scientists studied the M'tok bodies and identified Amat Eiro II's northern regions as suitable for them.
• Humanity established a steel colonial city on the frozen ice field to house the Stone People's envoys and prepare for future exotic-gas extraction.
• The M'tok Ambassador crawled out of an unsuitable passenger ship and complained to Sunxia Xiachuan, who calmly directed the delegation toward its embassy.
• A short, frog-headed alien rebuked Sunxia Xiachuan, while Xi Yan swore at the aliens through his headset.
• Xi Yan ordered reporters to rush the M'tok delegation with questions, and the angry Ambassador told them to stay away.

Xi Yan staged a confrontation between the M'tok Union delegation and human reporters to generate hostile news coverage, while Sunxia Xiachuan maintained flawless diplomatic manners. The delegation moved into its embassy wary of a human conspiracy, giving Xi Yan time to prepare before meeting them.

• Xi Yan and Sunxia Xiachuan staged a clash in which the M'tok ambassador struck reporters, and soldiers and police cleared the resulting chaos.
• Sunxia Xiachuan apologized to the furious ambassador while reporters secretly recorded the scene for the Ministry of Culture's news agency.
• Xi Yan praised Sunxia Xiachuan and arranged improved living conditions for the M'tok delegation at its embassy.
• The frog-headed alien suspected the humans had drawn the delegation into a conspiracy, but agreed to let them rest before meeting Xi Yan.
• Xi Yan used the delay before the meeting to prepare his bargaining chips.

Technician No. 9527 and Technician No. 1145 stopped their locker-room fight to watch footage of the M'tok Ambassador and his delegation insulting and attacking human reporters. Xi Yan’s media machine amplified the footage, stirring nationwide protests against the aliens.

• Technician No. 9527 finished his shift, filed a report noting a reactor overheating incident, and entered the break room.
• Technician No. 1145 mocked Technician No. 9527, and the two prepared to fight before the news came on.
• Technician No. 9527 and Technician No. 1145 watched footage of the M'tok delegation insulting reporters and the M'tok Ambassador knocking them down.
• Arts and media workers circulated edited clips that emphasized the aliens’ insults and attacks.
• Xi Yan directed the public-opinion machine to spur protests against the aliens across the nation.

The M'tok Ambassador and Kabulosius discussed how hostile public opinion in humanity could complicate negotiations, while the Ambassador put Kabulosius in charge. They went out to explore the city and received digital Labor Points from Sunxia Xiachuan.

• The M'tok Ambassador complained about the plants on Amat Eiro II and admired the city's steel structures.
• Kabulosius warned that hostile news reports about the M'tok delegation threatened to weaken their negotiations with humanity.
• The M'tok Ambassador appointed Kabulosius to lead negotiations, with civilian ship passage rights as their main goal.
• The M'tok Ambassador and Kabulosius left the Embassy to walk through the city, despite Sunxia Xiachuan offering to guide them.
• Sunxia Xiachuan transferred digital Labor Points to the M'tok Ambassador's wristband.

The M'tok Ambassador left the Embassy for a walk, while Xi Yan secretly monitored him. The ambassador entered a human shop, where an old shopkeeper attacked him with a hammer, but the blows did no harm.

• Sunxia Xiachuan warned the M'tok Ambassador to keep away from humans because of his deadly poison, then left.
• Kabulosius worried that the humans were plotting, but the M'tok Ambassador dismissed his fears and went out with two Stone People.
• Xi Yan watched the ambassador through surveillance screens as he walked through the deserted streets.
• The M'tok Ambassador entered a general store and found an old human shopkeeper inside.
• The old man struck the M'tok Ambassador repeatedly with a hammer, but the ambassador felt no pain and mocked him.
• The old man collapsed from exhaustion, and the Stone People laughed at him.

Xi Yan promised a humiliated shopkeeper that humanity would one day destroy the aliens, then ordered agents to inflame xenophobia and provoke the M'tok on Gaia World. The agents prepared a staged attack to bait the M'tok Ambassador into a humiliating confrontation and create leverage for diplomatic demands.

• The M'tok Ambassador mocked an elderly shopkeeper, and Xi Yan comforted the man through a surveillance camera before promising to destroy the aliens' nation and species.
• Xi Yan urged the shopkeeper to teach children that aliens were enemies, then ordered his intelligence agents to foster conflict and xenophobic attitudes.
• The M'tok Ambassador and his attendants walked through a nearly empty street, where elderly humans insulted them, and wondered why they saw no younger people.
• The M'tok Ambassador spotted a crowd of humans gathered in a side lane and went over with his attendants to investigate.
• Xi Yan's agents waited with sledgehammers, planning to strike the M'tok, record the confrontation, and use any resulting injuries or casualties to demand compensation.

Xi Yan’s plan to provoke conflict between humans and the M'tok backfired when the M'tok Ambassador mistook the agents’ hammer blows for a massage. The elderly residents joined in, and the chapter ended with both sides treating the bizarre beatings as a peaceful encounter.

• The agents attacked the M'tok Ambassador with hammers, but he let them continue because he did not want to disrupt Mr. Kabulosius's negotiations.
• After the Ambassador sat down to make the hammering more comfortable, Xi Yan told the agents to carry on and let the Ministry of Culture present the incident as a success.
• The other two M'tok asked to be hammered too, and the agents split into teams to oblige them.
• The old man from the general store brought a crowd of elderly residents to attack the M'tok, who stayed still because the blows barely hurt.
• The agents waited until the elderly residents were tired, then persuaded them to leave; the M'tok Ambassador complained that their attacks had been too weak.

Xi Yan prepared to receive twenty million Palu workers from the United Nations of Earth while continuing to mishandle relations with the M'tok delegation. The immigrants arrived at Cybrex Alpha, where former gang boss Song Zhong expected to lead his fellow criminals, unaware that prison awaited them.

• The M'tok Ambassador told Kabulosius that humans had given him and his attendants a hammer massage, and Xi Yan ordered his people to keep hammering the M'tok whenever they went out.
• The M'tok Union postponed negotiations for a month, and Xi Yan agreed while preparing to receive twenty million workers from the United Nations of Earth.
• A huge colony ship arrived at Amaterro System carrying the workers, who had been separated into groups by their backgrounds and records.
• Xi Yan planned an observation period and possible citizenship for high-quality volunteers, while intending to exploit workers with criminal records for power generation.
• Song Zhong recalled how he had risen from gang boss to jailbird boss aboard the colony ship and expected the new government to put him in charge of the former gangsters.
• The former criminals were transported to Cybrex Alpha, where Song Zhong happily anticipated his future as they were brought toward a life behind bars.

The landing ship’s passengers were brought under military control, and the officer used executions and mass arrests to break their resistance and force them into labor. Xi Yan planned to use the workers to fill vacant jobs and specialize a new colony in alloy and consumer goods production.

• The officer ordered the passengers to verify their identities and declared their citizenship rights downgraded to Raw Material Tier.
• The officer punished one passenger who asked about advancement and invited the crowd’s leaders to identify themselves.
• The officer had volunteers and reported leaders arrested for power generation, then ordered the crowd to expose more people to make up the numbers.
• A passenger attacked the crowd in anger, and the officer shot him with a Blue Laser Emitter, killing him and several nearby people.
• The officer sent the remaining passengers to their assigned work posts under Xi Yan’s plan for controlling outsiders.
• Xi Yan planned to assign the workers to grueling jobs and establish another colony for alloy and consumer goods production.