Around 2.3 million years ago, there were far more civilizations in the Milky Way than there are now. Billions of civilizations competed across the galaxy, waging war on one another for territory. Battlefields were everywhere, and every so often a civilization was destroyed, while new ones joined the war.
Of those billions of civilizations, the vast majority were planetary-level civilizations. They lacked the ability to take part in the war on a large scale. The main participants were Stellar-Level Civilizations, Star System-Level Civilizations, and Small Star Sector Civilizations, the backbone of the Milky Way's civilization hierarchy.
In the tens of billions of years the Milky Way had developed, so many civilizations had never existed at the same time. In the past, advanced civilizations had to expend enormous effort for even a chance of finding another civilization. The Milky Way seemed quite empty, and disputes over territory and resources were rare.
But at some point, civilizations began springing up like mushrooms after rain. According to incomplete estimates, at their peak, there may have been more than ten billion civilizations in the Milky Way. On average, one civilization arose for every twenty or thirty stars. Civilizations emerged even on planets with the harshest environments, while in multiplanet systems like your Solar System, two, three, or even more civilizations appeared at the same time. You can imagine how frighteningly dense that was.
Although each civilization could occupy ten or twenty planetary systems on average, don't forget the long-established civilizations already present in the Milky Way. They had developed over immense spans of time, and many had reached the Small Star Sector Civilization level. They occupied vast numbers of resource-rich planetary systems, so as new civilizations sought to develop, clashes with the old ones were inevitable. And that wasn't all. Wars also raged constantly among the new civilizations and between the new and old ones.
Once a civilization reached Star System Level, it gained the ability to destroy stars. For Small Star Sector Civilizations, plucking stars and moons from the sky was as easy as reaching into a pocket, and stars could even be used as weapons. Stars were constantly being blown apart in battle. The entire galaxy descended into chaos, with battlefields everywhere.
The wars went on, off and on, for who knows how many years. During that time, there were even occasions when Great Star Region Civilizations intervened. Their actions truly brought heaven and earth to ruin and shook the entire Milky Way. Fortunately, they intervened very rarely, or the Milky Way might no longer exist.
No one knew just how terrifying Great Star Region Civilizations truly were, and no one dared try to provoke one. But there were very, very few of them in the entire Milky Way, perhaps fewer than ten. They were all ancient civilizations that had arisen at the dawn of the Milky Way. Most lived near the heart of the galaxy and kept an extremely low profile. They neither expanded nor ever took the initiative to clash with other civilizations, unless provoked.
Planetary-level civilizations formed the foundation. They were the most numerous but weak. Stellar-level civilizations were also numerous, but most played the role of cosmic explorers and pioneers, operating mainly within their home planetary systems and a dozen or so light-years around them. Star System-Level Civilizations had gained some understanding of the universe. They expanded their territory and exploited lower-level civilizations, controlling areas a hundred light-years across or even larger. Once a civilization reached the Small Star Sector Civilization level, its power could no longer be described in terms of territory. It might occupy only a few planetary systems, but its strength was terrifying. There were roughly a hundred or so Small Star Sector Civilizations in the Milky Way. Above them were the Great Star Region Civilizations. No one knew exactly how powerful they were. It was said that above them were even more terrifying star-river-level civilizations, but few people had ever seen a Small Star Sector Civilization, and no one knew how powerful a star-river-level civilization was.
Around 2.3 million years ago, the war reached its fiercest stage. More and more Small Star Sector Civilizations joined the fighting. The flames of war and the shadow of destruction spread across the Milky Way. Vast numbers of planetary-level civilizations vanished amid the violent particle radiation of exploding stars before they even understood what the universe was.
The number of civilizations in the galaxy plummeted. Then the bugs suddenly descended on the Milky Way through higher-dimensional channels. Unlike on Earth, several units of bugs descended at once back then. On Earth, you resisted for more than twenty years, and less than half a unit descended. One unit was roughly a volume of bugs equal to the size of your Earth.
That was a truly endless sea of bugs. Several units descended on every planetary system, and they were high-tier bugs from the start. More than half the planetary systems in the Milky Way were occupied by bugs. Planetary-level civilizations could only be eaten alive, while stellar-level civilizations began to flee. Most were also caught and slaughtered by the evolving bugs. You were lucky that the lowest-tier mother bugs descended on Earth. A single truly high-tier bug could destroy you.
Mother bugs have little attack power and cannot fly between stars, but they are the most numerous. After devouring one another or other matter, mother bugs give rise to various higher-level mutant bugs. High-tier bugs are far more capable than mother bugs. Bugs above tier five can travel between stars. I have seen high-tier bugs above tier twenty with my own eyes. They feed on planets and have the combat power to destroy heaven and earth.
No one knew where the bugs came from, and no one knew what their purpose was. The entire Milky Way became the bugs' farm and dining hall. Civilizations finally set aside their hatred and began attacking the bugs together, but the bugs kept evolving, and their numbers and strength continued to grow. Resistance achieved little, and the number of civilizations fell once again, to fewer than a hundred million. At that rate, the Milky Way would become the bugs' domain in less than a few tens of thousands of years.
At that point, the Great Star Region Civilizations finally intervened. The five that took action displayed tremendous power, their fleets attacking more than half the Milky Way overnight. But there were simply too many bugs. Even civilizations as powerful as theirs suffered heavy losses when besieged by endless swarms. In the end, they had to concentrate their forces on clearing out the high-tier swarms. By then, the Great Star Region Civilizations had also been badly weakened and could no longer wage a large-scale war against the bugs. They eventually summoned all the Small Star Sector Civilizations and Star System-Level Civilizations to fight together. They cleared half the Milky Way, and finally became locked in a stalemate with the swarms along an immensely long front near the galactic center.
The bugs also seemed to have been frightened by the attacks. The Great Star Region Civilizations stopped intervening, and large numbers of high-tier bugs rarely broke through the defensive line. Instead, small swarms constantly harassed the front.
It's said that the Great Star Region Civilizations intervened under the leadership of a Galactic-Level Civilization that had once arisen in the Milky Way but later left to wander. Otherwise, given their pride, five Great Star Region Civilizations could never have launched a war against the bugs together.
Of course, that's only speculation. We were only a newly advanced Small Star Sector Civilization and had no standing to take part in decisions like that. We couldn't even get a glimpse of that Galactic-Level Civilization.
It sounds as though Small Star Sector Civilizations and Great Star Region Civilizations are only one step apart, but in truth, the difference between a Small Star Region and a Large Star Region is as great as heaven and earth. Perhaps a hundred Star System-Level Civilizations working together could defeat one Small Star Sector Civilization, but even ten thousand Small Star Sector Civilizations combined might not be a match for one Great Star Region Civilization.
High-tier bugs appeared much faster than civilizations evolved, and the bugs seemed to hold grudges, deliberately targeting the territories of Great Star Region Civilizations. Whenever those civilizations managed to recover some of their strength, they lost it again fighting high-tier bugs.
It's said that after the war, the major star region civilizations agonized over the problem. In the end, they had to set aside their pride and ask the wandering star-river civilization for help. But that civilization couldn't wipe out the bugs completely either. It merely offered the major star region civilizations a method.
All things in the world support and restrain one another. What defeats a lion isn't necessarily an elephant; it might be a mosquito. That's roughly how you'd put it. Only by finding the bugs' weakness is there a chance of wiping them out completely.
So the Great Star Region Civilizations later used their immense power to bring more than a hundred Small Star Sector Civilizations together and establish the Galactic Alliance. They enlisted the alliance's quintillions of intelligent beings to help devise a way to deal with the bug infestation, but more than two million years have passed, and none of the methods has worked.
More than fifty thousand years ago, the major star region civilizations detected unusual activity among large numbers of bugs. Although they couldn't determine its purpose, a bad feeling left them deeply worried. So they divided the half of the galaxy occupied by civilizations into separate areas and sent people to patrol each one. Any sign of bugs had to be dealt with as soon as possible.
Patrols are the lowest-ranking personnel responsible for inspections. They are tasked with constantly searching for signs of bugs. Destroyers are a level above Patrols. If an infestation is too severe for a Patrol to handle, a Destroyer must intervene. Each Destroyer is responsible for several star regions. In a case like your Solar System's, a Patrol would normally take care of it. But the Great Star Region Civilizations have grown increasingly cautious lately, so I was sent to check on the Solar System anyway.
The Great Star Region Civilizations' policy is that lower-level civilizations aren't part of the alliance system and are free to develop. Even if war breaks out, the Great Star Region Civilizations won't intervene. Every civilization follows a different evolutionary path. Only by preserving that diversity is there a chance that a way to deal with the bug infestation will emerge among them. It's said that this was also what the Galactic-Level Civilization wanted.
So once you leave the Solar System and enter the wider universe, you'll be in constant danger of being wiped out. Of course, if you have the strength, you can wipe out other civilizations too. Only when you grow into a Small Star Sector Civilization will you be eligible to join the Galactic Alliance, and only then can you be considered barely safe. But not even one in ten thousand ordinary civilizations is likely to become a Small Star Sector Civilization. Otherwise, there wouldn't have been only a hundred or so in the Milky Way that had reached that level over tens of billions of years.
A civilization needs trials to grow, and not every civilization is qualified to do so. The Great Star Region Civilizations won't interfere in a civilization's development, much less attack lower-level civilizations. They leave you free to develop as you will.
In short, to put it in your terms, what the Great Star Region Civilization needs is talent.
The Destroyers talked on and on for a long time before finally reaching the point. The Great Star Region Civilization wanted to find a way to eliminate the bugs among these lower-level civilizations. Each civilization followed a different path of development, so their methods of dealing with the bugs would naturally differ. Perhaps one of them could wipe the bugs out completely.
"Lord Destroyers, the bugs in the Solar System came through a higher-dimensional channel. Is it the same for the bugs elsewhere in the Milky Way?" the leader asked cautiously.
"Yes. The difference is that elsewhere in the Milky Way, the bugs were delivered in whole units, through both higher-dimensional channels and higher-dimensional bubbles. Whether by channel or bubble, the number of bugs delivered was beyond anything you can imagine."
"Then what's the situation on the other side of the Milky Way now?"
The Destroyers closed their large eyes and said only one word: "Hell!"
"Even the great Great Star Region Civilization still hasn't found where the bugs came from?"
"No. Dimensional technology is far too complex, and even the Great Star Region Civilization hasn't fully mastered it. In terms of dimensional technology alone, the bugs are far ahead of the Great Star Region Civilization, so the Great Star Region Civilization still can't trace their origin through dimensional channels. But I heard that the wandering Galactic-Level Civilization did mention a place where a bug nest might exist."
"Where?"
"The Abyss!"
"The Abyss?"
"Yes, but that place doesn't seem to be in the Milky Way, and no civilization can reach it. Even the great Galactic-Level Civilization was deeply reticent when speaking of it."
"Lord Destroyers, with the strength of the Great Star Region Civilization, they should be able to leave the Milky Way. The universe is so vast that the bugs can't possibly be everywhere in it, can they?"
"Leave the Milky Way? You think it's that simple? Andromeda, the closest galaxy to the Milky Way, is still 2.5 million light-years away. Let me put it this way: even if all the matter in a spaceship could be converted into propulsion, it still wouldn't reach Andromeda before its supplies ran out. Moving an entire civilization requires even more energy. It's a paradox: the more matter and energy you carry, the more propulsion energy you need to consume. Within the Milky Way, the Great Star Region Civilization can turn rivers and seas upside down because it has enough matter to replenish its supplies. Without that, even the Great Star Region Civilization has no way to manage it. And if it relied on inertia to coast to another galaxy, the journey would take so long that even the Great Star Region Civilization couldn't endure it."
"Can't the Great Star Region Civilization's dimensional or wormhole technology cross space yet?"