"Well... from their perspective, the Solar System really isn't a great place!"
Li Xingkong felt a little ashamed just looking at himself. So this is how extraterrestrials see Earth Star...
No wonder that despite the long history of human civilization on Earth Star, we haven't seen a single alien. Even the earliest traces of extraterrestrial life can only be traced back to the ruins discovered on Venus.
The place is so remote that nobody wants to come here; how could you possibly encounter any aliens?
This is like a handful of sand in the vast desert, which may only see human traces once every few decades or centuries.
But no matter what, Earth Star is also the mother planet of Divine Land, and they will never give up on Earth Star.
For the Divine Land People, abandoning their families is a torment almost as severe as death. Unless there is absolutely no hope left, the Divine Land People will not give up their homeland.
Of course, everything has two sides.
It is precisely because of Earth Star's scarcity of resources that several star regions surrounding Earth Star are currently in a state of neglect.
It is nominally part of the territory of the nearby Snail People, but the Snail People themselves are extremely wary of this area, let alone come here to manage it.
For many years, the entire sector has been in a state of neglect.
Not even a single research vessel was stationed there.
Other countries around the Snail People had little interest in this area, and because of the Pan-Civilization Convention, small countries had no opportunity to wage war against each other. Over time, the Solar System unintentionally became a buffer zone between the two empires.
The binding force of this Convention is incomparable to that of the United Nations. When faced with things like war, the United Nations can at most hold a meeting and issue a condemnation, but the Convention is different. If you do not abide by the provisions of the Convention, the Convention will no longer protect you.
Let alone whether the surrounding small countries want to expand, the potential internal rebellions that might result from leaving the protection of the Convention would be enough to give it a hard time.
After extracting all the relevant information from the minds of these Snail People, Li Xingkong gained a preliminary understanding of the current cosmic situation.
The current situation is quite unfavorable for Earth Star.
Firstly, in terms of development, Earth Star wants to expand outwards, and the Snail People are currently the biggest obstacle. However, if we want to take action against them, we have to consider the Convention behind them. With these conventions in place, even if we defeat the Snail People, Earth Star will not be able to withstand subsequent attacks from other powerful civilizations.
Secondly, from the memories of these Snail People, Li Xingkong did not find any relevant regulations on how to join the Convention. It seemed that only some existing civilizations joined the Convention when Convention was established, and these Snail People had no idea how newly born civilizations should join the Convention.
This is also a very serious problem. If this Convention defines all subsequent civilizations as natural subjects of primitive nations, then the moment Earth Star stepped out of the galaxy, it would be legally under the rule of StarCraft Snail People.
This is not good news for Earth Star either. Li Xingkong has figured out what the Snail People's system is like. Earth Star, which has already taken one of their star destroyers, will absolutely not coexist peacefully with them.
Star Destroyers are extremely valuable to the Snail People; they simply cannot build them.
The entire Snail People Empire only has three Star Destroyers!
From the memories of these Snail People, Li Xingkong also gained a general understanding of the Snail People's level of technological development.
These Snail People are actually not much better than those on Earth Star; they are only slightly more advanced in terms of terrain, space, and materials, except for those of Li Xingkong.
The main reason they can survive for so long in space is because there are people on board!
That's right, the existence of the Snail People's country is actually just a disguised contract manufacturing plant and a drug testing ground.
The heavy industry and waste disposal industries that most of the mid-level Snail People are engaged in are actually processing orders sent by their superior civilization. The vast majority of industries in the Snail People civilization revolve around its superior civilization.
In terms of military affairs, the Snail People's military fleet and related planetary defenses are basically equipment purchased from other civilizations. They are not so much advanced as to be outdated, and are probably retired long ago.
The three star destroyers were something the Snail People had begged for ages to get from a higher civilization. As for the cost, nearly 20% of the Snail People's population died from exhaustion, and they've been busy for hundreds of years without any respite.
This thing is its lifeline; now that Li Xingkong has taken one of them, there's no chance for negotiations left.
The gap between civilizations is enormous, a fact that Li Xingkong has experienced firsthand.
Let alone in space, even a few years ago on Earth, out of more than 200 countries on the planet, no more than 30 could industrially produce urea bags, let alone build subways, highways, or manufacture cars.
Many countries, without Divine Land's help, could only dream of industrialization.
It is no exaggeration to say that even if the Great Qing had existed at that time, it would still have been one of the top 20 most powerful nations in the world.
Take Mexico, for example, a country rife with addictive substances. It's a country that's not exactly infamous, yet its entire army doesn't even have a single tank. The only two aircraft it owns are two B-5s bought from the Eagle Country, old planes that were already in combat during World War II.
The disparity in military power between nations is far greater than most people can imagine.
And in the universe, this difference becomes even more pronounced.
If the Snail People hadn't found its elder brother and done all the dirty and hard work for him, it probably wouldn't even qualify for a fifth-class level of civilization.
It is precisely because of their poor foundation that the Snail People adopt such a cruel method to control the native civilizations within their territory. As long as a civilization shows any signs of developing into StarCraft civilization, it is immediately suppressed.
It fears that if it acts even slightly too slowly, these civilizations will develop to a point where they can rival it, thus affecting the Snail People's rule.
"This Snail People feels like a giant version of Cherry Blossom Country..."
After thoroughly investigating the secrets of these Snail People, they finally couldn't withstand the torment any longer and lost consciousness.
After learning about the origins of these Snail People, Tang Cheng offered his own insights.
"By acting as lackeys for other civilizations in order to maintain their own development, and even fearing newly emerging civilizations within their territory, these Snail People are nothing but a bunch of blustering cowards."
"But these guys shouldn't be underestimated. With the Convention backing them up, how we develop in the future is still a big question..."
To break this deadlock, we need to understand the Convention more deeply; what we can glean from these few guys is far too little.
"We still know too little about this Convention. If necessary, we should acquire more relevant information and think about how to break this deadlock."
"Breaking this deadlock isn't so urgent. Judging from our current pace of development, exploring the Solar System will still take some time. Before that, we need to think about how to deal with the next Snail People."