The meeting lasted for most of the day. Tarrokov introduced various aspects of the second phase of the exploration. Finally, as it drew to a close, he slammed his hand on the table, his tone turning serious:
"There's one last thing. During your exploration, please pay close attention to any unusual signals. Since the first phase of our exploration, the forces attempting to smuggle people into the Shattered World have been a constant presence. We've taken various measures and eliminated a large number of smugglers, but there are always some who slip through our net. If you discover any smugglers, you must pursue them."
The Shattered World is still in a closed development stage, and the smugglers from many organizations are difficult to eradicate. Most of you here know that most of the smugglers are either troops from various star cluster and supercluster civilizations, or their hired hands.
Since the first phase of the region had been fully explored, these stowaways had already fled to more unknown areas, their whereabouts a mystery. The Empire also dispatched some pursuit teams to delve into the unexplored areas to chase them, but with little success.
From the Empire's perspective, the best way to deal with this phenomenon is to complete the exploration plan step by step. In any case, with the overwhelming momentum, these stowaways will eventually have nowhere to escape.
After the meeting, representatives from various allied forces took the meeting minutes back to inform their superiors, while some Beyond Grade A members stayed behind to exchange a few words of camaraderie.
After chatting for a while, Tarrokov came over and suggested that Han Xiao talk to him privately on the side.
The two moved to the side, Han Xiao became somewhat curious.
What's the matter?
"Can't we chat if there's nothing wrong?" Tarrokov chuckled. "But I do have something to discuss with you. The Gaolu Star Cluster borders the Russo Star Cluster, and your territory happens to connect the Gaolu entry gate to the Russo Star Cluster border. It's easily accessible and can serve as a long-term route for other exploration forces to transit and transport supplies. So, during the second phase of exploration, some teams will be using your territory, and we'll also need your help transporting some supplies."
"Okay." Han Xiao readily agreed.
The Empire assigned seven star systems to him, granting him absolute jurisdiction. Since the agreement was in effect, the Empire could not arbitrarily interfere in his territory and had to consult him first.
In the case of the second phase, opening up the transportation network to allow other exploration teams to pass through is more beneficial than harmful. This can lay an important foundation for the flow of resources in one's own territory. The more people choose this route, the more it will gradually become a habit, allowing one's own territory to consolidate its position in the core area of Gaolu Star Cluster, and also help to improve the transportation network.
Taking on the responsibility of transporting supplies is tantamount to taking on logistical duties to a certain extent, and everyone knows how lucrative logistics can be. During the first phase of exploration, the Black Star Army was primarily positioned as a pathfinder, but in the second phase, after acquiring their own territory, their role shifted to a combination of logistics and pioneering, with their responsibilities becoming more diverse.
After finishing this, Tarrokov suddenly lowered his voice, "Have you received the news? The calls within the Empire to open up the Evolutionary Totem have started again."
Han Xiao nodded, unconcerned. "It doesn't matter, they can't cause me any trouble now."
The current disagreement among the Empire's high command regarding the Evolution Cube does not affect his current status. In the past six years, no one from the Empire's high command has targeted him, because everyone knows that targeting Black Star is a waste of effort until things take a turn for the better.
"I know, but you need to be careful," Tarrokov whispered. "I've heard that one of the candidates for Führer seems to be trying to gain the support of these opposition figures..."
Upon hearing this, Han Xiao narrowed his eyes and said with a playful tone, "You're telling me this kind of news? Aren't you afraid of being held accountable later?"
"Heh, I didn't name names, so it wouldn't matter if I did. Would you report me? Besides, my faction doesn't really like his approach," Tarrokov smiled.
Han Xiao suddenly realized that Tarrokov had not only kindly reminded him, but also had political motives.
The imperial head of state is cultivated through a system where, during the term of the previous head of state, multiple candidates for the next head of state are groomed. These candidates are already high-ranking officials, each supported by different factions, and most of them obediently accept the cultivation process.
However, there can only be one leader, and everyone else is just a runner-up. Therefore, some candidates who know it is difficult to be elected or who are very ambitious may try to expand their own base and gain the support of more factions during the training period.
In his previous life, Urranrell's term ended not long after the events of Shattered World.
When a new leader takes office, the empire's overall framework remains unchanged, but the details will vary depending on the new leader's style and personality, such as how to deal with competition, strategies for dealing with subordinate civilizations, and attitudes towards Beyond Grade A allies.
The selection of the Imperial Head of State Choice internally. Except in extremely special circumstances, all allies have no influence on the succession of the Head of State, including Beyond Grade A individuals.
Therefore, for candidates for the presidency, gaining the support of different factions within the empire is far more important than pleasing Beyond Grade A allies. Although Han Xiao was surprised by what Tarrokov said, he was not astonished.
Since I already have quite a few arrows stuck in my target, a few more won't hurt.
"Hey, a candidate is a candidate, he's not the current head of state," Han Xiao smiled.
"You're right, that's what I think too."
Tarrokov praised it.
He paused, then changed the subject, "There's something else I'd like to ask you."
"You say."
How much do you know about the legacy left by the Sorokin?
How did this all suddenly become about Sorokin...? Han Xiao was a little confused.
"Hasn't his legacy already spread throughout the universe? I'm not sure which aspect you're referring to."
"Heh, this matter is actually related to you... Do you remember the spatial coordinates you gave us back then? The ones the Sorokin was looking for?"
Upon hearing this, Han Xiao's heart tightened suddenly, as if struck by a thunderbolt. He barely managed to suppress his surprise and doubt.
Those spatial coordinates are the key left by the Sorokin to the World Tree!
Why would they suddenly ask about this? Has the Crimson Dynasty discovered something?
Han Xiao narrowed his eyes and asked in a low voice, "What results have you achieved?"
"I don't know, I'm not a researcher," Tarrokov shook his head. "It's just that the project team specifically responsible for studying the Sorokin legacy data seems to have some ideas about this set of data. He happens to know me, so he asked me to ask you about the situation at the time."
After the Sorokin's legacy was leaked, this set of spatial coordinates was hidden among a massive amount of legacy data and became inconspicuous. The project team would rather spend more time studying other legacy data than spend time studying this wormhole data that had no records and whose destination was unknown.
However, after several years of sorting out the various legacies of the Sorokin, the project team seems to have set its sights on the mysterious coordinates that the Sorokin are plotting to seize in the Shattered Star Ring.
"... I only discovered by chance that the Sorokin were looking for this set of data, and I don't know exactly what's going on."
Han Xiao breathed a sigh of relief, gave a perfunctory response, and concealed the truth.
"Alright, that's my reply to my friend." Tarrokov had no suspicions.
After chatting for a few more minutes, Han Xiao deactivated the remote projection and returned his gaze to his room. He secretly breathed a sigh of relief, but his expression was somewhat helpless.
Some time after the meeting, the Crimson Dynasty publicly announced to the entire universe that the second phase of the Shattered World exploration had officially begun. Under the watchful eyes of the entire universe, more exploration teams devoted themselves to the Shattered World.
Having gone through the first phase of exploration, the Black Star Army is now familiar with the terrain and has made various preparations in advance. When the second phase of exploration arrived as scheduled, they began to act skillfully.
This time, the assigned task was to explore the Russo Star Cluster. There were many more exploration teams traveling with us, and the tasks for each faction were more meticulously divided, making the process more orderly.
When the Empire announced the start of the second phase, Han Xiao's [Shattered World] main quest was also updated.
[[Shattered World] Second Ring Completed]
[Your task rating is: A]
[You have gained 15e experience, 2 random rewards, 1500 Imperial Contribution Points, and 1 Blank Character Card.]
[[Exploration Pioneer] Current progress: 2/3]
[The third quest has been updated]
[Mission Brief: Complete the second phase of the Empire's exploration]
[Currently Exploring Area: Russo Star Cluster]
[Personal Exploration Points: 0]
[Total Exploration Points: 0]
[Current rating: E-]
The third step is to explore the Russo Star Cluster. Completing the mission is not a problem; the main task is to maximize one's own mission evaluation.
Han Xiao was quite confident in this regard. Although he had many more companions this time, his familiarity with the map was still useful. He might not get an S+ rating for the first round, but achieving Grade A rating shouldn't be difficult.
The Legion's exploration forces were all dispatched, while Han Xiao himself remained at the Black Star Palace. He only sent a Dominion clone with a mechanical army to accompany the exploration team to the Russo Star Cluster.
The graduates were randomly assigned to different units and set off together to explore new areas. Han Xiao specifically assigned Nero and Mia to two different squads.
According to his understanding, Russo's exploration would go smoothly, but the forces from the Light Dust Star Cluster would run into trouble.
Han Xiao was waiting for things to break out on Guang Chen's side, so he could throw Nero and the others over there.
--Master Han has already written more than a dozen scenarios that could trigger Nero's mission. He will not stop until he has deeply hurt Nero's little heart and made Nero feel despair and pain.
Anyway, Fording is a mental health expert, so even if he leaves Nero with psychological trauma, it can be treated. Therefore Han Xiao can rest assured to mess with him.
Shattered World, Light Dust Star Cluster, somewhere on the border.
One of the Empire's exploration teams arrived in the area and began constructing a stargate on the spot.
Meanwhile, far beyond many galaxies, a group of people are observing the entire operation of this exploration team using special observation equipment.
This is a conference room. A huge screen is displaying live footage of the Imperial exploration team's observations. Sitting in the room are many crustaceans, resembling a bunch of upright gray lobsters—these are native intelligent species of the Shattered World, not belonging to interstellar society, who call themselves "Kunde Race" in their language.
Gazing at the fleet on the screen, everyone present fell silent.
After a long silence, the Kunde Race leader, seated at the head of the table, finally spoke:
"Everything has come true. The data from that crashed spaceship is genuine and contains the book. There is still more life in this universe. Our world... has been targeted by a group of aliens."
Everyone fell silent, their minds in turmoil.
For hundreds of thousands of years, the Kunde Race has thrived here, gradually developing civilization. Ten thousand years ago, they embarked on the path of interstellar colonization, continuously expanding their territory and taking control of one planet after another.
They did encounter other intelligent species along the way, but they were far weaker than them, and all of them became their pets and slaves.
The Kunde Race have long speculated about the existence of even more powerful civilizations in the universe, but have yet to encounter one. Over the years, they have controlled numerous star systems, boasting a population in the trillions, making them the most powerful civilization in their respective star clusters.
However, their exploration was limited to the Light Dust Star Cluster; the more distant regions remained unknown to them.
Without an interstellar society or any civilization to communicate with, this is an isolated island, a dark forest. The Kunde Race have no concept of star systems or star clusters, and their technology tree is not as comprehensive as that of an interstellar society. They have not developed stargate technology, and their warp drive is outdated. They can only spend their long interstellar journeys using cryogenic chambers.
For them, a journey that takes a day in interstellar society could take the Kunde Race more than a decade to complete by slowly flying.
However, all of that changed a few years ago.
The Kunde Race present will forever remember that day when an extraterrestrial spaceship crashed on a colony planet, containing countless advanced technologies they had never seen before, as well as a wealth of information about "alien civilizations," which shocked them.
--After hundreds of thousands of years, we have finally encountered a civilization far more powerful than ourselves!
Through studying the technology within, the Kunde Race achieved a leap forward in technology, learning new technologies such as stargate technology, advanced warp drives, and applied quantum network communication.
However, along with the surprise came an even greater shock: the spaceship also recorded a powerful "alien civilization" called the Crimson Dynasty.
The data shows that the Crimson Dynasty is not only a powerful civilization, but also a cosmic-level plunderer. They dominate star systems and seize resources. Every civilization they discover has only two paths to take: destruction or submission.
The consequence of submission is that civilization loses its future development prospects, can never reach a higher level, all its future will be blocked, it will never be able to transcend the status quo, and become an eternal vassal.
The Kunde Race had their doubts about the possibility of the data, but the technology itself was genuine, thus guaranteeing the authenticity of the data. Unfortunately, the spaceship only contained mangled corpses, with no survivors to interrogate.
The ship's log recorded that the ship belonged to a group of refugees fleeing the expansion of the Crimson Dynasty, and declared that the Crimson Dynasty was not far from the Kunde Race's location. It also marked the possible routes of the Crimson Dynasty's movement, which made the Kunde Race very uneasy.
The database also records an ultra-long-range interstellar observation device. The Kunde Race built it and sent people day and night to use it to observe the possible locations of the Crimson Dynasty marked in the data... And a few years later, this data came true; an unknown fleet did indeed appear in the starry sky not far from their territory.
"The raiders have appeared. What should we do? Should we make friendly contact, or strike first?" the Kunde Race leader asked gravely.
A high-ranking official slammed his fist on the table and declared decisively, "We must not surrender! We must prepare for both scenarios. First, preserve the spark of civilization, secure an escape route, and send them to find a new home. Then, we will strike first, attacking before the enemy discovers us!"
On the other side, some disagreed, saying, "They are too powerful; we can't win. We might even be wiped out. We can't start a war. I think it's better to make contact..."
"Stop having illusions! The only outcome of contact is submission. Are you willing to lose your entire future and become someone else's vassal, just like those intelligent species we enslave?"
"Perhaps they aren't plunderers at all, but a friendly civilization?"
"A friendly civilization? How did you get to this position? Don't forget, have we ever been friendly when we encountered other intelligent beings? Is it even possible for a friendly civilization to exist in the universe?! Do you want to surrender and enslave our entire species?!"
"... But how will we know if the information is real or fake if we don't try?"
"Are you crazy? All those technologies are real! You're still doubting their authenticity?!"
The high-ranking officials with differing opinions argued fiercely.
If it weren't for that spaceship that fell from the sky, there would normally be far more people who would have supported making contact with the "aliens" first.
However, the situation has now reversed. Influenced by preconceived notions, more high-ranking officials firmly believe that the appearance of this "alien civilization" is a catastrophe sent from heaven, a plunderer who has come to seize their universe.
At this moment, a strange glint flashed in the eyes of the Kunde Race leader. He slammed his hand on the table and said coldly:
"Stop arguing, I've made up my mind..."