Brain Bug No. 1 was quite efficient.
The only difficulty was finding a way to transport the bugs onto the target planets.
The solution it devised was tourism.
The plan involved hiding larvae inside the bodies of elf bugs and then sending them out as tourists.
During their travels, they would stealthily release the bugs, allowing the plan to be executed perfectly.
Overall, the two civilizations had been relatively isolated over the past few years, as they were still in the preliminary stages of communication.
It took a considerable amount of time for ships to make a round trip.
However, the Zerg's hyperspace navigation demonstrated remarkable superiority. Their ability to cover nearly four light-years in a month immediately discouraged several nearby Starsea Alliance civilizations from harboring hostile thoughts.
In fact, a closer look at the entire Alliance revealed it was essentially a council where powerful civilizations suppressed the weak.
A balance of power had formed among the strongest civilizations in the center; if any one of them went to war, the surrounding factions would only stand to benefit.
And while the Faluer Civilization, as the strongest member, appeared to lead the Alliance's operations on the surface, any aggressive action on its part would easily lead to a coalition of the other civilizations against it.
In other words, this so-called stability was merely skin-deep.
“Based on the history retrieved from the Kawi Civilization, it is certain that in the last 1,000 years, at least 30 civilizations that ventured into space have been wiped out in the competition. This galaxy is not as stable as it seems,” Xia Jin mused.
Xia Jin judged that the Faluer Civilization saw potential in the Zerg and might be considering pulling an ally from the periphery to its side.
That is to say, the Zerg, as outsiders, posed a risk of breaking the fragile, temporary balance.
...
A few years later, a specially modified, unarmed Zerg transport ship arrived at Planet Ger of the Kawi Civilization, over 30 light-years away.
In space, two ring-shaped aircraft with diameters of 300 meters floated quietly.
Once the transport ship docked at a nearby giant spaceport, a man from the Kawi Civilization arrived to receive them.
“This is a hyperspace navigation gate built through the cooperation of multiple civilizations within the Starsea Alliance. It connects different regions through 100 giant rings, serving as the high-speed highway of the interstellar era. With its immense power output, a ship can reach the outskirts of the Faluer Civilization—a distance of nearly 1,000 light-years—from here in just three months.”
“That impressive?”
This kind of technology didn't entirely catch Xia Jin by surprise.
Interstellar jump gates were fairly common among typical spacefaring civilizations.
“Of course, this is still a relatively ordinary gate, primarily driven by fusion energy. In recent years, several major civilizations in the Star Alliance have built gates powered entirely by antimatter, which can facilitate a round trip of 1,000 light-years in a single day.”
“Antimatter, huh.”
The preliminary production and utilization of antimatter indicated a level of technology approaching what the Zerg recognized as a primary cosmic civilization.
Once such a thing appeared, powerful weapons centered around the use of antimatter would inevitably follow.
For instance, a complete version of a laser cannon could use antimatter annihilation to form a terrifying photon stream, generating destructive power on a catastrophic scale in an instant.
Naturally, the application of antimatter technology varied in sophistication.
Some primary civilizations might develop for tens of thousands of years and never solve the safety issues of large-scale antimatter use before their collapse, only managing to create antimatter annihilation bombs weighing a few kilograms.
In contrast, some civilizations could use antimatter beam cannons to instantly scorch the surface of a planet or even utilize stable antimatter annihilation technology to simulate the light of a star.
The manufacturing cost was also a major issue.
To produce one gram of antimatter, one had to consume energy comparable to the annihilation of several grams of matter and antimatter. The more one produced, the more one lost, making it less efficient than old nuclear energy—a problem faced by most primary civilizations.
As for those like the people of Earth, who could only synthesize a few antiparticles at a time and didn't even know how to store them, that didn't qualify as utilizing antimatter at all.
“The next Star Martial Arts Tournament will be held on a planet belonging to the Juxin Civilization. If the Zerg also possess the power of cultivation, you may send representatives to participate.”
“Are there any benefits?” Xia Jin asked.
“It likely strengthens the ties between different civilizations. If a civilization's strongest individual possesses combat power comparable to a warship, that in itself is a powerful deterrent, wouldn't you agree?”
“True.”
Regardless, she had come out for this very purpose. She had previously wondered how they would attend the Star Martial Arts Tournament if it was held every ten years and required such a long journey; just flying there would take more than a decade.
She hadn't expected them to have developed something like a star gate.
While it was a bit different from the instantaneous travel to the other side she had imagined, it was still a standard feature of an interstellar civilization.
Standing in this spaceport, she could look up and see a metal city over ten kilometers long in the distance. The star gate floated a few kilometers away, blending into the starry sky—an incredibly magnificent sight.
“The Zerg lack such giant units.”
Xia Jin had to admit that these sci-fi structures were quite imposing.
She could imagine what it would look like if the Zerg built a spaceport—it would probably be a giant creature of flesh and blood.
But that didn't seem so bad either.
While flesh-and-blood organisms weren't as grand as metal constructs, they felt much warmer.
Rate on N.U.
