Age of Cosmic Exploration

Chapter 262: The Demarcation of Space Civilizations

"I order…"

With Yao Yuan’s new order of space warp, the thoughts of everyone on the Hope were pulled taut.

Even though the space merchants had completely surrendered to the Hope, during the space warp was when the Hope was at its most fragile, so it couldn’t afford even the smallest damage.

Because of that, the Hope even purposely drifted away from the space merchants’ mother ship for one whole day. Then it activated its creator’s particles, activated the ECS System, and committed to every defense system that it could. Some of the more vicious people on the Hope even suggested blowing up the space merchants’ mother ship. After all, humanity had gotten all they needed from them, why leave such a threat behind?

It might be so, but how exactly would they go anout that and who would do it? Ever since mankind entered the twenty first century, there were limited cases of genocide, even during warfare. The fatalities suffered during war were different from purposely wiping out the whole race after the war. After all, mankind was a new space civilization, and their thoughts were still stuck in Earth’s time.

If Ying was still around, making the space merchants extinct would be a non-issue, but the current the Hope really couldn’t wipe out an entire civilization without batting an eye. It was simply too cruel.

Furthermore, Ren Tao and Xiao Niao had made another argument. The space merchants were part of a bigger conglomerate. Pillaging spoils of war was acceptable, but wiping out an entire ship after winning a war would probably isolate the human race from other space civilizations, and that didn’t seem to be worth it.

Due to multiple reasons, the extinction route was rejected by many. Therefore, the Hope prepared to avoid possible attacks before finally warping from the area…

The warp completed without a hitch. When the people inside the Hope came to, they were already far away from where they once were, and the space merchants’ mother ship was no longer observable.

Everything was fine and peaceful. There was no attack, ambush, or accident. This space warp was better than the one preceding it. When they found themselves in a new space, the Hope’s citizens couldn’t help but sigh in relief. Some even started cheering. After all, no one wished for a war, especially when mankind’s technological level was lower than its opponent's. Unlike wars on Earth, where the civilians could hide behind other neutral countries, there was no place to hide in the Hope. With a giant explosion of the Hope, the whole human civilization would be over, so no one wanted to experience the war anymore.

Yao Yuan sat in the commanding seat, waiting patiently for the surveillance report. Very soon, the report reached him through the Hope’s internal wireless connection. The area of ten light-years around the Hope had been properly scanned. There was no suspicious presence, external signals, celestial bodies, or planets. It was a completely barren space, the safest place for the Hope to stop and recuperate.

When he finished the report, Yao Yuan sighed in relief. He then told Guang Zhen, who was standing beside him, "Then I shall pass the commanding reins to you. I’m going to take a rest."

The day before the warp, Yao Yuan had spent his every waking hour preparing for it. All the accrued fatigue returned at that moment. Since there was no danger in sight, he could finally pass the leadership to Guang Zhen and enjoy a well-deserved rest.

Guang Zhen nodded. "You deserve it, rest well… Captain’s order, the ship will be temporarily taken over by me!"

"Understood, the Hope’s commanding rights are now being passed to Vice-Captain Wong Guang Zhen…"

"The Hope’s commanding rights are now being passed to Vice-Captain Wong Guang Zhen…"

The news was broadcasted throughout the Hope. When Yao Yuan left central command, the whole ship knew that the commanding rights had changed hands. Yao Yuan returned to his room with the accompaniment of a few Black Star Troopers. After he closed the door, he washed his face and went for a warm bath. Days of tiredness came at him at once, and at the moment he hit his bed, he fell asleep.

The sleep went on for almost half a day. Eventually, he woke up from hunger pangs. The military discipline he had cultivated over the years was overwhelmed by absolute fatigue. He was tired both mentally and physically.

He didn’t have any rest during the war with the space merchants. He only stole a short nap after it was confirmed the war was over. After all, his time was taken up by the peace talks and analyzing the ton of new information. After that, it was the worship ritual. Then it was the defense system to ward against the space merchants. If he could sleep for three hours a day, it was already a good day.

Not to mention the giant pressure he was under. The whole human civilization depended on his decisions. A small decision to him might cause irreparable damage to the whole civilization, or it might cause extinction. The pressure pressed down hard on him.

Finally, when the Hope escaped from that situation and had been confirmed to have landed in a completely empty part of the cosmos, the collected fatigue released itself all at once. It overwhelmed his personal discipline, catching up on his sleep debt.

Even though Yao Yuan had woken up, he didn’t sit up immediately. He looked at the time and confirmed he had been asleep for 15 hours. It was not that he was going back to sleep, but he needed the peace and quiet to sift through his thoughts.

First was, of course, regarding the Hope, or rather the future of humanity that was on the Hope. The cosmos was not as quiet as mankind thought. There were more intelligent life forms than they previously assumed.

Based on a cursory read of the space information, Yao Yuan realized that the Shelter which the space merchants hailed from comprised of 8,000 plus alien life forms. Among them were "newborn civilizations" that had left their home planets for only about several thousand years and also antique civilizations that had been in space for over 40,000 years.

If categorized via technological level, 99.5 percent of the civilizations at the Shelter were level 2 space civilizations. They had 4th revolution technologies and, like the space merchants, parts of the 5th revolution technology as well. The remaining 0.5 percent were level 3 space civilizations. They had officially entered the 5th revolution and thus had access to technologies like space warp and plasma weapons.

Of the 0.5 percent civilizations, there were three civilizations from the space merchants’ Shelter that were close to reaching level 4. These three civilizations were the peaks of lower grade space civilizations.

It was also from the space merchants’ information that Yao Yuan knew more clearly about the demarcation of space civilizations. First, space civilizations were divided into nine levels. Legends spoke of levels beyond the nine levels, like level ten, eleven, twelve, or even thirteen, but these civilizations were godlike existences already. They would not appear before common civilizations, and they were no longer affected by the Law of the Conservation of Life. They no longer needed to pillage other civilizations’"souls" to foster their own. In other words, they had no reason to meddle in other space civilizations. They were known as the godlike civilizations.

While from Level 1 to Level 9, Level 1 to 3 were known as lower grade space civilizations, Level 4 to 6 are middle grade space civilizations, while Level 7 to 9 were known as high grade space civilizations.

Even though there was a great difference between two consecutive levels, like Level 2 civilizations could squash a Level 1 civilizations with the usage of creator’s particles alone, and Level 3 civilization could do the same to Level 2 civilizations via the advantage of plasma weapons, strictly speaking, the difference was still within one’s imagination. For example, the Level 2 civilizations, like humanity, might not really understand the inner workings of the Requiem used by the space merchants, but mankind roughly understood the concept of it.

The actual difference lied between the different grades. A Level 3 civilization could face off with a Level 4 civilization and the difference between the two would be unimaginable.

For example, Level 1 space civilizations relied on rocket propellers, Level 2 used the same but slightly improved, and Level 3 improved on it further to achieve warp drive speed, but the essential theories were the same; it was all about pushing force and propulsion.

However, Level 4 space civilizations could use wormhole technology. The difference between the two was unimaginable! Because of this, among the 8,000 plus civilizations crowding the Shelter, there was not one Level 4 space civilization!

Yao Yuan thought back to the information that he once roughly scanned. He didn’t dwell on it. Level 4 space civilizations were too far a target for humanity, much less the godlike civilizations. The only thing awaiting the Hope was becoming a Level 3 space civilization!

Just as Yao Yuan was figuring out ways to expedite that process, suddenly his emergency communicator rang. He picked it up immediately. "This is Yao Yuan, what’s happening!"

"Captain, people are coming down with fevers, no, not fevers, our people are awakening into Homo Evolutis!"

Yao Yuan was taken by surprise. He then asked with obvious joy, "Is that so? Finally, the new awakening has arrived. What about the number? Is there a hundred of them?"

"…Captain, it is more than a hundred, it is 570 people!

"A total of 570 plus Homo Evolutis are awakening. This is even bigger than the scale of mankind’s first Homo Evolutis awakening!"