Chapter 439: The Crystal Brainers Strike Again
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The Protoss were defeated.
The 18 Protoss high officials had been the first to provoke the other side and had ended up six feet underground.
They deserved this defeat. It seemed somehow inevitable.
Most Protoss scorned and despised human beings in their hearts. They did not feel that humans were anything great. And it was this contempt that had led to their inevitable defeat.
According to the rules of the compet.i.tion, the loser had to abide by the laws that the winner set. As the Protoss had lost, they had to accept certain regulations that humans enacted, and, moreover, lost their right to dispose of all Protoss criminals. In addition, because the Protoss lost, the Federation no longer had to supply them with large amounts of supplies and funds; now, they would have to pay for them. This would force the Protoss to mine more minerals from the Heavenly Realm and hence put more resources on the market.
In a nutsh.e.l.l, because they were the losers, the Protoss lost many of their privileges. Their days, obviously, became harder, and they had to acknowledge human beings, amend their previous mentality toward them, and treat humans as if they were on the same level.
However, the discontent in their hearts would never disappear.
What was more, the humans did not take it for granted that the Protoss would give in just because of that tiny little defeat. In the manner of gamblers, when they lost their first bet and things started looking a little ugly for them, they would enter another round and try to win back everything that they’d lost.
Hence, soon after Bakedu and rest fell, the newly appointed leader, Tiwumu, contacted the higher-ups of the federal government and proposed a second duel. Both sides would, once again, select their elites and partic.i.p.ate in another duel. The rules would be the same as before, with the loser having to obey the winner.
Regarding this matter, Fang Xiuping responded, “This is not a children’s game. It has been less than three months, and now you want a second duel? This is too hasty. We cannot agree with your request.”
“Oh? Have you lost your courage? Are you Terrans afraid of a rematch?” Tiwumu sneered.
“Stop trying to provoke us; it won’t work. Besides, even the Olympics are only held once every four years. Can this duel be held just once every decade? There is no need for us to unceasingly invest more lives in it.”
“But we cannot endure this for another decade. For all the many talents of the Protoss, they can’t even bear it for another year. We must hurry into the next duel.”
“Eight years. The duel between the humans and the Protoss shall be held once every eight years. Don’t make the hatred between our people grow bigger and bigger until we wind up in an unresolvable conflict.”
“Two years—at most, two years! We can’t compromise any further!”
“Six years. We, too, cannot make any concessions.”
Both sides continued their verbal onslaught for a couple of hours, until Fang Xiuping’s lips were cracked and he couldn’t argue any longer.
It would be held every four years! The two sides finally reached an agreement.
Therefore, a gruesome, crazy, hot-blooded “War of the Races,” which required everyone involved to do the utmost they could, would be held with the same frequency as the Olympic Games: once every four years.
The rules were still the same as they had been for the first:
The winner was allowed to force the defeated side to abide by their decrees.
The loser, on the other hand, had to give in and silently suffer discomfort or oppression.
If either party was displeased or incredibly dissatisfied, there would be another duel in four years.
Any conflicts between the two races would be solved by means of these periodic duels.
In the following eight years, the second and third “War of the Races” swiftly went by. Surprisingly, though, both of those subsequent matches ended with the Terrans emerging victorious. The Terrans had thus attained three consecutive victories. As a result, the Protoss repeatedly lost certain privileges, gave out greater benefits, and s.h.i.+fted their att.i.tudes by a significant margin.
But the Protoss were still dissatisfied. They were still in a depressed, uncertain frame of mind as they prepared for the fourth War of the Races.
As humans swept across three consecutive victories, the signs indicated that human confidence regarding their relations with the Protoss was significantly inflated. But the newly appointed Federal President became convinced that this situation would not last in the long-term and could even cause some issues to arise.
They had to think of a better way to resolve the conflict between the humans and the Protoss, and the best solution seemed to be combining the two intelligent species—merging the two into one. When they shared everything with each other, opposition would naturally vanish, and long-lasting peace would dawn. Otherwise, they would be allowing the hatred between the two races to continue fermenting and taking the lives of a group of elites once every four years.
Such barbaric and backward relations could not last forever.
Besides, a positive outcome of humanity’s three consecutive victories was that the relations.h.i.+p between humans and the Protoss had become closer. The stubborn Protoss gradually accepted, studied, and practiced the benefits of strict laws and the ways of a modern, civilized government. The more enlightened ones among them gradually came to realize that the power of mankind actually lay within their frameworks, the advantages of their various systems, and the benefits brought on by the expansion of knowledge.
They were learning.
If someone can defeat you, you ought to face up to this fact and learn actively from them. And so, in terms of their ways of thinking, the humans and the Protoss were gradually closing in on each other. Given the magnitude of the Protoss’ reformations, the two races would not be much different in any aspect after a mere two or three decades. The situation could be best described by the term “cultural integration.” If the integration were more thorough, and both races’ ways of thinking became basically the same, the so-called oppositions between them would clear up on their own. There would be no need for each side’s elites to engage in fierce battles.
The new Federal President thus proposed, “Why don’t we stop fighting and merge our civilizations into one new Earth Federation? If we combine both of our powers, the entire universe, not to mention any other returning civilizations, will be no match for us.
“Of course, in order to convey our sincerity, we promise that, once we merge and share our resources, we will give the Protoss one-third of the seats in the Federal Parliament—no small quota, indeed! Working together in federal governance will definitely be much better than working separately!”
At that time, the most powerful inst.i.tution in the world was, without a doubt, the Federal Parliament. Giving up one-third of the seats in Parliament was equivalent to giving out one-third of the right to govern. Since the humans had offered such a condition, no one could say that they were not sufficiently sincere. The Protoss high officials in that session who were more rational saw no reason not to give it some consideration.
“Huhuh…”
A sneer.
The leader of the Protoss responded with a sneer.
In an impatient tone, as if he were talking to an idiot, he said, “We wouldn’t really care if you gave us all the seats in your Parliament. Humans and G.o.ds are different. We couldn’t care less about your thoughts and actions.
“Stop thinking about unrealistic notions like merging our two races. We’re in reproductive isolation, you know? The Terrans and Protoss are reproductively isolated. These so-called new human beings cannot be born. Based on this point alone, there is no possibility of integrating our two races.”
Tiwumu had done quite a lot of homework. He had acquired, from a supplementary cla.s.s, lots of new vocabulary related to human society. He also knew that the best way to integrate their two civilizations would be to bring together humans and the Protoss, breeding a brand-new generation. But… unfortunately, G.o.ds and “monkeys” were entirely different. There was a huge disparity in their genetic structure, DNA, and so on, which was likely a.n.a.logous to the difference between cows and dogs.
Therefore, there was no possibility of integrating the two civilizations.
Moreover, unlike certain dirty, despicable humans, none of the Protoss had even the tiniest bit of interest in or any thoughts toward humans.
The relations.h.i.+p between the two races could only be one of pure compet.i.tion.
The “War of the Races” that was held once every four years would most likely go on forever.
“But…” The idea that the new Federal Parliament had conceived of had been shattered. The President helplessly shook his head. “Without integration, we will surely have an endless compet.i.tion.”
…
On the other side.
Planet Haierfa.
Chen Jin was still concentrating on his own business.
In essence, he wasn’t paying much attention to affairs on Earth anymore. He just generally updated himself with the latest developments there once every three months.
A ma.s.sive war was unlikely to occur.
Generally speaking, the dominant rhythm of Earth had settled back into peace.
Although the “War of the Races” every four years was cruel, it still wisely contained the problems within a marginal context. Such a compet.i.tion was cla.s.sified as war, but it had diverted the core of the conflict and had brought about a highly-treasured peace.
Therefore, Chen Jin was, on the whole, relieved. Earth was unlikely to fall into destruction.
And so, his focus s.h.i.+fted back to the universe on planet Haierfa’s side of the portal.
But, as a matter of fact, the comparative value of planet Haierfa’s side had shrunk a little. Meanwhile, the value of Earth’s side was becoming greater.
One could imagine that, after all kinds of magical “celestial particles” from another high-energy universe dispersed throughout their world, in conjunction with their adoption of cultivation exercises, the power of human beings had become tens or even hundreds of times greater than before. Powerful cultivators could even rival mechs; each and every one of them was comparable to Superman. Besides, under the influence of the celestial particles, the growth rate of plants had increased several times over, the evolution of living organisms had accelerated, agricultural output had surged dramatically, and oodles of “elixirs” that could enhance human potential had appeared… it was all so magical that it felt like a fantasy.
The changes in the field of science and technology were even more jaw-dropping. Flying Cars based on spiritual energy channeling techniques were energy-saving and environmentally friendly, and did not need to burn even one liter of gasoline. There was also the unique Spiritual Energy Generator, the Spiritual Energy Engine, the Jade Slip Mobile Phone, the Runic Computer, and many more… These various kinds of special psionic technology had effects in no way inferior to those of traditional technology, and also had a plethora of advantages and an extremely compet.i.tive market.
The changes that they brought about in the military field were the biggest. For example, there was the Spiritual Energy Primal Blaster, which operated at a hundred times the speed of light. When it was fully charged, the blast it generated could even cut through planets. It was the ultimate weapon, far above nuclear missiles, and its power could make even the strongest of the Protoss’ hearts race.
There was also the s.p.a.ce Engine, which was based on “s.p.a.ce spells” that worked in almost the same way as warp engines. It enabled s.p.a.cecraft to travel at super-light speed. In the extreme scenario, it could realize a s.p.a.ce Hyperleap, which, according to the Laws of s.p.a.ce, could theoretically launch an object a thousand light-years in a flash. It was now possible to enact this in reality.
Moreover, using special materials embodied with the Laws of s.p.a.ce, they had created a s.p.a.ce-time Transmission Matrix and a s.p.a.ce Portal, which both functioned to transmit objects in an instant. Since the universe on the side of Earth had attained a higher level in the Revival of Magical Powers, its s.p.a.ce Portals could eliminate the concept of ‘distance’ across its entire reality, and everyone would get to travel to all corners of the universe.
Correspondingly, however, the likelihood of conflict was also increasing.
In addition, after years of research, Chen Jin finally had hopes of relocating the s.p.a.ce Portal connecting him to planet Haierfa, which he had been painstakingly trying to hide. That is, if his cultivation were to reach a level equivalent to the Shenguang Order and he acquired a basic perception of the Laws of s.p.a.ce, he would be capable of moving, narrowing, or expanding the s.p.a.ce Portal… He would just have to become extremely strong.
Hence, over the past few years, Chen Jin had begun spiritual cultivation and had already achieved some results with the aid of the invaluable spiritual stones. However, according to Nuwa’s estimation, with his individual cultivation speed, achieving the Shenguang Order would, theoretically, take him about 100 thousand years.
However, some time ago, the large virtual online game Galaxy Era had been rebooted and had gone back online. A variety of celestial particles had been added to the game with simulational accuracy of 99.99%. Although this was a bit low, the enlightenment gained by players in the game was still almost the same as that in the real world. Through the game’s continuous improvement and fine-tuning, it would eventually become infinitely close to reality. Hence, the players’ gains and enlightenments in the game, as well as all the breakthroughs they achieved, were collected by Nuwa and Alice and converted into data, and could ultimately deliver the final enlightenment to Chen Jin.
In the late stages of cultivation, before the difficult-to-break-through bottleneck entering a higher state, one needed to attain enlightenment. Therefore, if there were more superior players in “Galaxy Era”, the cultivation path paved in front of Chen Jin would become increasingly smooth.
As for the great changes that had occurred on the side of Earth—the enhancement of cosmic energy, the unrestricted development of human individual power—all had contributed to the rapid expansion of their universe. For this reason, the universe on planet Haierfa’s end had become second in importance. The universe on the side of Earth was the biggest backer and ace-in-the-hole for planet Haierfa.
Chen Jin’s confidence when he was on the side of planet Haierfa rapidly inflated. The threat facing the planet and the so-called “Cosmic Law of the Jungle” had, all at once, become less scary, and Chen Jin’s mind immediately grew calm.
Ring, ring, ring…
At that moment, he received a communication request.
Chen Jin tapped “answer.”
A delicate and beautiful figure immediately appeared on the projection screen in front of him—Mu Yunhua.
She was sending an emergency communication request.
“Oh, Yunhua. Is there anything I can help you with?” Chen Jin asked faintly. Upon seeing her anxious face, the corner of his mouth curled up slightly.
“Jin, they are here—the Selain fleet. They have arrived at Walf’s borders, and are less than a hundred astronomical units away.”
“Ah—wasn’t this expected, though? I already shared the intel with you. 500 Selain main battles.h.i.+ps. You shouldn’t be feeling pressured about this, should you?”
“Yes, there should be no pressure. We have prepared a very adequate response plan and have set up an ambush several years in advance. We have been more than 80% confident that we’ll defeat the fleet of the Selains!”
Mu Yunhua looked confident, but immediately became fl.u.s.tered once again. She continued, “But I didn’t expect was the Selains to have also prepared something else. The surveillance device that we installed at the border has discovered that there is still another fleet of 50 wars.h.i.+ps coming from another direction, and it’s about to reach our borders!
“The enemy that I have to deal with now is coming from two directions instead of one. Our previous tactical arrangements have been completely disrupted, as we only considered the main Selain fleet. We are not ready for forces coming from another direction!”
“What should we do, Jin? It’s too late to split up our own forces. The Selain sub-fleet will soon arrive at our home! Planet Walf is in great danger!”
Oh, thought Chen Jin.
He sunk into thought, rubbed his knuckles, and then said, “It seems that the ambush 30 years ago left quite an impression on the Selains. They’re being smarter this time around. I am afraid that your previous arrangement is now completely obsolete.”
Chen Jin had previously sent out a lot of surveillance monitors in order to monitor the Crystal Brainer’s fleet, but the infinitely-vast universe made it impossible to achieve full coverage. Accidents and unexpected variables arising was entirely to be expected.
“So… what should we do?”
Mu Yunhua was truly freaked out.