Chapter 980: Settlement

Chapter 980: Settlement

"Didn't we order them to leave long ago? How could they possibly be here? Who told them to come back!?"

The leader of the Kunde Tribe sprang to his feet, his face a mask of shock and fury.

At that moment, none of the high-ranking officials present could remain seated; they were gripped by panic and dread, realizing the situation had spiraled entirely beyond their control.

The migrant fleet was the Kunde Tribe's last hope and their very Achilles' heel; their audacity to wage war on their own soil stemmed from having evacuated all their people, and now, seeing those who should never have returned, every leader in the room was thrown into a frenzy.

Buzz—

Just then, a virtual screen suddenly projected itself from the conference table, flickering with white noise before resolving into the figure of a man clad in the high-ranking uniform of the Empire.

The gaze of every Kunde leader in the room was instantly drawn to the screen, their eyes wide with astonishment.

The figure stood with his hands clasped behind his back, exuding an imposing aura, his voice aged yet resonant as he spoke slowly:

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Talrokov, Marshal of the Crimson Empire's Exploration Army, and the very man who has been clashing with you all this time."

Seeing this, everyone present understood immediately.

They had assumed the enemy was merely intercepting their intelligence, but it now appeared the breach went far beyond mere leaks; the enemy could initiate communications at will, meaning they had almost certainly seized control of their entire network.

This was the worst possible scenario, and for a moment, the minds of everyone present went completely blank.

Talrokov cast a brief glance before fixing his gaze on the Kunde leader, his expression as placid as a still well. "Every piece of your intelligence is now in our hands. We severed the link between your command center and the outside world long ago. Every report you have received recently was forged by us. In truth, your forces have been reduced to a mere fraction of their original strength, effectively annihilated.

Harbor no unrealistic hopes. We saw through your scorched-earth plan long ago and completed the final interception and slaughter days ago. You no longer possess any armed forces capable of resistance."

These cruel words shattered the resolve of most of the Kunde leaders present, leaving them stunned and slumped lifelessly in their chairs.

"You... you..." The Kunde leader trembled violently.

Without so much as a blink, Talrokov said indifferently, "Now, on behalf of the Crimson Empire, I issue you a final ultimatum. Our long-range psionic weapons are fully deployed and locked onto your migrant fleet. I give you five minutes to consider. Choose to resist... extinction! Attempt to contact the migrant fleet... extinction! Sever the quantum network link... extinction! Fail to reply within five minutes... extinction! If you choose to surrender and dismantle all weapons, we pledge not to fire. Your fate is now in your own hands."

His tone was as casual as if he were stepping out to buy groceries in the morning; for an imperial commander of his seniority, eradicating an entire species was not enough to make him bat an eye.

Yet, to the ears of the Kunde leaders, every single word dripped with bloody cruelty.

The Empire's covert recall of the Kunde migrant fleet had another objective: to shatter the fighting spirit of the Kunde core fleet. When the survival of an entire race is placed on the other side of the scale as a bargaining chip, it invariably breaks the enemy—a lesson learned from years of imperial experience.

Compared to the early days of exploration, the three great civilizations no longer slaughtered defenseless civilians with such frequency; otherwise, they would not offer a choice. The confidence to show mercy stemmed from their overwhelming, crushing civilizational might.

Having delivered the ultimatum, Talrokov's figure vanished, and the screen shifted to a five-minute countdown.

"It's over, it's all over!"

"We never should have started this war! Look at what we've done!!"

Watching the seconds tick away, the majority of the high-ranking officials present collapsed into despair.

It was not that they hadn't considered their current predicament, but until the executioner's blade truly fell, everyone harbored a sliver of hope for a lucky escape.

The conference room was in utter chaos; the once powerful and authoritative leaders had lost all composure, behaving in utter disarray. Watching this scene, the Kunde leader sat in silence before speaking slowly, "There is no hope left. Let us surrender."

"Now you know to surrender? What were you doing all this time!" The officials, who usually revered the leader, had thrown caution to the wind, pointing at him and cursing viciously, "If not for your stupidity and recklessness, would we have been reduced to this?!"

"Exactly! If we hadn't gone to war in the first place and just fled with everyone, we wouldn't be trapped in this desperate situation!"

"Well said, it's all because of your flawed decisions! You are the eternal sinner of our race!"

Watching these very officials, who had once flattered him to no end, now venting their fury upon him, the Kunde leader let out a mocking chuckle.

Those who flee always consider themselves the smartest.

Not only do they hand over their homeland, but they also run far away to avoid causing any trouble for the invaders—how generous of them.

Forced to abandon their homeland, everyone was equally lost and terrified. Had they fled without a fight, the dignity of their race would have been shattered beyond repair... If we had inflicted enough casualties on the enemy, or sacrificed enough of our soldiers, perhaps we could have shaken the race free from this decadent loser mentality, igniting a shared hatred to unite against the enemy and usher in a brand new golden age, but alas...

In the end, he said nothing at all.

...

The war ended with the surrender of the Kunde Tribe. It was not a long conflict, lasting a mere three or four months from beginning to end.

Compared to his previous life, the Crimson Empire had concluded this war in less than half the time.

The root of this change lay in Han Xiao's contributions—providing coordinates saved the Empire the effort of hunting for the enemy's stronghold, and seizing control of the enemy's quantum network crushed them on the intelligence front. These two crucial factors drastically accelerated the war's progress.

The shift in the storyline was remarkably profound. In the records of his previous life, the Kunde Tribe had caused the Empire no small amount of trouble, but now, with Han Xiao's help, they had caused the Empire none at all, unable to stir up even the slightest ripple. From start to finish, they were pinned to the ground and ground into the dirt by the Empire, utterly powerless to fight back.

The Empire took over the remaining Kunde fleet, transporting everyone back to their homeworld.

Meanwhile, far away in his base, slacking off as usual, Chief Technician Han received a simultaneous notification on his interface.

[[Shining World - Kunde Tribe War] Completed!]

[Mission Evaluation: Perfect]

[You have obtained 4.5 billion experience, Random Rewards x4, Crimson Empire Contribution +7500, Legend Degree +1]

[Star Cluster Legend Degree (Light Dust Star Cluster): Meritorious Servant of the Kunde Campaign - You participated in the campaign between the Imperial Exploration Army and the star-cluster-level native civilization, the Kunde Tribe, and made outstanding contributions]

[[Civilization Extinguisher] Milestone Unlocked]

[Milestone Activation Requirement: Participate in three large-scale interstellar war missions concerning the survival of a civilization (galaxy-level and above), and help your side successfully defeat the opponent. Mission evaluation must not be lower than Excellent. Current Progress: 1/3]

[Talrokov Affinity +30, Ulanriel Affinity +5, Tenny Armentos Affinity +10...]

[Instance Generated: [Kunde Tribe War]]

"It's finally over, the efficiency is quite high." Han Xiao's eyes flickered.

Although he hadn't fought personally this time, his assistance in intelligence had still earned him a perfect mission evaluation.

The rewards were decent. The experience gained, while not comparable to the boss missions of playing with Super-A-class entities, was still a handsome reward, especially since players could hardly take on Super-A-class challenge missions anyway. 4.5 billion experience was a generous yield even for players in the late-game versions. Han Xiao wasn't picky; since he had mostly been slacking off this time, the rewards were essentially free, and he was happy no matter how much he got.

Four random rewards—these are fine goods indeed. He would keep saving them, waiting for an auspicious day to set up an altar and perform a ten-pull.

The 7500 Imperial Contribution points were quite substantial. The Kunde Tribe was merely a native civilization with little threat to the Empire, so Han Xiao estimated that a portion of these points came from his sharing of the spacetime shear technology data.

Although he had already learned all his ultimate knowledge, Imperial Contribution points remained highly useful, allowing him to exchange for various rare resources or military support from the Empire. Moreover, if a Super-A-class ever wished to stay and serve in his legion, he might need to spend contribution points to exchange for ultimate knowledge from other systems.

Ultimate knowledge was monopolized by advanced civilizations. Without specific reasons, Super-A-class individuals were generally not allowed to exchange for ultimate knowledge from other systems, even if they had enough contribution points—using ultimate knowledge to attract talent for one's own faction was tantamount to stealing business from advanced civilizations, which they would never allow. Thus, there was a tacit understanding among Super-A-class allies to basically never teach each other ultimate knowledge.

Only those with Super-A-class subordinates under their command possessed the exchange privileges. Of course, such exceptions were exceedingly rare, as most Super-A-class individuals were unwilling to submit to another's command.

Han Xiao remembered the [Civilization Extinguisher] milestone quite well. In the explored universe, civilizations at the galaxy-level and above were protected by the Peace Treaty, making wars of extermination virtually nonexistent. Generally, only players of the chaotic evil alignment had the chance to activate this milestone.

The effects were quite excellent. Equipping the [Civilization Extinguisher] milestone granted +6% to all types of damage, +25% to attack splash radius, and came with an innate aura of intimidation.

However, the price to obtain this milestone was steep. It required participating in, or even actively instigating, a life-and-death war involving a galaxy-level civilization. Opportunities were exceedingly rare, and afterward, there was a high probability of facing even more intense bounties.

Being in the lawful alignment meant even fewer chances to obtain this milestone, but the advantage was that one wouldn't be hunted, lending a veneer of legality to one's evil deeds.

There were no political assets, which was within Han Xiao's expectations. The Kunde Tribe's weight was still a bit lacking; their destruction or survival wasn't important enough to the Empire, though he had managed to farm some affinity with the Empire's high command.

Aside from Old Ta and the Sovereign, a whole host of future imperial generals, including Tenny, had gained varying degrees of affinity, a reward for fighting side by side.

The final generated instance, [Kunde Tribe War], was part of a series just like the Secret War and Germs. Various battles could be extracted to form individual instance crystals.

Because the Kunde Tribe were a bunch of weaklings, with only large fleet operations serving as a difficulty multiplier, the challenge level wouldn't be high, but the rewards wouldn't be low either—perfect for fertilizing the players.

Having tallied up his gains, he finally closed the interface and let out a breath.

Perfect Mechanical Sense, Spacetime Shear, mission rewards—the harvest this time was bountiful. The Kunde Tribe was the sole obstacle, and with them dealt with, the second phase of exploration could return to the right track and proceed smoothly... Han Xiao mused silently.

Because of his intervention, the fate of the Kunde Tribe had been altered.

In his previous life, because the Empire spent so much time charting the path, it granted the Kunde migrant fleet ample time to relocate, allowing them to flee far beyond reach and giving the Kunde military a crucial buffer, unlike the present where they were caught completely off guard.

Unfamiliar with the terrain, the Empire was bogged down for a long time by the strategic depth of Kunde territory, affording the Kunde more time to study imperial tactics; this meant that when the Empire infiltrated the Kunde command system, the Kunde were not kept entirely in the dark, but instead discovered anomalies, steering the war into a far more troublesome game of chess and resisting with considerable ferocity.

Therefore, the Crimson Empire did not bother with persuading them to surrender, but simply annihilated the Kunde outright.

Because the infiltration was uncovered, coupled with the vastly longer distance granting them more reaction time, a portion of the migrant fleet managed to escape successfully, unlike the present situation where they were nearly swept up in a single net by the Empire.

Yet this was far from a good thing; what Han Xiao did not know was that the new home chosen by the Kunde still lay within the borders of the Shining World—after all, they had no concept of stellar domain boundaries. As exploration and development progressed, the Empire discovered the Kunde's new sanctuary, and by then the Empire had already begun to value spacetime shearing technology, so they raised their slaughterer's blade to silence them forever, turning the Kunde's new home into cosmic dust through a secret execution.

And now, fate has arrived at a new crossroads.

Han Xiao stroked his chin, entered the quantum network's field of vision, and cast a remote projection toward Beacon Star, intending to see how the Empire planned to deal with the Kunde this time.

...

In the commander's office on Beacon Star, two figures were present, one standing and one seated; the one standing was Tarrokov, while the one seated was the remote projection of Ulanriel.

The war was over, and the Empire had captured a massive host of Kunde mantis shrimp; now the concern was the subsequent handling of the prisoners, whether to slaughter or to raise them, a decision that required the Sovereign and a council of high officials to make.

Tarrokov was currently reporting to Ulanriel, and at the very end, he brought up the matter of the prisoners.

"...The escort fleet is expected to arrive at Beacon Star in seven days. Your Excellency, the Sovereign, how should we deal with this batch of prisoners?"

Ulanriel rested her chin on her interlaced, snow-white hands, and said in a deep voice, "The high command has already discussed it; some favor uprooting the weeds entirely and exterminating their race, while others believe they should be kept in captivity and civilized. No final decision has been made yet. Do you have any suggestions?"

Tarrokov stroked the beard on his jaw, "The war went very smoothly. Since the enemy chose to surrender, I see no need for meaningless slaughter. We could select a few planets within the Empire for them to settle on, keep them under strict surveillance, temporarily forbid them from entering interstellar society, and then carry out several generations of cultural reformation.

If the results are favorable, it would not be impossible to transform them into our vassal civilization, at which point we could lift the restrictions on their entry into interstellar society."

During the war, he was decisive and ruthless, never blinking an eye no matter how many enemies he wiped out, but after the victory, he was not bloodthirsty.

Ulanriel pondered, "In that case, we would need to fracture their ideology, which will require their leaders to help us with a few things."

"Yes, I was just about to conduct a remote interrogation of their leader... By the way, our people conducted a comprehensive examination of the Kunde high command and found a certain anomaly in their mental state; it seems they were influenced by a psychic undercurrent, which amplified the neural regions in their brains that control anger and impulse."

Upon hearing this, a cold light flashed in Ulanriel's eyes.

"Heh, it is the handiwork of those Supra-Stellar Cluster civilizations again; not only did they dump their technology on them, but they also secretly implanted a psychic undercurrent. Otherwise, the enemy might not have been so radical... Who was most severely affected by the psychic undercurrent? It must be their leader, right?"

"Well, you guessed wrong; the Kunde leader was subjected to the least external influence."

Ulanriel was taken aback, shaking her head helplessly, "That is quite interesting. Is it another case of logical differences between different species..."

Beep, beep.

Just then, the fixed communicator on the desk rang. Tarrokov stepped forward and pressed a button, and the voice of the secretary came through.

"Commander-in-Chief, Black Star is online. Should I patch in his remote projection?"

"Why is he coming at a time like this?" Tarrokov muttered, shaking his head and saying, "I am currently reporting to the Sovereign. Tell him to wait online for a moment..."

At this moment, Ulanriel waved her hand, "No need, let him in. He is not an outsider."

"Very well."

Since the Sovereign did not mind, Tarrokov had no objections either.

Soon, Han Xiao's remote projection also appeared in the room, and the first person he saw was Ulanriel.

"Your Excellency, the Sovereign, you are here too."

"Black Star, I have heard of your contributions to this war. Well done," Ulanriel nodded with gratification.

"I merely did a trifling amount of work."

Han Xiao replied with modesty, glancing at the two of them, "What are you chatting about?"

"Nothing much, just discussing how to handle the Kunde. No results yet..."

Ulanriel briefly recounted what had just been said, then casually asked, "Black Star, do you have any suggestions?"

"I have no objections. I actually came to ask how the Empire plans to handle them."

Han Xiao raised an eyebrow.

"Having no opinion is also an opinion."

Ulanriel narrowed her eyes slightly, saying nothing more.

She turned her head to signal Tarrokov to continue his report, indicating that she did not mind Han Xiao listening in.

After listening to the report, Ulanriel offered a few words of encouragement to the two men, before logging off to attend to her myriad affairs.

After seeing the Sovereign off, Tarrokov turned to look at Han Xiao, a smile appearing on his face.

"I am going to interrogate the Kunde high command. Since you are here, care to join me?"

"Well, I am quite busy."

Han Xiao scratched his chin, saying half-jokingly, "But since you have invited me, I suppose I can reluctantly tag along."

He was interested in leaders who had reached the end of their rope, feeling that he might trigger a special quest, just like with the Dark Star leader in the past.