Chapter 2523

2523 - The Third Colonial Era

Year 800 After Coronation—

Twelve full years have passed since the Buffer Zones were destroyed and the Third Universal Colonial Era began.

The first was initiated by The Tyrant Intiras after the end of the Era of the Space Beasts Invasion and The Plague... The second was initiated by the researcher Lord Human a few centuries ago after he activated an array to colonize what could not be colonized.

And the third, very strangely, was launched by the same person, but this time with a different title and in a completely different manner... The Breaker Robin Burton destroyed the Buffer Zones and liberated 90% of the universe's space, revealing entire galaxies that longed for new visitors to exploit them.

And no one missed the opportunity.

The Millennial Planetary Empires with their vast armies, and even the planetary kingdoms that permit only a few vessels, all set out to explore the new world.

In those short twelve years, the possessions of the Millennial Empires doubled, and even the wandering World Calamities found new planets for themselves in the sea of opportunities and seized them, then bought the slaves designated for fighting The Plague or feeding the beasts and freed them to populate those planets.

Somewhat, it is still trying to find servants by force to begin exploiting the planet's resources, but for them and their former fate, they have simply become citizens of a new world full of opportunities!

The clans? The small academies? The commercial entities? All of them found mines of infinite resources in the new world.

The lone trainees? Instead of attacking the small powers to gather the necessary resources, they directed themselves toward the inexhaustible sea of resources.

There were those who took over one of the vehicle-and-gate delivery projects that started there and also went alone, perhaps to find a stone here or a crystal there that would make them rich for the rest of their lives.

As for most, they joined the Mercenary armies formed by the Great Empires to settle as many planets as possible before anyone else.

There was a strange atmosphere in the air…

A state of passion, ambition, and earnest pursuit of the future.

What distinguishes the Third Colonial Era is that, without a living target, those new planets contain no native populations for them to go and kill, nor do they contain empires that would suffer losses in a war between you.

They are plots of land full of treasures waiting only for someone to search for them; all you have to do is strive quickly and search the right planets to examine and acquire the treasures.

And even the emergence of abundant treasures did not diminish their value.

A massive quantity of Pearls on those planets? It will compensate for what people need to travel by vehicles and gates to search them.

A massive quantity of materials for manufacturing spacecraft? Vehicle prices did not drop, for people came to need more and more vehicles after 90% additional of the universe was opened to them, when they had been crammed into 10%.

Rare resources are no longer very rare? They are still rare, for the great powers scramble for them to build stronger armies in an open arms race, and to use the weaker planets in making new Planetary Equipment!

The quantity of new resources activated the markets, revived the treasuries, fought unemployment and thuggery, and raised everyone's standard of living without striking the existing economy.

This time the race was healthy and ambitious; no one was planning to destroy anyone, and no one was scheming to spill anyone's blood. The worst conspiracy now unfolding was commercial—perhaps to drive a competitor's stock price down a little.

Those born in these years no longer knew what the term Buffer Zones meant, or what the word Sectors meant.

The Sectors still existed and were mentioned in customary usage, but they no longer had clear features, and they no longer had borders.

If the universe were likened to a kingdom, the Sectors had become like cities and duchies—mere imaginary borders and rootless affiliations.

There are empires in Sector 80, for example, that can venture east and occupy a planet adjacent to an empire from Sector 79, and it is said this planet belongs to this Sector and the other to that one… to this moment, no one has drawn new borders except a few mad Behemoths.

As for the rest of the powers and the rest of the Behemoths' armies, they are busy expanding first!

Direct wars between empires had almost disappeared; no one would spend a thousand years fighting over four or five productive planets when there are entire galaxies waiting to be explored. If one empire beats another to a good planet, the other empire simply looks for an alternative in a sea of alternatives.

The atmosphere of conspiracies and the common people's unification in fear of a unified enemy that has vanished... No one cares anymore about the Crimson Plague and who funds it, every devil is worse than the last.

The Plagues have taken control of 40 planets in the sector? Let them control 400, we have something more important!

Lord Robin broke the barriers because his master, the All-seeing God, is the one who set them? Fine, thanks to him for breaking them!

Lord Qarun is holding a live seminar about the All-seeing God, the dangers of his candidates, and his actions? Fine, if he has found himself idle with nothing to do and enough free time to listen to this nonsense, let him listen!

All the inhabitants of the universe, no matter how important or how lowly, intelligent or foolish, have all reached the same conclusion.

Lord Robin is evil and wants to feed us all to the Plague for some reason? We need power to stop him.

Lord Qarun, along with the Syndicate and the Tyrant Galaxy, are liars funded from outside to kill everyone and save themselves? We need power to stop them.

Of course, for the common people, the absent-minded, and the short-sighted, power means the new land and resources...

It will indeed give them a boost, strengthen their armies, increase their fleets and fortresses, but...

True power is reserved for those at the top.

Among the sane and the great ones of the universe, they understood that whoever wants true power must choose a side.