<h4>Chapter 420: Thoughts on a Cooperation</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Nyoi-Bo Studio <strong>Editor: </strong>Nyoi-Bo Studio


    The root cause of the Sins’ defeat was their excessive use of conspiracies.


    When the Blue Spaceship was heading toward the Walf Gxy, they were already cruising into a death trap. At that moment, out of careful consideration, the aliens should’ve said nothing, done nothing, and waited patiently for their prey to fall into the pit. By securing the initiative, their chance of making an error would have been zero.


    However, they had to gild the lily, and revealed the existence of their spying devices.


    Although it was very pleasurable to savor the faces of the weak that were full of terror and despair, just like toying with an ant—and although enving an entire civilization provided a great sense of aplishment, jas when the Haierfareans had obediently chosen to surrender after just a few menaces, without them needing to employ any knives or guns—although giving orders to those who had yielded,manding the weak to serve them, and frequently enjoying their bootlicking would bring upon great spiritual pleasure—in the process, the information which they unintentionally leaked out continually umted in the hands of the weak, ultimately revealing their own weaknesses. Additionally, they belittled their enemy, were careless, and were totally unsuspecting.


    Thebination of these various factors had led to the perfect ambush.


    Chen Jin’s summary of this ssic little campaign was: viins die because they talk too much.


    ...


    After the war.


    Affairs on Walf returned to normal.


    Mu Yunhua also returned to her position as the supreme leader and presided over all kinds of important tasks, gradually bing tied up in things once again.


    The threat of the Sins was still there, as the damage they had inflicted on them was not even a drop in the bucket... the power of the enemy was still far greater than their own. With themunication technology of the Sins, the Krrr’da n’s shameful fiasco would have been made known to the Sins at the first opportunity. Perhaps the next wave of retribution had already set off and was currently on the way.


    Hence, the human remnants could not afford even the slightestcency and ckness. On the contrary, after regaining power, Mu Yunhua immediatelyunched the “Three Major Development ns.”


    Inside the conference chamber.


    Her high-pitched and powerful voice sounded:


    “Firstly, we have to increase our poption base.


    “Our numbers are apparently at around 300,000, but half of them are below 18 years of age and are still in the middle of receiving an education. They won’t be able to make many contributions... even so, we have to hasten up our poption growth. We must strive to increase our poption to above one billion in two decades.”


    And that meant they had to produce 50 million people every year. This could be regarded as a poption explosion.


    But it would definitely bring about a series of problems. After all, people wereplicated, and very difficult to constrain and manage. And because they were human beings, they could not be managed like animals such as dogs and cats, could not be treated as a mechanical device, and must be provided with humanistic care... the cost of bringing up humans was very high.


    Now, the task to produce 50 million human beings fell on the shoulders of the hundred thousand adults. This would undoubtedly be a difficult and massive project.


    Despite all the representatives having a distressed, frowning look on their faces, no one raised any objections or doubts.


    After all, having gone through the ambush, it was basically impossible for them to forge friendly ties with the Sins. Their rtionship could only be that of hostility, in which only one party could survive.


    Thest thought of peace was severed, and they had no choice but to fight until the end.


    “Aside from using our poption to muster enough intelligence and manpower, we also have to form an elite scientific research team. We shall select around 10 thousand scientists to participate in frontline scientific “R&D,” as well as analyzing and cracking the state-of-the-art Sin technology. We need to seek out shortcuts for explosive technological growth and pare down our technological gap as soon as possible.


    “Our time is limited. If we are unable to attain several major breakthroughs in science and technology within twenty to thirty years, I’m afraid that we will once again get caught in a mire. Hence, it is necessary for us to concentrate all of our intellectual resources into fulfilling this n. Everyone, including myself, will also be deeply involved in this project.”


    All the representatives nodded.


    Technology was the essence of civilization.


    Technological level was the determinant of a civilization’s development and its apex. It defined the strength of civilization. It was even more important than so-called resources,s, and stars, as it itself represents a civilization’s absolute hard power.


    Mu Yunhua, who came from a scientific background, ced more importance on the development of science and technology than most people. Aside from survival, she was most concerned about the technical development. As most of the representatives were also from a scientific background, they were able toprehend the meaning between the lines and, naturally, would not think any differently.


    “Last will be improving our military might.


    “A few days ago, we won out of sheer luck and passed our first-ever obstacle. But luck such as this is only a one-time urrence. Knowing the cruel, cunning nature of the Sins, they will give us their most violent blow the next time around. They may perhaps y with conspiracy once again, only to give us the harshest of punishment.


    “When that happens, we will have no advantage. We can only confront them face to face and prepare for bloodshed, or even a defeat.


    “Everyone—the goddess of luck will not shine on us twice. From now onward, we can only rely on our own strength.”


    Mu Yunhua’s speech was intensely heavy.


    After all, victory this time had been thanks to more than 70 years of nning, not pure luck. For the next encounter, the probability of the aliens falling for fraud was zero. It was destined to be a force-to-force confrontation.


    Both sides had a technological and profundity disparity of a few centuries. No one was confident enough to say that they would emerge victorious next time, let alone show even the slightest optimism.


    Therefore, they had to strengthen military might. The construction of their interster fleet mustmence immediately.


    Wu Zhixian said, after some thought, “With our current manpower and material resources, all we can do is suspend the environmental transformation of Walf in order to produce a staggering quantity of robots and construct more than fourrge space docks. Later on, after more than 30 years’ time, arge interster fleet would basicallye into shape. However...”


    “A fleet that is formed so hurriedly will be rtively backward technologically, and would be prone to issues such as immature equipment, unreasonable designs, ipatible systems, and so on... therger the system, the more difficult it is to integrate every aspect of the spaceship, and the higher the quality requirements for its crew.”


    “My conclusion is that—even if we have constructed an interster fleet 30 years from now—I imagine that itsprehensivebat power could hardly be described as ‘up to standard’.”


    To have pursued the path of a 10-year army, a 30-year air force, and a 100-year navy... only after a long period of tempering could something could be deemed “mature.” Besides, it would require an extensive period of time to be able to freely manipte a massive interster warship with an uncharted level ofplexity to the degree that it was as natural as controlling one’s arm. An interster fleet formed within a mere thirty years could only be described as rookie.


    Without any technical advantage, and directly confronting those who outssed them, their end could only be...


    “I know,” Mu Yunhua said faintly. “If no miracle urs, then we shall do our very best. In any case, we’ll need a fleet.”


    The representatives nodded.


    There were many elements in war. Weapons and equipment was one, strategy and tactics another, and the soldiers’ will and fighting spirit was one more... if all their faculties were exerted to the extreme, It would not be entirely impossible to drive away powerful enemies.


    ...


    On the other end of the universe.


    Haierfa.


    These days, Chen Jin was somewhat entangled.


    His feelings were a littleplicated.


    Every day, he was following Walf’s maneuvers, watching every move made by the human remnants.


    Honestly speaking, Chen Jin was excited and happy for their victory. He felt that the events would make a wonderful movie that would definitely earn countless ovations.


    But, aside from that, seeing that they have sessfully weathered through the crisis, Chen Jin was a little worried:


    What would they do next?


    With that ambush as a turning point, they kissed goodbye to their bad luck and went from one victory to another, sessfully mounting an ultimateeback, and underwent an unstoppable growth spurt. What if such novel-like events were to happen?


    In their ‘happily ever after,’ they vanquished all their enemies and returned to Haierfa with a heart full of nostalgia. In the meanwhile, they might discover the turtledove that was dwelling in the nest made by the magpies—Chen Jin. What if that happened?


    Would they be fatal foes, or fatal friends?


    It was unknown.


    Everything was in uncharted territory.


    However, because of the existence of this fetter called  Haierfa,” the two parties would eventuallye into contact in someday in the future.


    Most certainly, Chen Jin was not a good person. He prioritized ying it safe in all his nning. In ces where he should hesitate and bepassionate, he was usually very decisive.


    However... this time around, he couldn’t seem to harbor any hostility.


    Firstly, all of them were humans. They were of the same species with basically the same skin color,nguage, and culture. Secondly, the two sides had no disputes, resentment, grudges; Chen Jin felt no antipathy towards them. Conversely, Chen Jin was very fond of them, as their strength, wisdom, and courage... had amazed and surprised him. Moreover, Chen Jin was not a narrow-minded person who could not tolerate the existence of any meager amount of threat, who felt the need to “choke” something “while it’s still in its crib” on every asion, and so on... he still had a lower limit of morality.


    As opposed to arousing hostility, he preferred to make friends. He loved to unite the people in his surroundings and make the table bigger. Except for a few things that he wanted to keep for himself, in most regards he was open to a “win-win” situation where everyone would get a few spoonfuls of the soup.


    Therefore, he felt that there was a certain need for him to have some cooperation with those human remnants in the Walf Gxy.


    Moreover, they had in their possession many “things” that intrigued Chen Jin.


    “Even if those Sin battleships are the more backward and inferior onespared to their main ships, they are still definitely far more advanced than that alien spy spaceship.


    “Although all the warships are wrecked and their structures are iplete—after cracking the scientific and technological information contained within, what we’ll gain will still be much more than that from that alien spy ship.


    “Besides, we can further analyze the technological level of the Sins, determine the approximate gap between us and them, and understand their strengths in-depth, so that we can be familiar with them.


    “We must absolutely not miss the information concealed in those wreckages.


    “Besides, the Sins are also a very unique, intelligent species. Their intelligence is certainly not lower than that of humans. Moreover, they all have a ‘crystal’ behind their heads which is capable of transmitting brain waves for silentmunication or even transmitting information and data at seemingly astounding rates among each other. Previously, I even branded them the ‘Crystal Brainers’.”


    “The special crystal structure behind the heads of the Crystal Brainers allows them to learn way more efficiently than humans and develop their civilization very rapidly. They must be notcking in innovation; otherwise, they would not have developed to this extent.”


    “As for their species’ character, they are simply the temte of a standard ‘antagonist’. They are treacherous, cunning, and exceptional in using conspiracy. With only two spies, they managed to destroy an entire human civilization. They used their heads as a weapon, and their wisdom as daggers... a little likemitting high-IQ crimes. But of course, smart people will also asionally make some mistakes.”


    The above was the summarized characteristics of the Crystal Brainers deduced by Chen Jin and the artificial intelligences Nuwa and Alice.


    But was this all of it?


    Had they truly understood them all-around?


    Chen Jin had no living specimen of the Crystal Brainers in his hands, but he did find two of their corpses... subsequently, he had the idea of cultivating a few living Crystal Brainers though the cloning technology, but the process failed. He had never had a glimpse of a living Crystal Brainer.


    But now, in the hands of the human remnants at the Walf Gxy, were more than a hundred living Crystal Brainers.


    All those Crystal Brainers were alive!


    Just how enormous would their research value be?


    Some good probing, research, and analysis of those living Crystal Brainers would allow them to learn a great deal of basic information about the Sin civilization. For example, their poption, the radius of the star system they own, the length of their history, their system of governance, and so on. Their individual strengths and weaknesses, their personality, their ideology, their outlooks,—all could be identified at a nce.


    From then on, they could conceivably do thorough research on this intelligent species of the Crystal Brainers, just likeb mice.


    Chen Jin would surely want to share this thorough understanding of his “opponent.” After all, the Crystal Brainers was, in his mind, one of his foes, an adversary that he would attack and vanquish immediately after he garnered enough strength... But firstly, he needed to collect all the useful information he could about his opponent.


    Hence, the Crystal Brainer’s technology and their intel. These two things prompted Chen Jin to think of cooperation.


    On that note, how should they cooperate?


    Chen Jin inquired about Nuwa and Alice’s thoughts.


    “Master, I do feel that cooperation is necessary. Until now, most of our achievements in the technological field are still behind closed doors and have yet to be validated by other civilizations. Hence, we have no idea whether we are powerful or weak, as we have no clear reference forparison.


    “This is a good opportunity for us to understand the Crystal Brainers. We can further analyze their technology, deduce their strength, and, after establishing a benchmark system for all areas, we can evaluate our own strength in aprehensive manner,” said Nuwa.


    In fact, she had a fuzzy feeling that, after nearly a hundred years of development, theprehensive strength of Haierfa would not be weaker than that Crystal Brainers. She thought that they might even be stronger, but, considering the stakes for both sides, she dared not speak too highly of herself.


    “I thought so too, master.” Alice concurred, and said, “To us, those human survivors are weak, and they pose little threat. We can try to establish somemunication with them and ask them to share some of their gains with us. In return, we could provide them with some support and aid. Through them, we may be able tomunicate with and contact many other civilizations indirectly, without revealing the existence of our own. It is equivalent to having a very good eye and an agent... They could bring us many benefits.”


    Yeah...


    Chen Jin nodded. He would never stay in his own house forever. Such cooperation was totally feasible.