Chapter 86: The First Myriad Races Exposition
“…seventy-two, seventy-three, seventy-four.”
Ambassador Gvas of Lund floated in mid-air, staring at the four entry portals of the teleportation array, counting one by one the number of races teleporting through. The massive metal sphere didn’t need to pretend to look away like other lifeforms, nor did it need to cast spells to notice what was happening behind it—it could easily manage that.
“…seventy-six, seventy-seven, seventy-eight. Good heavens, even the Walder have come. The ‘Walder Hunting Alliance’ is a large-scale void civilization that can dominate nearly half a star river!”
Staying in his position, Gvas counted silently in his mind, and the more he tallied, the heavier his mood became: “So many races… most of them are large-scale void civilizations. What exactly do the Mycroft people intend by inviting so many non-vassal civilizations to this joint assembly?”
Could it be that this joint assembly wasn’t just an internal notification meeting for the Mycroft people to consolidate their vassal states? Or had they misunderstood their purpose?
Though filled with immense doubt, no one could answer Gvas’s questions.
Because at this moment, he was located in the venue of the ‘First Joint Assembly’ hosted by Mycroft Civilization—a specially modified small-scale ether demiplane.
This was a spherical small demiplane, only as large as a big island. Inside the demiplane, there was no matter, and naturally, no light source. But the dark vacuum was filled with dense ether. One could see orderly rows of floating racial envoy delegations, each staying in their designated positions, surrounding the center of this small demiplane.
And at the center of this small demiplane was the platform where the Mycroft people presided over the meeting.
The small ether demiplane was unsuitable for most lifeforms to survive; entering required one to cast life-sustaining magic. However, those qualified to be part of the envoy delegations were generally not weak in strength, capable of surviving safely even in the void, let alone just lacking air.
As an electromagnetic metallic lifeform of the Lund race, Gvas naturally didn’t need to worry about such issues. He just found it strange why the Mycroft people would go to such trouble to create a demiplane specifically for holding a meeting… when they clearly didn’t seem that invested in it, much like the accidental Myriad Races Exposition that had occurred earlier.
Speaking of which, while waiting for the assembly to begin, Gvas couldn’t help but recall a conflict that had taken place a few days ago in the central hall of the void base—it was between two civilizations that already had a long-standing grudge. They had originally been competing and clashing in their own star river. Though there hadn’t been a large-scale full war, cold wars like arms races and cultural invasions had never ceased. Even when both sides were simultaneously suppressed by the suddenly appearing Mycroft Civilization and taken as vassals, their competition hadn’t stopped—in fact, it had intensified.
When the envoy delegations of both sides encountered each other in the central hall, they immediately broke into a verbal conflict. Gvas, who was present at the time, watched the excitement with great interest, expecting a full-blown brawl or a duel challenge. But he never expected that one side wouldn’t resort to direct physical conflict. Instead, they smugly used their tentacles to create a large mass of water element, mixed it with magic power, and constructed an incredibly complex magical framework, bare-handedly forging a high-grade mana core!
Upon seeing the phantom of this high-grade mana core, the other side’s tentacles immediately began to tremble. As a long-time rival, this ambassador immediately understood that their civilization had likely fallen behind their opponent in energy technology. The other side knew this too, which was why they deliberately used this non-weapon weapon to attack them—but after trembling, the ambassador immediately retracted his body and also began to gather water element, constructing a phantom of an extremely advanced engine in mid-air.
This time, it was the other side’s turn to have trembling tentacles.
Yes, both races looked like aquatic mollusks, one resembling an octopus and the other a sea anemone. Because their ecological niches were similar and their habitable worlds were the same, the conflict between them was so great.
Although the most critical parts of the core and engine phantoms constructed by both sides were hidden, those truly familiar with such matters could tell from the design details that these were indeed extremely advanced and valuable technologies, and also the best way to showcase their civilization’s strength—both the octopus people and the sea anemone people had demonstrated their civilization’s power in this tit-for-tat competition.
Soon, other civilizations approached the octopus people and sea anemone people, seemingly wanting to inquire about trading related technologies. Naturally, ambassadors from other civilizations would also offer corresponding technologies for exchange… After all, because of the Mycroft people, the Jetram Void Base now housed ambassadors from dozens of civilizations. For most civilizations that usually developed within their own small sphere, at most exchanging or competing with neighboring civilizations, this was simply a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for exchange.
Wanting to encounter so many high-ranking members of different races outside of here? That was a dream! Realizing this, some ambassadors immediately understood that this was probably the best time for mutual exchange. After all, every civilization had its strengths and weaknesses. Being able to complement each other while attending the joint assembly? That couldn’t be better.
Thus, the originally noisy, chaotic, and tumultuous central hall immediately became orderly. Each race occupied a spot and began showcasing their technologies—some had unique jump engines, some had special methods for cultivating supernatural powers, some had unique ship cannons and weapon technologies, and some had highly efficient planet-terraforming technologies… Naturally, no civilization would bring out their most specialized parts, but aside from that, they still had many things to trade.
Gvas was no exception. The Lund civilization also set up their own stall, promoting the Lund civilization’s unique alloy formulas and simple disassemblable metal warship designs. Such things were rare but not necessarily of extremely high value. Even so, many civilizations inferior to Lund in materials science and engineering came to trade, and the Lund civilization reaped a bountiful harvest—a completely unexpected gain.
In just one day, a completely spontaneously formed ‘Myriad Races Exposition’ was held. Gvas basically looked over the specialties, special artifacts, and special technologies of every civilization. Although most products were unsuitable for electromagnetic lifeforms, complementing strengths and filling gaps was entirely possible. The ambassador was pleasantly surprised to find that just one day of exposition could save the Lund civilization decades or even centuries of research, development, and implementation time.
The Mycroft civilization did not react immediately. In fact, they should have thought of this long ago and presided over it themselves. This was also why Gvas felt the Mycroft people weren’t particularly invested in this joint assembly.
Of course, the next day, the Mycroft people also participated in this exposition, and the technologies they showcased were astonishing—various methods for cultivating supernatural powers, advanced warship and void fortress models, and the methods for constructing ‘Space-Time Hubs’ and ‘Star Gates’!
Leaving aside the various supernatural power cultivation methods—since they would need to be adapted for corresponding races back home—the advanced warship and void fortress technologies, along with the ‘Space-Time Hubs’ and ‘Star Gates,’ attracted the attention of many civilizations! After all, wasn’t it through these two things that the Mycroft people shuttled between two-world star rivers, traveling with high efficiency, transporting high-level superhumans and troops, and suppressing one world after another?
Of course, the ambassadors weren’t fools. They could naturally see through the Mycroft people’s open scheme—supernatural power cultivation methods were easy to learn but hard to master. Though they looked beautiful, even including rare supernatural power inheritances like Holy Light, not all races were like humans, naturally adaptable to various supernatural powers. As for warship and void fortress technologies, learning them was meaningless, as these things required time and resources to turn into actual combat power. Who knew if their home civilizations could gather the necessary resources?
And the final Space-Time Hubs and Star Gates were even more laughable. If Space-Time Hubs at least had some function—stabilizing surrounding networks and serving as core star torches to illuminate the surrounding void—then Star Gates were simply fake medicine deliberately marketed by the Mycroft people to them! Building these things was essentially free labor for the Mycroft civilization, free expansion of their influence! As the race that seemed most knowledgeable about space-time, who knew if Space-Time Hubs and Star Gates had backdoors?
No wonder they chose these things as the first batch of goods for exchange—truly well-thought-out.
His thoughts gradually returned to the ether demiplane where the joint assembly was being held. Gvas’s race count had reached the terrifying number of ‘one hundred and twelve’.
This was the total number of all civilized races in this first joint assembly.
At the same time, a light source lit up at the center of the demiplane. A small star floated above the Mycroft people’s platform, emitting brilliant golden radiance. A lady with hair like gemstones, wearing a veil, and a supremely intelligent mage teleported onto the platform. The aura of these two Mycroft experts descending caused all the civilization ambassadors present to feel a slight suffocation.
Now, at this very moment.
The First Mycroft Joint Assembly was about to officially commence.
…
“Joshua, why did you refuse the title of meeting host?”
Inside a vast, boundless, dark, and lightless world, empty yet filled with ether, Nostradamus’s somewhat puzzled voice came through: “Those are ambassadors from many civilizations in the surrounding star river. If you appeared, you could instantly become famous across most of the multiverse star river.”
“…Fame? Master, you’ve misunderstood something.”
The old mage seemed about to say more, but Joshua chuckled, interrupting him. He shook his head and said in a low voice: “What meaning does that have for me?… In the end, this so-called joint assembly is nothing more than a reminder to these civilizations still engaged in internal strife, mutual hatred, and holding each other back, in light of the impending invasion of evil gods. In reality, this so-called joint assembly is just a large-scale propaganda and popularization of chaos-related knowledge, letting these pleasure-seeking fools understand a more important truth.”
“Besides, I have more important things to do… For example, transforming a world.”
As he spoke, Joshua’s deep voice spread throughout the entire world. One could see golden light suddenly appear in this pure darkness, and this light kept expanding, kept expanding, until finally, like a true star, it emitted a stable and brilliant golden radiance akin to a main-sequence star.
Illuminated by the star’s light, one could now see that the entire world seemed very unnatural. Its interior must have been artificially modified to create such a peculiar structure—empty of everything except the newly created star!
Only then did the forms of the Giant God and Nostradamus appear under the light’s illumination. After doing all this, Joshua turned his head, looked at the emotionally moved Nostradamus, shrugged, and said:
“For example… orbiting this star.”
“Building a ring.”