NCCnovel Chapter 298 Collecting Patent Fees
Chapter 298 Collecting Patent Fees
"Captain Zhang, the third starport is basically completed and ready for use."
The intelligent agent Cheng Xing submitted a satisfactory acceptance report to Zhang Beihai. Once Zhang Beihai approved it, the project could be considered complete.
“That’s right. Have Chu Yan take those prisoners to Principal Liu for a look. If they’re edible, keep them; if not, hand them over to those tree people to deal with.”
"Yes."
After the AI agent left, Zhang Beihai turned his gaze to the door, where Dongfang Yanxu had been waiting for a long time.
"Have they still not found their whereabouts?"
Dongfang Yanxu shook his head, pulled up a chair, and sat down opposite Zhang Beihai.
"Senior, things aren't as simple as they seem. The Trisolarans left us with far too little useful information, and besides..."
Dongfang Yanxu abruptly stopped speaking, his eyes scanning Zhang Beihai up and down, observing his senior's reaction to his words.
"Speak freely, I'm not someone who can't listen to opinions."
With Zhang Beihai's words as a guarantee, Dongfang Yanxu spoke again.
"Moreover, I believe that with the current overall strength of the Human Alliance, even if we do manage to locate the Carbon-Based Federation, we may not necessarily be their match."
“I know this better than anyone, Dongfang.”
Zhang Beihai sighed.
"But I can't guarantee what their attitude towards us will be, so the SUPP must be prepared to go to war at any time before they find us!"
Since Zhang Beihai led his fleet in a surprise attack on the Trisolaran homeworld and won a great victory, the Human Alliance has been exploring the surrounding star systems and trying to eliminate the Trisolarans who escaped during that war.
Zhang Beihai himself also marked this action as one of the most important daily affairs of the People's Federation.
It can be said that as long as it does not affect the technological development of the Human Alliance on Green Star, Zhang Beihai would send Dongfang Yanxu to lead the fleet on an expedition to wipe out other civilizations in the surrounding area, as long as he had some resources.
In the end, the Trisolarans didn't capture many, but instead, they wiped out quite a few other civilizations.
Zhang Beihai's attitude towards these civilizations was also consistent: the Human Alliance never needed prisoners, and the only race that the Human Alliance could accept was the human race.
Therefore, the fate of defeated civilizations is either to be used as expendable resources on Green Star, or to be turned into canned goods to provide food supplies for other soldiers of the Human Federation.
The one Zhang Beihai remembered most clearly was a civilization living on a planet that was more than 90 percent ocean. The main race of their civilization all looked like jelly.
When Chu Yan saw this civilized person, his first reaction was, "Can I eat him?"
However, it later proved that Chu Yan's idea was indeed feasible, as these jelly-like intelligent creatures tasted fantastic when cooked.
From then on, he became unstoppable, wanting to try every race he encountered.
So now, Chu Yan is also known as the interstellar gourmet in the military.
Because basically, Chu Yan ate almost everything except people.
However, the People's Federation soon reaped the rewards.
While pursuing a remnant of the Trisolarans, they intercepted their communications with the Kanar people.
This was also the first time that Zhang Beihai and others learned of the existence of the Carbon-Based Federation.
From this point on, the Human Alliance's pursuit of the Trisolaran civilization became a pursuit of the Carbon-Based Federation.
Although they do not yet possess the strength to fight against a Level 3 civilization, Zhang Beihai and the others believe that given enough time, it is only a matter of time before a Level 3 civilization comes into conflict.
The development speed of the tree civilization is much faster than imagined, no... it should be much faster.
According to Liu Chang's calculations, even with the help of extraterrestrial civilizations, it would take at least a hundred years for a civilization to develop from a primitive society to a cosmic society.
But look at it now, how long has it been? The Tree Civilization is already able to build its own spaceships.
This level of creativity is simply unimaginable.
"This is our civilization's first spaceship, and we named it 'Sunrise,' symbolizing new life and the beginning of everything. The development of our civilization is nourished by the energy emitted by stars. For us, the sun is our mother."
The World Tree watched the spaceship slowly rise into the sky. Although it had no facial features, Liu Chang could still feel its joy from its voice.
But as he looked at the spaceship that had risen into the air, the more he looked at it, the more familiar it seemed.
At this moment, Shi Qiang, who was standing to the side, couldn't help but come over.
"Principal Liu, don't you think we've seen this ship somewhere before?"
Liu Chang fell silent.
He remembered; he had indeed seen it before.
Isn't this the prototype of the first batch of ships they used when they participated in the Doomsday War?
Although they used metal, while the Tree Civilization used living wood, their overall structure and the principles of flight were almost identical.
This tree civilization is simply repeating the same old path that human technology took back in the past!
"This……"
Liu Chang was speechless for a moment.
He had originally thought that this tree civilization might be able to innovate when it developed into a large cosmic society.
But now it seems that we are still following the same old path that humans take.
"Now not only is our social development history highly similar to ours, but even our technological products are highly similar to ours."
If Liu Chang hadn't known that the Tree Civilization had never seen what the first spaceships built by humans looked like, he would have thought that the Tree Civilization was simply copying human civilization's ideas.
After a long silence, Shi Qiang finally managed to utter a single sentence.
"I think the biggest victims of the Dark Forest Theory are those of us who can't get patents for our inventions, otherwise we'd have to ask them to pay us patent fees!"
The test flight of the Tree Civilization's spaceship was very successful, with its longest journey even exceeding that of the iron lumps built during the two great international eras.
However, this could also be because they have more fuel available, and they burn only highly concentrated active wood.
This substance is unique to Green Star. Its organic matter content is much higher than that of ordinary plants. The heat generated when it is ignited is enough to power a spaceship for long-distance travel, and it is even more environmentally friendly than early nuclear energy.
Shi Qiang looked at the spaceship in the sky, took a deep drag of his cigarette, and couldn't help but click his tongue in amazement.
"Goodness, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I really wouldn't believe that someone could send a spaceship into space using only charcoal."
Liu Chang smiled.
"That's normal. Advanced civilizations probably see us as a bunch of birds. They probably can't understand why a civilization that's almost reached level three is still using energy to boil water."
With the addition of the Tree Civilization, subsequent sweep missions became much easier.
It was only then that Zhang Beihai realized that using the Tree Civilization to clean up lower-level civilizations was far more efficient than before.
Human civilization's weaponry technology is still somewhat diverse, leaning more towards integrated warfare to deal with different enemies in different situations.
But the Tree Civilization is completely different; its technology seems to be designed for smurfing in low-score games.
I only play in low-level games, and I can wipe out entire groups with a single bomb.
Other weapons would be troublesome to deal with civilizations that cannot yet build spaceships.
But Tree Civilization is different. Once a cannon is fired, even if someone manages to escape, they will be killed by subsequent spore infection.
This is absolutely insane.
What? You're asking how the Human Alliance knew that the other side was a civilization that couldn't even build a spaceship?
That's because when they first started exploring the universe, they would actively try to use very primitive communication methods to broadcast information to the universe indiscriminately.
Then, the Human Alliance only needs to send a fleet over and fire a single shot.
Every civilization has its own Ye Wenjie.
Unfortunately, not every civilization has Luo Ji and Lin Xuan.
Therefore, all that awaits them is the fate of enslavement or destruction.
Moreover, due to the existence of the Dark Forest Law, no civilization dares to deliberately forge the communication methods of a Level 0 civilization to broadcast its location, so Zhang Beihai and his team can easily clear out potential civilizations in the surrounding area.
Just go for it! Anyone you can identify is weaker than you.
We don't need to travel as far as the Trisolaran fleet; we just need to clear out any potential civilizations in the vicinity of our home.
Over the years, the number of civilizations that Zhang Beihai and his people have wiped out and enslaved is in the hundreds.
Among them were civilizations that were benevolent towards these aliens, but it didn't matter; they would kill them regardless of their benevolence.
If we don't kill them now, are we going to wait until their skills explode and they're crushing us before we kill them?
……
Every civilization in the universe is striving to develop itself, competing with each other for limited resources, as if they couldn't wait to tear a piece of flesh from the other.
War is the dominant theme among civilizations in the universe; peace is merely a temporary illusion maintained by the strong.
And in this grand cosmic era, in a forgotten corner, at the end of time, something is slowly beginning to sprout.
Somewhere in the Milky Way.
A fleet sped through the damaged asteroid belt, fleeing as if on the run.
Wherever they passed, darkness quickly enveloped the area, as if some enormous creature in the universe was quietly approaching the fleet.
Just as darkness was about to engulf the entire fleet, a crimson visible light, like a sharp sword, pierced through the darkness, splitting the entire starry sky in two.
However, that red line, like a moth drawn to a flame, only bloomed for a moment in the endless darkness of the universe before being enveloped by darkness and extinguished.
"Damn it, how come this thing is indestructible!"
Standing before the planet-destroying cannon, the officer stared into the darkness, his expression shifting from initial tension to despair.
"Retreat! Get the entire fleet out. Try to get as many as possible to escape."
He gave up. This cannon was the last trump card their civilization could muster. If even this couldn't defeat the monster before them, then they were completely helpless.
"What bad luck! We just managed to lower our own dimension, and then we ran into the end monster of this dimension."
The officer's face was filled with helplessness.
"If only we had more time to prepare, it would be great. Unfortunately, we couldn't bring down the blueprints for those powerful weapons from the previous dimension."
As the officer spoke, he turned the cannon around again.
Although he knew very well that it was completely futile, he was unwilling to just sit and wait for his death.
However, before he could fire a second shot, a humanoid figure rushed out from the flank and tackled the officer to the ground.
He recognized the figure that attacked him.
Although similar in size to him, the monster's face was already wrapped with countless willow branches.
These willow branches extended from its body; they were already part of its body.
The officer tried to get up and fight back, but the monster was much faster than him.
In the blink of an eye, his limbs were torn off, and his heart was violently ripped out of his body.
Even as he lay dying, his eyes remained fixed on the monster clinging to him. Though its face was covered in willow branches, the officer could still vaguely make out that it was his adjutant.
However, the other party was already dead. Apart from resembling his adjutant in appearance, this monster was already a completely different kind of creature from them.
This scene wasn't just playing out here; chaos reigned on the ships that had escaped as well.
These willow branches spread rapidly throughout the fleet like a plague. What's even more chilling is that they not only infect nearby comrades, but also the ships themselves.
After being invaded by these willow branches, a large number of machines began to turn their cannons on their own people. What was originally a great weapon against the enemy has now become a death knell for them!
The willow tree had lost count of how many civilizations it had devoured.
Each time it devours a new civilization, it hangs the head of the civilization's race on its branches like a trophy.
Now, its branches are densely covered with tens of thousands of heads.
This proves that in a short period of time, it destroyed tens of thousands of civilizations.
Every time the willow tree moves forward, these heads collide with each other like bells, making a clear "ding-ding-dang" sound.
After devouring the last person of this civilization, the core of the willow tree let out a long, melodious sigh.
This wasn't the first time it had devoured a civilization, but this particular civilization was one that left it with a lingering sense of satisfaction.
"High-dimensional civilization... Interesting, very interesting. So there are higher dimensions beyond this universe."
"Yes, this universe is not alone. I sense a familiar presence!"
The willow tree seemed to be reminiscing, recalling its past, and it always felt that it did not belong to this dimension either.
However, this memory was quickly replaced by new memories, and began to become murky, chaotic, and disordered.
"Forget it, I don't want to think about it anymore. I'll just keep eating. Someday, I'll remember everything."
……