Chapter 421: The Node of Destiny
Yes, hundreds of billions!
For the long ages that the Three Great Empires ruled the entire Universe, just the population under their control was itself an astronomically huge number, with at least several hundred quadrillion.
This vast number had now become the most terrifying aspect of the Space Undead.
But citizens and warriors are entirely different entities.
In this Universe, the vast majority of ordinary people are just that—ordinary.
They are not involved in any Extraordinary Power at all.
All the paths to Cultivation are highly demanding of Talent, such as witchcraft and Magic.
Witches are the most powerful Mages among them, yet across the entire Universe, out of millions or even tens of millions of people, only one is qualified to learn Magic.
Besides relying on various Equipment, some Species naturally possess great power and become an essential part of the Legions.
But even for these Species, there aren't many, and not every individual can become a qualified warrior.
In such a scenario, the combined Legions of the Three Great Empires at the peak of their time did not exceed one hundred billion!
Moreover, there was a considerable contingent of ordinary people who formed combat forces solely based on armor, Warships, and weapons.
It is especially evident how shocking it would be when Legions of human civilization — numbering in the hundreds of billions at the very least, all Extraordinary Fourth Stage and equipped with various terrifying Warships and powerful weapons — appear.
Not to mention the current United Conference, but even the Three Great Empires together before the Disaster could only have been overpowered by such force.
"This power, they clearly don't need to support us!" Scientist Severus was the first to recover from the shock and start analyzing, "Just by themselves, they could sweep away all Space Undead. Our various supports aren't essential for them. The only purpose I can think of for the provided loan resources is one—to control us."
Yes, the Seven Giants weren't fools, and what's more, Human Civilization didn't make much effort to disguise their intent.
Once the overwhelming power was revealed, their objective became very clear.
The Undead Disaster of the Parallel Universe was targeted to be completely controlled in the strategic scheme of Human Civilization.
"Anyway, the survivors behind us are indeed saved," Ying responded more calmly. "Things may not necessarily get worse. It's still to be seen what kind of order they establish."
Many others nodded slightly, though uneasy, they agreed with the statement.
Any order is better than everyone being completely dead, destroyed, and becoming Undead.
In the end, the majority of Civilization systems in this Universe are monarchies, and they are already accustomed and accepting of a strong rule.
If you are powerful and can bring positive development to the entire Civilization, to everyone, then you are just.
Human Civilization chose such a straightforward and brutal approach because it understood this. Otherwise, they could have been more gentle in their tactics.
Thus, the Space Undead Parallel Universe became one of the first three Universes deeply explored by Human Civilization, and the one where the exploration activities were the most extensive.
As the Legions moved quickly, the Civilization Mall Level, which hadn't seen much income for over a hundred and thirty years, finally saw new profit.
This caused Human Civilization's performance value to surge, multiplying several hundredfold or even nearly a thousandfold over the second place.
Clearly, the other civilizations, including the one ranked second, hadn't been able to break out of the Universe's confines.
And remember, the cheat hasn't been activated yet.
Once the cheat is turned on, this advantage may well be maintained.
"It looks like this will be yet another undisputed crush," Shen Hao said, quite unperturbed.
Apart from the small ranking challenge the Contract Spirit Civilization brought to Human Civilization during the last Trial, it had always been a one-sided crush.
But the cheat activation is still some time away.
Shen Hao also shifted his gaze away from the Undead World.
Clearing the Space Undead would take a long time, after all, the sheer number of enemies was present, but these Space Undead only had large quantities without much strength; even cheating might not bring enough points to leap from the Sixth Rank to the Seventh Rank of the Civilization Mall Level.
So there was no need to pay too much attention for the time being.
Shen Hao then focused on the second target Universe.
This was a very ordinary Parallel Universe without any crisis, and not very strong either. The reason Human Civilization chose this Universe as one of the initial exploration targets was to understand what a "normal" destiny was like.
Worth mentioning is that the timeline of this Universe seems to be hundreds of years ahead of the Space Undead Universe.
This could be easily verified by aligning it with the "Calendar" of the Three Great Empires.
And furthermore, the current exploratory personnel have discovered some interesting things.
As Shen Hao's gaze shifted, a scout from a regular Life Planet appeared before his eyes.