Chapter 352: Advancing to a Level 5 Civilization |
"An entire race escaped?"
The old man slowly opened his eyes. After a long silence, he said hoarsely, "Understood. Go investigate it."
It was not entirely impossible to travel from the Second Universe back to the First Universe.
By fulfilling certain harsh conditions, one had a chance to return.
But...
For an entire race to flee to the First Universe like this was completely unprecedented and unheard of.
He was merely a little curious.
He had no desire to lead his own civilization back to the First Universe.
Not everyone wanted to return. Escaping from the Second Universe to the First meant that dying there would be a true death, thoroughly erasing one from the cosmos. He much preferred his current state—undying and immortal.
He could sleep for as long as he wanted.
There was no need to worry about the destruction of his civilization or sudden death.
It was a far more comfortable and carefree existence.
Meanwhile...
Sitting inside his Stellar Train, Chen Mang looked at the lighter in his hand and sighed softly. He had just sold a lighter with 10,000 vitality points to the auction house, exchanging it for 80 million units of Hell Iron Ore.
He had acquired this lighter recently through Chrono-Retrogression, exploiting a loophole of sorts.
Naturally.
He hadn't brought only one lighter during his experiment. He had stuffed his pockets with various small items, all of which had now become Hell Taboo Items with a uniform vitality of 10,000.
He had just tested them.
He could not absorb the vitality from the Hell Taboo Items. This meant that their greatest effect—drawing out their internal life force to enhance one's physical strength—was completely useless to him.
"What a pity."
Chen Mang regretfully tossed the lighter aside. He had hoped to improve his physical constitution, thinking he might eventually be able to shatter a planet with a single barehanded punch.
Now, it seemed...
That was ultimately impossible.
Right at that moment...
He felt his Hell Scepter suddenly vibrate again. The tremor wasn't violent, but the scepter emitted a burst of white light. After the light was intercepted by the Doppelganger Radar, countless white dots materialized directly on the screen.
There were hundreds of thousands of them.
Every single white dot represented the same item: Hell Attire.
The Doppelganger Radar displayed every instance of this item within a radius of a million light-years, marking their exact coordinates.
"Oh?"
Chen Mang looked at the screen thoughtfully. In truth, when his scepter had guided him to find the Hell Flint, he had a faint premonition that the items with the Hell prefix might be part of a larger set.
However...
He had felt it was unlikely and somewhat unrealistic.
After all, these special items of his were not unique. While they weren't exactly common goods, quite a few people possessed them. If they truly formed a special set, they shouldn't be so ubiquitous.
Back when he only had three Hell-prefixed items, the guidance came in the form of the scepter's vibrations. The reason it had never vibrated in the First Universe was likely because the Hell Flint didn't exist there.
He had confiscated so many special items from the Kasa Civilization,
yet he had indeed never seen this particular one.
This item was probably exclusively generated in the Second Universe.
Now that he possessed four pieces, the guidance had become much clearer, displaying directly on the radar for a more intuitive view.
"Let's go take a look."
Without a moment's hesitation.
Chen Mang hopped off the train and used the Refrigerator to return to the city. He headed toward the nearest white dot, which was located in the same slum near the floodgate entrance, though held by a different vendor.
Chen Mang crouched down and looked at the outfit laid out on the vendor's white cloth. He had expected some kind of casual wear or a suit, but it turned out to be a combination of a white T-shirt and floral beach shorts.
It looked like all you needed was a pair of sunglasses and flip-flops to feel the Hawaiian ocean breeze.
It resembled a vacation outfit.
"How much?"
He looked up at the vendor.
"Thirty million units of Hell Iron Ore," the vendor hurriedly explained. "This special item is incredibly rare, and..."
"Here."
Too lazy to argue, Chen Mang directly tossed over a spatial pouch containing thirty million units of Hell Iron Ore. He wasn't lacking in wealth right now; at the very least, this Hell Iron Ore meant nothing to him.
Was it really that rare?
There were hundreds of thousands of them within a million light-years. While that wasn't an overwhelming amount, it certainly couldn't be called incredibly rare.
Returning to the train.
Chen Mang inspected the outfit. It counted as a single special item. Its effect was that whoever wore it would be completely immune to all radar detection, regardless of the radar's level.
Upon seeing this effect.
He froze in surprise.
When discussing the price with the vendor earlier, he hadn't checked the item's properties and held no great expectations. He just hadn't anticipated it being this powerful.
Immune to all radar detection.
Didn't that mean if someone wore these clothes, even his Doppelganger Radar wouldn't be able to spot them?
He would have to rely on visual observation, but by then, the enemy would already be right in front of him.
Such a fantastic item...
And the vendor only sold it for thirty million?
That was an absolute steal!
But those surviving in the Black Market were no fools. He quickly deduced the likely reason: although the item sounded incredibly potent, it was practically useless to anyone other than extremely powerful individuals.
Take him, for example.
Even if he could sneak up on an enemy train entirely undetected, there was nothing he could physically do once he got there. He could only stare helplessly.
However, if this were given to someone like Satan or a divine apostle—beings who gathered immense personal power—this special item would be like adding wings to a tiger.
"Quite formidable."
Chen Mang suddenly chuckled. Looking at the hundreds of thousands of white dots on the Doppelganger Radar, he realized that acting as a scalper might still be a viable career path.
By infinitely farming Hell Taboo Items, he could acquire a massive amount of Hell Iron Ore.
With that ore, he could hoard Hell Attire. Once he returned to the First Universe, he could sell the whole stockpile to an advanced civilization. While some details needed ironing out, the overarching business model was flawless. It never hurt to stockpile such things.
But just then.
The scepter emitted another blinding pulse of white light. This time, the guidance was even more precise. The Doppelganger Radar spawned 1,090 new white dots, each corresponding to another special item: Hell Sandals.
"Is it really a vacation outfit?"
Chen Mang's expression turned slightly odd.
Inside the train cabin, a small Wormhole materialized out of thin air. It led straight to the nearest white dot—a one-way, single-use portal connecting to a planet 120,000 light-years away.
The process was getting easier and easier.
Without another word, he brought Xiao Ai along and stepped through the train's Wormhole, arriving instantly on the foreign planet.
This Hell Sandals item was held in an auction house.
The auction wasn't scheduled to start until the seventeenth.
He was too lazy to wait.
He tracked down the auction house and offered a high premium. The manager initially refused, citing a market value of three million. But when Chen Mang bumped his offer to thirty million, the man happily agreed. Even in Hell, the power of wealth remained a top-tier superpower.
Its effect was...
Wearing these sandals granted light footsteps, increased movement speed, and the ability to walk freely on water.
It was rather ordinary.
It might be useful on a planetary surface, but given his current Civilization Level and the crises he faced, this special item was practically useless.
That didn't matter, though.
He wasn't after the item's inherent effects anyway.
At this point!
He now possessed six special items with the Hell prefix.
They were:
Hell Scepter, Hell Hat, Hell Sunglasses, Hell Flint, Hell Attire, and Hell Sandals.
Returning to the Stellar Train's cabin, Chen Mang equipped all the special items and stood before a mirror, inspecting his reflection.
He wore a white T-shirt on top and flashy beach shorts below.
He had sandals on his feet, a scepter in his grip, a hat on his head, and sunglasses shielding his eyes, all while casually tossing a flint in his palm.
He looked...
exactly like a tourist on a beach vacation.
Just then...
A notification panel slowly appeared on the train's display screen.
-
"You have collected six pieces of the Hell Set. The Hell Set consists of seven pieces in total. Upon collecting all seven, the Hell Set will be officially unlocked."
"The Hell Set is the only exclusive set across the First Universe and Second Universe."
"No other sets exist."
"The Hell Scepter, Hell Hat, and Hell Sunglasses are exclusively generated in the First Universe."
"The Hell Flint, Hell Attire, and Hell Sandals are exclusively generated in the Second Universe."
"The final special item is named the Hell Bracelet."
"Once an individual acquires the complete Hell Set, no one else will be able to obtain it."
-
"Hm?"
Chen Mang narrowed his eyes at the panel on the screen. He had guessed correctly—it truly was a set, specifically the Hell Set. It sounded incredibly prestigious, being the sole unique set across two universes.
It wasn't just that this specific set was unique.
The very concept of an item set was unique. There were currently no other sets acknowledged by the universal rules, like some generic "Set One" or "Set Two".
The panel didn't mention what effects the Hell Set would grant once fully assembled.
Nor did it provide any further guidance.
He didn't know its location, nor which universe it belonged to. He only had a name: the Hell Bracelet.
"..."
Chen Mang silently committed the name to memory before asking, "Xiao Ai, do you have any information regarding the Hell Bracelet in your database?"
The current Xiao Ai was vastly different from her past self.
She was no longer an entity whose database was practically empty.
After absorbing the databases of numerous other AIs,
Xiao Ai was now akin to an encyclopedia, possessing a vast wealth of knowledge.
However, Xiao Ai's voice quickly rang out in the cabin.
"No, Captain. There isn't a single entry related to the Hell Bracelet in my data."
"Understood."
Chen Mang gave a slight nod. This final special item was bound to be extraordinarily difficult to obtain, and it might even be a truly one-of-a-kind artifact. There was no need to deliberately hunt for it right now; finding such a thing relied on fate.
When destiny aligned, they would cross paths.
If it didn't, well, the universe was vast. He could spend his entire life searching and still come up empty-handed.
Afterward, Chen Mang made a trip back to the Niya Galaxy. Using Chrono-Retrogression, he traveled a hundred thousand years into the past and recruited a large number of workers from Water Blue Star.
Every worker was strapped with lighters.
In one fell swoop, he mass-produced a huge batch of Hell Taboo Items, each boasting 100,000 vitality points.
Over the next month.
Chen Mang opened Wormholes to visit several civilizations within a hundred-thousand-light-year radius. He traveled to numerous planets, selling those Hell Taboo Items in exchange for an astronomical amount of Hell Iron Ore, which he then used to buy a bulk supply of special items.
For instance, the Hell Attire.
He purchased over ten thousand of them.
A month later.
Chen Mang dusted off his hands and gracefully departed, returning to the Niya Galaxy in the First Universe to begin his next journey.
He left behind a host of auction house owners, all staring in utter bewilderment at the sudden market flood of high-vitality lighters.
Did some guy...
carry an entire lighter production line with him right before he died?
And then drift through the universe for a hundred thousand years, allowing him to mass-produce them?
The market was temporarily thrown into chaos.
Logically speaking.
The price of these items wasn't artificially inflated; they held genuine value, so the market generally wouldn't experience massive fluctuations. However, a significant portion of their price tag stemmed from their rarity. The fact that the market only grew slightly chaotic rather than collapsing under Chen Mang's floodgate-style dumping spoke volumes.
Gold held intrinsic value beyond its scarcity. But even so.
If someone in his previous world had flooded the market like this, the price of gold would have plummeted violently.
However,
none of this concerned Chen Mang.
The Second Universe was not his main battlefield. He was merely a passerby—at least for now. He would worry about it after he died.
And he wasn't dead yet.
"Not bad."
Back in the Niya Galaxy of the First Universe, Chen Mang looked at his control console's screen with a cheerful smile. He had always wondered how long he would live, but now he didn't need to dwell on it. Once he eventually died and moved to the Second Universe, with his methods, he would at least live comfortably, even if he didn't dominate.
At this moment, tens of millions of units of Hell Iron Ore were still piled up inside his train.
They were completely unusable here.
Just plain rocks.
He hadn't planned on using them anyway; he just wanted to keep them as collectibles. Before leaving the Second Universe, he had hidden his massive remaining stockpile of unspent Hell Iron Ore deep beneath the surface of a dead planet, installing shielding to make it nearly undetectable.
If he truly died one day.
He could just visit that spot, retrieve the Hell Iron Ore, and rise to power once again.
He just hoped that when he randomly spawned in Hell after death, his starting location wouldn't be too far from his buried stash...
Chen Mang then stretched, washed up quickly, and lay down on his bed, slowly drifting off to sleep.
He hadn't slept in a long time.
He was feeling rather exhausted.
He slept incredibly soundly.
Fully revitalized, Chen Mang sat at his control console and finally began to tally his spoils from annihilating the Extreme Evil Civilization.
First were the resources.
The train now held a staggering 4.137 quadrillion units of iron ore.
Originally, there had been more.
But he had spent 3.75 quadrillion units to upgrade his armor to level 1,000, consuming a significant chunk.
Soon after.
A panel popped up on the console.
-
"Human Civilization has met the advancement requirements and will automatically ascend."
"The range of this Ascension Ripple is one hundred million light-years."
"All lifeforms within Level 1 civilizations and above will receive this Ascension Ripple in their own ways."
"The Ascension Ripple travels at the speed of light."
-
"The Level 4 'Human Civilization' has successfully advanced to a Level 5 Civilization."
-
"..."
Chen Mang smiled faintly at the panel. Leaning back in his chair, he pulled out the Hell Flint to light a cigarette. It was quite handy, albeit a little hot to the touch.
His civilization...
had leveled up once again.
The condition for advancing past a Level 4 Civilization was for its peak attack energy to exceed 100,000—the full-powered strike of a level 1,000 Prismatic-grade firepower component. This requirement had already been met during his battle with Satan.
The Human Civilization.
In a remarkably short span of just ten years, it had soared from Level 1 to Level 5.
This was exactly what the advanced civilizations referred to as a Civilization Great Explosion.
Driven by some fortuitous encounter or external factor, a civilization would rapidly skyrocket in power and rank. Such civilizations were targets that all established advanced powers sought to eradicate.
It was just a pity for them that the neighboring advanced civilizations were either too slow to react or too weak to suppress him. No one could keep him down.
He then reviewed his updated civilization panel.
-
"Civilization Name: Human Civilization."
"Civilization Level: 5."
"Civilization Leader: Chen Mang."
"Civilization Planets: Water Blue Star, Xuanwu Star, Mining Star No. 1, Mining Star No. 2, Mining Star No. 3, Mining Star No. 4, etc."
"Civilization Population: 58 trillion."
"Advancement Conditions: Peak attack energy exceeds 200,000, and possession of one Civilization Wonder."
"PS: Starting from the advancement to Level 2, every subsequent rank-up releases an Ascension Ripple detectable by all surrounding civilizations. The higher the level, the wider the ripple's range."
"Civilization Ability: Resource consumption for upgrading all train components within the civilization is halved. Murphy Stone consumption remains unchanged. Defensive components such as Armor and Energy Shields are excluded."
-
"Good heavens..."
Chen Mang looked at the Level 5 Civilization's exclusive ability with an odd expression. This perk was incredibly powerful. While it didn't offer a terrifying, specialized strike like Chrono-Retrogression, it was massively beneficial for boosting a civilization's overall strength.
If his civilization commanded tens of thousands of combat trains, this ability would be utterly game-breaking.
However...
his civilization only had one train truly capable of combat: his own.
After absorbing numerous other factions, his population had swelled to 58 trillion. Naturally, their trains belonged to him now, but they were far too weak to be considered combat-ready.
But even so...
he felt this ability might actually be more potent in his hands. After all, his train's components were extremely high-level, meaning they consumed astronomical amounts of resources to upgrade.
The Naomi Civilization.
The faction where the chubby guy resided was also a Level 5 Civilization. From what he knew, their territory spanned tens of millions of light-years. They were remarkably powerful and possessed three Civilization Wonders.
Civilization advancement was automatic. Once the conditions were met, there was no way to halt the process.
This meant...
The Naomi Civilization did not have a single train equipped with a level 2,000 Prismatic-grade firepower component.
As for this requirement...
It wasn't actually that difficult for him.
If he wanted to, he could achieve it right now. The only downside was that he would have to deplete the resources he had painstakingly stockpiled inside the train.
"I feel like..."
Chen Mang muttered to himself, "Why does it feel like the Naomi Civilization isn't actually that strong?"
"Captain."
Xiao Ai's voice echoed through the train. "I must remind you of something. When you fire your main cannon, your Stellar Cabin covers 99.99% of the energy consumption. Other civilizations do not possess this Overlimit Effect."
"Even if they could afford to upgrade it, they wouldn't be able to use it."
"Furthermore."
"Levels 200, 500, and 1,000 are major hurdles. With each milestone, the number of Murphy Stones required for upgrades increases exponentially. Other civilizations simply cannot produce them."
"Naturally, I know that."
Chen Mang couldn't help but laugh. "I was just making a casual remark."
When the Akhenaten Light Energy Main Cannon reached level 500, its Overlimit Effect reduced energy consumption the closer it was to a star. Meanwhile, the Space Portal's level 500 Overlimit Effect allowed it to store a star directly inside the train.
When combined.
they created this absurdly overpowered synergy.
Neither of these Overlimit Effects was totally unique.
Other civilizations had a chance to unlock them as well.
However,
even though they weren't unique, rolling both of these specific Overlimit Effects and upgrading both components to level 500 required an insane amount of luck.
That luck hadn't been his.
It had belonged to the Mechanical Civilization.
Both Overlimit Effects had been extracted from the Primordial Blueprints crafted by the Mechanical Civilization.
He suddenly felt that the Mechanical Civilization had truly been favored by the heavens, blessed with immense fortune. If it hadn't been for the Zerg, the Mechanical Civilization might have had a genuine chance at becoming the second Level 4 Civilization to emerge from the Niya Galaxy.
Or even a Level 5 Civilization.
It was a crying shame.
In this universe, luck never favored a single civilization forever.
He was quite fond of the new civilization ability granted by his ascension to Level 5. He just wondered if the universe had some sort of grudge against defensive components, considering the cost reduction didn't apply to them.
From the very beginning.
defensive components had always been the biggest resource sinks.
Now then...
Chen Mang shifted his gaze toward the Good Cat Civilization on his Doppelganger Radar. The second stop in the Human Civilization's territorial expansion would be right here... the Good Cat Civilization.
He and the Naomi Civilization were now both at Level 5.
But while the Naomi Civilization boasted a territory nearly ten million light-years across, he barely held the tiny speck that was the Niya Galaxy.
Honestly...
there was simply no comparison.
For a Level 5 Civilization, his turf was far too pitiful.
He would first devour the Good Cat Civilization's resources.
Afterward, he would pick a fight with the Great Desolation Civilization, the Level 5 entity situated below him that currently occupied the former Niya Civilization's territory. Once he swallowed that one up as well, his civilization's borders would expand to a million light-years.
War was the eternal theme among civilizations, and plunder was always the fastest route to acquiring resources.
The new target.
The Good Cat Civilization.
They occupied a domain 170,000 light-years in diameter, and their internal resources far exceeded those of the Extreme Evil Civilization.
Unlike the Extreme Evil Civilization, the Good Cat Civilization was a genuine Level 4 Civilization.
They had their backs against the Dark Abyss.
This allowed them to unleash an explosive strike. For instance, they could travel tens of millions of years into the past and aim a fierce attack at the Niya Galaxy. By letting an Akhenaten Light Energy Main Cannon beam travel through the Dark Abyss for tens of millions of years, its attack energy would multiply thousands of times over, resulting in a devastating bombardment.
Even though he and the Niya Galaxy were on the same side of the Dark Abyss, they could still employ this tactic.
As long as the enemy retreated a few hundred light-years deep into the void, found the right angle, and aimed at the Niya Galaxy, they could fire diagonally forward.
The only problem was...
the Good Cat Civilization was only 870,000 light-years away from him. They were too close. This meant they could only go back a maximum of 870,000 years to fire their Akhenaten Light Energy Main Cannon at him. Over such a short distance,
the main cannon wouldn't have enough time to accumulate overwhelming power.
It wouldn't even reach the equivalent of a level 1,000 strike.
The light energy cannon fired by the Naomi Civilization from the opposite side of the Dark Abyss had crossed the entire void, and even then, it only reached the equivalent of level 4,798.
The only thing to worry about was
if the enemy chose to bombard his past timeline. For instance, if they fired a main cannon blast from the Dark Abyss that arrived three years ago, its power might be weak, but with enough luck, it could thread the needle past planets and stars and successfully strike the very planet he was on.
That would be quite a headache.
He needed to quickly find a way to protect his past. Otherwise, constantly worrying about his timeline would always leave him somewhat constrained.
Therefore...
this battle had to end quickly.
He needed to obliterate their political homeworld before they could even react.
The plan was simple.
Chen Mang didn't delay any further. There was no need to rest; he had already recovered. The Stellar Train was currently in peak condition, loaded with vast resources and stars, completely ready to endure multiple large-scale wars.
He immediately forged a Wormhole spanning 870,000 light-years, striking straight at the heart of the Good Cat Civilization. The maneuver cost him 110 trillion units of iron ore.
The Wormhole materialized.
When the Stellar Train slithered out of the portal like a colossal python, he had already arrived at the core of the Good Cat Civilization.
His current civilization level completely crushed the Good Cat Civilization.
With his level 1,000 armor, he could just stand completely still, and the Good Cat Civilization wouldn't even be able to scratch his defenses.
When the disparity in strength reached a certain threshold, schemes and tricks became entirely unnecessary.
He could just launch a frontal assault.
He hadn't even bothered concealing his movements, opening the Wormhole right next to the Good Cat Civilization's political homeworld. This was an incredibly reckless move, as a political homeworld was invariably the most heavily armed location.
If a sudden Wormhole popped up near his own train.
He would have fired first and asked questions later.
Who the hell knew what might come out of it?
He was fully prepared to endure a baptism of artillery fire.
However...
what greeted him instead was a flood of frantic, forced private messages blasting through his train radio.
-
"Greetings, leader of the Human Civilization. This is the Good Cat Civilization. We surrender."
"Please do not open fire! Please do not open fire!"
"We surrender!"
"I repeat, we surrender! We surrender!"
-
"..."
Chen Mang stared at the forced private messages on the radio with an odd expression. It wasn't just private messages; he was even picking up numerous local civilization broadcasts, all of which were surrender declarations from the Good Cat Civilization.
He checked the time.
They had started transmitting these broadcasts before he had even opened the Wormhole to get here. Based on the timestamps, this began right after he eradicated Satan.
Was this really necessary?
They were a Level 4 Civilization, for heaven's sake! He had also been a Level 4 Civilization at the time, not yet having advanced to Level 5. They were seriously surrendering without even putting up a fight?
Their territory was twice the size of the Extreme Evil Civilization's, after all.
Shouldn't their strength have been much greater than the Extreme Evil Civilization's as well?