"As long as the strength is achieved, everything else will gradually follow."

Ai explained quite seriously.

Chen Mang did not say much more. In fact, his statement did not require an answer, but obviously, Ai, although possessing intelligence equivalent to humans, and making more accurate decisions in certain cases than humans, still found it a bit hard to adapt to the complex human context.

...

Chen Mang sat in the train cabin, looking at the panel that popped up on the control console.

Human Civilization has officially advanced to an eighth-level civilization.

They were just one step away from a ninth-level civilization.

And a new civilization panel appeared on the screen.

-

"Civilization Name": Human Civilization.

"Civilization Level": Level 8.

"Civilization Leader": Chen Mang.

"Civilized Planet": Water Blue Star, Black Tortoise Star, No.1 Mining Star, No.2 Mining Star, No.3 Mining Star, No.4 Mining Star...etc.

"Civilized Population": 61 trillion people.

"Promotion Conditions": The strongest attack energy range exceeds 700,000.

"ps: From the promotion to a second-level civilization and for every promotion thereafter, a 'Promotion Ripple' detectable by all surrounding civilizations will be released; the higher the level, the wider the range of the 'Promotion Ripple'.

"Civilized Means": The speed and capacity of resource mining such as Murphy Stone Ore, iron ore, copper ore, etc., are doubled.

-

There were basically no major changes in the civilization panel.

Notably.

The condition to advance to a ninth-level civilization is only one, which is that the strongest attack energy range exceeds 700,000, equivalent to a 7,000-level Akanon Light Energy Main Cannon, not requiring 10,000 levels.

It was much lower than he imagined the promotion requirements to be.

And the civilized means were similarly resource-based, doubling the speed of resource generation like Murphy Stone Ore, iron ore, copper ore, etc., within the civilization's territory.

The range is selectable.

For instance, he could choose to enclose a particular star system within his civilization's territory to double the resource generation speed there.

Otherwise...

This civilized means is basically shared by the whole universe.

The entire universe being divided by divine-level civilizations, does it not mean that every corner can enjoy this benefit, then there would be no existence of resource-poor areas.

At the next moment——

A piercing alarm suddenly sounded in the train.

"Warning, warning, an attack of unknown intensity is rapidly approaching!"

"Warning, warning..."

On the Doppler Radar, a beam of light like a comet is rapidly approaching the Fixed Star train at an extremely fast speed, crossing tens of millions of lightyears in the blink of an eye!

This is...

This is an attack from 780 million light-years away, passing through dozens of wormholes, arriving almost instantaneously over the Fixed Star train, as the alarm had just sounded.

The attack had already arrived. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"Boom!!!"

A violent fireball instantly enveloped the Fixed Star train.

...

After the smoke cleared.

The Fixed Star train floated intact in the cosmos, with no more urgent alarms sounding in the train. At the moment of impact, he already knew the strength of this attack.

A 7,000-level Akanon Light Energy Main Cannon's power.

This was an attack from a ninth-level civilization.

"It's an automatic attack from 'Human Civilization'."

"Upon detecting the civilization's advancement to an eighth-level civilization, an attack was launched instantly, akin to a cosmic landmine."

Ai's voice sounded in the train.

"..."

Chen Mang sat in the train, looking out the window. This weapon was very familiar to him, the Akanon Light Energy Main Cannon, but apparently, the supermodel effect for the other party was different from his; the 7,000-level Akanon Light Energy Main Cannon did not form a black hole after detonation.

Instead, the surrounding millions of light-years were all transformed into two-dimensional.

At this moment——

It was his first time being in a two-dimensional universe, as he looked out the window, it was as if he was in an oil painting, where countless Fixed Stars and planets were on one plane, no longer flickering, frozen into a picture.

And the Fixed Star train stood like a relief on the surface of the oil painting, in this two-dimensional universe.

"Excellent."

He looked at the information on the train control console screen and said softly.

This was the cosmic landmine from the divine-level civilization 'Human Civilization,' automatically capturing promotion information and attacking. He was within the divine-level civilization 'Human Civilization's territory, and during promotion, he would also be the first to face an attack from Human Civilization.

All divine-level civilizations would promptly clear any civilization achieving the eighth-level within their own territory.

This was normal.

He could understand.

He wasn't angry about why his fellow humans attacked; he could understand this behavior.

Of course.

He thought the other party would certainly understand his upcoming retaliation as well.

This attack did not cause him any harm. His armor was already at the max level, with the "Holy Hall Supermodel Effect" of Absolute Defense, seemingly invincible, unaffected even in the depths of a black hole, the time flow could not affect his civilization.

He glanced at the remaining resources of the train and the signs of the gathering of the divine-level civilization 'Human Civilization' on the Doppler Radar; he murmured a bit dazedly: "Seems like... I don't need to develop anymore?"

One attack failed.

The other side obviously was not going to stop, preparing to gather troops and attack again.

If it were him before, he would have certainly fled first, developing before anything else, cause for revenge is not urgent.

But...

He had just glanced at the train's resource panel and suddenly found, somewhat dazedly, that after so many years of development, he seemed to have developed almost to the limit, with no more necessity to continue developing...