CHAPTER 137: ECHOES OF VICTORY

The Neptune system, once filled with the roar of cannons and the glimmer of countless stars, had now fallen silent.

However, the intense battle, which had lasted only a little over ten days, still left indelible marks on this star system.

Around Neptune’s orbit and the orbits of its various moons, all sorts of debris and fragments were rotating at extremely high speeds.

Warships blown into two halves, moons with only a small portion left, pockmarked gun turrets, and so on, were everywhere.

Even Neptune itself bore clear traces of this war.

It was originally light blue, but now, its light blue was mixed with a hint of gray.

That was formed by the high-speed impact of countless projectiles and debris.

An electromagnetic cannon projectile, no matter how fast, could only disappear instantly into Neptune’s thick gas layer like a micrometeorite, and the small burning trace it left would vanish in an instant.

But what if there were one hundred million, ten billion, or ten trillion such projectiles?

Moreover, there was also countless equipment debris. Even one of Tom’s Earth-class battleships, due to its propulsion system being destroyed, irreversibly crashed into Neptune, taking hundreds of clones with it, integrating with Neptune.

Under these continuous and uninterrupted impacts, Neptune had become what it is today.

The intensity and scale of this battle were evident.

At this moment, facing the wreckage everywhere and the situation of hundreds of millions of his clones being killed, Tom was full of excitement.

No matter what, I won!

I repelled the invading fleet and even destroyed over twenty thousand of their warships!

In a trance, Tom recalled the technological breakthroughs over the past few centuries, the tireless pursuit of scientific and technological breakthroughs for hundreds of years as if it were a single day, and all the resources, brainpower, and effort continuously invested regardless of the cost...

This victory is what I deserve!

After a long period of exhilaration, Tom finally controlled his emotions. He then shifted his attention to another problem.

Regardless, at the current stage, his side was on the defensive. So, in the next stage, how would the opponent fight? And how should he respond?

Simultaneously manipulating two hundred million brains, with the assistance of Goku AI, Tom once again began to think and speculate, making corresponding adjustments and deployments.

...

Outside the Bluetoth Civilization’s flagship, the Head of State’s office.

General Harrier’s silvery-white scales had taken on a grayish tint.

A crushing defeat, an unprecedented crushing defeat. Facing a civilization whose technology was far behind his own, he had actually brought back such a devastating defeat.

Twenty thousand warships destroyed, five hundred thousand elite warriors perished on the battlefield, five hundred thousand families shattered...

In a trance, he recalled the angry citizens crying loudly and constantly cursing him as the fleet hastily returned to the main base.

Now, public opinion was boiling, and countless people wished they could pluck his scales one by one, eat his flesh, and drink his blood.

At this point, he probably couldn’t escape death.

Even if the Head of State understood his helplessness, what could he do?

The public anger was so immense; there had to be an explanation. And besides his own life, nothing else would suffice...

But at this moment, inside the Head of State’s office, the high-ranking officials of the civilization were not discussing the matter of General Harrier’s punishment.

They were discussing another issue.

"The opponent has now demonstrated combat power exceeding our previous estimates. Based on this, is the original plan still feasible?"

Facing this question, the Head of State looked at the official in charge of the civilization’s material supply and reserves.

"Are our current material reserves sufficient to launch the next interstellar voyage? Even if it’s just to the nearest star system."

The official’s expression was somewhat gloomy.

"Originally, scavenging some resources from the dwarf system, combined with previous remnants, would have been barely enough.

But now, it’s not enough..."

He sighed softly.

The biggest consumer of materials was war.

"Can’t enough resources be mined from the dwarf planets?"

"The rest are easy to talk about, but only deuterium, this crucial fuel, can be extracted in sufficient quantities from gas giant planets."

With the gas giant planets occupied by the opponent, to obtain enough deuterium, one must either defeat the opponent or... have the opponent voluntarily hand it over.

After a long discussion, the high-ranking officials finally reached a consensus.

Continuing to engage in battle with an opponent of such strength was unwise and unnecessary.

It wasn’t that their side truly believed they couldn’t defeat Human Civilization. Rather, there was no need.

Since you have already shown sufficient strength, then we will not be stingy with offering you peace.

"Alright."

The Head of State sighed softly, "In that case, let’s negotiate for peace. As long as this Human Civilization agrees to send us the resources we need, then we will let them off this time."

An official whispered a reminder, "Public opinion needs to be handled carefully."

Hundreds of thousands of warriors dead, countless families shattered. Yet at this time, the civilization’s high-ranking officials were going to negotiate peace with the opponent, which was truly difficult to accept.

How could they vent their anger without skinning, dismembering, and killing all humans!

"I will come forward to appease public sentiment and at the same time demand that Human Civilization compensate all our fallen warriors."

The Head of State said indifferently, "During negotiations, we might as well let Human Civilization know our internal public opinion, using it as a bargaining chip.

We need to make Human Civilization understand that peace talks are merely a concession we are making to avoid more innocent casualties and for the sake of peace.

But our concessions are not without strings attached. We must see Human Civilization show enough sincerity before we grant them peace."

A message arrived within the solar system and was received by Tom.

The arrival of this message was somewhat unexpected for Tom.

You finally replied to me... I thought you wouldn’t communicate with other civilizations.

"To the esteemed Head of State of Human Civilization:

Like Human Civilization, we are also a peace-loving civilization.

The solar system is not our migration destination; we came here merely to extract some materials for our journey.

But unfortunately, we witnessed some unpleasant things happen.

Your civilization, disregarding its previous commitment to provide resources to our side, brazenly launched an attack on our resource collection fleet, causing us heavy casualties. Now, there is widespread public outrage within our civilization, demanding that we severely punish your treacherous actions.

However, as previously stated, our side is a peace-loving civilization, and we are willing to ensure peace is not broken with the utmost sincerity.

Based on this, we demand that your side compensate our innocent fallen, send high-level officials to apologize on-site, severely punish the internal perpetrators, and so on.

In addition, we also require your side to provide us with the following materials as a token of sincerity to ensure peace.

The catalog is as follows:

..."