Planet Master

Year One Hundred Fifty of the Father God Calendar.

It was the time when Dian decided to launch another Star Battle. This time, he wanted to speed up the process and quickly increase his rank.

As usual, the announcement was made to the civilization through the Library of Consciousness, the civilization searched the Rift, finding the Rift.

That made the first step.

The second step was battling against the other side, building up momentum and clashed against the other race under the different Planet Master.

Of course, this step was divided into different phases, but overall it was the same.

The third step was to complete the objective of the Star Battle, concluding it and determining the fate of the defeated race.

That was the pattern that Dian could see so far and he expected to see it in the current Star Battle. Fortunately, this Star Battle was conducted on land, which allowed deploying more options for the Cerulean Defense Force.

Although, it went easier than he expected. The humans, dwarves, undead, elves and glings, they were in a joint operation to test their teamwork and compatibility with each other.

The Undead Race produced the undead element through the corpse of the Glings, which the Glings used to produce units that conformed to the undead element. Then the Ether transcendents would use their power alongside the previous two races to deliver an exceedingly rare force in the lower rank Star Battle.

The power of the undead element and Ether was like two opposing forces; they devoured and strengthened each other through it.

This combo effectively eliminated most enemies’ forces. Worse, they were already overwhelmed by the Glings that came in waves.

The Queen had produced one essential unit for this. The human scientist called the unit the ‘Proliferator’. Just like its name, it could proliferate itself into three similar beings in power. That was why developing the Proliferator became the most effective and efficient way to make a swarm for the Queen and the Glings.

With that, the Fifth Star Battle concluded as expected. The huge swarm of the Glings, combined with the numerous undead, created a double combo that made things more difficult for the enemy.

Each Gling that was killed turned into an undead and resumed its attack. That was one combo.

The other was when the Ether and the undead element mixed and caused secondary damage.

The enemy could not form a good countermeasure and most of their resisting forces were eliminated. The Queen had to obey the order from the Cerulean Defense Force and halted the Glings’ advance to the defenseless area.

Instead, it was the ordinary members of the human and dwarf races who were sent, in addition to the transcendents, to occupy the territory.

They then repeated the sequence for the other resistance force, reducing them to the point of that only those remaining were the woman, children elderly and the disabled.

They were temporarily imprisoned for observation and also as a war prisoner. They were treated as such, but a problem arose.

The situation of their temporary stay was not good. This caused the Cerulean Defense Force to silence the protest. It was because the soldiers of the Cerulean Defense Force were also living in a not-so-well place.

It was because the efficiency of the budget went into producing more weaponry. The soldiers had more weapons but the living situation worsened.

But it was not a big deal for them. Either way, they achieved the victory condition.

Then time passed as the Technology and Transcendent Tree absorbed the enemy ones, causing them to be bigger, vaster and allowing more options to the civilization.

Year One Hundred and Eighty of the Father God Calendar.

From an ordinary living being’s perspective, a lot of time had passed. Especially those who were sensitive to the passage of time, they felt that the time for the Star Battle had returned to the half of the sixty-year circle.

Tatsumi realized something important during this time.

‘Father God, are you trying to speedrun the Star Battle?’ Tatsumi thought.

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That was why Tatsumi could learn of things like Real Time Strategy, First Person Shooter, Role Playing Game, Battle Arena, etc. Those were not strange to him since he had often seen his children play.

‘Speedrun? Maybe. After all, we cannot be stuck on this stage forever.’ Dian replied to Tatsumi directly.

‘Father God. Sorry for my discourtesy but is our stage truly the starry sky outside the planet?’ Tatsumi asked something that he had a hypothesis about. All he needed was confirmation from the trusted source.

Dian went silent since he knew that every Nafs in the Library of Consciousness was hearing what he had relayed to Tatsumi. But he needed to answer the question honestly since he believed that humanity would triumph over the starry sky and that even the universe was possible.

‘Yes. I believe that you can reach the starry sky on your own. But now you have other races to think and consider. You have chosen to share your destiny with them, so cooperate with them with the determination of someone who cherished something close to you.’ Dian relayed.

'Cooperate as if they were close to me…that’s not easy.’ Tatsumi thought about the difference between races but he had a way to do it. No, the civilization had a way to make everyone have the same long-term goals.

‘Are we supposed to bring them along with us?’ Tatsumi asked a crucial question.

‘If possible, yes.’ Dian replied with a serious tone.

Tatsumi thought for a while. He had realized this point of sparing and let the enemy races cooperate with the human civilization but he did not expect that the civilization also needed to carry them further, practically carrying them to the starry sky.

‘Fine. Since this is coming directly from you, I will regard this as the official stance of Father God himself. I believe that everyone who believed in you would be happy that their theory and hypothesis came true.’ Tatsumi sighed in his mind.

Despite that, there would be some individuals in every race who had resentment against humans. That was normal, and there were countermeasures to make sure that they would cooperate willingly.

“Perhaps, only time will heal and bury the resentment.” Tatsumi murmured.

This happened in the middle of the Fifth Star Battle. This time, the resistance became greater and needed the cooperation of the merfolk.

With that, the entire Cerulean Planet was mobilized for the Star Battle. This was the first time it happened and it caused the Cerulean Defense Force to recalculate their prowess. Victory was achieved with minimal casualties.

Year Two Hundred and Ten of the Father God Calendar.

Another Star Battle commenced. It was the Sixth Star Battle for the civilization and the fourth for the Second Rank Planet Master.

Dian was wondering why he needed five Star Battle as a requirement to increase his rank. But looking at the growing stronger enemy in the previous Star Battle signified that this was a kind of tempering.

What other purpose do these battles serve? Thinking back to the requirement, I think I know what it is.

Dian thought as he looked at the progress of the Star Battle. It was in the second step the third phase, where the momentum of both sides was impacting the entire battlefield theatre.

“It keeps getting harder to win. Despite the fact that the Technology and Transcendent Tree are growing in size and the options have become numerous, the battle becomes harder in this Second Rank.”

It was as if the enemy was calibrated with the status of the civilization before randomly matching with another civilization.

Dian was certain that the civilization he faced this time could be among the top 10 of the Second Rank civilizations. The Planet Master who managed the enemy race was also holding an active card that could be used in a critical moment.

And as expected, it happened. Dian then contacted Tatsumi to relay the change in the battlefield theatre to let the forces adapt and counter it.

The fast reaction of the humans and their subordinate races caused the battle to be deadlocked before Tatsumi and his transcendent strike group did a beheading operation.

He did it because he knew that an opening would happen during the countermeasure process, causing him and his group to be the breakers of the deadlock.

Then Long Wu came and helped Tatsumi eliminate the hostile factors before the momentum shifted completely in their favor.

That caused the momentum of the humans to soar and hit its ceiling. Then it poured down in the form of suppressive artillery fire that rained down upon the resisting factors.

Dian was glad that everything worked out in the end. But now he was worried since the next Star Battle would be the deciding factor whether he would soar to the Third Rank or he would be defeated and everything would be over.

He dismissed the notification about the win situation but he still did his job of letting the defeated race migrate to the Cerulean Planet. He also enlarged the planet using some of the energy points, causing its size to increase.

[Diameter: 13.500 km]

[Energy Points: 75.000]

The concern Dian had was that, despite years of research, there was a barrier that made the breakthrough to the T3 Technology Tree not possible.

Dian knew that Charlene was working hard to understand the issue, while Tatsumi was searching for a way to break through a major realm which meant that he tried to break through to T2 in Transcendent Tree.

There was little progress but not a major leap. Dian had to be patient since his Star Children were trying their best at tackling the problem.

“At least I have given them time. All that’s left is waiting for the result. But it would be ideal if they achieved a breakthrough before the Seventh Star Battle.” Dian murmured.

“Alright. Check the situation of the entire planet, Planet Spirit!” Dian called and the Planet Spirit appeared in the Planet Master’s Space.

“Master, your order shall be fulfilled!” the Planet Spirit exclaimed before her eyes let out a brilliant light.

The light seemed to project the entire situation on the Cerulean Planet.

From the smallest insect to the biggest Kleos, all living beings were projected and looked after by the Planet Spirit.

“There is no abnormality in the planet, Master.” The Planet spirit replied after the brilliant light disappeared from her eyes.

“Is that so? Then check the situation around the planet!” Dian ordered.

“Alright!” the Planet Spirit then once again projected the view through the brilliant light.

This time, it was the black heaven that showed up along with the faint light of the distant stars illuminating the background.

There were numerous small celestial objects orbiting the Cerulean Planet. One more push and they would land on the planet.

Then there was also the Red Moon which was orbiting the planet at 290.000 km in distance. It reflected light from the violet sun and changed its color to red which caused a certain emotion to flare up among the living beings on the Cerulean Planet.

Dian obviously knew this but could not help that the humans did not dare to land on the moon. It was because the Red Moon was an ill omen to them. But he heard that there was a plan to send a crewed spaceship to the moon.

The civilization realized that there was a possibility that the crew could be affected emotionally by the Red Moon and prepared the first spaceship for full exploration of the Red Moon.

The miniature spaceship had finished its duty as a stepping stone for the creation of the first spaceship made by human civilization.

“The civilization at least managed to gain an understanding of their own star system they are in. The crew sent to the moon will be the deciding factor whether they can break through and reach T3 in the Technology Tree!” Dian then focused on the spaceship that was available and knew that its life support system was working well.

But he still did what he must, initiating the Star Battle.

While the civilization prepared for the Star Battle, the Moon-Landing Crew was prepared to go to the Red Moon.

It would be dealing with two important things at once, so Dian focused on the two.

-

“This is Spaceship North Heaven. Do you copy?” A transmission was sent to the launch base from the spaceship.

The communication channel had changed so that even from a far-off distance, the communication would be almost instant, no matter the distance.

“This is Basset Space Center Base, copy that. Do the overall check on your spaceship.” The base replied.

From above the Basset Space Center, there was a gigantic steel structure with a propulsion system at its rear. It was made from Orichalcum mixed with Adamant so that its structural integrity would hold even in the void of the space outside the planet or from hitting small celestial objects.

“Checking for life support system…clear.”

“Checking for the navigation system…clear.”

“Checking for the communication channel…clear.”

“Checking for the propulsion system…clear.”

“Checking for main engine…clear.”

“All critical components are checked. Proceeding to check secondary items.”

“Checking weapon system…clear.”

“Checking electrical devices…clear.”

“Checking all the secondary items. All clear.”

“Spaceship North Heaven, ready to launch, base.”

After checking all primary and secondary items, the spaceship was finally ready to launch. The Basset Space Center even dared to livestream it to the whole civilization.

“Launch permitted!”

Then the spaceship took off vertically since there were propulsions that enabled it to do so. But the surroundings had to be clear just like how a rocket had to be launched.

The navigation system made sure that the spaceship would be in the right track to the Red Moon. The mission for the North Heaven Spaceship was to reach the Red Moon, take some samples from there while watching the reaction of the astronauts and then return to the Cerulean Planet.

The astronauts were sitting on their seats while the spaceship moved. It was because they needed to do that since there was still a small vibration that could disturb them during the spaceship’s ascent to leave the planet’s gravity and sphere of influence.

“Open the iron curtain floor to ceiling.” The leader of the astronauts said out loud.

“Affirmative.” Another voice which was synthetic, replied and then the front view from the bridge opened wide. Not only front but the sides view were also visible.

It was mainly black-colored, along with the dim stars in the distance, like a dot in the black painting. On their right side, they could see a large violet light shining from a distance.

Even the leader was fascinated by the view of the violet sun from the bridge. The life support system worked as intended as they could breath like when on the planet. But this spaceship had no artificial gravity and they had to move in a manner that would not injure themselves.

The astronauts went into their station. One watched the navigation system to make sure that they were on the right track, one went to the communication module to keep in contact with the ground base, one went into the propulsion system, one went into the weapon system and one went into the main engine to check on the supplies the engine needed.

“We need to arrive at the Red Moon in one day. The propulsion has pushed the North Heaven forward, increasing its speed. Make sure that the speed reaches the maximum during our cruise. Then, before arriving at the Red Moon, decrease it so that we can enter the Moon’s orbit.” The leader said.

“Affirmative.” The one who controlled the propulsion system then adjusted the output and the spaceship started to climb in speed. Soon, it reached the maximum cruising speed.

While the astronauts were on their journey to the Red Moon, the Seventh Star Battle on the Planet commenced.

The enemy’s race was actually Lizardfolk. They were lizards that walked with two hind legs and used their front limbs like a human’s arm.

They were also strong in the Transcendent Tree and also Technology Tree. That was right, Dian faced someone like him for the first time.

The two sides were fiercely fighting for their own purposes. Fortifications were built, weapons were supplied by the supply depots and the logistics were like blood in the veins.

The Rift became the main battlefield of two sides. Sometimes the five races gained a ground while the other time the Lizardfolk were gaining ground.

The Lizardfolk were impressive since they were only a single race but managed to fend off against the five races’ alliance.

For some reason, the strength of the Lizardfolk was actually on par with the transcendent who had undergone body tempering or stronger.

That was why the transcendent scientists were dissecting the corpses of the Lizardfolk from the battlefield and studying them in hopes of gaining insight as to how the body tempering should be done better.

Even if they had the weapons that could obliterate these kinds of Lizardfolk, the Lizardfolk also possessed the weapons for obliterating their transcendents.

For Dian, this was a good experience in how the humans had to quickly adapt to the battlefield situation as well as intelligence about their enemies.

“Although this is quite troublesome and dangerous, this is also an opportunity for my Core Race to experience a battle of equal strength. Let’s see how far they can go.” Dian murmured.

He then also looked after the most important person in this Star Battle, who could change the tide.

The Teacher-Disciple duo was actually in an operation zone together. They were killing the weaker Lizardfolk while baiting the stronger ones to a certain valley.