Chapter 137: Fire on the Frontier: Seeds of Rebellion

Tuoba was born into a border family of the Xitoris Kingdom.

So, what exactly do these border families do?

Nine times out of ten, they’re all merchants, specializing in cross-border trading and dealing with other civilizations.

Naturally, the powerful families who control the kingdom’s prosperous inner regions look down on these border families who spend their lives on the trade routes.

But while they scorn them on one hand, they’re also green with envy over their ability to make money.

So, while encouraging the king to keep raising trade taxes at the borders—from the original 35% up to the current 68%—they’ve also set up an official Xitoris Kingdom trade caravan with ultra-low taxes to steal business from the border families.

Of course, this so-called official caravan is really just a front run by a few of the high-ranking families.

After centuries of this, things have only gotten more tense. If the border families didn’t lag behind the inner families militarily, by now…

They probably would have rebelled already.

Maybe not to overthrow the whole kingdom, but at the very least, they’d have cleaned house at the top.

But now…

Military trade with the Human Federation gives the Tuoba family a real shot at making that happen.

Warships more powerful than those of the Xitoris Kingdom’s military—even if they aren’t a whole generation ahead—at 2.5-civilization level, they’re still clearly stronger than the kingdom’s 2-level ships. One can easily take on one and a half of theirs, no problem.

Especially with early-stage energy weapons on board—within eighty thousand kilometers, a single ship could wipe out three to five enemies without breaking a sweat.

So, as long as they can rack up over a thousand of these warships, the kingdom’s military won’t be able to stop them in the short term.

After all…

Sure, the kingdom claims to have over ten thousand warships, but they’re scattered across a kingdom spanning thirty-eight light years.

Just regrouping them all would take time, and in the short term, the most they could field against Tuoba’s region would be fifteen hundred to two thousand ships.

And even if you gave them ten years, do you really think the navy would put all their warships toward a single crackdown?

What about defense elsewhere?

And anyway, in ten years, how much military hardware could Tuoba buy from the Federation?

At worst, they could just spend more to get the Federation to ramp up production and deliver faster…

If throwing money at it solves the problem, is it really a problem at all?

Plus, Tuoba and the others aren’t planning to go it alone—they’ve already joined forces with a few other border families.

And the family can act as middlemen, buying military hardware for the others and taking a cut on each deal.

They don’t even need to get greedy. Doubling their profits would be enough.

That way, everything they spend on outfitting themselves gets paid back in spades.

They might even end up with extra on the side.

For a family whose entire business is interstellar trade…

This kind of thing is second nature.

——

At the same time.

The Solar System, Mars.

Right now, Mars is buzzing with activity. So many factories have either sprung up in orbit or are still being built.

And the number of shipyards dedicated to building warships seems endless.

There must be at least a thousand, maybe more.

These days, the entire planet of Mars has been designated as the Federation’s military production base.

In fact, Mu Xingchen originally wanted to set up these facilities out by Pluto, since it’s much closer to Proxima’s space currents. Transporting resources from Alpha Centauri would only take six months to reach Pluto.

It would have been super convenient.

But after weighing the options, they decided against it.

After all, if the Barnard’s Star defensive line ever collapsed and alien forces broke into the Solar System…

That would mean game over for the Federation.

Most of their manufacturing power would be concentrated in one place with no fallback at all.

So for safety, they set up the facilities behind the Asteroid Belt, near Mars.

This way, even if Barnard’s defense falls, the Federation can rely on the complex Asteroid Belt and Mars and the Moon’s manufacturing networks to keep fighting—just like they did during the Klein invasion.

At the same time, a massive fleet has been dispatched, planning to deliver the second wave of ten million immigrants and countless equipment to Proxima in three separate batches.

All to help the Proxima Administrative District set up its own space industry.

According to the plan, for now Mars will handle all the production of warships for export, but eventually, factories will be gradually shifted to Proxima.

Since it’s closer to Alpha Centauri, it not only saves time but also cuts costs.

So, Proxima’s future as a super-industrial hub is pretty much set.

Once the second immigration wave is done.

There’ll be a third, fourth, even fifth wave to follow.

All told, the Federation plans to send a billion people from the Solar System to Proxima within ten years.

Barnard’s defensive ring, though, won’t see any settlers for now—it’s strictly a fortress.

——

Year 213 of the Human Federation.

Proxima Centauri V, Gene Research Institute.

A young girl watched the dancing data on her screen with complete focus.

Her name was Lin Yun.

Daughter of Lin Yu, Commander of the Federation Sixth Fleet, and Mu Qingxue, Governor of Proxima Administrative District. She might look twelve or thirteen, but she was only ten.

Even at just ten years old, she was already a core member of this lab. As unbelievable as it sounds, this was reality.

This was her life.

“Lin Yun, take it easy. No need to rush,”

Lu Bo walked into the lab, stopping just behind Lin Yun.

“Teacher, I’m almost there,”

“I know, but you really don’t have to push so hard. Get some sleep first.”

Seeing Lin Yun’s stubborn face, Lu Bo let out a sigh.

She was just ten, after all.

But often she’d go without sleep for days for her experiments. If this went on, Lin Yu and Mu Qingxue would probably want to kill him.

Lu Bo felt helpless about it.

Sure, for researchers like them, sleepless nights were normal.

But Lin Yun—she was just ten. How could you expect her to keep up?

“T-Teacher…”

“I think… I did it?”

Lu Bo was about to make her sleep by force, but just then, Lin Yun suddenly shuddered and stammered.

“Even if you did, you still have to… Wait, did you say you succeeded? The thing I think you mean?”

Lu Bo’s eyes went wide.

How could he not know what Lin Yun had been working on?

From his first day on Proxima V, Lu Bo suspected this planet held some new, unknown substance—or element—never seen by humanity.

That would explain why both animals and plants here had bodies filled with energy that made carbon-based life stronger, even extending their lifespans.

Later research found that Proxima V’s atmosphere contained a special substance—only 0.01% of the air—but even that tiny amount…

That 0.01% was exactly what gave Proxima V its unique qualities.

With that, Lu Bo had a new idea. Even though this ‘X Particle’, as he called it, could boost human bodies and lifespans, the effect was pretty limited.

Why were the plants and animals here so powerful?

Actually, it was the result of thousands and thousands of years: countless generations evolving in an environment rich in X Particles.

But what if you made some sort of enhancer and injected huge amounts of X Particles directly into a human body?

Trouble is, it’s easier said than done.

X Particles are rare and can’t be reproduced.

As long as you stay on Proxima V, breathing or digesting doesn’t reduce the total—the X Particles just circulate within the planet’s ecosystem.

But if you extract them from the air in bulk and take them off-world, before long…

The supply of X Particles on Proxima V would be wiped out.

So, Lu Bo changed tactics. Instead of extracting them, he set out to create X Particles artificially.

Then, using these X Particles as a foundation, he wanted to develop a gene-enhancing agent for humans.

And right now, the experiment Lin Yun was running—

Was none other than the artificial synthesis of X Particles!

“Yes, Teacher!”

“I’ve synthesized X Particles!!”