Chapter 200: The Empire’s Surrender

The Empire’s Emperor, the three Grand Dukes and one hundred nine ministers.

Right now, every single one of them had been brought aboard the Houyi and escorted into a massive conference room.

Except for a handful of heavily armed heavy infantry, there wasn’t a soul besides them.

At the same time, these soldiers didn’t seem strict at all. Forget speaking up; even if someone stood and stretched their legs, they wouldn’t blink.

Unless, of course, you tried to leave through the door.

In that case, those soldiers would just walk over and usher you right back inside.

“Grand Duke Tata, do you recognize which civilization this is?”

“No idea!”

The Emperor glanced at one of them for an answer, but the man just shook his head, admitting he couldn’t tell.

Then, before the Emperor could even ask the others, the remaining two Grand Dukes shook their heads as well.

It was all because they hadn’t even caught a glimpse of their captors’ warships.

The enemy had moved so fast—one moment they arrived, the next they wiped out the Empire’s naval port in orbit, along with the thousand warships inside.

Three minutes after that, the Imperial Palace fell.

From the moment the alarm sounded to the Palace’s collapse, it took just over three minutes, most of which the Emperor spent running for his life.

Who had time for reports or explanations?

Otherwise, he might’ve at least seen what those warships looked like.

Just then, the doors to the conference room swung open.

Lin Yu entered, flanked by two heavy infantry. He walked straight to the head of the table and took a seat.

He called up a virtual control panel, tapped a few commands, and projected a person’s image into the room.

In that instant, everyone froze.

Wasn’t that—

Tata’s only son, Toto?

“Toto?”

“Yes, Father. Oh, and Your Majesty is here, too. I pay my respects to the Emperor.”

The Emperor, Wei, ignored Toto and instead fixed his gaze on Lin Yu.

“Are you the power behind Parlo and Tuoba?”

As mentioned before, in the Salvador Empire, names are made up of two or three identical characters.

For example, Toto and his father, Grand Duke Tata—both share this naming tradition.

And these two- or three-letter names are exclusive to nobles. For commoners, names are at least four characters long.

The Royal Family is unique: every member’s name is a single character—marking their elite status.

Like this generation’s Emperor, whose name is ‘Wei’.

“Let me introduce myself: we’re from the Human Federation. If you judge us by technological standards, we’re a level four civilization!”

Boom!

Lin Yu’s words landed like a thunderbolt, exploding inside Wei’s mind.

A level four civilization?

Is this some kind of sick joke?

If you’re going to lie, at least make it believable!

But the truth was, Lin Yu wasn’t lying.

What defines a level three civilization?

It’s all about energy development—usually meaning the tenth generation of controlled nuclear fusion, which allows for widespread energy weapons.

Right now, the Federation’s current generation of controlled fusion is considered eighth generation by cosmic standards. It lets them field a handful of energy weapons, but they’re nowhere near the scale of a level three civilization.

Still, that hardly matters, because humanity skipped the rules and jumped straight to vacuum zero-point energy.

So, comprehensive energy weaponization is no longer a problem.

So really, calling the Federation a level three civilization is right on target.

But when it comes to level four—

There are two requirements.

First, further progression in energy weapons technology.

That means stronger energy cores, more powerful energy weapons, and the introduction of energy shields.

Second, a breakthrough in jump technology.

So the question is, by these standards, does the Federation count as a level four civilization?

The answer: they’re best described as a ‘quasi-level four’ civilization.

They have jump tech, their energy cores rival those of level five, but the rest…

Their energy weapons are still stuck at level three—the limits of ion weaponry won’t let them break into true level four territory.

Same goes for energy shields, which are still out of reach.

So by strict definitions, they’re only quasi-level four.

And that’s just the military; civilian tech isn’t even at level three.

But none of that would stop Lin Yu from saying what he said.

Because—

“You don’t believe it?”

“Then guess how my fleet showed up here?”

“I’m betting the people at your interstellar current mouth didn’t trigger any alarms, did they?”

At that, Wei’s face changed drastically.

He…

He suddenly thought of a possibility.

A possibility that should have been impossible.

“Jump tech?”

“You’re not all that dense, then. So you understand what this means, don’t you?”

“It means the Human Federation is truly a level four civilization!”

Wei gritted his teeth and forced out the words.

But he couldn’t wrap his head around it.

If Parlo and Tuoba’s backers were really a level four civilization…

Shouldn’t they have conquered the entire Alliance ages ago?

Come on, that’s level four! With jump engines, they could crush the Alliance in a heartbeat.

“So, what does the Federation want from our Salvador Empire?”

Wei was a smart man. He knew that, to a level four civilization, a second-level civilization barely mattered.

If they brought him here, and even bothered with a meeting, it meant destruction wasn’t the goal.

Clearly, the Humans had deeper motives.

A faint smile traced Lin Yu’s lips.

“Lucky for you!”

“Normally, the Federation would test any potential vassal civilization for suitability first. Only those who meet the standards can join. But…”

“The Federation is about to develop this star region and plans to recruit around ten vassal civilizations for the project.”

“Which means, you have a rare opportunity: the first ten civilizations to join voluntarily won’t have to do those tests and can become Federation vassals—it’s a privilege just for the fastest.”

“By the way, two spots are already taken. I think you know which two.”

This had all been decided back on Earth.

The Presidential Office and Federation Fleet already set up a new department dedicated to building the vassal platform and overseeing the tests.

They even had a full assessment plan ready to go.

But of course, the test takes time—at least ten years, maybe decades or even a century.

After all, it takes time to gauge a civilization’s true potential.

But the Desolate Star Region can’t wait that long, and besides—

Once the platform is up, they need a handful of civilizations to kick things off, right?

Which is why the Federation is rushing to recruit a batch of vassals to start, settling on ten to twelve in the end.

That’s exactly why Lin Yu came here and snatched up the Salvador Emperor for this conversation.

Or, as Lin Yu would put it—

“Sign up now and get special treatment!”