Chapter 201: A Different Kind of Subordinate Civilization

To be honest, the term ‘subordinate civilization’ never sat well with anyone.

After all, it means getting exploited.

Yeah, exploited to the very last drop.

When war breaks out, the ruling civilization can toss you in as cannon fodder whenever they please.

So when Wei heard Lin Yu mention ‘subordinate civilization,’ his face clouded over.

But before he could open his mouth, Lin Yu pulled out a subordinate civilization agreement and gestured for him to finish reading it first.

At first glance he didn’t think much, but once he actually read it, he was stunned. He looked up, utterly incredulous, at Lin Yu.

“This… You’re telling me this is a subordinate civilization agreement?”

There’s no clause for regular tribute payments.

No requirement to join the Federation’s wars.

Honestly, there was no obligation at all.

It was almost unbelievable.

With terms like these, what’s the point of taking on subordinate civilizations?

Wei couldn’t wrap his head around it. Not at all…

Catching his confusion, Lin Yu pulled out a black metal sphere.

He slid it right in front of Wei.

“What’s this…”

“This is the Federation’s Subordinate Civilization Platform. Of course, since you haven’t joined yet, you can only log in as a guest for now—view only, no actual operations allowed.”

Lin Yu explained.

Basically, he just wanted them to see what kind of things were possible on the platform.

Of course, Lin Yu didn’t mention that, at this moment, there weren’t any real civilizations on the platform yet.

There were, however, a handful of disguised accounts.

Wei gently tapped the metal ball and a few virtual interfaces instantly projected out. He started exploring right away.

He headed first to the points exchange module.

Within that module, you could use your accumulated points to trade for just about anything.

There was tech, military equipment, supplies—even entire stars if you had enough points.

As long as your points were sufficient, nothing was out of reach.

Scrolling through the technology tab, Wei even discovered—

Hyperjump tech, up for exchange.

“Wait, the Federation is actually offering this up? They’re letting their subordinate civilizations trade for jump technology?”

As for the row of zeroes after the exchange cost, Wei couldn’t judge. He had no idea how hard it was to earn points yet.

Then he checked out the missions module.

There, he saw a flood of published missions.

For example: developing a certain star system in its early stages, or terraforming a lifeless world.

Or signing up to take part in Federation wars, and so on.

Every mission clearly stated exactly how many points you’d earn for completion.

After that, he combed through every other module, one by one—including a chat system just for subordinate civilizations.

Here, the Federation had ten or so fake accounts, with a dedicated team to chat with newbies every day.

Not that there was a choice—the Federation genuinely didn’t have any subordinate civilizations yet.

Once they did, these chat bot civilizations would vanish for one reason or another.

After reviewing the entire system top to bottom,

Wei lifted his head again.

“Is… Is this for real?”

“No requirements, complete freedom, even with the Federation’s foreign wars?”

His voice trembled as he asked.

Because—

Aside from the slightly off-putting name, this so-called subordinate civilization setup was actually a perfect partnership model.

A true partnership.

Sure, the Federation would still take the lion’s share of the benefits.

But does that even matter?

Not really, right?

You could hand over your whole civilization for trade, and most wouldn’t even give you the time of day.

But here, maybe it’s hard to get what you want, but it’s not impossible.

Most important of all, there were no obligations. No one could force you.

For Wei, that was the key.

“Of course. The agreement’s here, you’ve seen the platform, and we won’t force you to join. But like I said: only ten slots for the entire Desolate Star Region. Now, there are eight left, so…”

What Lin Yu was really saying was—

Don’t tell me you need more time to think. This is your one shot: sign now or miss out forever.

Right then, Wei exchanged a few glances with the Empire’s three Grand Dukes.

After a moment, all three gave him a subtle nod.

It doesn’t matter how good the terms are—our Empire’s already been caught by the throat. What choice do we have?

And at least from everything they’ve seen so far, joining brings nothing but benefits.

As for The Alliance—

Forget it!

Against a tier-four civilization, The Alliance is a joke.

Now’s the chance. Jump ship, grab the Federation’s support, what are you waiting for?

That was the message in every Grand Duke’s eyes.

“Alright, the Salvador Empire… is willing to sign this subordinate civilization agreement!”

“Excellent!”

Hearing that,

Lin Yu nodded in satisfaction.

——

A few hours later.

Lin Yu led his fleet as they departed from the Salvador Empire’s Imperial Capital.

As for the black sphere, Lin Yu didn’t leave it with Wei, only told him an official device would be delivered later.

After all, this was just a quickly-built demo model good enough to show off the platform, but nowhere near ready for real use.

Estimated time to completion: about another month.

By then, one terminal each would be sent out to the Ziyang Empire, the Xitoris Kingdom, and the Salvador Empire.

And, of course, to all other civilizations Lin Yu would attract into the Federation over that month.

Also, after the agreement was signed, Wei made it clear he wanted to purchase Federation warships.

He had no choice—breaking away from The Alliance was a done deal, and the Empire sat right in its center, surrounded by several tier-two civilizations.

In that situation, Wei was desperate to buy a batch of Federation warships for some peace of mind.

Lin Yu’s answer didn’t change.

Once the Salvador Empire’s exclusive terminal arrived in a month, he’d be able to collect points and order warships through it.

As for how deals were done before between the Ziyang Empire and Xitoris Kingdom—

With this new system set up, that approach was finished.

Well, not entirely. Inside The Alliance—the ‘alliance’ now including all subordinate civilizations—those old deals were history.

But for handling civilizations outside the alliance, the old transaction system—

Would still be used.

——

One month later.

While everyone was going about business as usual,

The Federation had quietly hollowed out half of The Alliance.

More than half the civilizations had already signed on as Federation subordinate civilizations.

And—

Every civilization’s personal platform terminal came delivered on a Zhulong-class Type B ship.

Almost overnight, Earth’s office managing all subordinate civilization affairs was swamped.

Because—

Mountains of data began pouring in from the platform, all uploaded to get points.

And someone had to evaluate every single file, assigning out fair point values.

There was just one problem…

The tech evaluation department in charge only had about a hundred people.

No way those hundred could deal with tens of thousands of tech submissions.

There was nothing for it but to beg help from all the Federation’s big research institutes.

Otherwise, the job would take them years to finish.