Chapter 221: Trade Tensions in the Galactic Shadows

Federation Year 265.

Ever since the Federation began distributing Jump Engines across the Milky Way through Sandik, they’ve gained enormous amounts of statistical data from second- and third-tier civilizations every year.

On top of that, they’ve acquired a fair number of cutting-edge devices from fourth-tier civilizations—though, of course, only in the civilian sector.

As a result, the Federation’s technology has been evolving at a breakneck pace—changing almost every single year.

It might not be a full-blown technological explosion, but these sustained surges year after year are arguably even scarier than a short-lived boom.

Still, good times never last forever.

Over all these years, no matter how careful Sandik was, something finally went wrong.

It wasn’t that Sandik’s actions were exposed, nor was he caught in the act. Instead…

Just a few months ago, an unknown force suddenly attacked a fourth-tier civilization called the Os Empire in the Fourth Main Spiral Arm.

And it wasn’t just any attack—it was a suicide assault.

They didn’t shatter entire planets, but three consecutive attacks completely wiped out every breathing creature on three administrative worlds.

Usually, any fourth-tier civilization controls enormous swathes of space.

Well, except for Drak over in the Orion Spur. That one only claims about fifty thousand stars.

As for those fourth-tier civilizations in the four main spiral arms, each controls at least a million stars, occupying some of the richest starfields, brimming with habitable worlds.

So, losing three planets wasn’t even a drop in the bucket—barely enough to scratch the surface.

But even so…

This marked the first time in thousands—maybe tens of thousands—of years that a fourth-tier civilization had come under attack.

If they don’t handle this with the utmost seriousness, wouldn’t every lower-tier civilization start copying them? That would be a disaster.

What’s more, the same group managed to acquire three Jump Engines. That raised huge red flags—someone had to get to the bottom of it!

The first to face the wrath of the Os Empire was the black market.

Sure, there are powerful factions behind the black market, but in the end, most are just prominent families or nobility from various fourth-tier civilizations.

So, when the big civilizations get personally involved, all that so-called backing vanishes.

Especially because all the other fourth-tier civilizations tacitly approved of Os Empire’s actions.

Even when the black market laid everything bare, the Os Empire couldn’t trace the culprit. After all, everyone who visits the black market uses a fake identity.

At best, they might figure out which race the trader belonged to.

But there’s absolutely no way to pinpoint exactly who it was.

That’s exactly the situation right now.

The Os Empire soon discovered that, a few years back, a merchant from the Fanguang Alliance sold three Jump Engines through the black market.

Those three Jump Engines were then bought by three completely different civilizations.

To be honest, this wasn’t anything unusual. Even though the major civilizations keep a close watch, a few Jump Engines occasionally slip out.

Key thing is, black market records show those engines were sold to three unrelated buyers—not a single group.

The buyers had no idea who the others were, so the odds of one group collecting all three engines were basically zero.

It’s even less likely that a third party somehow knew the identities of all three buyers at once.

Not even the black market itself has that information.

So, by all rights, this transaction should be clean.

That was the conclusion everyone quickly came to.

Sandik let out a sigh of relief.

But, clearly, that relief wouldn’t last—the more time passed without new clues, the likelier it became that the Os Empire would revisit those three engines on the black market.

As for whether his own clients were involved in the attack…

Truthfully, Sandik had no idea, and he didn’t care to find out.

For now, all he could do was…

Pause this business, and keep his head down until things blew over.

Sure, it’d cost him a fortune in lost profits, but that was better than getting caught in a storm he couldn’t weather.

Anyway, even without selling Jump Engines for a while, just supplying unrestricted military goods to third-tier civilizations…

He could still make plenty.

But the Federation had far bigger concerns.

For Sandik ten or twenty years on hold was no big deal.

He’d just earn less for a while, that’s all.

But for the Federation, it meant going without Jump Engine sales for quite a long time.

No Jump Engine sales meant no way to purchase huge amounts of resources and tech from other civilizations.

In the end…

Years of rapid development wouldn’t stop dead in its tracks, but it would definitely slow down a lot.

After all, just selling normal goods and third-tier weapons through Sandik to the galaxy…

That alone couldn’t fund all the Federation’s buying sprees these past years.

So, when Sandik reached out asking to temporarily pause sales—since his agreement with the Federation required him to buy a minimum number of engines each year—

In other words, by the old agreement, even if Sandik stopped selling outward, he’d still be required to buy an annual quota.

Breaking a contract isn’t something a Fanguang Alliance merchant would ever do.

So he had to approach the Federation, hoping to renegotiate. He was even willing to pay some compensation.

But after internal talks, the Federation got back to Sandik with their answer.

The deal could be changed, but Sandik would have to make up for the Federation’s lost profits in other ways.

Basically, the Federation wouldn’t force Jump Engine sales, but still expected that much profit every year, changed into the supplies or tech they needed.

That floored Sandik.

Hundreds of Jump Engines a year—each worth as much as a prosperous star system—how was he, even an eighth-tier merchant, supposed to cover those losses?

Yes, Sandik was now an eighth-tier merchant.

In truth, if the Jump Engine business hadn’t needed to stay secret, Sandik’s wealth would already rate him a ninth-tier merchant—maybe even close to tenth.

But even so, covering the Federation’s yearly losses was flat-out impossible for him.

After a quick explanation from the Federation, Sandik realized he’d misunderstood.

The Federation didn’t mean, ‘if I sell 300 fewer engines, you owe me for all 300.’

Instead, it was about volume—the quantity of goods Sandik alone could move abroad every year just wasn’t enough.

That meant standard goods and the third-tier arms trade.

So, with Jump Engine sales off the table, there was a huge hole in the Federation’s annual income. The only way to fill it was by massively expanding regular trade and third-tier weapon sales.

Sandik couldn’t possibly handle that huge of a load alone.

So the Federation said they’d agree to change the old deal if—and only if…

Sandik brought in more Fanguang Alliance merchants to the Federation to buy goods together!

Only that way could they expand trade to the necessary scale.