Chapter 234: Ambitions in the Large Magellanic Cloud

Once everyone understood the reason behind it all,

All their worries faded, replaced by sheer excitement.

After all, in the Driss Star Region, civilizations below Level Four couldn’t get through. It meant no outside interference, and they could finally focus on growing stronger.

As for those Level Four civilizations…

Lin Yu and the others weren’t worried about them either. After all…

If a Level Four civilization really existed in the Large Magellanic Cloud, would they have left such a prime spot untouched?

No way!

So it’s safe to say there are no Level Four civilizations in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

Still, even without those major threats, just relying on a hundred warships plus the Houyi…

Trying to conquer the whole Large Magellanic Cloud with that much? That’s pushing it.

Even with the thirty-two Zhulong-class production lines they had now, it was nowhere near enough.

In one year, they could build maybe thirty ships. How’s that supposed to help?

So, Lin Yu laid out a ten-year plan.

In the next decade, much more would need to be poured into the military.

Within three years, the fleet needed to have 5,000 warships.

By year five, hit 20,000 ships.

And in ten years, Lin Yu wanted to see 100,000 warships.

Could they pull it off?

Everyone in the conference room did some rough math in their heads. The answer…

It’s possible—but they’d have to allocate at least forty percent of the Large Magellanic Cloud’s resources to the military.

After all, there are only two hundred million people in the Large Magellanic Cloud. In terms of resource extraction and industrial capacity, they’re nowhere near Earth’s scale.

And there’s another problem.

The 1,200 transport ships and 263 emigrant ships would soon be back to the Milky Way. When they returned to the Large Magellanic Cloud, their numbers would probably double, bringing more supplies, equipment, and, most importantly, more people.

But the sheer number of soldiers needed for a hundred thousand warships would still leave a massive gap.

Just do the math: Each Zhulong-class warship needs a standard crew of 3,385.

A hundred thousand ships? That’s 338.5 million people.

Sure, the first wave of immigrants is 263 million, and the second could be 500 million. On the surface, there’s enough people.

But the catch is, these people are all specialists from different fields, not trained soldiers.

Take the first batch that came over—2.63 million people, but only about a million of them were soldiers.

And the second batch? That’s only five million soldiers.

In other words, if they wanted to meet Lin Yu’s expansion plan, the third wave of immigrants would have to bring the Federation’s soldier count to over 300 million.

In terms of both shifting resources and filling precious emigrant quotas, that number was staggering.

With any other administrator, there would have been a huge argument with Lin Yu. Nobody would agree to such a grand plan.

But who calls the shots in the Large Magellanic Cloud now?

Mu Qingxue!

But that doesn’t mean Mu Qingxue blindly supports Lin Yu just because she’s his wife.

Actually,

Before going into politics, Mu Qingxue served in the Federation Fleet and was high-ranking too.

So more than any other administrator, she understood that in this new environment, real military strength was the foundation of progress.

With Mu Qingxue’s full support, the proposal finally got the green light.

——

Inside Lin Yu’s office.

Knock, knock, knock…

“Come in!”

“Admiral Lin Feng, reporting as ordered!”

A loud voice echoed in the room.

Lin Yu looked up, nodding with satisfaction.

Not bad. Ever since he started a family, this kid had really calmed down.

Standing before Lin Yu was Lin Feng, the son he had with Mu Qingxue. He currently held the rank of Major General. Back in the Barrens War Zone, he’d been the commander of a branch of the Sixth Fleet.

Likewise, Su He, also a Major General, served as the Chief of Staff for that same detachment.

A husband-and-wife team, so to speak.

There are no rules in the Federation Fleet against married couples serving together on the same ship.

All these years, though, he and Su He still hadn’t had any kids.

Their reasoning? They didn’t want the distraction until they’d made Lieutenant General.

Lin Yu and Mu Qingxue didn’t mind at all.

Thanks to gene enhancers, humanity’s lifespan had already multiplied several times over. And with the next generations of enhancers in the works, it was only going higher.

People simply didn’t stress out over things like before. Having kids at a hundred or two hundred years old… no big deal.

Really, it wasn’t a problem.

By Federation law, soldiers in the Federation Fleet weren’t bound by that so-called Human Reproduction Act.

Even if you reached a hundred and didn’t have kids, nobody would punish you.

“Thirty warships. One month. Circle around outside the Driss Star Region and check out all the powers in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Any issues?”

“No issues!”

“Good. Go prepare, set out tomorrow!”

“Yes, Admiral!”

Lin Feng saluted and left the office.

But just as he reached the door, Lin Yu called out again from behind.

“Be sure to bring Su He over for dinner tonight!”

“Got it!”

——

The next day.

Lin Feng set out with a fleet of thirty Zhulong-class warships.

Since the newest ships were still on the production lines, he took all Zhulong D-Type general purpose battleships.

These came equipped with advanced radiation-clearing tech and second-generation hyperspace engines.

That meant they could travel at eighty thousand times the speed of light using hyperspace flight.

With the jump engines, lingering radiation could be cleared much faster—dropping from twenty-four hours down to just three.

Sure, that’s still nowhere near the mainline Level Four civilizations back in the Milky Way, but they’d caught up significantly.

Lin Yu’s assignment for Lin Feng required exploring outside the Driss Star Region. Inside, there were only a hundred or so primitive civilizations—not even a single Level One civilization.

There was no way to get a picture of the power balance in the Large Magellanic Cloud from there.

So, first thing was to leave the Driss Star Region. That’s when hyperspace engines really shined.

They tore open space itself, forcing a quantum window, then crossed beyond the Driss region’s rift by hyperspace travel.

After that, they’d search for stars one by one using jump drives.

If they came up empty at several locations in a row, they’d just fire up the hyperspace engine and jump dozens of light-years ahead before searching again.

And so on, repeating the process.

That was the initial plan, at least.

But the moment they left the Driss Star Region, just one light-year out from the rift,

The very first star system Lin Feng’s fleet visited revealed the presence of a Level Two civilization.

And it turned out, they’d stumbled straight into that civilization’s capital region.

At first, Lin Feng was stunned. Who puts their capital right on the edge like this? Ballsy move.

Was this like some old-school emperor defending the border? It felt a bit… odd.

But thinking it over, he quickly figured it out!

It only looked like the edge, but behind them? A whole emptiness stretching for thirty-eight light-years.

So really, that half of the region didn’t need defending. All they had to do was focus on guarding the front.

Just keep their eyes on the half facing outward.