The Red Empress smirked when she saw him back down and said casually, "That's what I meant from the start. For me, it's always been mutual. You helped me, and I helped you. Simple."
Ethan's mouth twitched slightly, but he didn't say anything. By then, he had reached his destination and entered a grand room, luxuriously designed and filled with various amenities. He sat down on one of the sofas, waiting for his brother—an NPC of the game.
Despite knowing that, the NPC was so realistic it was hard to believe. As a reincarnated individual, Ethan was always amazed by the technology around him, constantly wondering just how far technology could truly go.
Yes, indeed, Ethan was a reincarnated individual. After dying in his previous life, he was reborn far in the future—on something as absurd as a world ship. It was a vessel almost twice the size of the Moon, carrying billions of people who were fleeing from the Milky Way toward the Andromeda Galaxy.
Humanity as a whole, along with other native races such as elves and beast clans of foxes, cats, dogs, and more, were abandoning the galaxy. They were forced to flee after an invasion by a powerful race they could not defeat. After countless battles and failed attempts at resistance, they finally learned the truth: the enemies they had been fighting were merely a vessel race, servants of an even mightier power that sought to take control of the galaxy and rule over all life within it.
This truth was hard to accept. Humanity and the other races would lose their freedom and autonomy—things they had never lived without.
After much deliberation, the decision was made to escape the Milky Way entirely.
But that decision was far easier to make than to carry out.
Despite all their technological prowess, no native power of the Milky Way possessed the technology required to directly access the Andromeda Galaxy. They were trapped, stranded in a dying galaxy, while the enemy's advance continued at a steady pace. Their defenses were barely holding, and the sense of urgency weighed heavily on everyone's mind.
Time was running out.
It was then that the Indus Imperium's emperor stepped forward and revealed one of his empire's greatest secrets. The Indus Imperium had already developed a partially completed but fully functional quantum gate.
This gate was capable of covering more than seventy-five percent of the distance to the Andromeda Galaxy in a single jump. With a second jump, they could reach their destination, the Andromeda Galaxy. The journey would take more than six years, but the quantum gate had fully stabilized.
This revelation sent shockwaves through the minds of the other major galactic powers.
The Xia Dynasty, which traced its origins back to ancient China.The Cosmic Union, born from the ancient homeland of the Russian Federation.The United Stellar States, originating from ancient America.
These powers had all risen from a single world and, over thousands of years, expanded into vast galactic empires that ruled thousands of star systems. Alongside them stood the Grand Elven Empire, the Nine-Tailed Empire, the Beast Empire Coalition, and two other great powers that once held complete dominion over the Milky Way.
All of them were stunned by the Indus Imperium emperor's announcement.
Above all else, none of them had ever imagined that such technology had already been developed—secretly—by the Indus Imperium. It was something they themselves struggled to achieve even with their combined strength.
Yes, they had been developing similar technology for a long time with the help of their allies. Star gates were one such example, a system all of them already used and had deployed throughout their territories, not only to reduce travel time but also to enable rapid deployment in times of war.
They all understood the value of such technology. It was strategic, vital, and guarded closely by every major power.
One could only imagine their shock upon realizing this was a mastery the Indus Imperium had perfected long ago. It was a bitter irony: they were staring into the very technological marvel that had allowed the Imperium to dismantle the Star Federation in a single, overwhelming strike.
The Star Federation that was once have been the most dominant power in the galaxy, one that even they had too treated with caution. That defeat was what truly drove home the importance of space-gate technology. It was not that they had ignored its development, but that the technological leap required was immense and painfully difficult to achieve.
That difficulty was why several of them had formed coalitions. The Xia Dynasty allied with the Cosmic Union. The United Stellar States partnered with the Beast Federation, largely because of the Clan of Genomes—a species renowned for its talent in developing and innovating new technologies. Much of the Beast Federation's technological advancement had, in fact, been created by them.
The Grand Elven Empire and the Nine-Tailed Fox Empire, on the other hand, chose to stand alone. Much of that confidence came from their heritage. They were among the oldest powers still in existence, their foundations laid long before the inception of the four great human nations. Had the Indus Imperium not obliterated the Star Federation, that rival might have been the only other species to survive. And thus they possessed deep and resilient technological legacies of their own.
Setting all of that aside, they demanded further clarification. When it came, what they learned was even more shocking.
The Indus Imperium not only possessed quantum gate technology—claimed to be functional, though only halfway complete—but had already begun preparations to leave the galaxy. Even more unsettling was the fact that those plans were already more than halfway toward completion.
And this revelation was like a last nail in the coffin that sent another wave of shock wave across each galactic power and major power there.
What was this supposed to meant for themself? That they had long since lost their foresight? Or that the Indus people were cowards, ? No. What cowards?