Chapter 1 Morning

In the morning, Xu Jingming had breakfast with his wife and took a walk around the residential area. They ran into some neighbors who were very excited, as Xu Jingming had just won first place globally the night before, and they felt honored by his achievement.

"Luckily, we live in the suburbs, and there aren't many residents in this villa community, otherwise it would attract a crowd," Li Miaomiao said with feeling.

"A few years ago, my income wasn't nearly as high as it is now, so if I wanted to buy a detached villa, I could only buy in the suburbs," Xu Jingming said with a smile. "Now it seems like it was a very wise decision."

His parents' old house, for example, had many more residents.

"By the way, aren't you practicing your evolutionary method today?" Li Miaomiao asked.

"I don't need to practice recently," Xu Jingming said. "I've reached the limit of the Planetary lifeform stage in reality, and there's no room for further improvement for the time being."

"Amazing!" Li Miaomiao exclaimed. "I wonder when I'll be able to reach the limit with my evolutionary method."

"Take your time." Xu Jingming glanced at his watch. "Let's go, the Blue Star Alliance is gathering some people later, and I have to be there."

Li Miaomiao nodded.

The couple continued to walk slowly, mindful of the baby bump, and returned home before entering the virtual world.

...

Inside a huge conference room, the invited experts arrived one after another.

Name cards were already placed on the conference table. Xu Jingming, Liu Hai, and Tu Ling, the three experts from Xia Country, were seated together. Miyagawa Akari, Haru Singh, Alan Emelianenko, and other talented experts had also arrived.

"Senior Brother Xu," Tu Ling said, her eyes lighting up as she greeted Xu Jingming respectfully.

"Tu Ling," Xu Jingming said with a smile, looking at the young girl. "To reach Tier 5 at sixteen, that's remarkable."

"Senior Brother, please don't praise me," Tu Ling said, waving her hand. "I've only been practicing the evolutionary method for a little over ten months as well. Senior Brother, you've been practicing for the same amount of time, but your strength and realm are so much higher than mine. I was stunned by your battle with Tiano Xire. I couldn't withstand a single move from either of you!"

"Jingming is getting more and more impressive. I can't see through him anymore," Liu Hai said with a smile.

Xu Jingming smiled and looked around. "Are all the people here today Tier 5?"

"They are all experts who reached Tier 5 in this competition, but Yesalova, Madeline Rogan, and Tiano haven't arrived yet," Liu Hai said, glancing around and nodding.

Suddenly—

Tiano appeared in the conference room, along with six other figures led by Secretary-General Angus.

Tiano sat down in the seat with his name card. His seat and Xu Jingming's seat were roughly in the middle of one side of the conference table. Secretary-General Angus and the six officials were on the other side.

"Okay, everyone's here."

Secretary-General Angus sat down, smiling at everyone present.

"Everyone's here?" Xu Jingming, Liu Hai, Miyagawa Akari, and the others were puzzled. Apart from the officials, all the participants were Tier 5, and there were only ten of them!

"After the virtual world was opened, humans all over the world began practicing the evolutionary method," Secretary-General Angus said with a smile. "A total of nine Tier 5 experts have been born."

"Nine?" Xu Jingming and the others were confused.

"I'm not mistaken. Only nine Tier 5 experts have indeed been born since the opening of the virtual world. You will understand the details later." Secretary-General Angus looked to his side. "Let me briefly introduce the five people next to me. They are representatives of the five major council countries."

Xu Jingming immediately saw that Director Zhou was representing Xia Country.

"Everyone has received the inheritance and knows that after reaching the limit of the Planetary lifeform stage, the next step is the Cosmic lifeform," Secretary-General Angus said. "Only Cosmic lifeforms are qualified to become cosmic citizens."

"You have all reached Tier 5 and will all become cosmic citizens, with the right to know the truth."

Secretary-General Angus said with a smile, "It all started in 2036, when humans first landed on Yinghuo Star (Mars)."

"Hmm?"

Xu Jingming, Liu Hai, and the others perked up.

The truth?

"Humans initially landed on Yinghuo Star (Mars) to explore it, and later discovered the ruins of a civilization there," Secretary-General Angus said. "With the discovery, a 'Yinghuo Star (Mars) Development' craze swept the globe. At that time, the competition between countries was fierce, and they all wanted to seize more ancient civilization relics."

"Later, they discovered that broken spaceship, which had remained pristine despite having crashed for over a million years," Secretary-General Angus said, as an image of the broken spaceship appeared in front of him. "While exploring this spaceship, they discovered a virtual chamber. Humans fumbled with it and logged into the virtual world network. And thus... the Cosmic Human Alliance discovered us and the Blue Star civilization."

Secretary-General Angus said, "The universe is vast and boundless, but life-bearing planets are scarce. It's rare to find a planet suitable for human survival among countless planets. Our home, 'Blue Star (Earth),' this blue planet, is too small in the universe and has gone unnoticed. It has always been classified as an ordinary, uninhabited planet in the cosmic star charts."

"However, the moment we connected to the virtual world network, we were discovered."

Secretary-General Angus sighed. "Fortunately, we had already ventured beyond our own planet and begun exploring other planets. We were recognized as a 'cosmic civilization,' although we were the most primitive cosmic civilization, we were still protected by the entire Cosmic Human Alliance."

"If our Blue Star (Earth) had been discovered while we were still confined to our own planet, then we would have been classified as an indigenous civilization! We wouldn't have been qualified to join the Cosmic Human Alliance and would have been taken over by powerful cosmic civilizations, managed according to their order. Our fate would have been much more miserable."

Xu Jingming and the others were stunned.

They almost became an indigenous civilization?

What would have become of humanity if they had been reduced to an indigenous civilization?

"The Cosmic Human Alliance is an alliance of all human civilizations in the vast universe," Secretary-General Angus said. "There are many human civilizations throughout the universe. Therefore, those barbaric and backward indigenous planets are the responsibility of powerful civilizations to take over and transform. The Cosmic Human Alliance has limited power and cannot support every weak indigenous civilization."

"As a newly emerging cosmic civilization, our Blue Star (Earth) civilization is protected by the Cosmic Human Alliance for ten cosmic years! According to Earth time, that's about 32 years," Secretary-General Angus said.

"We officially joined the Cosmic Human Alliance in 2051 and began to learn a lot of information and intelligence,"

Secretary-General Angus said.

"After learning enough information, we began holding the first World Martial Arts Competition in 2052," Secretary-General Angus explained. "We began to promote martial arts in all aspects! To cultivate the soil for martial arts on Blue Star (Earth)."

"We only have 32 years of protection," Secretary-General Angus said. "Once the protection period expires, we will need to start normal trade and exchanges with other cosmic civilizations. These trades and exchanges will be conducted in accordance with the regulations of the Cosmic Human Alliance, and everything will follow the rules."

"Although it's said to follow the rules, the result of trade and exchanges between a weak civilization and a powerful civilization under the same rules... everyone can guess."

"Powerful civilizations will reasonably and legally use the rules to exploit weak civilizations, squeezing them dry," Secretary-General Angus said calmly. "Weak civilizations will remain weak! They can only humbly provide resources, providing everything they can. And powerful civilizations will give the weak civilizations a bit of leftover soup..."

"If we want to achieve true fairness,"

"If we want to avoid being exploited,"

"We must strengthen ourselves," Secretary-General Angus said. "Only by being strong enough will we not be bullied."