Chapter 417: Chapter 249: Trump Card for Gaining Time
Shen Shi increasingly felt that as human civilization grew stronger, the relationship with cosmic forces became more complex, and the changes to the future also became more complicated, far from the simplicity of the initial stages.
After a relatively peaceful period of three hundred years, challenges arose once more.
In the future timeline, the date for the treaty between human civilization and the Es Civilization was continually postponed due to various timeline changes.
Finally, this point in time was delayed until it had not yet occurred.
"The Es Civilization no longer has confidence in annexing us in a short period," Shen Shi concluded after analyzing the current situation.
"Although it is still unclear whether these civilizations truly intend to rebel against the Pasture Master, they indeed must strengthen their power shortly," Yulan replied solemnly.
Due to changes in the timeline, Shen Shi had not resigned from his position as a Standing Member for a second time. On the contrary, he had served as a Standing Member for over three hundred years and even turned the entire committee into his faction.
Even Yulan, his steadfast follower, had reached this point.
But as Yulan said, this was not good news for all of humanity.
Shen Shi firmly opposed the integration faction and held supreme power over human civilization, which for the Es Civilization meant a further decrease in the potential for integration.
Moreover, changes originating three thousand years ago had continually spread to the present, and human power was no longer what it used to be.
They now had the capability to independently produce B-level Cosmic Battleships, along with the support received over the past three thousand years from Gus Land and other B-level civilizations, human civilization actually possessed the power to compare directly with an average B-level civilization.
Of course, there was no comparison with the Es Civilization or any B-level civilization within the Mude System.
Such a civilization as the Es Civilization, after countless years of support from the Mude System, had reached a terrifying degree of power, perhaps not yet achieving a higher technical level, but when quantity reaches a certain level, it can also trigger qualitative change.
At the very least, human civilization was far from having the capability to confront the Es Civilization.
Thus, the situation for human civilization had become extremely dangerous.
"Once the Es Civilization determines that it cannot annex humanity, they might resort to another method: to sweep us away as an ’example’ of a threat. In fact, the internal attitude within the Es Civilization is already trending in this direction, so the moment of human survival or destruction has arrived..."
Yulan continued speaking, but Shen Shi remained silent.
The entire meeting was enveloped in silence.
In truth, everyone knew that if humanity wanted to overcome this imminent difficulty, if they wanted to break free from the constraints of the Es Civilization and even the Mude System, direct conflict was inevitable.
Shen Shi was also well aware of this.
Everything done previously, including all his past efforts, was merely to strengthen human civilization before this direct conflict arrived.
Yet it was still far from enough, and the conflict seemed to be near at hand.
Once Yulan had finished explaining the current situation, a sense of despair began to spread throughout the meeting.
Until Shen Shi spoke, "It is not yet a time for despair."
Instantly, everyone’s attention turned to Shen Shi.
"However, we must be prepared to make great sacrifices."
"Sacrifice is inevitable," Gong Chu took over Shen Shi’s words, gazing at his embodiment of will. "This is a war, a war against an unbeatable Strong Person, and the annihilation of human civilization is imminent. No one hopes to win without paying any price, but I believe every human will follow your steps to the final victory."
Besides Gong Chu, others also expressed their stance.
The conveyed meanings were nearly identical, centered around following Shen Shi’s will.
This was also the result Shen Shi had deliberately cultivated over these three hundred years.
The current predicament was foreseeable and not sudden. Especially for Shen Shi, he had long understood that trying to continuously develop blindly to a crisis-solving degree was virtually impossible.
For three hundred years, Shen Shi had been contemplating ways to break the deadlock.
He even sent many people to attempt to find an interstellar social system beyond the Mude System, seeking more powerful forces to break the deadlock.
But these efforts all failed.
Then Shen Shi realized that his greatest backing, and the only potential miracle, lay solely in Time Crystal.
Thus, over the long duration, Shen Shi was constantly pondering how to expand the accumulation from time to its utmost limit, until human civilization could create a miracle, achieve a breakthrough.
He devised various plans, ultimately selecting one.
"First, we must continue to buy time," Shen Shi said. "The key to buying time lies in the trading market."
No one spoke, as it was evident they had already anticipated this.