Chapter 1 After Instructing Bennett

After instructing Bennett, Han Xiao exited the quantum network vision and returned to reality to supervise the exploration of Planet Panggulide.

Engineering ships deployed stargates in outer space, and small reconnaissance ships entered the planet's atmosphere, circling the globe at high altitude, sensing the surface conditions through detection devices.

Soon, intelligence reports came back, and the three-dimensional projection on the bridge became a map of Planet Panggulide, with details being rapidly refined. Han Xiao and a group of cadres silently watched the increasingly detailed three-dimensional planet projection.

Before long, all the reconnaissance ships returned to the fleet, completing the first step of exploration.

The map marked the detailed parameters of the planet, including gravity levels, air composition analysis, climate environment, surface area, the ratio of land to ocean, vegetation coverage, and other data, providing a clear overview of the general situation.

In addition, the three-dimensional planet map also marked areas of different colors, representing various resources that had been initially detected, as well as areas where lifeform signals were concentrated.

Aurora read the reconnaissance ship's report:

"This planet contains abundant ordinary resources. In addition, there are many rare resources underground, such as Wujin veins, Ziyin ore veins, Yuan energy crystal veins, and more than a dozen other rare materials... These are important raw materials for some magic-type Star System civilization technology systems, each 10,000 tons are worth no less than 60 Enas. This is the common price in the interstellar market, and this planet has reserves of approximately trillions of tons...

"And in the huge mountain ranges of the planet's north and south poles, we have detected a rare Essence of the Mountain, with reserves of approximately 800,000 tons, each ton fluctuating around 6,000 Enas. We have also found some soul ingots and source matter containing spiritual energy, in small quantities, worth approximately 1.2 billion Enas..."

Han Xiao listened for a while, nodded, and said, "Tell me the overall value assessment of the planet."

"According to the detection results, the initial estimated value of this planet is around 18 billion Enas. If more rare resources are discovered in the deeper underground, the value will increase."

"Quite valuable," Han Xiao smiled.

In the standards of resource planets, this valuation is in the upper-middle level. The valuation is only one aspect. Different resource planets produce different materials, and some rare materials have additional points, such as Essence of the Mountain, soul ingots, and source matter, which are quite rare materials.

However, although the valuation is beautiful, actual mining requires decades or even centuries of time to obtain all the benefits.

In the universe, resource planets are reserved for various civilizations and are not sold like barren planets.

Civilizations will slowly mine resource planets, carry out sustainable development, and gradually extract profits.

Even advanced civilizations, unless they encounter an emergency, will not carry out destructive mining and kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Resource planets are an important economic source for interstellar civilizations, and the profits are rich.

Private miners can only go to barren planets to mine some scraps to make a living. Civilizations look down on the cost-effectiveness of barren planets, so they occasionally sell barren planets to private forces. Obtaining the mining rights of a resource planet like the Black Star Army is already the limit for normal private forces.

Developing the Flickering World is an excellent development opportunity. After the allies of the empire discover resource planets, although they have to notify the empire and let the empire take the big share, the exploration team can also obtain a certain period of mining rights and share a part of the profits.

The Black Star Army discovered Planet Panggulide and is qualified to leave troops here for mining.

Moreover, the number of planets in a Star Field is vast, and the benefits are enormous. For non-civilization forces, this is equivalent to the mining rights of countless resource planets.

Moreover, after discovering and reporting a certain number of resource planets, you can also receive additional rewards from the empire.

However, the advantage of Planet Panggulide is not only resources. In the future, it will become one of the gateways to the Goul Star Cluster, with a superior geographical location, and thus become a trade transit station. With this added value, Planet Panggulide is not an ordinary resource planet, but also has great appreciation potential.

Seeing that Han Xiao didn't speak, Aurora continued, "We have detected a large number of lifeform signals on this planet, distributed all over the globe. The vast majority are wild beasts, and it is temporarily unclear how many species there are. Only one intelligent species shows signs of civilization."

As she spoke, a proportionate biological projection appeared in front of everyone. This was a projection simulated by the reconnaissance ship after scanning the biological structure.

This creature was three or four meters tall, quite large, and humanoid. Overall, it looked somewhat similar to the Elves in the universe, but there were many subtle differences. The body was slender and strong, wearing animal skin clothes, looking quite primitive.

Aurora: "According to observation, this intelligent species is the indigenous civilization of this planet. The stage of development is in a tribal civilization state. They have settlements in various regions around the world and live by hunting. Our reconnaissance ships have not yet made contact with them."

Han Xiao nodded.

He had long known that Planet Panggulide had a relatively backward indigenous civilization. These natives called themselves the "Children of the Forest"—to be honest, this title was already commonplace in the galaxy. There were no less than a thousand intelligent races in the entire universe calling themselves the Children of the Forest, and there were also matching series such as the Children of the Rock, the Children of the Mountain, and the Children of the Ocean.

In his previous life, others were accustomed to using the planet's name as a prefix to call the natives. This race was also called the Panggulide Giant Elves.

"Send out a ground exploration team and make contact with them first," Han Xiao said.

In Star Field development, there is a sensitive issue recognized by the universe, which is how to handle the relationship with the natives. Throughout history, there have been too many negative examples. Advanced civilizations want to mine resource planets, and it is easy to be regarded as invaders and be resisted by the natives.

Maintaining the diversity of species in the universe has always been the rule of conduct for advanced civilizations. Cosmic civilizations like the Red Empire would not carry out massacres of natives for the sake of mining. General Commander Tarrokov's code states that when encountering indigenous civilizations, communication and education should be the main focus, and violent means should not be abused.

In this case, the weaker the natives, the easier they are to deal with, and discovering an indigenous civilization is also an exploration achievement that rewards mission points.

…

Planet Panggulide, the Azure Stream Forest.

This is a dense forest filled with huge ancient trees fifty or sixty meters tall. The leaves form a sea, swaying in the wind. The sunlight shining through the gaps in the sea of leaves is cut into patches of golden yellow light like tree leaves. These patches of light shake constantly on the ground, which is full of humus, as the treetops sway.

A clear stream runs through the forest, dividing it into two. Hundreds of animal skin tents six or seven meters high are located on the shallows of the stream, arranged horizontally along the river. Strings of golden-red dried fruits hang outside the tents, like decorations, simple and primitive. Campfires rise with curling smoke, like white snakes rising.

This is a Panggulide Giant Elf tribe, primitive and full of vitality. Some people carry baskets and pick fruits from the trees, some wave bare branches to drive away livestock, and some carry spears and wooden shields, preparing to go hunting.

"Hunters, the tribe doesn't have enough food. You must hunt more this time."

At the entrance of the tribe, the chieftain and some villagers surrounded a dozen hunters who were preparing to set off, their faces filled with hope.

"Haha, wait for us to return with a full load." The old hunting captain smiled heartily.

The chieftain sighed, "Alas, we were attacked by other tribes half a year ago, and our young people suffered heavy losses. Now we can only rely on you old hunters to hunt. You are getting older and older. I don't know what to do in the future."

The hunting captain patted a young man next to him on the shoulder and praised, "Don't worry, we are training young people. Duji is the fastest learner among the hunters. He can already hunt with us. Maybe he will take over my job in the future."

Duji puffed out his chest, looking proud. He was burly and looked very strong.

"What a great young man." "We're counting on you." A group of villagers surrounded the hunters and praised them, their tone respectful.

Listening to the villagers' praise, Duji looked proud and confident, honored to be a hunter.

Suddenly, his gaze passed through the crowd and glimpsed a young man by a distant campfire, looking at him eagerly, his face showing longing and envy. It was his good friend, Roso.

Duji raised his arm and showed off his arm muscles to Roso from afar, winking triumphantly. They both laughed.

"Let's go." The hunting captain called out and led the people away.

Seeing this, Duji waved to Roso casually as a farewell, then hurriedly turned around and followed the troops. The group of hunters entered the forest and disappeared from sight. The villagers around the village entrance sighed and dispersed.

Roso watched his good friend leave, put away the smile on his face, and silently fiddled with the food in the campfire, suddenly sighing.

"Hunters... sigh."

Hunters bear the responsibility of hunting and fighting and are respected in the tribe. Basically, every young person takes it as a goal, but Roso is an outlier.

He has no interest in hunting or fighting and has no talent in this area.

Roso prefers to do things that are meaningless in the eyes of others, such as writing and thinking. However, this makes many people in the tribe dissatisfied with him, believing that he is a lazy and cowardly person who only wants to be protected by others.

But he also wants to be respected like his good friend. To this end, he works harder to pick fruits and sew clothes, doing everything he can. However, these tasks are done by the elderly, children, and women who stay behind, and they cannot change other people's opinions of him.

Although Roso cares about the opinions of outsiders, he does not want to go against his heart and become a hunter, which he is not good at, in order to change other people's opinions of himself. He hopes to contribute to the tribe in other ways... But in the tribe, it seems that only becoming a hunter is the pursuit that every young person should have in their eyes.

Just then, a gust of wind suddenly blew.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh—

Ripples appeared on the stream, the smoke rising from the campfire was dispersed, and the fine gravel on the shallows was blown up, raising dust. The animal skin tents around shook non-stop, making creaking sounds.

"What's going on?!" Roso looked up in astonishment, his eyes widened suddenly, dumbfounded.

He had never seen this thing before!

A black rectangular box slowly fell from the sky, hovering above the tribe, and a huge shadow covered the entire tribe.

The Panggulide Giant Elves in the tribe's faces changed drastically.

"God of the Forest! What is this thing?!" "Is it a flying monster?!" "Run away!"

This incomprehensible scene made many people panic.

Suddenly, a small hole appeared in the belly of this black "monster," and groups of creatures wrapped in strange metal clothes flew down and landed in the center of the tribe.

A dozen warriors left behind in the tribe roared and rushed up, thrusting their wooden spears fiercely into the bodies of these creatures that had descended from the sky.

Crack crack!

The wooden spears broke on the surface of the armor, wood chips flying.

Taking off their armored helmets, half were army soldiers, and half were players with IDs above their heads, including Kuang Dao, Hao Tian, and others, most of whom were core members of the Sky Faction.

This group of players accepted the task of contacting the natives without causing harm.

Kuang Dao pressed the interstellar language translator and spoke in an earnest tone:

"%*￥∑……"

What are you talking about?! The Panggulide Giant Elves looked blank.

There was no way around it. This was the first time they had come into contact with the Panggulide Giant Elves, and their language had not yet been entered into the database and could not be translated.

"Monster! Monster!" Many women screamed, their faces filled with fear, and picked up stones one after another, throwing them hysterically.

The stones hit the armor, making a thumping sound, which naturally had no effect.

Many players looked at each other. They couldn't even communicate, so how could they appease the excited natives? They didn't have much experience in this.

The NPC squad leader, who was smoking a cigarette on the side, was familiar with the situation. He raised the army's standard energy blaster and fired a shot at the nearby forest.

Swish! A blue laser shot out, continuously passing through dozens of trees, leaving behind holes that had been melted through.

Immediately afterward, there was a violent explosion in the forest, and with a bang, a large pit was blasted out. Trees fell one by one with a crash, and the movement was startling.

This scene frightened all the natives. They stared blankly at the result of this attack, their faces showing incredible and fearful expressions, stopping their attacks and trembling.

"Phew..." The squad leader spat out a puff of smoke, turned his head and said to the players next to him, "Brothers, you see, deterrence is enough when dealing with natives who can't communicate."

Just as the atmosphere was tense and all the Panggulide Giant Elves were afraid, Roso tried his best to keep calm and carefully observed this group of strange creatures of unknown origin who had appeared in an unbelievable way. A thought suddenly floated in his mind:

These creatures don't seem to be hostile?

Although he couldn't understand them, they seemed to be talking just now. Do these creatures also have intelligence?

"That's right, they also want to communicate with us!" Roso's eyes changed, and after hesitating for a while, he took a deep breath and suddenly stepped out.

His actions instantly attracted the attention of both sides, and everyone's eyes focused on him.

Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, Roso turned to his clansmen and said loudly, "Everyone, don't panic. We are no match for them, but they don't seem to want to kill us. Don't provoke them."

As he spoke, Roso came to Kuang Dao, looked down at this group of "little people" who only reached his waist, endured his fear, and knelt down halfway to make his height level, pointing to his mouth and ears, hoping that these creatures from the sky would understand what he meant.

Kuang Dao understood, took out a spare interstellar language translator and threw it out, making several gestures to show how to wear it.

Roso understood and hurriedly put it on in a flustered manner. The translator immediately read his thought signals.

"Can you understand now?"

Roso's eyes lit up, and he nodded repeatedly.

The squad leader chuckled, "He knows how to communicate with us. This guy is quite smart. Let's choose him as the representative of this tribe."