A Core Ship From The Start

Chapter 176: Chapter 144: Starseer_1

After that, Duanmu Huai had a chat with Dardaniel. As Duanmu Huai expected, Dardaniel’s merchant ship indeed came from the Holy City. Therefore, Duanmu Huai also asked him about the current situation in the star system where the Guardians resided.

No wonder Duanmu Huai was so cautious; the Milky Way, at this time, was in complete chaos.

Generally speaking, after the fall of the Human Empire, the remaining human civilization could be divided into two types. One type is like Yajinians that somewhat remember the history of the empire. The other type is like the humans on the planet that was previously invaded by the demons – they had forgotten their ancestry decades ago.

More importantly, since there weren’t many civilizations in the entire Milky Way that could conduct interstellar operations, it led to an awkward scenario that was both laughable and frustrating.

The human civilizations that remembered the empire’s history mostly believed that they were the sole successors and represented the last glory of the empire. Well, there were about thousands who claimed this last glory of the empire in the Milky Way – at least you’re not the first one.

On the other hand, the human civilizations that forgot the empire’s history, although aware of the existence of other civilizations in the universe, would be puzzled when you approached them. They’d wonder why you “alien” looked identical to humans.

Was there any conspiracy behind this?

The civilizations that remembered the empire’s history were no better. They should have assumed that they were the unique prince. The next thing they knew, there were hundreds of royal heirs fighting for the throne.

From a player’s perspective, this was annoying. Especially when attempting to develop “undeveloped star territories”, the locals do not welcome the player. They may express dissatisfaction or even hostility. Therefore, before players attempt to interact with other civilizations, the best way is to get accurate information from these wandering merchants who conduct trade all over the Milky Way. Civilizations that have had contact with wandering merchants tend to be more broad-minded as they have a greater perspective of the world compared to the civilizations that never left their star system. At least they are not paranoid or overly suspicious of a potential threat.

Luckily, according to Dardaniel, the Guardian civilization was relatively open-minded. Of course, they had their problems as well. It seemed that they had recently experienced a war which caused the entire Guardian civilization to shrink within their star system. Regarding their combat power… well, it was average at best. After all, if they didn’t even venture out of their star system, their technological level could be guessed.

Anyway, at least they were aware of the situation in the Milky Way and didn’t harbor much hostility towards foreign civilizations. Yes, that was enough.

Duanmu Huai did interact with the Guardian civilization in the game but that was during the mid-game. One distinct feature of “Star Ocean Online” was that all changes occurred in real-time. This means the order of players encounter would have an impact.

For instance, if a player who first met a civilization was friendly, that civilization would maintain a certain goodwill towards other players who came later.

However, if a player showed hostility or did something bad during their first encounter with a civilization, that civilization would blame all of the players for this behavior.

Therefore, the attitudes of the forces Duanmu Huai met in the game does not represent their attitudes in reality. Who knew how the initial players in the game interacted with these civilizations that led to changes in their perceptions?

Anyway, at least Duanmu Huai now had good news. Nôv(el)B\\jnn

After the trade was completed, Dardaniel happily left with his Chalice-class warship. Before leaving, he left his communication frequency and told Duanmu Huai that if there was anything to trade in the future, he could contact him anytime. Considering the collapse of the Human Empire and the ongoing barter trading system, it was worthwhile to establish good connections with wandering merchants like Dardaniel.

Duanmu Huai returned to his mothership with his spoils of war. While Judges usually kept their spoils of war, players found it more convenient to directly convert them into building points.

Therefore, Duanmu Huai’s loot from this raid became 3 building points and – a dirty little imp.

“Go clean this imp.”

Duanmu Huai handed the little creature to the maid puppet next to him. After giving a brief instruction, the maid nodded and took the unconscious imp to the bathroom.

After a series of washing, disinfection, and cleaning, the imp was back in front of Duanmu Huai, nice and clean.

It was a blond girl aged about ten. Her eyes were covered with a piece of cloth and she was wearing a simple gown.

“H-hello, respected sir…”

Standing in front of Duanmu Huai, the girl was noticeably nervous. Luckily, she was blind… or she would’ve fainted already.

However, what Duanmu Huai was more curious about was the language that the girl was using – her language was mixed with some Gothic. This suggested she might have been born into a very noble Psychic family, as ordinary people wouldn’t learn this technical language.