Chapter 305: This Is Very Difficult for Me

Upon receiving the message, Li Qingsong smiled.

“Do you have any conditions now? Do you still want an independent status? Do you still want to leave in the future? Do you still want to keep the name of the Harville Civilization? Do you still want autonomy?”

Faced with Li Qingsong’s reply, the Harville Civilization remained silent for a long time before finally responding: “No conditions. Unconditional surrender.”

“Don’t force yourselves. If you don’t want to surrender, you don’t have to. The worst that can happen is death, right? The final choice is in your hands. It’s not like I can force you.”

“Truly, we have no conditions. Truly… unconditional surrender.”

“Excellent.”

Li Qingsong said with a smile, “In that case, follow my arrangements. Transfer over to my ships.”

Long before this, Li Qingsong had already modified tens of thousands of large residential ships according to the survival needs of the Harvillers—no, the Viller Clan People, as they were now called.

Now, these ships traveled to the location where the Harville Civilization Fleet was stationed. They then dispatched a large number of shuttles, which arrived before every residential, industrial, and other ship of the Harville Civilization.

The bay doors opened. A flood of Clones and robots poured in, seizing control of every Harville ship.

Onboard these ships, Li Qingsong witnessed many gruesome scenes.

Countless facilities had been destroyed. Raging fires still burned inside some of the ships. The thoroughfares were littered with trash and wreckage, even severed limbs.

But his stance remained the same—that was their problem, not his. Of course, that all changed from this moment forward. They were no longer Harvillers. They were the Viller Clan People of Human Civilization, and they would have to accept his rule.

‘If you dare to riot or cause trouble again, I will grant no quarter.’

One by one, grim-faced Viller People, supervised by robots and Clones, lined up to board the shuttles. From there, they were transferred into Li Qingsong’s residential ships.

In total, approximately 20.6 billion Viller People were transferred.

That was right. At this moment, the Harville Civilization’s population had been reduced to just 20.6 billion.

Their civilization originally had a population of 300 billion. But when they fled Lyra G16, they lost half, leaving 150 billion.

During the Stellar Cannon’s attack on Planet One, they lost another 110 billion, leaving only 40 billion.

When they broke with the Intelligent Mechanical Calamity and the two sides attacked each other, they lost roughly another 10 billion. Finally, due to the pressure from Li Qingsong and the eruption of internal conflict, they lost 9.4 billion more, leaving the current 20.6 billion.

Even if Li Qingsong hadn’t intervened, with a population of only 20.6 billion, the Harville Civilization would have needed thousands of years to recover. During that time, any accident could have led to their extinction.

After all, the smaller the population, the lower a civilization’s overall ability to withstand risk. An excessively small population could even lead to a break in the chain of cultural and technological inheritance.

Of course, the Viller People no longer needed to worry about such things.

From now on, all they had to do was live their lives in peace. Li Qingsong, on the other hand, had much more to consider.

After the last compliant Viller was transferred, Li Qingsong knew that there were still some Harvillers hiding in the corners of the ships.

They were the die-hards, the stubborn few. They had survived the internal conflicts and the subsequent unification of opinion, hiding themselves away. Now, they were still thinking of putting up a futile last stand.

If left alone, there was no telling how much trouble they would cause for Li Qingsong in the future.

Li Qingsong’s solution was simple.

He directly deployed hundreds of billions of robots to board every Harville ship. They meticulously scoured every pipe, every room, and every corner, conducting a full-scale purge. In total, they killed the more than 20 million Harvillers who refused to surrender.

‘I can’t be bothered to persuade you. Surrender or don’t, I don’t care.’

‘You refuse to surrender, but you also refuse to die. That makes things difficult for me.’

‘In that case, I’ll just have to send you on your way myself.’

With this cleanup complete, the entire incident finally came to an end.

Li Qingsong let out a long sigh of relief. As he looked out the viewport at the vast, starry cosmos once more, he felt it was more magnificent and serene than ever before.

Wreckage littered the space around them. The system’s star was still in a violent phase. Planet One was almost entirely covered in molten lava. Everything was a picture of the grim aftermath of a great war. But none of that changed one simple fact.

‘I won!’

‘After thousands of years of perseverance and patience, thousands of years of relentless development… at this very moment, I have finally won!’

‘I defeated and exterminated the alliance between the Intelligent Mechanical Calamity and the Harville Civilization, completely eliminating any threats from behind. At this very moment, I have finally won!’

‘And now, it’s time to reap the rewards.’

Temporarily ignoring the terrified Viller People who had been placed in temporary housing, Li Qingsong directly commanded over a billion Clones. He then used the remaining two billion Clones to indirectly control hundreds of billions of robots and automated machines. They systematically boarded every ship of the former Harville Civilization and began to search, one by one, for anything of value.

Any piece of equipment he had never seen before, or whose performance was more advanced than his own, was subject to inspection.

Ship’s Thrust Devices, intelligent control systems, Nuclear Fusion Reactors, Energy Shield systems, attitude stabilization systems, radar, Energy Cannons, Laser generators, and Interception Systems were of particular interest and slated for priority inspection.

And so, Li Qingsong was inundated by a continuous stream of pleasant surprises.

‘This mechanical structure is quite ingenious. It achieves a more stable connection using materials with lower performance stats. A clever solution.’

‘You can do *that* with a heat dissipation system? Won’t that cause systemic instability? Hiss… It actually doesn’t. In fact, it improves cooling performance by over 5%.’

‘So that’s why the Harvillers’ defensive radar performance was so high. They added an extra control module. Seriously, what kind of minds come up with something like this?’

There was a mountain of similar technologies—minor, yet incredibly practical. A rough estimate put their number at over ten million.

With more careful inspection and absorption, the number would likely be even greater—perhaps even exceeding a hundred million!

The technological accumulation of a legitimate, intelligent civilization—one that had reached the Strong Core Level on its own and had even been capable of suppressing him in the early stages—was truly not to be underestimated.

‘And now, all of this technology was his!’

But that wasn’t even the best part.

The most important thing was that, on the level of fundamental physics, the Harville Civilization was also more advanced than he was.

Their understanding of the fundamental operating principles of the Cosmos surpassed his own.

‘And that was his now, too!’

At this moment, Li Qingsong felt like a beggar who had stumbled upon a mountain of gold.

The current spoils were already vast enough to exhilarate him, but Li Qingsong knew that compared to one other prize, all of this was nothing.

The Variable Energy Shield!