The Most Powerful Brain in the Interstellar Space

Throughout human history, all development has been inseparable from two key elements: human resources and land resources.

The most important element of the former is people. Whether they are exceptionally talented individuals or ordinary people living mundane lives, soldiers, politicians, nobles, and commoners are the foundation of this vast world. Without enough people, any royal power or hegemony is meaningless, and it is pointless to be a commander without troops.

The latter is a crucial and important hard resource. To establish a regime, one must have territory; having people but no place to place them is just a castle in the air, an illusion that vanishes in an instant.

Like the interstellar humans of today, they started from a single planetary base, expanded to the surrounding area, then to the outermost ring, and finally brought the entire Alpha Universe under their control. Even now, the territory of the Alpha Universe continues to slowly expand into outer star systems.

However, faced with such a vast number of planets, the human population at that time was far from sufficient, and many planets were difficult to develop due to their unique geographical environment and ecosystem.

There are countless planets in the interstellar space nearby, and they simply couldn't develop them all in the early stages. But these territories couldn't just be left to rot away. If they were reoccupied by interstellar beasts that crawled in through interstellar wormholes, it would be a waste of their efforts. So, it was necessary to establish order and management.

However, in the early stages, the number of military and political personnel was extremely limited. Even if one person were to manage hundreds or thousands of planets, it might not be enough, as the manpower shortage was too great. Moreover, there was no guarantee that they could manage them well, as the development costs were too high. Therefore, the best solution was to open up access and allocate a portion of the management to private individuals.

But what's wrong with humans? They're just too clever. Back when they were vying for a single home planet, they fought to the death, waging several world wars. Now that their territory has expanded to the entire universe, who knows how much they'll fight. So, the rights to develop planets can't be too open, otherwise, before they can even secure their home front, humanity itself will split up.

However, as humanity's territory expanded, the problem of some planets becoming increasingly desolate grew. Finally, after lengthy discussions between the military and political circles, a law was passed allowing individuals to own and develop planets. However, the conventional mineral resources and rare biological resources mined during individual planet development must be shared with the Empire according to regulations. Furthermore, once a planet has completed its initial development and is registered for management, it must unconditionally accept military personnel to assist in its administration.

Of course, the "individual" who can apply to develop a planet is quite resourceful. It's not really anyone who can develop a planet; frankly, one must have the ability and financial resources.

Furthermore, once such a planetary development contract is accepted, personnel must be regularly and quantitatively supplied to the military, and occasionally, freedom must also be supplied to the political sphere, which can be considered a certain degree of concession of interests.

However, if one could acquire exclusive development rights to some resource-rich planets, the cost of this scheme would become negligible. Thus, for a long period afterward, the military, government, and civilians worked together to develop this vast expanse of space, resulting in the creation of many prosperous private planets. The government, in turn, effortlessly obtained a large share of the resources.

Over the past few star eras, both the military and the political sphere have been working to consolidate ownership of planets. After all, granting development rights was a temporary measure, and no one expected that humanity would develop to this point today.

When this policy was first introduced, it was during the early stages of human development, so naturally, there was no strict adherence to rules, and the consequences, such as how to handle the aftermath, were not given much consideration. As a result, private planets have indeed proliferated, and many unscrupulous individuals have used these hidden locations to engage in illegal activities and harbor criminals. For the sake of the Empire's stability, the authorities spent a considerable amount of time organizing these scattered private planets after the situation stabilized, gradually laying the groundwork for the day when they could bring these large numbers of planets out of the Empire's control under their control.

For some scattered planet owners, it's relatively easy to take them back as long as sufficient resources and benefits are offered. As for those unwilling to relinquish their planets, there's even less to worry about. Taking over private planets isn't a short-term plan. Just wait a bit, and they'll pass them down through generations. There will always be unworthy descendants, and they can be returned to the Empire without any intervention.

However, some planets developed by aristocratic families are not so easy to reclaim.
It was originally an exchange of interests. The rights that were reluctantly given away have long been incorporated into the foundations and even pillar industries of various noble families. Trying to take them back now would be like taking their lives. How could they possibly succeed?
Moreover, these aristocratic families mostly had close ties with both the military and political circles. To forcefully attack them would be tantamount to undermining one's own foundation, and if things escalated, it was unclear who would benefit. Therefore, the imperial upper echelons could only turn a blind eye and tacitly approve of this decentralization of power.

However, everyone in the interstellar community knows that the chaotic era when it was easy to achieve great things through war is over, and it's time to return to order. The higher-ups have made their stance clear: they are very strict about planetary ownership. Unless someone has made a significant contribution to the Empire, it's not easy for them to own a private planet. There haven't been any new planetary owners for quite some time now.

There were occasional transactions between aristocratic families, but these were mostly exchanges, with very little or no outflow.

However, this balance is about to be broken today.

The recent incident involving Jiang Hui on Atlantis caused considerable chaos on the western defense line, leading to the exposure of a group of rebel spies. These spies were of high rank, some even holding important positions; otherwise, how could they have stolen so much frontline intelligence and created opportunities for the rebels to divert attention from their own lines of operations?
Among them were several powerful and influential clans. It must be said that they were foolish to openly interfere in the rebel activities and were caught red-handed. Since they could be found in this chaos, they naturally could not escape being punished.

Their downfall not only triggered turmoil in both the military and political spheres but also freed up a large amount of unclaimed resources. This outflow of resources had a significant impact on the capital star sector, with various factions scrambling to absorb them. However, the outflow of resources was too large and too scattered; even with the greatest official power, there were always areas it couldn't cover. Some resources ended up on the open market, the most notable of which were a batch of private planets—no, already unclaimed planets.

This batch of privately owned planets represents a small percentage of the total number of planets that have been leaked this time, numbering around a hundred, less than one percent. These are all planets that the authorities are temporarily unable or have not had time to collect due to various reasons. However, they don't want to see them scattered again, which is why they are now on the auction list.

Hundreds of private planets, not a huge number, not a small number, were now on display at the Four Seas Trading Company's auction, with everyone having the opportunity to bid for them. This was the first time since the Empire tightened its policies on the development of private planets—

Nobody wants to miss out.

(End of this chapter)