Cataclysm: Undead Dragons and Zero Empire

"Regarding your application for the newly emerged 'Undead Dragon,' the Hamborghini Convention has approved its inclusion in the 'Leviathan' list."

Ambassador Karen of the Boros Global Foundation received the envoy from a higher civilization. Their foundation was merely a dominant force occupying one of the spiral arms of this galaxy, while the Homborian Consortium was already the master of the star cluster, with dozens of galaxies under its jurisdiction. In the eyes of the foundation, it was a behemoth that needed to be looked up to.

Karen was authorized by the board to take full responsibility for matters related to the "Undead Dragons" roaming the river system, treating this independent entity as a civilization.

Karen looked at these arrogant, feathered, advanced civilizations, accepting their condescending gazes with utmost respect, just like their preferred environment. They were a civilization that had developed on a planet of towering mountains, naturally proud and looking down on other species.

However, the sky burial culture seems to have developed into something different in this civilization. Karen could not feel the life force of the soldiers standing behind the messenger at all, and could not help but feel the disgust and fear that the living have for the dead.

According to intelligence from the Foundation, in the society of the Hamborghini Covenant, death is no longer the end of life. They make extensive use of the dead as workers who do not need rest or food, and incorporate them into the army and deploy them to the ground battlefield.

This technology was clearly the envy of the foundation, but the Humboldt Convention regarded it as one of its core strengths and refused to share it with others, only accepting leasing to foreign entities.

The Foundation has studied the corpses that have risen again, but reverse engineering has been stalled. There is a significant barrier between them and this technology, which may involve not only biotechnology but also psionic technology.

If they can truly ensure their employees continue working to repay debts after their death, they can confidently extend the employment contract terms.

For example, if an employee of a race with an average lifespan of 100 standard years signs a contract, the first benefit is genetic modification, which allows them to work for the company until they die at the age of 150 to 200. In this case, the contract term is usually written as 200 years.

Of course, the genetic modification is a technology provided by the company, and employees need to bear the costs themselves, as well as various housing expenses, transportation expenses, and selfless dedication fees for working hard to keep the company alive. They often end up with debts that they can never pay off before they die.

At this point, the company will inevitably have less money to recover, and can only get it back from the employee's descendants. Therefore, hereditary succession is a very common practice, with employees' families working for the company for generations.

They only need to think that they are not ordinary people, but are qualified to serve the company as high-value personnel on the planet, and they will proudly puff out their chests and look down with disdain at their short-lived compatriots living at the bottom of the "nest".

If such technology were available, the company could implement a perpetual employment system, with contracts for five hundred or a thousand years, allowing employees to continue contributing to the company after their death until the debts are fully repaid.

However, the pirate alliance that the Foundation has been constantly trying to eliminate seems to possess this technology, rather than renting zombies from the Humboldt Consortium. But they always manage to blow up their own factories at the last minute, leaving the Foundation empty-handed.

Recently, the "Undead Dragon" destroyed a trading port shrouded in interstellar shadows, accomplishing this artistic act of annihilation using only its massive effect, leaving the Foundation with a relatively intact ruin.

They discovered a considerable number of zombie employees among them. These low-level production lines were using these zombies. If they were leased from the Humboldt Consortium, they wouldn't even be able to recoup their costs with this kind of production. It must be that these pirates themselves possessed this technology.

After reporting the matter to the board of directors, Karen chose to remain silent. He only needed to focus on the "Undead Dragon" now, and let the board of directors worry about these secrets.

However, he could clearly sense from these messengers that the Homborian Covenant was interested in the "Undead Dragon." Unlike other "Leviathans" that roamed the stars, this newly discovered individual seemed to be unique and undoubtedly possessed the symbolism of the dead.

Karen had witnessed the power of the "Undead Dragons," but he dared not assert the extent of the technology and military strength of the civilization that ruled the star cluster. The Foundation was unwilling to confront the "Leviathan," but these advanced races did not share that fear.

There may inevitably be a clash between the two, but how that future unfolds is beyond the scope of their foundation's control.

After seeing off these haughty envoys, his secretary, who had been waiting for a long time, reported to him on the latest developments regarding the "Undead Dragon," a matter he had repeatedly emphasized.

He had previously issued orders to monitor the collision between the "Leviathan" and the swarm of killing bees, so that even if the incident occurred on the other side of the galaxy, the Foundation's intelligence network could gather enough detailed information.

Although he couldn't face the silvery-white dragon bones directly in the same star system as before, Karen could still sense the domineering power of the "Undead Dragon" from the image of the insect hive being forcibly pulled out from deep underground.

"This level of psychic power utilization... is simply unheard of."

They could see that this belonged to the realm of psychic energy, but like primitive people who had mastered the art of fire-making by friction watching nuclear fusion occur in the distance, they knew it was fire, knew about light and heat, but had no idea how this technology could achieve such power.

The Boros Universal Foundation has grasped some psionic theory, trained many psionicists, and can utilize the psionic ocean in the warp, but they have not decided to devote all of their civilization's energy to this path.

For some reason, as far as they knew, civilizations with a focus on psionic energy were quite rare. Excluding those lower-level civilizations, their opponents at the same level were often like them, only having some involvement with this strange energy source, but never being able to delve deeper.

It seems that in today's universe, using psionic energy is like dancing in shackles—completely inefficient and often means being eliminated in an efficiency-driven interstellar society.

This was the first time Karen had ever seen psychic energy wielded to such an extent, as if planets were merely marbles in the hands of the "Undead Dragon," to be manipulated at will and placed in any corner of the universe.

He couldn't help but immerse himself in this magnificent power. The more he learned about the deeds of the "Undead Dragon," the more he was attracted by its power. The invisible power that manipulated the stars, the fleeting black and red light, seemed to be shining right before his eyes. It was so captivating that it intoxicated him.

Karen's thoughts were interrupted by a new report, which showed footage of the "Undead Dragon" colliding head-on with the swarm of killing bees, from the battlefield where a combined fleet of a civilization on the other side of the galaxy was annihilating the main hive.

The silver-white dragon's shadow swept across the universe, breaking through the molten and expanding metallic clouds outside the planet, and grasping the hideous main nest in its claws.

The fleet scrambled to avoid a collision, while the swarm fearlessly returned to reinforce the main hive, creating a dramatic scene in space that spoke of the power of the dragon—so dangerous, so beautiful.

As if the world and all life were endless, the dragon would also extend its will and grasp the pearl of the universe.