Chapter 514: Ch

"So many asset losses?" Ritika asked in surprise, as this was the first time they had ever suffered this kind of loss.

Though not a single life had been lost, the loss of over twelve thousand starfighters and mechs was still quite high for her, and she was a bit surprised to accept it.

"Sigh... it was inevitable, High Admiral Ritika," Mav said with a deep sigh.

"Previously, we did not—or at least, the other battle fleets did not—suffer losses like this because the enemies they encountered were always weak."

"Though the Bright Moon Republic was no different in that regard, it was still vastly stronger than the other foes we have encountered in the real world."

"And we are not some invincible force, after all."

Mav’s expression grew serious as he continued.

"It’s just that we are still in the newbie village of the real world, if I have to put it that way. And we are geared with higher-grade equipment compared to the monsters here."

"Even so, a giant can be felled by a swarm of tiny ants."

"So taking hits is only natural and inevitable. Accept it and move on. After all, we’ve adapted as best we can. If losses still occur at this stage, then they were meant to be."

"I get that. It’s not that I’m unwilling to accept it—as if some invisible, absolute power is pulling the strings—it’s just... sigh. Whatever, I’ll let it go. But tell me, Grand Admiral: are we in a game or something?" Ritika asked, her expression deadly serious. "What newbie village? What weak monsters? You really need to play fewer of those games, Grand Admiral. Look at you—now you’re quoting them as real-world examples."

[Kallus: Exactly as Ritika said. Are we playing some kind of game here, Grand Admiral? You really ought to listen to her, drop the games, and stick to practical terms! Hmm... but your perspective isn’t entirely wrong either. I’ll give you five stars for the effort, but deduct four. First, simply because I feel like it; second, because I can. So, off they go. Step it up, Grand Admiral—you’re embarrassing me out here.]

Mav’s mouth twitched. He wasn’t sure if he was hallucinating or if the Imperial Commander was truly echoing her words. He glared at Ritika, his eye twitching.

"You! Shut your mouth, woman, before I have it sewn shut! What kind of nonsense is that? Who said I play games?! It was just an analogy to simplify things, and now you’re twisting it into something else, damn it!" he roared in frustration.

Ritika simply scoffed with a "Hmph," turning her face away without another word.

Exasperated, Mav swallowed his rising temper, looked at her, and sighed.

Mav then stopped paying attention to Ritika, pushing this new thought to the back of his mind and focusing on the important things.

"Continue, Admiral Ritika."

Ritik nodded his head and spoke. "Onto the habitable worlds in the Bright Moon territory.

After we took care of the Republican Radiant Armada, we deployed additional forces and completely eliminated the Bright Moon civilization on Bright Moon Prime and its sister worlds, New Helen and Lunaria.

We used only sufficient strength and caused no drastic changes to these three super-worlds, which are at the Semi-Tier 5 and Tier 4 levels."

(Lunaria was a Semi-Tier 5 world, while New Helen and Bright Moon Prime were Semi-Tier 4 worlds.)

"Of the three worlds, Lunaria was left untouched," Ritik said simply, though with a hint of surprise.

"Ohh, left untouched? Why?" Mav asked, then added with some curiosity, "What was the reason?"

All the while, Ritika remained silent. She even rolled the rotating chair around like a kid without making a sound, happily immersed in her own world and too busy to care about the nonsense her brother and her "big fish" were talking about.

"Firstly, surprisingly, it was because of the limited presence of Republican people on that world."

"That surprised the annihilation team at the time, but upon investigation, it was determined to be because of the special properties of that world that made the Republicans dare not move in."

"The phenomenon was related to the freezing climate of the lunar world. It possesses an ice energy that can freeze even the soul of a being up to the Paragon Rank almost instantly."

"But while dangerous, this place also produces a rarity that is able to heal soul damage."

"Not only that, it can even be used to cultivate rare potions and pills capable of strengthening one’s soul, along with providing a tiny improvement in enlightenment."

"Something the ruling power of the Bright Moon Republic has always kept hidden from the entire galaxy."

Ritik said this with apparent excitement visible on his face.

"Such worlds that produce cosmic rarities are almost nonexistent across the galaxy, specifically in such a low-tier galaxy like the Milky Way."

"And to avoid causing any kind of damage to the world, we manually erased any and all traces of the Bright Moon Republic, preserving the world and its unique properties exactly as they were previously."

"GOOD! GOOD! GOOD!"

High Admiral Ritika Mav was also very excited upon hearing this news and praised Ritik without stopping.

The value of such a rarity was immense, even for the Celestial Void Empire, which had an entire universe to treasure.

But the thing was, everything they had in there had to be forcibly taken through life-and-death crises, fighting against powerful defending beasts who were mostly a level or two higher than them.

And not only that, after taking those resource points by defeating and killing those beasts, it wasn’t over at all.

Instead, from time to time, they had to withstand beast tides, whose intensity depended upon the value of the resource points they had taken over.

All in all, in the Universal Plane, they had to go through thousands of dangers and hardships to obtain those rich resources.

But this one wasn’t like that.

They wouldn’t have to fight a life-and-death battle here, nor would they have to withstand a beast tide.

Instead, they simply had to collect the resources at the appropriate time, and that was it.

"You have done truly well by not taking any dangerous moves on Lunaria, High Admiral. Otherwise, the damage could have been much worse for us."

"Now, deploy additional units there and specifically lay out isolation equipment. Build a complete Generation-One planetary shielding system and seal Lunaria."

"Only after I have reported it upward and received orders will we do something about it. For now, ensure that it is off-limits to everyone."

Mav said this with absolute seriousness.

"As you—" Just as Ritik seriously tried to accept the order, High Admiral Ritika, his sister, interrupted him.

"Leave that to me instead, Grand Admiral Mav. Let me do that!. I’ll ensure everything is in order according to your orders. Let my brother handle the other boring things."

She spoke solemnly, without the arrogance and playfulness that were always visible on her face.

"Well..." Mav was a bit surprised that she had stepped forward for this. Looking at her serious and solemn face, he knew she wouldn’t take no for an answer.

And Mav was smart enough not to do something otherwise and let the lady lock onto him, making his upcoming days a bit miserable.

He could only accept it.

"Then I’ll leave it in your hands, High Admiral Ritika," Mav said with a forced smile on his face.

"Hmm, don’t worry. I’ll handle it beautifully," Ritika said, not minding the forced smile on Mav’s face at all.

She quickly excused herself from there, leaving Mav and Ritik alone.

"Don’t know what has gotten into her suddenly?" Mav said, looking at the spot where Ritika had been sitting just a moment ago, only to find it empty.

He then turned toward Ritik and asked, "Do you know any reason for her sudden weird actions?"

"Uh-huh." Ritik shook his head as well. "I don’t know, Grand Admiral. What has gotten into my sister either? But it’s good, anyway, that she is willing to do things like that. We really don’t have to worry about it."

"She might love to fight, but she isn’t a brain-dead person, after all. She is actually smarter than me when it comes to management activities," Ritik added.

"Sigh... let it be." Mav pushed the matter aside and threw another topic at Ritik.

"Tell me about the preparations for solidifying the Bright Moon Star System at the center, along with the over twenty satellite star systems. And when will those people from the Terraforming Department arrive with the other relevant teams? We need to prepare for our departure.

As for the people from the Terraforming Department, I contacted them, and they assured us that they will arrive here within forty-eight standard hours, along with the Tenth Defence Command."

"They will be taking over the territory we have gained from us and will be mainly responsible for building additional defensive structures and defending the gained territory for now." Ritik replied, tapping his fingers against the round table as he spoke.

"As for the other—" The two continued conversing with each other.