Regarding the deduction that "the Great Spikes come from an individual martial civilization whose technology is not advanced," the ones who found it hardest to accept were, ironically, the very people who had provided the preliminary basis for it—the researchers of Azure's scientific research division.
Inside the relevant research working group's office, the buzz of discussion had been going on for some time, with all sorts of opinions flying around.
"Actually, in my view, this deduction shouldn't be framed as 'that civilization's technology isn't advanced'... In reality, their tech tree simply doesn't run in the direction we'd expect by projecting our own experience onto them."
The girl who interjected looked eighteen or nineteen, radiant with youth. She smiled brightly at everyone as she spoke, not looking like she was embroiled in an argument at all.
With a crisp *crunch*, she took a bite of the apple in her hand. Chewing, she lowered her head and resumed leafing through a white-covered dossier on her desk.
"Put that way by Qiaoqiao... that makes sense. Measuring the technological progress of different civilizations against a single yardstick is probably what's truly laughably arrogant. That's merely technology as we conceive it—just like assuming every civilization uses firearms, which is far too naive," an older woman in the office chimed in.
"Yeah," another person cited a logical example, saying, "When a civilization possesses source energy and dead iron right from the beginning, they might never use petroleum—even if petroleum actually exists on their planet. Or at least, their development of petroleum-based technology might lag behind ours... That's only natural."
"Mhm, dead iron and source energy... what wondrous things."
With her head bowed, the girl murmured as if to herself, then continued, "Even their shuttle-shaped craft are built with those two as material and propulsion... while we haven't found many ways to utilize source energy to this day."
What the girl meant was roughly this: that civilization's technological development was essentially concentrated on exploiting and utilizing source energy and dead iron.
The logic was simple. Take Azure, for instance: if legends were true and humanity could cultivate spiritual qi, flying through the sky and diving into the earth, and had continued doing so uninterrupted... then the tech tree and civilizational form humanity saw today would definitely not look the way it did now.
"If that's a world where everyone has source energy..." The girl paused, then went on, "then calling it an 'individual martial civilization' wouldn't be incorrect either... Furthermore, the odds that it established a slave caste system ruled layer by layer through supreme martial force would be very high."
The discussion seemed to be heading toward deeper insights, and everyone in the group was thoroughly engaged.
But then, "Whoa..." The girl let out a dazed exclamation. The bitten apple froze beside her mouth, her eyes blankly fixed on the final page of the open dossier on the desk. "The new... combat recruit... is a handsome guy!"
With that, she stood up abruptly and headed straight for the office door.
"What? What handsome guy? Yaoyao, let me see..." an older colleague in the office called out with a laugh from behind.
Xin Yaoqiao turned back, hesitating for a second... She actually really wanted to show it to the older woman so they could examine it together, but unfortunately, she couldn't.
"Huh? During work hours, Huanghuang, where are you off to?" another colleague asked with a smile, running into her just as he walked in.
"I... have something to do. Official business." Xin Yaoqiao, whose name was pronounced in many playful variations, waved her hand as she turned around, skipped once, and bounced out of the office.
Far too lively.
As a genius who grew up in an Azure scientific family, was secretly inducted into "Sub-Sequence" at age sixteen, and joined the Linguistics Department of the Azure Huaxia Research Institute as a linguist that same year, Xin Yaoqiao, in people's imaginations, ought to have had a stiff, even aloof demeanor... Yet in reality, she did not.
In a way, to those around her, Xin Yaoqiao didn't seem like someone from their era. Her office colleagues had once thought it was a generation gap, but later realized she didn't seem to belong to the same era as her peers, either.
Right now, Xin Yaoqiao was walking briskly toward home; her residence was located in the research institute's family quarters.
And that white-covered dossier in her hand was actually the latest updated file for Sub-Sequence.
In fact, within this group, aside from that newcomer from the combat system who had just been inducted and not yet informed, everyone else was permitted to know about one another—though for now, that was limited strictly to knowing of their existence.
"Even his ID photo looks so good. Mmh, and he's a combatant... Super Grade S sensitivity, Grade A degree of fusion. Seems a bit strange, but it doesn't matter... At any rate, we finally have someone who can fight."
Xin Yaoqiao thought to herself as she walked, swinging the white-covered dossier back and forth in her hand, looking completely unremarkable.
In reality, the original files of the major sequences lying in the offices of the Azure Huaxia Headquarters were actually treated with considerable gravity.
They were bound in cowhide covers with gilded edges and bore textual inscriptions.
Among them, the First Sequence was a combat sequence, its cover reading: *[First Sequence—Super Combat Strength. Top Secret.]*
The Second Sequence was also a combat sequence, its cover reading: *[Second Sequence—Peak Combat Strength.]*
By comparison, the cover inscription for Sub-Sequence was very long: *[Sub-Sequence—Slim, left unchecked, yet still invested with hope: an unexpected victory.]*
This inscription was generally hard to decipher and understand; fortunately, not many had seen it or needed to understand it anyway.
The people in this sequence...
For example, that genius from the Rejecters. No one dared harbor high expectations, but who could say for sure? Perhaps one day he really would produce an ingenious invention that would mislead and lure the alien civilization to another galaxy entirely.
Or that "blacksmith." No one dared harbor high expectations, but who could say for sure? Perhaps one day he would achieve breakthrough results in utilizing dead iron and improving apparatuses, bringing a quantum leap to Azure's combat capability.
Or Xin Yaoqiao, currently designated as a linguist. No one dared harbor high expectations, but who could say for sure? Perhaps one day she could achieve reconciliation with the alien civilization through dialogue... or pull off a deception... or perhaps even clear up some misunderstanding, quelling this war beyond the realm of martial force.
And then the other six people...
As for Han Qingyu, the latest addition at the end, he was likely a special case. Some even thought he might just have been thrown in to round out the numbers, or simply because of Chen Buer's petty streak, displeased that Sub-Sequence had no one from his Sole Witness Legion.
He was the only combat system personnel in this sequence.
The stated reason for his inclusion was equally flimsy: simply because the combination of Super Grade S source energy sensitivity and Grade A degree of fusion in him was unprecedented and incomprehensible.
Thus, he too was treated as an uncertain variable.
Chapter 53