Annual Task
Task one: The death of Qin Ming (completed)
Task two: Control at least four star regions of the Starlight Empire (completed)
Task three: Control four star regions of the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth (completed)
Task four: Ensure that before year's end, the territory of the Dragon-folk tribe and of the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth is not overrun by Demon Race fleets. (Should any area be controlled by the Demon Race for more than 72 hours, it will be judged fallen, and the task failed.)
Annual task reward: upon completing all four annual tasks, you may claim the 'T5 Galaxy-class Large Interstellar Industrial Base' technical blueprint
As of now, the Owl Dragon Legion's industrial technology.
Rested chiefly upon the T4 Gemini-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ship and the T3 Furnace-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ship.
But if T5-grade interstellar warships were to be built in future, these alone would assuredly not suffice.
As with the building of the T5 Hades-class Interstellar Dreadnought and the T5 Creator-class Starship earlier, which had committed great numbers of T4 Gemini-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ships and consumed a great deal of time besides.
And the reward the System offered this time.
Was not an interstellar industrial ship, but an interstellar industrial base.
An interstellar industrial base and an interstellar industrial ship are both products of the manufacturing side.
But there are certain differences between them.
At the same grade of technology and the same bulk.
An interstellar industrial base's productive capacity far exceeds an interstellar industrial ship's; its one defect being that an interstellar industrial ship is itself a starship, and can go wherever it wishes.
In former days Zhao Chen would certainly have preferred the interstellar industrial ship: should anything go wrong, at worst one moves house — of the 36 stratagems, flight is best.
But Zhao Chen's household and estate were great now; how should he move at a word?
In such a case, to possess an advanced interstellar industrial base would be, for the Owl Dragon Legion's development, a shot of adrenaline to the heart!
So when Zhao Chen saw this reward, how should his heart not stir!
As for the annual task itself, it agreed with Zhao Chen's own future plans without prior consultation — only that it fixed the battlefield in the region north of the Dragon-folk tribe's territory.
That stipulation had no great effect upon Zhao Chen.
Zhao Chen gathered in his excited feelings and looked at the last quarterly task; with only half a month remaining until this third quarter's end.
Quarterly Task
Task content: Choose to annihilate or bring to submission twenty of the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth's great tribes.
Complete ten to claim the base reward.
Complete thirteen to claim a Bronze Treasure Chest.
Complete sixteen to claim a Silver Treasure Chest.
Complete twenty to claim a Gold Treasure Chest.
Current progress: nine.
Annihilated: the Black Tiger tribe.
Brought over: the Spider Queen tribe, the Harpy tribe, the Fox-folk tribe, the Siren tribe, the Frost-Wolf tribe, the Hound tribe, the Golden Leopard tribe, the Golden Eagle tribe
This was at present the one task making slow progress; as of now only nine of the required number were complete, still one short even of the task's minimum requirement.
Zhao Chen knit his brows slightly.
Half a month's time; this business must be settled quickly.
"Commander-in-Chief? Commander-in-Chief…"
Charlotte's call brought Zhao Chen back to himself.
"What did you say just now?" Zhao Chen asked without thinking.
"The Dragon-folk tribe's side has sent an application to come to terms with us; I ask how you would have it arranged," Charlotte asked again.
The Dragon-folk tribe seeking terms.
This had long been within Zhao Chen's expectation. So long as the Dragon-folk tribe were no fools, facing Demon Race invaders who could butcher 150,000 Dragon-folk interstellar warships with 30,000—
they would at this juncture assuredly choose to come to terms with him, and would very likely find some means besides of obtaining Owl Dragon military aid from him.
"You may. You are responsible for arranging the talks. The faster this business is done, the better," Zhao Chen said straight out.
It was not that Zhao Chen was impatient, or concerned for the Dragon-folk tribe.
It was simply that with that annual task before him, Zhao Chen could not now permit the least slip in the Dragon-folk tribe's territory!
That thing bore upon a treasure of his!
Though… he must both put a hand into the Dragon-folk tribe's affairs with a good name for doing it, and knock a little something out of them besides.
The fighting of this stretch could not have been for nothing.
"Besides which, I have been in touch with Chitong; from Chitong I learn that her own understanding of the Demon Race is limited to what her parents' generation spoke of. And that generation seem to have concealed it deliberately, and rarely spoke of the Demon Race, so she knows very little. But if the Commander-in-Chief wishes to learn more of the Demon Race, Chitong says she can contact that band of Demon Race refugees who fled here with her, and obtain the relevant threads from her parents' generation." Charlotte raised the matter of Chitong.
Zhao Chen nodded. "Then let Chitong see to that business."
With that, Zhao Chen did not forget to add, "Remember to tell Chitong not to bear any burden of mind over the present business. Though the enemy we face in future may be the Demon Race, this has nothing whatever to do with Chitong; she is already one of our Owl Dragon. And if she is unwilling to meet her own people upon a battlefield, I can transfer her away from here for the present — and as it happens, the hive-race controlled zone over in the Starlight Empire's Snow-Swallow Star Region needs a fit person to oversee and manage it."
"Very well; I shall convey these words to Chitong." Charlotte nodded.
——————
Charlotte's efficiency in business was swift.
In under half a day, word came back from the Dragon-folk tribe concerning the terms.
Between the parties there would be a five-way conference.
Of these so-called five parties, the Owl Dragon Legion and the Hundred Beasts Alliance held two.
On the other side were the faction represented by the Dragon-folk tribe, the faction represented by the Giant Lion tribe, and the one neutral tribe that had not yet wholly gone over to the Owl Dragon Legion — the Fury Bear tribe.
In fact the Fury Bear tribe had in their hearts already taken the Owl Dragon Legion's side.
Only that the 'inducement' Zhao Chen had tossed that Fury Bear chieftain at the time was that he might command an elite fleet.
And that blind bear, for reasons unknown, had a one-track mind, and would not loose the hawk until he saw the hare: he declared that until the day he was given such an elite fleet to command, he would not take the Owl Dragon Legion's side.
But set beside his attitude toward the Owl Dragon Legion, his attitude toward the Dragon-folk tribe and the Giant Lion tribe might fairly be called abominable.
Earlier, during the civil war, considering that the Fury Bear tribe's strength ranked within the top five, they had required them to dispatch tribal fleets.
The Fury Bear chieftain had thrown back one line: I haven't the time.
And then turned round and sent a private message to Zhao Chen's side.
Whose content was nothing but an inquiry as to when he might have an elite interstellar fleet of his own to command.
This conference took the form of an online holographic video.
When a conference room scene appeared before Zhao Chen, four people were already seated about the round table.
The Dragon-folk tribe's Princess Blanche.
The Giant Lion tribe's chieftain.
The Fury Bear tribe's chieftain.
The Hundred Beasts Alliance's supreme leader, Charlotte.
And, arriving late and unhurried, Zhao Chen.
Seeing Zhao Chen appear, that blind bear seated diagonally opposite began making eyes and working his brows at him.
Which made Zhao Chen wish he could send him a missile.
Are you soft in the head, you blind bear? Working your eyebrows at me like that — as though the two of us had something between us.