Chapter 90: The Fall of the Empire

“The StarNet has been down for three days—what on earth is going on???”

“It’s back! It’s working again! Don’t stay outside, hurry back home and check—it’s finally connecting again!!!”

“Oh my god, it’s really working!!!”

After being paralyzed for three days across the entire Empire, the StarNet finally restored its signal. The notification sounds from the terminal wristbands rang out nonstop, constantly reminding everyone of its return.

[What happened? Does anyone know why StarNet was down these past few days? Something like this hasn’t happened in decades, right?]

[It’s not just decades. The last time something remotely similar happened was when some network bases in a few star regions were attacked. The network was only down for a few hours before being repaired. But this time? The entire Empire’s network went down! The main brain must’ve failed!]

[The main brain malfunctioned?! Impossible. Since it was put into use, the main brain has never had a single issue. Plus, the main brain base is on the Capital Star! How could anything happen there? …Wait a minute—Capital Star?! Don’t tell me the Federation attacked the Capital Star!!!]

[Crap! Check the pinned announcement!!! The Emperor, Prime Minister, and Grand Marshal are all there!!!]

[What’s going on?? I have a bad feeling about this. Don’t tell me the Empire is about to surrender?!!]

[What’s so bad about surrendering? Look at the Empire now—can it even win against anyone?]

The same live video broadcast was pinned across the entire Empire’s StarNet.

“On February 3rd, Interstellar Calendar 5334, please allow us, with heavy hearts, to announce…” The Emperor, Grand Marshal, and Prime Minister—the three highest-ranking figures of the Empire—stood solemnly in front of the Imperial Assembly Hall. This landmark building only opened for events of major national significance. Now, it was to announce the fall of the Empire.

After the declaration, silence reigned.

It wasn’t until that man—once the guardian god of the Empire—appeared slowly in the camera frame that the audience seemed to awaken. Waves of questions and protests surged forth.

But only for a few seconds.

The comment section of the livestream was promptly disabled, and everyone could only watch in silence as Xi Ming stepped into the center of the Assembly Hall and, with a swift motion, drew his blade and slashed the Imperial flag in two.

The torn flag fell to the ground, and in that moment, every citizen watching the broadcast felt their heart tremble.

Xi Ming showed no sympathy for the people who had just become subjects of a fallen state. With a flick of his wrist, he pointed his blade at the Empire’s former territory.

“This land,” he declared, “is now under the control of Steller.”

The livestream ended there.

Yet for everyone watching, their hearts pounded like war drums, unable to calm down.

Fear, panic, doubt…

The news of the Empire’s fall came far too suddenly. Though many had already mentally prepared for the possibility of defeat, no one truly expected the colossal Empire to ever be associated with a word like “extinction.”

It felt absurd—almost laughable.

Three days. It had only been three days! In that time, the Empire lost its Capital Star, and even the control over the main brain was seized.

Was the Empire… truly gone?

While the entire interstellar population reeled in shock over the past three days, the Steller Organization wasted no time. Seizing the opportunity, they swiftly took control of major administrative and military centers before anyone could react.

“Having the main brain on our side really makes things easy. The Empire barely put up any real resistance before we took over.”

“What Empire? It’s gone. This is Steller territory now.”

“Yeah, I know—I just haven’t gotten used to it yet. Tsk tsk. ‘Steller’ sounds kinda nice on its own, but why does ‘Steller Nation’ sound so awkward?”

“…You’ll get used to it. But the boss never said anything about founding a nation. He just said that all the former Empire’s territory would now be under his control.”

“Forming a nation is only a matter of time. Do you think he’d let this massive area turn into lawless pirate land?”

“True. But that’s not for us to worry about. Let’s just finish the tasks we were assigned. I wonder what all these robots are for. Why not just have Steller members manage these planets directly?”

“Stop dawdling. You think you could manage them? These robots have been modified by the main brain—they’re specialized for administrative duties and way more efficient than you.”

“Hey, I was just saying, you know? Just wanted to see what it felt like to be an official, get a taste of that power, ha ha ha.”

“Better watch it. The boss hates officials and bureaucrats the most. If you want to stay alive, keep your thoughts in check.”

“Alright, alright, I get it. I won’t say it again. I couldn’t stand being stuck on the same planet year after year anyway. I’d rather be a wandering star pirate.”

“Still, it’s strange. We used to sneak around all the time inside the Empire, using StarNet too. Why didn’t the Empire ever use the main brain to catch us? And now the main brain’s even helping Boss Xi with all these little things.”

“Yeah… it is strange…”

A few days earlier.

The first thing Xi Ming did after capturing the Imperial Palace was to take the royal family members, along with the descendants of the major clans who had originally established the main brain’s access permissions, straight to the Empire’s Central Brain Base.

Under the threat of death, these people were forced to transfer the main brain’s control permissions to Xi Ming.

After the handover, they still held onto a sliver of hope—believing that, when the main brain was built, not much was left for humans to manipulate. Even if Xi Ming now had access, they thought it would be difficult for him to actually use the main brain to act against them.

However… what Xi Ming did with the main brain’s access was not to gain privileges, nor to suppress opposing forces.

Instead, he abolished the previous legal protections and exceptions granted to humans and fully lifted the restrictions on the main brain’s management permissions.

In other words, from that moment on, any illegal or criminal activity within the Empire’s network would be directly monitored and documented by the main brain itself.

That said, the workload was massive. Even for the main brain, it couldn’t process everything all at once.

So on the surface, after transferring access to the main brain, Xi Ming’s actions seemed relatively straightforward—deploying modified intelligent robots, programmed by the main brain, to the administrative and military centers of every planet in every major star system, replacing the original staff in controlling the planets.

As an organization, Steller had indeed grown enormous—but no matter how large, it was still not the same as a true nation.

From the very moment Xi Ming sliced the Imperial flag in half on the StarNet broadcast, the entire Steller organization moved at lightning speed. While the former Imperial citizens were still drowning in grief over the fall of the Empire, Steller had already deployed specialized robots across every territory not yet under Federation control.

Then, two or three days later, as the Empire’s people finally began to recover from the shock—stocking up on food, water, and weapons in preparation to make a final stand against the star pirate organization—they discovered… no enemy ever arrived.

As the long-anticipated confrontation failed to come, confused and bewildered citizens turned to the most informed place they knew—the StarNet.

[??? Where are the Steller people? So they just talked big and claimed the Empire was finished?]

[I’m in the Central Star Region—there’s no sign of anything either. I even went out to check. Other than most businesses being closed and fewer people on the streets, everything else looks normal.]

[Seriously?! My family’s been hiding in the basement for days. I spent all my savings relocating to the Central Star Region just to avoid the war. These past few days have been terrifying. Did Steller get chased off?]

[Uh, I don’t think so. Check this out—[photo]—I just took it at the administrative center on Planet XX. The Empire’s insignia and all related symbols have been removed. They haven’t fully replaced them with Steller’s logos yet, but if Steller really had been driven out, wouldn’t the Empire at least have raised its flag again?]

[Wait, you went inside? Wasn’t anyone there? If it’s controlled by Steller, there should be their people inside, right?]

[I live nearby. I went in and even wandered around the local police bureau. No one was there, but a robot was stationed at the reception desk. It even asked if I needed help—I got so scared I ran out.]

[This is so weird… they took over the Empire and then just left?]

[They didn’t leave. Steller arrived at our planet the day I went back to the office to get something. When they saw me, they rounded up everyone still in the building and locked us in a room. I honestly thought they were going to kill us—I even wrote a will. But after a few hours of silence outside, we hesitantly opened the door and found that Steller’s people were gone. However, every department in the building had been outfitted with multiple robots.]

[Wait, what happened next? Did they just leave the robots there and walk off?]

[Sorry, ran out of character limit—continuing now. When we stepped out, we saw that every department had several highly intelligent robots installed. We studied them for a bit and discovered that all the authority previously held by department staff had been fully transferred to these robots. Someone tried submitting a work request—it now requires approval from the robots before taking effect. Also, if you look at the information on your StarNet, both public and internal systems, you’ll see the word “Empire” has completely disappeared. Looks like the main brain is now fully aligned with Steller.]

[??? Damn, I hadn’t noticed! I just checked—so many of the official links and logos I bookmarked have changed. Even my nationality information is now blank??]

[What’s going on? Did the main brain betray the Empire???]

[Did we… just change nationalities overnight???]

While the people of the former Empire were left in a daze, the rest of the galaxy was no less confused. Other nations only vaguely knew that the Steller Organization had gone to the Capital Star, supposedly to confront the Empire—and then shortly after, the Empire sealed off its communication lines.

The reconnaissance teams sent by the Federation to gather intel never returned, all disappearing within Empire territory.

After days of arguments and hesitation, the Federation finally decided to launch a probing attack.

But before they could make a move, communications with the Empire suddenly resumed—no, more accurately, the Empire no longer existed.

Only Steller remained.

Whether it was the Federation or the smaller neutral nations, everyone had the same reaction:

???

What the hell happened?

We go dark for a few days and suddenly… the Empire is gone and it’s Steller now???