After a friendly conversation with Paean, a descendant of the Kree, Paean successfully added a colorful stroke to the Kree's debt with his vile attitude.
No need to elaborate on the process, anyway, by the time the conversation ended, the Kree owed the human race more than 150 spaceships, backed by clear IOUs.
Steve became the representative of human civilization, handling the diplomatic activities within the Andromeda Galaxy with Charles. Stark, Peter, and Magneto took charge of the mining operations.
As Charles reached an agreement, they immediately set to work on the spaceships. The mining weapons on the spaceships maximized mining efficiency with the magnetic powers of Magneto and Polaris. In simple terms, they could completely mine a planet in a few days.
Oh, yeah, let's not forget the once highly-developed Sulfur Dwarf civilization. How did their civilization fare after the black hole explosion?
Since the core star zone of Andromeda has a very habitable environment, Magneto deliberately protected this area with a magnetic field when guiding the super black hole explosion.
However, the sulfur dwarf's civilization was far from the core star zone and closer to the super black hole, they were not as lucky as other civilizations.
The Sulfur Dwarves controlled over 1500 resource-rich planets. The star zone they ruled had planets that mainly produced Molten Steel, and the ones that didn't were mostly Giant planets that provided auxiliary resources.
Due to the proximity of this star zone to the super black hole, when the black hole erupted, all of the sulfur dwarf's armed fleets were wiped out, several hundred planets in the path of the eruption were obliterated.
Even deadlier, the two star zones with the densest population had their stars completely extinguished during this cosmic disaster.
Originally, the planets where most of the sulfur dwarves resided had extremely high surface temperatures due to their proximity to stars, mostly around 500 degrees. The species that evolved in this environment had very high resistance to high temperatures. They could move around physically in environments with hundreds of degrees without discomfort.
But at the same time, they are a heat-resistant but cold-intolerant race. Since their places of origin and later colonized planets were all high-temperature planets, they had never experienced the extreme cold after the sun died out. Therefore, more than half of the population in this highly dense star zone died within about ten days.
Normally, the population shouldn't have declined so rapidly. What was even deadlier was that the sulfur dwarves were a species entirely dependent on stellar energy. Their civilization was highly developed, and their technology for extracting energy from stars was very mature. Hence, all energy connected to the facilities on their planets was extracted from stars, with all device cores, circuits, and pipelines adapted for stellar energy extractors.
After the sun died out, all facilities on their planets requiring energy stopped, including the facilities that adjusted oxygen and rare gases.
The reason why sulfur dwarves are called so is that they need to breathe a special sulfur-smelling gas. This greatly enhances their physical fitness and generates "Melt Fire Energy" which increases their strength.
If they do not breathe this gas, they will not die, but they will fall into decline. Coupled with the profound coldness of the cosmos, their entire civilization collapsed within a few days.
Due to the destruction of their fleet, they no longer had large ships to mine resources from gas planets. The resources on their mother planet were still abundant, but the technology for mining resources from the mother planet has been lost in countless technological iterations. They had all those advanced high-power devices, but not even a generator that could provide basic electrical energy.
The drawbacks of rapid civilization development and over-reliance on special materials were evident at this moment. After losing energy supply and armament, the civilization's flame died out within a few days.
Stark, who witnessed all of this, had no sympathy but became more alert. This kind of tragedy cannot repeat itself in human civilization. The pace and breadth of development are equally important.
But despite the alertness, the Luminous Alliance built an energy core capable of providing heat on a mineral-rich planet in the center of the star zone ruled by the Sulfur Dwarves.
While this core isn't powerful, it's exceedingly bright, simply put, a beacon in the universe.
The three planets of this star week are not far apart. After the star's death, the sky above the planet fell into endless night. At this moment, a bright star appeared in the night sky, which was of course seen by the sulfur dwarfs.
At this moment, the human race's just-in-time relief ship arrived.
Human civilization, being both kind and just in the universe, expressed deep sympathy and regret for the ordeal of the sulfur dwarfs. At the same time, human civilization happened to build an energy core on a neighbouring planet that could provide the heat and gas needed for the survival of the sulfur dwarfs, and it was now open to migration.
Generally, humans only accept noble investor immigrants, but the situation is special now. Abiding by the principle of rescuing and resettling disaster-stricken population as much as possible, human migration ships also accept labor immigrants. Simply put, as long as you can mine, you can get on the ship.
By this time, the sulfur dwarves had been through the population panic period. All they thought about was to survive at all costs. Although many people strongly resisted and wanted to stay to rebuild their home planet, more people chose the quickest method to survive, which was to get on the human's pirate… or immigration ship.
The energy core built by Luminous Alliance is very deliberate. Its heat radiation range is circular. That is to say, you need to live within this circle to avoid freezing to death.
But human civilization is so backward that their abundant molten steel minerals can only transform into a negligible amount of heat. If they don't mine vigorously, the heat radiation range will get smaller, and the dwarves living in the outer circle will freeze to death.
Of course, the closer to the core, the higher and more stable the heat. But in order not to let the circle shrink towards one's own position, the dwarves began to exploit layer by layer downwards.
Those in the inner circle exploit those in the outer circle, who in turn exploit those even further out, hoping to squeeze out all their strength so that the heat ring expands and they become safer and safer.
This plan, proposed by the few ethical stalwarts in the Luminous Alliance, allowed the human race to exploit the Sulfur Dwarves without even having to lift a whip themselves,
But the oppressed outer circle dwellers are not just sitting ducks. Their hard work only makes life better for those in the inner circle. Within just a few days, a riot turned the entire race into a bloodbath.
At this point, the human race wisely and generously opened up an ascension channel. As long as you performed well, you could replace an inner circle dweller. If your performance was poor, you would be relegated to the alternating heat and cold of the outer circle, where supplies were constantly cut off.
The Luminous Alliance didn't want the hassle of manual mining, it's just that molten steel is a very special metal. It can only be mined with the unique Melt Fire Energy of the Sulfur Dwarves. So for the time being, the Sulfur Dwarfs had to bear with being mineworkers and endure the hardship of reviving civilization.
After all the civilizations in the Andromeda Galaxy were disarmed, they practically lost the conditions to leave the planetary surface, so the initiative is entirely in the hands of the human race. After several meetings of the Luminous Alliance, most of the policies were decided and then implemented, and within a short period, the situation within the galaxy was stabilized.
The Symbiont Blue Spirit was also greatly impressed. He had seen countless forms of civilization in his long lifespan, yet the wisdom that the human race displayed in sociology and relational science still topped them all.
They could accurately pinpoint the crux of complex relationships, and secure maximum benefits for themselves amid the chaos. Although this also had something to do with the flexible moral lines of several members of the Luminous Alliance, it mostly was due to the human race spending countless years developing skills in combat.
After the situation in the Andromeda Galaxy was settled, Peter, Steve, and Charles, whose ethical boundaries had not been tested, stayed there, continuing to spread the gospel of the human race.
Stark returned because he couldn't be away from the construction projects in the Solar System. The mining was done and the next step was rapid construction, which needed Stark's supervision.
Strange returned because he had to oversee the busy workings of the Holy Sanctuary.
Shiller returned because he still had a mess to clean up: the domestic issues of Asgard.
In the office of Arkham Sanatorium, Loki sat across from Shiller. When she took off her hood, the layers of halos behind her were dazzling. Shiller blinked and pulled out a medical record. Loki stared at the record and asked, "I saw you've been working on this recently, what is it?"
"This is your case file."
"Mine? What's wrong with me? I'm fine, aren't I?" Loki asked, somewhat confused.
"The study of psychology in Asgard is practically non-existent, so none of you even realize you have mental illnesses. But as far as I can see, every single one of you is seriously ill."
Loki pursed her lips; she wanted to refute him but didn't know how to start. Shiller began to list off: "Thor has displayed tendencies of mania. Hela is the same. You have an emotional disorder, probably also anxiety disorder..."
"I... I... "
"First, let's talk about how these mental illnesses of yours came about."
"But I don't... "
"Every psychiatric patient doesn't believe they're ill."
Shiller twirled his pen in his hand, made a calming gesture, and said, "Okay, let's assume you're ill, just for the sake of argument."
"Firstly, I believe, the cause of your mental illnesses probably lies in long-term discrimination and bullying. The collective environment in Asgard is very hostile towards you which has increased your mental pressure and led to malformation in your mental development..."
As soon as Shiller finished speaking, another halo shone brightly behind Loki. Loki looked bewilderedly at her back and asked, "I've been meaning to ask, what's the deal with these halos?"
Seeing this, Shiller laughed, seemingly having found his hypothesis confirmed. He said, "You mentioned earlier that the first halo appeared when you became a woman, the second halo appeared when Hela continued pursuing you despite knowing you had become a woman, the third halo appeared when Hela and Baldur started arguing over you..."
Loki's expression was still one of confusion. She hadn't seen any regularity in it, but Shiller said, "Just now, I diagnosed your mental illnesses as part of an experiment, and it seems the results are as I expected..."
"So, what are these halos?"
"You could call them 'Politically Correct Halos'."