[Congratulations, Host, on another sign-in.]

[It's been detected that you're not on Earth. Sign-in rewards parameters will be adjusted.]

[Parameters have been adjusted. Sign-in rewards in the Dark Energy Universe will now be localized to your native galaxy, Milky Way Galaxy.]

[You received coordinates and map of a stable, naturally formed network of wormholes.]

[You received coordinates of an extremely mineral-rich asteroid belt.]

***

Liam sat motionless in the captain's chair, his eyes unfocused as the information flooded into his mind. The transfer wasn't painful, but it was overwhelming—like trying to drink from a fire hose. Coordinates, spatial maps, gravitational signatures, activation protocols—all of it poured directly into his consciousness.

The flight deck around him faded from awareness. Daniel's presence somewhere behind him became background noise. Even Lucy, standing quietly beside him, seemed distant and unimportant compared to what he was processing.

The wormhole network came first.

His mind's eye traced the pathways like veins of light threading through the darkness of space. The network spanned the entire Milky Way Galaxy, connecting regions separated by tens of thousands of light-years. Stable wormholes, naturally formed through some cosmic accident of physics that defied easy explanation. They'd existed for eons, dormant and undetected, waiting.

Liam pulled up the details, examining the structure with growing appreciation. The network wasn't random. It followed patterns, connecting strategic points throughout the galaxy in ways that seemed almost intentional. Major star clusters, dense nebulae, regions of high stellar activity—the wormholes linked them all.

Each connection point had coordinates burned into his memory now, as familiar as the layout of his own home. He could navigate to any of them without consulting a map. The knowledge simply existed in his head, permanent and accessible.

But the wormholes were dormant. Inactive. They existed as potential pathways rather than functional transit routes. To use them, he'd need to activate the network. And therein lay the problem.

Activation would make the wormholes detectable.

Liam leaned back in the chair, his fingers drumming against the armrest. Any civilization with sufficient technological advancement would immediately notice the network springing to life. They'd send probes, conduct surveys, map the connections. Within months—maybe weeks—every major power in the galaxy would know about the wormholes.

And then they'd want to control them.

The thought sent a chill through him. Humans fought wars over oil, over trade routes, over strategic waterways. What would advanced civilizations do when presented with a network that could revolutionize galactic travel?

The species that controlled the wormholes would dominate the galaxy. They could move fleets across vast distances in moments, strike anywhere, retreat before retaliation arrived.

It would be the ultimate strategic advantage. Which meant it would trigger the ultimate war. A galactic war.

Liam closed his eyes, running scenarios through his mind. Lucy had achieved something impressive with the Lunar Base Sanctuary and the industrial base in the Dimensional Space. But impressive by human standards meant nothing when measured against civilizations that had been advancing for millennia.

The system had mentioned that the Milky Way existed in a relatively young quadrant of the Dark Energy Universe. Young, in cosmic terms. At least fifty billion years young.

The number made his head hurt. Fifty billion years. Earth's entire history, from formation to present day, was barely four and a half billion years. Humanity's recorded civilization spanned maybe ten thousand years. And that was considered young?

If civilizations had evolved in this galaxy over those timescales, if they'd survived and grown for even a fraction of that time, what level of power would they possess?

Humanity had gone from horse-drawn carriages to spacecraft in less than two centuries. What could a species achieve with ten thousand years of uninterrupted advancement? A hundred thousand? A million?

The thought was sobering.

Liam had no illusions about his current military strength. Lucy's spacecraft were formidable, her weapons devastating by human metrics. But against a truly advanced civilization? One that had mastered interstellar travel millennia ago? He might as well be throwing rocks.

Still, the wormhole network was his. The system had given it to him. And Liam was nothing if not possessive. What belonged to him stayed his, regardless of who else wanted it. If some alien empire decided to lay claim to his wormholes, he'd make them regret the decision.

But that was a problem for the future. Right now, the network remained dormant and undetectable. He had time to prepare, to build up his forces, to ensure he could defend what was his when the time came to activate it.

He filed the wormhole information away and turned his attention to the second reward.

The asteroid belt's coordinates settled into his mind alongside the wormhole data. This information was different—more immediate, more tangible.

The system had labeled it as extremely mineral-rich, but that description felt inadequate once Liam examined the details.

The "asteroid belt" was really a planetary system. Three dwarf-planet-sized asteroidsformed the core, their combined gravity creating a stable center. Around them orbited larger asteroids, some approaching Earth's size. Those massive rocks had their own satellites, smaller moons caught in their gravitational pull.

The entire system was a cosmic treasure trove.

Liam scrolled through the mineral surveys embedded in the information. Rare earth elements existed in concentrations that would make mining companies weep with joy. Precious metals—gold, platinum, iridium—were so abundant they might as well be common dirt. But those were the least interesting resources.

The asteroids contained materials that didn't exist on Earth. Elements formed under exotic conditions, their atomic structures unlike anything in the periodic table humanity had developed. The system helpfully provided names and properties, but Liam would need Lucy to make sense of most of it.

Beyond minerals, the system included comets. Ice and organic compounds, resources for life support and fuel production. Everything needed to sustain a civilization existed in that one region of space.

Liam did rough calculations in his head, trying to estimate the total value. He gave up after reaching numbers with way too many zeros.

The monetary worth was almost meaningless. You couldn't spend money if there was nobody to buy from. But as raw resources? The asteroid belt could supply his operations for centuries. Millennia, even.

Lucy had been sourcing materials from the Dimensional Space, mining the Jupiter-sized interior to feed her construction projects. It had worked well enough so far. But Liam couldn't continue stripping that space indefinitely.

He had placed the Gaia's Heartstone inside and begun the terraforming process. Eventually, he wanted that space to be habitable, not a hollowed-out mine.

The asteroid belt solved that problem beautifully.

Better still, one of the wormhole network's connection points sat relatively close to the asteroid belt's location. He wouldn't need to travel conventional distances to reach it. Once he activated the network, he could establish a direct route, cutting travel time from years to possibly minutes.

Everything was connecting. The system wasn't just handing him random rewards. It was building infrastructure, laying groundwork for expansion. The wormholes provided mobility. The asteroid belt provided resources. Together, they formed the foundation for something much larger.

Liam opened his eyes, awareness of the flight deck returning. The Moon still hung below them, gray and cratered. Stars filled the darkness beyond. Nothing had changed externally, but internally, his understanding had shifted.

The system was pushing him to go interstellar. Not suggesting—pushing. The rewards made that clear. It had given him the tools he needed to expand beyond Earth, beyond the solar system, into the galaxy proper.

And Liam was ready.

A little over two months ago, he'd been struggling, arguing against a customer who accused him of serving her something poisonous, even though she cleaned the plate and was still fine afterwards. He was fired that same day because of the woman.

But all of that were in the past. Now he sat in the captain's chair of a Heavy Cruiser Flagship, with a lunar base under his control and plans for galactic expansion forming in his mind. The growth had been exponential, almost frightening in its speed.

But he wasn't finished. Not even close.

He'd achieved much, built an empire in miniature, created wonders that would reshape human civilization if they ever became public knowledge. But all of that was just the beginning. The foundation. The real work lay ahead—out there in the darkness between stars, in regions of space humanity had never dreamed of reaching.

Liam smiled to himself, a quiet expression of satisfaction mixed with anticipation. The system had decided it was time for him to leave Earth behind and venture into the greater galaxy.

And he agreed completely.

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