After the Blood Moon ascended, it hung suspended in Pandora's orbit.
Marcus, meanwhile, stayed in a specially constructed, habitable secret room within the Blood Moon, examining the changes to his system panel.
The increase in system authority was reflected in many aspects.
First and foremost, the most important change was to the World Shuttle interface.
Authority has been upgraded. You have obtained World Portal × 4.
Note: World Portals can be fixed in position. Once fixed, any inanimate objects, living beings, energy, or other matter granted permission by the host can pass through the portal to another world's portal. Marcus's expression was somewhat excited.
This meant that he finally no longer had to rely on himself to travel between various worlds to transport goods and personnel!
And with the ability to transport across worlds, the Union's influence among the various worlds would greatly increase.
Impatient, Marcus immediately took out a World Portal.
At the same time, Marcus entered a very peculiar God's-eye view.
He could now freely observe the space environment within the star system where Pandora was located.
After a curious attempt, Marcus immediately placed the World Portal in the space next to Pandora.
Instantly, an enormous, colossal, super-large ring-shaped portal abruptly appeared at the location Marcus had chosen.
This sudden scene immediately put the ICA Warship and the Adeptus Mechanicus warships in Pandora's orbit on high alert.
Only after Marcus sent them a message did they power down their preheated weapon systems.
"It's truly magnificent."
The Blood Moon opened the secret room slightly and constructed a transparent film, allowing Marcus to clearly see the massive World Portal from his own perspective.
The World Portal was ring-shaped, covered in extremely complex silver-white mechanical structures.
In the center of the ring was a blue, rippling, water-like phantom.
By Marcus's estimation, the ring's diameter was at least close to a hundred kilometers, making it a truly gigantic construct.
Marcus now had two ways to travel between worlds.
First was the World Anchor, which he had always used.
It had no physical form, and its advantage was the ability to shuttle using the system panel at any time, but its disadvantage was obvious: to shuttle other things, Marcus had to acquire ownership of that item, which was very troublesome.
Second was the current World Portal.
It had a physical form, and its advantage was its enormous transport capacity; its vast size was enough for dozens of Ishimura-class ships, 1.6 kilometers long, to enter side-by-side at a certain distance.
Even a ship the size of the Macragge's Honor could easily enter.
It also had disadvantages: its fixed position made it vulnerable to attack from hostile forces, and ships in the current world had to first fly to the portal's location before they could travel to other worlds, making it less flexible.
The advantages and disadvantages of the World Anchor and the World Portal complemented each other perfectly, giving Marcus a rich array of world-traveling methods.
"Hmm, I need to install the portals in the other worlds."
A single portal did not possess world-traveling capabilities; multiple portals needed to be connected.
As Marcus spoke, a flash of white light appeared, and he was already on Avarax.
After briefly explaining the situation and importance of the World Portal to Alexia, Marcus installed the World Portal in the space between Avarax and Kadaku.
Immediately after, he rushed to the Resident Evil world and installed a portal between Earth and Mars.
The United Government was very curious about the appearance of the World Portal, and Marcus did not hide anything, directly informing them of the portal's function.
He also granted the United Government certain permissions, allowing their ships and signals to pass through the portal to designated worlds.
Not only living and inanimate objects could pass through the portal; even intangible things like electromagnetic signals and psychic energy could pass through.
This meant that the Union's could finally enable nearly real-time cross-world communication among its subordinate civilizations.
"Hmm, let's skip Dead Space for now. The Union's current strength is not enough to deal with those fully developed Blood Moons."
Marcus muttered, giving up on the idea of installing a World Portal in the Dead Space world.
After spending some time arranging the relevant matters for the World Portal and forcibly suppressing the Tech-Priests who were already eager to study the portal, Marcus then checked the other changes to his system panel.
The lottery interface remained the same as before, with no major changes.
However, a new prompt appeared:
Authority has been upgraded. Lottery items will now include a new 'World' category. Additionally, the probability of drawing high-grade rare items will be slightly increased.
This meant that Marcus could now not only travel to new worlds through the shuttle interface but also directly draw a slot for a new world through the lottery.
This would greatly increase the Union's expansion speed.
Aside from the lottery interface, other areas like the codex interface and warehouse interface showed no changes.
Some areas on the system panel were still grayed out and locked.
Perhaps Marcus's current authority was still insufficient to unlock them.
Nevertheless, Marcus was very satisfied with the changes to the system panel this time.
Marcus was no longer very concerned with enhancing his personal strength.
After all, situations where he personally had to fight rarely occurred, and having absorbed the G Virus and Abyss Virus, Marcus's vitality was now extremely robust, with a lifespan of at least several hundred to a thousand years.
Therefore, Marcus was now more concerned with the overall development of the Union. "Oh, right, I need to check the situation of the new world."
Since the Avatar World mission was complete, Marcus was already eager to see what the next world would be.
Titanfall game universe, Transformers movie universe, Alien movie universe, starcraft game universe, Pacific Rim movie universe, The Wandering Earth movie universe, Fallout game universe. You can independently choose one of these worlds to travel to. You will also receive World Portal × 1.
That's right, after the system authority was upgraded, Marcus could finally independently choose the new world he would travel to!
Moreover, the number of candidate new worlds had increased from the original five to seven.
The original Avatar movie universe was now replaced by the Pacific Rim movie universe.
The Wandering Earth movie universe, which had appeared before, reappeared.
And the Fallout game universe was newly added.
"Hiss, the danger level difference between these worlds is too great."
At the bottom, there was Fallout, a world that hadn't even developed space travel technology but had unknown alien technology.
At the top, there was starcraft, a world second only to the Warhammer Universe, also ravaged by war, and with the existence of the Xel'Naga, a creator god.
Looking at the seven worlds on the system panel, Marcus was not in a hurry to make a choice.
The Union was now a massive entity.
Although Marcus was still the undisputed leader of the Union , he planned to discuss the choice of the next world with the high-ranking Union officials.
How to choose the next world would be the most important issue Marcus would face next.
Marcus understood a simple truth: the combined opinions and discussions of multiple people were always much better than him figuring things out alone.
Although Marcus was very interested in the choice for the next world, he did not act in a hurry.
Instead, he began working on establishing an information transmission network between Avarax, Pandora, and the Earth of the Resident Evil World, using the World Portals.
This was crucial for the future operational efficiency of the Universal Union.
After several days of effort, a large number of complex communication facilities were built around the three worlds and their three giant portals.
"The information transmission experiment has been verified as successful. We can now proceed with inorganic matter, organic matter, more complex structures, and finally, live teleportation experiments."
Marcus, Isaac, Wesker, Alexia, Jacob, Kane, Dugall—
Through the newly established inter-world communication network, the core high-level members of the Universal Union were gathered together.
"Approve the experiments, execute them as soon as possible. Also, approve limited research on the World Portals," Marcus added.
"Remember not to let the Adeptus Mechanicus go too far."
Since he hadn't placed a portal in the Dead Space World, Marcus actually still had one unused World Portal.
This was the basis for his confidence in approving the research team's study of the portals.
Even if they broke it during research, he could just replace it.
Moreover, if they genuinely figured out the principle of the World Portal and could replicate it, that would be an incredibly profitable gain.
"What is the situation with the Na'vi on Pandora?"
After discussing the portal matters, Marcus inquired about the current person in charge of Pandora, Wesker.
"We are negotiating with the remaining Na'vi chiefs. We have already cordoned off one-third of Pandora's area, which includes basically all types of terrain, sufficient for the Na'vi's normal survival and development."
Wesker briefly mentioned some protest actions by the Na'vi during this period.
In his opinion, these were minor issues that would not affect the Universal Union and did not need to be brought up.
Marcus nodded.
"Then let the ICA forces begin building the Dome Cities."
Humans in the Avatar World did not have the ability to extensively terraform a planet.
Halifax the Sage's technology did offer such capabilities, but it would require at least several decades to completely transform an entire planet's environment.
Furthermore, large-scale environmental modification would inevitably impact the Na'vi's designated land, thereby affecting their living environment, and even the relationship between Eywa and the Universal Union.
Thus, the Universal Union and the ICA opted for the Dome City solution as a second-best option.
Dome Cities could be considered a bow-shaped version of Hive Cities; the entire city would be enveloped in an ecological dome, creating an environment suitable for human habitation inside.
The ICA's technology, combined with the technology the Universal Union acquired from Halifax the Sage, was sufficient to construct large Dome Cities capable of housing hundreds, or even tens of millions of people.
"Understood, I will notify the ICA fleet," Wesker nodded.
"How is Avarax?"
Finally, Marcus asked Alexia about the situation on Avarax.
"Everything is normal. One-third of the ork spore clearing work has been completed. In another month, at least ninety-eight percent of the ork spores will be cleared."
At this moment, Alexia wore gold-rimmed glasses, presenting the image of a strong businesswoman.
"At the same time, Kadaku's colonization and development work is also progressing. Three million Hive City residents have already been sent to Kadaku to begin building initial settlements."
"Very good, you all are doing quite well," Marcus revealed a slight smile.
This was one of the reasons he set out to form the Universal Union: to let the right people do the right things, ensuring everything proceeded in an orderly fashion according to plan.
Otherwise, if he had to manage everything alone like a monarch, he would go mad sooner or later.
After confirming the development status of each world, Marcus changed the subject to the selection of a new world.
"I need all of you to read this information."
With that, Marcus sent partial data he had compiled from his memory for seven worlds: [Titanfall Game Universe, Transformers Movie Universe, Alien Movie Universe, starcraft Game Universe, Pacific Rim Movie Universe, The Wandering Earth Movie Universe, Fallout Game Universe], to everyone present at the meeting.
"the Universal Union's expansion cannot stop. Next, we need to choose one of these seven worlds for development."
Marcus dropped the bombshell news.
Those who received the data immediately began reviewing it.
Unlike others who held various management positions, Isaac only briefly glanced at the data in his hand and couldn't help but ask, "Is it really necessary to be this fast? It's only been a few days since the Pandora matter concluded. My suggestion is to let the Universal Union rest for a while."
Marcus was about to answer when Wesker, who had already finished reading the data at a rapid pace, spoke.
"The Universal Union's current situation is not actually very good," Wesker explained briefly to Isaac.
"On Avarax, the world code-named 'Warhammer' is a world where war rages across the galaxy. Even if Avarax is normal now, there's no guarantee it won't be invaded by a powerful force at some point. And 'Dead Space,' which is the world you came from, is now a forbidden zone due to the existence of many complete Blood Moons. So, the only worlds where the Universal Union can operate completely freely are currently 'Resident Evil' and 'Avatar.' This number is simply too small."
Marcus had assigned code names to each world based on his memories.
No sooner had Wesker finished speaking than Alexia, who had also finished reading all the data, added, "Moreover, as the various members of the Universal Union develop, they will acquire more and more contribution points, and our stock of technology is limited. Therefore, we need to develop more worlds, obtain more 'goods,' and then put them on the shelves."
After this one-two punch, Isaac understood the current situation and withdrew his earlier suggestion for a break.
He then began to carefully re-examine the data in his hands.
Once everyone had finished reading the data for the seven worlds, Marcus spoke.
"Alright, I now need your opinions and reasons. Let's start with you, Wesker."
"My suggestion is 'Alien' or 'Pacific Rim.'"
"Reasons?"
"What the Universal Union needs now are worlds where it can develop peacefully for a period of time. The other five worlds all contain forces or civilizations that the Universal Union cannot currently contend with. 'Fallout' was originally also under consideration, but according to the data, humanity in that world has already experienced nuclear war, their numbers have greatly decreased, and there isn't even a unified government. For the Universal Union, it would just be a burden."
Wesker's reasoning was very sound.
Marcus then asked for the opinions of others.
Alexia's opinion was consistent with Wesker's, also choosing "Alien" and "Pacific Rim," with similar reasons.
After careful consideration, the others also gave largely similar answers.
Only a few individuals chose "The Wandering Earth," with Chief Engineer Jacob among them.
His reason was his keen interest in planetary engine technology.
After synthesizing everyone's opinions, "Pacific Rim" narrowly surpassed "Alien" to become the next world the Universal Union would venture into.