Age of Cosmic Exploration

Chapter 409: Star Path and New Galaxy

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Guang Zhen was suffering from a great headache. For some reason, everyone on the Hope had fallen asleep after entering the giant tree ruin. A headache lingered after he woke up, and he had no idea how they entered or even escaped the giant tree ruin. Thankfully, Yao Yuan was not affected and, with the AI's help, had managed to pilot the Hope out of the giant tree ruin. That was how humanity had survived the ordeal…

Even though he felt like there was a crucial part missing… he couldn't figure out what it was when he thought about it…

In any case, the Hope was heading towards the star path. Guang Zhen was busy from the moment he woke up to make the necessary preparations. However, before his work could finish, Yao Yuan called him for a meeting.

Initially, Guang Zhen thought it was just a normal protocol meeting, but he quickly realized that something was out of place. This was because no Thinkers were involved in the meeting and even Bo Li was excluded. The only people in attendance were the Black Star Unit members and the unit leaders of the Black Star Troopers' first ten units… In reality, the total number of Black Star Trooper unit leaders who came was less than 10 because most of the leaders for the first 10 units of Black Star Troopers were originally from the Black Star Unit.

This situation was curious… Furthermore, the meeting was held at the meeting room near the Hope's central mainframe. In reality, only Yao Yuan and Guang Zhen knew about the existence of this meeting room, and since this meeting was held there, it must be about something extremely important.

"Everyone, before I proceed with the meeting, I have to remind everyone that the contents of this meeting have a… SSS confidentiality level. Therefore, anyone who leaks the information of this meeting will be punished as humanity's traitor. Any individual who is not here but manages to obtain information related to this meeting will be punished in a similar manner as well, there is no exception…"

This was the first sentence that Yao Yuan spoke. It caused the room, which was chatting amiably among themselves, to go completely silent. Humanity's traitor was a serious crime. In fact, it was the most serious crime on the Hope after they left Earth. It was even more serious than crimes against human society or against the human government. As long as one was confirmed to be a humanity's traitor, one would be executed without the right for a plea! Anyone who committed this crime could no longer be considered a "human" anymore.

"What I'm going to say next will decide the future development of humanity's future, it will decide the trajectory of our development for the next several thousand or ten thousand years, and it might continue to be relevant until we become a god-tier space civilization or until we collapse… This meeting will be noted in the history records. Even though the contents will be eclipsed, the name of this momentous meeting is going to be… The Final Doctrine.

"The meeting contents are…"

When Yao Yuan explained everything, the room was stunned into silence. This was truly something beyond everyone's comprehension. They had survived for more than 100 years in an illusion? And their memories of that were all wiped?

The most important thing was, of course… the illusory space!

Liu Bai suddenly raised his arm to ask, "Chancellor, I have a question."

Yao Yuan nodded and replied, "Go ahead, I'm sure everyone has some enquiries. This meeting is not timed, we will be here until all your questions are answered."

"Yes, Sir…" Liu Bai weighed the words in his mind before asking, "My question is about the contribution load capacity… What kind of scale is it? Can you give us a clearer introduction?"

Yao Yuan thought about it and said, "It is not a concrete substance. If I really have to describe it, you can see it as some sort of credit or even H-coins. To put it simply, how much you contribute will be equal to how much you get in return; it is very similar to economics. However, the party we're trading with is the illusory space. In other words, if we are able to aid the illusory space, whether it's to help it suppress the high-ranking demon or help it grow stronger via the improvement of its size, technological storage, or information storage, then these will help us earn contribution load capacity. Other than that, contribution load capacity is not transferrable, but when we obtain contribution load capacity, we can set it as racial contribution load capacity so that members of the race can use it…"

Liu Bai added, "My second question is, is there a solid way for us humans to earn contribution load capacity?"

Yao Yuan shook his head with a bitter smile. "Currently, no… that option is not available to us at least until we become a middle tier space civilization… any more questions?"

Guang Zhen seemed to have just recovered from his shock. He asked immediately, "You've explained most of the thing about the illusory space, so there's not much to ask about that… But I wish to know, there were plenty of spaceships caught in the giant tree ruin, and there were some from middle tier space civilizations among them. How can you move the Hope out of there just like that? We've missed out on a large treasure trove!"

Yao Yuan continued to shake his head with another bitter smile. "The fact that we might not be able to undo their defense systems aside, there is a crucial problem standing in the way… Those spaceships have all disappeared."

"Disappeared?" Guang Zhen repeated with his mouth open. Not only him, the rest of the room was confused and shocked as well.

Yao Yuan shrugged helplessly. "Indeed, the spaceships of those space civilizations have all disappeared. Even though ZERO said the things that happened in the illusory space wouldn't influence their existence in the physical space, they have truly disappeared. I believe… they were all consumed by the illusory space. This means that either this illusory space is unique… or the information given by ZERO is false. After all, she has not used Immortal load capacity before, so her information on the illusory space might not be completely true."

Guang Zhen thought of it for a long time before exclaiming excitedly, "Isn't this better? We are unable to do anything against those middle tier space civilization in the physical space, but they are putty in your hand in the illusory space thanks to the Immortal load capacity. So you'll be able to access their technology easily, right?"

Yao Yuan sighed. "Unfortunately, when we departed from the illusory space, the contribution load capacity of the level 8 space civilization was exhausted almost to its end. In other words, the contribution load capacity left behind by the level 8 space civilization was depleted when I moved humanity from the illusory space to the physical space. Yes, there might be a small amount that remained, but it was not enough to utilize it to do anything else… I've been to the illusory space, and there is nothing there, all the other spaceships have completely disappeared…"

Even though the topic was rather heavy, the people present at the meeting were not like Jay, they were real soldiers, powerful soldiers even before they left Earth, so they understood the gravity of the situation and the necessary actions. After a moment of silence, Yao Yuan continued, "Therefore, we can forget about the technology of those space civilizations. To wipe out the 100-year-long memories of humanity that were spent in the dark dimension, I've used all of the Immortal load capacity we currently have, and this means that we are unable to use most of the functions of the illusory space for the next 10 years. Regardless, it is undeniable that the illusory space is our biggest and final trump card. I don't think I need to repeat these words, but all the secrets regarding the illusory space and how to use the illusory space to its maximum capacity will be something we need to discuss in the future and must be kept in this room. Now, I shall propose three additional individuals that shall be given access to the information of the illusory space…

"They are Bo Li, Ren Tao, and Xiao Niao. Voting starts now…"

Time passed by really fast. It had been a week since Bo Li, Ren Tao, and Xiao Niao had been briefed about the existence of the illusory space. Yao Yuan had moved the image of the illusory space in physical space into the most secret place on the Hope… the room that housed the UFO. This room, combined with the internal defense regions of the Hope's central mainframe, were all listed as the Final Doctrine alongside the secret meeting. Other than the 10 plus people who knew about the illusory space, according to the rules, only the human president and vice president were allowed to know about it in the future.

At the same time, after leaving the giant tree ruin, the Hope had reached the edge of this galaxy. According to the surveillance device, they were nowhere close to any solar system, so they were officially at the fringe edge of the galaxy.

"So… This is the star path?"

The Hope continued its mission in the weeks' time, which was to locate the connection between various galaxies… the star path. Originally, people on the Hope thought that locating one would be incredibly difficult and it might take years to complete. Yao Yuan was even prepared to use the warp drive to fly out of this galaxy and perhaps survive for 10 years in between galaxies and then use the controlled warp function of the illusory space to hop to a solar system.

However, to their surprise, the star path was ridiculously obvious. In fact, two days earlier, the Hope's long distance surveillance had picked up the trace of star path. It was a… no, this was an area humanity's current technology could barely understand.

Before the Hope, there was a glistening area that was indeterminately wide, and it was so long that they couldn't see the end on the other side. However, the Hope needed to get close to it before one could notice the giant light area. For example, several hours ago, the people on the Hope still hadn't been able to notice the star path, but now, almost everyone on the Hope could see the river of light with their naked eye. There was an impression that the star path looked like a laser weapon. After all, the "path" was extremely bright.

Of course, the Hope wouldn't just wander in without any preparation. With all of its surveillance devices activated, the Hope stalled for about 2 months beside the star path entrance. Even though humanity's technological level was still quite low, they could still theorize. Blue 6 was surprised by this. Based on theoretical understanding alone, humanity's scientific prowess could be considered to be even higher than the Blue Race's. And according to the Academy, the reason why the star path was so glisteningly bright was because…

"The speed of light in the star path is heightened. The more accurate way of describing it is that the speed of everything in the star path is increased, and these include ions, electrons, and particles. Under this condition, the distance remains unchanged but the speed increases. It is probably why the star path manages to connect different solar galaxies."

On the discussion-cum-conference regarding the star path, Silewei reported in summary, "Members of the Academy and the government officials present, I will try my best to use the lay language to explain the situation… Due to some unknown reason, the movement speed of electrons in this region is about 60,000,000 times higher than their normal speed. Unfortunately, we are unable to get the actual number, the 60,000,000 is merely an educated guess, but it is fair to say that the speed of light inside this region is incredibly sped up compared to the outside.

"Under the condition that the distance between the galaxies remains unchanged, the moment we enter this path way, the Hope will fly ahead with a speed 60,000,000 times its current speed. Therefore, even if the distance between galaxies is calculated in several million light years, at most we will need several decades to traverse the distance. Furthermore, the time can be cut down even more if we utilize warp drive while we're in the star path. Therefore, this is scientifically plausible."

Instantly, someone in the crowd raised his hand to ask, "But Professor, what about the strong light in the star path? Can the Hope's defense system withstand the energy assault?"

Silewei replied instantly, "Mr. Reporter, unfortunately, those aren't energy waves. The bright light is actually caused by the appearance and disappearance of virtual particles in space. The increased speed inside the star path caused the virtual particles to appear and disappear at an improbable speed. The moment we enter the star path, the bright light will disappear. This can be observed from the surveillance devices that we sent, so you do not need to worry, this star path is completely safe."

The conference went on for a long time. Other than Silewei, other scientists posted their findings as well. Of course, the questions were varied. They came from reporters, other scientists, government officials, representatives from House of Representative, and even common civilians. After all, this was related to the Hope's survival, they couldn't afford not to be careful.

At the same time, in a meeting room on the Hope, Yao Yuan was signing the proposal to enter the star path. Guang Zhen was sitting beside him.

Guang Zhen sighed with emotion. "The cosmos definitely is big enough to be filled with various curiosities. I remember reading in a sci-fi novel that some space civilizations slow down the speed of light in space to aid their travelling through space, and here we see a god-tier space civilization use some sort of travelling technique to cause the parts of the physical space to speed up by 60,000,000 times. This is incredible…"

"Yes, it is incredible."

After Yao Yuan signed the proposal, he gave it to Barbie. Then he turned to Guang Zhen and smiled. "This is just the beginning. As you've said, the cosmos is endlessly big, and we humans have just witnessed perhaps 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000001 percent of it. Perhaps when we become a god-tier space civilization ourselves, we will have seen one over a billion percent of the cosmos."

"Indeed." Guang Zhen felt the same way.

Yao Yuan stood up and said, "Come, let's go have a drink or two… tomorrow, we'll enter the star path and head for a new galaxy, a new world!"