Age of Cosmic Exploration

Chapter 350: Song of Destruction!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Blue 6 was indeed passionate about his own responsibilities. In fact, he was the kind of person who was very sensitive about his range of power. After joining the human society, he was extremely worried that others would overstep into his boundary.

Thankfully, it appeared like humanity was a race that knew about the sanctity of feudalism and no one was attempting to replace him as the minister of foreign affairs. At least in the realm of diplomacy, he was the highest ranking officer, and he was greatly satisfied by that.

"The Chancellor is right. In this situation, we human's space warp technology has been isolated. In fact, even if it wasn't, I would also wish to persuade the Chancellor to not use it, but that is the prime minister's and other ministers' responsibility and not my place to speak."

After Blue 6 gained his place of power, he heard from the Black Star Troopers that Yao Yuan was not the Emperor but the Chancellor. Of course, everyone agreed that Yao Yuan was humanity's only leader and that he was lawfully elected by congress, so it was only a change of title. There was nothing shocking about it.

Yao Yuan had already told Blue 6 his latest mission. Due to the urgency of the situation, he did not hide anything from Blue 6 and told him everything. However, he was still curious about what Blue 6 said, so he said, "Why shouldn't we use space warp? That is the safest and fastest transportation method."

Blue 6 answered since Yao Yuan had asked, "Because the Blue Race has an axiom that is sacred even in feudal society: there will be people who are desperate enough to do stupid stuff, so it is best to hide your wealth… Similarly, even though we humans have great potential, we currently are still too weak. These vassal races will be valuable to us in the future, but we cannot bring them to warp with us, right? Therefore, for our future, I personally suggest we rely on warp drive."

"Don't show your gold and silver. We humans have that axiom too…" Yao Yuan nodded then told Blue 6, "Then I will leave everything to you. From this second onwards, we still have five minutes before the rescue mission will be completed. After that, we will enter warp drive immediately."

A flustered Blue 6 said hurriedly, "Your Highness, humanity's technology level is already not low, so you should know about the properties of warp drive, right? It is a process that needs acceleration time; it is not similar to space warp that can be initiated immediately."

"I know, so it has to happen as soon as possible!" Yao Yuan replied. "We are running out of time. Whenever you finish your mission, we will leave this damn cursed planet."

"…Fine. If Your Highness has said so, then I will finish my mission as soon as possible." Blue 6 shrugged. He averted his gaze from Yao Yuan and told his adjutant, "Record down my mission and inform the space jets that are under the foreign affair department's jurisdiction. Have them start their inspection preparations."

Back down in the underground of the cursed planet, there were only several transport shuttles left. There were only 200 plus people left, including Guang Zhen and the Black Star Troopers following him. Liu Bai and his team, who were on the surface, had already left. In other words, this was the last group of people for the rescue mission.

Guang Zhen right then was standing beside Yun Si. In these few minutes, he was impressed by Yun Si's managerial and negotiation skills and found out that he was a Diviner, an S-grade cosmic adapter, from many different sources. He would definitely be a part of the Black Star Troopers in the future. He asked Yun Si, "You could have boarded the shuttle a long time ago, so why did you stay? Only Black Star Troopers are required to stay until the last second."

Yun Si did not even acknowledge Guang Zhen. He was helping a young, beautiful girl. The girl seemed to have sprained her ankle and her dress was splattered with many yellow dirt spots. She seemed to still be in shock as Yun Si helped her into the shuttle like the gentleman that he was. The girl gave him her name out of appreciation. She was Xie Yue Xuan, the daughter of one of the scientists who unfortunately had passed away.

After Yun Si helped the girl board the shuttle, he finally turned to face Guang Zhen. "I also need to stay until the last second… Like I said, abandoning them once is enough. They… they can no longer suffer the fate of being abandoned like trash, so no matter what, I will stay until the last second."

Guang Zhen did not comment but looked at the people who still remained. Until the last group of civilians entered the shuttle, he told the Black Star Troopers, "Retreat immediately, and… have you tied the alien central computer securely?"

Xiao Niao, who was standing beside Guang Zhen, sighed helplessly. "Yes, we have secured it. You have asked that question at least 10 times already. Relax, we have done everything we can. If we still cannot get this central computer back onto the Hope, then it can only mean we are not supposed to have it."

Finally, after the last transport shuttle floated aboveground, the four vassal spaceships aligned themselves around the Hope. A communication channel had been opened between the five spaceships. Of course, to ensure the safety of the Hope, when the channel was made, the four AI from the four vassal spaceships' central computers were given limits of authority. They were all controlled by the Hope's central mainframe. Yao Yuan sighed in relief. After all, the Hope was the main civilization, while the other races were vassals, so their lives were in humanity's control.

For now, we would not get into the shock of the 3,000 Noah One survivors when they entered the Hope. This was the most crucial moment for the Hope. As the four vassal spaceships aligned themselves around the Hope, command was returned to Yao Yuan. The spaceships would use the slowest spaceship as standard and fly out of the solar system using the fastest speed and at the same time. Yao Yuan had ordered the four vassal spaceships to accelerate to enter warp drive.

"No, this is too unscientific."

Blue 6 was also in central command. He was talking to his own adjutant… another Blue Race member, but when he heard Yao Yuan's order, he immediately interrupted, "Your Highness, this is too unscientific. Forgive my insolence, but before Your Highness makes this decision, I hope Your Highness will seek opinions from the minister of science… I understand, we do not have the time for that, then I shall encroach beyond my range of responsibility. Forgive my insolence, but warp drive cannot be done inside a solar system. This is a very complicated long distance navigation and travelling method, and the destination might vary by several thousand light years due to a slight variation in angle. Of course, since we have the AI system and a central mainframe that has superelectromagnetic hardware, but it will only work when we are outside of a solar system. When we are within a solar system, the ship is constantly affected by many different forces, including the various gravitational pulls and pushes, the light pressure from the sun, and other elements.

"All of these forces are weak, but they are enough to bring great influence to the warp drive process. Furthermore, these forces within the solar system are constantly changing, so we cannot correctly predict and calculate them. Therefore, warp drive is normally not allowed within the solar system, because it could cause a whole spaceship fleet to be lost in the wide cosmos!"

"So what will happen?!" Yao Yuan asked calmly.

Blue 6 was startled. He thought Yao Yuan did not understand what he was saying, so he repeated, "Lost in space! Your Highness, this will cause us to not be able to return to our race's mothership, not even our race's shelter. We will float about in space and deteriorate due to a lack of cosmic adapters; we might even be consumed or destroyed by other space civilizations. This is a great space tragedy!"

"Are we lacking in cosmic adapters? Do we have a shelter to return to?" Yao Yuan continued calmly, "This is our mothership and the entirety of humanity… You are a Diviner, or a Time Watcher in your language, so you should be feeling the great pressure… A danger that is not unlike a supernova. The danger's presence is everywhere, and it increases in sharpness every other second. What we need to do now is escape this solar system as soon as possible!

"The destination is not important. Perhaps we can use space warp after we leave this solar system, that is the number one priority. Number two, there is nothing for us to be worried about. To be frank, we are worried about running into your mother race… I think we humans now are what they call a great wealth of treasure, right? However, we still do not have the power to defend this great treasure, at least when we are facing a level 3 space civilization. Therefore, until we become a level 3 space civilization or we have enough power, we have to avoid any possible danger. Since we cannot confirm the destination of warp drive within a solar system, isn't that perfect? Nobody will know where we are going, so this means that there will not be a large amount of level 2 space civilizations or level 3 space civilizations waiting to trap us at the other end of the warp drive. Therefore, save your breath and we will enter the preparation stages for warp drive now!"

Blue 6 was startled, but he did not retort. He was unfamiliar with human culture, but he was not dumb. After all, a dummy could not have been Blue 6's sixth successor to the throne, even if he was an S-grade cosmic adapter. Therefore, he cleverly shut his mouth and allowed Yao Yuan to continue his orders.

The other 4 spaceships had confirmed the takeover of their spaceships' central computers, so when Yao Yuan gave his order, they couldn't refuse it even if they wanted to. Following the large output of energy from the 4 spaceships, the 4 spaceships extended out many thin and long devices. Large amounts of plasma energy concentrated on these devices and a lot of liquefied electricity pooled on them. Gradually, at the end of the 5 spaceships appeared a layer of transparent, frosted glass-like mirage space.

"This is incomplete warp drive technology."

Blue 6 suddenly opened his mouth to say, "Only a level 3 space civilization at its peak can use perfect warp drive technology. For example, the Blue Race's mothership can enter such perfect warp drive using energy charge to enter light speed, and it will only require several minutes. The real warp drive decreases the space frequency of the space opposite from the ship's destination to create the space distortion effect. However, due to the spread of technology and perhaps intervention from middle-tier space civilizations, now even level 2 space civilizations can use incomplete warp drive technology. Although, they are technically not using the real warp drive technology, and it can only be called a warp crawl technology…"

Just as Blue 6 finished, the countdown for them to enter warp drive appeared on the giant monitor in central command. Since the four spaceships' technology was higher than that of the alien merchants the Hope had met, the combination of the 5 spaceships' mass was still smaller than the alien merchants' mothership, so the expected warp drive time was fast. The countdown only showed around six hours.

"6 hours? Can we make it?"

When they saw the countdown, everyone's gazes turned towards the planet that had become flesh. Around 10 claws had appeared from it and the surface of the planet had been cracked. However, it was covered by a thick fog, so they could not have a clear view of the monsters within. They needed 6 more hours, and they wondered whether they could last that long.

In this solar system, the spaceships that were transformed earlier had now become various demon lifeforms. Some were pure energy, others metallic or rocks, and some could not even be described. The few planets that surrounded the cursed planet also appeared to have various levels of changes. The situation was so bad it was unimaginable, even… it was hard to say whether it was a misreading or not, but the spaceship's radar showed that the surface of the sun had some weird wave effects. So even the sun was demonized? Was that even possible?

Time slowly passed by in this slow torture. The countdown had moved to the last hour. The space drag speed of the five spaceships had reached 90 percent of light speed, but it was still light speed, so even when viewed from the hope, the whole solar system was in slow motion, especially those demon creatures. But they could see the things that happened around them, as it was not like the real warp drive, where the surroundings were completely unnoticeable.

Suddenly, in a space near the cursed planet, a weird creation appeared. It was of an unknown material that looked like crystal, but energy was observable on its surface. It looked like a creation made from pure plasma energy.

The creation was only several meters in size. In fact, the Hope's surveillance technology was unable to pick up such a small thing from such a long distance. This was the information provided by the four other spaceships, and the image was enlarged and put on central command's big screen.

"What is this? A ruin inside the cursed planet?" Yao Yuan stood up to study it.

Under everyone's watchful gazes, the creation started to multiply at an alarming speed. It formed various parts, it had a complicated yet curious rhythm, and it looked like a painting, a symbol, or a picture. The various parts started to form on their own and continued to increase the creation's size.

"…No, no mass!"

According to the data collected by the four other spaceships, the creation had appeared from thin air and it occupied empty space. There might've been space radiation or ions, but this creation's mass and density showed that radiation or ions were not enough to create something of this size. According to the same data, the space occupied by this creation did not have any nano devices. In other words, a scary truth had appeared before everyone, whether they realized it or not…

The law of conservation of matter had been broken!

"No, not conservation of matter! There is a large energy reaction in that space! I know, it is virtual particle!"

Of the many scientists who witnessed this scene, one of them yelled out, "Virtual creation! This is virtual creation! They use virtual particles to create objects from a distance away!"

Since all of the communication channels were connected, Yao Yuan asked immediately, "What does that mean? Virtual creation? How great is this technology level?"

"Impossibly high!" the scientist said directly. "The supposed space is not actual space. Other than the space ions and radiation known to us, there is a limitless layer of always-fading virtual particles. They appear by receiving temporary energy using a mechanism that we human beings do not understand. After they appear, they immediately return the energy and disappear. This whole process happens so fast that we cannot measure it in time. However, when it appears, its property is no different from normal particles. Therefore, if there is a constant and large energy that acts as a source of energy to replace the virtual particle's borrowed energy during this process, then it will be able to capture the virtual particle in the moment it appears and materialize it from its virtual state. This is what we call virtual creation, creating substance from space. However, one, the energy required is too big; two, the amount of time that virtual particle exists is too short; three, what is the method that can be used to replace the temporary energy… This technology is impossibly advanced!"

Yao Yuan turned to look at Blue 6. Blue 6 nodded and said, "I may not be from a scientific background, but I can honestly tell Your Highness… Even I have not heard of this technology, and level 3 space civilizations definitely do not have this technology. Even though level 4 space civilizations are distant, we still have had communications with level 4 to level 6 space civilizations, and their technologies are focused on space manipulation, not this kind of virtual particle creation. Therefore…"

A technology of a high tier space civilization!

This conclusion appeared in everyone's minds and their hearts shook. High tier space civilizations, level 7 to 9 space civilizations!

Humanity was like an ant before them. Borrowing an analogy, this was a comparison between humanity in the 21st century and the unicellular organisms that roamed Earth. There was no need for comparison…

A high tier space civilization's creation? They wanted to demolish this demonic solar system? Or this was the source of danger?

Yao Yuan's face was blanched. He looked at the countdown, and it still had 20 plus minutes to go. On the screen, the creation was already the size of a small mountain and it still continued to grow…

Time ticked by second by second. Everyone stared at the creation on screen unblinkingly. At this moment, it was like satellite circling the surface of the cursed planet. And it had fully blossomed into something that looked like a giant crystal flower with a curious lattice…

Without any warning or explosion, the surrounding area of the creation suddenly darkened and then everyone could hear singing…

It was a curious singing voice. It had an echo and an indescribable curiosity, and it just appeared in everyone's ears. This was not a mental attack because the computer could detect and record the presence of this song…

At the same time, the central computers of the five spaceships showed that the spaceships were heading towards the cursed planet, and they were nearing light speed!

"Impossible! We are trying to leave this solar system, so how can we be moving backwards at light speed? This is impossible!"

Everyone had this confusion, but no one could understand what was happening. From the screen, the cursed planet and everything around it could not be detected… yes, not darkness, but it could not be detected!

All the scientists on the Hope were gathered in the lab. One of them was hit by inspiration. With the song in his head, he keyed in some data into a computer, and after some time, he yelled out, "I know… Space decay! Vacuum space is not the real lowest energy state. This device caused the real space decay. The song caused the uncertainty of ionic state to create space expansion and contraction. If there is air, then it will cause natural vibrations, and thus it will create a song. So that is what happens…"

Yao Yuan was like an ant on the top of a boiling pot. He did not care for politeness and yelled, "What is the meaning of that? Explain clearly, is this fatal? How can we escape from this thing's attraction? That device has created a black hole?"

"Black hole?" The scientist seemed to have lost his mind. He started dancing and said, "A black hole is like a creep with 5 attack when facing this thing. We all know that the vacuum is always in a process of high energy ions moving to low energy ions. To put it simply, that is natural space decay. Since energy is always moving from high to low, then so is the cosmos. Do we know the last state of the cosmos? No, many scientists have predicted that the cosmos we are in is only a resting state of the space decay process. A resting state that will last for several billion years. When our cosmos, or the vacuum moves from its current energy state to an even lower energy state, then our cosmos will have a gigantic change, and it is happening before us now… Pulling everything toward it at light speed, the cosmos is returning to its mass point!

"Do you hear this song? This is the song of destruction! The song that cheers for the destruction of the cosmos!"

After that, the scientist charging out of the lab laughing like crazy. Yao Yaun did not have the time to deal with the mad scientist. A fit of inspiration hit him, and when he raised his head, he saw Xiao Niao and Ren Tao looking at him with the same expression. Obviously they had thought about the key point.

Light speed!

Yes, currently the Hope was being pulled towards the emptiness at light speed. In other words, if they broke through light speed…

"Tell the vassal spaceships to activate their maximum power! Even if it's just one second earlier, we have to break through the light speed barrier!"

Yao Yuan was yelling at the top of his lungs. After he gave his order, he could no longer speak any words. It was not only because of tiredness from continuous combat, it was the sense of helplessness of an ant when facing an insurmountable threat…

High tier space civilization…

Forced us humans into space, destroyed our Earth, killed 99 percent of our people, ruined our dream new planet, now… they want us to wait helplessly like ants for our final judgement?

High tier space civilization…

High tier space civilization!

Blood trickled out from Yao Yuan's lips…

Time ticked by. They were only 20 plus light speed away from the slate of emptiness and the countdown was reaching its final 10 seconds…

Everyone watched the countdown like their hearts had stopped.

Everyone watched quietly, including the aliens and the humans. They could only wait and watch quietly… Either they survived or they perished…

Finally, at the last second, there was complete darkness around the Hope. Other than the 4 vassal spaceships, there was nothing else around them that was visible…

Warp drive…

The Hope had entered warp drive!

Translator's Thoughts

Lonelytree Lonelytree

This chapter is almost triple the length of normal chapter and is choked full of scientific mumbo-jumbo. I apologize for the confusion because even I barely understood what I wrote.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know so we can fix it as soon as possible.