Voyage of the Stars.

Chapter 1409 The World Is Silent
Therefore, during the subsequent voyages, each civilization increased its exploration efforts to ensure the safety of the journey. While this increased safety, it also increased energy consumption.

It could be said that when heading towards their first destination, each civilization had some confidence that they could reach it. However, after being forced to change their destination due to the cosmic catastrophe zone, they had no choice but to grit their teeth and continue on.

A journey of 1209 million light-years!
When the three major expeditionary organizations had traveled the first 200 million light-years, the civilizations that had already been experiencing resource problems could no longer hold on. They had no choice but to gamble that their respective major expeditionary organizations would not abandon them and would dismantle their battle fleets for energy.

The biosphere spaceships that were brought out earlier have long been used as fuel, and the creatures on them are no longer being raised. Those things are also huge energy consumers. Now that even their own main life forms are about to enter a long period of hibernation, where would they find the energy to take care of these things?

When they were 8 million light-years away from their destination, the seven distinctive technological civilizations of the Galactic Grand Expedition Organization began dismantling their transport ships. Humanity further reduced its already reduced number of consciousness-linked warships by half, and dismantled all the remaining warships for resource use.

At the same time, relevant emergency policies were introduced, namely the long-term dormancy policy.

Each person is required to remain in a dormant state for a maximum of one million years before waking up for mental activity training.

If this is the case for humans, other civilizations are unlikely to fare much better.

The Awakener civilization further reduced energy consumption by putting their individual lives into a dream-like hibernation mode. They did not need to wake up like humans, but instead hibernated for over a million years, allowing them to exercise their minds during this period.

During their journey to their new target galaxy, the three major expeditionary organizations fell into a deathly silence. The entire fleet seemed like a corpse that had been dead for many years, drifting in the deep, bottomless darkness of space, appearing small and helpless.

All around was a dark and cold universe, with no stars, no planets, no dark matter, only darkness.

Even the appearance of a single free hydrogen atom in deep space is a pipe dream.

Because there was no external negative entropy intake, the 515 civilizations of the three major expeditionary organizations tightened their belts for survival, while the universe continued to operate quietly as if it were indifferent to everything.

At this time, for all life forms in the three major voyage organizations that were thirsting for survival and resources, the universe was cold, but they also knew that this was the normal universe.

In pursuit of truth and the exploration of the unknown, all civilizations voluntarily embark on voyages. If the end result is to be submerged in the vast darkness and sleep forever, then there is nothing to say.

When they were 500 million light-years away from their destination, the fleets of the three major voyage organizations had shrunk considerably. What were once overwhelming fleet groups had now become lonely, drifting boats.

In order to save energy, some civilizations have even shut down their supercomputers and powerful artificial intelligence, which are huge energy consumers, leaving only the most basic life support facilities on their ships running.

All scientific research work has long since ceased; no civilization would dare to conduct scientific research under such conditions of extremely long-distance voyages.

At a distance of 400 million light-years from their destination, the entire fleet of the three major expeditionary organizations appeared lifeless. All the ships no longer emitted any light; they were black, the background was black, and they had completely blended into the darkness.

Darkness became the only hue in this void.

The entire void was silent; not even electromagnetic waves were emitted between the ships. Each ship seemed like a dying fish, lying quietly in this stagnant darkness, like a coffin in eternal slumber.

If one were to describe the fleet at this moment with an aura, it would be the aura of death. And the lights that flashed from the factories were like a dying fish twitching its gills, struggling to breathe, trying to revive its almost chilled body and prevent its flesh from decaying too quickly.

When they were 250 million light-years away from their destination, the Divine Mole civilization had dismantled all its warships except for the Neutron Star, and they only had a few thousand transport ships left. They were even at the point where they could hardly send out any more probe fleets.

Most civilizations in the Abyss and Blue Ocean Grand Expedition have already launched the Fire Seed Project. In order to ensure the continued existence of their civilizations, these civilizations have even demanded that their people die, leaving only their memories stored in the only supercomputer that is still running. Then, the Fire Seed Project will be executed, and once they reach their destination, they will be resurrected using memory resurrection technology.

Their transport ships were already empty, and their warships had been dismantled. So, after implementing the Fireseed Project, it would be time to dismantle the vacated habitation ships.

Infrequently used engineering spaceships will be dismantled, exploration spaceships will no longer be needed, biosphere spaceships will also be dismantled, and the organisms inside will be turned into fuel. After the genetic material left behind by the subordinate races, there is no need for them to exist. High-energy-consuming strong artificial intelligence will also be shut down. All types of spaceships, including sub-civilization level, stellar level, planetary level, mountain level, and sea level, will be dismantled.

All civilizations struggle for survival and do their utmost to reduce their entropy.

When he was 211 million light-years away from his destination, Yue Yuan awoke from his hibernation again. The moment he opened his eyes, he saw not the bright and technologically advanced indicator lights, but a dim darkness.

After a moment of respite, and once his neural synapses began to emit faint electrical signals again, and his soul began to experience quantum fluctuations of life once more, Yue Yuan finally ended his streaking and slowly stepped out of the hibernation chamber.

The Lyra's hibernation chamber also minimized energy consumption, and all unnecessary indicator lights were turned off, making the corridor in front of Yue Yuan appear very dark.

"Another million years have passed!"

Reaching out to touch the inner wall of the corridor, Yue Yuan felt a layer of fine dust. Logically speaking, dust should not accumulate on an advanced warship like the Lyra, but the cleaning robots had long since stopped working. Of course, the fine dust he was touching was not actually dust, but rather the diffusion and penetration of surface molecules after the material had been left for too long.

The original structure, which was arranged according to technological principles, has fallen apart under the erosion of time.

This phenomenon was observed in many non-critical parts of the warship, such as corridors, partitions, and handrails.

As Yue Yuan slowly drifted toward the command center of the Lyra, he felt as if he were on an old, dilapidated warship. All he could see was a dimly lit scene. As he moved inside, the air currents that had been dormant for a million years finally began to flow, stirring up the surrounding dust.

The appearance of this fine dust made Yue Yuan feel the desolation and loneliness of the world, and the feeling of universal silence struck his heart.

They were nearing their destination. While human civilization hadn't yet reached the point of initiating the Fire Seed Project, it was close. Similar to other civilizations, humanity's transport ships and other unnecessary vessels had already been dismantled and used for energy.

If this continues, human civilization will have to dismantle its warships. If dismantling the warships still doesn't get us to our destination, we'll have to gather the people in the different habitation ships together, then dismantle the empty habitation ships. If that doesn't work, we'll have to execute the Fireseed Project.

Every civilization that has reached the point of the Fire Seed Project can be described as "barely surviving".

(End of this chapter)