Voyage of the Stars.

Chapter 1422 Impatient

The boundary breakers awaited death like withered bones in a tomb, while a civilization they believed to be extinct on the other side of the universe pressed forward time and time again, successfully crossing galaxies time and time again.

For tens of millions of light-years, they relied on "star accelerators" to traverse stars, enduring the dimming of galaxies as they continued their journey.

As it turns out, there have indeed been no cosmic catastrophes on the path leading to the center of the Great Hollow; at least, no one has encountered one so far, which is good news. Even so, the path is not easy to traverse, because the interior of the Great Hollow is so vast that it's impossible to walk in a straight line.

The three major expeditionary organizations could only proceed step by step, setting each winding galaxy as their target, gradually approaching the center of the Great Void.

The Great Void is vast and empty, yet it contains some star systems, which is the basis for the three major expeditionary organizations' ability to enter it. Without them, a Level 6 civilization would undoubtedly perish if it went in.

However, it's clear that the three major expeditionary organizations cannot continue to advance in such a roundabout way, because the cosmic catastrophe zone is chasing them at the speed of light. Taking too many detours will inevitably lead to them being overtaken by the catastrophe zone. Moreover, everyone understands that reaching the center of the Great Void is not the end, because the goal of the great expedition is not simply to reach the destination and win, but to master the zero-point energy of the vacuum.

Therefore, after estimating the longest possible single journey using the "Star Accelerator," the scientific teams of various civilizations, combined with the distance to the cosmic catastrophe zone behind them, decided to head straight for the central region of the Great Void for their final leg of the journey.

As can be seen from the large-aperture optical telescope array, there are no galaxies at the center of the void; it is a void space with nothing but darkness. But all civilizations know that it is the end of the great voyage.

That place is the farthest point from the stars in the cosmic tree structure, the place least affected by dark matter, and everyone's only hope.

Based on observation and measurement, various civilizations determined that this final leg of the journey would take approximately 50 million light-years. According to past experience, the number of planets launched by the "Star Accelerator" should be sufficient. As long as the galaxy at the point of origin is large enough to launch a sufficient number of planets, such ultra-long-distance travel can be fully realized.

This galaxy isn't very large, but it can easily support three major expeditions traveling forty million light-years. As for the last leg of the journey, they can only grit their teeth and continue drifting in.

As it turns out, the scientific teams from various civilizations made fairly accurate predictions.

When the civilizations reached a point ten million light-years from the center of the Great Hollow, the resources launched by the "Star Accelerator" were exhausted.

Yes, it's incredible that a star that a low-level civilization could use for billions of years could be drained dry by 515 Type VI civilizations. But that's the reality. This is because each civilization wanted to maintain its peak condition. The purpose was, of course, to prepare for advancement. Secondly, maintaining ships required factories to keep running. In addition, as they were approaching their destination, each civilization was constantly converting the planet's matter into more efficient dark matter and dark antimatter for storage, to supply the energy needs of their massive fleets.

Of course, if it were just these consumptions, the three great expeditionary organizations, accompanied by stars, would not have energy problems, but when you add the long time involved, everything changes.

This is why entering the Great Hollow has become so difficult.

Without the technology of the Divine Moment civilization, the route after entering the Great Void would be even more difficult. The current three major long-distance voyage organizations are already doing well.

Despite this, more than a dozen civilizations felt they were no longer suited to continue. Indeed, just ten million light-years from the center of the Great Hollow, fifteen civilizations believed that continuing would likely force them to restart the "Fireseed Project" before they even reached their destination. But once they reached their destination, or were about to enter the final sprint to decipher the seventh-level civilization, where would they find the time to continue the "Fireseed Project"?
The "Spark Project" is equivalent to the rebirth of an entire civilization, allowing newborn individuals to learn the entire technology tree of a Level 6 civilization from scratch. Where would there be time to do something like that?

Therefore, after careful consideration, they decided to stay here and begin their research, seeking an opportunity to break through to a level seven civilization. After all, this place was only ten million light-years away from the so-called center of the Great Hole. Given the vastness of the Boötes Great Hole, this location would already be considered the center of any other Great Hole.

If that's the case, then why continue moving forward?

The environment is almost ready, so let's stop and start studying vacuum zero-point energy!
It must be said that this reason is so compelling that it is impossible to refute.

In fact, these fifteen civilizations felt that continuing to advance at this point was a waste of time and unnecessary, because continuing would actually reduce their remaining resources, and resource shortages would affect the conduct of various experiments.

That's why they stopped.

The three major maritime organizations did not insist on this, since what they said was not wrong; theoretically, there was little difference between stopping here and continuing into the central area.

As for the possibility of being overtaken by the cosmic disaster zone if they stop here, that's not really a problem. They're not actually slowing down or stopping; they've simply stopped hibernating and started operating all departments of their civilization to conduct various scientific experiments.

In reality, their fleet continued to drift towards the center of the Great Hollow, maintaining the speed of light.

With these fifteen civilizations as role models, over the next million years, other civilizations continued to revive and then conduct scientific research.

While other civilizations were still dormant, they were already engaged in large-scale construction and scientific research. Their entire civilization was brightly lit, and they began carrying out all sorts of energy-intensive scientific experiments, as if they were trying to be the first to break through the barriers of cosmic civilization.

The three major expeditionary organizations originally intended to quietly complete the final leg of their journey, but the interference of these civilizations created problems.

The commotion they caused was significant and stirred the interest of other civilizations that were quietly sailing. But that wasn't the point. The point was that these guys weren't slowing down. They simply chose to "wake up" and conduct large-scale experiments to breach the cosmic barrier. Their entire civilization fleet was already drifting towards the central region of the Great Void along with other civilization fleets.

It's still ten million light-years from here to the center of the Great Hollow. With these dozens of civilizations pulling off this stunt, other civilizations can't help but have some concerns.

What if, as everyone drifts toward the center of the Great Hollow, dozens of civilizations actually succeed?

Having become a Level 7 civilization first, will they turn around and destroy themselves?
They are currently just ordinary Level 6 civilizations under the Great Voyage Organization, but who can guarantee that they won't covet our unique technologies once they become Level 7 civilizations?
(End of this chapter)