Voyage of the Stars.

Chapter 1446 How a Deadbeat is Made

Long Xinglv nodded slightly and continued, "Yes, so as long as the vacuum zero point can be continuously extracted and used, vacuum decay will definitely occur. And the information we received from the cosmic civilization tells us that the location of its occurrence is a kind of true cosmic random number."

"Where vacuum decay occurs is completely random. Vacuum decay caused by extracting zero-point energy may occur hundreds of millions or even billions of light-years away, or it may occur inside or outside our spacecraft."

As research into vacuum zero-point energy deepens, humanity has obtained a great deal of related information, such as vacuum decay, one of the cosmic catastrophes that various civilizations have been talking about for countless years.

Based on the information gathered during their long voyage here, and their research findings on vacuum zero-point energy, Longxing Travel believes that the truly random occurrence of vacuum zero-point energy is one of the reasons for the demise of a Level 7 civilization.

As he just mentioned, "appearing inside or outside the spaceship," the location of vacuum decay is completely random. So when it appears, the initial decay range could be a small point or a region of hundreds or even hundreds of thousands of light-years.

If a Level 7 civilization happens to be within the range of a sudden vacuum decay, then it's doomed.

Of course, since the space occupied by a Level 7 civilization's fleet is far smaller than the size of the entire universe, the probability of this is extremely small, almost zero, but not zero.

Realizing all this, Long Xinglv sighed, "No wonder those level seven civilizations wanted to pursue the Vacuum Zero Point Non-Proliferation Treaty! From this perspective, it's indeed true."

Dao Baiqi nodded and said, "Yes! So it seems that the reason why so many civilizations have used vacuum zero-point energy on a large scale, but billions of years have passed, is that the space we live in still contains such a high density of vacuum zero-point energy is entirely due to vacuum decay!"

Long Xinglu looked at Dao Baiqi and added, "No, it should be attributed to the continuous spread of the vacuum decay region. We believe that the reason for its continuous spread is that some mechanism of the universe wants to maintain the existing energy density of the vacuum zero point energy. The universe is expanding, but the universe also wants to maintain the density of the vacuum zero point energy, so the vacuum decay region can only continue to spread."

Dao Baiqi: "Yes, based on the research data of our own human civilization and all other civilizations, we can conclude that this rule-based constraint method is feasible. In the words of the Galactic Heart Civilization: We just take what we need, and leave the rest to the universe to handle."

"But the problem is what rules to use to constrain the extracted vacuum zero-point energy, and how to manufacture such an instrument. After all, the so-called rule constraint involves modifying the physical rules, and the force required to leverage the rules is very large. The energy density must be at the vacuum zero-point energy level." At this point, Long Xinglu shrugged, showing a helpless expression: "Isn't this just going around in circles and coming back to the starting point?"

Dao Baiqi also silently agreed, "Yes, from a conventional perspective, it's like going in circles and ending up back where we started. So we need to find a different approach. If conventional methods don't work, we should research from the perspective of specialized technologies."

Breaking this closed loop from the perspective of unique technologies is the solution that all civilizations with unique technologies have come up with. As for how to break the closed loop using conventional methods, that can only be left to the scientists of ordinary level six civilizations.

Is there a way to bypass the closed loop?

There must be, otherwise ordinary level seven civilizations wouldn't exist.

However, it is certainly much more difficult than various specialized technological methods, which is probably one of the reasons why many large-scale voyages in the past still perished after discovering the correct answer.

Now, the ordinary Level 6 civilizations of the two major long-range expeditions have also come up with a simple and crude method: to build a device and find a way to use the extracted vacuum zero-point energy to directly modify a physical rule parameter, changing the universe's "debt collection" mechanism from direct triggering to delayed triggering. During this delayed triggering period, they can then use the extracted energy to perform work on other devices, such as a Level 7 civilization's warp drive—wouldn't that be a success?
They call this method the extension method.

However, in practice, two key problems arose: First, how to manufacture the instrument that would guide the first batch of vacuum zero points to challenge that physical rule. Second, how to find that physical rule.

Once these two issues are resolved, an ordinary Level 6 civilization can declare itself to have successfully mastered vacuum zero-point energy.

However, after all civilizations continued their research for tens of thousands of years according to their own assumptions, they found that it was easier said than done.

Moreover, during their research, they finally realized a problem that human civilization had noticed tens of thousands of years ago—quantum tides.

The Galactic Heart civilization was the one that discovered the problem and made it public to all civilizations. It's not that they were the first to discover it, but rather that they were the first to create the problem.

The reason is that when the Galactic Heart Civilization was conducting research using its unique technology, it actually surpassed all other civilizations with unique technologies. They found the rule of the rule-based constraint method and, with special tachyon detection and a special understanding of three-dimensional space, cleverly created a set of precision equipment based on the principle of "three-dimensional shuttle" technology. Theoretically, this equipment can use three-dimensional shuttle door technology to confine the extracted vacuum zero-point energy in its magical space.

Using this clever trick, they almost succeeded in becoming the first person to be labeled a defaulter.

However, to the surprise of the Silver Heart civilization, when they were conducting their experiment with great confidence, they ended up blowing up the entire laboratory.

To be precise, it wasn't an explosion, but rather the entire laboratory was completely obliterated the moment the experiment was launched, vanishing without a trace.

Had its leader not felt that the first experiment required utmost caution and had not removed all the brilliant scientists from the laboratory beforehand, the Galactic Heart civilization would have suffered a devastating blow.

Regarding this experimental accident, the Silver Heart Civilization initially thought that there was a problem with its design, perhaps some parameter was wrong.

But no matter how they searched, they couldn't find the mistake.

There was no other way but to repeat the experiment and then develop a bunch of highly sensitive detectors for observation. It took them hundreds of years to discover that the culprit that caused their laboratory to be destroyed was the quantum tide, which human civilization had briefly mentioned at a science and technology exchange meeting.

Although it ultimately failed, it wasn't because of a problem with its equipment or a wrong method, but because it couldn't withstand the quantum tide.

So the Silverheart Civilization immediately took failure as success, then summoned all civilizations to the virtual meeting hall for a meeting, and announced: "We, the Silverheart Civilization, have succeeded! Our excellent race has found a way to avoid paying our debts in a genius way! We are the first deadbeat among the 84 civilizations! Quickly offer your flowers and applause!"
(End of this chapter)