With the support of a ninth-level civilization, do you want me to believe in electronic gods?

Chapter 461 Illusion?

Hongshi's words made the atmosphere in the investigator starship fall to the bottom.

Time technology.

If the theory of material informatization is the cutting-edge technology that the Human Union is exploring, then time technology is an unknown technology that is completely beyond the current capabilities of the Human Union!
Chen Fan gritted his teeth, and his right hand, which was holding the starship joystick, began to tremble uncontrollably.

Facing such an opponent, it is impossible to say that I am not afraid.

As long as the brain is intact, survival is the first will of living things, and Chen Fan is no exception.

The panic reached its extreme, and the sudden desire to survive allowed Chen Fan to calm his mind temporarily.

He took a deep breath, and his previously trembling hands gradually stabilized.

"Damn..."

He uttered a curse through gritted teeth, his eyes fixed on the small, dark purple giant scorpion outside the porthole.

At this moment, his mind was exceptionally clear, and all kinds of details that he would not normally notice came into view one by one!

Chen Fan's brain was working rapidly, trying to find the key to breaking the deadlock from these minor details.

but……

The giant scorpion that regarded the starship as its prey obviously would not just take a beating.

Almost at the same time as the Investigator starship's second wave of attack failed, a faint black light began to surge from under its dark purple armor - the opponent was preparing to counterattack!
"Ok?"

Looking at the clear picture presented by the visual assistance system, Chen Fan suddenly frowned: "Why do I feel... something is not right?"

Hongshi's face was still bleak, but after hearing Chen Fan's murmur, she slowly turned her head and cast a questioning look at him: "...What did you say?"

"Look, compared to the mature giant scorpion we encountered before, the black light on this giant scorpion is obviously much weaker." Chen Fan frowned slightly, raised his hand and pointed at the holographic interface beside him, "Not only that, the data from the energy fluctuation monitor is also a bit problematic."

Hongshi looked in the direction of Chen Fan's finger.

With just one glance, she also realized the problem: "The energy intensity in this giant scorpion... is not even comparable to the most common thousand-meter-class giant scorpion!!"

"It should be due to premature birth." Chen Fan's eyes flashed with a faint gleam, "The organs inside its body should not have matured yet. Even if it swallowed a lot of nutrients inside the scorpion eggs, it only barely recovered a little strength."

As it spoke, the surging black light from beneath the giant scorpion's armor had already poured into its mouthparts.

Like the other giant scorpions, it prepared to release dark matter cannons to attack the starship.

Chen Fan held the joystick tightly in his hand, and the ship's main brain also made corresponding evasive preparations. Waves of space-time fluctuations spread around the starship - if there was anything wrong, the ship's main brain would directly initiate a high-dimensional jump to avoid the opponent's attack.

but……

The situation clearly exceeded Chen Fan's expectations.

When the black light in the giant scorpion's mouthparts was about to reach its peak, the originally stable light dissipated in a violent flash, and finally disappeared silently into the giant scorpion's mouthparts.

next second.

The giant scorpion seemed to have suffered a blow. It shook its head continuously and slapped its ferocious mouthparts with its long scorpion tail.

He seemed to be upset about something.

"This is……"

Chen Fan stared at the scene outside the porthole in a daze, his face gradually becoming strange: "Did the mouth cannon fail to release?"

"So... the other party is just a paper tiger that looks good but is useless?"

After realizing this, the original fear quickly dissipated, and Chen Fan's thoughts became smoother.

He stared at the dozens of space cracks that were still "paused" around the giant scorpion's body and the dark matter cannons that were flashing with a strong black light. Suddenly, he seemed to have thought of something, and a strong doubt gradually emerged in his eyes: "Wait..."

"Redstone, do you think that activating dark matter, an inefficient energy source, can really drive cutting-edge technology like time suspension?"

Hearing Chen Fan's question, Hongshi's face froze and he also fell into deep thought.

Everything in the world requires an equal exchange.

Whether it is [Five-Dimensional Navigation] or [Genesis], these powerful high-end technologies have a necessary prerequisite.

Vacuum zero-point energy.

Only the pure energy from the Dirac Sea can satisfy their horrific energy consumption.

"what do you mean……"

Hongshi looked hesitant: "The other party does not have the time technology, this is just an illusion similar to the time pause?"

"I think so." Chen Fan shrugged. "The energy intensity in this giant scorpion is at most at the level of an eighth-level civilization. How could it possibly surpass the level and touch the real time technology?"

"The illusion of time being suspended..." After the fear in his heart dissipated, Hongshi's stagnant thoughts became active, "Could it be the slow-down effect caused by the high-intensity gravity?"

Chen Fan's heart moved, and he quickly recalled his journey to the central black hole before entering the anti-universe.

If the ghost fleet hadn't intervened, the investigator starship and the released probe would have likely fallen into a state of "time stagnation" in the black hole's powerful gravitational field. Thinking of this, Chen Fan hurriedly called up the space-time field fluctuation monitoring data, trying to observe the space-time field fluctuations around the giant scorpion - gravitational fluctuations are actually a direct manifestation of space-time changes. Therefore, if you want to observe strong gravitational changes, you only need to directly observe the space-time field fluctuations.

"..."

Looking at the space-time fluctuation curve in the holographic interface with almost no ripples, Chen Fan and Hongshi fell silent at the same time.

The speculation was shattered again.

This also means that the giant scorpion has used some means unknown to them to create the illusion of time being stopped. For Chen Fan and others, this is undoubtedly bad news.

After all, the unknown often portends danger.

In the distance, the giant scorpion also recovered from the blow of its "failed mouth cannon". After resting for a while, a faint black light flashed again under the giant scorpion's armor.

Swish!
Along with a sudden increase in space-time fluctuations, the figure of the giant scorpion suddenly disappeared, and the time that had been "paused" just now began to flow again - dozens of deep space cracks and dark matter cannons flashing with black light shot out and hit the wall on the side of the incubation tower directly.

boom! ! !
The black light flickered, causing the light stone tiles under the base to glow blindingly.

Looking at the side wall of the incubation tower that was instantly swept by the aftermath of the explosion, Chen Fan's face suddenly changed.

"Oops!"

Not to mention the terrifying power of the dark matter cannon that could easily destroy a star, the dozens of space cracks alone were enough to cause a huge blow to the hatching tower - even if the entire hatching tower was covered with a layer of dark purple strong interaction force armor, that level of defense could not possibly block the damage from the dark matter cannon and space cracks! !

Seeing the black light of the dark matter cannon suddenly spread, Chen Fan even imagined the scene of the incubation tower collapsing in his mind.

but……

Things did not develop as he imagined.

The side walls of the incubation tower were wrapped in a dark purple protective force field, standing safely in the constantly flickering black light!
As the aftermath of the dark matter cannon gradually dissipated, the side wall of the incubation tower that was hit head-on also revealed its true appearance.

No signs of breakage!
The starship's attack didn't even break through its defenses!!
Beside him, Hongshi frowned and silently observed the many parameters in the holographic interface in front of him.

"No..." She seemed to have noticed something and shook her head slowly, "The power is not right..."

"What did you say?!" Chen Fan was stunned and asked subconsciously.

【warn! ! 】

Before Hongshi could give a reply, a bright red warning message popped up on the holographic interface in front of him: [The enemy is approaching the starship! ]

next second!
Amid a fluctuation in time and space, the giant scorpion's somewhat illusory figure reappeared in front of the starship - long-range "mouth cannon" was ineffective, so it could only pin its hopes on close combat.

clang! ! !
The scorpion tail created by strong interaction force slammed into the starship fiercely, causing ripples on the light golden shield.

"Damn!!"

Looking at the shield load that soared instantly, Chen Fan didn't have time to think about it and suddenly pulled the joystick with his right hand.

High-dimensional transition, start!
After increasing the distance between himself and the giant scorpion again, Chen Fan gave an order to the ship's mainframe without any hesitation: "Since the hatchery tower can withstand such an attack, use a saturation attack!"

“Fire at full force!!”

hum! ! !
The moment the words fell, vast amounts of vacuum zero-point energy instantly poured into the various weapons of the starship.

Space cracks transformed into black lightning, continuously striking the giant scorpion larvae that were close at hand, and the black light of activated dark matter also lit up inside the main gun and secondary guns at the same time! !

"What did you want to say just now?" Taking advantage of the gap between attacks, Chen Fan asked Hongshi beside him, "What's wrong with the power?!"

"There's something wrong with the power of the weapon!"

Hongshi hurriedly called up a holographic interface: "Whether it is the dark matter cannon or the space rift, their power has been greatly weakened when they hit the side wall of the hatching tower!"

"Although there is a certain strength of protective force field near the side wall of the hatching tower, the great attenuation of the weapon's power is the fundamental reason why it cannot cause damage!"

"The power is decreasing?" Upon hearing this, Chen Fan frowned. "Why is the power of the weapon decreasing for no reason?"

Hongshi hesitated for a moment and whispered, "I checked the status of the space rift."

"When it was about to hit the side wall of the hatching tower, the stability of the space rift had already dropped significantly. Usually this situation only occurs in ultra-long-range attacks."

Chen Fan naturally understood this basic common sense.

Like conventional artillery shells and missiles, space rifts also have an effective attack range - when they fly long distances, the surrounding space will gradually have an assimilation effect on them. Over time, this assimilation effect will cause the stability of the space rift to decrease until it self-collapses.

Correspondingly, the power of space rifts will gradually decrease as the attack distance increases.

But for the People's Union, this is actually not a big problem.

With the technology of the Human Union, as long as the power is increased without setting an upper limit, it will be enough to make the effective attack range of the space rift exceed hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands of light years.

The main attack is a powerful brick flying.

Even the space rift weapons carried on "official ships" such as the Investigator Starship, thanks to the vacuum zero-point energy engine, have an effective strike range of more than one light year.

(End of this chapter)