Those who face the wall, but are in the Nascent Soul stage.

Chapter 464 Carbon-based scraps, Mom's little pride (5k)

The first spiral arm's end—the Orion spiral arm—the arm gap space.

The distribution of stars in the Milky Way is not uniform; the stellar density is relatively high in the spiral arms and low in the gaps between them. According to data from the Carbon-Based Federation, using Earth-standard units, the average stellar density of the Milky Way as a whole is approximately 0.006 stars per cubic light-year, and the average distance between stars is 5.5 light-years.

In the Orion Arm, where our solar system is located, the density of stars increases slightly, and the average distance between stars is 4 light-years.

The true edge regions of the Milky Way, such as the ends of the first spiral arm and the Orion Arm, have a star density as low as 0.0003 stars per cubic light-year, with an average interstellar distance of 15 light-years.

However, this is still not the region with the lowest stellar density in the galactic disk. Since the stellar density in the arm gaps is much lower than that in the spiral arms, its average stellar density is less than 0.0001 stars per cubic light-year, meaning that the average distance between stars is more than 21 light-years.

This is the second thinnest universe after the galactic halo.

A civilization born in the gap space, if it cannot master the technology of light-speed travel, will most likely never reach another star system in its lifetime, becoming a victim of the Great Filter theory.

The Great Filter theory posits that each stage of civilization's development presents significant obstacles, acting like a series of filters that prevent most civilizations from progressing to higher levels.

In the gap space, the ultra-sparse universe composed of distant stars is the largest filter. Once a star burns out or the resources within a planet are exhausted, even a civilization as powerful as an 8B-level civilization can easily self-destruct.

In this cramped space where civilization has vanished, new guests have arrived.

A fleet of advanced civilization.

Calling it advanced wouldn't be accurate. Compared to the carbon and silicon forces locked in a fierce battle at the heart of the battlefield, this rescue fleet from the 'Lamp Spirit' civilization wasn't particularly powerful; in fact, it was among the weakest of all the member civilizations of the entire Carbon-Based Federation.

There is a unified name for this weak civilization.

—Scrap materials from the carbon-based federation.

According to the universal standard for calculating civilizations, this marginal civilization has just reached the threshold of a 6A-level civilization. It only met the basic conditions for joining the carbon-based federation family a galactic year ago. Because its main body is luminous plasma, it looks quite like ghost lamps, so it named itself the "Lamp Spirit" civilization.

Therefore, the weak "Lamp Spirit" civilization could only do some cleaning up the edges of the battlefield.

The Lamp Spirit Civilization is the native civilization of the First Helical Arm. In this war, the Lamp Spirit Civilization dispatched a total of 10 sub-light speed spaceships to form the "Lamp Spirit Civilization Rescue Team".

Unable to venture deep into the battlefield, the "lightships" could only extend outwards from both ends along the edge of the "starless isolation zone".

These 100,000 "lightships" are just one drop in the vast flood of rescue efforts.

In the vast universe, this drop of water was quickly diluted.

The "Lamp Spirit Civilization" rescue fleet was divided into 10,000 rescue teams, with each team consisting of 10 "light boats." They carried out a net-like search and rescue operation along the edge of the isolation zone.

The Carbon-Based Federation will publish the corresponding level of technical data to all civilizations that join it. If the target civilization is level 6a, then the Carbon-Based Federation will publish all the technical data of level 6a and the prerequisite data of level 7a civilization.

If the other party is a 10a-level civilization, then the Carbon-Based Federation will disclose all technological data below 3s-level to that civilization.

However, this does not mean that civilizations will lose their ability to develop themselves. In fact, due to the greater gap between the levels of higher-level civilizations, even if a level 6A civilization has all the data of a level 7A civilization, it will be difficult to break through the level limit of civilization within hundreds of millions of Earth years, even if it experiences several technological explosions.

Mastering the technology takes a long time, and the Carbon-Based Federation will set final exams for the civilizations that join it.

The Carbon-Based Federation really loves using exams; anyone who fails is denied access to the next stage of development materials.

If even 6A and 7A level civilizations are like this, let alone 9A and 10A level civilizations that are advancing step by step.

The Carbon-Based Federation's practice of lecturing the entire galaxy clearly violates the "Knowledge Sealing Principle" in the universe, but the Carbon-Based Federation doesn't care and only urges the civilization under its control to grow quickly.

Therefore, under the technological guidance of the Carbon-based Federation, the 6a-level "Lamp Spirit" civilization has already learned the faster-than-light travel technology that only top-level civilizations possess, including but not limited to low-power stellar frog jumps, short-distance hyper-jump engines, and low-frequency wormhole travel technology.

One hundred thousand rescue spaceships transformed into ten thousand small teams and flew into the myriad stars and disappeared.

One team traveled south along the starless isolation zone, using the super-large star leaping chain channel opened by the "Carbon-based Federation Power" to make five jumps spanning 200 light-years each, arriving 1000 light-years away.

This is the star system that this team is responsible for searching and rescuing.

This is almost the southernmost end of the first spiral arm. Further ahead lies the "spiral arm gap" between the first spiral arm and the Orion Arm. It is clear that the stars further south suddenly become much sparser.

Lightship A: "This is 2000 light-years away from the main battlefield. The main battlefield already has a large number of vacuum decay weapons and cosmic dimension weapons in use, and these weapons are expanding at the speed of light. If the deadline is not built, this place will decay or become two-dimensional in 2000 years."

Lightship B: "Do we need to lay a dead-end safety barrier?"

Lightship A: "The Death Line itself is also a kind of destruction of the cosmic structure. We should not do this before finding survivors. If the other side's development is below 3c, we will move the entire planet. If the other side's development is above 3c, we will build the Death Line Great Wall to protect them."

Lightship A: "The stars nearby are getting sparser. Let's spread out; it'll be more efficient that way."

This suggestion was endorsed by the other lightships.

The search and rescue team was further subdivided into ten groups, targeting ten nearby star systems. They then activated the short-distance space jump device donated by the "Federal Powerhouse," completing a jump spanning 10 to 20 light-years.

Ten lightships instantly arrived at ten star systems that appeared to be potentially habitable, and began a scanning operation lasting 300,000 transverse seconds (3 days).

Three days later, the lightship team completed its scan of the 10 nearest star systems.

Quantum entanglement communication is the preferred long-distance communication method for most intermediate civilizations. Although this communication method has many drawbacks, it is still favored by civilizations below level 10A. The search and rescue team began routine quantum communication regarding the search and rescue results.

Lightship A: "No signs of life detected."

Lightship B: "Nothing detected..."

……

Lightship H: "No signs of life detected"

Lightship J: "Found primitive carbon-based thermo-acid bacteria life. The life form is composed of more than ten base pairs. It lives in the hot mantle layer and exhibits life phenomena. Civilization rating: None."

The discovery by Lightship J piqued the interest of other Lightships, but after learning that the most advanced life form on J's planet was only a complex thermobacterium, they all lost interest.

Even if everything goes smoothly, it would take at least billions of years for these heat-producing bacteria to evolve into advanced organisms.

Lightship A: "Looks like we're not finding anything more. Let the rescue team expand further. Don't overlook those star systems that seem unsuitable for life. Remember the mushrooms our civilization found in a supernova remnant? If life can thrive even in supernova remnants, then the universe is certainly not lacking in miracles!"

Lightship B: "You remind me of those glowing mushrooms... I wonder how those cute little guys are doing now."

Lightship C: "That all happened tens of millions of years ago. The supernova remnant has long since cooled down. Don't have too high hopes."

The ten lightships continued to make short-distance spatial jumps of 10 to 20 light-years towards the vicinity, constantly spreading outwards.

Soon, after several leaps, the ten lightships were already far apart, with lightship A and lightship G being 120 light-years apart.

But even at this point, the Lingwen civilization's rescue team still hadn't found anything. Seeing the occasional successes of other teams' rescue operations, the team was getting anxious.

We need a civilized person to save us quickly, otherwise this team of lightships will be laughed at by the other light spirits when they get back.

As Lightship A looked at the increasingly sparse universe around it, it grew more and more anxious.

The distance between galaxies is roughly 1600 parsecs. One parsec is approximately equal to 3.26 light-years, so 1600 parsecs translates to about 5000 light-years. Therefore, the Milky Way has four clear and symmetrical main spiral arms with an average distance of about 4500 light-years between them.

However, there are exceptions. The distance between the outrigger and the spiral arm is often relatively close, generally between 100 and 2000 light-years.

At that moment, Lightship A suddenly realized that 100 light-years away, there was an extremely dazzling starlight, that was...

Orion Arm?
Lightship A realized it had somehow found itself between two spiral arms, and the distance between them appeared to be the narrowest in the Milky Way, only a little over 150 light-years wide. "What a narrow interstellar canyon!"

Lightship A shouted excitedly.

The Star Canyon is the name the Lamp Spirit civilization used for the gap in the spiral arm.

Neighboring lightships B and C also quickly spotted the distant starlight and realized how lucky they were. In interstellar canyons that are thousands of light-years wide, they had actually encountered an interstellar canyon that was only a few hundred light-years wide.

Lightship B: "The width of the interstellar canyon here is 243 light-years."

Lightship C: "The width of my interstellar canyon is 372 light-years."

Lightship A: "You guys are too far away. I happen to be in the shortest straight line. This is simply unbelievable. The outrigger and main arm are so close together and they haven't gotten mixed up. How far are the other lightships from this small outrigger? Report back immediately!"

"502 light-years", "764 light-years", "656 light-years"... reports came one after another.

The voice of Lightship D came from the darkness: "It seems that the other Lightships are at least 500 light-years apart. A, you are the closest."

Along this starless isolation zone that runs through the Orion Arm and the end of the first spiral arm, Lightship A jumped several more times into the depths of the spiral arm gap, and was almost at the Orion Arm from the main arm of the first spiral arm.

Lightship A: "Ah, this little outrigger is so beautiful."

Lightship B: "I saw it too. The arm is in good health, with not many signs of war damage. There are many stars in their prime. It's a beautiful arm that reminds me of the fiber optic lights back home."

Lightship C: "Go ahead. The end of this arm is also within the range of the two-dimensional foil and vacuum decay weapon. There must be a lot of life in such a dense array of arms... Alas, even if we use the warp drive to create a dead end to intercept it, we can only extend the destruction time of the arm from 0.2 galactic years to 15 galactic years at most."

Lightship D: "It's better than doing nothing. E, F, G, and I will go set up the deadlock. The other lightships will continue to explore this sparse universe. A, B, and C, you three are closest. The rest of the team and I will wait for your good news."

Lightships A, B, and C, like three spreading arrows, continued to initiate short-distance space jumps, while also searching for star systems that might harbor life along the way.

One million constant vibration seconds (10 days) passed quickly.

Because the "space jump device" consumed too much energy, even the lightship, which used vacuum zero-point energy to replenish its power, could not withstand it. It had no choice but to find a nearby star and immerse itself directly in the star's core, rapidly replenishing the lightship's energy through rapid photon exchange.

Stellar jumps would accelerate the depletion of a star's lifespan, so the lightships would rather expend energy than do that.

Soon, Lightship A replenished its energy. However, just as Lightship A was about to activate the space jump device, one of the spirits inside the ship called out to the Golden Spirit.

The Lamp Spirit: "Golden Lamp Spirit, go and see the planets in this star system, and then leave."

Golden Lamp Spirit: "Friend, this planet is dead. It no longer rotates or has day and night cycles, and it has no atmosphere. The side of the planet facing the star has a surface temperature of 473K (about 200 degrees Celsius), while the side facing away from the star has a surface temperature that drops to 93K (about -180 degrees Celsius). Based on past experience, it is difficult for a planet that has stopped rotating to have life—and even if life does exist, it will only be some kind of bacteria or flocculent pseudo-life."

The Lamp Spirit: "Look, life always happens in miracles. Think about those glowing mushrooms, that's what you just said."

The golden lamp spirit blinked for a moment, then agreed.

Lightship A instantly jumped from the star's core to the heliosphere on the star's surface, then initiated a conventional-powered flight at 99.999% sublight speed, crashing into some meteorite belts along the way but remaining unscathed, and arrived above the dead planet a few minutes later.

Almost the instant they arrived at the dead planet, the lightship sensed something was wrong; the entire ship was flashing with an excited visible light.

A spirit shouted, "There's solid water on the back!"

The Golden Lamp Spirit exclaimed, "In such a hellish environment, life might actually exist!"

"Scan complete! We have detected a large amount of life activity at the planet's equator, life forms that thrive in the narrow, constant-temperature zone between extreme cold and heat!"

"My God, they found a paradise 500 kilometers wide and 8 kilometers long in hell!"

"Testing civilization level!"

"Civilization level test complete! They know the law of constant-direction heat source radiation and the law of temperature gradient conduction! They have already made a philosophical and empirical scientific classification! They are a group of 'sea jellyfish' swimming in a ring-shaped ocean!"

"Sea Mother Civilization, information has been entered, knowledge transmission method unknown, civilization level tentatively set at 3c level, the lamps have won the grand prize, let's get to work."

The Golden Lamp Spirit asked, "Does anyone want to go down and take a look at these sea jewels?"

"I me me!"

The lamp spirits eagerly signed up.

Soon, all three hundred-plus plasma lamp spirits on the entire lightship, shining brightly in the pitch-black universe, like three hundred bright lamps, floated vertically down into the eternal ice field aboard single-lamp descent boats.

The warm ocean lies below, and it's not difficult to pry open these ice layers. The small lightships that landed began to throw gas vortexes downwards, quickly drilling into the thick ice field and soon forming many caves.

Through the ice cave, the Lamp Spirits saw the dreamlike underwater city beneath the ice. Many sea goddesses curiously raised their heads to look at the glowing aliens—this was the first time they had seen non-stellar light in their photosensitive cells, which had evolved at the terminator.

"What a beautiful life!" The lamp spirits were mesmerized.

The next moment, the unmanned lightship suddenly flashed a warning red light.

The spirits realized something was wrong and tried to return to the spaceship, but it was too late.

A mass point emitted from outer space accelerated to 99.999999% of the speed of light. Before any of the Lamp Spirits could react, it entered the planet from the south pole and then exited it from the north pole. Like a red-hot needle piercing through butter, it passed through the north pole without any resistance, leaving a faint, almost invisible trail of light, and pierced a hole through this planet that did not rotate.

The luminous particle, its momentum undiminished, crashed into the star of Nami four minutes later at a brutally precise angle. Nearly one-eighth of the star's mass tore its core apart and caused it to collapse—a blinding flame instantly engulfed the star's outer shell, shattering it into countless quarks. This standard-mass star, which should have had another three billion years of life, was thus utterly destroyed.

The world that the sea creature once regarded as paradise, the homes built between extreme heat and cold, the life nurtured in eternal light and darkness, were all turned into dust drifting in the universe in a mere 0.1 seconds. Life, hope, and civilization were all utterly destroyed by this sudden attack from the Dark Forest.

The spirits watched the entire process of the planet's destruction with blank expressions.

Even in their final moments, the sea goddesses gazed curiously at the soft light emanating from the lamp spirits.

The analysis results for the lightship came out quickly.

Lightship: "The attacker is a small spaceship four light-years away, cruising at 0.9 times the speed of light."

The spirits of the lamps returned to the lampship, which instantly created terrifying spatial waves, directly and precisely pinpointing the other party's location and completing a hyperspace jump with terrifying precision.

The 'small' lightship instantly appeared directly in front of the attack ship.

More than three hundred lamp spirits stared at the attacking spaceship before them with eyes that seemed to devour their prey.

The strike ship was terrified as it looked at the incomprehensible, faster-than-light demonic lamp that suddenly appeared before it, flashing with red blood-red light. Without hesitation, it unleashed all the light particle weapons and two-dimensional foil weapons stored in the ship!

But this terrifying lightship actually shattered a large number of light particles that were enough to destroy a star head-on, and resealed the already released two-dimensional foil, preventing it from even being released. Then, it smashed the attack ship at the standard speed of light with non-curvature gliding.

...

After 150 transverse seconds, the lightship had extracted all the information from the spaceship wreckage.

Lightship: "The Overlord-class Civilization in the Spiral Arm Gap [Ring World], Civilization Level: 4A, a typical Dark Forest civilization, is indiscriminately purging all star systems with life. The main civilization of the Ring World is hiding in a 'β-type microcosm', intending to avoid the future two-dimensionalization of the universe. This β-type microcosm is 174 light-years away from our ship, with three-dimensional spatial coordinates of: X745.87, Y491.25, Z497.75."

"Destroy it," the Golden Lamp Spirit said coldly.

The marginal world, where the Singer civilization could not even lift its head, was thus sentenced to death.

(End of this chapter)