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

Chapter 480 Searching for Friends (5k)

After leaving Earth One and Earth Five, the Lamp Spirits headed straight for Earth Two.

The ten lightships first soaked in a star by the roadside for a while, filling themselves with light energy, and then initiated a short-distance space jump, directly locating Alpha Lyrae, the star system where the second Earth is located.

Soon, the ten lightships completed this 17-light-year space jump and arrived at their target star system.

The lightships did not alert the enemy, but instead observed the Alpha Lyrae galaxy from a distance.

When it comes to the whereabouts of the Old God, one can never be too cautious.

Space was crumpled and 'overlapped' by the lightships. The ten lightships built several four-dimensional shells for themselves, and then the lightships themselves adapted to become four-dimensional lightships. The light spirits also returned to their long-lost four-dimensional light spirit state.

Since it is impossible to detect across different spatial dimensions, completely transforming oneself into a higher dimension is the most effective way to hide in this three-dimensional universe.

After completing these preparations, the ten lightships flew toward the nearby Alpha Lyrae galaxy.

The Alpha Lyrae star system has only five planets in total, of which only one is habitable, namely the second Earth mentioned in God's information. The other four stars are ice giants, and one has been baked into an iron ball by the star.

Once they entered the Alpha Lyrae system, even the well-traveled Lamp Spirits were stunned by the sight before them, and their lights momentarily faltered.

In the golden belt of life in this star system, a colossal object floated in the pitch-black velvet night sky.

It appears to be surrounded by a ring of satellites.

This is the second Earth; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a super-Earth.

The super-Earth is more than 4.5 times the diameter of the 'standard Earth', and its mass is astonishing. Moreover, this Earth is no longer 'blue' or 'green', but rather a deeper and heavier indigo blue, with giant swirling white cloud bands swirling around it. Its atmosphere appears unusually dense, like plaster soaked in water.

(Note: Based on detailed information about the six Earths, God defined the sixth Earth as the standard Earth, therefore the Lamp Spirit also uses the sixth Earth as the standard Earth unit.)
Separated by several astronomical units, the spirits whispered among themselves in a higher-dimensional space.

"What a huge solid planet!"

"This must be the largest solid planet that could form in the natural universe, right?"

"This is practically a super planet!"

Normally, when a planet's mass reaches more than 15 times that of Earth, gravity will forcefully capture light elements such as hydrogen and helium, transforming it from a solid rocky planet into a gaseous/ice giant. If it continues to rise, exceeding 15 times the mass of Jupiter, the core pressure will ignite deuterium fusion, directly upgrading it to a brown dwarf (a star whose fusion "failed"), no longer belonging to the category of planets.

The super-Earth before us, with a diameter of nearly 4.5 kilometers, is approaching the mass limit of a common planet.

The largest inner ring of the Devourer spacecraft has a diameter of exactly 5 kilometers. When the Devourer engineers first designed the ring, they had already envisioned a planet that could 'fill' the ring. Unfortunately, in its 6000 million-year history of wandering, the largest planet that the ring could swallow was only about 2.7 kilometers in diameter, much smaller than the super-Earth we see today.

If the former Devouring Empire happened to be here, then the Empire would certainly not mind giving it a try; the dinosaurs have never had such a good meal.

Imagine what a wonderful scene this would be: the giant ring has finally found the ball that understands it, and it would be a feast that would drive both sides crazy.

Unfortunately, the large ring isn't here.

From the distant observation of the higher-dimensional spirits, the super-Earth before them was too vast, with a surface area 15 times that of a standard Earth. Coupled with its extremely dense atmosphere, the clear outlines of continental plates were no longer visible on its surface, only some vast, dark areas with blurred edges.

These dark areas floated and sank in the vast ocean. This giant Earth exuded a tremendous sense of power. Even from several astronomical units away, the spirits could feel the rich life force of this super-Earth and were greatly shocked.

"Fly over there quickly, I can't wait!"

"What a huge ball!"

"Let me do the math. Earth 5 is 90% ocean, like a backyard pool in a retirement home. Earth 1 is a high-tech planet, like the living room of a retirement home. So what is this Earth 2 in front of us, a big yard?"

"These six Earths are truly unique..."

"Let's probe it first and see what properties this super-Earth has."

Ten high-dimensional lightships sent out probe waves toward a distant super-Earth.

"The surface gravity is about 4.9 times that of standard Earth. The atmospheric composition and nitrogen-oxygen ratio are similar to those of standard Earth, but the pressure is extremely high. There may be liquid hydrocarbon lakes in the deep atmosphere. The rotation period is 72 standard Earth hours, and the orbital period is 100 standard Earth years."

Lights containing various information flows interact rapidly among the light spirits.

With gravity nearly five times that of standard Earth, a standard mass rock here would weigh as much as a lead block. If any large, unmodified, and untrained carbon-based life form from Earth were placed here, it would be crushed to death over time.

The pressure of 5G is still too exaggerated; I'm afraid no human could withstand it.

To the surprise of the Lamp Spirits, even under such conditions, the Super-Earth still evolved life forms adapted to this gravity and atmospheric pressure, and its intelligent race also developed to the stage of interstellar civilization.

As the lightships traveled at the speed of light, they had already passed many of the steel warships of Earth Two. The fact that they could form a sizable interstellar fleet meant that Earth Two's standard civilization level was at least 6B.

The civilization level of Earth 1 was 8B.

As the distance continued to decrease, the lightships could see that many interstellar docks and space cities had been built in the orbits of various planets, with a large number of significant militarized buildings and a sophisticated near-Earth orbit defense system.

The star system was filled with various laser cannons and interstellar missile launch sites.

Moreover, the density of the steel warships has increased. One of the high-dimensional lightships flew into the interior of the steel warship, observed its internal structure, and then flew out again.

“I took a look, and these spaceships are still in the era of electronic numerical control, and their engines use chemical propellant energy engines—this super-Earth has extremely rich fossil resources.”

"I have a feeling that the Second Earth government is investing a bit too much in its military?"

"Not enough. Don't forget, Earth 1, Earth 2, and Earth 3 are all at war with each other. Although these three Earths haven't publicly revealed each other's locations and completely broken off relations, they've long been enemies. I suspect that Earth 2's political system is a military government."

One of the spirits left the lightship and drifted to the nearest interstellar dock, where it quickly provided more information.

"Level 6B seems too high, maybe 5B+. Although Earth's technology is vast in scale, its technological level is not high. Moreover, it seems to have been stuck in this era for thousands of years. The last technological explosion was when electronic computers were invented. I calculated that the maximum speed of the spaceships manufactured in these docks is only ten times the third cosmic velocity, which is about 1/1000th of the speed of light, and their cruising range is limited to this star system."

...But their advantage lay in their sheer number—a full ten thousand steel behemoths, evenly distributed throughout the entire star system. These steel behemoths were truly enormous; each one was over ten kilometers long, much larger than our small lightships!

The spirits whispered among themselves and kept flashing their lights.

“I remember… after the Utopian Age of Fault, the Last Producer ruled Earth for a hundred years. During this time, he not only destroyed the Fifth Earth, which was about to hatch, but also sent expeditionary fleets to the Second and Third Earths and a refugee fleet to the Sixth Earth. All of these ships were capable of traveling at 1% of the speed of light.”

"Yes, Earth One has mastered nuclear fusion engine technology. Although this Class 8B civilization has focused its technology on law enforcement units and cyberpunk, a nuclear fusion spaceship that can be easily manufactured using new technologies is still much more powerful than the large iron ship of Earth Two."

"If 'Second Brother' is only 5B+, then 'Third Brother' probably isn't much better; it might not even have hatched yet... Speaking of which, where is the First Earth's invasion fleet? Judging by the time, it should have arrived long ago."

Currently, looking at the entire Alpha Lyra system, the Lamp Spirits have not seen any trace of battle between the First Earth Expeditionary Fleet and the Second Earth, which indicates that the war never broke out from beginning to end.

"The invasion fleet of Earth One consisted of fewer than 2000 ships, and it is estimated that they were completely wiped out during their long journey of 17 light-years. Earth Two won this battle by default. It is estimated that the fleet that went to Earth Three next door was in a similar situation, and was probably also completely wiped out. Interstellar travel has never been an easy task."

The inability to replenish resources in a timely manner with conventional controlled nuclear fusion technology, and the inability of conventional materials technology to withstand interstellar dust belts, are both outdated technologies that are the main factors limiting the travel distance during the low-speed space travel phase.

The invasion fleet of Earth One was indeed not considered advanced. Traveling three or four light-years was manageable, but seventeen light-years was far too far... Moreover, the warships were purely mechanical, which meant that without human crew to maintain them, the warships' self-healing ability was almost zero, and once damaged, it was almost impossible to repair them successfully.

After many bumps and stumbles along the way, the spirits had probably finished their conversation.

"Luckily, these brothers are far enough away from Earth, otherwise the second Earth would have been destroyed long ago."

"Seventeen light-years isn't that far. At that distance, they can almost see each other with an optical telescope. And they were born knowing about the existence of 'Brothers,' which is why Earth II built so many warships... just to guard against 'Brothers.'"

"This second Earth is also stupid. What's the use of making more of these steel shells?"

While the lamp spirits were exchanging information with each other.

The lightship has been traveling at standard light speed for more than ten minutes and has arrived at the orbit of the second planet in this star system, which is near the super-Earth.

"Everyone, stop flashing your lights randomly and scan for the signal of God's Retirement Ship fleet first."

The navigator, Golden Lamp A, issued the command.

But the Golden Lamp A quickly realized the command was unnecessary, as they had already seen the familiar yet strange God ships with their 'naked eyes'. The belated wide-area neutrino beam, traveling at the speed of light, covered the entire star system, completing a new scan. In this scan, the neutrino beam penetrated all the stars and planets, but failed to penetrate the God ships.

This shows that these God spaceships are not fake shells, but real.

"My God, there really is an old spaceship of God! It's exactly the same as the ones we see in history books! It looks like a building block toy!"

The spirits immediately erupted in chaos.

If the lamp spirits weren't in a higher-dimensional state and their light wasn't invisible, the dwarf humans on Super Earth would surely have noticed thousands of twinkling stars in the sky.

Upon discovering these God-like spaceships, the lightship made no further hesitation and headed straight for near-Earth orbit!
Gods really do retire here!
However, when they got closer to see these 'God ships', all the lights of the lamp spirits dimmed again.

"How could this happen..."

"God's spaceship is here, but where is God?"

There, a thousand giant God ships, resembling children's building blocks, were all concentrated in the synchronous orbit of the super-Earth. They were arranged in a huge and rigid ring, encircling this giant planet like a natural satellite belt.

So, the satellite belt isn't actually a satellite belt; it's God's spaceship...

Before us lies the retirement fleet of the gods, these thousand arks that should be peacefully sailing.

At this moment, they are silent.

The God spaceship was enormous, almost the size of the moon, but it appeared small next to the super-Earth, like a string of pearls encircling the super-Earth's indigo neck.

However, the condition of these spacecraft is not optimistic.

Each of the Godships was covered by a thick, shimmering metallic mesh structure. These meshes, like parasitic vines, were firmly rooted in the ship's engine nozzles, observation windows, and any possible weapon ports.

This was clearly done by the Second Earth.

Further out from these God ships were tens of thousands of smaller vessels, which, like patrolling hyenas, vigilantly surrounded this imprisoned graveyard of ships.

The higher-dimensional lightships floated near these patrol vessels, and then, one by one, the higher-dimensional lamp spirits floated out of the lightships.

The little lamp spirit floated forward and touched the silvery-white hull of God's spaceship.

"God's fleet...has been captured?"

The little lamp's light dimmed, conveying an emotion of disbelief.

"Catch my ass! The God Ship is a super battleship capable of repelling invaders from the Andromeda and Large Magellanic Clouds. How could it possibly be detained by these things?"

Angrily, a golden lamp broke free from its higher-dimensional state and returned to its three-dimensional state. Then, with a slight flicker of light, the silver nanomaterials binding the God's spaceship vanished as quickly as thin snow under the blazing sun.

The 'circle'-shaped God's spaceship has been restored to its original state.

Golden Lamp E began clearing the 'vines' from the other God ships.

Looking around, these thousand God spaceships come in all shapes and sizes, including but not limited to cubes, cuboids, cylinders, triangles, hemispheres, spheres, triangular prisms, square prisms, cones, cubes, cuboids, rhombuses, trapezoidal blocks, hexagonal prisms, semicircles, crescent shapes, stars, hearts, rings, and many other common shapes, making them very whimsical.

About a minute later, the golden lamp spirit completed the cleanup of the thousand God ships, restoring them all to normal.

Even so, the God ship, now 'free,' showed no intention of moving, nor did it respond to any messages from the lightship, or even the universal code of the Carbon-Based Federation.

The lamp spirits were at a loss.

The technology of God's spaceship is so advanced that it far exceeds the scope of the Lamp Spirit civilization's ability to interfere.

However, the restoration of these thousand God ships also attracted the attention of the entire 'Second Earth'. The massive interstellar military government began to operate inefficiently, and more and more steel behemoths locked onto the location of the God ships and were 'speeding' towards them at ten times the third cosmic velocity.

In less than a month, the massive fleet of the Second Earth will be able to completely surround these suddenly erratic God ships.

—Because the golden lantern spirits jumped too fast, they did not detect the spirits' presence.

“It seems the God Ship isn’t going to leave on its own… We need to find a way to contact God inside the God Ship,” said Golden Lamp Spirit B.

"The question is, is there God inside? Or is it an empty ship?" asked the Golden Lamp Spirit F.

"There should be. These gods who haven't become gods are already very old, and only these large spaceships can guarantee their living needs. But 1000 ships are too few. Could it be that the main force isn't even here?"

"Should we try to contact the civilization on the Second Earth and find some clues from them?" A spirit flickered.

"I'm afraid this Second Earth isn't anything good either," someone remarked.

The atmosphere instantly became heavy. The lamp spirits recalled the final producer on the first Earth who had tricked God into giving him technology and then banished him. Had the second Earth followed the same path? Or perhaps even worse?
"Continue to try the communication connection. Use the emergency identification code that the God Civilization reserved for the Carbon-Based Federation. In theory, as long as God is piloting it, it should be able to reply to us," the Golden Lamp Spirit A commanded, its light carrying the last glimmer of hope.

The content of the God-specific identification code is not complicated; it consists of five sentences.

Looking for friends

[Found a good friend]

Give a salute or a bow.

[Smiling and nodding]

You are my good friend.

This is the last emergency communication code left by the God Civilization to the Carbon-Based Federation. If the Carbon-Based Federation wants to contact the God Civilization, it can broadcast this content using the most common and simplest electromagnetic waves. As long as God can receive it, it will definitely appear.

A friendly greeting, mixed with the identity authentication of the Lamp Spirit civilization and the universal identification code of the Carbon-Based Federation, repeatedly washed over the surfaces of 1000 God ships using the simplest electromagnetic waves as a carrier.
wait.

A long wait.

The wait, which lasted for several tens of minutes, made the spirits feel a chill in their hearts.

"I hope nothing bad has happened to God..." The little lamp spirit's flame trembled.

"Gods who do not wish to become gods probably still use the most primitive bodies of their race... This means that gods would be very fragile..."

"My God, the gods once said that no matter what, they would definitely reply to this identification code. What does it mean if they don't reply?"

"Increase the signal power and broadcast it directionally throughout the entire Second Earth. Maybe God lives on the Second Earth," Golden Lamp Spirit A said unwillingly.

Ten lightships simultaneously broke free from their higher-dimensional state and emitted directional electromagnetic waves with power comparable to that of stars, directly penetrating the super-Earth from ten directions!
[Looking for! Ah! Looking for! Ah! Looking for! Friends!]

I've found a good friend!

【…】

【…】

You! Are! My! Best! Friend?

At this moment, all the high-powered electromagnetic radars on Super Earth were operating at full capacity, and the only response to this civilization was the booming heavenly voice, "Looking for friends!" Super Earth felt like its ears were about to explode!
It was as if if they couldn't find any friends, the entire super-Earth would be destroyed by those ten terrifying light ships in the sky.

Finally, the lamp spirits received a response.

But it wasn't God's response; it was a response from the Second Earth itself.

A rough, terrifying electromagnetic wave signal was mixed into the clean electronic waves of the lamp spirits.

"...Who are you looking for?"

(End of this chapter)