A Colossus rushes in at the start

Chapter 199 This universe is too rife with internal strife

In the first year of the Qadira calendar 3014, a great monarch was born in the Dir civilization.

This supreme monarch named Micah was unlike any other monarch in history. He was not only a ruler of power, but also the most outstanding scientist, artist, engineer, mathematician, strategist and so on in the entire civilization. He was a being with a myriad of talents, comparable to a god.

Many Dire people even suspect that this great Micah monarch is the incarnation of a god, because he has shown astonishing precognitive abilities in several murders, military coups, and decisions on the overall direction of civilization's scientific research.

Although Lord Micah later explained that he had deduced these results in advance based on intelligence gathered by his subordinates, many Dill people still believed that their great monarch possessed the ability to foresee the future.

Thus, a unique religion gradually emerged within the Dir civilization. This religion did not worship any particular god, but rather the monarch, Micah.

This religion believes that Monarch Micah is the incarnation of a god on earth, and that by believing in and worshipping him, one can obtain Monarch Micah's protection.

However, these Dillians were unaware that their religious worship was one of the few troubles of their great monarch.

"Do you really have no other way to solve the religious problem?" Micah asked in his mind.

The microscopic organism replied, "This is your collective choice, and it cannot be resolved unless physical intervention is taken against your entire Dill civilization."

"Collective physical interference refers to..." Micah asked tentatively.

The microscopic organism answered truthfully: "There are many ways. For example, we could completely reprogram the minds of all the religious Dill people, directly distorting their understanding of religion. Or we could use force to coerce them into not believing in religion. Or we could simply kill all the religious people, leaving only the children, and start educating them again..."

"Okay, okay, I understand. I won't do those things."

After hearing only a few methods, Micah couldn't help but interrupt the "god's" endless chatter.

As Micah spent more time in contact with these "gods," he sometimes became very conflicted.

They called them evil "witches," but the price they demanded from him was to lead the entire Dir civilization to development and prosperity.

They call them "gods," but occasionally they come up with some outrageously evil ideas, like the one I just mentioned, such as reprogramming the brains of all the Dillians and killing a large number of them.

Seeing Micah's stance, the microscopic organism knew that it was pointless to say more about this matter, as the other party would not listen, so it changed the subject.

"You have mastered faster-than-light travel technology and need to explore and colonize the universe. Other races in the universe will also compete with you Dillians for limited resources. You had better prepare for war in advance."

"We won't give you weapons design expertise. The military and industrial knowledge we've given you isn't just for show; you'll have to figure it out yourselves."

"Don't wait until the day civilization is destroyed to regret your laziness now."

……

"Is there any activity 20,000 light-years away?" Lu Shang asked.

While supporting the Dyer civilization within the vast universe, the swarm's microscopic organisms were also constantly exploring. Because they needed to maintain maximum caution, it took the swarm a relatively long time to explore a place 20,000 light-years away from the Dyer civilization.

There, the microscopic organisms being explored experienced their first loss of contact.

The microscopic organisms that went to explore disappeared directly from the bee colony network, completely losing contact with the Babel Tower bee colony.

Microscopic organisms may have been discovered and captured by a powerful civilization in the vast universe.

It's also possible that some unique reason within the vast universe caused the microscopic organisms to completely lose contact with the bee colony.

The microscopic organisms that go to explore may still be alive, or they may already be dead.

Regardless of the possibility, Lu Shang had already prepared for the worst, getting the swarm ready to fight, and even considered using a wormhole-style negative quantum strike to neutralize that area of ​​the giant universe.

I've been on guard and waiting until now.

"No," reported the microscopic creature observing from a distance of 20,000 light-years. It then inquired, "Should we conduct further probing?"

Lu Shang thought for a moment, and the fact that there had been no movement in the unknown region 20,000 light-years away meant that nothing was targeting microscopic organisms.

The conclusion drawn from this is that the loss of contact with microscopic organisms is due to other reasons, such as universes with different physical rules, like those encountered before. After microscopic organisms enter, matter begins to decay because the matter that constitutes microscopic organisms belongs to the excited state in those spacetime environments, and the excited state must transform into the ground state.

After much thought, Lu Shang decided, "No, let's not make meaningless sacrifices. Let's figure out what's going on 20,000 light-years away first."

"Other microscopic organisms explore in both directions along that edge 20,000 light-years away. The swarm doesn't know enough about the environment of the giant universe."

"Okay," the microscopic organism replied.

Lu Shang then asked, "Has the development of the Dir civilization been accelerated?"

"We've already subtly urged them," reported the microscopic being in charge of contacting the Dillian civilization.

Lu Shang said, "The swarm needs a large enough camouflage for cover. Don't be stingy with the technology of the Dier civilization. The stronger they are, the easier it will be for the swarm to hide behind them."

"clear."

Thanks to the deliberate guidance of the bee swarm, the development of the Dir civilization can be described as a meteoric rise from the ground.

After their first large, faster-than-light spaceship returned from completing various exploration missions outside the star system, they began to build up space fleets, followed by large-scale space expansion and interstellar colonization.

From a three-dimensional perspective, the bee colony looks like countless fish leaving their nests in batches to build nests elsewhere.

Unlike fish on Earth, these two-dimensional "fish" can be seen directly from the outside in from a three-dimensional perspective. Apart from their thoughts, they have no secrets.

The Dil's fleet thus began to come into contact with civilizations and races on various planets, whose situations were similar to the Dil's, differing mainly in their biological characteristics, social systems, and cultures.

Under the covert influence of the swarm, the Dillian monarch ordered a military conquest of these civilizations, bringing them all under his control. Thus, an interstellar empire spanning multiple star systems was established, with the Dillian civilization at its head and vassal civilizations as its supporting forces.

The territory of the Dire civilization quickly expanded from its initial home star system to a domain spanning tens of thousands of light-years.

During this time, Lu Shang also discovered that the edge he had initially found exhibited a certain degree of arc shape. By incorporating the arc into the circular calculation formula, the bee swarm obtained a huge circular region with a diameter of seven million light-years.

Therefore, it can be inferred that this circular area is the two-dimensional spatial environment that the bee colony is currently observing and exploring.

This was confirmed when planetary lifeforms were subsequently sent to explore by opening microscopic wormholes along the calculated edge of a giant circle.

This discovery led Lu Shang to suspect that an interstellar war might be taking place inside the giant universe.

Of course, it's also possible that after the war, the parties involved were too lazy to clean up the mess; the exact reason needs further investigation.

However, the discovery of the circular region prevented the swarm from wandering aimlessly in the two-dimensional space of the vast universe like a headless fly. By constructing a coordinate system with the center of the circle, the planetary organisms opened microscopic wormholes in batches, distributing the microscopic organisms evenly at each coordinate point, with each coordinate point separated by a distance of one light-year.

This exploration of the microscopic wormhole has led Lu Shang to discover quite a few things.

For example, three-dimensional organisms, three-dimensional objects, and so on can exist stably in this two-dimensional space.

"The three-dimensional objects have been confirmed; they are artifacts left behind by some civilization, used to prove that their civilization once existed," the microscopic organisms reported.

Having not obtained any significant intelligence, the microscopic creature pondered for a moment before asking Lu Shang, "We haven't made contact with those three-dimensional beings yet. When will we establish communication with them?"

Lu Shang shook his head and said, "It's not safe to communicate with the swarms. Let the Dier people's fleet make contact and let the Dier people communicate to obtain the intelligence that the swarms want."

As a puppet civilization controlled by a swarm, a space fleet of the Dire interstellar empire traveled to the vicinity of the nearest three-dimensional being.

This three-dimensional being was more than a thousand light-years away from the Dillian interstellar empire. Even though the Dillian fleet used the latest faster-than-light engines designed for them by the swarm, it took them a full two months to arrive.

From a three-dimensional perspective, this three-dimensional creature resembles a giant crab magnified to half a light-second in size, standing on the giant canvas of the two-dimensional universe.

Beneath the three-dimensional creature was a flat, two-dimensional star, and its eight foot points slowly rotated around the star.

From the Deir eagle's two-dimensional perspective, this three-dimensional creature is not visible; all that can be seen are eight evenly distributed small dots orbiting the star.

After the Direan fleet arrived, the three-dimensional creature noticed them, looking down at the school of fish that had come from afar from a three-dimensional perspective.

"Unknown beings, we, representing the Dirman Interstellar Empire, have come to make contact and communicate with you."

The Direan fleet sent out a message, but was met with silence; the three-dimensional beings did not respond.

The swarm had anticipated this situation. After all, in the universe, physics is always more effective than reasoning. So, before sending the Dil people to make contact, they instructed the Dil people's fleet through their monarch, Micah, that if they did not respond, they should fight until the other side did.

The main guns of the Dillian fleet were all aimed at the eight small points revolving around the star, and with a command from the fleet commander, they fired a salvo.

This behavior clearly angered the three-dimensional creature, which raised its long legs and pierced the reactors of these two-dimensional spaceships from top to bottom in three dimensions, causing these two-dimensional warships to explode as expected.

From a two-dimensional perspective, the eight small black dots of the three-dimensional creatures kept disappearing and reappearing, as if they could teleport. The Dillian fleet had no way to aim and attack them. The huge space fleet was completely bewildered by the three-dimensional creatures.

Just as the fleet commanders were considering whether they should temporarily retreat and regroup, the instructions given to them by the great monarch Micah before their departure suddenly came to mind: if they encountered a moment of extreme crisis, they should open the small box given to them, which contained a secret weapon to solve all troubles.

With a skeptical attitude, the commander of the Dire fleet took out the small box.

"May the Great Sovereign bless us!"

With this shout, the fleet commander opened the box.

The fleet commander was stunned the moment the box was opened, because it was empty and contained no secret weapon that could solve everything.

The moment the fleet commander was overwhelmed with panic, fear, and bewilderment, a large mass appeared in the two-dimensional space, accompanied by ripples of spacetime spreading outwards.

Just now, a planetary being extended its psionic energy through a microscopic wormhole into the macrocosm, delivering a psionic shock from behind to this three-dimensional being that was slaughtering the two-dimensional fleet of the Dillians. It dealt a heavy blow, knocking the creature down instantly.

The fleet commanders were unaware of these things, believing it was all thanks to the "secret weapon" in the box, and were overjoyed to thank their godlike and great monarch.

The Direan fleet sent another message to the three-dimensional beings, this time with much more arrogant language than before.

"Unknown creature, we represent the Dillian Interstellar Empire to make contact and communicate with you. We hope you won't be ungrateful this time."

"What did you put in that square container? Is that a switch for something?"

This time, the three-dimensional creature answered. The sudden, unexpected blow had left it shaken, and its head was still spinning. It abandoned its previous contempt.

"You don't need to know that. Just tell us if you're willing to have a friendly exchange with us. If not, we'll keep fighting until you are."

"...I am very willing to have friendly exchanges with you Dir people."

Through communication, the history of the universe in the two-dimensional space of the mega-universe was gradually revealed. Just as the swarm had initially predicted, the two-dimensional space of the mega-universe was a result of human intervention.

Strictly speaking, it was the result of a space war.

The universe is vast, with abundant resources, naturally giving rise to numerous advanced technological civilizations.

So, do these advanced civilizations all live in peace? Without any conflicts at all?

This is naturally impossible. In the universe, when reasoning fails, physics comes into play, which is war.

This is how space wars between advanced civilizations within the vast universe erupt.

This resulted in the fact that although the mega-universe is a single universe, it simultaneously contains multiple different physical rules. Each set of physical rules has a powerful civilization as the ruler of the region, and they are in a relationship of competition and mutual destruction, each wanting to cover the entire mega-universe with the physical rules it controls.

It is impossible to know when the war began, and the three-dimensional creature fighting against the Dillian fleet was merely a tiny, negligible survivor in the war of the vast universe.

"This isn't right. How come it's so different from the information the swarm got from the Cosmic Union about other cosmic civilizations?" a planetary creature asked, puzzled.

(End of this chapter)