A Colossus rushes in at the start

Chapter 252 Bee Swarms Are Too Rigid

This is a binary star system consisting of a red dwarf star and a larger-mass yellow dwarf star. Such celestial systems are ubiquitous in the universe, like roadside stones; they are so common that they are practically unremarkable.

But today, it has become no longer ordinary.

One after another, colossal planetary-sized objects appeared abruptly in this star system, accompanied by the release of high-energy particles, and these planetary-sized behemoths immediately approached all the celestial bodies within the star system.

Some headed straight for stars, some rushed towards planets, and others moved towards the Kuiper Belt. These enormous unidentified objects, comparable to planets, were like gluttonous beasts in the universe, recklessly devouring all matter within the star system.

Under the powerful gravity exerted by these behemoths, the planets disintegrated on a small scale as they exceeded the Roche limit. On each planet in the star system, towering structures rose up, reaching from the planet's surface into the universe. These towers were composed of fragmented planetary material, and the powerful gravity from the universe acted as a binding force, forming spire-shaped surges of matter.

Faced with these greedy behemoths, the planets completely lost their spherical shape; they were torn apart by the immense gravity into structures composed of several spikes.

The only celestial bodies that still retain a spherical shape are the two stars, one large and one small, within the star system.

However, the star merely maintains its spherical shape. Surrounded by these planetary-sized behemoths, the star's appearance resembles a soft, spiky ball, much like a child's toy.

The spherical surface is covered with spikes, which are channels that attract and confine matter through gravity. Through these channels, the gluttonous creatures in deep space greedily devour the matter from the two stars.

As the gravitational ring creatures that fed on Kuiper Belt and planetary mass gradually devoured all matter, more and more gravitational ring creatures joined the ranks of those feeding on star mass.

From a more macroscopic perspective, one can see individual "discs" obscuring the star's light. As they move, they envelop the star, much like a completed Dyson cloud.

The brightness of the two stars suddenly decreased by 40% due to mass loss and obstruction.

As the gravitational ring organisms devour other organisms, they use the collected matter to multiply themselves. These newly formed gravitational ring organisms then travel to nearby star systems, plundering their mass and thus expanding exponentially.

However, since faster-than-light communication has not been achieved, this expansion on a light-year scale inevitably leads to inconsistencies. The fact that the exploration bee transmits information back and forth between various star systems has only alleviated the problem to some extent, and cannot fundamentally solve the overall inconsistencies caused by information delays.

Fortunately, it's not a big problem. The Babel bee colony is naturally very united, so a certain degree of disharmony won't cause any major issues.

On the other hand, it seems that some problems have arisen on the enemy's side.

Since the last frozen cycle capture operation ended, Lu Shang, based on the information brought back by the exploration bees, has discovered that the number of those spherical, expanding, invisible vacuoles that can easily devour matter seems to be increasing, and the number is climbing each time. In many areas, the invisible vacuoles have already merged into one.

The enemy's strategy is not complicated; in fact, it can be described as an open conspiracy.

They intend to alter the space environment, transforming it into an environment unsuitable for the Babel bee swarm, thereby forcing the Babel bee swarm to completely leave their sphere of influence.

If the Babel bees insist on staying and refusing to migrate after completing this comprehensive transformation within their sphere of influence, then only the extinction of their civilization remains as an outcome.

However, relocation is not always the best option.

If the enemy's sphere of influence is vast, and they have already completed this transformation of the cosmic environment in areas that the swarm has not yet explored, then the swarm will be surrounded by these invisible cavitation bubbles.

No matter how you migrate, it will be a dead end. The only way to survive is to open a wormhole to escape, or to create a miniature universe to escape before the cosmic environment changes completely.

"Should we now consider building a very large microcosm?"

Faced with the threat to the survival of civilization, the hives were somewhat thrown into disarray. Based on the idea that the continuation of civilization was the top priority, their first consideration was not how to defeat the enemy, but how to build a safe haven. In this way, even if the unknown civilization completed the transformation of the universe's environment, the hive could continue to perpetuate its species in a safe haven.

Lu Shang said, "Don't panic. If you think this way, the enemy will naturally think the same way. This is exactly the result they want to see: losing their fighting spirit to fight against them in order to protect themselves."

"Once the enemy takes control of the pace of the war, the swarm will become extremely passive. The swarm must firmly grasp the initiative in the war. Only in this way can the swarm win this cosmic war and completely defeat the enemy."

One of the beehives hesitated and said, "But... how should we deal with the current situation?"

Lu Shang took a sip of purple tea and said casually, "It's very simple. The enemy wants to change the cosmic environment, so the swarm will prevent that change. The more they want to do it, the more the swarm will prevent them from doing so."

The hives pondered for a moment, but couldn't figure out what method Lu Shang meant by "stopping." Now that they had lost their psionic energy, the hives didn't seem to have any good way to deal with those invisible cavitation bubbles, let alone stop them.

"How do we stop it?" a beehive asked.

Lu Shang said, "Use the frozen cycle to pack up all the altered universe space and temporarily seal it in a small universe where time is stopped. After the swarm's negative quantum controllability technology is developed, we will move all the mass in these frozen cycles back to the larger universe."

He sighed deeply and continued, "Your mindset needs to change."

"Indeed, the swarm can no longer use psionic energy, but that does not mean that the swarm's knowledge system linked to psionic energy is useless. The swarm can distort spacetime in other ways to achieve the same effect as psionic energy distorting spacetime."

"You can first assume that you still have psychic powers and think about how to use psychic powers to warp spacetime and interfere with the movement of matter to solve the current problem. Then consider how to achieve the same physical effect without relying on psychic powers."

"It's not difficult; the important thing is that you need to change your mindset."

Lu Shang instructed the hives on the planetary creatures and conveyed this information to every bee colony in the universe through the exploratory bees.

The Babel bee colony is great in every way, except that its thinking is prone to rigidity and getting stuck in a rut. The group is also prone to falling into cognitive biases and getting stuck. They have the most flexible genes and the strongest unity, but they also have the most rigid thinking.

Even under Lu Shang's reforms, the swarm creatures possessed their own independent thought. Although they were much smarter than in the old era, they still exhibited an overall state of 'dullness'.

(End of this chapter)