Cataclysmic Era: I can unlock the tech tree

"Then...where did the ball go?"

He Bilin's confused voice came from behind.

Lu Yongchang frowned as well.

Yes.

Where did the little ball go?

"Zero, slow down the experimental process," Lu Yongchang ordered directly.

The holographic projection image changes accordingly.

At a speed of a million times slow motion, the ball "slowly" moves forward.

This is the result of the combined effect of two opposing gravitational fields.

The moment the strength of the two gravitational fields was successfully increased to the level of a moderate star, the ball suddenly disappeared from the screen!

Then, a violent shaking was heard in the slow-motion footage!

"Replay, increasing the slow motion speed to ten million times."

Lu Yongchang spoke with an extremely serious expression.

Ten million times, twenty million times, one hundred million times...

No matter how much Lü Yongchang increased the slow-motion speed, the high-speed camera could not capture the process of the ball disappearing.

"Curve navigation".

"But……"

"Where's the ball?" He Bilin asked in a low voice. "Even if it's in warp drive mode, it shouldn't have disappeared!"

Lü Yongchang's eyes flickered.

He recalled the unusual phenomenon that occurred during the first experiment.

"Zero, were any fragments from the broken sphere found inside the experimental chamber?"

"No fragments of the small ball have been found yet," Zero quickly responded. "A second screening is underway..."

"Correction: Unknown powdery substance detected."

"Discovery area: near the experimental chamber wall."

"Substance type testing is underway..."

Synthetic electronic sounds, accompanied by alarms, rang out continuously in the laboratory.

"powder?"

"Was it found near the wall of the experimental chamber?"

Lu Yongchang stared blankly at the holographic projection, an unbelievable guess rising in his mind.

Driven by the super-strong spacetime waves caused by two opposing gravitational fields, the spacetime in which the ball is located moves forward at high speed.

The little ball is the passenger who gets a "ride".

Following the shifting spacetime, it successfully entered warp drive mode.

But in that instant, the incredibly powerful spacetime tidal effect tore it apart.

Compared to the previous experiment, the spacetime tidal effect was much greater this time—it was completely shattered!

But warp drive has already begun!

The moving spacetime, carrying the powder that the small ball had turned into, rushed straight forward!

In the next instant, they rushed out of the gravitational field.

The spacetime waves gradually subsided, and they broke free from their warp-axis navigation state.

The small powder particles slowly fell near the walls of the experimental chamber.

"Test complete. The composition of the substance is the same as that of the experimental pellet."

Zero's report undoubtedly confirmed Lü Yongchang's suspicions.

He simply raised his hand and "pulled" out several data points from the holographic projection.

After a few simple calculations, he looked at the results in front of him and took a deep breath.

"1.01 times the speed of light!"

"Fellow academicians, we have surpassed the speed of light!!"

"We did it!!!"

The words fell.

After a few seconds of silence, the laboratory erupted in excitement!

……

After a brief period of celebration, the laboratory returned to its original atmosphere of intense research.

Everyone knows that they are still a long way from true success!

Although they successfully found the switch to enter warp drive, it does not mean that they have mastered warp drive!

the reason is simple.

"Professor, the calculation results are in. At the moment of entering warp drive, the experimental sphere was subjected to unimaginable spacetime tides."

He Bilin raised his hand, swiped a few times in the holographic projection, and brought up a set of data: "Two opposite spacetime curvatures produced an incredibly complex reaction at their intersection."

"Some of the spacetime curvature cancels each other out, while some of the spacetime curvature superimposes on each other, which causes the experimental sphere to be subjected to an unprecedented spacetime tidal effect."

He swallowed hard. "To date, no material in human civilization can withstand such a spacetime tidal force effect!"

Although he had expected it, Lü Yongchang's heart still sank when he heard those words.

In other words, current warp drive technology is definitely a "one-way ticket".

It's not even a one-way ticket; it's more like stuffing a person or object into a cannon barrel and then firing to send them flying.

"We need to smooth out the complex spacetime distortions around the spacecraft."

Looking at the curvature model in the holographic projection, Lü Yongchang murmured to himself.

As he spoke, he reached out and sketched and calculated something on the curvature model.

With the real-time computation provided by Zero, a brand-new curvature model was quickly presented to Lü Yongchang.

"Professor... what's this?"

Looking at the bubble-like object that appeared in the curvature model, narrow at both ends and wide in the middle, He Bilin couldn't help but ask Lü Yongchang a question.

"With the help of real-time computing and control, we can apply a constantly changing gravitational field to the spacetime around the spacecraft."

"This smooths out the distorted spacetime around the spacecraft."

"Based on the calculations from the model, this would be a bubble-shaped gravitational field similar to a rugby ball."

"We can call it..."

"Curvature bubble!"

"Once you enter warp drive mode, the only safe zone is inside the warp bubble."

He Bilin nodded, seemingly understanding, "Professor, I understand what you mean."

"but……"

"Is it really possible to complete such calculations?"

Lü Yongchang smiled gently.

"This is my job."

"With the help of the current spacetime and curvature models, I believe that we can definitely obtain a model that can accurately calculate spacetime curvature."

He stood up from his seat and looked back thoughtfully at the rough model he had just finished.

"Perhaps this curvature bubble is the precursor to the gravity shield..."

After saying that, he turned and walked out of the laboratory, leaving behind a comment.

"Continue the experiment, and send all the data to my personal terminal."