The Wallfacer: Everyone wants to break through my wall.

"So many years of virtual space exercises have proven in practice the importance of spacecraft speed to the entire space battlefield. Spacecraft are not simply space gun emplacements; their strategic value lies in their ability to attack the enemy. Therefore, spacecraft need to have the ability to traverse a four-light-year scale to reach the Trisolaran system."

"At the same time, Feng Taylor's strategic thinking also requires the spaceship to have sufficient speed. A century later, the technology of the Trisolaran world is certainly a century ahead of the Trisolaran fleet. In the future, this technological gap will be even greater."

"If humanity can use the resources of the solar system as an advantage to defeat the Trisolaran fleet that invades the solar system, then humanity will need an even larger amount of resources to defeat the Trisolaran world, which is centuries ahead of the Trisolaran fleet in technology. Therefore, it will be necessary to colonize other star systems."

"But these star systems are much farther away from the Trisolaran world than our solar system. If we want to complete the colonization expedition as soon as possible, the colony ships will need to have higher speeds."

"These are my reasons for supporting the priority development of antimatter engines."

Then, another Space Force officer stood up and shared his views with the high-ranking officers present.

"I support prioritizing weapons development, and let me explain my reasons."

"We still don't know how strong the Trisolaran fleet really is. The technology we know so far is only sophons and antimatter."

"If the technological gap in weapons is only one or two decades, it's fine. But if the gap is four or five centuries, then on the space battlefield, no matter how many warships we have, we will be crushed by the enemy. Imagine, with our current technology, fighting against humans from four or five centuries ago, what are the chances of humans winning back then? Can we make up for the gap with sheer numbers of people and resources?"

"The Trisolaran fleet will still need several centuries to reach the solar system, so a slower pace of antimatter engine research isn't a major problem. After all, engines are all about fuel efficiency. Antimatter doesn't have the concept of complete combustion; it's inherently a 100% mass-energy conversion. Therefore, the main focus of engine development is simply how to convert the energy from the 100% mass-energy conversion of antimatter into the propulsion of the spacecraft."

"Based on the above reasons, I believe that the pace of weapon development must not be slowed down, but the development of antimatter engines can be appropriately slowed down."

Both sides have their own reasons and justifications.

The problem is that the current production of antimatter by all of humanity is limited, and we cannot use it in equal proportions; we must make a choice.

After several rounds of debate, the weapons faction persuaded the engine faction.

"Weapons are a priority. Ultimately, the outcome of the battle on the front lines is determined by weapons. Moreover, our Space Force has an obligation to protect humanity in the solar system from the attacks of the Trisolaran fleet."

What convinced the engine faction was not the weapon faction's claim of a technological gap in weaponry, but rather the Space Force's obligations to humanity in the solar system.

In the future, the space force of the solar system will inevitably clash with the Trisolaran fleet that invades the solar system. On this defensive front, weapons will have a greater strategic advantage than engines.

At the end of the meeting, the host said, "In addition, we should submit more construction orders to the Taylor system to enable the human world to have more antimatter production facilities as soon as possible, so as to solve the problem of antimatter resource shortage. The current antimatter production is absolutely unsuitable for combat."

……

In a virtual space exercise, the player, a Zaunite, died.

They did not die from the attack by the Trisolaran fleet. The cause of death was that their spaceship collided with a massive entity, which could be a planet, a meteorite, or even a star, a black hole, or a neutron star.

The people of Zaun didn't know what they had run into; everything happened too fast.

“Our numbers are dwindling sharply. This is my third and final clone transfer.”

After Zaun woke up, he said somewhat discouragedly to his teammates on the warship.

"What happened?" asked the player, Beifeng.

The Zuan people explained, "When encountering a massive entity, which could be a large meteorite or other celestial body, the spaceship, traveling at 99.99% of the speed of light, was unable to change direction and crashed into it."

“There are many celestial bodies in the Milky Way, more than the sands of the Sahara Desert. Besides the sun, there are planets, meteorites, black holes, and so on. At near-light speed, these material entities are no different from a giant wall standing in front of us. We should escape in the direction perpendicular to the Milky Way's disk, where there are relatively fewer material entities,” said the Zuan man.

The Zaunites felt they were going the wrong way this time, and many of them would definitely be eliminated by colliding with celestial bodies. In the end, only those warships that left the Milky Way perpendicular to the galactic disk would survive.

Thinking of this, Zuanren couldn't help but ask Beifeng.

"Where are we now? Are we still within the Milky Way?"

Chapter 199 The Eternal Man of the Black Hole

The wind gave a negative answer, "I have calculated it. I took the time dilation effect into account and then made an estimate based on time, speed, and location. It has probably traveled about two thousand light-years. Because I am moving in the direction perpendicular to the galactic disk, I have now left the Milky Way and entered the open area between galaxies."

"We are now very safe. The density of matter in the open areas between galaxies is not even on the same order of magnitude as that in the Milky Way."

The people of Zuan, having received the answer, breathed a sigh of relief but were also secretly alarmed; two thousand years had passed since they set off.

People from Zu'an are currently experiencing a strong sense of temporal and spatial disorientation.

"I wonder what the situation is like in the Milky Way right now," the Zaunite muttered to himself.

Sorrowful Wind, however, didn't care. "Why bother with those things? The current situation is exactly what your 'lying down and watching the show' philosophy is. Just lie down and watch the show; there's no need for fighting and competing."

To kill time, Beifeng turned on the game he had intentionally placed inside the spaceship.

Do you play Tetris?

"Just play, I'm bored anyway."

The Zaun people did not refuse; after obtaining game access from Beifeng, they also joined the competition.

At this moment, the people of Zaun felt a subtle, indescribable feeling. The spaceship was traversing a vast and boundless space at 99.99% of the speed of light. Under the extreme distortion of spacetime, time in the outside world passed in an instant.

But the two of them were holed up inside the spaceship playing Tetris.

"It's supposed to be a space exercise, but we're playing video games. I reckon we're the most relaxed group ever since the concept of 'exercise' came about," a player from Zaun joked.

"It's hard to say; no one can predict the future."

Sorrowful Wind doesn't believe they are among the most prioritized. There will definitely be people more leisurely than them in the future, and who knows, there might even be events where the fate of the universe is decided with a few words.

"What does the end of the universe look like?" Zuanren couldn't help but ask.

Sorrowful Wind replied, "Who knows? Anyway, we probably won't get there, whether in the virtual world or in reality."

"I'm thinking that one day I can go there and see it, and then cross the edge to see what's beyond the universe," the Zaunite said.

"Then you'll have to develop faster-than-light speed. The expansion rate of the universe has been increasing. If you can't travel faster than light, you'll never catch up with the expansion rate of the universe, and you'll never reach the edge of the universe."

As Beifeng spoke, he suddenly remembered something.

"Oh, right, there's something I forgot to mention. Although it's very sparse, there are still extremely small amounts of nebulous matter between galaxies. They have very low density and spread out over a very large area. Even if this spaceship doesn't eventually encounter a galaxy, it will still slow down due to this nebulous matter."

The spaceship continued to slow down even after reaching the open area between galaxies, something that Beifeng only noticed after reaching outside the Milky Way.

Although this deceleration is negligible compared to the speed within the Milky Way, deceleration is still deceleration. Extending the scale to infinity, the spaceship will eventually fall from near the speed of light.

The Zaunian thought for a moment, "Let's find a galaxy, enter the center of that galaxy, and if there's a supermassive black hole there, we'll enter the event horizon."

"Entering the event horizon?! Gravity will tear us apart!"

Beifeng thought the people of Zaun had their heads caught in a door, otherwise why would they think of running into a black hole?

The Zuan man answered confidently, "No, because the size of our spaceship is far too small compared to the supermassive black hole, so the change in gravity we feel will not be too strong. It's like a small boat in a giant wave; it will capsize because of the waves, but it won't break because it's too insignificant compared to the giant waves."

After careful consideration, Beifeng asked, "What will happen after we enter the black hole? The Trisolaran fleet can also chase us into the black hole and continue their pursuit."

Beifeng didn't understand black holes very well, but he knew that since they could enter a black hole unharmed, the Trisolaran fleet could also enter a black hole unharmed.

The Trisolaran fleet may not be able to leave the black hole, but they can continue to hunt them down inside. Those trapped inside the black hole will only become sitting ducks.

"Impossible. Once we enter the black hole, we will be immortal and our lifespan will be longer than the universe itself," the Zuan man said confidently.

Beifeng paused for a moment, then said suspiciously, "...I'm not well-educated, don't try to fool me."

The person from Zu'an replied, "I'm well-educated, I wouldn't lie to you. Besides, you're my teammate. If I lie to you now, won't I get a bunch of people to beat me up after the exercise?"

"That makes sense, but you could at least give me a little background information so I can broaden my horizons."

Beifeng was convinced, but he still hoped that the people of Zuan could give him some basic education.

The person from Zuan replied, "There's not much to explain. When a person falls into a black hole, there are two possible outcomes based on probability. One outcome is that the person crashes into the singularity inside the black hole and dies. That's the final result. The other outcome is that the person heads straight towards the singularity, forever approaching it, but never actually getting close."

"Wait, I understand the first result, but what about the second result?"

Sorrowful Wind felt a bit confused. They didn't know how to create clones, so how did they end up crashing into the singularity and then keep falling towards it?

Are they alive or dead?

The Zuan people explained, "The spacetime inside a black hole is in an infinitely stretched state. The singularity is infinitely small and the density is infinitely large. On an infinite scale, we are affected by gravity and travel at a speed infinitely close to the speed of light, taking an infinite amount of time to reach the singularity and then crash into it and die."

"As long as we randomly pick a central black hole in a galaxy and dive in, the Trisolaran fleet will never be able to do anything to us, and this exercise can only end in a draw."

Because it takes an infinite amount of time to reach the singularity of a black hole, they will never reach the singularity and will not die there. However, after an infinite amount of time, they will inevitably die at the singularity.

Due to the gravitational pull of the singularity, the two of them will continue to fall at an accelerating rate indefinitely, approaching the speed of light infinitely, even exceeding 99.99% of the speed of light. Therefore, even if the Trisolaran fleet possesses light-speed spaceships, they will be unable to hunt them down inside the black hole.

Although it was a bit convoluted, Beifeng understood, but he still had other worries.

“There’s nothing inside the black hole. They can wear us down outside and eventually kill us. The spaceship has limited resources,” said Beifeng, revealing what he knew.

The Zuan man replied, "You forgot about length contraction. The flow of time inside a black hole is the same as when you reach the speed of light. We can hide inside a black hole and live until all the molecules in the universe decay into subatomic particles without dying of old age. We can live until the moment when the universe completely heats up."

"What can the Trisolaran fleet in normal time and space use to wear us down?"

Unbeknownst to Zaun and Beifeng, their conversation was being recorded verbatim by the Taylor system outside the virtual world.

This was naturally at Lin Feng's behest, as Taylor's group was instructed to do so.

"Have you memorized everything?" Lin Feng asked, looking at Edith.

Edith looked puzzled. "Why are you so interested in this?"

Lin Feng hesitated for a moment, a hint of melancholy creeping into his expression. "There are never too many ways for human civilization to continue. Besides, doesn't our Milky Way galaxy just happen to have a supermassive black hole?"

“This is still just speculation,” Edith added.

Lin Feng disagreed, saying, "Even if it's just a guess, it's still very valuable."

"With this method, there would be no need for humans to carve words on stones anymore."

Lin Feng muttered to himself as he watched the virtual space exercise projection.

Chapter 200 What is Escapeism?

In a virtual space exercise, players escaped from different directions at 99.99% of the speed of light, while the Trisolaran fleet's warships pursued them relentlessly.

The two sides entered a stalemate at high speed. The Trisolaran fleet was unable to deal with the human fleet, and the human fleet was unable to shake off the Trisolaran fleet.

As time went on, some of the human warships began to slow down or be destroyed for various reasons.

Even if the human fleet doesn't crash into a celestial body, it will still be affected by the celestial body's gravity, causing its speed to decrease. For example, if it passes by a neutron star, and happens to be passing in the opposite direction of the neutron star's rotation, the gravitational slingshot will cause the spaceship's speed to decrease.

Those human fleet ships that were not destroyed by the Trisolaran fleet, and that did not crash into celestial bodies and suffer total loss of life, changed course appropriately and headed towards the black hole within their observation range.

The increasing number of human fleet warships making this choice greatly frustrated the Trisolaran warship pilots who were constantly pursuing them.

Through the faster-than-light communication network constructed by the Sophons, the Trisolaran fleet exchanges intelligence internally.

"Some of them hid in black holes, while others flew outside the Milky Way, moving away from the Milky Way at 99.99% of the speed of light."

"What's going on this time? Why is the directing department silent? The human fleet's behavior is clearly a typical example of escapism. They have abandoned the solar system and the human civilization they were supposed to protect."

Within the Trisolaran fleet, some wondered why the directing department had fallen silent this time.