The stars, but they become the gray wind

"So if you want to improve a civilization's development and technological capabilities in the short term without side effects, improving their brainpower is inevitable."

"The evolution of a civilization born in a purely natural environment would be a chaotic process filled with periodic increases in entropy."

"In a closed system like a society formed by a civilization, if the entire civilization lacks a continuous external force to drive progress, it will eventually fall into a vicious cycle of cyclical chaos and be unable to escape the disorder brought about by the increasing entropy of the surrounding environment."

"In order to maintain their own low entropy state, intelligent life forms inevitably lead to a continuous increase in entropy within the closed environment of civilization. Ultimately, the disorder within society, civilization, and the environment in which they exist continues to rise."

"Then, there are periodic disasters that are powerful enough to wreak havoc on civilization."

"However, that assumes no external intervention. As long as an external force intervenes and transforms the closed environment of civilization into an open one, this process can be avoided, or at least the cost of increased environmental entropy will be greatly reduced."

"You should have noticed the environment of this planet. The ocean only accounts for less than 40% of the planet's total surface area. There isn't enough ocean water to retain sufficient heat and participate in the planet's thermal cycle. Once the civilization on this planet enters the industrial age, the rate of global warming will be alarmingly rapid. The rapid increase in greenhouse gases will cause catastrophic consequences for the planet's ecosystem. Moreover, a smaller ocean means that they can extract less deuterium and tritium isotope resources from the ocean. It's even uncertain whether they can sustain their space travel."

"Furthermore, the heavy element content of this planet is quite low. Based on the rate at which the burrowing owl consumes various resources since entering the industrial age, the planet is at risk of being depleted of all heavy elements within three hundred years."

"This assumes they have the technology to mine heavy elements deep within the planet. If they don't have the technology, all the heavy elements available for mining near the planet's surface will be completely exhausted within 130 years after they begin large-scale use of atomic energy."

“What’s worse is that after entering the industrial age, their population growth rate will further accelerate the depletion of heavy elements and irreplaceable biological resources on the entire planet.

"If they are left to develop completely unhindered, they will most likely end up in extinction after a series of disasters and a bloody history caused by the scarcity of vital resources."

"However, if we intervene now, it's not too late. We can directly pull them into the stage of planetary civilization or even preliminary stellar civilization with their current population size. According to the results of the planetary scan, their current population size is only around 600 million."

"As long as they are equipped with sufficiently advanced artificial intelligence that they can fully understand and apply, and a von Neumann self-replicating industrial system, they can completely enter and maintain a planetary civilization above K1.0 with their current population size."

"With our help, it's not impossible for them to become a quasi-Type II civilization within a few hundred to a thousand years."

"Honestly, rather than allowing such a civilization with unlimited potential to perish in the chaos caused by the lack of resources on its home planet for the next ten thousand years, it would be better to help them and give them the opportunity to communicate and coexist with me as an interstellar civilization on an equal footing."

"Since we've decided to help, let's do it to the end. Let's give them the chance to succeed right away. What I hate most is the toothpaste-like teaching and assistance."

"When they can fully understand the knowledge and concepts we teach them, it won't be too late to let them decide their own future path."

Aze nodded. This method is indeed much milder than the bloody and terrible primitive accumulation method in the early industrial age on Earth. The burrowing owls can enter a mature industrial planetary civilization stage at a much smaller cost, or even almost zero cost, without having to pay such painful lessons and costs like humans.

Under the influence of sufficiently strong external forces, the increase in entropy and disorder in the natural and social environment caused by the development of civilization can indeed be avoided, and this process may not need to be as tragic as the world war in human society. The burrowing owls, which are still in the early stages of civilization development and have extremely high plasticity, will only experience a completely painless and extremely gentle process, completing the journey that would have required tens of thousands of years of painful lessons and periodic chaos at the lowest cost.

Klar, who felt a little dizzy after being masturbated by several sky aliens in the temporary scientific research station on the surface, staggered out of the temple where the "goddesses" in her eyes lived.

She shook her head, and indeed caught a glimpse of the metallic reflections on the "temple gate" and "temple walls".

Wait, what is metal?

Kara was very confused. This word suddenly appeared in her mind. It seemed that when she saw those reflective walls and doors, she thought of this word inexplicably.

For a little owl who had been living in the Paleolithic Age, she had never seen the reflections that only appeared on artificially smelted metals or these unique materials. When she was first brought into this magnificent and decent temple by the "Goddesses", she simply regarded the walls and doors with strange reflections and the windows that could be switched between light-transmitting and light-impermeable at any time as miracles of the Goddesses.

But now, when her inadvertent gaze accidentally caught sight of the walls and door reflecting the strange luster again, this word suddenly popped up in her mind.

She raised a paw and scratched her head to confirm that her head was intact. She was very confused. Why did seeing these walls and doors reflecting a strange luster make her think of "metal", a word she had never heard of before?

"That's weird... Have I heard that word before?"

"Should we go ask the goddess again?" The little owl shook his head and stared at the reflection on the wall.

What Klar didn't know was that this was a sign that the nanomachines that had been taken into her body before had begun to act on her brain and were gradually and comprehensively improving her brain's ability to understand and process language, text, images, and other comprehensive and complex information.

After asking the goddess, the confused little owl only got an answer: "This is an invisible gift I give to you and other tribesmen." After the answer, which made Klar full of questions, Klar returned to the settlement where the tribe lived. As soon as she returned to the settlement, she saw an elder and several of her peers roasting the fruits they brought back on the fire.

Seeing that Klar, who had just been carried to the temple by the "Lady Goddess", had returned, the tribesmen happily surrounded Klar and asked her about what she had seen and heard in the temple where the Lady Goddess lived.

But the little owl did not excitedly recount her experiences with the goddess and in the temple as usual, because when she saw the fire used to roast wild fruits, a word she had never heard of popped up in her mind - plasma.

Note 1: The growth of entropy is an irreversible process, and therefore the law of increasing entropy is considered the most hopeless law in physics. Any closed system, without external forces, will descend into chaos. This means that anyone who isolates themselves and fails to break through will eventually fall into chaos, without exception. An untidy house will become messy, undisciplined individuals will become lazy, large companies must focus on management, and closed countries will be eliminated. The direction of development of things is always towards increasing entropy. Everything that is easy and comfortable is consistent with increasing entropy.

If a living organism does not eat or take in water, it will gradually become dehydrated, consume all the energy in the body, become weaker, and its energy will decrease. Then it will die, and the cells will decompose disorderly and disappear.

Therefore, all animals in the world establish neural networks in order to continuously obtain more food energy and maintain their integrity, and derive various desires and pains in order to protect themselves from erosion, promote the survival and reproduction of living organisms, maintain body metabolism, and continue to differentiate until death.

Because entropy differentiates disorderly and irregularly in the universe, the meaning of negative entropy is to oppose the effect of entropy, which is a measure of the order, organization and complexity of the material system.

Any living thing exists in a state of feeding on negative entropy.

In other words, the birth of all life is to turn all disorder into order.

Note 2: On Earth, tritium is distributed in the atmosphere, water, and organisms. Its concentration is extremely small, only one trillionth of the amount found in natural hydrogen, making its extraction extremely difficult. Currently, tritium is primarily produced through nuclear reactors and particle accelerators.

Chapter 239: Fortress vs. Fortress Begins (7000 words)

The little burrowing owl was a little confused by the situation. At night, she stared at the bright yellow flame, and a word appeared in her mind again: plasma. It seemed that this word was referring to the flame in front of her. Klar thought of what the goddess had said to her before.

"Hmm? Could the [Invisible Gift] that Goddess mentioned be what's in my head?"

Klar seemed to have figured something out, but also seemed to have figured nothing out.

.........

"It seems... it's working well?" Noli, who had been monitoring Klar's vital signs and brain status, sat on Aze's lap, snuggling closely with Aze while checking the condition of the silly-looking little owl.

"Hey, that means... that child's cognition has begun to improve?" Aze kissed Noli, a good friend he had just met, on the cheek. Noli, whose long red and green hair were intertwined, almost face to face with Aze, turned on the monitoring image of Klar's brain activity status.

"Today alone, there have been several spikes in activity, which suggests this child is thinking and beginning to be curious about the ways in which the world he lives in operates."

"She's starting to wonder what metals and plasma are, and soon she'll understand the concept of chemical combustion. Like a toddler, she'll be curious about everything around her and start investigating and exploring it."

"During this process, the nanomachines acting on his brain and body will give him some concept of the things he is exploring at the appropriate time, just like an assistant who will give you prompts in time."

As Nori spoke, she played with a strand of long red hair by Aze's ear.

"In that case... this child's knowledge and cognitive level will soon be equivalent to that of a Type 0.7 civilization individual?"

"Well, to be more specific, it's probably closer to a 21st century university graduate with an IQ slightly above the average human?"

"Even if they fully understand the principles and usage of a certain technological product, it's not necessarily true that an individual knows how to build a complex integrated circuit computer."

"But for the burrowing owls who are still in the Stone Age, this is more than enough. Once we have accumulated more results on Kral, we can start the next step."

"A plan to improve their living and living environment?"

"To be more precise, we should use a small city with a fully automated industrial system equivalent to the production scale and technological level of a primary planetary civilization as the starting point."

"Then... gradually relocate the burrowing owls across the entire planet... If we have 600 million people, the production capacity of a small automated industrial city in the early stages of a planetary civilization can be completely self-sufficient."

"The rest of the story is simple... We need to extend the intelligence and cognition enhancement technology we've tested on Klare to the entire burrowing owl species. In the process, we need to help them develop the concept that all burrowing owls, regardless of their origin, are one and the same, not just different groups."

"Erasing differences from the very beginning?"

"Yes. If, like us, no relevant concepts were born during the development of civilization, then naturally, thoughts and actions such as harming and oppressing one's own kind would be difficult to arise."

"As for things like what happened to humans, which caused the entire species to split into a multitude of different countries and groups that are constantly at odds with each other, we won't let that happen to the intelligent life forms we help."

"Shouldn't an intelligent species be inherently a whole, one that tolerates and cares for its fellow beings?"

"That's right..." Noli hugged Aze again and rested her head gently on Aze's shoulder.

Aze has long been accustomed to the intimate sisterly behavior between Noli and the other Sky Star sisters. Not to mention her current self, even the version of herself from ten years ago who came from the other side of the time bridge has also come to like this kind of intimate interaction between sisters.

During these two months, Klar felt that she had changed a lot. For example, if it were the old her, when she saw steam coming out of the simple pot made of peaches, she would only think of "it's time to eat".

But now, when she saw the lid of the pot slightly lifted by the steam and jumping up and down, she seemed to think of something, such as a container that generates steam by continuously heating water at the bottom, driving some kind of device?

The word "machine" had only just come into her mind not long ago. In the temple of the goddess, she saw many things that she didn't recognize. While observing those things, an idea came into her mind - these things are called machines.

It seems... the goddesses are particularly keen on making such "machines". Perhaps those divine messengers who often accompany the goddesses are also such machines?

The little owl was still a little confused about the concept that had just appeared in her mind. She glanced again at the lid of the pot that was being opened by the steaming pot. There seemed to be some difference between the three, the machine that only existed in her imagination, and the complex and extremely exquisite machinery around the goddesses. However, there seemed to be some similarities between the three. The immature little owl was still a little confused. Her mind was trying to turn around and connect and combine these three seemingly different things.

Klar once again went to the goddess' temple and expressed these doubts. When the goddesses present heard the questions he asked, they seemed inexplicably happy.

"You finally realize that these three are essentially the same. They are all machines, combinations of mechanical and artificial physical components. These components can be large or small, complex or simple. They can transmit energy, force or something else from one place to another."

"For example, this is what you think of when you see the lid of a pot being pushed open by the steam." Noli snapped her fingers, and a simple steam engine model appeared in front of Klar.

"Add water to it, and then keep burning fire at the bottom. The black hole piston keeps moving up and down, driving the connecting rod to continuously drive something. This is what you think of, right?"

"That's right! This is it! This is it! Goddess!" After carefully examining and observing the steam engine model in front of him, Klar excitedly jumped up and down beside the model.

“Doesn’t the composition of this thing look very simple?”

"It seems... yes?"

"That's right. This seemingly very simple thing is actually a machine, and this... is also a machine." Noli called over a drone and ordered it to remove its outer shell, revealing the complex pipelines and circuit structures underneath.

The circuit and pipeline structure under the drone's shell made the little owl a little dazzled.

"Isn't it complicated? Yes, this is also a mechanical structure."

"This steam engine is the simplest mechanical structure, while the divine messenger you saw is one of the most complex."

"It's amazing, isn't it? They look completely different, but in essence, they are the same thing."

Noli explained to Klar attentively, and did not forget to rub Klar's furry head happily.

…………

After Clare, who seemed overly excited and enthusiastic about learning new things, left, Aze comforted the little owl who was still reluctant to leave, and reminded her that although it is good to be studious, she should not be too obsessed with learning. Clare spent almost the entire day sticking around her beloved goddess, learning and exploring new things that she had not understood before.

"If you want to come, you are always welcome, but you still need to rest." Aze instructed Carla, who had an enthusiastic look on his face saying "I love learning".

"But I want to quickly learn the knowledge that the goddess taught me. If that's the case, not only me, but everyone else in the tribe can also..."

Aze smiled and said, "Don't be impatient, kid. We have to take it step by step, right? Besides, this is just an intangible gift. The real tangible big gift hasn't been given away yet."

"What's more, this big tangible gift is for all of you." Aze kissed Klar's cute and furry face.

The little owl didn't understand the meaning of this action among the Sky Star people, but just regarded it as another expression of the goddess's affection for him by hugging and rubbing his face like before.

…………

"What do you think...after we improve their technology to a high enough level, will they want to become like us?" The night before, Aze asked Noli curiously in bed.

"Is it possible?"

"After all, even for us today, the body is just a container that can be replaced at any time. The bodies in our current show still look humanoid, but in essence they are a perfect fusion of a bunch of nanomachines and a highly synthetic bionic mechanical torso."

"If necessary, I can always order the biological preparation room on my ship to create four or five more bodies like this and use them for consciousness transfer."

"Or it would be a simple matter to modify the species branch in my Sky Star civilization, such as making this body grow a fish tail like the mermaid sisters..."

In front of Aze, Noli's legs, who was also lying on the same bed, began to undergo visible changes. The gap between her legs gradually closed under the action of nanomachines, and eventually turned into a mermaid's tail. Beautiful translucent scales also grew on Noli's cheeks and neck. Just like the shadow that Aze was familiar with now, Noah modified his species branch in the Sky Star civilization within a few minutes and turned into a beautiful mermaid with long green hair.

"Mind uploading, coupled with subatomic and even quark scales. With a body composed of von Neumann self-replicators, it's quite simple to modify the species."

"If Klar wants to become like us in the future, I don't mind."

"But... a silly owl girl? I guess she'd be really cute in human form."

"If he doesn't mind, I can become us." Noli, who had transformed back from a mermaid on the bed, hugged Aze from behind.

Noli's legs, which had originally closed and dissolved together to become a fishtail, were once again differentiated into two white and smooth thighs under the action of nanomachines. The beautiful scales on Noli's face and neck also disappeared little by little on the surface of her skin. Noli once again turned into the green-haired elf that Aze was familiar with.

Noli, who was hugging Aze from behind, rested her chin on Aze's shoulder and blew directly into Aze's ear.

"Hey! Sister Noli, what are you doing?"

"Huhu, you say you're experienced, but in reality you're always on the bottom?"

"That's slander. I can be number one sometimes, okay?"

"Oh, is it so?"

"Then why did I hear several other sisters at the research station say that they had done something to you during this time?"

"Ah... this?" Aze, blushing, poked his fingers guiltily.

[It's over. Has the nature of the glass cannon been completely exposed?] Aze broke out in a cold sweat.

For many people, the nearly 36-hour night on the planet Kaga Kula is often very long. For energetic creatures, such nights do not have to be spent entirely on sleep, and other things can be done as well. At night, in addition to the happy whistles of a little owl discovering a new world and a new horizon, there will also be some discordant sounds coming from some rooms of the temporary scientific research station established by Sky Star on the surface of the planet Kaga Kula. Of course, for the planet Kaga Kula and the burrowing owls that may go to the starry sky in the future, this is just a small episode that they have never known about.

In the control center of Iserlohn Fortress, the monitor stared at the screen while drinking a cup of coffee. When there was no fighting, this job could be said to be very boring. Suddenly, the monitor's face changed, and he stared at the monitor screen in front of him and threw away the empty paper cup.

"The space ahead is distorted!"

"An unidentified object is undergoing a transition! 300 light seconds away, mass... what is this?!!"

"Please give me more details in the report!"

"A mass of forty megatons! This can't possibly be a battleship!"

Outside the Iserlohn fortress, space violently distorted, like an invisible hand tightly squeezing the hearts of everyone inside.

The personnel on duty at Iserlohn Fortress's command center were in a state of panic. The signalmen on duty barely had a moment's rest for their hands and eyes, while officers led by Major General Kageron monitored the situation.

"The target shape is a sphere, composed of liquid metal, alloy and ceramic composite materials, and the mass..." After seeing the number, Kajielun fell silent.

"What's the mass?"