The stars, but they become the gray wind

"Perhaps our ridiculously strong physical fitness and functions are just one of the rare exceptions?" The red-haired cat girl, who was in the torrent of data, thought silently.

"Hmm... maybe we shouldn't underestimate the resilience of life. The planet that alien lady originally came from experienced five mass extinction events... but in the end, life, devastated by these horrific natural disasters, slowly recovered, even if it took a while..."

"However, considering that the entire Sky Star has not had any geological activities for hundreds of millions of years... and there has never been any meteorological disasters, the climate and geological environment of other colony planets that have been transformed by our nanomachines are also completely under our artificial control... Although those colony planets have almost no population... most people are even too lazy to live on the surface of the planet... We spent a lot of resources and energy to transform the environment of the entire planet, but after the transformation was completed, there was not even a single person living there... I didn't know this before because there were no other examples for comparison, and I was shocked after the comparison. I have to say that we are indeed a bit idle and have nothing to do... We are a species that can live in the void, and there is no need to make the planet habitable at all, but we still did something unnecessary..." While thinking, the red-haired cat girl connected her consciousness to the sensors and observation equipment on the outside of the hull, and aimed it at the remaining two planets in the Kylias Gemini star system.

As a binary star system, there were originally as many as six planets orbiting the two stars. However, in order to complete the construction of the Dyson Cloud facility in the Kylias binary star system, four of the planets were completely dismantled and became part of the Dyson Cloud raw materials. The remaining two rocky planets were deliberately preserved and were not transformed to be habitable. Now, a considerable part of the surface of these two planets is almost completely covered by plants made of room-temperature superconducting materials from the mother star Sky Star. The equatorial regions of these two planets also each grow a sub-individual grown from the seed of the Tree of Life. The height of this sub-individual is far less than the mother Tree of Life on the mother star, which is more than 100,000 kilometers in scale. It is only about 1/10 of the mother body, that is, 10,000 kilometers in scale. However, the roots of this sub-individual are also spread throughout the entire planet's mantle and core, and serve as the biological control center for all plants and nanomachine clusters spread across the entire planet's surface.

"We put a lot of effort into transforming two planets... but there's not even a single person on them. Perhaps only our civilization could have such a wonder," Salem sighed.

And just as Salem lamented, these two planets that were habitable for the people of Sky Star are now literally... empty. After completing the Dyson cloud and planetary environment transformation, some of the people of the Sky Star colonization fleet who first arrived here did live on the transformed planets for a while, but they left after a few years and moved to space cities and habitats in various parts of the star system. More people chose to leave this galaxy and go to galaxies farther away from their mother star. After leaving the Kylias twin star system, those colonial fleets would often repeat similar, but not exactly the same, processes in new galaxies - after surveying all the celestial bodies in the entire galaxy, they would dismantle the planets in the galaxy, build Dyson clouds or other stellar-level celestial projects, and leave some of the more desolate areas in the galaxy. Thousands of seeds of the Tree of Life took root on the habitable planets that were left behind and transformed, and quickly sprouted, growing into sub-individuals corresponding to the Tree of Life on the parent star. This similar process has been repeated in one star system after another within 300 light years around the Sky Galaxy for more than 100,000 years, and it is still continuing to this day. The expansion and growth of the Sky Star civilization and the Tree of Life in the universe are proceeding at a relatively slow but unstoppable trend. As of now, the Sky Star civilization has occupied 30 light years around the parent star system. There are a total of 5247 star systems in the spherical space of 0 light years. Due to the relatively stable expansion method of the Sky Star civilization, almost every galaxy has stellar-class celestial projects of varying sizes. The most complete facility is a red dwarf galaxy. Over the past 100,000 years, a self-replicating and proliferating Dyson cloud facility has been built in this red dwarf galaxy. After dismantling the five planets in the galaxy, all the Dyson cloud facilities have been transferred to the corona of the red dwarf star in the extremely low orbit of the star. Compared with the more stable yellow dwarf sun in the Sky Star parent galaxy, the stellar activity of the red dwarf star is often more active and intense. From time to time, this young red dwarf star will erupt with powerful "super flares". The intensity of these flares is hundreds to thousands of times stronger than that of the parent star of the yellow dwarf star. These flares and high-temperature plasma The ejected coronal matter also ejected a huge amount of the star's own matter into the orbit of the Dyson cloud. By periodically collecting and absorbing stellar matter, the Dyson cloud around the red dwarf further increased its own replication speed and efficiency. The scale of the Dyson cloud surrounding the red dwarf also grew larger and larger. About 20,000 years ago, the construction scale of the Dyson cloud on this red dwarf star truly reached its limit. The dense Dyson cloud project blocked more than 98% of the entire star's area. Taking into account the lighting needs of space habitats in different areas and angles within the galaxy, in the end, the Dyson cloud in this red dwarf galaxy did not completely block the entire star. After hundreds of years, the degree of shielding of the total stellar light by the Dyson cloud project covering the red dwarf star finally stopped at a progress of 99.982.

Although there is some debate as to whether this Dyson Cloud, with its construction progress exceeding 99% of its actual size, can be considered a true Dyson sphere facility, the closest to the original concept of a rigid structure completely enveloping an entire star, there is no doubt... this is a truly miraculous project that envelops and obscures an entire star.

Although as the creator of this miraculous project, the Sky Star civilization itself does not have any real feeling about it. Whether it is for the Sky Star civilization as a whole or for individual Sky Star people, they often have no real sense of these star-level celestial projects they have completed. For the Sky Star people who have been in a utopian society for a long time where material, spiritual and all new needs are fully met, they often lack a real sense of their achievements. For them, it is just another bright spot on their star map marked as a new star project.

"Ah... speaking of this ship... it's never been full..." The red-haired cat girl looked at the more than 600 people in the cabin and touched her chin somewhat at a loss.

"I remember... someone from Sky Star said that the conditions within these Sky Star colony ships and fleets are a microcosm of the entire Sky Star civilization."

"No matter how much the population increases... for the past and present Sky Star civilizations, the resources and productivity are inexhaustible, right?"

As the artificial intelligence of this ship, the situation that the red-haired cat girl lamented is not just a metaphor, but the reality that Sky Star has faced from ancient times to the present. The Salem, which can carry tens of millions of people but has only a few hundred passengers all year round, is a microcosm of the entire state of Sky Star civilization.

"According to the calculated data... the current productivity of the Sky Star civilization, even while maintaining the current standard of living for individuals, is sufficient to support a population of millions or trillions. However, the entire Sky Star civilization, spread across over 5000 star systems, has a total population of less than one trillion. Using productivity that can support millions or trillions to support a mere few hundred billion people, of course, no matter how much they squander, they will never run out of energy and materials. This problem... has persisted since the birth of Sky Star civilization a hundred thousand years ago. The fundamental reason for its continued existence is that, as the beneficiaries of this situation, Sky Star civilization, whether collectively or individually, has never actually cared about it."

Just like the Salem, which was originally designed to carry tens of millions of people and allow them to live an extremely affluent life, but has only carried a few passengers for years, using productivity that is hundreds of billions of times higher than actual demand to supply a mere 600 people, under the premise that the Sky Star civilization has no capitalism or market economy, it is natural that no matter how unrestrainedly the resources are squandered, they will never be exhausted.

The current status of the entire Sky Star society from ancient times to the present is like an enlarged version of the Salem. No matter how the Sky Star civilization grows its population, it still faces all needs, whether old needs or new needs that emerge with the development of society. They are in absolute surplus. Even if some new material or spiritual needs emerge, they will be filled in a very short time due to the powerful productivity of the civilization that reacts too quickly, and instantly enter a state of surplus. This is the norm of the Sky Star civilization in the past, present and even future.

Chapter 138: Elf Girl Kellias and the Shackles of Lightspeed (5000 words)

After withdrawing his consciousness from the virtual world, the red-haired cat girl appeared in a cabin that was also very special to him. This was the room of the real captain of the Salem and the only crew member on the ship besides more than 600 passengers.

The owner of this room is an elf girl with pink hair and pointed ears. Although she looks very young, her body and consciousness have gone through more than 100,000 years. When Salem's intention and projection appeared in the room, the elf girl was playing with a data tablet in her hand, staring at the Gemini stars outside the window in a daze.

"Sister Kylias?" the red-haired cat girl Salem called softly.

"Um... It's Salem... What's going on?" The pink-haired elf girl who was replaced by Kylias by Salem turned around and looked at the holographic projection of the red-haired cat girl.

"Sister Kylias...you're staring at those two stars again..."

"I'm just curious... After all, it's been so long... I still don't understand why it's acting abnormally."

"Alas... Sister Kaelias... No matter how much you stare at those two stars, you won't find the answer... You're not the only one in the Sky Star Civilization who has been obsessed with this issue for over a hundred thousand years. Countless people in the entire Sky Star Civilization have painstakingly studied this issue for a hundred thousand years and still have no clue... Sister Kaelias, if you continue to dwell on this... it's likely that nothing will come of it." The red-haired cat lady advised gently.

"Well... but you understand... after all, I was the one who discovered this phenomenon, and even this star system was named after me... I still can't let go of the answer to this question." The elf girl with long pink hair walked up and kissed the red-haired cat girl on the forehead.

"Sister Kellyas... We haven't found any results in a hundred thousand years. There's no need to rush now, right? Why don't we go out and relax for a while?"

"Hmm... makes sense... so... my dear Salem, would you like to wear this and go out with me to play?" The pink-haired elf girl walked to a cabinet in the room, opened the door, took out a set of clothes from inside, and showed it in front of the red-haired cat girl.

"Uh...this is?"

"A lace maid outfit... How is it? Isn't it beautiful?" The elf girl with long pink hair covered her mouth and laughed.

"Sister Kaylyas... when you opened the closet just now, I saw all kinds of maid outfits... do you like maids so much?" After spending a long time with the master in front of him, Salem was naturally very clear about some of the strange habits of Kaylyas, who was regarded as not only his master but also his sister and one of his lovers. The pink-haired elf girl really liked to let the women around her who were close to her wear maid outfits in private, play with her, or be played with by her in bed. Not only Salem, but also several of Kaylyas' close research friends and partners had been subjected to such behavior by the pink-haired girl. Those research partners eventually became part of Kaylyas' harem. In private, Kaylyas especially liked to let those research partners who were her lovers wear revealing maid outfits, surround her and serve her, or have intimate physical contact in bed. The pink-haired elf girl especially enjoyed the feeling of being surrounded by beautiful girls, and also enjoyed the pleasure of being close to those beautiful girls who were her research partners.

As Kaelias's artificial intelligence assistant, the red-haired catgirl Salem is naturally a member of the pink-haired elf girl's harem. Salem is of course well aware of the pink-haired elf girl's strange XP. Just now, in the few seconds when Kaelias opened the wardrobe door, Salem saw that it was filled with at least hundreds of maid outfits of various shapes, sizes and styles. In front of her, the pink-haired elf girl was enthusiastically trying to get Salem to wear the very revealing and sexy lace miniskirt maid outfit in her hand.

"Oh... okay... there's really nothing I can do about you... I'll just wear it..." In the end, Salem couldn't resist his partner, Kaelias, and agreed to the other party's request. He activated the nearest bionic synthetic body. A few minutes later, the door of the cabin where the two were slowly slid open, and a red-haired cat girl in a simple white uniform walked into the room. As the door behind her closed again, the pink-haired elf girl couldn't wait to pounce on the red-haired cat girl and feel the red-haired cat girl Kaelias's restless little hands. Kaelias licked his lips with satisfaction and nodded while still feeling the red-haired cat girl's own hands.

"Are you here to make me change into a maid outfit, or to take advantage of me?" Salem, who was being molested by the pink-haired elf girl, was feeling the undisguised sexual behavior of Kaelias with his body and complained a little.

"How can this be considered taking advantage? I'm touching her openly, I'm being affectionate with my girlfriend... and we're already an old married couple, how can there be any taking advantage of me? If you feel like you're at a disadvantage, I can do this and that!" The pink-haired girl said as she puffed out her chest proudly and put the right hand of the red-haired cat girl in front of her.

"Since you said so... then I won't be polite!" Seeing that the pink-haired elf girl in front of him was becoming more and more bold, Salem stopped pretending and pinched her hard.

"Mmm! Woo! It's really comfortable..." Salem used xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxKellias couldn't help but scream out because of Salem's overly comfortable techniquexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

"How is it? My technique feels good, doesn't it? Before using it on you, I specifically used it on Sister Alicia as a test."

"Huh? So you've already been intimate with Alicia? Is that okay? Although it's said that Alicia is a married woman who likes to be casual with girls, it seems that she has restrained herself a lot after giving birth to her first daughter. I really want to be intimate with her...but I'm worried that she's already in love and restrained..."

"It's true that he's become more restrained after having a daughter, but Miss Alicia still wouldn't mind having some physical intimacy with an outstanding senior like you, Kylias."

"Really?"

"Really... And last night it wasn't just Alicia, I also had a good taste of her 'husband' Friena."

"So...how does the (omitted) taste like?"

"It was very comfortable... and fun... especially when I hung Frina in the air and let her watch my beloved wife being toyed with by me. That expression was so funny. Although later, to make up for it, I also played with Frina-sister for the whole night. The very comfortable technique I just used on your chest is the same technique I tried on them both last night."

"Oh... is that so?" Looking at the smug red-haired cat girl in front of her, the elf girl Kellyas, who had rich experience with girls in her long life of more than 100,000 years, couldn't help but fantasize. She imagined the scene of her own cat girl sister taking advantage of the lesbian couple Alicia and Frina and enjoying their service.

"So... did you let them wear maid outfits?"

"what?"

"It must be fun to have a lesbian couple serving you in maid outfits." The pink-haired elf girl asked Salem with shining eyes.

"Um... well... not really... when they played with me last night, I asked them to wear sexy lingerie."

"Oh, didn't you let Alicia and the others wear maid outfits?" The pink-haired elf girl Kailias was obviously a little disappointed when she heard that her cat girl didn't let the wife and the husband wear maid outfits.

"But... since I couldn't see Alicia and the others wearing maid outfits... then as compensation, sister Salem, you should put on this women's clothing as compensation to me!" Carias brushed over the revealing maid outfit hanging on the chair next to him, and began to put it on the body of the bionic cat girl in front of him. Of course, in the process of dressing his own cat girl in the maid outfit, Carias certainly did not miss the slightest opportunity to take advantage of his own cat girl. When Salem was wearing the maid outfit, the pink-haired girl still touched Salem's body, took advantage of her in every possible way, and from time to time she would touch Salem's private parts with her hands, and even leaned over to kiss Salem's forehead, face and lips.

Salem had long been accustomed to the master's undisguised sexual harassment. This master would often act like this not only in front of her, but also to other girls around her who were on good terms with her. This kind of sexual harassment, as common as eating and drinking, had almost become the norm. Many years ago, when Kellias and his research partners, who later became his good friends, were not yet too familiar with each other, Kellias would often do this to the beautiful girls around him. At that time, those research partners would occasionally blush and cover their chests to avoid Kellias' sexual harassment. Later, they got used to it and completely ignored Kellias's behavior, often allowing Kellias, who was in a crazy state, to touch them all over.

As for these actions, the girls who are research partners of Kalyas do not mind having intimate physical contact with a lively young elf girl. Kalyas herself is also a very beautiful elf girl. In the long run, they just hope that the frequency of sexual harassment and marriage proposals from this elf girl to other girls can be a little lower. Although the Sky Star people do not object to their partners having several lovers including themselves, if the number is too large, it will also bring some minor inconveniences.

"Well, actually, I am considered to be relatively loyal among all individuals in the Sky Star civilization, right?" Looking at the red-haired cat girl in front of him who had changed into a maid outfit, Kelias pulled the red-haired cat girl in a sexy maid outfit out the door.

"Compared to Ms. Alicia, who has had sex with hundreds of people and maintained long-term relationships with them, your record of only 18 people should be considered more focused, right?"

"I told you I'm a pure girl with a forever young mind!"

"A young lady who's one hundred thousand six hundred and fifty-five years old? Considering her age, calling her a grandmother wouldn't be an exaggeration, right?"

"What did you say?" The pink-haired elf girl, whose sore spot was touched, spoke to the cat girl beside her with a kind face and pronounced each word clearly.

"Nothing... nothing..." The red-haired cat girl, frightened by the dark expression on the face of Kellyas beside her, suddenly did not dare to continue talking about this topic. She had a premonition that if she continued to talk about this topic, there was a high probability that this body would be scrapped on the spot.

"Well... let's first talk about the alien lady who appeared on the mother planet of Sky Star?" Looking at her master with a frown on his face, the red-haired cat girl tried to change the subject.

"Ah, that alien lady? I'm quite curious about her, but unfortunately we're quite far away now. Even if we rush back now, by the time we get there, according to the alien lady's time reference system, at least 15 years will have passed..."

"Alas... the time dilation effect at the speed of light... I don't know if it can be solved in the future..."

"The key isn't whether we can solve the time dilation effect of near-light speed travel... Even if we can solve the time dilation effect, if our travel speed can't break the speed of light, then it's meaningless, right?"

"If we only solve the time dilation effect at relativistic speeds, but our travel speed itself is still stuck at the speed of light, then interstellar travel will still take a considerable amount of time. However, if we can break the speed of light, the problems that may arise will be even greater."

"Our understanding of the universe and spacetime is based on a reference frame below the speed of light. Once the speed of light is surpassed, the existing laws of causality based on linear time may no longer exist. A superluminal engine isn't just a drive that allows a spacecraft to exceed the speed of light; it's also a true time machine. If the speed of light were truly so easy to surpass, we wouldn't be stuck at this threshold, with no progress for nearly 100,000 years."

"Nearly 100,000 years ago, our speed had already reached an extreme, approaching the speed of light, which had already touched the upper limit of the speed of the universe. After that, although our technology in other areas continued to develop, our speed had hardly increased at all in the past 100,000 years. It was just that a series of 9s were added after the decimal point of 99 percent of the speed of light. Fundamentally speaking, if superluminal speed is really completely unfeasible, then the speed of light will be the eternal upper limit of our civilization." The pink-haired elf girl shook her head.

"The theoretical basis for superluminal speeds does exist, and we've also mass-produced Alcubierre warp drives. However, the problem of negative mass exotic matter continues to plague us. Even with zero-point energy, we still can't produce truly negative energy and mass. Our Alcubierre warp drive is ultimately just a subluminal version of the Alcubierre drive that can approach the speed of light infinitely, not a true superluminal drive."

"Even if we could truly create exotic matter with negative mass, the most important prerequisite for the Alcubierre warp drive to reach superluminal speeds is to make the negative energy flow itself superluminal, so as to construct a completely closed superluminal warp bubble. This is a chicken-and-egg paradox. You have to actually achieve superluminal speed before you can create a superluminal engine. But if you can make the negative energy flow itself superluminal, then why would I need an Alcubierre warp drive?" (Note 1)

"As for wormholes... we're also stuck on the issue of negative mass exotic matter... The energy in a zero-point energy reactor isn't truly negative energy. The Casimir effect in a zero-point energy reactor is indeed lower than a vacuum, but it's still not negative. Actual theories and experiments on wormholes are stuck at this point. Without negative mass exotic matter or negative energy, we can't use negative energy to expand quantum-scale wormholes to the macroscopic level and maintain them."

"If even a zero-point energy reactor can't generate true negative energy to achieve superluminal travel, then perhaps this universe doesn't allow superluminal travel. Aside from the phenomenon that the expansion of the universe can exceed the speed of light itself, all things and civilizations are restricted to traveling below the speed of light. A civilization restricted to the speed of light will inevitably have its range of activities restricted as well."

"Actually... in my opinion, this idea is a bit pessimistic," the red-haired cat girl shook her head.

"Pessimistic? I think a universe where nothing and no civilization can exceed the speed of light is more realistic..." Kylias obviously did not think that the Sky Star civilization could truly exceed the speed of light.

"When you reach the point of a mountain, there's always a way out... The Sky Star civilization has existed for a hundred thousand years... As long as we spend enough time and invest enough resources, I believe... we will one day truly cross the speed of light, the final barrier that limits us."

"Compared to the immensely difficult task of breaking the speed of light, becoming a three-star civilization seems so much simpler. At least the latter is still relatively realistic for the current Sky Star civilization. As long as we can maintain our current momentum and continue to expand, in a few thousand to tens of thousands of years at most, Sky Star civilization might become a true civilization with energy output power reaching the standard of a Type III civilization."

"But... perhaps there really isn't a shortcut to something like superluminal speed, which would shatter the laws of causality throughout the universe... But I still believe that one day we can break through this speed threshold that limits the development of our civilization."

"Even if... I could break through the shackles of light speed... that would probably be a long time in the future..."

"Although we are immortal...but the time required to do something like this and develop to that level...is also quite long for us, right?" The pink-haired girl sighed.

Note 1: First, the Alcubierre metric violates all three energy conditions. It requires not only negative energy but also a negative energy flux.

In other words, using superluminal speed to realize superluminal speed

Physicists are only responsible for pointing you to the second nine afternoon shirt. According to III, there is such a solution to the appearance equation.

But it doesn't say that this solution is achievable.

Even if we put this issue aside, there are several completely unsolvable problems:

The first is that it has infinite blue shift

It will crush everything in the bubble to dust.

The second is that it can't speed up or slow down at all

The Alcubierre solution itself is a steady-state solution. It only explains what a warp bubble in uniform motion looks like.

As for how this state came about and how to escape it, I don't know.

In addition, all strange structures related to space and time inevitably require huge masses, which is caused by the weak gravity.

And there is no way to enhance it at the same cost. The field equations guarantee that to form the same gravitational field as the Earth, you must have a large amount of matter like the Earth.

On top of this, a good measure, the Schwarzschild radius i

For example, the Ellis wormhole is as large as the event horizon of a Schwarzschild black hole, which means that if you want to create a black hole with a diameter of 800 meters, you must have the mass of the sun, and the tidal force will tear apart everything around it, including neutron star matter.

Chapter 139: Theory of Black Holes and the Final Stage of the Competition (5000 words) Part 3

"In conclusion, it seems that with our current level of technology, developing into a Type III civilization is easier than achieving superluminal speed?"

"I don't think that's the point... The point is why we ended up in the engine room while strolling around the ecological zone?" The red-haired cat girl scratched her furry left ear and muttered.

"As a cosmologist whose main hobby and daily life are astronomical observation and analysis, black holes have always held a special meaning for me."

"You know... those two massive Kerr black holes spinning at high speeds around each other next to our home galaxy were the first subjects I studied after I took up astronomy."

"So... you came to take a walk in the monitoring observation room next to the black hole reactor in the engine room?" The red-haired cat girl felt a little ashamed of her master's various weird hobbies for a long time.

"Well... Sister Kylias, you've forgotten that the Ker-Newman black hole in the black hole reactor, which is nearly the mass of a gas giant planet, is actually completely enclosed in a spherical container made of fully reflective nuclear material. Monitoring of that gas giant-mass black hole in the reactor relies entirely on various sensors. Even in the monitoring observation room next door, we can't see the black hole itself."

"I know... but I just think that staying next to a reactor powered by a black hole can help me think... get some inspiration or something..." Kylias tapped his head and fell back to sit on the chair in the monitoring room next to him.

"The most important thing is... although we have already used black holes as energy sources, we still only have a limited understanding of the singularity that exists within them."

"Haven't there been a ton of experimental results proving that we can't disintegrate a black hole's event horizon while preserving the singularity? As long as the event horizon outside the black hole completely evaporates, the singularity inside will disappear as well. And attempts to disintegrate the black hole's event horizon using other methods haven't been successful either, right?"

"That's true... There's a theoretical upper limit to the rotation speed of a black hole. Once the angular momentum of an artificial Ker-Newman black hole is increased to its limit, no matter how much it's accelerated, it won't exceed the speed of light. Furthermore, the experiments we've conducted previously didn't actually accelerate the Ker-Newman black hole to the speed of light; they only brought it extremely close to it."

"As for another experiment involving the introduction and feeding of large quantities of negatively charged particles into a black hole... I can only say that the results were also unsatisfactory. However, after the black hole itself carried too much negative charge, the electrostatic repulsion became too strong, rendering it impossible to feed the black hole. Consequently, the attempt to collapse the black hole's event horizon failed. While it can't be considered a complete failure, at least a large number of Ker-Newman black holes with absurdly high self-selected angular momentum or artificially fed massive amounts of negative charge were obtained... So, tentatively speaking, it could be considered a failure... but not a complete failure, right?"

"But I do think... breaking and collapsing the black hole's event horizon, attempting to obtain a naked singularity where the laws of causality in the current universe no longer apply, as a way for our civilization to break through to the next stage... is somewhat unorthodox... isn't it?"

"I don't think so... If the existence of naked singularities without an event horizon is truly prohibited, then the cosmic observer hypothesis is correct. Our universe has some kind of temporal protection mechanism that prevents anything from violating the law of causality from existing... This also means that superluminal technology at any level is unfeasible, and superluminal travel will forever be a luxury."

"And if we can really create a naked singularity, it means that our universe can break the temporal protection mechanism, or even that the temporal protection mechanism does not exist at all. The Novikov self-consistency principle will become a joke, and exceeding the speed of light will be possible. And with technologies like superluminal engines, the possibility of closed time-like curve computers, a time machine, will be possible with high probability. We may be able to modify and observe the entire universe at the level of space and time."

"Putting aside the engineering and technical difficulties of macroscopic CTCs, we're still stuck on the issue of negative mass exotic matter. While there are theories suggesting that if a naked singularity existed, the laws of spacetime and existing grand unified theories would completely break down, and that within that naked singularity, there might be true negative mass exotic matter existing at superluminal speeds, as of now, we haven't been able to prove this theory because we haven't yet discovered a true naked singularity."

"Space and time are meaningless within a singularity... But speaking of which... we already have a very thorough understanding of the three-dimensional universe, but our understanding of higher-dimensional space-time, beyond five dimensions, is still quite superficial..."

"So far... the achievements of a hundred thousand years of development have only allowed us to reach the pinnacle of microscopic material applications within the three-dimensional macrocosm. As for the utilization of microscopic high-dimensional space curled up below the Planck scale... it's truly not ideal."

"Indeed, many individuals from the Sky Star have proposed the idea of ​​using higher-dimensional spaces beyond the fifth dimension to break the speed of light, as well as the idea of ​​other universes also existing on this 11-dimensional space-time membrane."

"That idea... has existed since before we set foot in space, right? Even today, it's only been put to the most rudimentary use. At least based on current basic theory and technology, taking a shortcut through higher-dimensional space and crossing the speed of light barrier is still not feasible. There are too many difficult theoretical and engineering challenges involved."

"But we can't just say it's not feasible, right?"

"That's right... Experiments with wormhole-related technologies are still ongoing. We have to at least try any possible and technically feasible method of traveling faster than light. Otherwise, expanding to the entire Milky Way at the current rate wouldn't be unacceptable. After all, from a spacecraft's reference point, a voyage across the Milky Way would only take a few years at most. However, the interstellar civilization established under those technological conditions would be essentially the same as today's, separated by the vast void between the stars, making it difficult to carry out any form of effective logistics. If the current size of the Sky Star civilization's territory and boundaries makes this method acceptable, then when the civilization expands to the scale of the entire Milky Way, the various catastrophic consequences brought about by the inability to break through the shackles of the speed of light will be unacceptable to us."

"But you also know... Sister Kylias, wormhole research has been very slow over the past decade or so. Lacking negative mass exotic matter, the key element that maintains and expands wormholes, we can't expand the microscopic motions in the quantum vacuum to the macroscopic level. The entire wormhole-related experimental research is stuck at this stage, and it can be said that it's impossible to move forward."

"Some of our researchers are planning to go in a different direction and try to create a true vacuum to obtain genuine negative energy. Although I'm skeptical that they can create a true vacuum that's orders of magnitude lower than our zero-point energy reactor."

"I think they're going crazy trying to achieve miracles with their sheer force... They've even come up with the idea of ​​creating a true vacuum."

"Real negative energy is probably as difficult as vacuum decay." Sitting on a chair, Kylias kicked the ground with boredom and turned a few times with the chair.

"And the more crucial point is... many Sky Star people believe... that although we are still developing at an explosive rate in other areas of technology, our navigation speed has barely made any progress or progress in the past ten thousand years. Even if we can approach the speed of light, what good will it do? If we can't break through the threshold of light, the development of our civilization will eventually reach a ceiling. After reaching this ceiling, can our civilization still guarantee its own survival? Although this ceiling may not be reached for a long time..."

"According to the calculations from the Tree of Life, if we maintain our current momentum, we should have no problem developing into a Cantilever-class civilization within hundreds of thousands to millions of years... However, if we reach the point where we need to expand across the entire Milky Way, and our speed hasn't yet broken through the speed of light, then we'll be in serious trouble..."

"While it's possible to develop into a true galactic civilization at speeds approaching the speed of light, we will inevitably be limited by the various problems caused by the speed of light effect. At this speed threshold, if we expand to the entire Milky Way, our entire civilization's ability to process and react to anything will be extremely slow. For the Sky Star people, immortality doesn't mean accepting a fatally slow reaction and processing speed."

"Well, after saying so much, there's nothing we can do, right?" Salem, dressed in a maid outfit, walked forward and gently touched her master's head.

"There's nothing I can do... I can only hope that a way out will come. My main job and hobby is astronomy. I can do research on theories and experiments related to superluminal speeds, but ultimately, that's not what I enjoy, and it doesn't align with the nature of the Sky Star people. Isn't it our nature to only do what we enjoy?"