The stars, but they become the gray wind

"This liquid is mainly composed of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon, hydrogen and other elements. For glass eels, this liquid is similar to the air freshener we know. Staying in an environment composed of this liquid will be more comfortable for glass eels than staying in normal clean water." Calisi checked the information in her hand while explaining to her companions.

"But soaking in it really feels like soaking in a pile of lubricant... and it's quite difficult to swim in it." Luo Ying stared at his legs that had turned into a mechanical fishtail, struggling to swing his tail in the liquid, trying to swim in the relatively spacious underwater vehicle.

"No one would swim around inside a moving vehicle at high speed. Furthermore, this thing is much denser than water. The fact that you can swim in it is quite strange in itself."

"Eh? Is that so?"

"But you guys seem pretty used to being underwater... During the seven years I lived on Sky Star, it took me a long time to accept the fact that I didn't need to breathe underwater. Did you all adapt that quickly?"

"Just spend more time in a vacuum. Water is actually quite similar to the vacuum of space, except that there's a circle of liquid around you that creates constant pressure."

"If you stay in this kind of environment more often, you will get used to moving around without having to breathe," Yuki added.

At this time, since they and the members of the Sky Star delegation were staying in a vehicle soaked in liquid and traveling at high speed underwater, compared to Luo Ying's reaction, the others adapted to this oxygen-deficient environment much faster. Several mermaid branches in the Sky Star delegation took only a few seconds to adjust their bodies to underwater mode. As terrestrial creatures, people like Kellyas and Elena had long been accustomed to this airless environment. On the contrary, Luo Ying took several minutes to switch his body to underwater survival state after the entire vehicle was filled with water.

"As a mermaid, it would be very embarrassing to tell others that you almost drowned, don't you think, my dear Luoying?" Yuki joked to Luoying.

"Don't laugh at me... I just suddenly had my whole body immersed in water, and I haven't adapted to it yet. Although this body is a highly mechanized bionic synthetic human, some of its functions are so realistic that I often forget that I don't need to breathe..." Luoying leaned on Elena's shoulder with a blushing face and protested to Yuki.

.........

Not long after, in an underwater city on Tangyuan Star

The glass eels' city is highly three-dimensional. On the flat seabed, a large number of high-rise buildings built of some unknown materials are distributed in a very regular pattern. Through optical analysis and scanning of the substances that make up the building materials, Calisi discovered that the glass eels' underwater buildings are mainly composed of a very strong and corrosion-resistant polymer material.

On the seabed in the distance, there is a long and narrow underwater mountain range. From the ridge downwards, the entire underwater mountain range is riddled with holes. Various artificial buildings and passages are distributed at different heights of the underwater mountain range, just like a maze with a huge height difference.

The purple-haired girl from the future walked in an ecological area on the Salem. Following her memory, she came to a very familiar landscape fountain.

"Don't you want to go down and take a look with the others?" The red-haired cat girl appeared behind the purple-haired girl.

"I've seen it hundreds of times... The stuff below is so familiar to me... There's nothing good to see."

"That's right... I almost forgot you came from some point in the future... But from what you said... you often visited the Xiangque Galaxy of the Glass Eels in the future?"

"I wouldn't say I visit often...On average, I only come a few times a year..."

"And... I've been observing your movements inside the Salem. Judging from the route you've taken, you must be quite familiar with the Salem's internal structure, right?"

"Will you often come into my ship in the future?"

"It does look familiar... but the Salem in my memory... some of its structures, especially its appearance, are very different from what it is now."

"Oh? It looks like I made quite a few modifications to my ship in the future. Can you tell me what the differences are?"

"Um... are you sure?" The purple-haired girl glanced at the holographic projection of the red-haired cat girl next to her. For some reason, she seemed a little guilty.

"Why are you feeling guilty? I'm just curious about what my future hull will look like. Given Kylias's personality and my personal preferences, if I have new technology, I will definitely try to integrate it into the hull, right?" As an artificial intelligence, the cat girl must have keenly noticed the guilty expression on the purple-haired girl's face.

"Uh...if you really want to know, I can tell you what your future self will be like...but you have to be mentally prepared, okay?"

"Is there any need to prepare mentally for something like this?"

"Yes... your future ship's structure has been modified beyond recognition. Some Sky Star people even commented that Kylias and I have two completely different approaches to spaceship design."

"Just tell me straight... I'm more curious about how my future ship's structure will be modified."

"Uh... in my memory... your future self's hull is filled with all sorts of turrets and all sorts of miraculous cannons."

"From what you said...will I be converted into a battleship in the future?" asked the red-haired cat girl with a face full of question marks.

"Not really... The future Sky Star civilization still won't have a true military fleet. They'll only have armed research vessels or civilian spacecraft with some degree of self-defense armament. But some people do like to call you a Salem-class Titan."

"Then what's up with all those turrets in my future? Could it be that Caias has become a multi-turret cultist?"

"Well...it's a long story..."

"As far as I remember, Caias first made significant modifications to your entire ship, but then her plans went astray. She wanted to transform the Salem into a Taiqiling Five Liuyin (Seventh) Chimtan ship, combining protection with high destructive capabilities against celestial bodies and other targets, as well as a sufficiently high firepower density. The orbital cannon, which uses gravitational field acceleration as its principle, was installed at my suggestion, but the subsequent designs were purely the result of her own wild imagination."

"The more you say... the more worried I become about my future?" The red-haired cat girl's expression gradually became a little ugly.

"After realizing that the Axis Cannon, while powerful, didn't significantly increase the firepower density, Sister Kellias began to demonstrate some of her special talents..."

"Special talent?"

"Hmm...it's indeed a special talent...I never thought an astronomer could have the same ability to think like an orc!"

"I don't know if it was the Axis Cannon I designed that inspired her or something else, but Sister Kellias began relying on her own intellect to reduce the Axis Cannon's power and size to a level that could be installed as a turret on the Salem. This gave the future Salem a terrifying short-term firepower output density... This is the information I compiled about the Salem with some future "self-defense weapons" installed. You'll understand for yourself."

The future Carlisle handed the red-haired catgirl a data board, which displayed some brief information she had compiled about the Salem, which had undergone extensive modifications in the future.

"Well, this is... a new ship-borne shaft-based railgun research and development test project?"

"Considering the length of the rails required to accelerate projectiles weighing hundreds of millions of tons to near-relativistic speeds using the Lorentz force, even for a Titan, it would be unacceptably long, and unsuitable for accelerating uncharged matter such as neutron beams. Therefore, a gravitational acceleration rail based on gravitational field control technology is used. Furthermore, gravitational acceleration rails are more convenient for miniaturization, making it technically feasible to use super main guns that use kinetic energy to kill at projectile speeds extremely close to the speed of light. Therefore, this multi-functional "self-defense weapon" is installed and widely popularized on multiple different models of Titan ships, including the Salem?" The red-haired cat girl scrolled to the bottom of the data display interface, and a series of self-defense weapons marked with precise test data were displayed in front of her.

“Did you design this thing?”

"It can't be considered entirely my achievement... well... I just initially proposed reducing the size of the railgun, which can fire projectiles at speeds extremely close to the speed of light, to a size that can be carried by a Titan."

"And my original intention for building this thing wasn't to use it as a cannon, but to launch relativistic missiles capable of precision-guided attacks on small, high-speed, maneuvering targets. My ship design philosophy also leans towards missiles, but I don't know how Sister Kylias's thinking got sidetracked along the way. She inexplicably went the route of building giant ships and cannons, including, but not limited to, cramming tens of thousands of various types of artillery into your hull, ranging in caliber from 800mm to 120m. The one that impressed me the most was a scaled-down version of the relativistic kinetic main gun I helped design—the X-4 turret-mounted super-railgun. With a caliber of 45000mm and a barrel length of 700m, it could accelerate multi-million-ton projectiles to a maximum velocity of 0.64C, and its rate of fire was incredibly brutal, nearly firing hundreds of rounds per second. During testing, a single round of this thing, at maximum speed and power, instantly blew a portion of the crust of a dwarf planet 1000 kilometers in diameter into the sky."

"I... this... are you sure this thing is a self-defense weapon and not a weapon of mass destruction?"

"Based on the standards of the Sky Star civilization, which doesn't have any military, this thing is indeed only within the scope of a civilian spacecraft's self-defense weapon."

"But, is there something wrong with Sister Kelias's brain? Is it necessary to stuff so many cannons into my body?"

"No... because from now until the future, it is indeed necessary to equip the Sky Star civilization's exploration ships and fleets with a certain amount of self-defense firepower."

"Why? Could it be..."

"Don't worry... it should only be a minor inconvenience... That thing isn't a threatening enemy yet, and it can't affect the galaxy right now. Even for you now, it's not difficult to destroy it easily, it just takes some time."

"So... what exactly is "it"?" At this point, the red-haired cat girl Salem stared at the purple-haired girl beside her with some seriousness.

"It's just an out-of-control ASI (artificial superintelligence). It can't threaten the Milky Way. Even if it were to strike any target within the Milky Way, it would take over 15 years for it to arrive, and another 15 years for it to observe the effects of the strike. It may have noticed these movements in the Milky Way, but it can't do anything about them. On the contrary, both you and the glass eels who have just entered Type II civilization possess weapons that are enough to threaten it, or even completely destroy it."

"The Glass Eel Civilization's stellar astronomical engineering boasts a special add-on component. It was specially added by Cabot after the Sun Hunter Network was completed. It's a very special component—the Star Control Frame and the FTL Catapult Field. They're currently in an inactive, dormant state. However, once activated, they will allow operators to extract energy from neutron stars and launch it at superluminal speeds to any corner of the Milky Way within millions of light-years. That entity that's been spying on the Milky Way is merely large in size; all its actions and observations are limited to sub-light speed. Furthermore, due to its sub-light speed and reaction capabilities, it's also quite bulky overall. Compared to you, who possess superluminal strike capabilities, it's practically insignificant."

"Even a civilization like Sky Star, which lacks a superluminal catapult for stellar astronomical engineering, can still utilize its anchored wormhole technology to instantly deliver an attack with output power far exceeding that of a star."

"But having said all that... what exactly is 'it'?"

"You in the future gave it a name based on its appearance and behavior: Black Mist."

"A runaway super artificial intelligence based on the von Neumann self-replicator that resides in the Large Magellanic Cloud. However, due to its own limitations, all of its actions and reactions are limited to the speed of light."

"Like a corrosive black fog, it launches near-light-speed interstellar strikes against every planet or galaxy it observes within the Large Magellanic Cloud that could harbor life, ensuring that it is the only super-AI in the entire galaxy."

"Because its fundamental operating logic is to ensure that no competitors emerge in the entire universe, whether other forms of intelligent life or super artificial intelligence created by intelligent life, which is its fundamental meaning and goal."

"For millions of years, he launched a massive purge of all life-bearing galaxies within the Large Magellanic Cloud. Now, there's no trace of even the most basic primitive life (equivalent to the complexity of life on Earth before the Cambrian Period), let alone intelligent life and civilization. And that guy, the Black Mist, is the source of it all."

"But unfortunately... this guy is about to hit a wall. He's running into the only two civilizations in the entire universe that possess faster-than-light technology."

"Do you want us to go with the glass eel to destroy it?" asked the red-haired cat girl seriously.

"It doesn't matter whether it's destroyed or not. It poses no substantial threat to you now or in the future. The only thing it can do to the Milky Way now is to launch relativistic missiles towards any potentially habitable galaxies and planets in its direction, and wait 30 years to observe the specific effects of its attacks on galaxies within the Milky Way."

"Compared to this bloated and slow creature, whose attack and observation cycles take 30 years, you, armed with superluminal technology, will have an easier time dealing with it."

"If you want to know something more specific, the closed time-like curve computers you are running can give you relevant results and detailed information. You can directly ask your closed time-like curve computer for the answer to this question." Future Calisi patted the shoulder of the red-haired cat girl's phantom without a time body.

After sightseeing in the city, Chi Chengsan took everyone to a large conference venue in the city that looked like a meeting place. The seats in a circle here were already filled with many curious glass eels, and their eyes were all fixed on Chi Chengsan who was giving a speech on the stage.

…………

"Everyone... our civilization has celebrated a historic moment today. First, the return of the venerable Lord [Yanzhe] after hundreds of years. Also accompanying Lord Yanzhe is another civilization with deep ties to our own. As civilizations that have also received the help and guidance of Lord Yanzhe, we are undoubtedly brothers and sisters."

"Today is also an opportunity for the Glass Eels to reach even more distant stars. The Sky Star Civilization, with whom we share a bond of brotherhood, will share their superluminal technology with us and join us in reaching the stars, bringing new life to this dead and desolate galaxy!"

Chi Chengsan on the stage announced to the audience in a resounding voice. At the same time as Chi Chengsan announced to all the glass eels, Cabot, who was sitting behind him, also opened a holographic interface in front of him. After some skillful operations, a column of information was displayed on the holographic interface in front of Cabot.

-【Star Control Framework Unlocked】

[The hypersonic catapult range has been released from hibernation... Starting up... Activation complete... The hypersonic catapult range has begun deploying...]

As this information was displayed on the interface in front of Cabot, the stellar-level astronomical engineering project on the neutron star began to slowly unfold the originally retracted superluminal catapult field and star control device.

"Is it finally started?"

On the Salem, the purple-haired girl from the future noticed the changes taking place on the [Sun Hunter Star Network]. The ring-shaped superluminal catapult field coils slowly unfolded from the equatorial region of the neutron star. A series of circular coils moved in space and were eventually arranged into a "barrel" consisting of a series of parallel ring-shaped accelerators. At the very end of this barrel was the source of energy for the bubble - the neutron star wrapped in the [Sun Hunter Star Network], while the other end of the barrel pointed towards the cold and empty deep space.

"This is?"

"The Sun Hunter Star Network's true superluminal strike capability is the final module Cabot added when it was first built hundreds of years ago. This superluminal strike device covers an area within a one-million-light-year radius centered on the Milky Way... naturally, that includes the creature entrenched in the Large Magellanic Cloud."

Chapter 162: Limanwen Star Ring Space Wormhole Hub Plan

On the near-orbit of the neutron star heading towards the nearby star, in a monitoring station close to the [Lieyang Star Network], several glass eels that were originally floating in the weightless monitoring station and listening to music leisurely were flustered by the bursts of emergency alerts from the monitoring station's broadcasting system. The glass eels in the monitoring station looked through the floor-to-ceiling windows and the large holographic screen of the command room with a look of shock at the [Lieyang] in the distance, which was unfolding some huge subsidiary structure.

"What's going on?!" the stationmaster of the monitoring station anxiously asked the space station's management artificial intelligence.

"Confirming... Please wait." Unlike the anxious station chief, the voice of the space station management AGI strong artificial intelligence, which was in the shape of a 12-sided holographic projection, did not show any panic. It just answered the station chief who was anxiously swimming around in the liquid-filled control hall of the monitoring station with its usual calm and composed tone.

"Information confirmed... [Lieyang Star Network] is operating normally. The devices currently being deployed are the Lieyang Star Network's star control body and superluminal ejection field components..."

"Star control body? Wait, why didn't I know this thing was so big?" The stationmaster was stunned when he heard the answer from the space station's management artificial intelligence. It's not that he hasn't seen the rumored star control body components. In the hundreds of years since the departure of the Burner, the glass eels have conducted a lot of research on this module that the Burner required to be installed during the final construction phase of the stellar celestial body project, but they have always been puzzled by its specific functions and principles. The stationmaster has also read detailed research reports and materials on the assembly of the star control body, and has observed the appearance of the star control body at close range. In his memory, although the star control body component is mysterious, its size is not large. It is just a nested concentric circle device made of unknown materials with a diameter of about tens of kilometers.

They watched as the huge acceleration track in front of them changed from a folded storage state to a powered-on and unfolded state. A series of rings were arranged in parallel in a vacuum like the acceleration coils of an electromagnetic catapult. The diameter of each ring could reach hundreds of kilometers, and the overall length even exceeded the radius of the [Hunting Yang Star Network]. The station chief and other members of the monitoring station seemed very overwhelmed.

"This is the size of the Star Control Components and the FTL Catapult Field when deployed."

"The one I saw before..." The webmaster looked at the star-controlling object on the screen, his mouth wide open enough to swallow an egg.

"Previously, these two components had been in a dormant standby state. Only just now did they receive the power-on command to exit the dormant standby state and complete their own structure expansion."

"Wait... power on command? This thing isn't the Great One... could it be?!!"

"Yes... It has been confirmed that this power-on command came directly from Lord Yanzhe himself." The space station's management artificial intelligence continued to answer in an emotionless and calm voice.

"This is the complete technical documentation that the component automatically sent us when it was turned on. I've uploaded it to the personal devices of all station personnel. You can view it at any time. It's quite long, but to summarize it briefly, it provides a complete introduction to the usage and principles of these two additional components."

"Using the magnetic and gravitational potential energy of the neutron star obtained through the Sun Hunter Network, as well as the strange quark matter extracted from the neutron star's core by the Star Control Device, the superluminal ejection field will be able to accelerate the matter within its acceleration rail, gradually creating a closed high-dimensional space bubble. With each acceleration coil, this high-dimensional warp will gradually envelop the accelerated matter. The moment it leaves the rail exit, the bubble will completely close and disappear from the three-dimensional universe, entering high-dimensional space and launching it towards a certain destination, thus achieving superluminal travel."

"The whole process is like a slingshot, using the strange quark clusters extracted from the neutron star core to form a one-way high-dimensional space superluminal jump."

"In other words... this thing is a slingshot that can help spacecraft travel at faster-than-light speeds?" the stationmaster asked in an incredulous tone.

"Indeed...it seems that the Lord has given us another huge gift."

"Just a correction, Station Master. This thing can't just be used to launch spacecraft..."

"A superluminal ejection field can accelerate anything within its acceleration trajectory to superluminal speeds, whether it's a spaceship, a bomb, or even a massless beam of light..."

"It can be a tool to help us cross the galaxy. In a sense, it is also a weapon. As long as we need it, we can use it to send superluminal strikes to any area within a radius of 100 million light years." The space station's management, the artificial intelligence, calmly analyzed the contents of the data.

…………

In a conference room filled with various holographic projection interfaces, Chi Chengcan finally finished reading the last line of the report. He put down the data tablet in his hand and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Master Yanzhe...this...we..." Facing Cabot in front of him, Chi Chengcan found that he didn't know how to express his current thoughts.

"If you want to thank me... you're welcome... This is just a small gift. In fact, I should have given it to you hundreds of years ago, but I wanted to wait until you meet my daughter before giving it to you."

"No... Master Yanzhe... We really don't know how to thank you for such a huge gift of technology."

"Well... since you want to thank me, use it to explore the galaxy. As a friend of my children, bring order and vitality to this galaxy." Cabot did not shy away from it. He stretched out his gloved hand and gently touched Chi Chengshen's slippery head.

"???" Chi Chengcan seemed a little confused, but remembering that the Sky Star Civilization had mentioned in the relevant information given to him during the communication process that this action and behavior was often a friendly gesture between familiar friends or family members in the Sky Star Civilization, Chi Chengcan immediately understood that Lord Yanzhe's action must mean that he has been regarded as a friend. Chi Chengcan shook the tentacles on his body with great joy.

Luo Ying, who was also sitting in the conference room, looked at Chi Chengshen's smooth and round head, which was shaking because of Cabot's touch. Then he looked at the other glass eels in the conference room, whose heads also looked smooth and round. Luo Ying couldn't help but feel a little itchy in his hands, and wanted to rub the heads of the glass eels present, which looked very good to the touch.

In the conference room, everyone including Chi Chengcan shuddered inexplicably the moment Luoying came up with this idea. Chi Chengcan felt a premonition of danger approaching him.

At this moment, Chi Chengcan's AGI artificial intelligence assistant, who was also a participant in the meeting, suddenly spoke up to help ease the weird atmosphere.

"Master Yanzhe... I noticed that this hypersonic catapult only has a one-way launch function, right?"

"That's right."

"In other words, it can only send ships to the target system in one direction, like a slingshot, but there's no guarantee that the ships can return, right?"

"So... this thing... I think it should be used together with the wormhole technology of the Sky Star civilization, right?" asked Chi Chengcan's artificial intelligence assistant.

"You guessed it right... If we want to build a superluminal highway that can reach any corner of the Milky Way at any time, we can't rely solely on a slingshot with one-way launch capabilities. It really needs to be used in conjunction with a wormhole. By having ships carry the components for creating anchoring wormholes, and then using the superluminal catapult field as a one-way slingshot, the ships can be sent directly to the target star system, and the anchoring wormhole can be constructed on the spot upon arrival."

"As for why we do this... you'll understand after reading the document about the consumption of strange quark matter by high-dimensional space jump engine ships."

"This is the estimated consumption of strange quark cluster matter by the Sky Star civilization after the large-scale use and popularization of high-dimensional space jump engines." Cabot pressed a button on the table, and a statistical table appeared in front of everyone in the conference room.

"So high?" Chi Chengcan said in surprise as he looked at the huge number at the end of the statistical table.

"High-dimensional space jump engines consume a tremendous amount of material, such as strange quark clusters. The Sky Star civilization can afford this level of consumption because of the vast number of neutron stars within its territory. With over 200 neutron stars, the production capacity can supply the strange quark cluster material needed by the high-dimensional space jump engines of countless spacecraft throughout the civilization."

"Although the star in the glass eel's home system is a neutron star, if you truly deploy a high-dimensional space jump engine on a large scale throughout your entire civilization, with your current production capacity of only two neutron stars, I'm afraid even draining all the strange quark cluster matter in the cores of these two neutron stars wouldn't be enough. So..."

"Given the current limited production of strangelet matter... it's best to focus on utilizing high-dimensional space transition technology. Using the one-way slingshot of superluminal projectiles on neutron stars, along with the complementary capabilities of wormholes and warp drives, will be sufficient for exploring the entire galaxy."