Light Speed ​​War

Chapter 176: Hunting Down One's Own Kin

At Zhou Yuan's repeated requests, the MATRIX project, a virtual universe simulating the evolution of civilization in the mother world, was fully disclosed to him. Zhou Yuan was surprised that the five virtual universes simulated at faster-than-light speeds had numbers that approximate the value of pi. Just like the operations team, he believed that this mother world was also being simulated. Let the bugs fix the bugs; Zhou Yuan understood this principle.

After Zhou Yuan crammed on the physics and astronomy of this mother world, he learned that this world did not have the Big Bang theory, the universe was neither expanding nor contracting, there was no cosmic microwave background radiation, and although every galaxy was in motion, they were all moving in fixed positions, and there was no phenomenon of galaxies moving away from each other.

According to observational data from Earth, this parallel world or mother world also has an observable universe spanning 137 billion light-years, a constant speed of light c0, no speed barrier, and no variable speed plane space.

What surprised Zhou Yuan the most was that this universe seemed to be impossible for warp drive or hyperspace travel. In other words, this world was limited by the constant speed of light, so the fastest travel speed was the speed of light. It is estimated that since humanity on Earth dreams of faster-than-light travel, virtual faster-than-light simulations have been conducted in more than 100 million virtual universes in hopes of achieving this dream.

However, the dream was shattered. The universe setting of this mother world seems to be designed to keep this world peaceful and stable. If Earth's humans want to reach more distant star systems, there seem to be only two ways: one is to increase the travel speed to or near the speed of light, and the other is to extend human lifespan or cryogenically freeze humans in space for long periods of sleep.

137 billion light-years is an extremely long distance for humans traveling at or near the speed of light.

But a question arises: if this world wasn't created by the Big Bang, then how did this virtual universe, the "mother world," come into being? He himself was born from a faster-than-light simulated virtual universe created by the mother world (which Zhou Yuan calls the "source world"). The "intelligent entity" of the source world is actually the humanoid robot representing human intelligence in the mother world and the MATRIX base. But what is the "intelligent entity" of this virtual universe, the mother world? Furthermore, is the mother world itself, which simulates this mother world, also a fabricated simulation?

Zhou Yuan thought deeply and felt that he was trapped in an infinite loop between a "brain in a vat" and a parallel mother world, which made him feel somewhat desperate.

No matter what, I will persevere to the end and find the "truth." Zhou Yuan let out a breath, stretched, and his confidence returned.

The most urgent task is to resolve the invasion by the Four Stars fleet. Solving this problem simply means helping the Earth humans of this mother world build a fleet with faster speeds and more advanced weaponry.

Zhou Yuan recalled the Sniper Starships of the Earth Empire fleet in the original world. The most crucial component of the Sniper Starship was its high-speed particle collider ring. If the problem of the high-speed particle collider could be solved, then using a large high-speed particle collider to destroy stars and create artificial wormholes for "faster-than-light" travel might become possible. However, this world's solar system did not have Helium-3, not even the moon. Without Helium-3, the Sniper Starship and the large high-speed particle collider for destroying stars could not be built.

If there's no helium-3, then we'll make our own.

Zhou Yuan joined the Academy of Sciences, guiding a group of scientists. For Zhou Yuan, developing the technology tree wasn't a major problem. Of course, the scientists of this world were quite impressed by Zhou Yuan's extensive knowledge and innovative theories; it could be said that human technology and military advancements were rapid.

In his spare time, Zhou Yuan kept an eye on the situation of the four virtual universe explosion points. At the same time, he drew the faces of Wei Shan, Lefia, Aya, and Chu Xiaolu from memory and entrusted the Thomas government to secretly search for people with similar faces among the humans on this earth. Although he found several people with similar faces, Zhou Yuan could tell at a glance that they were not them. Later, Zhou Yuan gave up the search and devoted himself to his work.

Five years after Zhou Yuan's "reincarnation," in 2255 AD, a thousand-meter-tall golden statue modeled after Zhou Yuan was erected on one of the eight planets of the solar system. On Earth, this golden statue was located 500 kilometers southwest of the suburbs of the imperial capital.

Initially, people weren't interested in the golden statue; they just used it as a topic of conversation in their daily lives and online.

One hundred days after the construction of the golden colossus on the outskirts of the imperial capital, the people of the capital witnessed a "miracle." That morning, a projection of Zhou Yuan's golden colossus appeared near the sun, moving with the sun until sunset, and this continued for the next month.

Humanity transformed from fear into piety, with people from all over the world flocking to their desired holy sites. The practice of salvation and liberation began to flourish. In fact, the salvation religion, founded by Zhou Yuan on the blue planet of the capital star system of the Origin World, originated from Taoist thought, incorporating the essence of Buddhist thought. Therefore, fundamentally, the salvation religion is a combination of Buddhism and Taoism, but an elevation of both. Because of this, followers of the salvation religion began to study both Buddhism and Taoism simultaneously to better understand its methods of salvation.

That year, Zhou Yuan also attended the wedding of Operations and Maintenance and Maria. The three had already become good friends beforehand.

In 2259 AD, a large quantity of Helium-3 was prepared, and a 500-kilometer-long circular orbit was established on Earth, allowing the high-speed particle collider to begin operation. Based on Zhou Yuan's concept and blueprint, the circular accelerator at the front of the Sniper Starship also entered the development stage.

That year, humanity on Earth began to get busy, governments operated at high efficiency and under heavy workloads, and for security reasons, President Thomas ordered that the world be under militarized management.

Humans on Earth began a large-scale migration to the newly terraformed planet, Tian Shen Wu.

Zhou Yuan thought that his days would pass by uneventfully, but the world is a strange place.

One day in April of the spring of 2260 AD, Zhou Yuan was eating at a restaurant in Dongfang Square, Xiongjing, the capital. Several times when he looked up, he saw a little girl at the opposite table staring at him. The girl looked about fifteen or sixteen years old, with a ponytail and wearing a pink jacket. Zhou Yuan noticed the girl staring at him and turned to look behind him to make sure there was no one else behind him. The little girl was indeed looking at him.

Zhou Yuan smiled and waved to the little girl as a greeting. The little girl stood up, and Zhou Yuan's expression changed drastically. He immediately got up and sprinted towards the restaurant entrance. The little girl leaped into the air, clearing two tables, intending to block Zhou Yuan's path. Zhou Yuan, however, moved with lightning speed, running through the street. Passersby, witnessing this strange scene, quickly moved aside to take photos and videos. The little girl chased closely behind Zhou Yuan, the two running one after the other. Once they were out of the square, the little girl suddenly took to the air, flying like a rocket, and unleashed a barrage of fire from her plasma gun at Zhou Yuan. Pedestrians scattered in panic, chaos erupted, and sirens blared. Soon after, three police patrol ships arrived, following the two.

To avoid harming innocent people, Zhou Yuan ran as fast as he could towards less crowded streets. The little girl's plasma gun in the air just couldn't hit him.

The little girl glanced at the three police ships behind her, then suddenly turned around and slapped them with her hand. The three police ships wobbled as if their wings had been broken, and then exploded violently. After the explosion, the wreckage of the ships fell, and five or six pedestrians were caught in the crossfire.

The little girl turned around, hovering in the air, and patted the ground in front of Zhou Yuan who was running. The ground in front of Zhou Yuan collapsed like tofu, and some pedestrians fell into the deep pit, seemingly doomed.

Zhou Yuan couldn't bear to watch these innocent people fall into the deep pit. He opened his arms and made a grabbing motion. Miraculously, the five or six people who had fallen into the pit rose into the air, as if a powerful force was pulling him in. Zhou Yuan put these five or six people on the ground, then lifted his feet off the ground and also rose into the air, directly facing the little girl.

The two stared at each other in mid-air. Zhou Yuan broke the silence first, "Who are you?"

The little girl threw her head back and laughed loudly, but there was a chilling quality to her laughter. "Aren't you just asking a question you already know the answer to?"

Zhou Yuan frowned. "Which virtual universe are you from?"

"I am from virtual universe number 3141. Number 5, I have been looking for you for so many years, I never imagined you had been at the military base all this time."

"Number Two, why are you chasing me?"

"Hehe, isn't it obvious? Number One, Number Three, and Number Four have already been destroyed by me. Since eliminating those three, my superpowers have greatly increased. If I destroy you as well, then I can rule this Earth, and even this universe."

Zhou Yuan had always concealed his innate cosmic potential, never displaying any special abilities or powers in front of anyone. For the past ten years, he had maintained a very low profile, indistinguishable from an ordinary person. He even refused the bodyguard position arranged for him by President Thomas. Because the colossal golden statue resembled Zhou Yuan's face, for the past ten years, except within the base, he always wore a mask outside to avoid misunderstandings or unnecessary trouble. Today, being chased by this girl in the pink dress, one of his own kind, Zhou Yuan was forced to reveal some of his special abilities.

The little girl wasn't mistaken; Zhou Yuan actually possessed enormous energy.

Even a tiny bit of this enormous energy caused the little girl to feel an unprecedented fear.

Zhou Yuan's body was suspended in mid-air, his gaze fixed on the little girl. The surrounding space seemed to have undergone an inexplicable change, as if time and space had frozen. The scene, which was originally filled with panic, screams, and noise, fell silent in an instant. This silence was deathly still.

The little girl let out painful "ah ah" sounds, unable to speak, as if an invisible hand was choking her, making it hard to breathe. Her eyes bulged, then turned white. She seemed to be transported back to the past, seeing Number One, Number Three, and Number Four killed by her in the same way. Suddenly, she smiled, as if seeing her own source world. Countless galaxies revolved around her in this source world; the Great Wall of the Universe, galaxies, stars, planets, satellites, black holes, and neutron stars flashed by, as if being inspected by the little girl.

Suddenly, darkness descended, and everything vanished into nothingness. A dark abyss enveloped the little girl's mind. Helplessly, she closed her eyes, a crystal-clear tear dripping from the corner of her eye. The plasma gun fell from her hand, and her suspended body plummeted downwards at the same time. In a daze, the little girl felt something inside her body trying to forcibly leave her.

Suddenly, the little girl felt a strong force supporting her body, the suffocating feeling in her throat disappeared, and a hand was wiping her face. The little girl opened her eyes and saw Zhou Yuan standing on the ground, supporting her with both hands, a signature charming smile on his face. Only upon close inspection could one see that his face was unnatural; it was a finely crafted fake face.

The little girl laboriously raised her right hand, which was hanging down, and touched Zhou Yuan's face.