Light Speed ​​War

Chapter 204: Utilizing the Mechanism

"Holy Lord, please show us the way."

Zeus couldn't say it outright, but he asked them to help them eliminate the replicators.

Zhou Yuan knew perfectly well what was going on, and smiled slightly, "God King, Athena, in the next seventeen or eighteen years, will your warships be able to reach near the speed of light?"

Zeus looked at Athena, who said, "I think it will be difficult to reach the speed of light in seventeen or eighteen years. Reaching the speed of light would be a qualitative leap. In my estimation, it will take us at least another forty or fifty years to reach the speed of light."

"Oh, you know what the biggest flaw of your gods—I mean your race, not your individual race—is?"

Athena lowered her head and remained silent. She knew her race had many flaws, such as a small population, lack of diversity, and a lack of vitality and innovation. However, with the God-King and her kin present, she couldn't speak of them directly. This was why the Martian Empire vigorously developed artificial intelligence and intelligent machinery to compensate for its insufficient population, and why it provided technological enlightenment to Earth's humans, aiming to make them the masters of the planet. Meanwhile, the Martian gods secretly monitored the development of human civilization, drawing inspiration from it in technology, military affairs, and culture, which in turn propelled Martian technological development and military construction. Of course, the Martian gods also intervened overtly or covertly in human affairs to prevent humanity from self-destruction, such as through world wars. However, the explosive growth of human technological development, like the rate of human population expansion, terrified the Martian gods, who feared that one day humanity would surpass them. Therefore, the Martian gods gradually ceased providing technological enlightenment to certain individuals on Earth. Humanity seemed to stagnate in physics, and no more masters of their field emerged. To prevent Earth's humans from becoming too powerful and threatening them in the future, the Martian gods implanted restless elements among Earth's humans, namely, people with superpowers and werewolves.

"Athena, you know this, but you're unwilling to say it. God King, you've gone to great lengths to curb the development of humanity on Earth, simply because you see them as a potential threat, don't you?"

Zeus, the king of the gods, nodded.

"But you only think about how to deal with the enemy on your own. Why don't you think about uniting with humanity on Earth to fight against the powerful replicators?"

Zhou Yuan's question was like a wake-up call, awakening the more than one hundred Martian gods.

"God-King, Athena, everyone, I know you want us to deal with the replicators, but you don't know that an even more powerful enemy than the replicators—the replicators' creator, whom we call the Ruler—is on its way."

"Holy Lord, is what you say true?" Zeus, the king of the gods, and the other gods were in a panic. If it was the creator of the replicator, then the Martian gods had no hope of survival.

"I won't lie to you about this. The reason we didn't agree to help you deal with the replicators is because we have more important things to do."

"You mean you're going to deal with the creator of the replicators, the Overlord?"

“Athena, you guessed right. The Overlord will arrive in this interstellar space in about five years and two months.”

"What?!" Zeus, the king of the gods, roared. "I'm sorry, Holy Lord, I didn't mean it. Five years and two months, that's too fast!"

"God-King, Athena, everyone, the clear path I'm offering you is this: you and humanity on Earth should work together, develop together, and fight against the replicators, while we can focus on fighting the Overlord. I'll go to Earth now and persuade humanity to join forces with you."

"Yes, Holy Lord, thank you, Holy Lord." God King Zeus was overjoyed. If Zhou Yuan was willing to step in, the hatred and prejudice of Earth's humans towards the Martian gods should lessen.

"Thank you, Holy Lord! We respectfully bid you farewell!" The gods bowed in gratitude.

Zhou Yuan and Pan Na boarded the spaceship and instantly left Mars, heading towards Earth.

"Athena, the Holy Lord said a fleet will arrive in five years and two months. What's going on?"

"God King, we have not observed this fleet."

Zeus, the king of the gods, looked at Athena and asked, "Do you think what the Holy Lord said is true?"

"God King, the fact that we haven't observed it doesn't mean this fleet doesn't exist; it just means our observation capabilities are limited."

"So you think that's possible?"

"The Holy Lord's technology is far more advanced than ours. I personally believe that they should have been able to observe it. Besides, the Holy Lord has no reason to deceive us."

"Ah."

"Mars, Apollo, you two speed up the production of warships and weapons. Athena, you need to accelerate the development of near-light-speed spaceships. I'm planning to go to Earth; as the Holy Lord said, perhaps humanity can help us."

"Yes, God-King."

Zhou Yuan and Pan Na arrived at the Presidential Palace in the human capital.

"A cooperative alliance with the Martians?" The human leadership, led by President Smith, found it difficult to accept Zhou Yuan's intention.

"Smith, everyone, the power of the replicators is beyond your imagination. I'll be frank: even if the Martians and you humans form an alliance, you might not be able to defeat the replicators."

Everyone seemed to sense that the situation was somewhat serious.

"It can be said that you and the Martian race are highly complementary. If you form an alliance, I think there is still a pretty good chance for the next twenty years."

"Sage, we need some time to discuss this."

"No problem. How about the day after tomorrow?"

"Yes, thank you, Your Majesty."

"I'll arrive at nine o'clock the day after tomorrow."

"Ok."

Zhou Yuan and Pan Na boarded the Little Bee spaceship and traveled through hyperspace, returning to the Nine Stars Sun-Circling Empire fleet base.

The Imperial Academy of Sciences established the "Space-Time Research Institute" specifically for Huo Jing and her four colleagues to conduct research on time, space, and time travel. Those with superpowers were assigned to the Imperial Academy of Sciences' "Consciousness Quantum Research Institute" to facilitate scientific research on their superpowers.

Zhou Yuan had just returned to the base when he received a call from Huo Jing.

"What's wrong, Chief Huo?"

"Zhou... Sage, your technology is too... too advanced. I never imagined that you could build a time machine that is even more perfect than I had imagined in just one or two days."

"Hmm, what's the problem?"

"I want to conduct time travel experiments as soon as possible."

"So urgent?"

“You know, the five of us are so excited. As we get closer to our dream, you know, we want it to happen sooner and sooner. Even your scientists, my colleagues and assistants, are looking forward to it. However, they say that we need the approval of the Imperial Fleet and the Academy of Sciences before we can conduct time travel experiments.”

"Yes, it's stipulated by Imperial law, because time travel is no small matter."

"Yes I know."

"Director Huo, but there are some things you don't know."

The beautiful director blinked her big eyes and looked at Zhou Yuan, "An imperial secret?"

"Ah."

Huo Jing was smart enough to know that Zhou Yuan was reluctant to talk about it, so she didn't press him for details.

"Director Huo, let me discuss this with Thomas and Coffey before we talk about it further."

"Ok."

Zhou Yuan immediately contacted Thomas and Coffey, and the three of them sat down together.

"According to Director Huo's theory, we can conduct time travel experiments now. However, as you know, this virtual universe will never allow us to violate its established rules and mechanisms, unless we can also deceive the mechanisms of this virtual universe like we do with hyperspace travel."

"Yes, Huo Jing doesn't know that this universe is a virtual universe. Although in our previous discussions, she also believed that the time and space of this universe serve to calculate high-probability events, at least she has a vague concept of this virtual universe in her mind."

“Sage, we were all astonished when we heard the recording of your conversation,” Kofi said with deep emotion.

"Yes, at the time, Pana, Chu Xiaolu, and I were all shocked. Huo Jing, we must treat her well, her thoughts and theories are ahead of her time."

"Sage, do you mean we should tell her that this universe is virtual?"

"Thomas, I think it's necessary. If she doesn't know that this universe is virtual, and doesn't know its rules and mechanisms, some of her research might go astray. The fundamental mistakes she makes will definitely bring us disaster."

"I understand this."

“Sage, let me go and tell her. I’ll ask her to reconsider and improve the plan to avoid the consequences of time travel. Perhaps she will have a solution.”

"Okay, Kofi. How are the replicants and the Overmind doing?"

"We have already dispatched a fleet to conduct secret observations of the Replicators. Their evolution rate is extremely fast. I personally believe that even if the humans and the gods unite, they will not be a match for them in twenty years."

"We can't solve everything for them. Humans and gods need to work together and cooperate. Even the replicators must abide by the laws of this virtual universe."

"Yes. Based on the information you provided earlier about the replicators of the source world during your wanderings on the five planets of the Celestial Triad, and combined with our observations of the evolution of the replicators on the planet Gliese, the Imperial Academy of Sciences' research and development on replicators is nearing completion. We will be able to mass-produce replicators in a month."

"Using a replicator to fight a replicator is a good approach."

"Yes, Your Majesty, your considerations are very thorough. As for the Overlord, that unknown civilization's warship capable of hyperspace travel, we don't know what weapons and abilities they possess, which is rather troublesome."

"Thomas, Coffey, I've got an idea."

"Sage, what method is there?"

"We took the initiative to probe, or rather, to take the initiative."

"How to test?"

"Send a hybrid fleet of clones and intelligent machines to travel through hyperspace, confront the Overlord, and seal off its hyperspace. This hybrid fleet will fight the Overlord in another star system, destroying a large number of stars and testing interstellar catapults and other weapons that we haven't even used yet. Anyway, the cleanup mechanism of this virtual universe is in effect, so let the hybrid fleet and the Overlord be cleaned up along with that star system."

"Sage, you are truly great. Hmm, this hybrid fleet can depart in five days." Thomas was overjoyed, because he knew that using the cleanup mechanism of this virtual universe was also a powerful weapon. In any case, the losses and sacrifices would be borne by the hybrid fleet of clones and intelligent machines, as long as the goal of eliminating the powerful enemy was achieved.

Zhou Yuan was also suddenly startled, and joy appeared in his eyes. It seems that this virtual universe is not so perfect after all.