Chapter 124: The Planet-Class Flagship, Kunlun

It had been ten thousand years since Yan Xia left the Civilization Federation, and the Federation's warship technology had advanced significantly. The maximum speed of their warships had reached 27,584 km/s.

The progress was not rapid, as the Federation still primarily relied on nuclear fusion of stars as their main energy source, which was a significant gap compared to the Olive Branch Civilization.

Stable and suitable stars for energy production were scarce, and to generate more energy, they needed larger stars, which were often giants, supergiants, or even some intermediate-mass stars.

These stars were extremely dangerous, as external catalysts could easily cause them to collapse into black holes, devouring everything around them.

The energy source limited the Federation's technological development, and engine technology had also hit a bottleneck.

Small-mass spacecraft could now be accelerated to 90% of the speed of light by the Federation.

However, such spacecraft were useless on the battlefield.

Only size mattered; larger ships could store more energy, allowing them to overpower their opponents in interstellar warfare.

In the Universe Silk Road, within the SC-29 star system, Yan Xia witnessed his new flagship, the Kunlun.

The Tiangong, the original flagship, had not been destroyed during Yan Xia's escape, but it was later transported back and dismantled for research in Xingcheng.

With the rift between them, Xingcheng saw no need to keep the escape routes open.

Even if it hadn't been dismantled, Yan Xia wouldn't have considered bringing the Tiangong back.

It had already fulfilled its mission.

The little sprite, Ella, perched on top of Yan Xia's head.

"The Kunlun is built with the Federation's most advanced technology."

"It underwent 680 years of refinement in the simulated universe before being constructed in reality."

"It's a planet-class battleship with a total length of 800,356 meters, a height of 258,565 meters, a width of 298,753 meters, and a total mass of 780 trillion tons."

"It's a milestone in the Federation's warship technology."

At 800 kilometers, the Kunlun just met the diameter limit for dwarf planets, so calling it a planet-class battleship was not an exaggeration.

This was a bold leap, as the Federation's previous warships had not even broken the 100,000-meter barrier, and now they had directly jumped to the million-meter class, even touching the ten-million-meter class.

However, this was not a wasteful use of resources.

It was a necessary hurdle to overcome.

A planet-class battleship was essential, especially when facing a colossal civilization like the Olive Branch.

Smaller ships had limited energy reserves and attack capabilities, and tens of thousands of them would only be sent to their deaths against the Olive Branch's hundred-plus ships.

This was clearly unsustainable.

Moreover, compared to a technological leap, making larger warships was relatively easier and more practical for the Federation at this stage.

After all, a technological breakthrough was not imminent, and they couldn't gamble the civilization's fate on expectations.

The Olive Branch Civilization was no different, as Xingcheng's essence was its massive warships. When facing weaker civilizations like the Civilization Federation and the Silk Civilization, the Olive Branch Civilization didn't bother to mobilize the entire Xingcheng.

If the Olive Branch Civilization's opponent was a powerful civilization, the massive size of Xingcheng would become a significant advantage.

The Kunlun's main purpose was similar.

By accumulating the technology to build planet-class battleships, they could create formidable combat units to defend against powerful civilizations.

"The Kunlun can store up to 1x10^35 joules of energy, thanks to our improved storage methods."

"Traditional storage methods include battery storage, pumped storage, thermal storage, and air storage. We have been researching better storage methods to store more energy in smaller spaces."

"So, we developed the 'Fat Atom' storage method. The name is quite comical, but I didn't come up with it. The researcher who did was obsessed with cramming as many electrons as possible into hydrogen atoms in the simulated universe, using nuclear force and gravitational constraints to maintain stability for a hundred years."

"With my support, this technology took 1,800 years to achieve positive results, allowing the maximum number of electrons to be bound by the minimum nuclear force and gravitational constraints in an atomic system. Now, we can fit 6,585 electrons into a single atom and maintain it for 14,000 years."

It was indeed a crazy idea, and Yan Xia couldn't help but smile after hearing about it.

The energy produced by a single electron splitting or combining in an atom was terrifying.

If these unstable 'Fat Atoms' were released from their constraints, Yan Xia couldn't even imagine the magnitude of the resulting explosion.

"What's the storage loss rate?"

This was the most crucial question.

"6.59%!"

In other words, if 100 units of energy were stored, only 93.41 units could be retrieved.

This was already insane.

The improvement in energy storage meant that the Kunlun could accommodate more powerful defense systems and offensive weapons.

This was the advantage of its massive size.

"What's its maximum speed?" Yan Xia asked another critical question.

Ella's expression turned somber.

"The maximum speed is 24,858 km/s."

Not too slow.

"But accelerating to this speed requires consuming 100% of the ship's energy."

"..."

This was the downside of its massive size.

"Ahem, what about the power generation devices? What's the power output, and how long does it take to fully charge?"

Ella pouted, looking slightly aggrieved.

Oh, family, who would understand? I wanted to show off our achievements, but you keep asking about our weaknesses.

"The power output is 6.08x10^25 watts, and it takes 52.1 years to fully charge."

Not too slow, either.

It even exceeded Yan Xia's expectations. After all, how much power did the sun produce? The Kunlun could already consume almost one-fifth of the sun's energy.

As if reading Yan Xia's thoughts, Ella explained, "Two-fifths of the Kunlun's mass is dedicated to energy generation, another two-fifths to energy storage, and the remaining one-fifth includes the engine, mainframe, weapons, living quarters, and storage space."

Yan Xia's mouth twitched. So, this massive battleship was essentially a power plant and energy storage facility?

"It's the first generation, but it's a good start!"

Yan Xia was quite satisfied.

As they spoke, their ship reached the edge of the Kunlun. Looking at this colossal warship, its outer shell was deep gray, resembling a '+' sign from the front and a narrow, inverted triangle from the side—essentially a long screwdriver head.

While it wasn't aesthetically pleasing when scaled down, the massive hull embodied the saying, "One big covers a hundred flaws." At this moment, it was parked outside the gravitational range of a planet, and it didn't look small compared to the planet.

On top of the Kunlun was an 8-kilometer-long and 1.3-kilometer-wide recessed claw-shaped area. Yan Xia's ship entered this area and flew into the thick, opaque atmosphere.

As they emerged from the clouds, Yan Xia was surprised to see a small city on the surface of the battleship.

There were mountains, water, forests, and a high-rise and residential area.

Ella smiled and said, "Welcome, Captain, to your first visit aboard the Kunlun."

"The Kunlun has limited internal space, but its external space is vast. The first area you're exploring is the crew's recreational area."

Indeed, bigger was better.