Chapter 193: The Conversion of Open and Closed Strings, and the Threat

What is the impact of the sudden change of microscopic particles, especially strings, on the macroscopic world?

Scholars within the Federation have been studying this.

But the results are uncertain.

The first reason is that strings themselves are not directly observable. Like virtual particles, they are determined by calculating the effects of strings on other matter or energy.

The second reason is that strings are extremely stable, which also contributes to the stability of most fundamental particles in the universe. However, the string information flow weapon disrupts the stability of strings. It's like throwing a ball onto an ice surface at a perfectly vertical angle, and if you can't detect the information on the ice, you have no idea about the ball's precise state after it lands.

Will it bounce or embed itself into the ice?

Will it move to the left, right, forward, or backward? Or at a certain angle to the right or left, or toward the southwest or northwest?

All these are uncertain.

Unless you precisely measure the ice (string).

However, with the current strength of the Ming Federation, it is impossible to accurately measure the ice layer (string).

Although the Ming Federation's utilization of strings is much better than it was tens of thousands of years ago, this utilization is still crude. Yan Xia believes that higher-level Mings possess more advanced string technology, but the Federation is far from achieving that.

After the string information flow weapon was fired, Yan Xia ordered all the battleships to start converging.

Since the enemy's condition was unknown, and the extent of the enemy's losses couldn't be confirmed, the only thing to do was to launch an attack before the enemy had a chance to regroup.

As for why they didn't continue to use the string information flow weapon...

It's because the ammunition is not infinite.

It would take about a hundred years to travel from here to the interior of the Federation.

Fortunately, 99% of the resources within the Federation have already been extracted by the Federation, after all, this is the Federation's backyard.

Therefore, the Ming fleet must enter a star system to carry out repairs.

This is much more difficult than directly destroying a star system, especially since the Ming fleet has been heavily damaged, making it even more challenging.

All of this is still just speculation for now.

After all, the enemy is too far away.

At a distance measured in light-years, so-called 'million-meter-class' battleships can't be detected, not to mention that the Ming battleships also have stealth technology.

...

About 115 years later.

The Kunlun discovered the Ming battleships at a distance of approximately 0.7 light-years, and they had all become wreckage.

They were scattered and broken, with some areas showing scars from powerful energy strikes.

The number of these battleships was in the tens of thousands.

Yan Xia ordered some biological battleships to collect the remains of the Ming battleships.

He led the Kunlun to continue its journey, as time was of the essence.

A few years ago, he had observed a star in the Federation flickering, indicating a battle between the enemy and the Federation. Since no information had been received from the star system, it was certain that the system had been blocked.

After another 21 years or so, Yan Xia finally obtained a portion of the Ming battleship wreckage for research.

"The energy came from within!"

Yan Xia was extremely surprised.

By 'within', he didn't mean the interior of the battleship, but the interior of the materials, molecules, and atoms.

The change in strings seemed to have transformed the matter, causing nuclear fusion, nuclear fission, and even converting some particles into antimatter. These traces could be clearly detected at the microscopic level.

But this wasn't what surprised Yan Xia the most.

What astonished him was the disappearance of some matter, leaving no trace behind. You couldn't even observe signs of annihilation, as if the matter had never existed.

"Can strings be destroyed?" Yan Xia posed this question.

According to the current understanding, strings cannot be destroyed. Based on the law of conservation of energy, if a string is destroyed, it must produce something else. Is it another string?

Or something even smaller than a string?

This challenges the existing string theory.

"Basically, it's impossible," Ella replied.

"If we follow the current theory, these strings should have transformed into another form. Perhaps they became closed strings and traveled to other dimensions, which is why they disappeared."

Yan Xia speculated that this explanation, though equally absurd, was probably a billion times more likely than the previous one.

What would happen if open strings transformed into closed strings, and closed strings into open strings?

Closed strings are gravitons, and open strings are the other fundamental particles that make up the world. If closed strings convert to open strings, it implies that gravity can be directly converted into energy.

This is a significant discovery.

"If that's the case, then the probability of us converting open strings to closed strings has increased by 0.00000000057%. This is a big step forward," Ella added, pouring cold water on the idea.

When the probability of an event is less than one in a hundred million, it can be called impossible.

Currently, it's still in the realm of impossibility, as they are creating chaos, and this chaos gives rise to such coincidences.

Coincidences may become certainties, but even with countless such coincidences, it's impossible for the Federation to control strings.

"Let's deal with the Ming fleet first."

Yan Xia didn't want to delve into this matter at this time. Every moment that passed, the Ming fleet might break through the star system and obtain energy supplies.

"According to the analysis of the wreckage, the Ming fleet's losses should be between 70,000 and 74,000 ships."

"That's more than half of their combat strength."

"Moreover, I estimate that their energy reserves are not optimistic. Strings attack indiscriminately, and energy storage devices are very precise. They can't withstand such variables," Ella analyzed.

This provided Yan Xia with some reference.

The battleship was not far from reaching the star system.

Every star system in the Federation is as solid as gold, as it relies on the Federation's entire energy supply. Knowing that Star City had excess energy, Yan Xia asked Ella to develop a quick-transfer device for these energies during special periods.

The surplus energy would be directly applied to the star system's defense.

This created some trouble for the Ming fleet.

Furthermore, to prepare for the Federation's border being breached, Yan Xia installed AAA cannons in many star systems within the Federation.

This was a wise decision.

However, the enemy still had nearly 50,000 ships. If these 50,000 ships attacked one location simultaneously, how long could a star system hold out?

After another 32 years, Yan Xia finally reached the attacked star system.

Even though he had made preparations, he still sighed.

"Prepare to attack the star system!"

The enemy wasn't stopped.

The Federation's giant ships were still too few. Each star system only had some biological battleships and old metal battleships, numbering less than 1,000, maybe not even 500.

At this moment.

A message came from within the star system.

The content of the message was a video.

There were still many Federation citizens in the star system!

Obviously, this was a threat from the Ming...

"Yan Xia, no murderer would give up their own quality, and no quality would be saved during negotiations," Ella interjected at the right moment.

Now, Yan Xia faced a difficult decision.

In the past, he could have made the decision without hesitation.

But now, would his decision be worthy of the sacrifice of the soldiers who had died before?