Chapter 130 This problem is very complex

"Please wait a moment,"

Li Wen suddenly interjected and then softly spoke to a young man standing not too far from him, "Go and bring that thing over."

Soon after Li Wen finished speaking, a black box was brought over.

The box was opened, revealing a silver-white object resembling a pressure cooker, which Li Wen personally took and held up for Xinghe to see while asking, "The communication signal you mentioned, was it emitted by this device?"

Looking at the pressure cooker-like object, Xinghe didn't hesitate to say, "Yes, this is a portable communicator left on Earth by our ancestors, capable of communicating with ours. This communicator represents the pinnacle of our technology. After our civilization was destroyed for the second time, we have been unable to produce a communicator of the same standard."

Li Wen, slightly excited, asked, "Then how does it work?"

Xinghe stood up and approached Li Wen, intending to take the communicator, and Li Wen immediately handed it to Xinghe.

Xinghe pressed something on the communicator and suddenly, the entire room turned dim and profound, though the lights were still on. The light was obscured by hovering points of light throughout the room.

It seemed like a three-dimensional projection of the universe.

"This is your planet, and here is our planet. At the time this communicator was made, this was our mother star,"

As Xinghe spoke, his finger, no, her finger, tapped twice on the pressure cooker-like device, causing the three-dimensional projection of the universe to suddenly display only two points of light.

One was Earth, and the other was the mother star of Xinghe's people.

"My mother star has been destroyed, and the main body of our civilization has migrated here,"

A third point of light lit up.

"This is the mother star of the Serpent People, their first colonized planet, and this is their second,"

A fourth and fifth point of light appeared; initially, all these points shared the same color, but as Xinghe worked the controls, those representing the Serpent People changed to a distinct orange.

"This is the third colony of the Serpent People. It was from here that they set off for Earth,"

Finally, another point of light turned on, and the few points hanging in the air inside the room appeared very distinct.

"Next to be displayed are the ships of the Serpent People,"

After speaking, the point representing Earth suddenly enlarged, hovering in the air like a large globe, while three additional large points of light appeared outside the one representing Earth.

"These are the three motherships of the Serpent People. Let me check their travel routes... Hmm, the largest mothership is hidden on Mars, a small one is over Titan, and another small one was once concealed near the Moon,"

Following Xinghe's words, the locations of the three extraterrestrial motherships became visible—one near the Moon, and the other two maintaining a geostationary orbit in sync with Earth's rotation.

"These are smaller ships. If they use the same energy source as the motherships, then they will be visible,"

Suddenly, numerous small bright spots covered the point representing Earth.

"There are 104 small Serpent People spacecraft scattered across different corners of Earth,"

Li Wen exchanged glances with a group of high-ranking military officials in the room, and then an old general exclaimed with great excitement, "This is incredibly useful!"

But at this moment, Xinghe's face changed drastically.

"Why is it not there?"

Xinghe tapped incessantly on the surface of the pressure cooker, and then all the points of light vanished, leaving only the large light representing Earth, which kept growing.

"How can it not be there? Why is it missing?"

Xinghe was clearly frantic, prompting Li Wen to ask, "What are you looking for?"

"The prototype!"

Suddenly, another point of light appeared on the surface representing Earth, a blue light flashing conspicuously over the white.

"This is... this is not it!"

Xinghe suddenly turned his head, and then said to Li Wen, "Our prototype is not on Earth! Why not?"

Xinghe appeared somewhat agitated, his question bewildering everyone present. Li Wen, confused, said, "I don't quite understand, what are you referring to?"

Rising to stand before the light, Xinghe pointed to the flashing blue light and said, "This is a device using..."

Xinghe stopped speaking, looking pained, and then said with impatience, "Communicating with a subordinate civilization is too troublesome. You don't have the precise vocabulary, not even similar terms, making it impossible for me to express myself accurately."

Gao Yuan said, "Approximations will do."

Xinghe looked at Gao Yuan and explained, "Your civilization has no similar research, completely lacking this line of thought. What I'm trying to convey is a type of energy, a way to use a certain energy."

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Gao Yuan immediately said, "Nuclear energy?"

"Not at all! Nuclear energy is too primitive."

"Then... antimatter?"

"Of course not antimatter. The effects of antimatter are too intense; it's not a reliable energy source at all."

"Dark matter? Is it the same as antimatter?"

"Completely wrong. Dark matter is Earth's most rudimentary research, the concept itself is inaccurately expressed, and it's too broad as well."

Unable to hit the nail on the head, a general wearing glasses then said, "Could you describe to us how your energy source works?"

"If I could express it accurately and you could understand, then your level of technology would leap forward. Sadly, the issue is that I simply cannot describe it to you with the appropriate vocabulary; you simply lack the terminology in this field."

Gao Yuan whispered, "Perhaps the vocabulary we've provided is still too limited, maybe a change of scientist could do the trick."

Li Wen immediately whispered to the person next to him, "Have our scientists arrived yet?"

"Not yet. We were hoping that Xinghe would go to the scientific research base for exchanges with the scientists."

Just like it's impossible to explain nuclear fission to primitive people with their language, they need to have the concept first.

Gao Yuan really wanted to keep the conversation going, so he said urgently, "Xinghe, just take dark matter as your energy source for now; let's start with that and explain slowly later."

Xinghe sighed, and that was when Gao Yuan felt that Xinghe was indeed a person, for his expressions and body language started to become more vivid.

"Alright, the energy we use is dark matter. When dark matter is active, it always produces a kind of wave that can be easily detected because it is very different from any natural fluctuations in the universe. The Serpent People have also begun to use dark matter, so their trajectories in the universe can easily be tracked by us. Moreover, the energy reaction produced... the fluctuations are faster than the speed of light. According to our understanding, these fluctuations can transcend time and distance; as long as they occur, they are certain to be detected."

"Faster than light?"

"Yes, the only energy fluctuations we've discovered that can exceed the speed of light. Please don't ask me to explain in more detail; I cannot make it clear to you."

Xinghe pointed at the blue dot again and said, "This is a device powered by... batteries, left by our ancestors. But why is it that even a small device's energy fluctuations can be discovered, but not our spaceship?"

Li Wen said in a grave tone, "Is that spaceship very important to you?"

"Very important! Both the materials and the engine of that spaceship are of epoch-making significance to us. Our civilization lost too much in the second destruction; now we can only place our hopes on this prototype. But why can't it be found?"

Xinghe appeared very agitated, and just then, a general suddenly stood up and said urgently, "Wait! You said these energy fluctuations are easily detectable?"

"Not detectable, but receiving signals."

"So if we use this instrument here, could we be discovered by the enemy?"

Xinghe was startled for a moment, then he shook his head and said, "No, the Serpent People have not mastered this technology, which is why they are at a disadvantage relative to us; we can detect them, but they cannot detect us."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, as the general's worries had reminded them all of the possibility of being discovered by the Serpent People—indeed, a frightening thought.

Li Wen said to Xinghe, "We are willing to help you with all our might…"

Xinghe sighed softly, looking at Earth's representative light point and said blankly, "Why isn't it there? As long as the reactor is working, it shouldn't be possible not to find it!"

Xinghe seemed truly disappointed. Gao Yuan whispered, "Could it be that the reactor you mentioned stopped working?"

"Impossible. The energy carried by the prototype is almost infinite; unless the prototype suddenly unleashed energy enough to destroy this planet, the engine would not stop working. And if such a high level of energy really burst forth, Earth would no longer exist. We last monitored the prototype's signal on Earth; it couldn't possibly be on another planet."

This was truly a puzzle. Li Wen and the others wanted to speak, but seeing Xinghe's irritable demeanor, they didn't know how to comfort him or how to keep him talking about the topic they were concerned with.

Li Wen gave Gao Yuan a meaningful look, and so Gao Yuan said softly, "Xinghe, let's not talk about the prototype issue for now; we'll slowly figure out the reasons later. What is this light point then?"

Xinghe seemed a bit despondent as he spoke listlessly, "Med pods, left for you to deal with the Serpent People because we knew their method of attack is through viruses. With med pods, it's quite easy to create corresponding vaccines. I'm very curious, why don't you humans use them?"

Upon hearing Xinghe's words, Li Wen's eyes widened.

Gao Yuan could tell Li Wen was grinding his teeth; he seemed furious, but after holding back multiple times, Li Wen finally let out a soft sigh. Then he looked at the general by his side and said, "It's all true!"

The general's face didn't look good, and he nodded gravely, whispering, "Those bastards! They've delayed the fate of mankind!"

Li Wen continued, "We must get our hands on it!"

"Yes, we must take possession of it ourselves!"

Gao Yuan certainly wanted to ask, but he didn't dare to. Fortunately, at this moment, Xinghe said, "I'm very curious, this communicator and the med pods should have been together. Why aren't they now?"

Li Wen exhaled softly and replied, "It's complicated, really complicated."

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