Age of Cosmic Exploration

Chapter 305: Time on Both End

Blue 6’s news shocked the whole Blue Race.

Just like how the Blue Race’s royal committee members put it earlier, a lost space civilization ruin was rare. The cosmos was unimaginably big, so one could spend over a million years and one might not be able to finish exploring one galaxy, much less the whole cosmos. Relative to that scale, space ruins were rare like diamonds on Earth.

First, for it to be called a lost space ruin, it had been to be a product or fleet left behind by an ancient space civilization after it had completely declined due to Law of Conservation of Soul or were completely wiped out due to war or a natural disaster.

If following that definition, the so-called lost space ruins had to be innumerable, but that was untrue because the products of low level space civilizations would perish alongside its people. This was due to its low level technology. Without manual maintenance or control, it would self-destruct, or collide into other spatial entity and disappear in space.

Therefore, generally speaking, these lost ruins had be the products left behind by civilizations of at least level 4 caliber. On rare occasions, there might be a chance discovery of a lost ruin left behind by a level 2 or 3 space civilization, but for all intents and purposes, they couldn’t be called space ruins.

The number of level 4 space civilizations was drastically smaller than the number of level 1, 2, and 3 space civilizations. The ratio was roughly ten thousand level 3 space civilizations to one level 4 space civilization. Of all the space ruins, level 4 space ruins were the most valuable in terms of ratio of investment returns. The danger level would be manageable and the technology harvested would be at a fair level. Therefore, whenever a space civilization stumbled into a level 4 space ruin, the ruins would be unconditionally collected.

In other words, those other space ruins left behind by higher level space civilizations usually harbored great secrets, like super future technology, but similarly was home to unimaginable danger. This kind of space ruin was called a trap-like ruin!

This was the news brought back by Blue 6, a news that lit up the ambition of every Blue Race citizen!

A trap-like ruin was a treasure trove! This was something akin to a jackpot. Even though it would be extremely dangerous, so much so that it could cause the whole galaxy to collapse if one was not careful, similarly, the rewards provided by such ruins would be ridiculously good; at least it would definitely push the Blue Race into becoming a level 4 space civilization. Furthermore, with enough time and percolation, evolving into level 5, 6 or even 7 was inevitable.

The Blue Race’s longevity would no longer be measured in years but possibly in terms of epochs! If luck would have it, perhaps the Blue Race could even become a god-tier space civilization!

Of course, not everyone believed this report fully, but since it came from Blue 6, the Blue Race’s only S-grade cosmic adapter who had saved the Blue Race twice, his words carried much weight. This observation was supported by explosions around the ruins. The discovery of space wave disruption proved that the ruin’s technological level was indeed unbelievably high. This reinforced Blue 6’s conclusion, and so these minor voices were easily eclipsed.

Of course, since the Blue Race was a mature level 3 space civilization, they naturally wouldn’t barge into the space ruin just like those level 2 space civilizations would. With knowledge came caution. This kind of trap-like ruin could cause impossible catastrophe. There was some high level space ruins that had super long range weapons that could launch attacks through space after locking down their target’s coordinates. The bullets crossed the space dimension itself to attack the target. They couldn’t be too careful.

Because of this, they had to figure out another way of venturing into this ruin. Blue 6’s methods of charging into it head-on was no longer feasible.

Blue 6 understood this, but he was unwilling to give up, because the closer he got to the ruin, the stronger the attraction he felt towards it. The attraction was something that crossed the limitations of space and time, it spoke to his "soul" directly. It was an attraction that he couldn’t reject or want to reject. He knew there was something inside the ruins that he had to claim, so he wished to enter the ruins as soon as possible.

"What? The creation of the perfect energy-blocking shield?"

On the 6th day, Blue 6 returned to the Blue Race. This was 14 days after the ruin was discovered. He yelled out when he read this important phrase in the morning paper. He could no longer sit idle. After a hasty breakfast, he rushed to the royal committee, and soon, he received the authentic news from the royal committee members themselves. The Blue Race was planning to build a large perfect energy-blocking shield that would cover the entirety of the Blue Race’s fleet.

The perfect energy-blocking shield was a high functionality defense-use power shield. It was different from normal energy shields, although their theoretical basis was the same; they both used the conversion of energy to draw up a shield. This was the strongest defense measure available to level 3 space civilizations, because in actuality, in terms of defensive power, level 4 space civilizations were the same as level 3 space civilizations, so this technology was the strongest defense shared by these two levels of space civilizations. It was strong enough to withstand the solar wave for a short period!

The perfect meant a perfect structure similar to the Golden Scale. It had the perfect shape and structure, thus providing the best defense with the lowest exhaustion of energy. This technology required one to be at the peak of the 3rd revolution, and the Blue Race happened to be at that stage then.

No matter what, the first step before venturing into this space ruin was to ensure their own safety. Therefore, the creation of this perfect energy-blocking shield was necessary… At the same time, it was worth noting that the Blue Race had no AI system!

Because of that, this device required manual labor contribution from the people, and it wouldn’t finish building as fast as if it was built by AI bots. From the news given by the royal committee, it would finish in 30 days.

Blue 6 knew that this was standard procedure, as the leader’s responsibility to its constituents was to keep them safe. It’s better to be safe than sorry. However, Blue 6 still had issues suppressing the anxiety in his heart.

"… Baron Blue Light, is it not necessary to send out a small, unmanned scouting spaceship to get near the ruins?"

Blue 6 had invited Baron Blue Light to join him for lunch. Even though the baron didn’t have a number following his surname, his ancestor was the earlier Emperor’s close family member, and Blue Light was also one of the liberal leaders in the royal committee.

Blue Light looked curiously at Blue 6 before continuing to eat his lunch. He elaborated in between bites, "We don’t dare to take this risk. No one knows this ruin’s explosive trigger; perhaps it is the approach of life or even material. After all, there was only one floating product left around the ruin, so this might be our last chance. Before we finish building the defense mechanism, I will not agree to have any spaceship go close to the ruin… Of course, an unmanned spaceship can be an exception, but the Blue Race still doesn’t have the necessary AI to do something like that."

After hearing what Blue Light said, the anxiety in Blue 6’s heart only increased. He finally said, "I’m sorry, Baron, but for some reason, I have a feeling… If we don’t hurry up, we will lose the opportunity of exploring this particular ruin."

Baron Blue Light stared intensely at Blue 6, and after a long pause, he said, "I hear… Your Highness Blue 6 hasn’t become a level 2 Time Watcher yet, right?"

Blue 6 lowered his head in shame. "Yes, I’ve wasted the taxpayers' money…"

"No, no, no, that’s not what I meant," Baron Blue Light explained in a hurry. "The evolution of cosmic adapters has nothing to do with the people’s contribution. None of us can force you to level up, even you can’t force that evolution. I’m just saying, without the ability of the level 2 Time Watcher, Your Highness doesn’t have the capability to see into the future, right? Other than sensing danger, Your Highness can’t see into the future, right?"

Blue 6 sighed inwardly. "That’s right…"

"Allow me to be frank." Baron Blue Light nodded. "Your Highness has contributed a lot in this case. There’s more than enough contribution to enable the royal committee to give you the 46th space fleet. Therefore, it is my advice that Your Highness not get too hung up on glory and power, as there’s still a long future. Your Highness is going to be someone who’s going to lead us for the next thousands of years, so please don’t be so anxious. Practice patience, we must…"

Blue 6 tuned Baron Blue Light out. Even though he also started to have suspicions about his feeling, his experience told him his intuition was always right, so…

He decided to lead his most loyal subjects to explore the ruins tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. This time, he would definitely enter the ruins!

At the same time, 14 days had passed for the people of the Hope. The second alien exploratory team was getting close, and there was only one day left until ZERO’s predicted controlled space warp!