Chapter 430: New Skill |
Seeing Luo Wen open his eyes, Sarah Kerrigan, who had been waiting patiently, quickly asked, “Overlord, was the plan successful?”
Luo Wen didn’t answer immediately. He frowned, shook his head, and fell into deep thought. Sarah knew this was not the time to disturb her Overlord, so she quietly stood guard by his side.
Suddenly, Luo Wen raised his eyebrows and said, “The plan failed. The time window for the tunnel was too short, and the seed didn’t manage to enter. However, the good news is that my earlier theoretical hypothesis was correct. This plan is entirely feasible, and we still have another chance.”
“When should we begin?” Sarah asked.
“Make arrangements now,” Luo Wen replied. “Dragging it out any longer may lead to unforeseen complications. In the meantime, until the Megastructure reaches the designated position, do not disturb me. I need time to think.”
“As you command, Overlord,” Sarah said.
This galaxy houses a supremely powerful force, one whose strength surpasses the Swarm by an immeasurable margin. While the Swarm holds immense potential, it needs time to fully grow, and Luo Wen was uncertain whether time was on their side. Could the Swarm possibly match such a formidable opponent?
For now, if a conflict were to break out with the Interstellar Technological Confederation or the New Ji Race, there was no chance of victory. Moreover, losing such a war would mean even escape would be a luxury. The Swarm’s sublight speed lagged behind that of the New Ji Race. Even if the gap were small, they would eventually be overtaken.
With Luo Wen’s meticulous personality, such a situation was intolerable. Even back when he was a bug the size of a fingernail, digging a nest required him to create seven or eight escape tunnels. Now, having grown immeasurably stronger, he was no less cautious. Overconfidence without an exit strategy was never his way.
Over the years, through various methods, the Swarm’s nodes had taken root and spread throughout the Interstellar Technological Confederation. Once their scale reached a certain threshold, Luo Wen could locate them and incorporate them into the Swarm Network, often gaining valuable information in the process.
One such piece of intelligence caught Luo Wen’s attention. Within the Confederation’s territory, there existed a kind of tunnel capable of connecting vast distances. These tunnels allowed entities entering them to travel at speeds far exceeding that of light. Conceptually, they were strikingly similar to wormholes as Luo Wen understood them.
The records described these wormholes as connecting black holes to white holes. In theory, the immense gravitational fields within wormholes should rip apart anything that entered. However, the New Ji Race had discovered a peculiar property and material known as negative energy.
By enveloping their ships in negative energy, they could stabilize and neutralize the wormhole’s energy fields, enabling safe passage.
However, gathering negative energy was difficult, and the ships themselves required specialized construction. Even for the New Ji Race, indiscriminate use of wormholes was impossible.
Although these wormholes were far from the Swarm’s reach for now, their concept provided Luo Wen with plenty of inspiration.
With collaborative brainstorming and the assistance of Intelligent Entities, Luo Wen quickly developed theoretical models of wormhole formation and operation. However, transforming theory into reality using conventional means was far beyond the Swarm’s current technological level.
But that was not a problem—Luo Wen had always played with an edge.
Luo Wen devoted nearly all his energy during this period to the study of wormholes. Since it was nearly impossible to catch up to the New Ji Race in a short amount of time using conventional means, he had to resort to unconventional methods to achieve a leapfrog breakthrough.
To open and maintain a wormhole with a one-kilometer diameter would require energy equivalent to the total energy output of a medium-sized star system—a feat far beyond the current capabilities of the Swarm. Fortunately, Luo Wen didn’t need such a massive wormhole. All he required was a small, fleeting one—just long enough to send the seed through.
However, even for a wormhole of this scale, the amount of energy needed was still staggering. Additionally, gathering energy on such a massive scale would inevitably draw outside attention. The Swarm was already in a precarious position. If their activities were discovered, it might force the hidden enemies behind the scenes to act prematurely.
But there was always a solution. After brainstorming extensively, the Megastructure Self-Destruction Plan in the Riken Star System was devised. Under the guise of a legitimate operation, Luo Wen could collect the necessary energy during the process.
Although there were anomalies in the self-destruction steps, it would be difficult for anyone to associate it with wormhole creation.
With the energy problem resolved, the next challenge was how to use that energy to open a wormhole. The Swarm lacked the ability to create black holes, but Luo Wen discovered a clever workaround.
In theory, wormholes exist two dimensions higher than the observable universe, which is why they can connect distant locations. While it’s conceivable that even higher-dimensional wormholes might exist—ones that connect not only different points in space-time but even alternate universes—Luo Wen didn’t need such capabilities at this stage.
Luo Wen’s relationship with this universe was difficult to describe. At the very least, there were intersections between him and the higher dimensions of this universe. These intersections allowed Luo Wen to exert limited influence over this universe.
At first, Luo Wen attempted to simulate the effects of a black hole in higher dimensions to create a wormhole. However, he had overestimated himself. Right now, he was akin to a newborn. Perhaps one day in the future, he could achieve such feats, but for now, this was far beyond his current abilities.
Disheartened but not defeated, Luo Wen turned his focus to the familiar Swarm Network. In higher dimensions, the concept of distance didn’t exist. Thus, the Swarm Network could seamlessly connect distant locations and facilitate unhindered communication.
However, this only applied within the Swarm Network.
If the world of this universe represented “reality,” then the Swarm Network represented the “virtual.” The question was, could “reality” and the “virtual” intersect or even communicate?
The answer was yes. Initially, Luo Wen attempted to bring objects from “reality” into the “virtual” world. These attempts were unsuccessful. Undeterred, he conducted numerous experiments, gradually identifying the underlying issues.
His idea of moving “reality” into the “virtual” was fundamentally flawed—at least for now. With his current capabilities, “reality” and “virtual” could only intersect briefly.
For instance, if his pocket represented the “virtual,” he couldn’t store “real” beans in it for long. However, he could place beans in the pocket momentarily before taking them out again.
In other words, objects from the real world could enter the Swarm Network but couldn’t remain there for any extended period. This limitation, however, created an operational window.
After countless trials, Luo Wen finally succeeded. A beetle disappeared before his eyes and reappeared ten meters away out of thin air.
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