Chapter 967: Directions Disappeared |
The battle belonging to Xiao Yu was proceeding in full swing. Xiao Yu did not know where the audience was, such as the universe civilization or the macroscopic civilization. Perhaps they were hiding in the darkness, quietly watching, or perhaps they had already left this place. Xiao Yu did not care about these things. Xiao Yu only cared about whether he, who was currently performing on the stage, was doing it perfectly.
Up until now, Xiao Yu had finally truly seen the first glimmer of hope. And at this very moment, not far from Xiao Yu, another group of people had fallen into despair.
There was an endless darkness there. This place was even darker than the darkest places in cosmic space. In the universe, no matter how dark a place was, there would always be some light like starlight. Even if there was no starlight, there would still be some infrared rays, gamma rays, and other such light. But here, there was nothing. Nothing could be observed.
Actually, saying it this way was not entirely comprehensive. This was something similar to a soap bubble suspended within endless darkness. When an observer came to one end of this soap bubble, they could detect nothing at all. After arriving at the opposite end, they could detect a completely different scene, seeing large amounts of light and large amounts of radiation.
This situation was somewhat similar to the environment in space, where there was no diffuse reflection at all. Suppose that in one region, there was only one observer and one star. Then when this observer faced the star, he would detect intense light strong enough to blind both his eyes. But when his back was turned to the star, then he would see no light at all, and what appeared before him would be absolute darkness. The intense light emitted by the star simply could not be detected by him.
But the environment here was even more extreme. Inside this soap bubble was one world, and outside this soap bubble was another world. In fact, even though they had already become a Level 7 Civilization, and even when analyzing these things with the technological level of a Level 7 Civilization, the Central Research Academy of Science still could not obtain any information helpful to the current situation.
Ares silently sighed. He left the soap bubble wall and returned to the Civilization warship. There, Nordin, the newly appointed leader of the Pegasus Civilization, who had also become Ares’s deputy after the fusion of the Pegasus Civilization and the Divine Ark Civilization, was already waiting for him.
Besides Nordin, the leader of the Arrow Beast Race, Lorna, was also here, as well as Xiao Yu’s only Kin, Zhang Shengya. These four people were the highest power core of the fused Pegasus and Divine Ark Civilization. However, under ordinary circumstances, Lorna and Zhang Shengya did not manage affairs. All matters related to major civilization affairs were decided by Ares and Nordin. Lorna and Zhang Shengya only had the right to know, not the right to make decisions.
“One matter has basically been confirmed. We are currently inside the core of the Feiyuan Galaxy. This unknown soap bubble has protected us, isolating us from contact with the rest of the environment inside the black hole. It is also protecting us. But according to our observations, the strength of the soap bubble is constantly weakening. Barring any accidents, in roughly several years, the soap bubble will shatter, and all of us will die.” Ares said. “This is the data reported to me by the Central Research Academy of Science.”
Hearing Ares’s words, Nordin said somewhat incredulously, “Inside… a black hole? Has this already been confirmed? We are inside a black hole?”
Black hole exploration sounded like a very marvelous thing, but there was simply no feasibility to this matter, even for a Level 7 Civilization. Before reaching a black hole, any tangible or intangible existence would be torn apart by the black hole’s terrifying gravity. After crossing the black hole’s event horizon boundary, it would forever vanish from this universe, never returning. Because the upper speed limit of this universe was the speed of light, while the escape velocity inside the black hole’s event horizon boundary had already exceeded the speed of light.
But such an unbelievable thing had truly happened here. No matter how much they emotionally refused to believe it, when all kinds of observational data pointed to this conclusion, people had no choice but to believe it.
“First, there is one point. Only when we observe this direction can we see light. When observing other directions, we cannot observe anything at all. This matches our previous inference, which is that inside the black hole, there is only one direction. It is precisely because of this that we cannot observe light from other directions.” Ares said.
When all other directions disappeared, leaving only one direction, what would happen?
In our three-dimensional main universe, speaking loosely, countless directions existed, such as front, or the front offset left by zero point one degrees, zero point two degrees, and so on. Each point of orientation was a direction. It was precisely because there were countless directions, that all matter, including intelligent beings, could move freely here. Then imagine such a situation. One day, apart from the ‘front,’ all other directions disappeared. We need not get tangled in how this process was realized. We only need to know that we currently had only the single direction of front left. There was no back, no left, no right, and no such directions as front offset left or front offset right. There was only the front.
Under normal circumstances, when we described motion, we would say it like this. For example, this little ball is moving west, or this bicycle is moving east by twenty degrees south. But when only one direction remained, direction itself lost meaning. Under such circumstances, when describing motion, it would become like this: this little ball is moving forward, or this bicycle is moving forward.
We need not explain the direction in which this little ball or bicycle is moving forward, because only one direction remains. As long as matter is moving forward, then it must be moving along this direction.
The inside of a black hole was a forbidden zone of thought and logic. Ares had always believed that intelligent beings had no way to know the scene inside a black hole. But when they themselves were placed inside a black hole, the Central Research Academy of Science detected this strange phenomenon. That was right. Inside a black hole, there was only one direction, and that was the direction toward the black hole’s singularity. Any matter, including light, as long as it moved, must be moving toward the singularity.
No matter could move away from the singularity, so no light would be emitted from the direction of the singularity either. That was why, on that side of the soap bubble, Ares could not see anything, only an expanse of darkness.
The Central Research Academy of Science inferred that this was determined by the strange spatial structure inside the black hole. As for exactly what degree of change the spatial structure had undergone, and what the current situation actually was, sorry, with the technological level of a Level 7 Civilization, they still could not specifically describe these things. So Ares did not know either.
“Second, we have conducted many experiments. We tried to send experimental instruments out of the soap bubble, letting them reach the external space, but no matter what kind of communication facilities we adopted, or how sturdy we made the experimental instruments, we never received any response. We have reason to believe that after leaving the protection of the soap bubble, those experimental instruments, including their signals, also began moving in only one direction, toward the singularity. This is the inside of a black hole. We are inside a black hole. There is no mistake.” Ares said somewhat gloomily.
“Then… what is this soap bubble? Why can it protect us and prevent us from beginning motion toward the singularity?” Lorna asked with some curiosity.
Lorna did not feel especially heavy, nor did she have much worry. After Xiao Yu left, under the care of Ares and Nordin, Lorna began to firmly believe in one truth, which was that Ares and Nordin were the most omnipotent figures besides Xiao Yu, and any difficulty would be solved by them. With such people here, what did she have to worry about?
Ares patted Lorna’s head somewhat affectionately and said, “At present, we still do not know. But according to the Central Research Academy of Science’s speculation, the structure of this soap bubble is different from any matter we previously understood. It does not seem to be a physical object. It is only a barrier, mm, a Rules barrier. The Rules followed inside the black hole are completely different from the main universe we are familiar with. This Rules barrier isolates the Rules inside the black hole from us, preventing the Rules inside the black hole from affecting us. That is why we can live, and why we have not begun moving toward the singularity.”
“This must be a category that only a Level 8 Civilization can touch.” Nordin said. “In fact, even now, I still do not know exactly what happened. We received Xiao Yu’s signal, then hurriedly came to this Feiyuan Galaxy. But not only did we not find Xiao Yu, we were instead inexplicably thrown into this black hole… And the strength of this soap bubble that has been protecting us all along is still constantly weakening… What should we do? What can we do?”
“Wait for rescue. Wait for Xiao Yu to come save us.” Ares said calmly. “During this waiting process, do everything possible to collect intelligence and information from inside the black hole. I suspect that these wondrous Rules inside the black hole have some kind of relationship with the technology needed to advance to a Level 8 Civilization. If we can ultimately escape alive, then we will hand these things to Xiao Yu. We cannot understand these things, but Xiao Yu will definitely be able to analyze them. I believe this is crucial to Xiao Yu’s advancement to a Level 8 Civilization.”