Rebirth of the Super Battleship-Chapter 744: Eyes Skilled at Discovering
Facing Ares’s question of ‘How can we pose a threat to the Neutron War Star,’ Xiao Yu did not answer. Instead, he directly countered, “What is your guess?”
“There are many possible approaches. For example, the heat death of the small universe could annihilate the Neutron War Star, and an ultra-large-scale Spatial Starburst could also destroy it. But all of that is meaningless. I imagine you, Jason, and the other problem-solvers have all thought of these two possibilities, but you all overlooked one thing.” Ares said calmly. “My conclusion is that we have to rely on your Specter companion to carry out the task of confronting the Neutron War Star.”
Xiao Yu’s eyes narrowed slightly. He had long since thought of the Specter companion, and Jason had as well, but they had excluded that option again. The reason was very simple, the Micron corpse had been destroyed. How was the Specter companion supposed to fight the Neutron War Star?
“You have all overlooked Xu Junpo’s particular traits.” Ares continued. “Xu Junpo came from the Sweepers Civilization, and the thing the Sweepers Civilization excels at most is soul technology. The Sweepers Civilization even used soul technology to destroy the Micron corpse and build that bizarre type of spherical warship. As the most outstanding scientist in the Sweepers Civilization, how could Xu Junpo possibly be unfamiliar with soul technology? I do not believe that when Luka Two cooperated with Xu Junpo to make this arrangement, he would have ignored soul technology.”
“In fact, this point has already manifested itself quite clearly, and that is that Xu Junpo solved the problem of the Specter companion losing life force when controlling the Micron corpse by converting stellar energy. That is already a very obvious hint.”
“And the thing most closely linked to soul technology is, without question, your Specter companion. So I make the following deduction, in Luka Two’s arrangement, your Specter companion must be an extremely important link. Since we cannot achieve the heat death of the small universe and we likewise cannot achieve large-scale deployment of Spatial Bombs, once those two are eliminated, the likelihood that it is the Specter companion increases further.”
Xiao Yu fell into thought. At this moment, another problem surfaced, namely, how could the Specter companion possibly fight the Neutron War Star?
“Your deduction makes good sense, but there is a fatal flaw here, and that is that the Specter companion cannot possibly be a match for the Neutron War Star…” Xiao Yu said up to this point, then suddenly stopped. His gaze turned to Ares’s face, and he saw the faint, almost imperceptible smile there.
“Notify Ruto and tell him to suspend development of the Spatial Bomb. I need him to analyze the black lightning technology first and see whether there is any link at all between the black lightning technology and the Specter companion. We need to know if we can use black lightning technology to enhance the Specter companion’s abilities, even if only for a short time.”
“All right. The likelihood of this deduction is quite high. It is worth our time to verify it.” Xiao Yu nodded, agreeing to Ares’s request.
Black lightning technology was different from the Spatial Bomb. Research on the Spatial Bomb had only been taken halfway, whereas black lightning technology had already been fully developed. It came with detailed scientific data for later researchers to study. Under Xiao Yu’s orders, Ruto stopped development of the Spatial Bomb and instead began to analyze black lightning technology. Under the current line of deduction, Ruto focused specifically on searching for the relationship between black lightning technology and the Specter companion.
“I have to admit, Ruto does indeed possess a more outstanding scientific quality than we do. He has an extraordinarily keen intuition, as well as many ideas that seem absurd and unbelievable at first glance but, upon careful thought and verification, fit the laws of nature very well. I think, after Director Xu’s death, the position of Chief Scientist should go to Ruto.” Luka Three sighed to Xiao Yu.
“Yes. If we were the ones assigned to decode space technology, we would need at least one hundred years to manage it. But Ruto needs at most two years. That is talent, and it has nothing to do with accumulation of knowledge.” Number Five added.
“Fortunately, Ruto has already become a member of our Divine Ark Civilization.” Xiao Yu thought to himself in secret.
This was at a meeting one month after Xiao Yu’s conversation with Ares. This meeting would be Ruto’s stage, because here Ruto would present the results of his month of research. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢
“There is a trace of soul technology within black lightning technology.” Ruto began. “After receiving this assignment, I first carried out research into soul technology. I wanted to know what exactly a soul is. To this day, I still do not fully understand this question, but I have gained something.”
“The soul is a pure form of energy. This energy is different from ordinary energy, but it still follows the law of conservation of mass-energy. I can confirm that the main material of those spherical warships built by the Sweepers Civilization is a substance formed from what we call souls. At the same time, the Micron corpse is also composed of this energy. The only difference between the two is their intensity. The so-called Specter Race is also composed of this energy, which is why the Specter companion can strengthen itself by devouring intelligent beings. In fact, there is an extremely simple way to enhance the Specter companion’s abilities, and that is to let our one trillion people all become food for the Specter companion. The souls of one trillion pure peak Level 6 intelligent beings would, I imagine, greatly enhance the Specter companion’s abilities and could very well grant it temporary power to contend with the Neutron War Star.” Ruto said with a hint of sarcasm.
“The intelligent beings of the Divine Ark Civilization may die in battle at the hands of the enemy, but unless they have committed a crime, they cannot possibly die at the hands of our own people.” Xiao Yu said coolly. “Do not get sidetracked. Continue presenting your research findings.”
Ruto gave Xiao Yu a faint look, then continued, “The principle behind enhancing the Specter Race’s ability by relying on stellar energy is very simple. In fact, any form of energy can do this; it is just that the amount required is too large, so usually only stars can shoulder it. The critical point lies in the conversion of the two types of energy. The energy we use is ordinary energy, while the soul is a special kind of energy. As long as we can convert stellar energy into soul energy, then we can use stellar energy to enhance the Specter Race’s abilities.”
“Then what is your view of this conversion?” Xiao Yu asked.
“I do not have any particular view.” Ruto said, shaking his head somewhat despondently. “I greatly admire Director Xu and hold him in deep respect. Xiao Yu, today, please allow me to stand on an equal footing with you and say something to you.”
“Go ahead.” Xiao Yu replied in his usual calm tone.
“In your eyes, the intelligent beings of the Divine Ark Civilization were always just tools, at least in the beginning. As for the emotions now, they are merely a later development. So I have a very important question to ask you, when your own life is hanging by a thread, will you allow the Specter Race to devour all the intelligent beings of the Divine Ark Civilization in order to enhance its combat power and seek a way out for yourself? Based on what we know so far, if the Specter Race devours this one trillion population, it will definitely gain temporary power to contend with the Neutron War Star.” Ruto asked very solemnly.
Xiao Yu was silent. After a moment, he said slowly, “I have always believed that you and I are one, that we are all members of the Divine Ark Civilization. We are not in an antagonistic relationship, but in a relationship of sharing the same boat and fighting powerful enemies together. Yet you insist on using reality to force me into an opposing position against you. So I will answer you like this, no. I will not sacrifice the interests of the Divine Ark Civilization to fulfill myself. The Divine Ark Civilization is something I founded with my own hands. I watched it grow stronger and stronger until it reached where it is today. It is like my child. Just as you would not kill your child to secure your own survival, I will not do that either.”
After a pause, Xiao Yu went on in a faint, indescribable tone, “If it is necessary, I will choose to sacrifice myself to fulfill our civilization. As long as our civilization can continue, contributing to our civilization is the duty of every single member of the Divine Ark Civilization, is it not?”
The conference hall fell silent. After a long while, Ruto said, “I choose to believe you.”
“It is indeed difficult to make that choice, but Director Xu’s research results mean you do not have to struggle over this matter.” Ruto said. “Yes, Director Xu has already solved the problem of mutual conversion between the two types of energy. Black lightning technology is precisely about converting a portion of stellar energy into special soul energy and mixing it into the spatial rift attack, which is why it has such enormous power. It is also for this reason that black lightning attacks consume so much energy and require hundreds of stars working together to launch. Director Xu has already completed the hardest step, so doing the subsequent research will not be difficult.”
“This is one of the reasons I respect Director Xu. Perhaps because he did not want to see internal strife within the civilization and scenes of massive death among intelligent beings, he poured his efforts into decoding this technology and hid it within black lightning technology. All we need is a pair of eyes that are good at discovering things.” Ruto said quietly.
“Tell me, to raise the Specter companion’s abilities to the level where it can contend with the Neutron War Star, how many stars do we need as power sources?” Xiao Yu fell silent for a moment, then asked in his same even tone.
Ruto replied, “My calculations show that we need at least one thousand stars.”
“One thousand stars!” That number caused Xiao Yu’s heart and mind to tense up instantly. “Right now our small universe has in total fewer than six hundred stars. Excluding those stars needed to maintain essential consumption, we can mobilize at most three hundred stars… at most only three hundred…”
