Astral Ants

Black Magic's mechanical heart floats alone in the dark ruins.

"This was originally the ancestral temple of the Wafa civilization, where the ancestors of the civilization were enshrined. It was reduced to ruins during the battle, and the statue of my creator, Zhemufa, was also destroyed. The Star God Chi gouged out the gems inlaid on the statue..."

Intelligent machines do not have the same rich emotions, thoughts and feelings as flesh and blood creatures, but the loneliness and sadness emanating from the black magic consciousness can almost be seen with the eyes.

"Zhemufa? The statue?"

"Zemufa is the first leader of the Vafa civilization. It was it that created me. I carried it and its people, and we traveled through the starry sky, collecting all kinds of knowledge and materials, and getting to know various civilizations."

"Zhemufa must be at least at the master level, right? How did it... disappear? Died in battle?"

"Do you know about the Eternal Stars Civilization and the Omnic Catastrophe? Zhemufa and the most powerful group of Vafa warriors died in the Omnic Catastrophe. Adila is the third leader of the Vafa civilization. He is an excellent interstellar merchant and a powerful Vafa warrior, but he is not a qualified leader."

"Forehead……"

Long Bai asked: "Hei Fa, it is said that the Vafa civilization and the Eternal Stars civilization originated from the same life race?"

"Yes."

Heifa explained: "In the early days of the old universe, a naturally generated third-level source star system called 'Zunetz' gave rise to a perfect race of life with intelligent minds and strong bodies, which was the original 'Zunetz'."

"The Zunets went to the stars and founded the once prosperous 'Tallig Empire'. They appointed a thousand 'Star Kings' who ruled over a certain star region. Later, the Tallig Empire fell apart due to the rebellion of the Star Kings, and became a thousand and one branch tribes, each of which was independent. The Eternal Stars and the Vafa Civilization were the two most developed branch tribes."

"The Eternal Stars are a branch of the Gub, and they follow a path of pure technological civilization. The Gub gave up their own Force evolution, focused on the brain, and gave up their limbs. The race degenerated into a weak life form with almost only a head left, and they rely on the assistance of digital life and intelligent machines to survive normally. When the intelligent machines rioted, they were wiped out immediately."

"After the death of the Eternal Stars, the Eternal Twins issued an extermination order to kill all descendants of the Zunets. The Vafa civilization was their first target. It was during that period that Zhemfa and many elite warriors died in battle. They completely gave up settling down and began to wander in the starry sky, earning resources through interstellar trade, and gradually got used to the life of traveling merchants."

"!!!"

The insects raised their antennae and listened, their eyes all lit up.

Molan asked, "That is to say, before the Omnic Catastrophe, the Vafa civilization and the Eternal Stars civilization had been in contact?"

Black Law: "Yes. They first settled in the Zunets Supergiant Cluster."

Molan asked, "What about their relationship? Hostile? Allied?"

Black Law: "It is impossible to describe their relationship with simple words like hostility or alliance. After the disintegration of the Talig Empire, the birthplace of civilization, 'Zunetz', became a 'sacred land' fought for by all branch tribes. Whoever occupies Zunets will become the target of attack by other branches and decline rapidly. However, all branch civilizations, one after another, are desperately trying to fight for it. It is incomprehensible and irrational behavior on the spiritual and cultural level.

In the long history of civilization, at one period, everyone was a close ally, but at another period, they were mortal enemies. In history, they often faced powerful enemies from outside, and at this time, all the branch civilizations of the Zunets would unite to eliminate the foreign enemies. "

"Since the birth of the Zunets tribe, various internal and external wars have never stopped. The entire tribe has grown and developed in endless wars. They fought from the Zunets source star system to the Zunets galaxy, the Zunets galaxy group, the Zunets galaxy cluster, the Zunets supergalaxy cluster, and the Zunets supergiant star cluster. The war did not end until the Eternal Stars civilization leapt to the god level, gained overwhelming superior power, expelled other branch tribes, and dominated the entire supergiant star cluster."

"That was the first time that the Vafa civilization lost all of its territory. But it was also at that time that Zhemufa obtained a batch of god-level materials and some god-level technological knowledge, and created me."

"!!!"

"God-level material!"

"God-level technology?"

This is what everyone wants to ask.

Mo Lan rushed to ask: "Hei Fa, your mechanical heart is well preserved? Does that mean that your information library has preserved those god-level technological knowledge?"

Black Law: “Yes.”

Upon hearing this, all the insects stood up.

Mo Lan asked: "What about the god-level materials? How does the Eternal Stars Civilization mass-produce god-level materials?"

Black Law said with regret: "This is the most core technology. Zhemufa has never been able to crack it. We lack key theoretical knowledge and don't know where to break through. After the outbreak of the omnic catastrophe, the Vafa civilization also tried to find it from the out-of-control omnics and the surviving Gubu scientists. As a result, the answer is that the god-level material can only be produced from the 'body' of the god-level omnic Eternal Stars..."

"Without sufficient god-level materials, how can we create god-level intelligent machines?"

"There is no doubt that the Eternal Stars civilization has self-castrated. They destroyed the key knowledge and technology that allowed them to advance to the god level, and transformed the results into technological capabilities unique to god-level intelligent machines. In doing so, they narrowed their own path of development and cut off the possibility of other civilizations spying on and replicating them."

"..."

Upon hearing this, Longbai, Molan and a group of other insects were stunned.

Zichan raised his paw to signal, and asked, "Hei Fa, are you made of god-level materials?"

Black Magic: "I have god-level materials, but not all of them. I also have the process of evolution and growth."

"When the Zunets tribes fight among themselves, they usually don't kill them all. After the Eternal Stars Civilization gained an absolute advantage, they didn't just use force to expel other tribes. They also negotiated, persuaded them to leave, and offered compensation."

"The Vafa civilization has always been the second largest civilization among all branches, second only to the Eternal Stars, so it received the most compensation. Not only did it obtain a large amount of god-level materials, but it also obtained some god-level technologies. Zhemufa used these materials and technologies to create me. At first, only the mechanical core, power system, energy system, and detection system, the four core positions used god-level materials."

"The Eternal Stars fell, the Omnic Catastrophe broke out, and the Vafa Civilization obtained some god-level materials and technologies during the war. They transformed and upgraded me many times, constructed a dimensional world, and the diameter of the world exceeded 100 billion kilometers. It derived its own 'four-dimensional world' laws that were independent of the universe, and became a demigod omnic."

100 billion kilometers?
All the insects were awed.

Longbai called out, "Let's take a look first!"

Molan immediately released the Glorious Throne, which burst into bright white light, dispelling the surrounding darkness and calling on the insects to fly close to the 'ground'.

Black Magic's egg-shaped golden jade intelligent mechanical core flashed and followed, explaining.

...

The diameter of the dimensional world space of the flagship of the Vafa civilization is more than 100 billion kilometers. It continues to grow and has reached 300 billion kilometers, forming a world of its own.

Spherical space,

Stars are located in the center of space and radiate light and heat.

They built high-rise buildings close to the barriers of space, which gathered together to form cities. In order to reduce the load, they created a semi-real and semi-virtual 'four-dimensional world', which was the 'illusion' that they saw when they first came in.

During its heyday, there were tens of trillions of people living in the space, with a complete and powerful technology research and development, product design and production system.

The space world of the Black Magic flagship carries the entire Vafa civilization, and they mainly make profits by selling finished technological products to other civilizations.

...

The battle at the demigod level destroyed everything.

After a long time, only a handful of earth, stones and metal relics remain.

The outline of the city is vaguely visible.

Dark, cold,
A vicissitudes of life and a sad atmosphere.

...

As the insects watched, they couldn't help but wonder silently in their hearts: Can the sacred tree civilization really flourish forever?

Thinking about it, I felt a little uncomfortable.

Molan controlled the Glorious Throne, ascended, moved away from the 'earth', and moved towards the source.

A zero-level source point with a Force concentration of approximately 0.8.

"Hei Fa, are you absorbing the Force?"

"Yes. Although my 'shell' is made of god-level materials and immortal materials, after being in the vacuum of the Force for a long time, the energy properties will be attenuated to some extent, and even damaged. I need to draw on the Force to heal the wound."

Black Law said depressedly: "In order to resist the explosion of the red hypergiant star, I have exhausted tens of thousands of years of hard work."

"Forehead……"

"Small things."

"The flow of the Force at the level zero source point is too weak. We will help you find a level three source point."

"Black magic, to drive such a large dimension and interstellar travel, the power system must be huge, right?"

"Of course. It is designed in the form of a planet, with thirteen power planets and thirteen energy planets, revolving around the star in the central area. In addition, it is equipped with one thousand and one backup energy ships."

"Forehead--"

"How big is the planet?"

"According to the measurement units of your Divine Tree civilization, the diameter is about 18 kilometers."

"hiss……"

"So……"

"The power system of Star Shen'ao's starship..."

“It doesn’t match.”

"Yes."

"So……"

Mo Lan looked at Long Bai.

Long Bai was speechless and helpless. After thinking for a while, he asked, "Hei Fa, what is your maximum speed?"

Black Magic: "The maximum designed speed is 2800 times the speed of light! But because it carries too much material, the normal interstellar travel speed is less than 2000 times the speed of light."

Demigod-level speed.

Long Bai asked: "The starships of the Eternal Star Civilization should have exceeded 3000 times the speed of light, right?" Black Law: "Yes, the 4-1 type god-level starship, as well as the 4-2 and 4-3 types. Due to the limitation of god-level materials, the number and size are limited."

Long Bai asked, "Model 4-3? What's the maximum speed?"

Black Mage: "Type 4-3 is the Eternal Stars and Eternal Twins, infinitely close to 10000 times the speed of light, the maximum speed allowed by the laws of the universe."

"Oh--"

Long Bai asked again: "How does the Black Law replenish its energy?"

Black Mage: "Usually they are merged into the orbit of the third-level source star cluster, trading and collecting the Force at the same time. Some civilizations are also willing to provide free crystals or other forms of ready-made Force storage to quickly complete the charging."

Long Bai: "It will still take a long time to charge the third-level source point, right?"

Black Mage: "Yes. It takes about 3.0 to 8000 years for a source point with a Force concentration of 10000 to go from empty energy to full energy. If it is urgent, you can send out an energy ship to collect energy from a nearby source point."

Long Bai asked, "What about the battery life?"

Black Mage: "1200 to 1500 million light years. The uncertainty mainly comes from the consumption of the Force by the Vafa warriors. The growth and evolution of the young warriors and the daily training of the old warriors will consume a lot of Force."

Mo Lan asked, "What if you go to a place where the other party refuses to trade with you and does not allow you to get close to the source to collect the Force? Wouldn't that mean you are stranded?"

Hei Fa said: "No. The Vafa civilization will inquire through various channels and initially confirm which places have transactions that are profitable before deciding whether to go. Every time they arrive at a galaxy cluster, the Vafa civilization will first send a large number of light and flexible starships to land and visit various civilizations, negotiate and confirm, and finally go to the specific transaction point."

"Oh~"

"Correct!"

Mo Lan asked, "So, Hei Fa, you have the corresponding manufacturing drawings for the power system and energy system you lost, right? If you don't have god-level materials, you can use low-level materials to replace them, right?"

Black Law: "There are blueprints, it can be replaced, but the speed will definitely be greatly reduced."

Mo Lan asked immediately, "First-class materials, to build a kinetic energy system with a speed of 5 to 10 times the speed of light, to deal with it temporarily?"

Black magic: "..."

Heifa asked back, "It doesn't make much sense, does it?"

Molan: "Don't you need the Force to heal you? I've found the third-level source point, come over there."

Heifa asked, "Is there a third-level source point?"

"Have!"

Mo Lan looked at Long Bai.

Long Bai: "..."

Long Bai asked: "Black Magic, if it's just a hidden injury that heals itself, it doesn't have to be a level 3 source point, the same goes for level 1 and level 2 source points, right?"

Black Law: “Yes.”

Long Bai: "Hei Fa, you are now facing two dilemmas: first, recovering from the trauma; second, recovering from the power."

"Restoring the power is the most troublesome thing. If we use level 3 materials to rebuild a power and energy system, the materials of the current Divine Tree civilization will definitely not be enough. We can only wait for another 100 million or 200 million years. After hundreds or thousands of galaxies are reclaimed, we will hopefully be able to collect such a large amount of materials."

"Or, when our Xianglan Chamber of Commerce becomes stronger in the future, we can follow the direction and try to find the Star God Chi, destroy it, and take back your original power system and energy system. This is a better hope."

Black Magic: "Then I wish Star God Chi to survive."

"..."

The insects fell into thought.

The flagship of the Vafa civilization, a demigod intelligent machine, sounds impressive, but in its current state, it seems to be completely useless.

Just an empty shell left...

Collect gaseous matter, build stars, and reconstruct life systems? It can be used as a survival mothership, carrying hundreds of thousands of soldiers, sailing at sub-light speeds, and searching for the source.

But, unfortunately, there was a ready-made red hypergiant star, which could have directly collected the required materials and quickly built it...

Now, after being blown up, the matter has been scattered over a star field of more than ten light years in radius, and it is impossible for it to be gathered together again...

Moreover, Xianglan, Baiwei, and Citi Chamber of Commerce do not have that many trusted warriors.

Moreover, the transport fleet led by President Bai Wei and others consists of 6 soldiers and a survival mothership with a diameter of 13 kilometers, so they are not short of motherships.

——After all, he is a demigod robot~
——What else can it be used for?

All the insects racked their brains to think about it at the same time.

Long Bai asked tentatively: "Hei Fa, did you imitate the creation of the Eternal Stars?"

Black Law: "No! We borrowed a little bit of the technology from the God-level realm, but the core, the world space technology and four-dimensional space-time defense capabilities are original to the Vafa civilization."

Long Bai asked: "The Eternal Stars can create god-level materials, so do you have similar abilities?"

Black Mage: "Yes! I can also simulate various types of mining planet environments and produce various energy materials. However, the production of energy materials is a long, continuous, and energy-intensive process, so it requires a corresponding source point and long-term stationing."

Long Bai asked, "Level 3 materials are also okay?"

Black Law: "Yes, but it must be a level 3 source point."

"!!!"

The insects were overjoyed when they heard this.

Long Bai continued to ask: "What about the efficiency? Is it faster than constructing special mining stars and mineral veins and evolving corresponding materials?"

Black Mage: "It can be faster, but the carrying capacity of the source point is also limited. The source point is the spring of the universe's force circulation. The amount of force that can be collected within a time unit is limited and cannot be exceeded. Speeding up the speed of incubating materials means consuming more force, so the amount must be reduced. Conversely, if the amount is large, the speed cannot be fast."

"understand!"

Long Bai was ecstatic and asked, "So, if it is a level 3 source point, what if it produces level 1 and level 2 energy materials?"

Black Mage: "Force energy is conserved. I can quickly and massively produce primary and secondary materials, but there is also a limit. I can maximize the use of the source force, but simulating the world environment on a large scale requires a large consumption of force. Overall, the output is lower than that of a properly planned and managed mining planet."

"Understood!"

Long Bai asked, "How fast can it be? On average, how long does it take to make a first-level energy metal material?"

Black Law: “This is a complicated issue.”

"The Vafa civilization divides all visible matter in the universe into two categories: crystals and amorphous matter. Crystals mean 'energy order' and 'easy to control'. I can double or even triple the output speed of crystal energy materials."

"On the contrary, amorphous materials mean 'energy disorder', which means there are many uncontrollable changes. I can speed up the derivation of amorphous raw energy materials, but the effect is limited."

"Materials science is one of the most complex branches of science in the universe. When you talk about 'metallic energy materials', there are regular crystalline materials, irregular non-crystalline materials, and semi-crystalline materials in between."

"So, I can only give a very general estimate: 5000 to 1 years for primary energy metal materials. 3 to 15 years for secondary materials. There are huge differences between different types of materials."

"Understood!"

“Very good! Very professional!”

Long Bai asked: "Hei Fa, do you master the 'Stargate'?"

Black Law: "You mean the portal in and out of the dimensional space? That's just an optimized short-distance space transmission, called 'passive transmission technology', a very popular practical technology."

"Forehead……"

Longbai asked: "What is the maximum width of the portal? What is the transmission mass?"

Black Law: "The maximum width can reach 3 kilometers, and there is no upper limit on mass."

"it is good!"

"Great!"

Long Bai was amazed, his mind raced, and after thinking for a while, he asked, "Hei Fa, do you have any other special abilities?"

Black Law: "It's all ruined. I have nothing left."

"Ok."

Long Bai said: "Well, let's do this. Hei Fa will stay here and continue to recover. We will go to the nearby star fields to see if there is a better source point."

"Ok."

Heifa agreed, and light flickered. A warm red sun appeared in the sky, and the land below turned into lush jungles, rolling hills, and vast lakes.

The Glorious Throne was carrying many insects, floating high in the sky.

"Hei Fa, don't you need to accumulate the Force to heal your injuries? Will the illusion world waste the Force?"

Long Bai asked in confusion.

Black Magic replied: "I simulate the 'world' to generate world power, and use the world power to repair the damage. It can be regarded as a visual phenomenon accompanying the conversion of ordinary force into law energy."

"Oh--"

Long Bai: "Then you are busy, um, send us out first." (End of this chapter)