Chapter 3701: Doomsday (Part 5)

Thor and Loki both felt a bit speechless, but it was indeed the truth. What they said was "temporarily slowing down the pace of cosmic exploration," not that they weren't doing scientific research on the surface, it just felt strange somehow.

The process of a normal civilization entering the era of interstellar colonization should be like this: first, build chemical fuel rockets to explore surrounding planets; find a foothold on surrounding planets and establish experimental sites; build better rockets to explore further planets. Just like this, explore outward bit by bit until the situation of their own star system is figured out.

Then start chemical fuel spacecraft experiments, commonly known as "spaceships." As long as the range and safety performance of the spaceship can reach the nearest foothold and can transport large equipment and fuel, it can basically be considered a success.

Next, establish space experimental bases at a foothold that is closest to the mother planet but has sufficient safety distance, and continuously optimize the safety, speed, and range of the spaceships. Then find more efficient fuel within the star system to continue to improve the speed and range of the spaceships until they can travel between various planets within the star system in a short time.

And at this time, the key point comes. To leave one's own star system, chemical fuel spaceships are definitely not enough. At this time, there are two paths: either point out multi-functional shield technology, that is, maintain the stability inside the shield, so that passengers are not harmed, and then just rush the speed, equivalent to a "cosmic mud-truck"—as long as my shield is hard enough and the speed is fast enough, I can drive wherever I want. Although the universe is very large, even the fastest speed doesn't seem that fast, but flying at sub-light speed is enough to explore several surrounding star systems.

There is another kind, which is the faster-than-light engine. Actually, this is equivalent to an upper-level version of the "mud-truck," which is when my speed is fast enough, already exceeding the speed of light, it will cause distortion of space and time. In layman's terms, because faster-than-light speed will directly transcend the time range, the travel time required to get from one point to another is equivalent to non-existent, which is equivalent to direct teleportation, which is the so-called "jumping."

And the reason why this is divided into two paths is because the characteristics of the races are different. Like Asgardians, they don't need to point out any shield technology at all—they sit in the spaceship, and it doesn't matter if the spaceship is flying at sub-light speed, it can't hurt them at all. So they don't need to point out any space stabilization technology, and the shield is at most to defend against attacks from other warships.

But humans can't. Let alone sub-light speed, if the acceleration exceeds a certain value, they will directly faint; when breaking the speed of light, people will directly turn into molecules. So it is very difficult to take the "mud-truck" route of slowly increasing speed.

But humanity's starting point is also very high. Not to mention the unreasonable portals of the mages, the jump engine on the starship is also a research material that almost all civilizations without super-light engines dream of.

There is also a well-known paradox in this: without a super-light engine, it is very difficult to leave one's own one-acre-three-cents of land. And although there are many civilizations in the universe, the universe is too big, and the distance between two civilizations is thousands of miles, and no electromagnetic signal can be transmitted that far. Normally speaking, civilizations that cannot leave the star system have no way to communicate with other civilizations.

Without a way to communicate, there is no way to exchange technology. Even if they can barely communicate, the objects they can communicate with are all "noobs" without super-light engines. People with engines have long been flying around the universe, who would still pay attention to low-level star system civilizations? Even if they can receive your signal, why should they give you the technology?

So super-light engines basically have to rely on themselves to research. But researching from scratch requires a very large place and a lot of resources. Those with better luck have a few resource planets to support them in exploring outward, and they might be able to research it; but those with worse luck have no resource planets in the star system range, and it is impossible to touch the edge of super-light engines from birth to death. And such relatively desolate star systems are the norm in the universe.

All civilizations that possess super-light engines, the vast majority are not researched by themselves. Some are lucky enough to have picked up the corpses of other higher civilizations; others are pulled up by the three great empires—in order to actually control the module area, they directly give them the engines, and they just install them.

Humanity is different. Humanity has walked out of the fourth path among the three paths of researching by themselves, picking up by chance, and waiting for others to give—hard grabbing.

But it must be said that this is the most suitable path for humanity. Because the strong among humanity are too strong, as long as they grab one back with those strong ones, combine technology and magic to conduct research, and cooperate with sufficient energy resources, they can smash out a super-light engine even by hard smashing.

Actually, Strange has also come to his senses now: looking carefully at the two projects that China participated in heavily, one is building starships, which goes without saying, it is for the technology of super-light engines; one is mining Jupiter, which is obviously to obtain the resources to build super-light engines. Technology and resources are both in place, so haven't they built it?

But there is another problem here: if the United States had this ability, they would have started building spaceships, and then relied on unique super-light engine spaceships to find resources all over the universe and build more spaceships. As long as the technological gap is leading, then all countries on Earth must listen to me, and use violent deterrence to rule Earth.

But a certain Eastern power wouldn't do this. Of course, it's not because they are kind and conservative; on the contrary, the model of building spaceships to plunder resources and then building spaceships is too conservative and will leave many safety hazards. Not to mention anything else, what if other countries have super-strong mutants who grab your spaceship? Not to mention the new generation of mutants, even someone like Magneto wouldn't sit still, and by then, just dealing with the harassment would be annoying enough.

After they possess this technology, how to use this technology to make Earth united and have a say has become the only thing they need to consider. And they chose a more radical method, which is to drag the entire Earth into the water.

I won't install the super-light engine on the spaceship; I will install it directly on Earth. Although it is installed on Earth, it is installed on my territory after all, and how to use it and whether to use it is ultimately up to me. Unless you can destroy the entire country and actually control the entire land, I have absolute say.

And this has another paradox: if the entire country is turned into a super-light engine, how can you defeat this country?

If you go to attack him, he will directly drag Earth to play bumper cars; wouldn't that mean everyone is finished? Although there is a shield, there are many dangers in the universe. If he insists on seeking death, he can definitely seek death.

Not to mention anything else, even if he destroys the super-light engine and comes to a mutual destruction, no country can withstand it. If the western node explodes, India definitely won't allow it; if the southern node explodes, Southeast Asia won't allow it; if the northern node explodes, Russia can't allow it either.

So once this system is built, it establishes an absolute advantage in terms of geopolitics, and becomes a natural alliance relationship with neighboring countries. Never mind whether it is burying landmines at people's doorsteps, just say whether this alliance relationship is solid or not.

Moreover, this system is built in a certain place, and the geopolitical alliance in the local area will also have increased say in the world, because it is their side pushing others to run. Then, in order to maintain the safety of the system, what's wrong with us taking more resources? You want the car to run, but you don't give the engine oil; where is there such a good thing?

And although this is also a kind of deterrence, it didn't manufacture any weapons, nor did it build a spaceship flying back and forth above people's heads, so there was no such strong oppressive force. And it was researched and built on its own territory, and there was no problem in terms of jurisprudence, so the reactions of other countries and force groups wouldn't be so great.

And if some people want to make trouble, not to mention mutants, even the Avengers of the United States must come to help. This is our Earth's super-light engine, capable of taking all of humanity to travel the universe directly; what do you want to do?

Actually, in the final analysis, it is that the super-light engine installed on Earth combined with the magical defense network can bring great benefits to Earth and human civilization, which is more beneficial than harmful for every force group.

Even the United States, which is the most unaccustomed to China, chose to cooperate in this matter. Politicians are bad, but not stupid. When Earth couldn't move, they needed to grab resources within the solar system; but now that Earth can run, couldn't they grab resources from the entire universe? They are familiar with this! If you ask, it's free navigation!

Politicians' abacus is clicking: they neither have the resources nor the determination to build and maintain this thing. Since others have built it, they just think about how to use it. If you buy a car, you definitely want to drive it. Although they have no way to ignite the engine, they can grab the steering wheel!

Except for China, which created this engine, isn't it their United States? Regardless of national strength or contribution to the cause of cosmic exploration, they are all in a unique class. If they want to discuss where to drive the car in the future, they also have a lot to say: I have shed blood for Earth, I have shed tears for Earth, why don't you let me drive?

They don't need to win over China, which built the engine; they just need to win over all other countries that haven't built the engine.

As for how China views this, Shiler thinks they might not oppose the United States driving. The United States' luck is really something to talk about; they are indeed experienced in being pirates.

The Eastern power still wants face. Although everyone knows why they built this thing, they still have to be reserved. Anyway, we ignite and start the engine to go and greet other civilizations in the universe in a friendly way. There are bandits among our kin, but this is their ethnic characteristic, and we can't stop it.

What? You say we are also moving? Then my roommate is a bandit, and if I don't get some resources back to arm myself, wouldn't I also be robbed? Isn't this legitimate defense?

Loki isn't stupid either. After Strange's introduction and hints, he also understood: Earth's trip wasn't decided on a whim; it was obviously premeditated by someone. This is really a troublesome matter.

Now for Asgard, Earth is a hot potato. Although Earth keeps saying it's seeking Asgard's protection, you don't look at those strange things on your body—that large pile of super-powered individuals and mutants, any one of which could directly lift the dimension if they erupted. Asgard protects Earth, then who protects Asgard?!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 3702 =====