“What exactly should we do?”

This formless entity seemed to be a collective of countless consciousnesses. Now, suspended in this place, the multitude of minds composing it had entered into a heated debate.

Here was a void in the cosmos, cold, desolate, and utterly empty except for darkness. The nearest star was a full half a light year away, and as it happened to be a relatively small red dwarf, even that distance placed them well outside its Oort cloud.

“We must rely on the intelligence of the Main Civilization. As members of the Specter Race, intelligence has never been our strength. What we need to do is simply issue a warning, let the Main Civilization know what’s happening. Then, it will be up to them to come up with a concrete, feasible way out of this crisis, which we can then help carry out. But even this first step… we’ve hit a roadblock.”

“Superluminal communication is point-to-point. There are no superluminal communication devices built by the Main Civilization in this location, so although that technology is the most efficient and fastest, we can’t use it. Curvature-based faster-than-light communication could, in theory, deliver the information to the Main Civilization twenty light-years away within five years, but FTL communication is point-to-multipoint. That means not only the Main Civilization would receive it, but also that aging Specter would too. This would expose both us and the Main Civilization. So, that’s also not an option.”

“Conventional communication is even more unusable… What do we do? How can we deliver a warning to the Main Civilization without going near that twenty-light-year barrier?”

“We don’t have much time. The aged Specter has only sixty years of life left. Before it dies, it will definitely make a decision, perhaps going all out to wipe out the Main Civilization in a final act of desperation, or doing something else that we don’t want to see. And after the Main Civilization receives our warning, they’ll also need time to prepare. So… we must find a way within one year.”

“Hmm? In another direction, there’s a fleet belonging to a Level 5 Civilization stationed there. It seems they too are waiting for something. Maybe we can use that Level 5 Civilization’s fleet to accomplish our goal?”

“No, absolutely not. Technological civilizations lack our ability to remain hidden. They’ve certainly already been detected by the elder Specter. The reason it hasn’t acted against them must be due to some other factor. Making contact with a technological civilization would expose us. Moreover, when facing a Level 5 Civilization fleet, we don’t have any real advantage. Most likely, the moment we reveal ourselves, we’ll be attacked by that civilization, and their attack would expose us to the elder Specter, resulting in our annihilation…”

“If only we had a sapient civilization traveling with us at all times… perhaps they could have helped us think of a solution.”

“It’s pointless to talk about that now. This is the greatest crisis we’ve faced since our creation. If we get through it, without the elder Specter as an obstacle, we’ll grow even more rapidly. But if we fail, we’ll vanish like smoke… and the elder Specter will gain another fleeting lease on life.”

“What do we do…”

“What do we do…”

“In this situation… I’ve thought of a possible way. But it’s inefficient, at the very least, it would take more than twenty years before the Main Civilization could detect it. And even then, the information might be missed… or could lead to our exposure…”

“Tell us. Let’s all discuss it.”

“It’s very simple… we use that star to help us transmit the message…”

“In our current situation, even though this method has too many flaws and is extremely dangerous, it still represents a sliver of hope. If there’s no other way… we’ll go with it.”

“Because it takes so long, we only have this one chance. Let’s hope the Main Civilization detects the message we send, and that the elder Specter doesn’t. May the gods, if they still watch over humanity somewhere in this universe, grant us just a little more luck this time…”

After those words, the many consciousnesses that made up this Specter seemed to reach consensus. The debate fell silent. The Specter turned and began racing toward that dim red dwarf star, half a light-year away.

Xiao Yu knew nothing of the events taking place in a remote corner of the universe, over twenty light-years away. At this moment, he was fully immersed in the joy of a great scientific renaissance.

The multilayered shield system composed of Tachyon and Force Field Shields was now fully in Xiao Yu’s hands. Though their overall performance still fell slightly short of the Molian civilization’s shields, the underlying technology was identical. There were no longer any scientific barriers, only technical ones, remaining to catching up in conventional shield design. With the tireless efforts of the many scientists from the Defense Technology Institute, led by Ers, new research results were emerging practically every day.

Though weapons technology still had yet to see a breakthrough, a glimmer of hope had begun to shine through. That area was currently under the personal leadership of Luka Three, who was guiding the scientists of the Weapons Technology Institute in strenuous efforts. Furthermore, Xiao Yu had allocated 0.1% of his own computational power to support research in both critical areas.

Beyond that, institutions like the Materials Science Institute, Communications Technology Institute, Computational Science Institute, and the Institute of Physics were all operating at full capacity, in high gear.

Aside from the breakthrough in Tachyon Shield technology, Xiao Yu had made another major scientific advance based on the original quantum computer framework, an optimized computer architecture had finally been completed. The scientists at the Computational Science Institute had already built a prototype. After conducting his own calculations, Xiao Yu concluded that, under equal volume, mass, and energy consumption, the new computer’s computational power was over three times that of the older model.

Thus, a large-scale upgrade began. According to Xiao Yu’s technological development timeline, he planned to use this type of computer for at least five hundred years, a conservative estimate based on current tech advancement speeds. In practice, that duration could be extended several times over, especially during periods of war, retreat, or intense focus on other major breakthroughs, when he would not be able to spare much computational power for updates.

The first replacements were made on a few small village-class ships. Updating the central computer significantly enhanced their automation, which in turn improved combat capability in a noticeable way.

Once the new computer architecture had been tested and refined aboard the smaller ships, Xiao Yu launched the county-level ship upgrade program. Large ships were far more complex than small ones, and this gradual rollout allowed Xiao Yu to catch and correct any flaws in the new system as early as possible.

Step by step, thanks to the joint efforts of Xiao Yu and the scientists of the Computational Science Institute, the first mainframe-grade central computer was finally completed. Xiao Yu installed it aboard the Tianjin, and after it passed all tests, he built another and installed it aboard his flagship, the Beijing.

Since the new computers shared the same architecture, with only minor optimizations, installation required only swapping out the computation modules. They were backward compatible, so other components like storage modules and energy systems could remain in place. These would be updated gradually over time.

Moving into this ‘new home’ and feeling the surge of computational power, Xiao Yu was filled with excitement.

“Three times the computational power! That means I can allocate more power to technological research, and during war, I’ll be able to control more ships and execute more complex, more effective strategic deployments. My combat capability will increase tremendously…”

The benefits of the new computers were immediate. After the upgrade, Xiao Yu’s available computing power for research efforts nearly doubled. The pace of technological progress accelerated once again.

No one felt this more keenly than the scientists of various species. In the past, after submitting an experimental report requiring Xiao Yu’s assessment and validation, they often had to wait while he finished current tasks and allocated power. But after the upgrade, there was virtually no wait. Massive computing resources were always available. The moment a report was submitted, Xiao Yu would begin analysis, and the results would be immediately sent back, enabling the scientists to proceed with the next phase of research without delay.

The advantages brought by the new computer systems were practically endless.

Under such conditions, Xiao Yu’s confidence in defeating his enemies rose even higher.

Just then, the astronomical telescope under Xiao Yu’s control suddenly detected a strange phenomenon.

A red dwarf star located just over twenty light-years away had begun exhibiting abnormal activity. It started flickering in a pattern that seemed to follow some kind of rhythm, continuously altering its luminosity. To Xiao Yu, it looked almost as though the star were blinking at him.

“This flickering frequency… it seems to follow a pattern. How can that be? This is supposed to be a very stable, ordinary red dwarf. It’s not a variable star, so why is it flashing? And this blinking pattern… it feels oddly familiar… Hmm… What could it be? Let’s run an analysis.”

With that thought, Xiao Yu initiated an investigation into the phenomenon.