CHAPTER 287: CHAPTER 286: INFRASTRUCTURE DEMON

After the Mushroom Civilization delegation came off the spacecraft, they put on translation headphones and happily greeted the representatives from Earth Civilization and Eternal Life Civilization.

When the three civilization delegations stood together, it was evident that the Mushroom People were highly distinctive. Their vivid colors and unique mushroom-like heads, resembling colorful umbrellas, made them instantly recognizable even in a vast crowd. Hide as they might, they could not be concealed.

Even during the greetings, a playful media friend jokingly ducked under a mushroom head to shelter from the wind and rain, eliciting joyful laughter from everyone.

Following that, the three delegations discussed and then began their official tour of Earth Civilization.

Led by the Earth Civilization delegation headed by Lu Xing, the Eternal Life Civilization and Mushroom Civilization delegations boarded the sightseeing ship.

This type of sightseeing ship was made using high-tech technology, employing materials 90% of which were a new type of ultra-steel glass that could transform from transparent to opaque and was harder than typical metals. If one stood on this new type of sightseeing ship, it would feel like flying through the Universe unaided, somewhat akin to walking on a glass bridge in ancient times—thrilling and exciting, with a 720-degree unobstructed view of various sights, very advanced and convenient.

Due to its function as a sightseeing vessel, this ship was not very fast, capable only of reaching the speed of light.

The ship’s propulsion system was simple and eco-friendly, using a gravity engine. It maneuvered by controlling the gravitational relationship with various celestial bodies. To achieve light-speed, certain energy, which extracted space energy from the universe, was required to raise the gravity increment to the level of space distortion, using spatial slip rate for light-speed travel.

The ship’s controls featured two designs: manual and interfaced. Manual is self-explanatory and needs no further detail. Robots could connect through a neuronal interface to control flight. Currently, some humans who had been injured and transformed into cyborgs also possessed neural components and could control through interfaced mode. Interfaced mode was more modern and advanced, allowing the user’s consciousness to be transferred to the ship’s hardware, becoming part of the software system and fully controlling the flight while also providing real-time tour narration.

However, achieving this required rigorous training.

Because software is essential for managing hardware, without professional knowledge and experience, one couldn’t completely and adeptly control all functions, and inexperienced individuals might even face fatal risks.

Lu Xing’s wife had recently acquired the license for this. She used her free time to study and pass the examination.

For this reason, Mrs. Lu was very fond of the communist system and greatly admired the Wandering Alliance, especially the Sun Daddy. She had already decided to dedicate her life to the society and career she loved.

As the group boarded the spacecraft, Mrs. Lu sat in the cockpit and performed interfaced controlling.

Then, the sightseeing ship started and flew towards two gigantic objects outside the Space Port while explaining the sequence and plan of the visit to the people on board.

Initially, the Mushroom Civilization, being a Level 2 civilization, was thrilled like country bumpkins entering a big city, marveling at and praising various super cool technologies and hardware of the sightseeing ship. They even complimented Mrs. Lu for knowing everything and being an all-around talent. But their happiness didn’t last long; as the sightseeing ship left the Space Port and Mrs. Lu made the ship fully transparent, exposing all onboard to the universe’s authentic and beautiful face through the starlight coming from all sides, some from the Mushroom Civilization suddenly couldn’t bear it and almost burst into tears.

"Ah, help, I can’t take it anymore, somebody help..."

A sudden shrill scream startled everyone aboard.

After finding out the reason, everyone was caught between laughter and tears—it turned out these individuals were acrophobic. Upon seeing the bottomless universe beneath their feet, they were so scared their legs gave way, and they instinctively clung to their fellow companions’ legs as if fearing they might fall, not even daring to open their eyes.

His compatriot advised, "Don’t be afraid, there’s something under your feet. If you don’t believe me, stand up and try."

"No, no, once I see it, I panic, I can’t handle it."

"Then just don’t look. Can’t you just look up instead?"

"It still won’t work. I’ve already looked and that horrifying image is stuck in my mind. I can’t overcome it; please make it opaque again!"

"Alas, you’re really disgracing the Mushroom Civilization. Had I known, I wouldn’t have brought you along. Chairman Lu, I am terribly sorry, could you perhaps be understanding towards my incompetent compatriot?"

Lu Xing replied: "Take him to the rest area. I’ll have my spouse make the rest area opaque and also prepare some coffee that stabilizes the mind. My spouse will brew him a cup as well. Plus, there will be live commentary in the resting room, so he won’t miss any visiting opportunity."

"Thank you so much. Your technology is so advanced, it makes us look like country bumpkins!" exclaimed the man, deeply impressed.

At this moment, the president of the Eternal Life Civilization spoke, "Chairman Lu, your wife is also the First Lady; isn’t it inappropriate for her to handle these trivial matters? Is there anything we can assist with?"

Lu Xing explained, "No worries. In our commune system, there are no distinctions of high or low status—every profession is equally important and honorable. Even my position as the chairman is just a regular post. Besides, my spouse enjoys piloting spacecraft; it’s her hobby and choice. Moreover, it’s also about liberating one’s thoughts. You might want to take this to heart."

Subsequently, there were no more issues and the visiting ship smoothly reached the first observation spot.

The first site was the interstellar collider built above Earth’s orbital path. To ensure that everyone could see clearly, Mrs. Lu maneuvered the visiting ship very close to the collider, maintaining a constant distance of about five meters. When the collider operated, the immense operating sound, traveling through the sparse cosmic particles, was captured and amplified by the ship’s systems to allow everyone to experience the most authentic situation.

"My goodness, isn’t this a bit too exaggerated? Is what I’m seeing real?"

"When we were still on the planets thinking about how to build colliders, you had already built them in space? Man, that must be incredibly long!"

Lu Xing introduced, "This is the Wandering Alliance’s interstellar collider project. It has a long history and was built above the Earth’s orbital path. As Earth’s orbit expands, so does the total length of the collider—it currently measures about 10 astronomical units. It takes approximately eighty minutes to control the collision of light-speed particles. Thanks to this collider, we have discovered many cosmic particles and propelled the scientific advancement of the Wandering Alliance."

"10... 10 astronomical units? Wow, that’s incredibly mighty. You know, the longest collider built by our Mushroom Civilization is only 500 kilometers. Civilizations at the third level indeed show their caliber. Apparently, we still have much to learn!"

"Our Eternal Life Civilization’s collider is merely 5,000 km, and you’ve managed to build one stretching 10 astronomical units? How do you maintain stable operations of such a collider? Despite both being third-level civilizations, why is there such a huge difference? Are you truly a third-level civilization? The magnitude of your infrastructure projects is outrageously crazy. You guys are true infrastructure maniacs!"

If Lu Chen were here at this moment, upon hearing ’infrastructure maniacs,’ he would definitely recall an interesting piece of ancient history on Earth.

Back then, Taiwan admired the mainland for its high-speed railways and airports—as the country grew from weakness to strength, it moved many to tears and emotion!