CHAPTER 416: CHAPTER 415: THE ENCROACHING SURGE

The backflow wave from the halt of the expansion of the universe (expansion backflow) is like a giant wave in the sea chasing after billions of boats on the surface.

These "boats", whether large or small, vary in size, but without exception, are all desperately avoiding the deadly assault of the expansion backflow.

However, the expansion backflow differs from ordinary waves; waves have a limit in size and can be dodged by moving to the sides or diving into the sea. In contrast, where the expansion backflow passes, nothing can survive; there is simply no space to hide. The so-called evasion is just a race against time with the expansion backflow. Those who outrun it live; those who don’t, vanish from the universe!

Regarding the aforementioned sizes of the boats, besides describing the size of the planets that biological civilizations rely on for survival, it also serves to gauge the strength of a civilization’s power. The larger are naturally civilizations with stronger technological capabilities, and the smaller are civilizations with lesser technological productivity and lower energy utilization. Regardless of their strength, in order to avoid the threat of the expansion backflow, all civilizations are flying forward at full speed. Over time, small numbers accumulate, surpassing the number of civilizations that fled during the massive collision of the Galaxy Nebula and Xianhe Nebula. From a cosmic perspective, those faint light points spanning endless light-years resemble billions upon trillions of fireflies: tranquil, beautiful, and spectacular!

Of course, this tranquility is only on the vast cosmic scale. In reality, at the macroscopic level, this urgent moment of escape is far from peaceful.

After all, even humans have experienced numerous stampede incidents while fleeing.

However, things are different for civilizations escaping in the universe.

The main difference lies in the scale of available space. Human activity space is actually quite limited, especially in crowded situations where there’s almost no room to move;

Yet civilizations in the universe have an exceedingly vast space. Even if billions of civilizations gather together, they only occupy a very small fraction of the universe’s volume. The distances between them generally prevent close encounters due to both the vastness of the universe itself and each civilization’s cautious control of their planets’ flight paths, avoiding the Roche limit and planning their routes.

This foundation ensures that civilizations do not get too close to one another.

Naturally, this refers to normal circumstances, but there are exceptions, like planetary frictions and collisions. However, these are rare, not even one in ten thousand cases.

Thus, cosmic civilizations more frequently engage in wars over the best flight paths in their escape.

At first, the frequency of wars amongst the fleeing stream was high, because the expansion backflow was still far from these civilizations. They believed they had extra time, hence conflicts easily escalated into wars, forcefully annexing opponents through combat.

But as time passed, the expansion backflow drew closer and closer, to the point where it was encroaching upon their heels. Only then did they realize the crisis was upon them, with no time or mood for war, focusing solely on accelerating their escape.

Among these civilizations, there were First-level Civilizations, as well as Level 2 and Level 3 Civilizations, but Level 4 Civilizations were rare, and Level 5 Civilizations were non-existent. That’s because truly powerful civilizations had long since perceived the crisis of the universe’s halt in expansion and adopted more scientifically sound refuge plans than the lower-level civilizations.

During this mad and terrifying escape rush, an interesting scene emerged.

Since the race was about speed—competing against the chasing expansion backflow—the higher-level civilizations were faster and ran at the front, while the lower-level ones, bound to be slower, lagged behind. As a result, in this frantic escape, Civilization Levels reflected in a speed hierarchy.

The first echelon was comprised of Level 3 and 4 Civilizations, which had controlled Space Energy or Unified Energy, capable of engaging in superluminal flight with relative ease; the second echelon was Level 2 Civilizations, which had mastered Annihilation Technology, capable of powered acceleration up to half-light-speed; the third echelon included First-level Civilizations capable of controlled nuclear fusion, reaching only a top speed of one-hundredth to five-thousandths of light-speed through power acceleration.

Yet the speed of the expansion backflow was superluminal.

Under the pressure of superluminal expansion backflow, an inevitable number of civilizations would be devoured—a law of development.

Initially, the first to be swallowed and annihilated were the First-level Civilizations, moving at one-hundredth of light-speed, the rearmost of the fleeing crowd. Soon after, it was the turn of the Level 2 Civilizations, capable of only half-light-speed.

Since Level 3 and 4 Civilizations could perform superluminal flight, they could essentially maintain a tug-of-war level with the expansion backflow. It can be imagined that, as the crisis of the universe’s halt in expansion continued to spread, the least that could survive in the universe would be civilizations above Level 3.

At this moment.

An incalculable age had passed since the crisis of the universe halting its expansion.

The expansion backflow had reached from the universe’s edge to the very ends of the Sky Zone Universe.

One could see numerous bright planets entering the Star Zone Universe at superluminal speed from the Sky Zone, while tens of thousands of light-years behind them, the expansion backflow was mercilessly annihilating everything.

If Constant Star Lu Chen were here at this moment, he would certainly recognize that the massive super nebula behind was his homeland, the Xianhe Nebula, formed from the collision and fusion of the Galaxy Nebula and Xianhe Nebula.

The Xianhe Nebula, spanning hundreds of thousands of light-years, stood no chance before the expansion backflow and vanished completely as if dust touched lightly, with its entire outline eroding as if a sand painting were rapidly being destroyed by a colossal invisible hand.

......

At the same time.

The Metal Civilization, not too far from the edge of the Star Zone, observed the annihilation scene of the backflow wave and the massive influx of civilizations fleeing at superluminal speed.

Consequently, Wandering, the leader of the Metal Civilization, immediately ordered the abandonment of their established base, leading all Battle Stars in a matrix formation to fly at full speed towards the Cosmic Center.

Watching the vaguely approaching light points rapidly closing in, Wandering, for some reason, thought of the Wandering Alliance, thought of Constant Star Lu Chen, and couldn’t help but become curious about the current whereabouts of the Wandering Alliance and the transformation of Lu Chen. Comparatively, how would the Metal Civilization stack up against the Wandering Alliance?

With these curiosities, Wandering looked forward even more to an encounter with the Wandering Alliance.

However, he continuously pondered in his heart, wondering in what manner might they meet again—would it be as old spheres meeting or as rival spheres clashing?

As a series of changes occurred with Wandering, the relationship between the two no longer remained as simple as it was in the beginning.