Xiao Yu could vividly imagine the scene in his mind.
A single proton, traveling at nearly the speed of light, collided with the droplet. At the mont of impact, the atoms bound by the Guardian Alliance’s unknown technology were instantly shattered. At the collision point, a microscopic black hole, with mass equivalent to an atom, briefly appeared.
The droplet’s indestructible shell finally sustained damage—though the initial breach was no larger than a single atom.
The black hole, through Hawking radiation, quickly evaporated, releasing a burst of gamma rays before disappearing. However, the orderly atomic structure of the droplet’s shell had already begun to unravel.
Unseen by Xiao Yu, a chain reaction was unfolding. Following the destruction of the first atom, the second atom fell into extre instability, and the force binding it began to weaken. The electrons around it accelerated, raising its temperature by 1 K—from near absolute zero to just above absolute zero.
Then ca the third atom, the fourth, the ten-thousandth, the millionth…
Eventually, every atom in the droplet’s shell experienced an accelerated breakdown. Its surface could no longer maintain its stability, and the once-flawless shell began to crack.
First, one crack appeared, then a second, a third… Until the entire droplet shattered into fragnts.
It took neither a thousand hydrogen bombs nor a barrage of energy cannon fire to destroy the droplet—just a single proton.
“I did it,” Xiao Yu murmured, turning to the smiling projection of Chen Mo. “I actually did it. I succeeded.”
The droplet’s shell fractured, first splitting into five pieces, then ten, then twenty. Xiao Yu realized that, left unchecked, these fragnts would continue breaking down into individual atoms, eventually dispersing into the void of space.
Xiao Yu directed the nearest spaceship to approach the remains and carefully collect the fragnts. Using ultra-low-temperature containnt vessels aboard the ship, the fragnts were preserved at a temperature only one-thousandth of a degree above absolute zero. In such conditions, the disintegration process would halt.
These fragnts were made of materials beyond Xiao Yu’s understanding. He intended to preserve and study them thoroughly.
With the shell gone, Xiao Yu finally glimpsed the droplet’s internal structure.
Inside was a cluster of light.
There was no physical form—just a condensed glow radiating a faint luminescence. The light appeared inert, devoid of energy or connection to any distant source. It floated quietly, unresponsive to Xiao Yu’s proximity.
Cautiously, Xiao Yu maneuvered a small spaceship to scoop up the light cluster into its cargo bay. As it entered the bay, sothing inexplicable occurred.
The entire cluster of light suddenly vanished. In its place, a small object resembling a chip appeared at the point where the light had disappeared.
In the absence of gravity aboard the spaceship, and without any artificial gravity systems, the chip simply floated in midair. Xiao Yu directed a robotic arm to carefully retrieve it.
“What is this?” Xiao Yu wondered aloud.
“Could this tiny chip be responsible for the droplet’s propulsion system, communication system, field stabilization system, temperature maintenance system, and more? It’s… unbelievable.”
Xiao Yu studied the chip closely.
It appeared unremarkable—no more than a smooth, one-centiter-long piece of tallic material. At first glance, it bore no distinguishing features. Yet Xiao Yu was certain it was far from ordinary.
The droplet, ten ters long and nearly three ters wide and high, contained nothing but this single chip. There was nothing else inside.
Xiao Yu brought the chip aboard the Tianjin and began analyzing it using the ship’s advanced instrunts.
However, he didn’t dare disassemble the chip directly. As the device exceeded his understanding, he feared damaging its internal structure or triggering an explosion.
Xiao Yu discovered that the chip continuously emitted faint force field fluctuations in seemingly deliberate patterns.
He imdiately recorded the signals and began analyzing them.
It didn’t take long for Xiao Yu to uncover the intricacies of these fluctuations.
Unless one possessed the original decryption key, decoding the signals emitted by the chip was nearly impossible. Successfully interpreting the data required both imnse computational power and extraordinary abstract thinking capabilities. For most Sentient or chanical civilizations, this combination was unattainable.
Sentient civilizations lacked the necessary computational power, while chanical civilizations lacked the abstract reasoning skills. Only soone like Xiao Yu—a unique anomaly—could successfully decipher the chip.
Xiao Yu undoubtedly had the ability to decode it, but no matter how he approached the task, the results were initially nothing but indecipherable gibberish.
“Could it be… that my thod is wrong?” Xiao Yu pondered as he ticulously observed the signals.
The patterns seed to cluster into three distinct groups, with significant disparities between them. “Perhaps… this is encoded in ternary logic?”
Once this idea occurred to him, Xiao Yu imdiately began decoding the chip using a ternary-based approach.
Two hours later, the decoding process yielded results. The content was no longer incomprehensible gibberish but displayed clear logical structures. Xiao Yu sighed in relief, realizing he was on the right track.
Over the next five hours, he translated the logical structure into a format he could understand.
Reading the first few lines, Xiao Yu let out a soft sigh.
“So this is what it is… It’s a black box.”
On Earth, black boxes referred to real-ti monitoring systems installed on aircraft. In the event of an accident, recovering the black box was critical for analyzing the cause of the crash.
The decoded content clearly outlined the chip’s purpose:
“Year 37,020 of the Primordial Era, May 20th, 8:05 AM. Propulsion system: normal. Defense system: normal. Force field stabilization system: normal. Current velocity: 30 million kiloters per second (100 tis the speed of light).”
“Year 37,020 of the Primordial Era, May 20th, 8:15 AM. Propulsion system: normal. Defense system: normal. Force field stabilization system: normal. Exiting faster-than-light travel, transitioning to sublight speeds. Current velocity: 100 kiloters per second.”
“Year 37,020 of the Primordial Era, May 20th, 10:03 AM. Encountered unknown attack! Propulsion system failure! Defense system failure! Force field stabilization system failure! Estimated disintegration in 20 minutes. Parater codes as follows: …”
Below this entry was a series of incomprehensible parater codes.
“This… appears to docunt everything from the droplet exiting faster-than-light travel to its attack on and eventual destruction,” Xiao Yu mused as he skipped over the parater codes to examine the subsequent entries.
The next section was titled, when translated, “Flight Logs.”
Xiao Yu’s attention sharpened as he began reading:
“Year 37,000 of the Primordial Era. Level 3 civilization Luka Civilization leases this probe. 100 Alliance contribution points paid. 2,000-point deposit secured. Lease term: 30 years.”
“Year 37,001 of the Primordial Era. Probe enters Third Starfield. Discovers life-bearing planet around star #75601. Life developnt stage: primitive, unicellular. Alliance contribution points earned: 10.”
“Year 37,003 of the Primordial Era. Third Starfield. Discovers liquid gold ore deposit in interstellar dust region #83206. Mining index: low. Alliance contribution points earned: 8.”
“Year 37,003 of the Primordial Era. Third Starfield. Precisely determines supernova eruption ti of star #5571. Alliance contribution points earned: 2.”
…
“Year 37,015 of the Primordial Era. Third Starfield. Discovers Level 2 Sentient civilization near brown dwarf #6834. Guides civilization into the Alliance. Alliance contribution points earned: 50.”
“Year 37,016 of the Primordial Era. Third Starfield. Discovers Level 2 chanical civilization near red dwarf #7791. Civilization eliminated. Alliance contribution points earned: 30.”
“Year 37,017 of the Primordial Era. Third Starfield. Discovers Level 2 beast civilization near dust field #387. Civilization eliminated. Alliance contribution points earned: 35.”
…
“Year 37,020 of the Primordial Era. Third Starfield. Discovers Level 2 pinnacle chanical civilization near yellow dwarf #65304.”
“Warning! Warning! Unknown attack detected on the probe by the chanical civilization. Probe propulsion system failure! Defense system failure! Force field stabilization system failure!”
“Warning! Warning! Luka Civilization, take imdiate action to eliminate the Level 2 pinnacle chanical civilization. Failure to do so will result in forfeiture of the 2,000-point deposit!”
“Warning! Warning! Probe damaged. chanical civilization value increased to 2,500 Alliance contribution points. Luka Civilization granted priority capture rights and one free fixed-point faster-than-light transmission opportunity. chanical civilization information classified until Luka Civilization approval.”
This final entry brought clarity to Xiao Yu.
Through the lens of the black box’s logs, Xiao Yu gained a fresh perspective on the events leading to the droplet’s destruction and its broader implications.
[T/N: This is what the author wrote at the end of the chapter:
Regarding a bug in the previous chapters, the particle collider actually fires a particle beam, not a single particle. This was an oversight on my part. However, it doesn’t affect the plot—just letting everyone know.]
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