Hao Ren was stunned for a moment when he heard the report from the data terminal: "Drone swarm? What did they find? ”

"A group of drones in the L-B-35 exploration sequence found traces on the cruise route that appear to have been left by the original faster-than-light engine, which, judging by the degree of dissipation, were left decades ago."

Hao Ren suddenly became serious: "Decades ago? Are you sure? ”

"All the information reported by the swarm is rigorously calculated, and it is unlikely to be wrong," the data terminal said as he projected the details of the swarm's report, "and the swarm thinks we may have found the survivors of the exiles - the kind that still retains a high level of civilization." ”

Hao Ren was engrossed in looking at the picture released by the data terminal, and he saw that the picture was a vast space, and unfamiliar nebulae and cosmic landscapes were shining in the distance, and between these stars, a faint and distorted discontinuity could be seen, which itself did not have any color, but it changed the surrounding light like a lens, so it appeared observable. The data terminal explains the phenomenon on the screen: "The original faster-than-light engines propelled the spacecraft by changing the curvature of space, but the immaturity of the technology meant that the engines were unable to recover the curvature of space near the start and end points of the voyage, so they left behind distorted lenses like this after entering or leaving the hyperspace state, which usually took decades to hundreds of years to dissipate on their own." ”

Hao Ren remembered that he had seen several advantages and disadvantages of the primitive faster-than-light engine in other technical sources, and he still knew about the "lens trail" mentioned by the data terminal, and he also knew that in many of the lower civilizations, people would track the target ship according to the twisted lens that had just been formed, and mercenaries and pirates were good at this. But the rest of the scene probably didn't study this stuff much.

Lily was surprised when she heard the terminal's explanation: "Wow, wouldn't it be like a sieve to drill the universe if this low-tech engine spaceship was running around?" ”

"The universe is huge, and you can't break it with this primitive engine." The terminal shook his body, "Isn't there a circle of space junk around the earth?" Humanity is still sending spaceships into the sky, and as long as you can solve the mess left by your predecessors with more powerful technology in the future, all long-term problems will not be a problem. It's a short-sighted idea, but that's how many civilizations have come to be. However, the lens trail caused by the primitive engine is really troublesome, so civilizations that have just developed faster-than-light travel usually have some rules. For example, no spacecraft is allowed to enter hyperspace around the parent star, but must use a sub-light engine to sail beyond a certain safe distance before acceleration, and so on. Anyway, they have to find a way. ”

Hao Ren still knows a lot about this knowledge, so he is just paying attention to the lens phenomenon that remains in space: this is an exciting evidence, if these wakes are really produced by artificial engines, then it means that at least a few decades ago, there were higher surviving civilizations in this universe!

Unlike civilizations like Halletta and Drom, who are in a state of disconnection or material extinction, the lenses are left behind by a race that can travel faster than light and has the ability to operate in deep space!

Hao Ren felt a sudden sense of excitement, and he asked with a little urgency, "Did you only find these trails?" Can you track down where they went? ”

"At the moment, only these wakes have been found, and the L-B-35 exploration sequence is a fleet that has just completed the construction of sentinel sites. Operating millions of light-years away, they haven't had time to multiply on a large scale, so there's very little information to be gathered. However, more swarms have already jumped past the nearest support node, and the expanded search should lead to some clues. Now we should expect these lens trails to jump out of hyperspace rather than jump in. ”

Nangong May couldn't react to such a profound question at once: "Why? ”

Hao Ren explained: "If it is a trail left by jumping out of hyperspace, it means that those spacecraft are currently traveling at sub-light speed or lower, which can be directly observed in the material universe and is easy to track, but if it is a trace left by jumping into hyperspace." Those ships may be somewhere, they may have been traveling faster than the speed of light for decades. The search range will be astronomical, and it may not be possible to find it. ”

Nangong May thought about it, lowered her head and continued to eat: "I'm just asking, you can continue......"

Hao Ren sighed, and turned to the data terminal a little uneasily: "What is the detection sequence of L in which area is active?" Are there any traces of the eldest son or other guardians around it? ”

The terminal floated up and down: "A star area that has just been included in the exploration plan was originally sent by those drones to find the original coordinates of the Purgatory Planet. This time it was all an accidental discovery. With no signs of the firstborn movement and no other destroyed remnants of civilization, it could be considered a safe desert, and if the exiles fled in that direction, they had a good chance of surviving - provided they were not tracked down by the black ships of the Guardian Giants. Anyway, arrange the spaceship now? Let's go over and see what happens? ”

Hao Ren stood up without saying a word. As he set off, he shouted: "Let's go, this matter can't be delayed." ”

Lily looked up from the noodle soup bowl, still holding her noodle chicken leg stick in one hand, with a pitiful face: "What, can I finish eating?" ”

Hao Ren: "...... You eat yours, and you're not in a hurry enough to not even let you eat. ”

So the husky girl immediately turned cloudy and clear: this girl's joys and sorrows are really easy to understand.

The data terminal quickly prepared the spaceship, so everyone did not delay and set off directly for the drone frontier after eating. This time, the people who followed were unprecedentedly neat: because it happened when everyone was free, so everyone who was simply present followed, not only the fish and the cat, but even Nangong Invincible.

Hao Ren remembered that Nangong Invincible and his wife were still running the family's restaurant, and he asked: "I am going to wait there for at least three days this time, regardless of whether the drone swarm is progressing or not, doesn't it matter if your restaurant at home matters?" ”

Elsa smiled and shook her head: "After the winter, the business will fade down, the southern suburbs are mostly elderly, and it has been snowing in the past two days, and the restaurant sometimes can't have ten people for a whole day after the old people don't go out, so just rest for a few days." ”

Hao Ren thinks about it, Nangong's restaurant is also a scenery in the southern suburbs, such a ghost place where birds don't, usually like an old cadre activity center, and the people who are in it all day long are those old men and old ladies who can sit on the line for a long time if they want a plate of peanuts. Originally, they didn't expect to make money, and the Nangong couple was willing to rest for a few days.

Although I don't know if they follow Hao Ren out on an adventure or not......

Nangong Invincible also smiled: "And more importantly, our husband and wife also want to be active - we are bored at home all day, watching the children brave the wind and rain outside, and we don't want to go as elders." ”

Vivien immediately spoke up, "Tell me, get me out of the kid's pile." ”

Lily glanced at Vivien with a strange expression: "Finally, someone said that you are young, and you are not happy?" ”

The idlers began to talk about their daily routines on the bridge, and Hao Ren saw that there was no topic of interest to him, so he took advantage of this time to connect to the database of the drone swarm, intending to see how the drone organization was at the destination.

He still remembered when he released the first batch of drones two years ago—just a few dumbfounded, coffin-like primitive swarm modules, which set off from the Giant Turtle Rock Platform and plunged headlong into the cold and vast universe like ignorant worker bees, beginning to serve as Hao Ren's eyes and ears to understand the indifferent world after the disaster. At that time, the drone swarm was so weak and isolated that Hao Ren hardly dared to imagine how far they could develop in two years, and he even thought about whether those lone drones would encounter danger at the beginning of the mission, and they would be consumed for various reasons before they could be launched, and developed a lot of alternatives and alternatives for this purpose.

Like many novice employees, he didn't have much confidence in his ability to do his job at that time.

But today, those "worker bees" have become an extremely powerful force in this universe, and Hao Ren's arrangement that day proved to be one of the wisest decisions he made.

When he opened the star map, he saw that in the range of millions of light years, countless points of light representing information nodes were shining, different from the randomly distributed and chaotic natural nebulae, these points of light were neat, dense and orderly, forming a huge matrix with its wonderful sense of symmetry and regularity.

It's an empire: the drone empire. (To be continued......)