Elves are indeed long-lived, but they have also been deliberately cultivated over the past hundreds of years, and have subtly developed the habit of precious time;

So there are very few individuals who can let a few years pass without reason in idleness.

Their concept of time is in the same vein as that of trolls, who in the past had to rely on diligence to survive due to the inefficiency of the hunter-gatherer era;

In addition, Nesta later brought the concept of time from Earth to the tribe, and popularized it.

And the result of such a delay is that the elves who don't know the upper limit of their lifespan are used to maintaining their lives according to the rhythm of short-lived species.

For example, in the case of 'sleep', except for the extremely special conditions such as breaking through the retreat and learning in the virtual realm during the early childhood, the rest rarely have the habit of sleeping in a daze for several days, last month, or even the year.

With the efficient assistance of the sleep pod, the elves will start their day after a deep sleep during the four lights required by their physiology

Therefore, the active period of the day can be as long as 44 light hours, and they will use these times to study, practice, work, play, fight, and fight, but they will not fall asleep under the covers.

It's just that after spending deep sleep in the cabin, their physiological functions have been activated to a healthy state of excitement, so in fact, they really can't sleep.

And when the Republic gradually entered the era of interstellar navigation with such habits, it gradually showed a variety of different influences.

It stands to reason that even if interstellar journeys often take tens, decades, or even hundreds of millennia, this time span is not enough to be described as 'heavenly moat' for the life span of the elves, nor is it unbearably distant;

But at this time, for them, who have become accustomed to living according to the previous concept of time, such a span seems very long

~~~~~~~

Four years have passed, and five quasar fortresses have left the broad boundaries of the solar system, and are now navigating in interstellar space in the interstellar space;

The Proxima 1 explorer should be the first to enter the generalized boundary zone of the target star system, followed by the other three fortresses that are also heading to different neighbors, and then the Black Hole Explorer, which is still far from arriving.

On this day, there was a special discussion in the Black Hole Exploration Ship

"According to the rough star map we have made earlier, we will pass through a special star on our way"

Fangs said excitedly, pointing to a spot in the three-dimensional star map in front of him, and with the movement of his fingers and the change of his mind, the small dot instantly projected a complete three-dimensional overview on the side, and presented a stellar picture with a sparkling light and tongue of fire.

Then he continued,

"It's a small star with only 0.4 solar masses, and it can be an important piece of the puzzle when we study the gravitational collapse of stars, so I think it's really necessary to make a special trip;"

"We can spend a certain amount of time there observing disturbances and build a permanent base based on local materials to provide the rearview with the thought paths needed for projection arrivals."

After giving his opinion to a general expression, he asked the crowd with an expectant look,

"So what do you think? You'll definitely agree, right? ”

"Fang, do you want to reach the finish line soon? How long does it take to slow down and brake, and how long does it take to get the fortress to the speed we have now? ”

One of the high-level spellcasters who accompanied the ship, Konzalo, shook his head when he heard this, and retorted, "There aren't so many Holy Light Generators along the way that can be used to shorten the acceleration time like when we set off. ”

After that, it was the thick teeth who nodded to indicate that they were also thinking like this, and also said specific thoughts,

"It is possible and necessary to leave a powered observatory on the periphery and let it fly in the direction of the center on its own, but the fortress must not be slowed down, let alone the main body of the fortress into the gravity capture range;"

At the end of his words, Rough Tooth summarized his own concepts again, so I just listened to him continue,

"Along the way, we have to weave through the gaps in the outer reaches of the star system, otherwise the time cost will be too great."

But it was clear that the back-to-back rebuttals of Rough Fang and Konzalo did not shake Fang, and he spoke in a very indifferent tone,

"If you don't have a holy light station, then let's build it, as long as the energy and material are sufficient, we can't build it on the spot, can we really choke to death because of this?"

After hearing his words, Konzalo retorted very dissatisfied,

"Rebuild? You're talking about it's very light, can the cultivation speed of flesh and metal keep up? Or are you going to let the crew on board contribute some of their bodies when they get there? ”

"You don't mess around here, I don't know how many Holy Light base stations can be built?"

Fangs glared at Konzalo, who casually 'helped' him with his ideas, and then added,

"Brothers, as the saying goes, 'if you want to hurry, you can't reach it', and if you directly explore the black hole, you can only get the results of the incomplete disturbance, don't you deny this?"

Fang's words made Nesta laugh out loud, this was obviously his casual remark at 34 o'clock on February 37, the 13th year of the rune calendar, against the tribe's 'word-making project', and it actually became a 'colloquialism' at this moment.

However, he had to admit that there was at least some truth in what he said, but before he could make some signs of agreement, he heard the rest of Fang's words follow.

"From pseudo-stars that fail fusion, to low-mass tipping stars, to the sun, to massive stars, and then to white dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes, and other relics of different masses, this is a process of constantly refining the puzzle of gravitational field and gravity collapse perturbation, shouldn't we seize all the opportunities halfway?"

"You have a lot of point, but what about the reality?"

As a veteran who has also traveled all the way from the tribal period, Konzalo, who is not from the tooth family, interrupted Fang's impassioned speech again, and once again expressed his objections, and continued to elaborate,

"The reality is that it will take at least 1,300 years to reach our goal, even if we don't waste the slightest time, and how long will it take us to keep going as you think? I'm telling you now, even 5,000 years won't allow us to get there! ”

"So what? Not to mention 5,000 years, but what if it takes 10,000 years to get there? Will you go mad, or will I die, or will the republic dissolve as a result? ”

"Ahh

In fact, there were not too many elves participating in the discussion at the scene, and the ontology, clones, and projections of the physical elves accompanying the ship, plus the projections from the home planet, there were only dozens of individuals in the Manchurian total;

But at this time, they all fell into an inexplicable silence because of the words of the fangs

"Things are floating there, and they don't come to us because of the passage of time, and they say, 'Look at me, please,' so we'll have to walk over on our own!" And shouldn't we spend some more time on it? ”

He looked around, looked into the eyes of the participants, and then continued in a slower tone,

"Ladies and gentlemen, precious time is indeed a good thing, I will never deny this, but the question is whether we are really cherishing time?"

"No, we're just scared by time, too scared by the time we have now."

"But in fact? In the face of 1300 years, we have taken steps, so what will happen to the next 5,000 years, 10,000 years, not to mention that we ourselves are very likely to arrive alive, even if we can't. It's a big deal to keep multiplying all the way, let the younger generations continue to move forward, and one day we can accomplish the goal, right? ”

"If we keep going, we may still have technological breakthroughs due to new discoveries along the way, and maybe in turn speed up our progress;"

"But if we are held back by one scruple or another, technical capabilities will not grow on their own like living organisms, and it may take us a little longer to gain something."

~~~~~~

His words caused everyone present to fall silent for a moment, as if they were all seriously thinking about whether it was right or not, and some of them had been faintly convinced;

But there are more determined deniers, and at this point there are also ideas based on another idea

"You're saying too lightly, even the oldest here is less than seven hundred years old, and this makes us determined not to return for tens of thousands of years, and we have to take care of all the goals along the way. It's normal for people to have scruples; ”

"Moreover, the specific plans for this trip have been drawn up in Parliament before the departure, and it is probably not appropriate for us to suddenly propose a change in the middle of the journey;"

"Besides, the kingdom is not just our exploration team, and you can't expect us to take care of everything on our own."

"So, I'm going to stick to my opinion."

At this point, Rough Tooth said in a very cautious but resolute tone,

"Our team must continue to move firmly towards the goal of the finish line, even if it takes more time for this, it doesn't matter, but we must achieve the expected results as soon as possible and without any care, and we can't delay the original harvest indefinitely."

"We do have a long lifespan, and even with all the goals along the way, it is very likely that we will succeed in sustaining our lives;"

"But then what? Like you said, it took tens of thousands of years to finally get a complete set of perturbation puzzles? ”

"No, instead of taking care of everything, we should choose to trust our companions, I believe that Aishara will send more fleets to explore, and I believe that these exploration teams will be able to complete the rest of the plan, and I also believe that HQ will not be a hindrance in the face of a well-developed plan."

~~~~~

The mini-meetings continued

At the same time, on the other side of the interstellar matter testing laboratory, there is another fang, another Nesta, and many more virtual and real figures, taking advantage of some convenience in extragalactic space, conducting other experiments that have nothing to do with the meeting.

"Haha, fangs, why are you having a bitter face again, this is being refuted by the thick fangs?"

A companion suddenly teased at this moment, and Fangfang smiled and scolded in response as if he didn't care too much,

"Okay, you wall grass, one moment what I said was right, one moment the rough teeth were right, and the next moment it became Azhara to think about it makes sense, can't you have your own opinion?"

After hearing this, another female projection body also inserted the topic,

"But you are all old grandfathers, and a little guy like me can only tremble next to him~"

"Little one? Hehe. You're so thick-skinned, and you're not as cute as you were when you were a child, so you're a centuries-old woman after all. ”

"Damn! What nonsense are you talking about, old man! Freya immediately retorted a little angrily, "What's the matter with hundreds of years old! Where do I look like an old woman, I'm still a girl, okay? ”

"It's like I'm not a few hundred years old."

Fangs only muttered something in a low voice, and then didn't pay attention to the girl who was jumping her feet, but turned to Nesta on the side and asked,

"What do you think, don't you want to see it with your own eyes?"

The discussion was temporarily interrupted by a humming sound that sounded between the talks, the sound of the Ring Fortress Particle Accelerator being activated in orbit even more than 1,500 kilometers long;

Under the continuous supply of nuclear energy, the matter inside was accelerated to the extreme of sub-light speed at a temperature extremely close to '0 point', and it only took a long time to complete a long trajectory in an instant, and suddenly collided with each other in the occurrence chamber.

Suddenly, all the experimental participants on the scene held their breath and even stopped their thoughts, trying to give the few inner observers who were in a state of deep integration a space with little interference in their field of vision;

In the outside world, there are also specialists who will conduct real-time physical observation of the results and processes through inscription equipment.

It wasn't until a little more than half an hour later that the data from multiple parties was summarized into the fortress's scientific research brain, and then sent to the scientific research center located around the moon through the connection of the virtual realm, where a large number of calculations and repeated simulations were carried out.

Eventually, Nesta came back to his senses from his observations of the psychic data panel, and while using the total thread to re-analyze the experimental results, he answered the previous question with the thread to which the body was assigned;

"I'd love to see it for myself, but right?"

He said,

"First, I'm a doppelganger here, and none of you have completed the advanced level, so I can't enter the interior to complete the observation anyway, so for the time being, it's useless for me to go."

"Second, for the family and the country as a whole, the idea of rough teeth should be the most efficient, and we must sometimes restrain our curiosity and strive to complete our own duties."

"So to sum it up, it's probably 'yearning, not feasible, regret' and something like that."

"Tsk, shouldn't I say, 'You're high, you're great, it's my fangs that are selfish and narrow-minded'?"

"Why are you old man still getting stingier and more alive?" Nesta looked at him with some amusement and said.

"You just found out? Hasn't he been like this since hundreds of years ago? ”

"Nonsense, it's your rough teeth that have been so conservative and stubborn since hundreds of years ago, right?"

"Alright, let's get the business at hand first, this kind of discussion doesn't need to be in two places at the same time."

"Nesta's right, fangs, come back to your senses."

The thick fangs on the side restrained the habitual 'quarrel' that was about to spread, and motioned to the phantom of the fangs to stop the discussion.

"Hmph~ If you don't say it, you guys with no curiosity."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Somewhere inside the fortress, the body of the fangs manifested in a cultivation chamber a hundred and fifty meters high, and gradually opened its eyes.

There seemed to be a flash of annoyance and unwillingness in his eyes, and then he looked obliquely at the equally huge cultivation cabin next door, and kept muttering in his mouth while spreading his spirit;

In the culture chamber that he was looking at, the stream of cells that were also purple seemed to have been stirred by something, and at this time there were a little ripples

'What?' ’

'Nothing.'

Say, what's the matter? ’

I want to annoy you when I see that you are sleeping too soundly. ’

'Bored Guy'

'I'm looking for you to discuss~'

Then it says it's all right. Tell me what the hell you want to do, I'm going to keep moving up. ’

"Well, I want to follow the Void Delivery Ship and go to various targets along the way to see for yourself." ’

'Stubborn guy, you're not dead yet'

"Anyway, the Void Delivery Ship will definitely be sent, isn't it, and I will follow the past without slowing down the overall speed of the fortress." ’

"What if you go, you can't get inside, what can you do with just the equipment of the delivery ship?" ’

'Hey, it's up to you'

'Huh? Do you want me to merge with you and go with the fused clone? ’

'Yes, you just say it's okay~'

It's so dangerous, if something happens, we can't get that part of our body back. ’

But it's still a long time, what if we can complete the molecular level upgrade before we arrive?' Given the size of the time, it wouldn't have been possible if we had lost a little bit of our body, right? Nesta's side seems to have a similar idea, and he is definitely going to scatter his body this time, but for a slightly different purpose than mine. ’

I haven't heard of that, but what is his purpose? ’

'Hey, let's just say you don't agree!' ’

'If only we could all advance by then. Okay, then I'll go with you. ’

'Haha, you old guy is really the most reliable! ’

"Okay, don't think I don't know that you just can't pull your face down and beg for something else, okay, stop talking nonsense, and tell me what Nesta is going to do." ’

'I mentioned it before. So, I don't know if we're going to do it in this direction, but the end of the other four fortresses is definitely not his own end, and Nesta probably plans to let his clones scatter and use their smaller bodies to go to more distant star fields, or just break through. However, with the current speed of sailing, this should not be the purpose, so it is more likely that he is preparing to find the rock base star on the way to plant the clone. ’

'Really? ’

"That's still fake, haha Aisara will definitely be angry this time, she has lost 200,000 tons of her husband for no reason, it's funny to think about it~'

'Don't gloat. But he actually planned to run so far and then do it, it seems that he is also very well-intentioned. ’

'What do you say?' ’

'Idiot, he definitely doesn't want to damage the star fields around us, after all, they are all the development space that they rely on to survive before the speed of light breaks, but is he overestimating his destructive power? Wait, well, I've just calculated it again, and the molecular-liquid mode is really inefficient, not only is the time too slow, but there are a lot of ingredients that can't be utilized, so.'

'So? So he's supposed to be preparing for the atomic level? Is it so fast? ’

Maybe the molecular to atomic scale will be relatively simpler, even easier than the cellular-to-molecular level, let me do the math first. Indeed, the ability will increase exponentially, the target selection will be broader, and even theoretically it is no longer limited to rock-based stars, which feels a little scary. ’

I also thought about climbing up once the overall base was a bit higher. But what orders of magnitude are we all there? In comparison, even if all 7 billion are combined, it is not as big as a grain of sand, and it will not really be eaten up by us, right? ’

"Who knows, let's finish the advanced level in front of you first, you have to have it as soon as possible, don't bother me anymore, understand?" If you still want to explore together. ’

'Okay, well, just listen to you. It actually gave me a gasp, hum. ’

~~~~~~~~~~~~

After that, the journey in all directions was continued by the constant frequency conversion of the gravitational field engine, and Fang's somewhat radical plan was eventually rejected by headquarters, but in the process, Rough Fang's proposal was approved;

Therefore, the headquarters decided to send more exploration ships to different targets in the next few years, and carry out targeted disturbance observation operations against them, so that each relevant piece of the puzzle can be relatively synchronized.

As a specific plan, in addition to the direct dispatch of ships to explore on the home planet, it will also start with the three Proxima Centauri star fields that are about to be developed, use the materials there as raw materials to build new fortresses, and then continue to move towards the farther star field, and then continue to spread out the range that entities and projections can reach, and finally form an actual control area that is not ready to be capped even if it spans hundreds of light years.

It can be seen that Fang's previous statement of "we are just scared by time" has successfully influenced the decision-making of the headquarters, and it is actually planned to use such a long distance as a planned exploitable area at a time when it can only reach a maximum of 0.7 times the speed of light.

Fortunately, the Republic's Void Corridor technology is solid enough, which not only allows the headquarters to be effectively and easily transmitted, but also supports the projection body to communicate between all parties without hindrance;

Fortunately, the life expectancy of citizens is long enough not to forget their origins due to multiplication in the span of thousands of years;

Otherwise, in this situation where it takes hundreds of thousands of years to go back and forth, if the faster-than-light navigation technology cannot be broken through as soon as possible, the entire system is likely to fall apart.

Of course, it's possible to achieve a faster-than-light breakthrough halfway through, but that's another story.

At least as far as speculation stands, the alien immigrants who will settle in the Far Star Domain will not be able to maintain their unity with the home planet sect headquarters.

~~~~~

Let's go back to the present.

Even in the interior of each astral fortress built for the voyage, there are a large number of cryo-dormant pods, enough for the elven crew to spend the entire long journey unknowingly;

But in fact, few cryophoric chambers have actually been activated in this process, and even the one that is going to the black hole has not yet considered going into a dormant state to survive this long distance.

As for whether they will feel bored and lonely because of this, at least for now, there seems to be no sign of this, and the various fortresses are still very lively and even busy.

At this time, there are a large number of elves who are still in the three-star moon system, but the work is in the starry sky fortress in the distance, and several exploration ships are naturally one of the main providers of the post, just like the rest of the large and small quasar fortresses that are performing tasks in various places inside and outside the parent star system.

And for the physical crew inside the exploration ship, this trip to the stars is actually not closed, because it is common to use the projection to visit friends or have fun on the home planet while on vacation.

(End of chapter)