Chapter 148: The 90s Era

Seeing Lorna agree, Xiao Yu smiled and asked, “Tell me, what stage have you all reached in your studies?”

At his question, Lorna responded a bit dejectedly, “Among our Arrow Beast race, only our strongest warrior had mastered controlled nuclear fusion technology. He discovered how to evolve a fusion engine within himself and taught that method to us. But… he died in battle. So we only know how to evolve a fusion engine. We have no knowledge of the related scientific theories or technologies. We’ve basically only reached the level of the three laws of motion. Beyond that, we know nothing.”

“Mm, that’s fine. There’s plenty of time—I’ll teach you step by step. By the way, where’s the spaceship that crashed on your planet? I need to study it a bit.”

Xiao Yu knew that the Arrow Beast race had only managed to evolve to the point of interstellar travel thanks to that spacecraft which had crashed on their planet. From it, they had acquired relevant technological insights.

Of course, even without that technology, the Alien Beast races could, over countless years, slowly deduce scientific knowledge from natural phenomena. However, this approach was several times slower than simply plundering technology.

Since that ship had achieved interstellar flight, it must have at least mastered nuclear fusion. It was also highly likely that it contained knowledge of Level 4 Civilization technologies, something Xiao Yu would not let slip through his fingers.

Lorna shook her head regretfully. “I don’t know. That spaceship was properly preserved for a long time, but after the Swarm invaded, we lost track of it. All we know is that it’s still on our planet somewhere, but its exact location is unknown.”

Xiao Yu nodded. “Leave it to me. All right, go play for now. Same time tomorrow—we begin your first lesson.”

“Okay!” Lorna nodded vigorously.

Now that the Swarm threat had been eliminated—and wouldn’t return for some time—Xiao Yu finally felt he could relax a little.

“I also need to speed up technological development,” he thought. “First, let’s assemble the large particle collider.”

Back in the Aquila One system, Xiao Yu had disassembled the large particle collider he’d built there and transported it in pieces aboard a starship. This saved him considerable effort—he wouldn’t need to rebuild it from scratch, just reassemble and calibrate.

Of course, since Aquila One and Aquila Three had different masses, the orbital paths required for the collider were also different. Xiao Yu still had to make some adjustments to the collider, but these were just minor details that he could complete quickly.

“There’s still so much to do… First, establish signal coverage over the entire Aquila Three system. Then build all necessary defenses in case the Swarm returns. Next, prioritize the construction of new spacecraft, develop computer technology, and begin working on restoring the Luka bodies… sigh, there’s just too much.”

Xiao Yu sighed and threw himself into a flurry of work.

During the Swarm extermination campaign on Planet One, Xiao Yu had already felt the massive pressure on his computing systems. His current computers were based on quaternary and photon computation—already orders of magnitude more powerful than Earth-based systems—yet still insufficient.

The Swarm campaign had involved three hundred million combat robots. Each robot had more than 500 sensors. Across all terrain types, Xiao Yu had deployed over ten trillion surveillance devices to collect data. There were also tens of thousands of factories on two moons, over two billion construction and repair robots, and countless ongoing research projects—altogether, the required computing power was astronomical.

Moreover, Xiao Yu already had a vague plan forming in his mind for dealing with the Swarm Queen. Executing that plan would demand even more computing power than anything before. What he had now was far from enough.

Every time he expanded his fleet, it was always computing power that hit the bottleneck first.

With so much on his plate, Xiao Yu’s schedule was packed.

The first task: assembling the large particle collider. No matter what, technological advancement had to come first. Whether or not he could break through current theoretical limitations and master the Grand Unified Theory would depend entirely on this collider.

Even in the midst of all this construction and work, Xiao Yu allocated a portion of his computing power to project a virtual image at the Arrow Beast gathering point on Planet One, where he began teaching them science. At the same time, he organized massive search teams to scour the planet for the crashed spaceship.

According to the Arrow Beasts’ description, the ship had vanished near a mountain range that had recently experienced a volcanic eruption. Xiao Yu theorized that the ship might have been swept away by lava or buried underground. He initiated a focused search in that area.

There was also a possibility that the Swarm had taken the ship. But based on what the Arrow Beasts said, they were certain the Swarm hadn’t removed it from the planet—just possibly hidden it somewhere else.

On Planet One, at the Arrow Beast gathering point, over ten thousand young and elderly Arrow Beasts sat quietly in a wide plaza, listening to Xiao Yu’s projected form give an introductory science lecture.

“Today, we’ll be talking about relativity and quantum theory,” Xiao Yu’s voice boomed over the plaza. “We’ll start with an overview of what they are and their significance. This will give you a general understanding of both theories. I’ll explain the formulas in detail in future lessons.”

“The most important takeaway from relativity is the mass-energy equivalence formula: E=mc². Don’t underestimate this—nuclear fission, nuclear fusion, and the energy of stars are all based on this principle. As for quantum theory, its most tangible application is superluminal communication, which we’ve already mastered. This is based on quantum entanglement.”

“Brother Xiao, I have a question.” Lorna raised her hand from the front row.

Xiao Yu smiled. “Go ahead.”

“Well, if we took a piece of material from a white dwarf or a neutron star—what would it be like? Would it maintain its original density?” Lorna asked.

“Interesting question…” Xiao Yu paused thoughtfully. “Most white dwarfs are made of carbon and helium, while neutron stars are made of… well, neutrons. What do you all think would happen if you removed a chunk of that material? Let’s hear some guesses.”

“It would keep its original state,” one Arrow Beast guessed.

“No way! I think it would explode,” another countered.

A lively debate erupted among the Arrow Beasts in the plaza. Xiao Yu simply watched and didn’t intervene.

Ten minutes later, Xiao Yu clapped his hands to quiet the crowd and said, “Currently, I don’t have the means to actually go and extract a piece of a white dwarf or neutron star, so all I can offer is my speculation.”

“First, the incredibly high density of white dwarfs and neutron stars is maintained by their own powerful gravity. Once you remove a piece from their bodies, that gravitational constraint is gone. The material will expand—instantly—to normal density. One of you already guessed this—good job.”

“As for what they become… that’s simple. White dwarfs are mostly composed of pure helium and carbon atoms. After expansion, they’ll form molecules and become standard elemental helium and carbon. Neutron stars are different. They no longer have intact atomic nuclei, so regardless of their original elements, once their material is removed and expands, it will turn into one thing—hydrogen gas.”

“Wow…” Lorna’s eyes sparkled with amazement. “So even if I threw a handful of dirt onto a neutron star, then retrieved it later—it would be hydrogen?”

“Exactly,” Xiao Yu nodded.

“That’s incredible,” the Arrow Beasts murmured in awe.

“All right, let’s continue with the lesson…” Surrounded by eager students, Xiao Yu resumed his teaching.

At that moment, Xiao Yu finally received a report from the search team looking for the crashed spaceship.

A team of scouting robots had discovered a damaged ship in a valley. The vessel was about a few dozen meters long and seven to eight meters tall. According to Xiao Yu’s classification system, this would be a Town-Class ship.

After inspection, Xiao Yu confirmed it was definitely not one of his own.

The ship lay there silently, long buried under weeds, soil, and rocks. Under Xiao Yu’s command, a team of robots slowly approached and cleared away the debris.

As the hull emerged from under the rubble, four large characters became visible.

They needed no translation. Xiao Yu instantly understood.

Because they were written in Chinese.

“The 90s Era.”