Humanity is missing, luckily I have billions of clones.

Chapter 375 Numerous Breakthroughs
This collision lasted for a full 15 years. Amidst the light of approximately 3.3 million black holes annihilating, Li Qingsong gradually glimpsed the truth of the universe, hidden behind the macroscopic background and extremely subtle yet revealing its reality.

He gradually realized that what caused the graviton to transform from virtual to real was not the environment created by the annihilation of the black hole, but rather the extremely high energy level of this environment, which created a situation similar to that of a fraction of a second after the Big Bang.

At that time, symmetry breaking had not yet occurred. The four fundamental forces, including gravity, were still unified.

Then, symmetry breaking occurs, and gravity separates out first, becoming an independent force.

And it is only in that extremely short process after they are separated that the graviton acquires the characteristics of a real particle and becomes observable.

After that, the graviton became completely invisible, transforming into a special particle that exists between existence and non-existence, and could no longer be observed, only detected indirectly through its effects.

The frequent experiments on the generation of miniature black holes continued. With one black hole after another being born and instantly annihilated, with the continuous generation of massive amounts of data, and with Li Qingsong's continuous observation of the unification of the four fundamental forces, one day, Li Qingsong finally breathed a long sigh of relief.

"I see..."

At this moment, the last piece of the puzzle in Li Qingsong's unified framework of the four fundamental forces was finally completed.

At this moment, Li Qingsong finally understood the essence of gravity completely, and through the existing physical language, he was able to describe gravity completely and thoroughly, and unify it with the original three fundamental forces.

At this moment, Li Qingsong knew that his technological level had finally broken through the limitations of the strong core and entered a completely new stage and a completely new field.

Although he has not yet made any breakthroughs in applied physics and cannot create anything beyond the strong core stage for the time being, Li Qingsong is equally clear and certain that he has now truly entered the stage of gravitational civilization!
Gravity civilization...

At this moment, Li Qingsong's gaze as he looked up at the vast space became slightly unfocused.

He seemed to see that the invisible chains that had always bound him had loosened slightly at this moment.

What is the greatest limitation in this universe?
For every electromagnetic, electroweak, and strong nuclear civilization, the answer would likely be the same.

Light speed!
The speed of light, approximately 300,000 kilometers per second, is the greatest limitation in the universe.

If the speed of light cannot be surpassed, then the maximum travel speed of any civilization will inevitably be below that speed. Since distances in the universe are often tens of thousands of light-years, and considering the necessary stopover periods, each long-distance interstellar journey would require tens of thousands of years.

This is unacceptable to any civilization.

Because of the speed of light limitation, civilizations can only limit their development to a relatively small area, such as a star system.

Even two neighboring star systems cannot develop in harmony.

The reason is simple: long-range communication cannot cover distances of light-years. Even if the distance is only four light-years, considering the time required for acceleration and deceleration, it would take a spaceship at least ten years to make a round trip.

How can two star systems with a ten-year communication gap develop in tandem?

Not to mention that due to the speed of light limitation, information from the depths of distant space often takes many years to be detected, resulting in severe communication delays, and so on.

The speed of light limit is like a cage, firmly confining all civilizations below the gravity level.

Perhaps for this reason, both the original Red Star Alliance and the Perseus Alliance, which had never been contacted before, regarded breaking through the strong core and advancing to gravity as the threshold for joining the alliance.

How can we prove the superiority of our civilization without breaking through to the gravitational stage?

Even at the peak of the powerful core, it is still just a low-level civilization in this Milky Way!

Only by breaking through to the gravity stage can a civilization be considered to have a certain value and a certain voice in this Milky Way galaxy, and can it be called a true intermediate or advanced civilization!

Now, Li Qingsong knows that he has truly stepped into this stage!

When the final research results were published, all twenty-one races of human civilization were plunged into jubilation.

Even the electromagnetic life forms, which do not belong to orthodox intelligent civilizations, were filled with excitement at this moment.

While this won't necessarily make us stronger than before, at least, as human civilization becomes more powerful, we will be better protected and safer, and our living environment will become more superior as human civilization's technology advances.

On the night of the crucial breakthrough in fundamental physics theory, Haimerlan, for the first time ever, put aside his work and got drunk with Vasilolo and others.

Drinking the unique beverage of the Weyl people, which has a certain anesthetic and stimulant properties, and with his eyes blurred with intoxication, Haimeran burst into tears: "The wish that I could not fulfill in the original Weyl civilization has finally come true at this moment!"

Vasilolo felt a pang of sympathy.

Why did Haimerlan take such a risk and brazenly attack human civilization?
Isn't the hope that they can use this as a bargaining chip to obtain technological data from the Recorder civilization, thereby enabling the Havele civilization to advance into a gravity civilization?
Although the Havel civilization no longer exists and has transformed into the Weyl race, integrated into human civilization, firstly, human civilization is benevolent. Secondly, as the deputy leader, I am not only the supreme leader of the Weyl race, but also the supreme leader of all other races.

In essence, is this event really that different from the Havele civilization's advancement to a gravity civilization?
Moreover, this was not achieved by acquiring technological information from outside sources, but rather by relying on at least 98% of its own efforts.

It could even be said that the current situation is better than the best-case scenario one had hoped for.

Since that's the case... I have no regrets in this life.

The wish has been fulfilled; if further progress can be made and a higher stage reached in the future, then it will all be a bonus. In that case, let's continue following in the leader's footsteps and see how far we can go, and where we can reach...

……

Time slips away quietly.

The fundamental physics theory that unifies the electroweak and strong nuclei is called the Grand Unified Theory. At this point, gravity is also unified, and all four fundamental forces are unified within the same framework. A theory that is described in the same physical language and is self-consistent with each other is called the "Theory of Everything".

Li Qingsong's scientific research did not stop with the mastery of the theory of universality.

At this moment, he only has a skeleton, not yet fleshed out, nor filled with more theoretical details. There are also few secondary theories based on the theory of universality.

Secondary theories, and even third- and fourth-level theories, are closer to the application level and are the fundamental elements that can truly be transformed into combat power and productivity.

Li Qingsong's massive fleet remains in this star system. His billions of clones and the intelligent life scientists, whose total number has exceeded one billion, continue to conduct in-depth and detailed research in every field, striving to pave the way for the practical application of physical theories.

More than 50 years have passed in the blink of an eye. On this day, the first major applied research based on the theory of universality achieved a breakthrough.

About one light-year from the star, in the vast void where there are no macroscopic celestial bodies in the vicinity, under the gaze of hundreds of large industrial spaceships, scientific research spaceships, residential spaceships, space carriers, and tens of millions of clones and scientists, a strange-looking object, spindle-shaped with messy cables and bumps all over its surface, about 100 meters long, floats silently in space.

"The first warp drive test is now beginning. Countdown, three, two, one, launch!"

Powered by the abundant energy from the fusion reactor inside, one piece of equipment after another began to operate. The gravity control device, developed by Li Qingsong and his scientists, rather than originating from the Purple Moon civilization, precisely adjusted the gravitational environment around the device, using gravity as a tool to adjust the curvature of the surrounding space little by little, according to the previous precise calculations.

When the curvature reading of the surrounding space finally met the requirements, a strange phenomenon occurred.

Like ripples on water, this space seemed to be instantly shrouded in a layer of mist.

The water calmed, the mist dissipated, and the spindle-shaped device vanished without a trace.

One millisecond later, its traces appeared 400 kilometers away.

It was as if it had teleported instantly.

It reappeared 400 kilometers away, seemingly having been attacked, with numerous signs of damage.

The various pipes and cables on it appeared to have broken due to the high temperature, with many places being directly burned and softened, and electric sparks constantly emerging.

Black smoke billowed from the damaged area of ​​the outer shell, and the gas leak caused a raging fire to erupt inside.

The next moment, it exploded with a bang and disappeared completely with a burst of bright light.

Faced with this tragic scene, the scientists staying on the research vessel and living quarters were not discouraged at all, but rather full of excitement.

Some people couldn't contain themselves and started cheering.

Even Li Qingsong showed a slight smile.

Was the warp drive prototype completely destroyed?
It's ok.

This at least proves that our approach is correct.

Because it has truly undergone a faster-than-light journey.

Even though the voyage was extremely short, the distance was extremely short, and the ship was completely destroyed after the voyage, one fact remains undeniable.

It took it 1 millisecond to travel 400 kilometers without any conventional propulsion! Its travel speed reached approximately 1.3 times the speed of light!
Faster-than-light warp drive was finally truly before Li Qingsong. "Having grasped the basic engineering paradigm, all that's left is continuous optimization and improvement. In the near future, I too will possess a fleet capable of faster-than-light travel..."

Unfortunately, the curvature of space near massive stars is too high and the patterns are too complex to conduct faster-than-light travel experiments, so we have to go to a place a full light-year away.

Even if I eventually have a faster-than-light fleet, I will still need to get away from massive celestial bodies like stars before I can enter warp drive mode.

However, judging from the Yunluo fleet's experience of faster-than-light travel, this seems to be a problem that every civilization capable of faster-than-light travel faces, not just myself, so it's not entirely unacceptable.

After the breakthrough in warp drive technology, Li Qingsong was surprised to find that the second major breakthrough was in biotechnology.

With breakthroughs in fundamental physics, Li Qingsong has gained access to more advanced tools and more fundamental, in-depth guiding theories across various research fields. This has enabled him to gain a more thorough understanding of how organisms function at the level of elementary particles, and on this basis, he has achieved a breakthrough in biotechnology.

The magnitude of this breakthrough even shocked Li Qingsong.

He originally thought that at most, the number of clones would only increase by a few billion more on top of the existing 100 billion clones—after all, the larger the base, the more difficult it is to increase.

At most, he could double his power to control 200 billion clones simultaneously; that was the best-case scenario Li Qingsong could imagine.

But to his surprise, the maximum number of consciousness connections of this latest batch of clones increased tenfold!
The number of clones skyrocketed from 1000 billion to 100 billion!
This caught Li Qingsong off guard. After all, he hadn't anticipated this situation and hadn't stockpiled enough clones beforehand.

Thousands of years later, Li Qingsong once again faced this happy dilemma: he had plenty of available consciousness links, but not enough clones to take them over.

With no other option, Li Qingsong had to allocate a portion of his engineering resources specifically to the construction of the clone factory, which took several years to fill in the vacant connection slots.

Looking at the clones with their healthy bronze skin and strong, powerful bodies, Li Qingsong knew that although their physical strength was no different from that of normal people during the period of weak electricity, they had improved far more deeply.

These clones are virtually immune to illness. Even if injured, their self-healing abilities allow them to fully recover in a short period of time.

Even if it loses a hand or foot, it can regenerate thanks to its powerful self-healing ability.

Their optimized genetic design has given them the ability to repair their bodies from the smallest details. Barring unforeseen circumstances, their average lifespan is over 100,000 years.

The brain's various functions have also improved significantly compared to the past. During the period of weak electrical activity, problems that only top scientific researchers could painstakingly study and understand are now at an elementary school level for any clone, and they can easily provide answers.

If these clones were tested using the same IQ test questions from back then, each clone would probably score over 170!

At this moment, there are a total of 1000 billion such brains, all of which are completely under Li Qingsong's control, without any internal friction or communication costs.

Breakthroughs in biotechnology instantly boosted Li Qingsong's research capabilities by more than tenfold, and accelerated the progress of his research on the practical application of the theory of universality by several dozen times.

Soon, a third major breakthrough occurred.

Energy technology!

In the previous stage of strong nuclear fusion, Li Qingsong was already able to adopt a multi-fusion mode to increase the matter conversion efficiency to about 1%.

That is, in one kilogram of fusion fuel, about 10 grams of matter can be completely converted into energy.

This energy conversion efficiency is already astonishing enough to support a massive fleet on a voyage spanning hundreds or even thousands of light-years. But now, based on a breakthrough in gravitational theory, Li Qingsong has found another path with even higher mass-energy conversion efficiency.

Heavy nuclear fusion!

Generally speaking, the heavier an element is, the higher the temperature and pressure required to make it undergo nuclear fusion.

For example, among the five lightest elements—hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, and boron—the temperature and pressure required for boron fusion are higher than those for beryllium.

In the previous stage, Li Qingsong could only provide the environment required for protium fusion. But now, with the advancement of technology, the intervention of gravity technology allows Li Qingsong to create an environment with even higher temperatures and pressures, thus making the fusion of elements after hydrogen and helium possible.

In particular, the fusion of hydrogen and helium produces heavier elements. Li Qingsong then came up with this idea: First, I would fuse hydrogen and helium to produce the remaining heavier elements, then repeatedly use them to initiate fusion. By repeating this process, wouldn't I be able to achieve a higher mass-energy conversion efficiency?

Based on this idea, Li Qingsong launched a large-scale experiment. Ultimately, Li Qingsong determined the limits of his current technology.

At most, it can create an environment sufficient for magnesium, the 12th element, to undergo fusion. After magnesium, fusion of elements such as aluminum, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur, and chlorine is not feasible for the time being.

Therefore, Li Qingsong designed a fusion chain that starts with hydrogen, fuses hydrogen into helium, then helium into carbon, carbon into oxygen, oxygen into neon, and finally into magnesium, continuously carrying out five-fold fusion. He also uses gravity technology to actively intervene in the fusion process, fusion efficiency, and fusion products to maximize energy output.

After a series of experiments, Li Qingsong was delighted to see that the current relatively rudimentary multi-core fusion link had improved the mass-energy conversion efficiency to about 1.9%, which is more than 90% higher than that of protium fusion in the strong core stage!

And this is merely the initial stage of multinuclear fusion. With continued technological advancements and equipment optimization, theoretically, the mass-to-energy conversion efficiency of this device could even reach 4%!

For every kilogram of fuel, 40 grams of matter will be completely converted into energy, which is three times higher than the peak stage of strong nuclear power!
"No wonder warp drive is so energy-intensive, yet gravitational civilizations can use it to travel thousands of light-years continuously; it turns out they have a more efficient energy supply..."

After breakthroughs were achieved in energy technology, breakthroughs in other areas of technology also emerged in rapid succession.

The next breakthrough will be in computing technology.

With gravity-related technologies, Li Qingsong can more easily influence quantum states in superposition, significantly improving their stability, manipulating them, and expanding their quantum capacity.

This resulted in a more than tenfold increase in its computing performance.

Computing technology has achieved a major breakthrough, and the next breakthrough will be in quantum mathematics. The development of quantum mathematics is directly related to long-distance communication, so Li Qingsong's long-distance communication technology has also seen a significant improvement.

In the previous stage of the strong core, Li Qingsong's ultra-long-distance communication could only transmit to a distance of about 3000 billion kilometers.

Beyond this distance, long-distance communication will fail.

Li Qingsong had long anticipated that his long-distance communication range would increase significantly after entering the gravitational civilization stage, but he did not know exactly how much it would increase.

He also made some guesses about this, concluding that it could improve by about 10 times? 20 times?
It can't be 30 times, can it?

If the distance were increased 30 times, it would reach 9 trillion kilometers, which is close to 1 light-year.

Imagine a scenario where a star is at its core, and the entire area within a 1-light-year radius is covered by long-distance communication, allowing for instant communication between any two points. You can control any technological creation in any location in real time.
Li Qingsong thought about it and ultimately felt it was a bit unrealistic.

"I estimate the improvement will be between 10 and 20 times."

He thought to himself, "That's between 3 and 6 trillion kilometers. That's pretty good."

But the final result shocked Li Qingsong once again.

It's just a basic gravitational-stage long-distance communication device. At this moment, the distance between the two system terminals has extended to 15 trillion kilometers, yet they are still maintaining real-time communication!

Moreover, the communication is stable and the error rate is extremely low, indicating that there is still huge potential to be tapped.

Suppressing the slight joy in his heart, Li Qingsong maneuvered the two communication ships to continue moving away, and the distance between them continued to increase.

20 trillion kilometers, 21 trillion, 22 trillion...

This distance continued to expand to 28.96 trillion before the error rate suddenly exceeded the limit, rendering long-distance communication unusable.

So... the communication distance limit of this rudimentary, still experimental, long-range communication device is about 3 light-years!

Compared to the previous strong core stage, the improvement is not 10 or 20 times, but a full 100 times!
Li Qingsong felt an indescribable joy.

For Li Qingsong, the difference between ultra-long-distance communication distance of 3 billion kilometers, 3 trillion kilometers, or even 10 trillion kilometers is not significant.

The reason is simple: the distance between two stars is often several light-years, while the vast majority of usable stars in a star system are concentrated within 100 billion kilometers of the star's periphery.

Beyond this distance, whether it's 3 trillion or 10 trillion kilometers, it's all empty space with no practical value.

However, the situation is different when the distance for long-distance communication exceeds approximately 30 trillion kilometers.

This means that long-distance communication can now extend directly from one star system to another.

There aren't many stars that are only 1 light-year apart, and not many that are 2 light-years apart either. But there are a great many stars that are within 3 light-years apart.

This means that from this moment on, Li Qingsong can no longer develop just one star system at the same time, but can develop two or even more star systems simultaneously!
With faster-than-light travel technology, travel time between different star systems has been greatly reduced, making it possible to transport resources between star systems on a large scale.

With these conditions, Li Qingsong's industrial strength will surge again!

(End of this chapter)