Humanity is missing, luckily I have billions of clones.

Chapter 377 Warp Space
In the vast expanse of space, on the edge of a lonely dwarf planet with a diameter of about 800 kilometers, numerous large spaceships begin to converge.

Under Li Qingsong's control, one after another, pipe-shaped devices, each equipped with numerous nuclear fusion power plants, control equipment, and acceleration devices, gradually appeared.

They are like giant dragons, stretching their bodies freely in space, each one thousands of kilometers long.

In addition, Li Qingsong also laid out a large number of other devices, some of which looked like a space fortress, some like an interstellar missile, some like a spaceship, and so on, all kinds of different things.

This is the newly upgraded strategic weapon that Li Qingsong acquired after advancing to the gravity stage: the Universal Force Field!

Those dragon-like pipes are the accelerators Li Qingsong uses to accelerate helium nuclei. These helium nuclei, possessing extremely high speeds, collide with other objects and, based on their immense energy, instantly create the most extreme celestial bodies in the universe: black holes!
From this perspective, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call these accelerators "black hole factories."

The remaining equipment consisted of the standard devices used to unify the force field. Of course, with the current level of technology reaching the gravity stage, their performance had also been greatly improved.

In front of these devices, on the dwarf planet that was the target of this weapons test, large-scale industrial construction was also underway.

Li Qingsong built power plants and energy shield generators on this planet. Once completed and activated, the planet seemed to transform in an instant.

The entire planet, with a total surface area of ​​over 200 million square kilometers, is covered by a pale yellow energy shield.

Under the glow of this energy shield, the entire surface of the planet was illuminated by a shimmering light. From space, the planet appeared even more sacred.

This is an ultra-strong energy shield constructed using advanced technology from a gravity civilization, employing a powerful core stage technique! It also incorporates variable energy shield technology originating from the Havel civilization, which can unleash three times the protective power of the normal state in a short period of time.

If we ignore the gravitational factor, Li Qingsong is confident that this energy shield could play a significant role even in the battlefields of gravity-based civilizations.

In fact, outside of the gravity protection device, the shield currently used by Li Qingsong's warship is of this type. And because one is equipped on a spaceship and the other is equipped on a planet with an almost unlimited energy source, the shield equipped on Li Qingsong's warship is actually less effective than theirs.

With everything prepared, Li Qingsong gave the order with some anticipation.

"Universal Force Field, activate!"

Because the target of this experiment is a planet that can be considered stationary, rather than a fleet that is constantly in chaotic motion, the activation of the Universal Force Field does not require Li Qingsong to provide additional biological intelligence, that is, it does not require the clones to sacrifice their lives; only multiple supercomputers are needed.

The instant Li Qingsong gave the order, the Primordial AI, relying on more than 1000 supercomputers, calculated in an instant the responsibilities that each Universal Force Field component needed to undertake and the cooperation mode between them.

The first to be activated were the particle accelerators. These accelerators, resembling giant dragons, immediately received the surging energy from the multi-nuclear fusion power plant and began to brew within themselves a power capable of destroying the world.

When the energy reached its peak, like a dragon spewing flames, countless helium cores with extremely high energy and speeds approaching the speed of light suddenly spewed out from the outlet and flew fiercely toward the dwarf planet shrouded in a glowing yellow light.

In order to maximize the acceleration effect of these particle accelerators and to give the helium nuclei the highest possible energy, Li Qingsong adopted the same approach as with the previous unified force field components when designing these accelerators.

They were designed with the idea of ​​single use, and when actually used, they were overloaded directly, giving the helium nuclei higher speed and energy at the cost of self-destruction!
The moment after those helium nuclei were launched, the particle accelerator, which had consumed a great deal of Li Qingsong's energy and resources, exploded and disappeared into dust.

Once the helium nuclei have finished accelerating, the conventional unified force field components are activated, generating countless X and Y particles carrying the unified force.

Two different particles, or radiation, collided with the energy shield one after the other in a very short interval.

The next moment, Li Qingsong saw that the energy shield suddenly brighten, its protective power suddenly increased, and it forcefully blocked those helium cores with super energy.

But that's okay, this energy shield can also be used as a target for helium nucleus collisions.

The next moment, a massive number of miniature black holes were created and then annihilated. At that energy level, comparable to the early stages of the Big Bang, the energy shield, though not collapsed, instantly became riddled with holes, like a broken net.

The subsequent helium nuclei rushed in like a tidal wave, directly impacting the planet's surface, creating a miniature black hole, and temporarily reducing the binding energy of the microscopic particles.

A sumptuous meal has been prepared, and we are just waiting for the arrival of the X and Y particles to begin this feast.

The next moment, the particles arrived as promised, releasing the energy contained within them with greater ease than ever before, and a series of explosions ensued.

Li Qingsong saw that at this moment, the dwarf planet seemed to have transformed into a sun.

On the side that was attacked, boundless light and heat were released. A cloud of dust suddenly broke free from the planet's gravitational pull and was released into space like a fountain. The entire planet was shaking violently. Because of the intensity of the shaking, even the factories and energy shield generators laid out on the back of the planet were directly destroyed. The yellowish light that enveloped the planet disappeared instantly.

After a long while, the light from the explosion slowly faded away.

Li Qingsong clearly saw that on the side that was attacked, the dwarf planet had been blasted into a crater with a diameter of over a thousand kilometers and a depth of over a hundred kilometers.

All the material inside the crater has been vaporized and entered space as dust.

This single attack reduced the overall mass of the dwarf planet by more than 10%!

Seeing this, Li Qingsong nodded in satisfaction.

The use of a universal force field as an offensive method has a natural disadvantage when facing massive targets like planets. The reason is simple: they are too thick. Both universal particles and unified force quanta are blocked by the thick rock layers and cannot affect their interior.

But this disadvantage was acceptable to Li Qingsong. The reason was simple: the true targets of the universal force field, those warships, could not possibly possess such a thick layer of force.

At most, they'd be ten kilometers thick. Besides, destroying a warship wouldn't require going that deep.

If its hull can be destroyed, a warship can be considered rendered useless.

"Even a planet would suffer such heavy losses under the attack of the Universal Force Field. How much damage would the Universal Force Field inflict on warships with extremely low mass and weak defenses?"
Thinking about it, I'm really looking forward to it...

Li Qingsong sighed with satisfaction, withdrawing his gaze from this direction. At this moment, the goal of advancing to a gravitational civilization had been achieved. The initial assimilation and utilization of the theory of universal law, as well as the transformation of combat power and productivity, were also complete.

What I need to do next is to continue my research and make progress step by step, just like before. It's no longer possible to achieve rapid progress in a short period of time like we have now.

The rapid progress we made previously was due to the significant breakthroughs in fundamental theories. However, future development will inevitably be a long and arduous process, and we cannot rush it.

In addition, the warship fleet, industrial and residential fleet, and scientific research fleet have also completed a comprehensive upgrade and replacement.

So... it's time to leave here and embark on our first-ever large-scale faster-than-light journey to catch up with the spaceship launched into space by the Purple Moon Civilization, carrying our fellow humans.

One spaceship after another converged on the main fleet, their endless light gathering together, like a sea of ​​stars.

Giant space carriers capable of carrying hundreds of millions of tons of supplies, giant motherships capable of carrying tens of millions of people, industrial ships capable of supporting an entire segmented industrial chain, research ships capable of conducting large-scale scientific experiments, and, most importantly for Li Qingsong, 200 Jupiter-class warships, as well as millions of Mars, Earth, Venus, and Mercury-class warships, and hundreds of millions of small unmanned warships...

Even without counting unmanned warships, this fleet has a total of over 500 million ships!

Even though the scale was already so large, Li Qingsong still felt a little regretful.

"It's a pity that we can't bring the flying stars on this voyage."

The mass of the flying star is too large to allow for faster-than-light warp drive, so it cannot be carried.

Li Qingsong had no choice but to load the supplies needed for this long voyage into the space carrier.

"Fortunately, my industrial strength is strong enough to build a super-giant space carrier that can carry 100 billion tons of materials on a single ship, and I can build 1 of them. Including heavy transport ships, I carried about 200 trillion tons of materials on this voyage, which is basically equivalent to a small flying star."

Furthermore, since gravitational civilizations have a higher efficiency in utilizing resources, while they might not be able to conduct large-scale fundamental physics research during their voyages, conducting applied physics research in specific subfields shouldn't be a problem, and technological development shouldn't be significantly affected.

Comforting himself with this thought, Li Qingsong once again issued the order to erase all traces.

One after another, high-yield hydrogen bombs exploded on different planets, erasing all traces of themselves left in the galaxy over the years.

The continuous bursts of fire seemed to be bidding farewell to Li Qingsong's massive fleet.

Countless engines simultaneously spewed powerful flames backward, propelling every ship in the fleet forward at an acceleration of up to 4.6 meters per second squared.

Upon reaching the gravity phase, the high-speed ion thruster achieves higher propellant utilization efficiency and energy efficiency, saving over 70% of energy and resources for the same propulsion power compared to the previous strong-core phase. Furthermore, with gravity technology, Li Qingsong can also completely shield the overload caused by acceleration, ensuring that the spacecraft's interior remains unaffected regardless of the acceleration speed.

Inside the giant habitation spaceships, the vast, shimmering ocean remained calm, unaffected by the acceleration, let alone any tsunami-like events.

Time passed quietly, and in the blink of an eye, Li Qingsong's fleet accelerated to a speed of about 276,000 kilometers per second, traveling a distance of less than one light-year.

Entering faster-than-light travel at this distance would be too risky, given that we are still too close to the star.

At this speed, the effects of relativistic phenomena become quite severe, and further acceleration won't increase the speed much further. Li Qingsong simply entered inertial navigation mode and traveled for another month before finally increasing the distance to the star to more than 1 light-year.

"This star is a red dwarf, with a mass less than half that of the Sun, yet it is enough to severely affect the curvature of space within a 1-light-year radius, preventing me from entering a faster-than-light travel state."

If it were the Sun, or even larger white subgiant stars, blue giants, or extreme celestial bodies like neutron stars and black holes, faster-than-light travel would be impossible within several light-years, or even hundreds of light-years. That would be quite troublesome.

Fortunately, with advancements in technology and a more precise and in-depth understanding of spatial curvature, it is not impossible to shorten this distance in the future.

Li Qingsong glanced indifferently at the distant, now extremely dim star, and calmly issued a new command.

"Warp drive...start!"

In an instant, the space where this massive fleet was located rippled gently like water being hit by a stone, or as if a mist had appeared out of nowhere, making everything indistinct and unclear.

Once the waters calmed and the mist dissipated, the enormous fleet, with a total mass of trillions of tons, had vanished.

The clone containing Li Qingsong's original consciousness was still standing in front of the porthole, calmly gazing at the scenery outside.

The starry sky has vanished, and what now comes into view is a pure blackness.

Enveloped in endless darkness, millions of massive spaceships floated silently, motionless.

"So this is curvature space...?"

Li Qingsong couldn't help but sigh.

He knew that although his fleet appeared to be stationary at this moment, it was actually moving forward at 2.7 times the speed of light.

Moreover, the inertia from the fleet's previous acceleration had not disappeared. Once out of warp space, due to inertia, the fleet would still continue to move at the speed of 27.6 kilometers per second, the same as before entering warp space.

"My fellow humans, wait for me, I'm coming..."

……

(End of this chapter)