Those who face the wall, but are in the Nascent Soul stage.

Chapter 277 Mushrooms Have Grown in This Solar System (7k)

Crisis Era Year 205.

The Trisolaran fleet is 2.10 light-years from the solar system.

This is a special year, not only the first anniversary of the Great Ring entering the solar system, but also the year when the Antarctic hibernation base awakens all hibernators.

Luo Ji became the last Wallfacer to be awakened after Hines, and also the most bewildered Wallfacer in history.

However, the number of active Wallfacers did not increase as a result.

Because after the other Wallfacer threw the Great Ring into the solar system, he hurriedly went into seclusion. Before going into seclusion, he shouted nonsense like, "Unless humanity faces another extinction crisis, don't call me. This time, I must break through to the Nascent Soul stage."

The news of the Wallfacers' seclusion and their unfreezing is no longer the focus of human civilization; humanity's entire focus is now on the Big Circle.

This is a brand new world.

New social structures, new evolutionary history of species, new political and economic systems, new models of civilization, new history, new future, new... everything.

Today, the Great Ring equator is filled with blue flags representing Earth, and both Fleet International and the Earth United Government have stationed small numbers of troops in key areas of the Great Ring to assert humanity's 'ownership' of it.

For example, in the former capital region of the Devouring Empire, there was a garrison of 10,000 troops from the Earth United Government.

Of course, these small garrisons are only symbolic. What truly deters the Great Ring and warns the dinosaurs against rash actions are the 12 star-class warships and 360 planetary warships floating above the Great Ring's orbit.

These 372 warships were like 372 swords of Damocles, hanging over the brains of dinosaurs.

But at this moment, things are not peaceful on the ring.

War is breaking out in the Great Ring.

The warring parties were not dinosaurs and humans. In fact, even without the Wallfacers' intervention, humans could slowly wear down the Ring. Although the Ring possessed antimatter weapons, their delivery capabilities were severely limited. If humans were to use stellar-class warships to crash into the Ring a few more times at 20% the speed of light, the Ring would still completely collapse.

Antimatter weapons can be used to defend against attacks for a time, but not forever. Humanity can make countless mistakes, but the Devouring Empire will face the desperate situation of its Great Ring being pierced by warships if it is negligent even once.

Since humanity decided to use star-class warships in the ancient 'ramming' tactic, the solar system fleet, having annihilated all the devouring fleets, had already secured victory. Luo Qing's intervention merely accelerated this process.

This is why the Devouring Empire was completely convinced of the dinosaurs' defeat.

We're just not as skilled; human insects are simply too strong.

If human civilization remained in the early 21st century, then the Great Ring could easily devour the entire Earth and raise a portion of humanity as food... Unfortunately, this is just a distant dream.

As for the war currently raging on the Great Ring, the two sides are the dinosaur army versus the allied forces composed of the White Dwarf Starfish Clan and the Light Speaker Civilization.

The coalition is composed of a breeding civilization consisting of glowing puffies, white fish, balloon fish, and a bunch of random alien civilizations, which is resisting the coalition.

Among them, the Balloon Fish race and other low-level alien individuals were merely the atmosphere-building elements of this war; the true main fighting force was the Light Speaker civilization and the White Dwarf Fish civilization.

The fighting power and desire for revenge unleashed by these two great civilizations were extremely ferocious.

Both the White Dwarf Fish and the Light Speakers civilizations evolved from high-energy celestial bodies. The White Dwarf Fish, in particular, are creatures that evolved from white dwarfs.

Since being captured by the giant ring, the white dwarf starfish has been constantly starving, even though it has been consuming ordinary matter within the ring every moment.

As a result, the white dwarf starfish, a civilized species whose intelligence is no less than that of dolphins, has been turned into a fool who only knows how to hunt for food because of hunger. They are in a state of no intelligence and put all their remaining instincts into eating.

White dwarf starfish apply extremely high pressure during chewing, enough to break the atomic structure, causing the atomic nuclei to align tightly and free electrons to fill the gaps, compressing the substance into an electronically degenerate state, thus completing the process of consumption.

However, this feeding efficiency is only enough to keep the white dwarf fish from starving to death, as the density of ordinary matter is ultimately limited.

In order to get enough to eat, the whitefish population has been venturing deeper and deeper into the earth since escaping from the breeding area. Eventually, a lucky white dwarf fish discovered the white dwarf material that forms the skeleton of the large ring and had a big feast.

After gaining weight and returning to the white fish clan for a stroll, this fat white fish immediately aroused the clan's fervor.

Dude, how come you're so full?
This well-fed white fish even re-evolved its brain and became the leader of the white fish population.

Nearly 10 white fish, under the command of this fat white fish, swarmed into the ground and headed straight for the large ring skeleton.

The white dwarf skeleton is the main supporting structure of the Great Ring. Without this skeleton composed of white dwarf matter, the Great Ring would have disintegrated long ago when humans rammed it at full speed with stellar-class warships. The white dwarf skeleton is the core property of the Devouring Empire and is crucial to the stability of the Great Ring. Therefore, even after losing to humans, the dinosaurs had to resolutely defend these white dwarf skeletons.

We can't beat humans, but we can't beat you?
Thus, the white dwarf fish and the dinosaurs began the first phase of their war.

Despite their seemingly invincible whitefish population, the dinosaurs ultimately had ways to limit them.

The dinosaurs used energy generated by light nuclear fusion technology to build a metal mesh that ran through the inner rings. They then strengthened the metallic bonds of the mesh's constituent materials by applying a strong voltage, making it virtually indestructible at the molecular level. A small number of white dwarf starfish found it very difficult to break through this high-voltage metal mesh.

Moreover, the strong current on the metal mesh itself can damage the electron degeneracy structure on the skin surface of the white dwarf starfish, which is very dangerous for the whitefish population.

The white dwarf's structural framework was protected by the dinosaurs.

Seeing that it was no match for the dinosaur alone, the fat white fish immediately went to find reinforcements.

The Lightfish civilization also has a leader, the true controller of the Light Language Fungus Network—a mutated low-energy green mushroom.

Unlike other glowing bright yellow mushrooms, the green mushroom only emits a faint green light and can move freely in low-energy environments.

Fat White Fish and Green Mushroom began negotiations, and it was during this exchange that Fat White Fish learned that the Light Speaker civilization had already rebelled!
However, each side was opposing its own cause: the White Fish Clan was secretly opposing underground, while the Light Speaker Civilization was openly opposing above ground.

The White Dwarf Starfish Clan ultimately failed to establish a united front against the dragons with the Light Speakers civilization.

Because the clever green mushroom knew that the White Dwarf Starfish's insatiable gluttony would destabilize the large ring structure. Once the large ring disintegrated, all creatures living on its surface would die, including Puji.

The fat white fish left angrily. It had originally wanted to threaten this ally who had once fought side by side, but when it saw the pink and black puffs behind the green mushroom, and the ten thousand nuclear bomb mushrooms behind the black puff, it finally gave up.

Although the fat white fish left, the 'light language' emitted by the green mushroom still made the other glowing Puji nearby feel the abnormality, especially the pink Puji who was closest to the green mushroom. This pink Puji was also a low-energy subspecies mutated from the Light Speaker civilization, and could move freely in low-energy environments like the green mushroom.

Other glowing puffs can't do this.

The mushrooms, including the green mushroom, quickly communicated through flashing 'light language'. The pink puffy, the big black puffy, and the other glowing puffys all understood the mushroom master's worries.

Compared to the White Dwarf Fish, who could barely get enough to eat, the Light Speakers civilization was in a much worse state. Both civilizations were born in a high-energy cosmic environment, but the White Dwarf Fish could still survive by consuming ordinary substances, while these glowing mushrooms born from supernova ruins had nothing to eat.

Due to their unique internal structure, luminous puffballs require a high-energy radiation environment from the outside world to replenish their energy. They mainly survive and reproduce by absorbing high-energy photons and nuclear radiation.

Before the war between humans and dinosaurs broke out, the dinosaurs continuously supplied high-energy rays to maintain the continuation of the Light Speaker civilization.

After the Devouring Empire's defeat and demise, the Great Ring itself had exhausted its resource reserves and could only barely survive on the energy of the sun beyond 2.8 AU. It had no time to care about the fate of these glowing mushrooms.
Two years ago, during the war in which the Solar System Fleet used stellar hydrogen bombs to strike the Giant Ring, the Glowing Pugi took the opportunity to enjoy a few good days, and even used nuclear radiation to reproduce a lot of nuclear bomb mushrooms. However, the brief spring caused by the nuclear explosion was ultimately just a rootless duckweed.

Having lost the input of high-level energy, the Light Speaker civilization is facing imminent annihilation.

A year ago, in order to struggle for survival, Green Mushroom launched an invasion war against the dinosaurs long before Fat White Fish rebelled.

The Puji army emerged from District 6 and spread rampantly throughout the inner ring of the Great Ring, constantly attacking the remaining dinosaur city.

The dinosaurs, having reached their limit, used a large number of nuclear bombs to attack these wretched creatures.

Having tasted the benefits of nuclear weapons, the Puji were now quite pleased with themselves.

The green mushroom, well aware of the principles of sustainable development, periodically launches rebellions and attacks on dinosaurs. Its extremely high intelligence even prevents the Puji from attacking humans, who are considered neutral—the humans in this world are ridiculously powerful and impossible to mess with.

But Green Mushroom also knew that the number of nuclear bombs the dinosaurs had was limited, especially after the space war with humans. The dinosaurs' nuclear arsenal was almost completely depleted. Once the dinosaurs had used up all their nuclear bombs, the Light Speaker civilization living on the giant ring would still starve to death.

Unless... there is a force that can transport the glowing Puji to a place closer to the sun, preferably only 0.1 AU away, where solar radiation can barely sustain the Light Speaker civilization.

But who will transport it?
The Puji don't have their own technology and can't fly spaceships. Although the Green Mushroom can understand the principles of spaceships, it doesn't have arms or legs.

Currently, the Light Speaker civilization still has about 10,000 nuclear bomb Puji stored up. Once the dinosaurs run out of nuclear arsenal, the Light Speaker Puji will only be able to barely survive by relying on the nuclear bomb Puji to self-destruct one after another.

This anti-mushroom crime of eating Puji meat and drinking Puji blood to perpetuate the race is absolutely not allowed by the Green Mushroom!
Since that's the case, they have no choice but to seek outside help. Green Mushrooms still remember what that glowing little man (Shanqing) promised them.

As early as New Year's Day of Crisis Era 204, when the Great Ring had just entered orbit in the solar system and before any humans had landed on it, the far-sighted Green Mushroom began its backup plan.

Under its command, approximately one million glowing Puji gathered on the Anvil Plain, and after the Great Ring rotated to the appropriate angle, they glowed uniformly in the direction of Earth.

The emission frequency is a typical binary emission, a method learned from Shan Qing. The 'language of light' emitted by the Light Speaker civilization was quickly received and analyzed by the Earth United Government and Fleet International.

Humans were initially shocked when they learned that a second intelligent life form, besides dinosaurs, lived in the Great Ring. They were even more shocked when they learned that the Light Speakers were an alien civilization that had been imprisoned and raised by the dinosaurs.

Fleet International and Earth International (United Government) successively dispatched landing ships. As one human spaceship after another landed in the inner ring, under the bewildered gaze of a large number of herbivorous dinosaurs, countless geologists, paleontologists, and extraterrestrial life research experts excitedly filed out of the spaceships.

The United Government sent human representatives to visit the Light Speaker Civilization, where they were received by Green Mushroom. Through a portable Light Speaker translator, humanity quickly learned about the background and consequences of the Light Speaker Civilization, and discovered the causal entanglement between Shan Qing and the Light Speaker Civilization.

For Shan Qing's sake, humans should also lend these mushrooms a hand.

At the end of Crisis Era 204, humanity halted the war between the dinosaurs and the Puji and confiscated all of the dinosaurs' nuclear weapons.

—The once-mighty Devouring Civilization now has less than ten thousand nuclear bombs left.

These nuclear bombs were used as food for the Light Speaker civilization, and were deliberately dropped (exploded) near the Light Speaker civilization's population.

After stabilizing the Light Speaker civilization, the humans who landed on the Giant Ring began to systematically survey everything that devoured the Giant Ring.

By the year 205 of the Crisis Era, in addition to the human garrison within the Giant Ring, one million people had come to reside permanently on the Giant Ring. Most of them were students, teachers, researchers, and scholars from various universities, with soldiers making up a very small percentage. Humans had established a large number of research stations on the surface of the inner ring.

The remaining biosphere, vegetation structure, and biological evolutionary levels of the Devouring Giant Ring, including numerous alien civilizations such as the Light Speakers civilization, are all revolutionary to humanity, and our understanding of the universe is being constantly reconstructed.

Under the constraints of the green mushroom, the Light Speaker civilization will not attack humans proactively, nor will the dinosaurs. After all, the humans present are at least at the mid-stage of the Acquired Realm, capable of easily defeating the dinosaurs.

Unless the dinosaurs dared to use firearms—herbivorous dinosaurs are generally docile and wouldn't do so. The remaining armed forces of the Devouring Empire, led by Tyrannosaurus Rex Karl, have completely surrendered to the Wallfacer Luo Qing and humans, so naturally they wouldn't intentionally commit suicide.

But... there is a type of alien creature that actively attacks humans.

A group of white fish that aren't very bright.

Even a human at the peak of the acquired level would be either killed or maimed by a mere flick of the white dwarf starfish.

Humans transported a large number of general-purpose engineering robots to the Giant Ring to help the herbivorous dinosaurs build new dinosaur cities and transform the inner ring's ecosystem. However, humans soon discovered a problem: no matter how solid the foundation of the city was, the white dwarf starfish could always easily smash the foundation, turning perfectly good high-rise buildings into dangerous structures.

Even MOSS was helpless in the face of this.

Humans began to join forces with the dinosaurs to capture these white dwarf starfish, but with little success. The white dwarf starfish mostly hid deep underground. Humans were only better at space warfare technology; when it came to dealing with the white dwarfs, they were no match for the dinosaur natives.

Under such circumstances, it would be virtually impossible to build an underground city.

Forced by circumstances, humans had no choice but to rebuild stilt houses—a type of bamboo house in southern Fujian that has been in use for over a thousand years—in order to minimize the probability of being hit by white fish.

Ultimately, it was the Great Ring Commander Tyrannosaurus Karl who reached an agreement with the Great Ring Governor, the human Sud Q, to deliberately remove part of the electromagnetic shielding wall, luring the fat white fish to rush towards the giant fish skeleton, thus trapping the fat white fish, which weighed at least 600 million tons.

This fat white fish is a hot potato.

Because of the white fish's characteristic of 'dying immediately if not eaten,' its predatory instinct is even more exaggerated than that of devouring civilization. Moreover, its own mass is extremely heavy, and humans simply do not have the ability to transport this 600 million-ton white dwarf starfish. It is even difficult to kill it. Therefore, they could only create a strong electromagnetic isolation wall area for it and imprison it separately.

Humans also built about 20 'Iron Curtain Devices' on the ring to protect important areas that were about to be breached by the white fish.

The white dwarf starfish population, having lost the fat white fish, immediately fell into a state of disorganized chaos. Instead of attacking human and dinosaur facilities in an orderly manner, they ate and ran around haphazardly, which actually relieved a lot of pressure.

Besides the white dwarf starfish population, there are several other alien species populations, such as the balloonfish population, the liquid jellyfish population, and the star worm population. The dinosaurs also cooperated with humans to make proper arrangements.

—In reality, most dinosaurs didn't know why the former emperor had kept these messy, unintelligent, inedible creatures that couldn't even be called civilized.

For example, the Balloonfish swarm, originally a group of creatures living on gas giants, couldn't devour the giant rings of the planet, but they sent warships to capture many Balloonfish.

As for the liquid jellyfish population, these liquid-like creatures with almost no fixed shape could probably be swallowed by the ocean without anyone noticing that they were actually living things. The dinosaurs even managed to locate them and capture them.

The Star Bug swarm is a group of weak life forms born in dense interstellar dust. Although called Star Bugs, their actual structural complexity is comparable to that of a virus. Their only characteristic is that these mixed masses of unknown matter born in interstellar dust periodically emit a cold light, like starlight.

Because of these 'Sipuncula', humans have even redefined the meaning of life, calling life above the cellular level "strong life" and life below the cellular level, such as viruses and bacteria, "weak life." Sipuncula are typical examples of weak life, lacking any intelligence.

In many ways, the vast majority of living organisms were reassigned to breeding areas, allowing the dinosaurs to continue to be raised.

However, there are a few exceptions, such as the balloonfish population.

Balloonfish possess a rudimentary form of intelligence, limited to expressing only two emotions: happiness and sadness.

Humans have managed to communicate with these balloonfish populations and have developed corresponding language translators.

Cosmological language communication expert A: "Beep beep beep beep" (Can we communicate?)

Balloon Fish: "Beep beep, beep beep beep, beep beep beep beep."

Cosmological language communication expert A: "Beep beep beep" (This translation machine is malfunctioning; what the hell is it saying?)

Balloon Fish: "Beep beep, beep beep beep, beep beep beep beep."

Finally, the green mushroom, who had dealt with the balloonfish population for many years, hopped and skipped to find cosmology language communication expert A. This green mushroom used light to communicate with humans: "[It's suffering. Its ancestors lived in a high-density atmosphere, and the thin atmosphere of the Great Ring makes it feel suffocated. I hope you can transplant the balloonfish population to an area with a denser atmosphere.]"
Cosmological communication expert A fell into thought, but the green mushroom's words quickly attracted human attention. After repeated experiments, people confirmed that living in the thin atmosphere of the Great Ring was indeed a torment for the balloonfish population.

Considering that this group of balloon-like creatures poses almost no threat to human civilization, humans simply transported the balloonfish population into space and then to Jupiter via spacecraft.

Balloonfish can fully adapt to survive on the gas giant Jupiter. The composition of Jupiter's atmosphere is very similar to that of the balloonfish's original home planet. This species is very friendly to humans, so humans simply threw them all onto Jupiter.

As for overbreeding, there's no need to worry. Balloonfish reproduce in a self-inherited manner. Their main method is to overfeed themselves when they are old, and then reproduce a new one. The number of them remains basically the same, with only a very small probability of producing 'twins' at once.

Soon, all the alien creature groups, except for the troublesome white fish, were properly settled.

Apart from……

These glowing poopy creatures are everywhere.

At night, Tyrannosaurus Karl, human Sud Q, and Green Mushroom sat side by side, looking at the millions of glowing Puji with sorrow.

The Tyrannosaurus Rex Karl had learned human language, and considering its status as a defeated being, it took the initiative to speak human language to communicate with the Innate Perfection Insect beside it. The words they spoke were illuminated by a portable light-emitting device that flashed rhythmically, so that the nearby Green Mushroom could also understand what the human and dragon were talking about.

Tyrannosaurus Karl: "Do you have any ideas? The dinosaurs are running out of nuclear bombs, and the large rings can't withstand the daily explosions of nuclear bombs. Can you send these glowing mushrooms away? The dinosaurs don't want to keep them anymore."

Su De Q, with a lollipop dangling from his mouth (new humans rarely smoke), said gravely, "Nuclear explosions are too inefficient. Not only do they easily kill the glowing creatures, but the high-energy environment they create only lasts for a moment. What kind of environment does the Light Speaker civilization's home planet actually have?"

Tyrannosaurus Karl explained, “The Star of Light revolves around a supernova remnant after an explosion. The high-energy environment on the Star of Light is essentially composed of high-energy radiation, plasma, and strong magnetic fields, with extremely strong magnetic fields and high-speed charged particles.”

The lights on their waists flashed, and Green Mushroom understood what they meant, but remained silent. (He couldn't speak.)
"Lin Jun, what do you think we should do?" Su De Q asked the green mushroom beside him. 'Lin Jun' is the Chinese name translated by the Light Language through the self-deciphering system. The Light Language Civilization is a highly social civilization, and Light Language individuals basically have their own names.

The cap of the green mushroom trembled and seemed to say: [Let's get closer to the sun].

Su De Q: "The energy level difference of the Sun in a supernova explosion is not small. Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, about 0.38 AU. Is that close enough?"

The green mushroom shook its cap, then flashed again: [Puji only grow in high-energy environments, with an average body temperature of over a thousand degrees Celsius. According to your data, the surface of Mercury is only 480 degrees Celsius, making it an extremely cold place for Puji. Once a glowing Puji's body temperature drops below 800 degrees Celsius, it will enter a near-death, dark red lava state. Below 600 degrees Celsius, it will die completely, its body turning to carbon.]
Su DeQ hissed: "Hiss, this is going to be troublesome. If the Wallfacer wasn't in seclusion, he could help you, but if he is, it will be very troublesome."

“I do have an idea,” said Tyrannosaurus Karl.

“You say it,” Su De Q said, looking up at the enormous dinosaur.

Tyrannosaurus Karl said quietly, "Actually, there is a region in the solar system that is very suitable for the survival of the Light Speaker civilization."

Su DeQ said suspiciously, "I have a feeling you're holding back something."

Tyrannosaurus Karl gave an awkward laugh and said directly: "Humanity's star-class warships use controlled nuclear fusion propellantless engines, where the temperature is high all year round... You can place the glowing mushrooms near the engine compartment, or place them at the propellantless radiation nozzles, which are small supernova remnant environments."

The glowing mushrooms are about the size of a human head. Humans have so many warships; twenty per ship would be more than enough. If you're worried about affecting stellar-class warships, you can place the glowing mushrooms near planetary-class warships. And if I'm not mistaken, controlled nuclear fusion engines need to be cleaned periodically, right?
Nuclear waste has a fatal paralyzing effect on ordinary robots. Don't these glowing mushrooms look like mobile nuclear waste cleanup robots?

Su De Q: "..."

That seems to make sense.

"I will report your suggestion to the Solar System Fleet Joint Conference, but I cannot guarantee anything. The fleet is an important pillar of human military power, and the controlled nuclear fusion propellantless radiation propulsion engine is a precious crystallization of human technology. This matter is of great importance and depends on the decision of the higher-ups."

"It's up to you now. The dinosaurs are really fed up with these glowing poops."

Su De Q then turned his attention to the green mushrooms.

The latter's stem is slightly bent, as if it is bowing.

[Then we entrust the Light Speaker civilization to you. In return, the Light Speaker civilization will strive to achieve a symbiotic relationship with human civilization.]
Su De Q leaned back. Well, according to Green Mushroom's idea and his understanding of the new humans, the Solar System Fleet Joint Conference, under the influence of public opinion, would definitely pass the Light Speaker Civilization Coexistence Act.

These mushrooms are, after all, connected to the human hero Shan Qing. It's really not a big deal to put twenty more mushrooms on a warship.

Look up, the solar system fleet is really going to grow mushrooms.

(End of this chapter)