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

Chapter 298 Light Cone Telescope (5k)

The Ringer-Fitzroy Telescope System is a super space telescope jointly built by three fleets. It consists of multiple giant telescopes, with each primary mirror having a diameter of hundreds of meters. Deployed near the asteroid belt, far from the interference of planetary atmospheres, it has extremely high observation accuracy and is the most advanced space optical telescope in human history.

It is thousands of times larger than the Hubble 1 telescope in the early days of the Crisis Era and dozens of times more powerful than the Hubble 3 telescope during the Great Depression. It can clearly observe the details of stars hundreds of light-years away, capture anomalous changes in star light, and detect large objects on an interstellar scale, such as the traces of the Trisolaran fleet.

Before the Devouring Crisis, the Ringer-Fitzroy Telescope was the one observing the Trisolaran fleet. After the Devouring Crisis, the Ringer-Fitzroy Telescope changed its observation target to the Devouring Ring.

The task of observing the Trisolaran fleet was assigned to other space telescope systems.

After the Devouring Empire surrendered, the Ring-Fitzroy Telescope once again began to target the Trisolaran fleet.

In short, even in the year 205 of the Crisis Era, the Ringer-Fitzroy Telescope remained the most advanced optical observation tool for humankind.

However, such observation systems are gradually becoming unable to meet human needs.

The three fleets originally planned to build a new generation of telescopes to replace the Ringer Fitzroy Telescope, and planned to name it the Eridanus Telescope to commemorate the Eridanus civilization's help to mankind, but mankind soon discovered that...

Building your own is nowhere near as convenient as directly borrowing from dinosaurs.

Soon after the giant ring entered the asteroid belt and became the fifth planet in the solar system, humanity witnessed the astronomical telescopes that swallowed the giant ring.

A super-large, super-great, super-long, and super-flexible optical space telescope.

Unsurprisingly, humanity, as the victor in the war, directly requisitioned the Devouring Empire's observation system.

Before this, humanity was observing the universe through the eye of a needle.

So now, humanity is observing the universe through a sieve full of holes.

The universe suddenly becomes clear!
The optical telescope system that swallows the large ring, in the context of the swallowing language, means "light cone".

Humans have long discovered that although the technology of the Devouring Empire was crude and had the characteristics of the Soviet era's powerful brick-flying dinosaurs, their naming of things, like humans, had a strong romantic flavor.

For example, naming three different power gamma laser beams "Sun Spear," "Moon Spear," and "Star Spear" is a concise naming method that appeals to humans.

In contrast, the naming methods used by humans for various historical figures, mythological figures, and scientific names are quite cumbersome.

When it comes to naming things, dinosaurs do have a knack for it.

The "light cone" is a core concept describing the relationship between spacetime. With a certain event as its vertex, the cone-shaped region formed by light rays propagating through spacetime represents the range that the event can influence or be observed. In Einstein's theory of relativity and the Poincaré ant theory, the light cone cannot be surpassed; the past light cone represents observable history, and the future light cone represents the future that can be influenced. Therefore, the telescope is named the "light cone" telescope.

The above is the explanation given by Commander Karl of the Great Ring to humanity for why the telescope was named "Light Cone".

(Note: The scientists of the Dragon-Ant Civilization, Einstein Dragon and Poincaré Ant, one dragon and one ant, comprehended the special theory of relativity in their exploration of whether the universe is homogeneous and adhering to the principle of relativity. They were the technological pioneers of the Dragon-Ant Civilization.)
The core component of the light conic telescope is a super-giant adaptive mirror array. The main mirror has a diameter of 1,000 kilometers and is composed of tens of thousands of sub-mirrors, forming an overall parabolic arc shape.

There are hundreds of similar giant spliced ​​lenses in total, with a total length of 10,000 kilometers, deployed at the center of the ring.

During the Great Environmental Defense War, in order to preserve the lens, the Devouring Empire specially stored it in the inner ring. Although it suffered some damage from a small number of stellar hydrogen bombs during the war, fortunately, the lens was stored in a relatively dispersed manner, so the losses were not significant.

It's still usable, though.

The material of the lens also reflects the profound accumulation of the Devouring Empire. When humans asked the dinosaurs how they made so much glass and how they avoided the influence of interstellar dust on the lens, the dinosaurs' answer greatly shocked the ignorant humans.

Dinosaur scientists say that the light cone telescope was built 300 million years ago. The lenses were collected by the Devouring Empire and are made of dense dust from supernova explosions compressed into a transparent medium by a strong gravitational field. Its hardness is a hundred times that of diamond and it can withstand the impact of interstellar dust.

Humanity has become accustomed to being amazed by the super technology of empires that devour them. Whenever human scientists are astonished by dinosaur scientists, people always exclaim, "We actually defeated such a super civilization?"

Whenever they heard such remarks, the accompanying dinosaur scientists would awkwardly scratch the floor with their huge claws.

Who can beat you human insects? Your martial spirit is more abundant than that of dinosaurs, and you even have a pseudo-god's support. Seriously...

In short, the observational precision of the light conic telescope is astounding.

For planetary systems within a 1 light-year range, it can directly distinguish objects on the Earth's surface at the kilometer level.

Humanity learned from the Eridanus Girl that after the Devouring Empire devoured the Eridanus Galaxy, 16 light-years away, it took them a total of 6 years to reach Earth, with an average travel speed of 25 km/s, about one ten-thousandth of the speed of light.

The dinosaurs explained that the most resource-efficient way to travel by swallowing the large ring at one ten-thousandth the speed of light was because Eridanus, the planet in the Eridanus system, was not tasty, the large ring was not full, and there was not much to eat on the other planets. Therefore, when they were heading to the solar system, they did not accelerate to one-thousandth the speed of light.

Humans were terrified.

Thankfully, we weren't full, otherwise, if the dinosaurs had arrived tens of thousands of years earlier, humanity would have been doomed.

Eridanus made its final contribution to Earth by failing to feed the dinosaurs and delaying their journey to the solar system.

It really made me cry to death.

When humans were reviewing the observation records of the dinosaurs' light cone telescopes, they quickly obtained an important piece of information.

As the Devouring Ring flew toward Earth, successive Devouring Emperors repeatedly ordered the Devouring Empire to observe the solar system and their home planet, Earth.

The light cone telescope observed Earth a total of 10 times.

观察时，大环分别距离地球16光年、6光年、2光年，1光年，30000天文单位（0.5光年）、12000天文单位（0.2光年）、10000天文单位（0.17光年）、6000天文单位（0.1光年）、3000天文单位、1000天文单位。

The frequency is getting higher and higher.

Before its first observation of Earth, the Devouring Empire, after consuming Eridanus, launched a neutrino beam across approximately 900 star systems within a 50-light-year radius to search for its next target.

The Devouring Empire's neutrino radar technology is very advanced.

Neutrinos have extremely small mass, no electric charge, and hardly interact with matter. They can penetrate various materials with almost no decay. When a neutrino beam passes through an object, a very small number of them will interact weakly with the particles inside the object (such as elastic scattering). By capturing the signals generated by these interactions, the Devouring Empire can infer the internal structure or composition of the target planet.

This is used to determine whether food can be found on this planet, and whether it is tasty.

Of these 900 star systems, no more than 60 are edible, including our solar system and the Trisolaran system (at that time, the Trisolaran system still had three edible Trisolaran planets).

Of these 60 star systems, no more than three and a half are considered good, with the Trisolaran system being counted as half.

Although the Trisolaran system was the closest to the dinosaurs, the three suns intimidated them, and they ultimately chose to give up.

Of the remaining three star systems, only one is truly delicious.

That is the solar system.

Not only can you eat a lot of food, but each one is also plump and juicy, enough to keep the Devouring Empire well-rested for hundreds of thousands of years after it finishes eating, and it might even be able to eat itself to excess!
Go back to my hometown, sleep in my hometown, eat in my hometown!

The Devouring Empire chose its new prey, and we all know how that ended.

After humans reversed their occupation and devoured the Great Ring, they seized a large amount of advanced dinosaur technology, including neutrino scanning technology.

Humans do not yet know what the use of this technology is, but they have built several neutrino beam emission prototypes on Mars and begun to randomly scan hundreds of star systems within 50 light-years.

Dinosaur scientists attempted to stop humanity's rebellious actions, but ultimately refrained from doing so after a warning from the Tyrannosaurus Rex, Karl. While the Devouring Empire unconditionally surrendered to human civilization, it wouldn't presume to reveal secrets unknown to humanity.

After all, the dinosaurs were also quite frustrated to have been defeated by humans.

Leaving aside the conflict between humans and dragons, after witnessing the light cone telescope observe Earth nine times, humanity quickly realized something exciting.

Dinosaurs, possessing footage from tens of thousands, thousands, or even hundreds of years ago on Earth!!!
Historians have gone crazy!

Hurry, hurry, hurry! I want to see Qin Shi Huang unifying the six kingdoms, Alexander's eastern expedition, the Hundred Years' War between England and France, the fall of Constantinople, and the demise of the Byzantine Empire!

But historians were soon disappointed.

The reason is that it is too far from Earth, and even the light cone telescope is too blurry.

When the Light Cone Telescope first observed Earth, it appeared as a spherical planet with continental outlines and blue oceans, 16 light-years away.

At this time, humans were still in the early Paleolithic period. Homo erectus had just started using fire and simple stone tools. A sensor from a risk-taker was taking pictures of two Homo erectus.

When the Great Ring was 6 light-years from the solar system, the Light Cone Telescope made its second observation.

This time, Earth has shown a clear outline, and its atmosphere can be observed. This is Earth 2.25 years ago. Late Homo sapiens had spread across the six continents, but were still in the Paleolithic era.

When the Great Ring was 2 light-years from the solar system, the Light Cone Telescope made its third observation.

Clear forests and large lakes can already be seen on Earth. This was around 7500 years ago, when humanity was in the Middle Neolithic period. History books in compulsory education would officially begin at this time. The Devouring Empire confirmed that life still existed on Earth and that it had not been destroyed by the Chicxulub meteorite, but humans had not yet been discovered.

When the Great Ring is 1 light-year from the solar system, the Light Cone Telescope made its fourth observation.

The light cone telescope already possesses kilometer-level precision from one light-year away. This was around 3750 years ago on Earth, when humanity had entered the middle and late Bronze Age, and the four ancient civilizations had emerged one after another. In China, the Shang Dynasty had replaced the Xia Dynasty.

The Devouring Empire has become so capable of detecting traces of human activity with a precision of at least a kilometer that it has begun to suspect the existence of intelligent life on Earth.

Historians excitedly pointed to the blurry pixels that represented traces of human activity.

But the empire was not worried at this moment.

At a distance of 30000 astronomical units (0.5 ly), the light cone telescope made its fifth observation.

This is Earth around 1875. Humanity has entered the early Middle Ages, China is in the Northern and Southern Dynasties period, the Western Roman Empire has fallen, the Dark Ages are ongoing, the Eastern Roman Empire under Justinian the Great is working to recover the lost territories of the Western Roman Empire, the Justinian Code has been completed, and Constantinople is still the largest city and cultural center in Europe.

Historians witnessed the Earth as it was 1875, along with those blurry buildings. After the images and videos were transmitted back to Earth, countless history enthusiasts wept with joy.

The Devouring Empire, having discovered the large human complex, remained unconcerned.

It's just a tiny, feudal-era civilization; how could it possibly overturn the world?
12000 AU (0.20 LY), sixth observation, Earth approximately 760 years ago.

Around 760 years before the Crisis Era, which was... around 1450!
It was on the eve of the destruction of the Byzantine Empire!
Hurry, hurry, I want to see this.

But humanity was destined to be disappointed. In this observation, strange space bubbles appeared in the images of Earth. Scientists explained that at that time, a large four-dimensional fragment probably passed by Earth, interfering with the observations of the light cone telescope.

This situation was not uncommon for the Devouring Empire, so they quickly switched their observation target.

Just seconds before the light cone telescope switched its observation target, the four-dimensional fragments left, and historians only saw the final moments of that epic war, the moment before the fall of Constantinople.

At this distance, pixels are already recognizable to humans. Historians have seen that beneath the ruins of Constantinople, amidst the raging flames, a blurry purple pixel shed its purple coat, transforming into a silver pixel, and plunged into the ocean of dark red pixels.

Although the video footage is only a few seconds long, historians still believe it to be Constantine XI, the emperor who, before the empire's demise, drew his sword and charged into the enemy ranks of the Ottoman army, disappearing in an instant...

Because the sixth observation failed, the seventh observation began shortly afterward, at a distance of 10000 astronomical units (0.20 LY) from the solar system, which is about 600 years ago.

At this time, the Earth was in the late stage of the Age of Discovery and the nascent stage of the Scientific Revolution. Global connections were becoming increasingly close, the clash between old and new civilizations was intense, social changes were accelerating, the Renaissance was transforming into the Enlightenment, and the preconditions for the bourgeoisie and the Industrial Revolution had been ripe. In China, the turmoil at the end of the Ming Dynasty was taking place.

At this distance, the accuracy had been improved to about 200 meters. The dinosaurs witnessed human warfare firsthand, with the army formation composed of blurry colored dots charging forward. In Rome, Michelangelo completed his final work, *The Creation of Adam*. Around the same time, the *Mona Lisa* was created and purchased by King Francis I of France, housed in the Palace of Fontainebleau, France. Later, it was moved to the Louvre and remained there until the visit of a Wallfacer 400 years later.

By this time, the dinosaurs had noticed the increasing number of tiny insects, but still paid them no attention.

Everything will be alright as long as we fly to the solar system in 600 years.

At 6000 astronomical units (0.1 LY), the eighth observation, approximately 375 years ago, on Earth. The accuracy reached the hundred-meter level.

375 years before the Crisis Era, 205 years ago, was around 1840 AD. This was a special era. Leaving aside the Opium Wars that plagued the ancient Eastern countries at that time, the human world officially entered the period of the First Industrial Revolution.

The dinosaurs noticed that the city called "London" had many chimneys, but they ignored them.

It's just burning some coal, there's no threat at all.

3000 astronomical units, ninth observation, Earth 187.5 years ago.

187 years ago was the 18th year of the Crisis Era. Spurred by the Trisolaran crisis, the countries of the world, which had begun to integrate, increased their investment in space. The dinosaurs saw a large number of rockets being launched into space.

The dinosaurs were a little panicked, but it wasn't a big problem. In another 187 years, the Devouring Empire would have flown past. In 187 years, could humans and insects really turn the world upside down?

1000 astronomical units, the tenth observation, Earth 62.5 years ago, with an accuracy approaching 15 meters.

In the year 143 of the Crisis Era, the Solar System Fleet, with its star-class warships, had reached a scale of 1000 ships, leaving the dinosaurs somewhat bewildered.

Sixty years have passed... What are these insects up to? Stop! Stop!
Damn it, send an envoy in a 0.02c spaceship to negotiate with the humans. You're the one, Big Tooth! Remember, you represent the Devouring Empire. Maintain the Devouring Empire's dignity and pride, and don't give the insects too much of a hard time.

At a distance of 600 astronomical units, the Light Cone Telescope entered its routine observation phase of Earth. This is Earth 37.5 years ago, with an accuracy of 10 meters.

The Devouring Empire saw the Solar System fleet, which consisted of 3000 star-class warships and 30000 planetary warships.

After much deliberation, the Devouring Empire decided to temporarily halt its operations.

Twenty years later, at a distance of 500 astronomical units from the solar system, the Great Ring Brake was successfully completed, and the Solar System Fleet and the Devouring Empire entered a period of great confrontation that lasted for more than a decade.

But by this time the dinosaur was already numb and unable to move forward or backward.

Fifteen years ago, the first Kuiper Belt War broke out. Humanity took the initiative to rush in, exchanging unmanned probe ships and suicide attack ships for a wave of intelligence, while the small-scale probing fleet sent by the Devouring Empire was completely wiped out.

Three years ago, the Second Kuiper War broke out. The expeditionary fleet inflicted heavy casualties on the Devouring Empire. Shanqing directly killed the Devouring Emperor, who wanted to negotiate peace but had not yet had time to express his attitude.

Two years ago, the Kuiper Belt Great Battle broke out. The Solar System Fleet committed 80% of its fleet combat power and deployed the quasi-god Luo Qing. The Devouring Fleet was completely annihilated, the Great Ring suffered heavy damage, and the Empire was inexplicably defeated and subsequently surrendered unconditionally.

Afterwards, the human occupying forces landed in the Great Ring.

The precious light cone telescope became a trophy of humankind.

The first thing humans did after getting their hands on the light cone telescope was to observe the Trisolaran galaxy!
Subsequently, humanity saw the Trisolaran planet from four years prior, and the mysterious Trisolaran world was clearly revealed to humankind for the first time.

(The author is still at the Caozhou service area, it's 20:29 now, 5k words finished. The author will continue on the road, and will rest in Zhengzhou or Luoyang.)
(End of this chapter)