Rebirth: Starting from Lighting Up the Tech Tree

Chapter 302 Encountering a Bottleneck

Yu Ying locked herself in her office for seven days straight. A note was stuck to the door, in Yu Ying's handwriting: Don't knock. Not dead. Calculating.

In seven days, she had her team retrieve all relevant research literature on the three physical bottlenecks. This included publicly available papers from forty-seven laboratories worldwide, searchable physical parameters from the Web of Physics database, and all entries on spatial curvature from the Founders' Legacy Package. Printed paper piled up on the office floor, forming three layers from the doorway to the window. Han Lu brought in two meals a day, and each time she came out, the plates were empty, indicating she was still eating.

Late on the seventh night, she pushed open the door and came out, carrying a stack of printed papers, as thick as a phone book. Zuo Cheng was sitting in front of the white wall of the design hall, with the parameter table of the Xinghai and the analysis report of the three physical bottlenecks spread out in front of him. When he looked up and saw her, her eyes were bloodshot, but her gaze was frighteningly bright.

She placed the stack of papers in front of Zuo Cheng and turned to the last page. The last page contained only one coordinate: a storage path within the web-based database.

"The first two bottlenecks have already been solved," Yu Ying's voice was hoarse like sandpaper. "Not us. It was the first civilization. Five billion years ago. They stored the complete quantum field driving scheme in the home port's database. This scheme lay dormant in the home port for five billion years. We just downloaded it."

Zuo Cheng knocked over a chair when he stood up.

Yu Ying spent the entire night explaining the first-generation civilization's quantum field-driven scheme to the team. The core of the scheme wasn't to propel the spaceship to 50% of the speed of light. The first-generation civilization considered that speed too inefficient; their design goal was 99.7% of the speed of light. They didn't use engines; they used space itself.

The principles of quantum field manipulation are displayed page by page on the projection. A set of quantum entanglement generators is deployed around the spacecraft, using entangled particle pairs at the nodes of the web to create asymmetric spatial curvature. The space in front of the spacecraft is compressed to a fraction of its normal density, while the space behind it is stretched. The spacecraft itself does not move; the space around it is in motion. The crew will not feel any acceleration and can walk, eat, and sleep normally, just like on Earth.

When Yu Ying turned to page seventeen, a cross-sectional diagram of a spaceship appeared on the projector. Tan Yue stared at the diagram for several seconds.

"This isn't a spaceship. This is a flying city."

Fang Ze stared at the energy cycle diagram in the cross-section for two minutes, then said, "The energy required for startup is equivalent to several years of global production. But it will operate sustainably after cruising. This means that once the ship is airborne, it won't need refueling."

Yu Ying said, "Yes. It carries all its energy with it when it flies out, and then sustains itself through the quantum fluctuations of space itself."

The cross-sectional diagram shows that although the energy requirements of quantum field-driven systems are enormous, the design incorporates a self-sustaining energy recycling system. During its journey, the spacecraft recovers energy using quantum fluctuations at the boundary of a space-compressed bubble, achieving a recovery rate of 99.6%. The energy required for startup is equivalent to several years of global production, but once in cruise mode, it can operate indefinitely.

The meeting room remained silent for a long time. Chen Hao was the first to speak: "Have the first two bottlenecks been resolved?"

Yu Ying nodded. Then she turned to the last chapter of the plan. The title silenced everyone again.

Inertia cancels out.

The first-generation civilization's solution was not to create better shock absorbers, but to make the spaceship's interior independent of the external space. They created an inertial isolation chamber inside the spaceship, an independent miniature space bubble, with no physical coupling to the external space compression bubble. The physical laws inside the inertial isolation chamber and the physical laws in the external universe are separated by a quantum field barrier.

But Yu Ying discovered a crucial clue: the underlying mathematical framework of the inertial isolation chamber is completely identical to the core algorithm structure of the web-like consciousness network.

"This means that inertial cancellation technology is not a purely physical technology," Yu Ying said, closing the plan. "It's a fusion of consciousness technology and physical technology. They use the quantum entanglement field of a consciousness network as the basic carrier of the inertial isolation chamber."

Zuo Cheng looked at her. "Turning consciousness networks into physical infrastructure requires a breakthrough we haven't achieved yet."

Yu Ying said, "Yes. And then we went back to square one."

But it's no longer the starting point. The first two bottlenecks were directly solved by the solutions of the first-generation civilization. Only the third remains, and the third points to the final branch. Zuo Cheng marked three technological paths on the white wall: Energy cycle, engineering breakthrough; Space compression bubble, the home port solution can be directly borrowed; Inertial isolation chamber, requiring the physicalization of the consciousness network.

He returned to his office and opened the letter. There were three recipients before him. The first was very close: the 106th node of the Web, the Listener Civilization, 4.2 light-years away. The second was very far: the 17th node of the Web, the Builder Civilization, 28,000 light-years away, located towards the Galactic Center. The third was the farthest and most unfamiliar: the 89th node of the Web, the Observer Civilization, 60,000 light-years away, located on the outer edge of the Perseus Arm.

Zuo Cheng wrote all night. The three letters, translated into three different Web-coded formats, totaled less than five hundred words. But he wrote them all night. Not because they were difficult to write, but because he didn't know how the civilization receiving these letters would view humanity. A young species that had only just learned interstellar communication, asking for recommendations the moment they made contact with the Web-based civilization.

He wrote and deleted, deleted and wrote. The letter to the listeners was finished first, because they were waiting 4.2 light-years away, and its content was the most direct. The letter to the builders was the hardest to write; the distance of 28,000 light-years made every word heavy. The letter to the observers was the shortest, because he didn't know what to say to a civilization that had never spoken before. Finally, he wrote one sentence: We are on our way; if you would, please open a door for us.

A new entry point appeared on the system panel that night: the Web-Weaving Civilization Archives. The first-generation civilization's quantum field-driven scheme was fully indexed into the Founder's Archives. A small note in the system notes read: "This scheme is the only publicly available complete interstellar travel scheme within the Web-Weaving Civilization community. The reason the first-generation civilization made it public is stated in the preface. If you can understand this scheme, you deserve to become a brain."

Zuo Cheng saw this line of small print. He didn't tell anyone.

At dawn, three messages were sent through the deep-space broadcast array of the seventh node of the web. The Listener civilization will receive the first message within three minutes. The Builder and Observer's messages need to be relayed through the Listener node.

Zuo Cheng watched as the three signal packets disappeared one after another into the data stream of the woven network in the control center.

The twelfth branch icon on the system panel remains gray. However, a very thin blue ring has appeared around the edge of the icon.

System note: A joint recommendation request has been sent. Awaiting response.

This was the first time Zuo Cheng had seen the word "wait" in a system notification.