To the End of the Universe!
Katerina stared blankly at the spatial ripples on the large screen.
Decades of seafaring experience instantly flooded my mind.
She surprisingly grasped some of the meaning behind Lin Ye's words.
"I see... I've got it all backwards."
"During the Azure Star Era, everyone pursued the ultimate increase in ship power, and then brought this concept into the Space Age. But they never thought that true mastery of navigation lies in manipulating space itself."
Lin Ye looked at her with a relieved smile as he saw her sudden realization.
Katerina is incredibly quick to understand.
She imagined the starry sky as the most familiar ocean, and thus grasped the essence of space technology.
In fact, these District Head on Azure Star, who were once the Commander of their Settlements, are not stupid at all.
It was simply the gap in the times that caused these people's fighting concepts to lag behind.
They are simple-minded, but not stupid.
On the contrary, they were able to sit in the position of Commander of the Settlement; in fact, they were all intelligent people.
Lin Ye continued his explanation, revealing the most crucial foreshadowing. "This is merely the basic principle of Curvature Propulsion; what's truly terrifying is its aftereffect— the Curvature Wake."
"When a regular spaceship flies by, space returns to its original state without leaving a trace. But the space distorted by Curvature Spaceship is permanent and irreversible. The structure of compressed and folded space will be completely solidified and can never be restored."
He pointed to the star field on the distant screen. "Every Curvature Propulsion leaves a permanent Low-Light-Speed Channel in the Universe."
"The speed of light in a normal Universe is 300,000 kilometers per second. However, within Curvature Wake, the speed of light is significantly reduced. The more times you travel and the more powerful your engine, the lower the speed of light becomes."
Katerina was shaken, instantly recalling the three stories Lin Ye had told her before.
"Commander Lin! Is this the principle behind the formation of the Black Domain?"
"Bingo!"
Lin Ye immediately gave a thumbs up.
"Countless Curvature Wake intertwine, traversing back and forth, continuously reducing the speed of light across the entire star field."
"Once the speed of light in the vacuum of the entire galaxy falls below the Universe's escape velocity, a perfectly sealed, isolated, and disconnected Black Domain will be fully formed."
In those three fairy tales, the formation of the Black Domain was actually due to Curvature Technology.
Curvature Technology essentially depletes the durability of a starry sky.
When the damage reaches a certain level, the space can never be restored to its original state.
The slowing of the speed of light in space means one thing: it will become impossible to use Curvature Spaceship to travel along the same path out of this galaxy.
Faced with the offensive of the Trisolaran Civilization, and in order to confront the Dark Forest theory, Earthlings are left with no choice but to create their own Dead Domain.
It's a Universe- level "closed-door policy".
By isolating itself, it tells more advanced civilizations in the Universe that it poses no threat because it will never leave its own star system.
This is to avoid being attacked by Advanced Civilization Universe civilizations.
"Carter, if one day we also faced a choice between death and destruction, would you choose to place your civilization in the Black Domain?"
Katerina bit her lip, then shook her head.
"Commander Lin, back in the era of the Firmament, I would have thought it was a miracle to even survive Instance war. If you had told me then that Azure Star was a Dead Domain, I would have gladly accepted it."
"Because I didn't know what was outside of Azure Star, I thought this planet was everything."
At that moment, Katerina's eyes held a hint of determination.
"But Commander Lin, you defeated the Firmament and showed me the outside world."
"So there are War Zones beyond war War Zones, so this world is so vast, so life on Azure Star can be so wonderful after Civilization Replenishment... How can I accept being a frog in a well?"
Lin Ye sat on the sofa looking at Katerina, feeling a sense of profound change in his heart.
Katerina's changes weren't just in the Instance design, but also in her mindset!
"So, Miss Carter, we all need to work hard."
"I don't want Azure Star to return to that society ruled by the Firmament, so we must keep moving forward."
"There are War Zones beyond War Zones, but this vast Universe will eventually come to an end. I will make Azure Star stand at the pinnacle of the Universe."
Lin Ye's words ignited Katerina's passion, and she immediately raised her fist.
"Commander Lin."
"As long as I live, I will stay with you until the very end!"
The conversation between the two people had a strangely poignant yet romantic quality to it all...
It's somewhat strange.
So much so that Katerina's face suddenly flushed red again.
She herself couldn't even tell whether her words were a subordinate's expression of loyalty to their superior or a so-called confession.
Just as the atmosphere became somewhat awkward, Lin Ye saw a series of Star Yuan notifications in the Instance Backend.
[Divine Firmament Announcement: Respected Civilization Guide, the "Quantum Star Transformation" Instance designed by Long Yuan, the Designer of Azure Civilization, has been successfully completed. Azure Civilization has received a reward of 100,000 Star Yuan.]
[Divine Firmament Announcement: Respected Civilization Guide, the Azure Civilization 'Designer Quantum-designed "Full Metal Panic!" Instance has been successfully completed. Azure Civilization has received a reward of 100,000 Star Yuan.]
[...]
[Total Star Coins for Azure Literature: 17.3 million!]
[Because you are Civilization Guide, you will also receive the technological rewards of all civilization members.]
[In the struggle against the Origami Civilization, Designer Long Yuan acquires Folded Storage Technology!]
[In the struggle against the Silk Road Civilization, Designer Xi'er acquires Silk Road Channel Network Technology!]
[In the battle against the White Iron Civilization, Designer Fulangche acquired the White Iron Swarm Military Technology!]
[All technologies have been automatically transmitted to the Creation Space of the Civilization Guide.]
In just a short while, the Instance for the District Head were completed.
Furthermore, three people received science and technology awards.
In the Technology Plunder mechanism of War Zone 112, even if you win, the defending side is not guaranteed to acquire the enemy civilization's technology every time.
The probability is very low. For example, even though Katerina won the fastest, she didn't gain Technology Plunder.
If you want to obtain other civilizations' technologies with a 100% success rate through Instance, there's only one way: completely crush the opposing civilization.
Despite the low probability of success, Long Yuan, Fulangche, Xi'er still managed to achieve technological breakthroughs.
Although.
This technology seems pretty useless; it's just ordinary technology typical of Level One Civilization.
"Interesting."
Lin Ye glanced at the time; two hours had passed since the end of Katerina's Instance.
When these Instances in War Zone 112 are running, they actually feel like Bullet Time; the flow of time is much faster than in reality.
If you watch a live stream of Instance, the time will be the same as the Instance's duration. However, if you're doing your own thing in real life, it will feel like one minute in real life is an hour in the Instance.
Lin Ye was naturally quite satisfied with the results of these Instances.
This is a complete victory!
A Grand Slam!
Regardless of the actual gains, it's certainly a morale-boosting event.
In fact, Lin Ye himself hadn't expected to win all six Instance before this.
That earned Azure Star 500,000 Star Yuan in one go, which is quite a lot.
"Miss Carter, our District Head have all won their Instance. I bet they're all pretty excited right now."
"Oh my God!" Katerina exclaimed excitedly.
"Your Instance will reopen tomorrow. I will help you choose suitable opponents. With the Absolution Card, you don't need to worry."
"But before that, you'll all have to take a look at my Instance."
The Trisolaran Civilization Instance will reopen in less than 9 hours.
Katerina nodded repeatedly.
"Commander Lin, I need to take good notes on the Curvature Spaceship information you gave me today, otherwise I'm afraid I'll forget it quickly."
"Afterwards, I will summarize the experience with the other District Head. After all, this is our first battle in the Universe Arena, and there are many things that need to be reviewed. Although we won the Instance, there are definitely many areas that need improvement."
"Commander Lin, please take a rest. We'll meet in the Conference Room before your Instance begins."