Ten Years

In the interstellar age, time always flies.

In a mere ten years, normally it would be impossible to even cross from one Star System to Star System.

Civilizations like humanity, due to limited resources, generally enter a period of dormancy during long voyages. As a result, once the journey begins, much research work also enters a semi-dormant state.

So even though humanity has been away from the Solar System for almost two thousand years, most of that time has actually been wasted in this way, and the time spent on truly stable development has been quite short.

In fact, this is the norm for Low-level Civilization, no, it should be said that it is the norm for low-level Wandering Civilization.

So ten years is really not a long time at all. However, this ten-year voyage is very different from other times because humans are in the 'packed' state of the Awakeners.

Under these circumstances, this decade has been exceptionally fulfilling for human resources.

Knowing the exact travel time, which was shorter than humans had anticipated, Yue Yuan did not put humanity into a deep hibernation or put various departments into a semi-hibernation state, but instead allowed them to live and conduct research normally.

Humanity never expected to encounter the Awakeners when they set sail, so the resupply in the previous star system was all budgeted for a journey of more than a hundred years. Therefore, this time, resources are not lacking.

In this situation, humanity can naturally continue its scientific research experiments as usual. On the other hand, although the Intelligent System 'Invincible Great Treasure Sword' of the Awakeners No. 2355 Warship does not directly provide humanity with technology, it occasionally responds to human messages.

Humans certainly did not directly acquire the technology, but being able to frequently communicate with an Artificial Intelligence from a Level Six Civilization has broadened human knowledge considerably.

Sometimes, even a casual remark from the 'Invincible Great Treasure Sword' can greatly benefit humanity.

This is why the past decade has been a mini-spring for human science.

Humanity is already Level 2 Civilization. Although ten years has not allowed humanity to advance to the next level and there has been little progress in many technological aspects, many theoretical concepts have emerged during these ten years.

For example, in fields like Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Electrodynamics, mathematics, and philosophy, many novel theories have been proposed. Although far from perfect, humanity has at least made progress in scientific theory.

This is undoubtedly good news.

Because all technologies are based on theory.

Of course, there has been some progress in technology as well; at least the technology that humanity had longed for since the Callisto Era has finally been realized.

That is artificial womb technology.

While it's called artificial womb technology, it doesn't actually create a real uterus. Instead, it uses technology to mimic the uterine pregnancy process, creating a device that allows a fertilized egg to reproduce inside.

It is like a nurturing environment.

The true process of creating life, the essence of life's birth, is something humans cannot understand. So-called artificial womb technology is nothing more than a process of imitating the environment.

It can be considered a technique of copying from a biological model.

The emergence of these technologies means that the New Government has another option for its population policy.

To be honest, the New Government also understands that the traditional family-based population system is no longer keeping up with the pace of the interstellar era, but it had no choice but to continue as it was before because it lacked the technology.

Because human lifespan has increased dramatically, such a system is highly likely to lead to a situation where people are divided into factions based on family networks, eventually resulting in a situation where ancestors from eighteen generations back can be gathered together.

In fact, over the years, such tendencies have already begun to emerge within humanity. Although the New Government has legally defined ancestral relationships, for example, by enacting regulations that stipulate no further ties beyond three generations, the fundamental nature of humanity is that of a group of people who value their ancestors. Therefore, this trend cannot be stopped in private.

However, the advent of artificial womb technology has enabled humanity to truly reform the population system.

Of course, reforms will not take place the moment the technology emerges, nor will they directly abolish the existing family system, nor will they prohibit natural conception.

Therefore, during these ten years, the New Government led by Yue Yuan only began to explore reform plans.

Besides, the biggest gain from this ten-year voyage was undoubtedly the discovery of Warp.

It's not that humanity has mastered Warp Engine Technology, but rather that the Warp Engine salvaged from the crashed spaceship on Callisto is now usable.

All of this is thanks to the Artificial Intelligence hacking program of the Awakeners.

After obtaining the hacking program, humanity soon successfully entered the fuel storage device system and, in the following years, also figured out how to start the Warp Engine.

That's all. Once those four fuel storage devices are used up, humanity will no longer be able to start that Warp Engine unless humanity completes the Grand Unified Theory and then has the ability to manufacture it themselves.

Therefore, this Warp Engine is a limited-use version. In fact, from a broad perspective, it doesn't really help improve human combat power, since it can't be deployed to the entire fleet.

Moreover, it's designed for small spacecraft, so whether it can actually generate enough warp bubbles to envelop an entire warship is still unknown. After all, while humans can activate it, they don't understand its operating rules or specific parameters, so they naturally can't determine how much Warp Bubble it can generate or how fast it can travel.

If you don't know something, you should find a way to figure it out.

Therefore, in the New Government's plan, after the Awakeners leaves, a place must be found specifically to stop and resupply, and then a project must be established to build a spaceship specifically to equip it with this Warp Engine and conduct various tests on it.

When they found four fuel storage devices, it was estimated that two or three should have remained after the experiment was completed.

If the experimental results meet the requirements for equipping warships, then humanity will install this Warp Engine on its flagship as a precaution.

Although it is a disposable piece of equipment, if used properly, it can sometimes produce unexpected results.

Ten years have passed as scheduled.

At the end of the tenth year, the Awakeners appeared as scheduled.

"Little ones, this is the best I can do for you. Goodbye."

The sound, just like the first time, came from the Lyra's built-in loudspeaker. Those who heard it understood that it was the Awakeners had appeared, not their own Intelligent System.