The message was followed by a star map. Since this Small Universe was pitch-black, humanity and the Daya Civilization had been unable to find any reference points, so the Divine Matrix Civilization thoughtfully marked the two civilizations' location as the coordinate center.
It also explained on the star map how the two civilizations should navigate.
After discussing it, humanity and the Daya Civilization decided to follow the Divine Matrix Civilization's guidance and take a look. Sure enough, after weaving through space for some time as instructed, the displays aboard both civilizations' ships showed a different sight.
First came light.
The Divine Matrix Civilization's Small Universe indeed had light. Due to some sort of spatial arrangement, however, it had not reached the area where humanity and the Daya Civilization had previously been.
The light was dim, but it was enough for humanity and the Daya Civilization to make out what they were seeing.
They were stars completely wrapped up from end to end. There were not many—only twenty-two. Of course, there might have been more stars hidden in the interlayers of other regions within the Small Universe. From what they had seen before, the Divine Matrix Civilization was capable of such a thing.
Each star was covered in a nearly opaque layer of material. Neither humanity nor the Daya Civilization knew what it was. It did not resemble any Dyson Sphere they recognized; instead, it looked more like the advanced constructs humanity had once seen in the Pioneer Small Universe.
The stars emitted only faint light precisely because of those things.
Before long, humanity and the Daya Civilization noticed something else. Neither civilization's spacetime curvature detectors detected any gravitational phenomena from those stars.
Gravity—where there was mass, there had to be spacetime curvature. A spacetime curvature detector should therefore be able