If the Star Gate technology could achieve cosmic-scale teleportation—not only movement through space, but also through time and dimensions—then the Pseudo–Star Gate technology could only achieve short-distance movement.
This "short distance," measured on a cosmic scale, meant an entire galaxy.
A galaxy cluster contained over a hundred galaxies.
A supercluster contained over a hundred galaxy clusters and galaxy groups—in other words, tens of thousands of galaxies.
Not to mention that above superclusters were cosmic-scale celestial systems such as supercluster complexes, cosmic voids, and the Great Wall.
What did a mere galaxy-level teleportation amount to?
But that was the conclusion reached from the perspective of the universe.
From the perspective of a Level Three civilization, however, the function of the "Pseudo–Star Gate technology" was comparable to sailing ships during the Age of Exploration.
Level Three civilizations were star-region civilizations, also known as secondary galactic civilizations. Civilizations of this level could only remain within their galaxies, covering a range of tens of billions of planets.
Their method of exploring the outside world was a clumsy one: using lightspeed ships to explore interstellar routes, laying down interstellar highways, and marking star maps—ordinary planets received ordinary markers, disaster planets received priority markers, resource planets were mined and harvested, and habitable planets were colonized.
With this method of exploration, it might take a Level Three civilization hundreds of thousands of years to reach the edge of its galaxy.
That much time was enough for a civilization to face dozens of extinction crises—until it was completely wiped out.
Only after completing ascension and unlocking the technology of "faster-than-light ships" could a civilization cross galaxies and step onto a greater stage.
But possessing a "Pseudo–Star Gate" was equivalent to mastering faster-than-light technology ahead of time.
For a civilization, this meant directly breaking through the most crucial hurdle