103 Open the Cage, Fully Understand

Chapter 3 1.03 The Cage Opens, All is Revealed

As humans of the 21st century, we might overestimate technological development twenty years from now, but it's hard to imagine the Physics Technology of four hundred years later. This is because the former is based on a model of optimistic technological development, while the latter era often achieves breakthroughs in Fundamental Physics that surpass the conceptual thinking of previous generations.

For example, in the 21st century, the near-ancient era, the interstellar navigation humans could conceive of was limited to Hibernation Pods, Spaceship Particle Thrusters, and after arriving at a planet illuminated by another star with thousands or tens of thousands of people, planting corn and encountering Alien Organisms.

However, in the 26th century, after making breakthroughs in Fundamental Physics observation, humanity confirmed one thing: the energy levels of various substances in this physical region of the universe where Earth is located are too fixed, making them unsuitable for Interstellar Ship navigation.

So what to do? — If you can't sail a large ship in a ditch, find the sea.

Present-day Earthlings would naturally think: have scientists send humans, production tools, and sufficient Information Enthalpy to a suitable physical region, let humans build a Cosmic Starport, and then mass-produce Interstellar Fleets!

The universe is infinitely large and not smooth.

The physical conditions of Earth's Main World are "dry land"; other places might be oceans.

The technology of Chemical Rockets and Particle Thrusters on the Main World cannot explore the universe, but under other physical conditions, it might be a leap to the heavens.

In other words, it is precisely because of the stability of Earth's physical conditions that humanity has developed Mechanical Technology and Material Design to an extremely high level.

It's just that the spacetime of the Main World is too stable, requiring the Gravitational Distortion of a Stellar Scale and the application of Vast Industrial Technology Facilities (gravity wells) to observe and operate.

Before the 26th century, Earthlings on the Main World could be said to be locked in a cage, then, watching the sea! Watching the sea of stars, and then helplessly calculating their own Spaceship technology.

Finally, fantasizing whether these Space Skiffs could reach another star before their materials ran out.

Now, Earthlings are out.

Ten billion mad dogs released from their cages. Cough, cough.

The Multiverse is actually a Human Trace Ring centered around Earth's Main World.

First, let's state a fact: before any technology is applied, its underlying principles and phenomena may have been unconsciously and naturally applied by human consciousness.

For example, ancient people didn't know about chemical displacement reactions, but they knew how to use Wet Smelting of Copper.

Currently, Plane Travel using gravity wells is based on modern technology and modern human Life Science.

The Particle Collider of the late 20th century proved that it could produce particle traces not found on Earth, indicating that the Big Bang would give birth to other particles, substances, and even worlds.

How to reach such worlds now? Collider experiments can break through the Space Membrane where Earth is located.

Modern humans naturally know that traversing means smashing open the Space Membrane at the stable gravitational point at the center of Earth, and then projecting Information to tunnel through.

When the civilization of the Main World, for the first time, could send enough consciousness to travel and bring enough consciousness back—just as the Great Voyage around the Earth actually proved the Earth was round and proved the existence of planes.

This is proof, not invention.

Under natural circumstances, consciousness can already traverse dimensions! It's just that this phenomenon couldn't be precisely measured before, so it was unconfirmed.

Humans dream. Most dream information is influenced by daytime experiences, but the source of some bizarre dreams is puzzling.

Furthermore, when people die, their consciousness leaves this world. Occasionally, if they gain enough energy, they might depart with some memories.

In the 21st century, there was a "superstition" that if someone died from being struck by lightning, their soul might gain enough energy to travel to another world.

However, the current Time-Space Department cannot deny the possibility of lightning strike travel. It sounds like a dark joke, but modern Earthlings find the hypotheses from the Near Ancient Network Era somewhat plausible.

In some sub-dimensions that have been explored, many traces of Earthly culture have been identified. These cultural traces date from the late 20th century and also from the 23rd century.

This period was an era of Information Explosion in Earth's history. Society made human consciousness extremely active, yet it wasn't entirely safe, meaning there was a high probability of accidental death. After the 23rd century, accidental deaths ceased; people gradually gave up memories during regeneration surgeries, so their consciousness would ultimately leave without memories.

Therefore, in the sub-dimensions, the density of Earthly cultural traces from this era is very high. The existence of cultural phenomena in other planes proves that consciousness might traverse with complete memories and thoughts.

From a more fundamental perspective, life evolution in sub-dimensions always trends towards humanoid forms, which is also reasonable. Traversing at the level of narrow-sense intelligent consciousness also implies cross-temporal infection in the broad sense of life development.

The physical conditions of the Main World are stable. Stability aids fundamental accumulation; mass extinctions occur only once every one to two hundred million years. This is unlike some sub-dimensions where civilizations develop for only ten to twenty thousand years before facing their Time of End.

Earth's stable physical environment has been continuous for four billion years of development. Therefore, surviving higher species' life information might also guide the life development of sub-dimensions through the Quantum Tunneling Effect. Since consciousness has always diffused outwards, spreading consciousness and life information, it can also be called the "Main World."

Of course, although consciousness tunneling can occur naturally.

But from today's perspective, those predecessors who traversed dimensions due to accidents in the Main World struggled immensely in other worlds. Most were Naked Equipment, relying on Luck-based advantages and a bit of advanced Earthly thinking to forge their way in the world.

In contrast, with the support of contemporary industrial technology, dimension travelers are armed to the teeth!

When traversing to another plane, what is most important? — Information Analysis and Processing Power.

In other planes, due to differences in the phase states of some elementary particles compared to the Main World, supernatural physical phenomena relative to Earth might occur.

Collect information, decipher physical laws, and finally experiment to develop science and technology suitable for that region.

In the present day, every traveler arrives in another plane with Information Nodes on their person.

These Information Nodes are connected to a Supercomputing System.

Using some Xuanhuan concepts from the 21st century, contemporary travelers have a "Virtual Chip" in their brains upon arriving in their target plane.

Computation! Rapid computation, relying on higher Energy Levels and more microscopic Energy Arrangements. — In stable planes, beyond the spacetime membrane, matter exists at the most microscopic and high-energy levels.

Relying on the Information Enthalpy sent from the Main World, under the control of the Observer, the computational processing performance surpasses the chips supported by all conventional energy phenomena in the target plane.

Simply put: after a traveler arrives in another plane, the System Hardware in their brain, although intangible and massless, can process data via Warp faster than the performance of any native brain or Energy Computing Device.

[The computational nodes in the brain have extremely low mass, making them difficult to detect. However, this doesn't mean they are completely untraceable—much like neutrinos in the Main World of Earth, if a civilization's observational capabilities are high enough, their traces can still be measured.]

The specific process is as follows:

On Earth, large supercomputers input computational data into particles, which are then sent into the gravity well. After tunneling through the Earth's core, they first connect to the high-energy Observer, and then are transmitted to the nodes on the Transcender.

In this process, it seems as though the Observer is restraining the Transcender, but in reality, this restraint only exists in the early stages of planar exploration.

Once the Transcender becomes familiar with the physical rules of the target plane, they no longer rely on the Information Enthalpy sent from Earth. Instead, they collect energy locally, process it into Information Enthalpy, and become self-sufficient on the plane.

Therefore, the true strength of a Transcender lies in how many nodes their consciousness can bind, which, in the words of Earth physicists, is the quantity of Phase Particles.

The particles are reflected from Earth through the gravity well to the target plane, connecting to the Transcender's consciousness like a network cable spanning the void.

Contemporary Transcenders, with the aid of technology and industry, engage in cross-planar activities. This is not a universal endeavor; it requires rigorous training. Although in this era, different Transcenders have their own methods for mental training, the classification of Transcender levels is very strict, based on the scale of Phase Particles that can be loaded into the consciousness.

Currently, the world has two standards for the Transcender grading system.

Zhongyuan Classification: Min, Shi, Qing.

Mediterranean Classification: Citizen, Veteran, Consul.

The major tiers of these two systems roughly correspond, but there are significant differences in how consciousness accumulates.

These differences lead to variations in the behavior of Transcenders during planar activities. Consequently, this can lead to conflicts due to differing social ideologies in different planes.

Currently, on the Main World Earth, mutual tolerance has increased, and conflicts are becoming less frequent. Standards for Extraterrestrial Aircraft are also beginning to align. However, the conflicts seem to have shifted to the Sub-dimensions.

In temporal and spatial regions where traces of human society are known to exist on various planes, although there are phenomena where the particle energy levels are more easily utilized by life, allowing the inhabitants to master powers that appear Supernatural to the Main World, these planes have human societies, organizations, and technological methods that are weaker than those of the Main World.

After the Main World opened up the planes, even under the physical rules of those planes, Earth Transcenders, using their local technology and power systems, are often able to apply them more scientifically. Transcenders from different Eastern and Western cultures can establish dominance in these worlds.

Furthermore, there are also profit motives involved!

Planar exploration has saved Earth's unhealthy economy! It has finally provided a way for cutting-edge physics and high technology to give back to the public, rather than constantly consuming social and economic resources and turning into bubbles.

Planar exploration has brought back immense wealth!

This wealth is not in the form of gold and silver. The rules of the Main World dictate the conservation of matter. The tunneling phenomenon controlled within the gravity well only brings back information; it does not bring supernatural powers to Earth.

As for what kind of informational wealth it is? Well, it's not like 21st-century Bitcoin. It is very important data.

In terms of theoretical technology alone, Earth has obtained many high-value validations.

For example, dozens of design methods for Nuclear Submarines? Multiple design routes for Nuclear Power Plant reactor types? In the 21st century, even superpowers cannot accumulate all technical routes. Each route requires a massive investment! The approach of "crossing the river by feeling the stones" saved a lot of money for the people. And medical technology development costs lives.

These funds can be used to burn in sub-dimensions similar to Earth's physical rules.

The only opponents of Earth's spacetime traversal department are their counterparts on Earth.

Nowadays, the economy of different planes has greatly stimulated the enthusiasm for the development of Earth civilization.

One gravity well mouth after another is being developed on Earth. Moreover, Earth alone is no longer enough for humanity. Currently, in addition to terrestrial planets like Mars and Venus, Earth's Space Development Department has established a foothold on Jupiter, setting up city-level residential stations and preparing to excavate more gravity wells. The current engineering progress has reached the stage of surveying Jupiter's metallic hydrogen layer.

In addition to building gravity wells, the scale of information enthalpy in the Main World also needs to be expanded. Currently, the support provided to the most basic "civilian" level traversers from Earth is merely the analysis of material and energy phenomena in the target plane.

"Scholar" level traversers can directly use information enthalpy to create void constructs on the target plane, but this consumes too much information enthalpy and requires strict application. If it were fully opened to all traversers, Earth's traditional Nuclear Fusion Array Power Generation System and Mantle Heat Collection System would not be enough. As a result, the technology to directly project matter in different planes is only accessible to the highest "Minister" level.

But the factual demand exists, and where there is demand, there is future development.

The plan for the engineering team on Mercury is to build a Dyson Ring within three hundred years and simultaneously establish a Photon Array Computer spanning one-third of an astronomical unit.

Once humanity harnesses the sun's energy and processes it into information enthalpy, it will completely crush most native civilizations in the planes explored so far, curing all forms of defiance.

At this pace, if space and energy continue to develop.

Even if Earth's Main World is not suitable for space travel, Earth civilization seems capable of breaking through the solar system and reaching the neighboring Proxima Centauri within the next millennium, realizing the vision of heading towards the sea of stars.

The thunderstorm ended, and the Store Intelligent System once again greeted Wei Keng with "Thank you for your patronage."

Wei Keng was forced by his teacher through the remote system to return to school the way he came. When he got on the boat, the cat also rubbed against him and got on the boat. When he returned to the dock in front of the school, the cat jumped ashore and disappeared somewhere.

He plunged into the Information Pod to continue his grueling thesis work, not feeling much emotion about the bright future of this world.

Wei Keng: "The present is the future for me. As for eras further in the future, I'm too lazy to think about them."