The Moment of Life-and-Death Struggle

"How was that possible?! It completely defied the laws of physics!"

Some Collectors were dumbfounded, feeling as though the knowledge inherited through their species had been forcibly dismantled. They had watched an enormous amount of energy vanish into thin air, while the target of the attack not only remained completely unharmed, but did not even undergo a change in temperature!

Perhaps the Coordination Council had converted the gamma-ray beam's energy into another form—this thought had arisen when the Collectors learned that the enemy had emerged unscathed from the concentrated attack. But the Collectors quickly rejected it after another discovery: the surface temperature of the enemy target struck by the focused gamma rays had not changed at all.

According to the concept of entropy increase derived from the second law of thermodynamics, any form of energy conversion had to be accompanied by losses. The only difference was how large those losses were. Take antimatter, for example. Although matter-antimatter annihilation did indeed result in a one hundred percent loss of matter, the mass-to-energy conversion process did not release one hundred percent of that energy as heat. Part of it was released as light.

Entropy increase dictated that energy would inevitably be lost during conversion.

Whether it was making the energy of gamma rays disappear out of nowhere or converting that energy one hundred percent into another form, both were miracles of physics!

"Focus on the battle!" the cluster leader shouted over the channel.

The enemy's strength was plain for all to see. With such a glaring technological gap, allowing themselves to be distracted was nothing short of courting death.

The leaping organisms dispersed, racing in different directions at tremendous speed. This spread the entire cluster far apart, making enemy fire control more difficult to some extent.

All that remained was to endure