In the technology tree, the brightness of the marker for [Initial mastery of vacuum zero-point energy], a foundational technology of a level eight civilization, had reached 75%.
This meant that Human Civilization had fully mastered its theoretical foundations. Only the final step of practical application remained!
But... going from theory to practical application was an extremely long and difficult process.
Extracting vacuum zero-point energy from a region of space...
There was no question that this was an immensely difficult task.
As Chief Scientist, Lü Yongchang was leading a group of Level I Academicians through repeated attempts in the laboratory.
"Beep!"
A somewhat urgent alarm sounded in the laboratory.
"Warning!" As the azure holographic projection turned orange-yellow, Zero's electronic synthesized voice rang out as well. "Anomalous spacetime fluctuations of unknown origin detected."
"Coordinates: ..."
Lü Yongchang stopped what he was doing and looked up at the orange-yellow holographic projection before him.
A single glance made him frown.
Something was odd.
The spacetime fluctuations were not particularly strong.
In fact, they could be described as faint.
Lü Yongchang made a rough estimate. They were about equivalent to the fluctuations produced when a level six civilization's fleet entered curvature navigation.
In theory, spacetime fluctuations of this magnitude should not have triggered such a high-priority alert-most low- and medium-priority alerts never reached Lü Yongchang at all.
But the exact coordinates where these fluctuations had appeared had greatly raised the alert's priority.
According to Zero's report, the anomalous spacetime fluctuations had occurred outside the Neutral Faction Safe Zone, less than 1,000 light-years from the Human Fleet.
That distance was highly sensitive.
For Human Civilization as it was now, 1,000 light-years was practically on its doorstep.
Moreover, on a larger scale, the region of spacetime fluctuations was less than 50,000 light-years from M87's central region!
That