[Galactic wonders]
It was a wondrous creation rarely seen within the Milky Way or beyond. This wonder belonged neither to any individual nor to any particular undertaking, but to an entire civilization. It was proof of that civilization's glorious achievements, a historical testament that this species had once existed.
And a "wonder" was not something that could be completed easily. A civilization had to invest vast amounts of time and resources to build such a [galactic wonder].
Ring worlds, Dyson Spheres, Matter Decompressors.
These were the three structures in the game that required the galactic wonders ascension perk to unlock.
Now, the Empire had two ring worlds, Cybrex Alpha and the Sanctuary Ring World, so it had no need for another one for the time being.
A Matter Decompressor involved installing an enormous device over a black hole to steal mass from it and turn that mass into minerals. Since the Empire had undergone complete Nanization, minerals were no longer essential, so naturally there was no need to build a Matter Decompressor.
Any physically existing matter could be converted into nanites. That was the power of nanite horror.
Could the other ascensions do that?!
Virtual ascension was powerful, but as ordinary people liked to say, everything online was virtual-you couldn't get a grip on it.
Once the servers were destroyed or their power supply cut off, the hundreds of billions of people living in those virtual servers would all be wiped out in an instant.
But nanite ascension was different.
Psionic nanite servers used nanites to construct virtual servers and transfer digitized consciousnesses into them, then protected those servers with the psionic power of countless consciousnesses. By combining three ascensions into one, they compensated for their weaknesses. If the servers were destroyed, the consciousnesses would transfer into psionics