It was not easy for a first-tier mother insect to breed higher-tier insects, either. Back in the Solar System, the birth of a single second-tier insect required a mother insect to devour three or four other mother insects to accumulate enough Chong Element. For the third tier, the number rose to nearly twenty, and the fourth tier required three or four hundred. Each tier required almost the square of the number needed for the preceding tier. For a twenty-fifth-tier insect like the one Mr. Daozi had encountered, the number of first-tier mother insects consumed would be astronomical.
If a single first-tier mother insect had to devour that many insects one by one, it would never accumulate enough Chong Element, even by the destruction of the universe. The Insect Race's trick was to deploy a large number of first-tier mother insects at once and let them devour one another until only one remained. That increased efficiency countless times over.
"We still can't determine whether they deployed mother insects and let them evolve gradually, or used four-dimensional space bubbles to deploy higher-tier insects directly," Hu Yu said.
"General, I think it's more likely they deployed mother insects and let them evolve gradually. Higher-tier insects are usually deployed against higher-level civilizations. There don't seem to be any traces of a battle between the Insect Race and a higher-level civilization here. We can't find even a single fragment of a warship. I think they may have deployed mother insects directly to destroy a lower-level civilization. Higher-tier insects also eat the mother insects and other insects after completing their mission, which would explain why we can't find a single mother insect now."
"That's possible. We may have attracted the mother insects ourselves when we pierced space during our high-energy experiments back then. This planet's civilization may have done the same. We just don't know whether they escaped or all ended up in the insects' bellies."
Back in the Solar System, humanity had conducted high-energy particle collision experiments in hopes of establishing a grand unified model of the four fundamental forces. The high-energy particles had pierced space during the experiments, drawing the insect swarm. Academician Zeng Zhaoyuan had discovered this later, when a four-dimensional channel was established. Entering the fourth dimension required an extremely high energy level. Under normal circumstances, only high-energy experiments conducted by intelligent life could open a channel between the three-dimensional universe and the fourth dimension.
The Insect Race had most likely placed some kind of detection equipment in the fourth dimension. Whenever a crack appeared in space, they would invade through it. After extensive research, Academician Zeng and a group of spatial physicists concluded that it was unlikely anyone could accurately locate a particular point in the three-dimensional universe from four-dimensional space. That was why insect swarms tended to appear wherever a civilization conducted high-energy experiments.
Humanity's four-dimensional communications network used the connections between quanta in the fourth dimension to establish two points. Without special particles like quanta, if humanity raised the energy level of a single particle aboard a warship and sent it into the fourth dimension, it would be nearly impossible to connect it accurately to another warship in three-dimensional space once it entered the fourth dimension.
The fourth dimension was an independent space, not merely an additional dimension laid over the universe's three-dimensional space. Four-dimensional space also contained three dimensions, which had some connection to the three dimensions of the universe. There was also a spatial barrier, and only energy at a high level could break through it.
After entering four-dimensional space, one lost contact with the three-dimensional universe and could no longer see anything in it. Leaving the fourth dimension, however, was simple. One only had to find a connection to the three-dimensional universe to pass through easily. Going from a lower dimension to a higher one required high energy, but going from a higher dimension to a lower one did not.
The problem was that once someone entered a higher dimension and wanted to return to a lower one, nobody knew exactly where in the universe they would end up. They might be one light-year from their entry point, or tens of billions of light-years away. Most likely, they would enter unknown space and be lost forever. The subject of unknown space was still purely speculative, because four-dimensional space was clearly larger than the three-dimensional universe, and the existence of only one three-dimensional universe was unconvincing. The Destroyers had once said that even a great star region civilization could not cross space through dimensions. This might have been why: fear of becoming lost in unknown space.
For example, imagine a transparent film suspended in the air as a two-dimensional space. The film was space itself and could not be seen. A grasshopper stood on it; assume the grasshopper was a two-dimensional creature. The grasshopper leaped with all its might from the paper and entered three-dimensional space. It would already be difficult for it to return to the point where it had jumped, let alone reach another destination, unless a special event occurred at that destination. Applied to the three-dimensional universe, such a special event was intelligent life piercing space through a high-energy experiment.
Not long after humanity had conducted its high-energy experiments, a higher-dimensional channel was established, and first-tier mother insects poured into Earth through it like a flood. This was more than a coincidence. Most likely, the Insect Race had observed humanity's exact coordinates in the three-dimensional universe from four-dimensional space and then deployed the insect swarm.
These were conclusions Academician Zeng and a group of physicists had reached later. Those conducting high-energy experiments were generally planetary-level or stellar-level civilizations, and deploying cheap mother insects directly was enough. Deploying higher-tier insects required a great deal of energy to maintain the higher-dimensional channel. The insects themselves also had very high energy levels, which could easily cause the channel to collapse. That was why four-dimensional space bubbles existed. They were stable, but much slower than direct transport through a higher-dimensional channel.
A higher-dimensional channel was a little like a high-speed train: its carrying capacity was small, but it was fast and only needed to accelerate and set off. A four-dimensional space bubble was more like a massive freighter of tens of thousands of tons: it could carry a great deal and was very stable, but it was slower. Against lower-tier civilizations, not many insects were needed and the requirements were not high, so a fast higher-dimensional channel was well suited to the task. Against a higher-tier civilization, however, for example, higher-tier insects could be deployed directly. Otherwise, sending over a huge number of lower-tier mother insects would merely provide the higher-tier civilization with some additional matter.
The highest-tier insects humanity had encountered were only sixth-tier. They were flat insects, resembling giant strips of kelp, and were more than ten meters long. They cruised through space, waiting for a chance to attack human fighters. Once one of these giant kelp-like insects latched onto a fighter, the craft had practically no chance of escape. They used their flat bodies to coil around narrow parts of the fighters, such as their wings and tails, like pythons, until the craft were reduced to fragments.
Humanity's various bombs were almost completely ineffective against them. Only super nuclear bombs with yields exceeding one hundred million tons could barely kill them. Fortunately, when humanity fled, there were only a few thousand sixth-tier insects. If humanity had left any later, their numbers would surely have continued to grow, and seventh- or eighth-tier insects might even have appeared.
"General, I have a proposal. Let the biological warriors take the field first so we can test their effectiveness in actual combat."
"Academician, if I remember correctly, your biological ship has never requested large-scale food supplies. Biological warriors can't grow on water alone. Are they as big as rabbits yet?"
"They're indeed not as big as rabbits. Over the years, we've made some improvements that extended the cultivation period, giving the biological warriors greater adaptability and making them more obedient to our commands. Besides, the fleet's food is all a strategic reserve. Although you agreed to let us use it, General, we can't think only of ourselves in everything we do. General, shall we go take a look together?"