Chapter 419: New World, Here I Come!_1

Star Ring City housed many senior scholars from the Solar System Federation, as well as an institution of higher learning.

Thanks to Cheng Xin and the Solar System Federation, Jiang Yu gained such a great reward with just one lecture and a demonstration.

The current power of the Solar System State had completely exceeded the expectations of the Solar System Federation.

Within the federation, the only thing that could still interest the Solar System State was their talent.

Weide, Bi Yunfeng, and a group of key personnel from Star Ring City were assigned to understand the details of the Sentinel Project, while the rest waited at their original positions for further arrangements from the Governing Council.

The Sentinel Project entered the phase of full activation, with a large number of cargo spacecraft setting out from the Kuiper Belt, Neptune, and other locations, heading towards Lisbon City.

But before the plan was implemented, there were still two unresolved issues.

The first issue was whether or not to involve Wallfacer Jiang Yu in the initial pioneering efforts.

This involved a problem of information lag during curvature travel, which could result in qualitative changes in virtual time.

Virtual time is a concept proposed by the late Stephen Hawking, generally referring to time measured using imaginary numbers.

For example, if a spaceship's speed is 10% of the speed of light, then from an external observer's point of view, the spaceship reaches its destination in ten years.

But for the crew on board the spaceship, they only took nine years to reach their destination.

The ten years observed from the outside and the nine years experienced by the crew are both real time, but to the crew, there is indeed one year less.

Hawking and his colleague resolved this paradox; the mismatched year is considered virtual time.

Contemporary physicists, building on the concept of virtual time, have found that once it accumulates to a certain degree, it can cause drastic changes in spatial dimensions.

The so-called "certain degree" is theoretically about 48% of the speed of light.

An object traveling at or beyond 48% of the speed of light cannot exchange information with real time-space, rendering even quantum entanglement reactions ineffective.

Physicists speculate that only with an in-depth study of the time dimension can this problem be resolved.

This means that spaceships preparing to colonize the New Continent Star System, traveling at the speed of light, cannot maintain contact with the Solar System.

However, curvature-driven spaceships do not cause time dilation. Upon reaching their destination, whether it's the Solar System or the New Continent Star System, twenty-eight years will have already passed.

During these twenty-eight years, they will not receive any intelligence, and before exiting light-speed travel, they cannot know if there is any new situation in the New Continent Star System; hence, the operation is considered somewhat risky.

Yet, Jiang Yu insisted on joining this pioneering mission. Whether it was Bernice and others from the Governing Council or military figures like Wu Xinghai and Cao Yang, they all repeatedly advised Jiang Yu to follow the second wave to the New Continent worlds as the safer option.

The second issue was whether the pioneering effort should include both military and civilians.

The safest method was for the military to occupy the New Continent Star System and, after confirming that it was completely safe, to arrange for the first group of immigrants.

However, considering that it would take twenty-eight years for a warship to reach the New Continent Star System, and if the first group of immigrants were to depart then, it would take another twenty-eight years to arrive.

Only after having enough professionals could they begin mining for mineral resources, then establish a basic industrial system, and only then would they have the capacity to build residential areas on a large scale.

According to the Sentinel Project team's calculations, it would take about thirty years before the New Star System had the capability to receive large numbers of immigrants.

All these times added up, a century would have passed.

Yet, the Solar System was already urgently facing the threat of the Dark Forest; they could not wait!

The best solution was for the first group of immigrants to set out alongside the warships, with military vessels leading the way and settlers following closely behind to establish their homes.

Another plan was for the immigrants to depart three to five years later.

But this plan seemed quite pointless; even if the immigrants left five years late, by the time they set out, the warships would still be twenty-three light-years away from the destination, and everything about the New Continent Star System would still be unknown.

After their departure, they also couldn't receive any messages from the Solar System or the New Continent Star System. When they dropped out of lightspeed, if there was danger, they would still face danger; if there was no danger, they would not be in any danger either.

They'd also wastefully spent five years.

The only advantage of this plan was that if new situations arose within those five years, it could delay or even prevent the launch of the Immigrant Fleet.

All the other preparations had essentially been completed; only these two issues remained unresolved.

For this reason, Jiang Yu convened a high-level meeting, determined to make a decision about these two issues.

After the meeting began, he first explained the reasons for his insistence on participating in the pioneering expedition: "This is humanity's first colonization of a New Star System, with no existing experiences to draw from, we can only grope our way forward.

"Only in the New Continent Star System can I make the most correct decisions promptly, to avoid a situation where my body is in the New Continent Star System, but my mind is still in the Solar System.

"Another point is a personal desire of mine. When I saw the planets of the New Continent Star System, I couldn't wait a moment longer—after all, that's a new world! Who wouldn't yearn for it?"

Jiang Yu's words still failed to persuade everyone. In the end, they had to vote, and under the cold gaze of Jiang Yu, many people couldn't resist and agreed to let Jiang Yu participate in the pioneering expeditions.

In the end, Jiang Yu managed to get his wish by a slim margin of three votes.

After voting concluded, Jiang Yu led the applause.

If he had ordered everyone to cooperate with his participation in the initial pioneering with a commanding tone, everyone would have followed his command.

But doing so could very well have destroyed the bureaucratic system he had painstakingly established by his own hands.

Until now, the Solar System State had not become a one-man show, a point of great pride for Jiang Yu.

Most matters had to be discussed, or resolved through mutual compromise. A one-man show could easily allow conflicts to hide in the dark, bubbling up only when they erupted.

Therefore, within the Solar System State, Jiang Yu would not exert his authority in a tyrannical manner to achieve his objectives unless in an extremely urgent situation.

For the second issue, Jiang Yu let everyone discuss it first. When it came to risking the lives of hundreds of thousands of citizens, everyone was extremely cautious.

Wu Xinghai, Cao Yang, and others from the military and Strategic Department believed the risk was worth taking because both warships and civilian ships would drop out of lightspeed more than six thousand astronomical units away from the New Continent Star System.

That distance provided enough space to evade some of the dangers.

Representatives of the Governing Council, led by Bernice, however, thought any risk-taking actions were irresponsible toward the lives of the citizens.

As with previous meetings, they failed to convince each other, and in the end, all eyes turned to Jiang Yu.

After much hesitation, Jiang Yu finally said, "We may not have much time left, and everyone must feel the urgency of life and death."

Ultimately, the decision was made for the civilian ships to depart together with the warships.

After the meeting, Jiang Yu gave Number Three some private instructions before immediately departing for Lisbon City.

Weide from Star Ring City, along with many from the City Self-Defense Force, joined the first group of immigrants.

Scientists like Bi Yunfeng and Cao Bin were arranged to join the second or third echelon.

By regulation, Weide, at his advanced age and with only one arm, did not meet the conditions for the first group of immigrants.

However, when Jiang Yu saw his application, he made an exception for him, allowing him to join the first echelon.

Weide also installed a mechanical arm before departure and told his new colleagues that he was ready to make a big impact in the New Star System.

In June of Shelter Era Year 7, aboard the second Command Ship, Jiang Yu gave the order, "Depart!"

Humanity's first planned interstellar migration began!