Chapter 395: Encountering the Black Fog City Wall

In the Shenzhou Era 8686, the Divine Vessel Civilization had already distanced itself from the Solar System by 1024 light years.

By this time, the Divine Vessel Civilization had long since shed the shackles of a low-level civilization, and its voyages were no longer as cautious as before. Its current speed of travel had approached 30% of the speed of light.

At this moment, what appeared before the Divine Vessel Civilization was an endless wall of black fog. Initially, the observers of the Divine Vessel Civilization had considered it to be a gigantic cloud of interstellar dust common in the universe, a vast yet ordinary existence. They never anticipated that this would be the most mysterious and unpredictable encounter in the history of their voyages.

However, as the fleet of the Divine Vessel Civilization slowly closed in, the true nature of that wall of black fog gradually revealed its strange and extraordinary essence.

Within this seemingly ordinary wall of black fog, even the highly developed technology of the Divine Vessel Civilization found all attempts at piercing through its mist with detection methods to be utterly ineffective, as if stones thrown into the sea, invariably failing.

This wall of black fog was like a giant black hole devouring all information and signals, causing any voyager who tried to step into its domain to instantly lose direction and be eternally trapped within.

But upon further research, it was discovered that the mechanisms underlying the black fog wall were not as mystifying as initially thought. Its core relied on changing the structure of space within the interstellar dust cloud through "space-time confinement state," and it firmly grasped all means of perceiving the outside world.

All methods of communication currently held by humanity, including electromagnetic wave communication, gravitational wave communication, neutrino communication, high-dimensional entanglement communication, strong interaction communication, multidimensional string communication, dark matter communication, etc., in the face of this power, were like kites with broken strings, lost of direction.

Such technology, for humanity, was not an unattainable dream; understanding its principles did not pose a significant barrier. The real challenge lay in how to apply this technology on such a vast scale, to create that awe-inspiring wall of black fog that spanned the Galaxy.

By human estimates, this wall of black fog nearly stretched across the entire Orion Arm, and the interstellar dust clouds it contained had a mass almost equivalent to the total mass of over three thousand suns.

To put it in perspective, the Sun's mass is 333,000 times that of Earth. So, the enormity of this project was as if 3 billion Earth-mass dust clouds had been transported here and piled up to form this magnificent barrier that spanned the galaxy.

Such a colossal cosmic engineering project nearly surpassed the limits of human imagination. However, as some scientists speculated, the project seemed theoretically possible.

Billions of years ago, when the Sun had only recently formed, the Milky Way was a scene of unformed Chaos. Dust clouds were pervasive in every corner, continuously gathering and collapsing, giving birth to dazzling new stars.

It was perhaps during this time that early civilizations of level 2.0 and above were born. They used vacuum expansion technology to gradually segregate the dust clouds in this region, and its interior did not collapse into new stars due to the effects of vacuum expansion.

As time flowed endlessly, with countless years accumulating and diminishing, countless years of additions and repairs finally merged into the spectacular black wall we see today, spanning the galaxy.

Their initial intention in constructing this wall of black fog was not merely to bind the wings of low-level civilizations, preventing them from flying into the broader universe.

Upon further observation of the entire Galaxy's structure, many such walls of black fog could be seen. They segregated and divided different areas of the Milky Way, each area crafted like an independent cage.

This was a chasm laid across the interstellar, completely severing the communication and collision between civilizations. It served to prevent civilizations inside the 'cage' from crossing boundaries to explore the mysteries of the outside world, and also constructed an impregnable defense line to resist any comprehensive invasion that other civilizations might launch.

This universe was also doing its utmost to prevent the union of civilizations.

In the field of cosmic sociology, scholars have proposed an astonishing hypothesis:

The entire Milky Way might have been silently sliced into various Star Domain City Districts, and the boundaries or defense lines between these districts are these walls of black fog.

For the moment, let us refer to the civilizations controlling these Star Domain City Districts as Intermediate Civilizations, and the walls of black fog, like markers in the universe, silently declaring their territorial sovereignty.

Of course, one might speculate whether it is possible to launch an unprecedented invasion across the vast and boundless empty spaces between the arms. However, such speculation often remains theoretical and is difficult to put into practice.

Although the space between arms is not entirely empty, with very sparse distribution of stars, obtaining resources is extremely difficult, and the journey would be measured in tens of thousands of light years.

Moreover, who could guarantee that Higher Civilizations had not set traps within this seemingly tranquil void?

With the current technological level of humanity, it is possible to speculate on the states of civilizations of level 2.0 to 2.2. With their capabilities, even they might find it difficult to traverse the vast and endless empty spaces between the arms. In theory, it might be possible, but in reality, few civilizations dare to embark on this unknown and perilous journey.

The reasons are as follows:

The first is that such long-distance travel would consume a vast amount of resources, which are hard to replenish in the sparse regions.

The second is that stars are extremely scarce in sparse regions, making it difficult to establish effective points of reference, for discovering the "traps" of the sparsely populated zones.

The third is that methods of faster-than-light travel, such as curvature or vacuum expansion, are actually not as safe as we imagine. If they encounter low light-speed zones or space-time binding wells... etc., even spaceships traveling at light-speed would disintegrate in spatial tides.

Usually, faster-than-light travel is only undertaken after careful discrimination of the space one intends to travel through, and reckless travel's biggest consequence is the destruction of the fleet and loss of lives.

If a large-scale invasion were to occur indeed, it would mean that the level of civilization difference between both sides has reached an insurmountable extent, making the existence of the Dark Forest city walls seem trivial, as they can no longer stop the iron hooves of a high-level civilization.

This situation is very similar to the history of ancient human warfare, like the Great Wall, which could withstand the charge of cavalry, but under the roar of rifles and cannon, it appeared so fragile and powerless.

And after further deduction by cosmic sociology, this hegemony of a more advanced civilization is the collision and competition of super powerful forces in the galaxy.

These high-level civilizations may weave networks in vast spaces, creating enormous domains of rule.

If the social state of cosmic civilizations from level 2.0 to 2.2 is likened to small city districts built by the Dark Forest city walls.

Then the civilizations of level 2.3 to 2.5 may have constructed large city-states with super low light-speed zones or super interstellar rifts.

As for civilizations exceeding level 2.6, it is very difficult for current humanity to speculate, and some scholars are more inclined to believe that they no longer have an excessive desire for living space...

So, a new question arises, does the appearance of such a cosmic social structure mean the invalidation of the "Dark Forest" law? The answer is not that simple.

The state of the "Dark Forest" stubbornly persists, and there is no hierarchical relationship between them, with relationships being even more complex.

Against this backdrop, these super civilizations can only opt for an alternative mode of coexistence in a subtle compromise.

This actually also reflects a reality: below the speed of light, all beings are equal.

The speed of light is like an insurmountable chasm, firmly binding the grandeur and ambition of civilizations. No matter how glorious a civilization, it cannot exceed the limits of light speed, and even a civilization of level 1.2 may master faster-than-light travel technology.

This also invisibly counteracts the advantages of higher civilizations, high-level civilizations can't even catch up with low-level civilizations. This also makes it very difficult for high-level civilizations to truly annihilate those intermediate civilizations, the only way to eradicate intermediate civilizations could only be through designing various traps in space.

Faced with such Dark Forest city walls, the Divine Vessel Civilization now faces a significant choice:

Do they opt to follow along the Dark Forest city walls until reaching their end, thus bypassing the city walls?

Or do they cast their gaze towards the vast and boundless sparse regions between the arms, traveling to other arms through such sparse areas?

If they choose the first path, the guardians of the walls must guard against the scrutiny of higher civilizations and defend this extensive defensive line, inevitably setting traps everywhere. If the Divine Vessel Civilization takes this path, they might be able to use their wisdom and courage to find a glimmer of hope, traversing this seemingly insoluble labyrinth.

But this path also easily puts the Divine Vessel Civilization face to face with the true "masters" of this region.

Choosing the second path, the price to pay for facing this vast expanse of emptiness would be the long journey.

An almost ten thousand light-year journey, which can only be completed by relying on faster-than-light travel, and the risks lurking in this extreme speed are undeniably magnified infinitely, with countless traps possibly contained within, and each jump could be a gamble between life and death.

PS: There was an earthquake here last night in the author's location, quite small, 4.7 magnitude, no significant impact, but it delayed the writing. So today's chapter is late, sorry.

The cosmic social state described in this chapter is somewhat derived from the original work, and it's another state of the Dark Forest.

Both higher and intermediate civilizations use faster-than-light travel, which makes it very difficult for intermediate civilizations to be annihilated, and the kind of extreme secrecy they once practiced has been greatly reduced. Like in the original work where Cheng Xin saw higher civilizations, they simply used curvature travel, not at all concerned about the "little mice" around them.