Chapter 363: The Enigma of Negative Matter

This negative matter torrent will surge forward at superluminal speed, annihilating any positive matter it encounters along the way.

Once its reactions run their course, the torrent will vanish without a trace.

If an enemy warship lies in its path, it too will react and disappear into nothingness.

That’s the true might of the Negative Matter Cannon—anything in its path in this universe is doomed to vanish.

No wonder even the Dominant Civilization and Ge Ya Civilization, both boasting pinnacle level six technologies, equip their main warships with such a cannon!

It appears only a dimensional shield can counter such an attack; if the negative matter torrent and a warship reside in different dimensions, the warship remains unscathed.

Du Qiu was practically salivating over the idea of a dimensional shield on the main warship, though his understanding of dimensions was nearly complete.

Without deep knowledge of the theory, actually building one is nearly impossible.

The problem lies with the dimensional shield generator—Du Qiu simply couldn’t replicate its materials or some of its critical components.

This means Du Qiu can’t create a main warship with the same offensive and defensive prowess as that of the Dominant Civilization.

Knockoffs really just can’t compare to the original.

Fortunately, the main warship employs a layered shield system; even lacking the dimensional shield, the other shields can still be assembled, and he even managed to reverse-engineer the energy shield.

It’s a pity, though, that this breakthrough only occurred in Dreamland—only thanks to specific equipment on the main warship could the energy shield generator be produced.

In reality, Du Qiu has failed countlessly; so far, Dream Technology’s main warship still lacks an energy shield.

Back at the meeting, as Du Qiu pondered the relationship between the solar system’s gravity and the Sun, and what sort of energy the mysterious enemy might use to counteract it, he recalled something about the principle behind the Negative Matter Cannon.

Now that he had grasped the true nature of negative matter, Du Qiu had experimentally confirmed that it is produced by the reaction of antimatter with dark matter.

In other words, the enormous magnetic confinement cannon—which forms the negative matter generator—converts positive matter into antimatter with immense energy. This antimatter, confined within a lengthy barrel, then meets the invisible dark matter of the universe to produce negative matter.

When Du Qiu first unraveled this principle, he was overjoyed—it contained the secret to producing antimatter.

And with antimatter on hand, an antimatter energy source isn’t far off, is it?

Uh, not quite.

Nearly all the antimatter produced by this device reacts completely with dark matter; up to now, Du Qiu still hasn’t figured out how to store it so it won’t meet dark matter.

As mentioned before, dark matter makes up 85% of the universe’s mass—it’s ubiquitous yet invisible.

Controlling antimatter to prevent its reaction with dark matter will require further research.

At that moment, Du Qiu couldn’t help but wonder if the mysterious enemy might somehow be linked to dark matter.

After all, over the past decade, the central control room’s observations have never detected any enemy.

The Tur Fleet warships have maintained the same appearance for ages, until suddenly one is transformed into a Meteor Warship.

Every time, everyone watches helplessly as a Tur warship morphs into a Meteor Warship, with nothing external visible during the transformation.

Everyone has witnessed this almost miraculous process.

It has become a common understanding that the enemy is invisible.

However, during today’s symposium, when Du Qiu casually linked the enemy’s contest with solar gravity to the recent dimming of solar activity, he realized that the enemy might be as undetectable as dark matter.

Even the Pleiadians’ Civilization Bastion Detection System, Du Qiu believed, was at least as advanced as that of a fifth-level civilization.

Now that he can produce negative matter, he noted another trait: its superluminal nature—particles moving faster than light are also invisible in our universe.

Perhaps he could use this characteristic to develop a superluminal detector; Du Qiu vaguely recalled that in Dreamland the main warship housed an instrument capable of tracking superluminally moving warships.

He planned to deeply investigate that instrument in Dreamland tonight—maybe it could finally reveal the invisible enemy.

While Du Qiu mulled over these thoughts, the attendees continued their lively discussion.

“I wish I could get on a warship and head straight to the energy vortex region of the Civilization Bastion to study these energy vortices and learn exactly how they form,”

Director Best of the Astronomy Institute remarked, “Such a man-made astronomical spectacle—if we can unravel its principles—could propel human technology forward by leaps and bounds.”

Chen Guangnan said, “It’s nothing more than a gravity-induced phenomenon. Considering the four fundamental forces, it can’t be due to the strong or weak nuclear forces, nor electromagnetic force—so it must be gravity.”

He added, “Perhaps the Civilization Bastion taps into the solar system’s gravity. So if the enemy not only counteracts the gravitational pull from the warship fleet but also these additional forces, the solar system’s gravitational energy is further depleted.”

Moreover, in recent years the enemy has launched numerous meteors and Meteor Warships into the energy vortex region, dramatically draining energy.

It seems the boss’s theory—that weakened solar activity might be linked to this phenomenon—might be on target.

On hearing this, Du Qiu immediately said, “Chen, you’re right—the energy loss from the Sun might actually shorten its lifespan.”

He continued, “The Civilization Bastion is a double-edged sword. If the enemy keeps attacking the energy vortex region, the energy within our star system will be severely exhausted.”

Director Huo Mingchuan of the Energy Research Institute expressed his concern, “If the Civilization Bastion’s energy source is derived from our star system’s gravity—or even the star itself—then when the stellar energy is entirely depleted, the Civilization Bastion might collapse, leaving our solar system in chaos.”

With that, every face in the room grew grim; judging by the Sun’s current state, energy consumption in recent years had accelerated alarmingly.

“We must devise a solution urgently; otherwise, if the Sun fails first—even without the enemy outside—being trapped within our star system would spell disaster for us.”

Those dire words conveyed the most frightening outcome.

“Boss, we can’t even see the enemy now—how are we supposed to counter it?”

Without missing a beat, Du Qiu shared his idea about a superluminal detector, “In our universe, the invisible matter is dark matter. Perhaps the enemy is a sentient being composed of dark matter.”

He turned to Director Chen and said, “Chen, take your team and quickly research whether negative matter can be used to construct a superluminal detector. Perhaps such an instrument will help us locate the enemy.”

Chen Guangnan nodded, “Alright. We’re currently studying various forms of matter intensively. Antimatter has already been successfully extracted in the lab, so it’s a great moment to test your idea.”

Director Best interjected, “Boss, our institute has a research group focusing on dark matter. Let’s take charge of collecting dark matter from space—this will serve both as our experimental subject and as a reactant with antimatter to generate negative matter.”

Song Yuanting then asked, “Boss, based on your plan, if we discover this invisible enemy, how do we eliminate it?”

“It’s simple—if it consists of dark matter, we can trigger a reaction with antimatter to produce negative matter, which will naturally eliminate it.”

“Exactly, that’s a brilliant idea!”

All the participants grew instantly excited; after years of research, they had finally uncovered a potential way to defeat the invisible enemy.

The boss truly lived up to his role as our technological guide—once again providing an effective solution to our problems.