Chapter 383: Cosmic Collision Crisis

But soon after, something even more astonishing unfolded.

Contrary to everyone’s expectations, the two fragments of the neutron star weren’t locked together by strong gravity—instead, they shot apart as if repelled by an unseen force.

“Crap! The right fragment of the neutron star has doubled its speed, reaching 1,000 kilometers per second. It’s accelerating right toward our sun!”

Sun Chunyi immediately began calculating the orbits of both neutron star fragments.

Originally, the neutron star’s gravity was twice that of the sun, but after splitting, the smaller right fragment now exerts even less gravitational pull than the sun.

Meanwhile, the larger left fragment, with its stronger gravity, has sped away in the opposite direction at 800 kilometers per second.

Moments later, Sun Chunyi’s face turned ashen as he shouted, “This isn’t good—we must accelerate and get as far away as possible, right now!”

He warned, “The two fragments might eventually be drawn together again to collide, triggering an explosion of such magnitude that it would affect at least one light-year around!”

The head of the expert team agreed, “Colliding neutron star material? The resulting force would be enormous!”

Rin Feng immediately ordered the entire fleet to accelerate to superluminal speeds, creating as much distance as possible.

Once the fleet achieved superluminal speed, Rin Feng finally took a moment to ask Sun Chunyi exactly what was happening.

A tense Sun Chunyi replied, “I’m not sure what changes the Tur Civilization’s matter disintegration rays have caused in the neutron star.”

“However, the fragments have indeed been forced apart by a repelling force that now appears to be weakening, as their trajectories begin to shift.”

“According to my calculations, they will reconvene in about eight days—leading to a collision.”

Everyone in the room knew that when the neutron star fragments collide, the unleashed energy would far exceed that of a supernova.

Previous simulations by AI in the nebula predicted that such a collision could produce temperatures as high as 350 billion degrees—three times hotter than a typical supernova.

These neutron star collisions aren’t rare cosmic events; researchers and military personnel alike were familiar with them from space navigation simulators.

Rin Feng exhaled in relief, saying, “Thank goodness we have nearly one light-year to put between us and the blast.”

The expert team leader added, “It seems that a new nebula will soon form here, although it’s uncertain if any remnants will survive the impact.”

Sun Chunyi replied, “At this scale, no remnants should persist. And if any do, our Negative Matter Cannon should take care of them.”

Rin Feng patted his forehead and said, “This is bad—I need to alert the reinforcement fleet immediately so they can change course. Otherwise, they’ll be here in just a few days.”

He then instructed the communications officer to send a message to the reinforcement fleet, informing them of the situation and resetting the meeting coordinates.

Meanwhile, Sun Chunyi continued working on his tablet, using the warship’s AI to further calculate the neutron star fragments’ trajectories.

In truth, his earlier panic stemmed from the fact that there wasn’t enough time for the fleet to move a full light-year away—the window was off by just one day.

At 40 times the speed of light, a single day covers nearly 7,000 astronomical units; falling short of that distance could leave them vulnerable to the explosion’s shockwave.

Thus, Sun Chunyi remained on high alert, meticulously calculating to find a position that would minimize the impact on the fleet.

After notifying the reinforcement fleet, Rin Feng noticed Sun Chunyi was still hard at work and leaned in to take a closer look.

“Hey, Researcher Sun, are you still worried about the fleet getting caught in the blast?”

Without looking up, Sun Chunyi replied, “Absolutely. There isn’t enough time for the fleet to reach a full light-year away. I’m trying to locate a position that minimizes the damage.”

Rin Feng nodded in approval, internally convinced that this incident proved the indispensable value of Sun Chunyi in his expert team.

Not only is his technical expertise outstanding, but his sense of duty is equally remarkable.

Glancing at the rest of the expert team, he noticed they were either taking a break or engrossed in studying how the matter disintegration rays were affecting the neutron star.

“Researcher Sun, you needn’t worry too much. I’ve arranged our fleet’s formation so that behind us are Tur Fleet warships. Since these vessels are unmanned and operated by smart robots, they’ll form a barrier during the crisis to block the blast’s impact.”

Rin Feng, formerly the chief of Dream Technology’s rescue team on Earth, had vast experience responding to natural disasters.

When the Tur Fleet was fully restored and deployed to intercept the neutron star, Rin Feng organized the formation meticulously.

Besides maintaining a clear attack channel for his flagship, he divided the Tur Fleet into three groups positioned ahead of his own fleet to directly counter the matter disintegration ray assault.

When Rin Feng ordered an emergency retreat, the fleet formation shifted—his flagship and the Tur flagship (with Ding Shaoqiu and his team aboard) took central positions, while a large contingent of Tur warships formed the rear.

During superluminal travel, just as the neutron star was about to explode, the fleet would exit the superluminal curvature space bubble.

At that moment, the Tur warships would split into three formations, ramp up their shields to maximum power, and maintain a tight formation to create three protective barriers around Rin Feng’s fleet.

With such precautions, Rin Feng was confident that his fleet would barely feel the explosion’s effects.

Hearing Rin Feng’s explanation, Sun Chunyi looked up in surprise and said, “Commander Rin, your plan might actually work. However, to be absolutely safe, I need to finish my calculations to ensure our fleet ends up in the safest zone possible.”

Rin Feng agreed, “Alright, minimizing the potential loss of Tur warships is crucial for maintaining our fleet’s strength.”

Meanwhile, the entire fleet continued to speed away from the neutron star fragments while in superluminal mode.

Eight and a half days later, an hour before the fragments were set to collide, the fleet exited superluminal travel.

Once reforming its formation, the fleet pressed on at a maximum speed of 30,000 kilometers per second.

An hour later, the two neutron star fragments finally collided.

A flash of eerie blue light burst forth, and Rin Feng’s team immediately lost all monitoring of the neutron stars.

Clearly, the explosion’s energy annihilated the nearby Meteor Detectors that were tracking the neutron stars.

At that moment, the fleet’s astronomical telescopes wouldn’t capture the explosion for nearly a year—the light simply wouldn’t reach them any sooner.

Logically, with the fleet nearly one light-year away from the collision point, the explosion’s immediate effects should be minimal.

After all, most things can’t travel faster than light.

But since we now know that Negative Matter can exceed light speed, no one at Dream Technology considers light the ultimate speed limit anymore.

In such a super explosion, some high-energy particles might inevitably travel faster than light, potentially endangering the fleet.

Although the Nebula simulation didn’t account for these superluminal particles, it did factor in spatial fluctuations that could affect an area of roughly one light-year.

That’s precisely why the fleet had to exit superluminal travel—otherwise, these spatial fluctuations would undoubtedly cause significant damage.

At that moment, the three protective barriers formed by the Tur warships created a safe zone, within which Rin Feng’s fleet was situated.

Only four hours into their forward flight did a terrifying phenomenon occur.