Chapter 192: Breakthrough in the Lab: The Light of New Technology

One day later.

Lin Yun returned to the research institute and gathered the entire project team for a meeting.

That meeting left everyone stunned.

Every problem that had stumped the team before—Lin Yun brought up solutions for them all.

After the shock wore off, excitement took over.

At that moment, everyone in the team understood one thing…

The final result was no longer in question—it was only a matter of time.

And that time was going to be short.

Very short.

——

After the meeting.

Inside Lin Yun’s office.

She tapped her smart computer on her wrist and Lin Shuying’s image was instantly projected in front of her.

It was tiny—barely ten centimeters tall.

This was an avatar, a projection that Lin Shuying created specifically to assist Lin Yun with her research.

Even deep beneath Antarctica, this was nothing but a data-based avatar. As for Lin Shuying’s real body…

According to Lin Shuying, she’d left Earth long ago. In fact, she wasn’t even in the Milky Way anymore, and…

She wasn’t even a physical being now.

The data avatar left on Earth was a necessary move to bypass certain restrictions.

Lin Yun had tried before to dig deeper and ask about more profound secrets.

But unfortunately, even though it’s called an avatar, it’s really just a stream of data. Besides the tasks and permissions it was programmed with, it couldn’t answer anything else.

It didn’t even…

Its data didn’t contain any memories of those other things.

Naturally, it was impossible for it to talk about such matters.

Still, aside from those deeper secrets, before Lin Shuying left Earth, the Milky Way, or stepped onto a higher state of existence…

The fruits of her research and the data avatar she left behind—after all these years of uninterrupted calculation—

can still help Lin Yun tremendously.

“A lifeform of pure energy… what kind of existence would that even be?”

“No idea, I don’t have any memory of that!”

Lin Shuying shook her head.

She answered exactly as she had beneath Antarctica before.

“Alright, let’s leave that for now. But you never told me—how did you teleport me like that?”

Lin Yun changed the subject. She was referring to that flash of white light, when she suddenly found herself in the underground lab 800 meters deep.

She’d been so overwhelmed by Lin Shuying’s bizarre revelations the day before, she’d forgotten to ask about it then.

“That was light transmission!”

“Light transmission? No way. Sure, it works in theory, but pulling it off is almost as hard as time travel!”

Lin Yun shot the idea down immediately.

But Lin Shuying just brought up a video clip.

It showed Lin Yun standing on the Antarctic ice. A flash of white light—and her body simply broke apart and vanished.

Then, the scene shifted to inside the lab.

Another flash of white light—countless light particles seemed to reconstruct her, and Lin Yun reappeared instantaneously.

“This… was really light transmission?”

“That’s right. Don’t get confused—compared to time technology, light transmission is so much simpler. It’s not even as hard as vacuum zero-point energy, let alone time tech that only a level-10 civilization can master.”

Lin Yun was shaken.

So thinking light transmission was as hard as time travel was just another example of human arrogance?

“Is this technology possible with humanity’s current foundation?”

“Yes. As long as you have the theoretical knowledge, building the devices isn’t hard. There’s no need for special materials either.”

“What’s the maximum range?”

“Theoretically, a tenth of a light-second. The lab’s setup manages about one percent of a light-second.”

A tenth of a light-second… that’s 30,000 kilometers?

That’s the theoretical limit?

It might sound short on a cosmic scale, but—

On a planetary level, that’s a game changer.

Unless we’re talking about a giant planet, you could instantly reach any spot in an eyeblink. There’d be no need for spaceships or even a space elevator. You could just send someone straight from the surface to orbit.

The possibilities are enormous.

“Hold on, if you can transmit people, I guess you could do the same with weapons—like… a nuclear warhead?”

Suddenly struck by something, Lin Yun asked.

“For civilizations below level four, yeah, that’s no problem!”

“What about civilizations at level four or higher?”

“Unless they’ve left their energy shields down, any interference messes with the light transmission.”

“Alright… that makes sense. It’s not a huge distance anyway, so on the battlefield it wouldn’t matter so much. But it should work fine inside a ship, right?”

“No problem!”

Lin Shuying nodded.

True, the tech was impressive—but for interstellar wars…

Just like Lin Shuying said, the application was limited.

Honestly, if a level-5 civilization wants to deal with anything below level-4, they’d never need light transmission.

There are way more efficient ways, after all…

As for level-4 or above, light transmission was pretty much useless.

So nearly all advanced civilizations just use it for civilian purposes.

Quick travel on a planet, instant transfer to a ship in orbit, or fast movement within a massive ship and so on.

That’s where it really shines.

Even so, it makes life so much easier.

For ordinary people, and for soldiers in the Federation Fleet.

“Can you give me this technology?”

“Of course!”

Lin Shuying closed her eyes.

Moments later, a virtual window appeared in front of Lin Yun, data streaming past at high speed.

About three minutes later, Lin Shuying opened her eyes again.

“Done. All relevant theories have been sent to your smart computer.”

Hearing this, Lin Yun’s face lit up. She immediately opened the new data and started studying it intently.

——

Six months later.

Between Earth and Mars, in a spot away from all major routes.

After declaring a large area off-limits, a research ship belonging to the Far East First Research Institute—with more than ten Seawolf-class ships escorting it—arrived.

Heavy equipment was pulled from the research ship and quickly assembled.

Three days later…

“Main system and all subsystems have completed self-checks.”

“Have you checked the Zero-Point Modules? That’s the most critical part!”

“Don’t worry, Chief Lin—triple-checked. Absolutely solid!”

The massive structure assembled over those three days looked just like a lotus pod—a giant inverted funnel dotted with more than a thousand honeycomb-shaped holes.

If you looked closer, you’d find each chamber held a set of Zero-Point Modules.

But unlike the ones in Houyi or the Zhulong-class warships, these modules were all dark and inactive.

The reason was simple: the Zero-Point Modules were empty, with no vacuum zero-point energy inside.

But that was just for now.

Because…

Inside the research ship, Lin Yun’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“Let’s begin!”