Chapter 231: Departure Across the Void

Five years later.

Year 275 of the Federation.

Kuiper Belt, near Earth’s sphere.

A fleet silently gathered here, staying away from all major routes.

This mission to the Large Magellanic Cloud was so secret that not even the highest circles within the Federation knew the details, let alone any outside civilizations.

Everyone involved had to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

The fleet held a total of 1,564 ships—one Warstar, the Houyi, a hundred of the Federation’s latest Zhu Rong-class D-Type General Purpose Battleships just off the production line.

Apart from these 101 warships, the rest were all transport ships and emigrant vessels.

Most notably, the transport fleet consisted entirely of the Federation’s massive Kunpeng-class supercarriers, all 1,200 of them.

As for emigrant ships, there were 263 in all.

That brought the total emigrant population to 263 million.

It wasn’t just a simple 263 million—given the secrecy of the mission and the tasks awaiting them at the destination…

Not a single person in the lineup was ordinary.

Every participant was a top-tier specialist in their field.

After all, a round-trip to Io took almost five years—even one way was over two years. With limited spots, there was no room for anyone useless.

Space was precious; not a single spot would be wasted on someone who couldn’t contribute.

Just as mentioned before, this universe was like an endless sea, and each star system was like an island on its waves.

So, what do you think lies between the star systems?

On a planet, you’d call it the ocean.

Across the universe, though, all civilizations call it…

The Dead Void.

Within the Dead Void, absolutely nothing existed.

It’s not that nothing had ever existed, but right now, there was simply nothing there.

These are two very different ideas.

Because within the Dead Void, there were countless spatial turbulence streams, not to mention unpredictable rifts that could form out of nowhere.

If you set foot inside, could even the top civilizations survive? No one knew. But at least…

According to the records found in that unknown civilization’s cube, even a tier-five civilization entering the Dead Void would be doomed.

Unless a civilization reached tier five and overcame the latest spatial communication technology, then…

Even communications technology from a tier-four civilization couldn’t break through the Dead Void.

In other words…

Once the exploration fleet departed,

unless it reached the Large Magellanic Cloud, dropped the people off, got them settled, and sent the transport and emigrant ships back to the Milky Way,

it would be at least five years before the Federation received any information Lin Yu left behind from the returning fleet.

That’s why the Federation’s upper ranks granted Lin Yu and Mu Qingxue…

full military and administrative autonomy within the Large Magellanic Cloud.

Never before in Federation history had so much power been granted.

They had no other choice—but it was also a sign of absolute trust.

“Lin Yu, as you leave, who knows how many years will pass before we speak again. Take care out there!”

With this farewell, even contacting each other again—let alone meeting—could be decades away.

On the bridge, the projected image of Mu Xingchen stood in front of Lin Yu, his expression filled with emotion.

“Commander, about my earlier suggestion, I hope you’ll seriously consider it. This could have far-reaching consequences!”

“Understood!”

Mu Xingchen nodded.

Lin Yu had previously told him that Vice Admiral Blair was capable, but a bit rigid in emergencies.

So, he’d suggested swapping Blair and Ye Lingwei’s positions.

Meaning Ye Lingwei would take charge of the Vyas War Zone while Blair handled the Barrens War Zone.

Unfortunately, there were too many complicated issues involved—Mu Xingchen couldn’t make that decision alone.

Seeing Mu Xingchen’s reaction, Lin Yu got the message.

This was probably…

Not going to go through.

In that case, all he could do was hope his worries didn’t become reality.

It wasn’t that keeping Blair at Vyas was sure to spell disaster, just that under certain circumstances, her style might lead to a major strategic mistake.

Lin Yu let out a quiet sigh and dropped the subject.

A moment later, the connection ended and the bridge crew reported: the entire fleet was ready.

“Target: Large Magellanic Cloud, Driss Star Region, sector P809, star Kory.”

“All ship coordinates locked!”

“Initiate hyperspace engines for the fleet, launch in fleet formation!”

“Yes, Admiral!”

Quantum windows tore open space, one after another.

The next instant, all 1,564 ships followed the quantum windows and entered hyperspace.

It would now be a long journey—744 days in total.

——

“Do you think there could be a level-four or even a level-five civilization in the Large Magellanic Cloud?”

Inside a small private cabin aboard the Houyi.

Lin Yun glanced at the tiny digital avatar projected in front of her and asked.

This small avatar was Lin Shuying’s data incarnation. Lin Yun herself was part of the exploration fleet this time.

“A level-five civilization is almost impossible. Even within our local galactic group, level-fives probably don’t exist. If there is one, it would only just have reached level five and likely wouldn’t have hyperspace technology yet.”

“Otherwise, they’d have invaded the Milky Way long ago!”

Lin Yun nodded at that.

That made perfect sense.

“How about a level-four civilization then?”

“Still unlikely!”

“Why’s that?”

“Back when my main body was still on Earth, we studied the satellite galaxies around the Milky Way. Although this can’t precisely capture jump events, if jumps did occur, you’d always see energy echoes in subspace.”

“So, you’ve never found evidence of subspace jump echoes in those regions?”

“That’s right. There are two possible reasons: either there’s a level-four civilization in that galaxy, or, when we observed, no ships had jumped for a very long time.”

So that’s how it was.

By that logic, this Magellanic mission should go smoothly, shouldn’t it?

Lin Yun nodded again.

She then turned back to her research project.

Meanwhile, Lin Shuying’s digital avatar assisted at her side.

Just like that, the days passed one after another.

This was humanity’s first time attempting such a long interstellar voyage. As expected, after more than half a year, the first signs of psychological issues appeared.

Deep space phobia.

A year later, hundreds had the same problem.

By the second year, cases had soared to 270,000.

Fortunately, contingency plans were in place before departure.

Their solution was blunt but effective.

At the first signs of trouble, psychological intervention was tried. If that failed, the person was immediately put into a hibernation pod and only woken on arrival.

Why not just put everyone in hibernation from the start, waking the whole group after reaching the Large Magellanic Cloud?

There simply weren’t enough pods.

On the emigrant ships alone, there were over 200 million people, but only about 800,000 pods.

So unless someone’s issues couldn’t be helped by counseling, they waited until then to use the pods.

Now, with just about ten days left before arrival at their destination,

over 500,000 pods still stood empty.

This fact was a huge relief for everyone.

They were finally—

about to arrive.