Chapter 324: Dreams Beyond the Solar Frontier

As always, he slipped into the dream.

This time, it was different.

The moment Du Qiu’s consciousness activated, it had already left the Solar System, a fact that astonished him. After all, his body was still somewhere between Mars and the asteroid belt, still within the Solar System.

Usually, when he enters the dream from Earth, he gets the sensation of departing from Earth, with a few seconds of flying through the orbits of the planets in the Solar System.

Yet now, the instant his consciousness stirred in the dream, it had already left the Solar System.

For a moment, Du Qiu experienced a revelation. His consciousness had leaped across innumerable galaxies and connected with some alien civilization’s machine somewhere unknown—hardly related to whatever the Pleiadians had set up on Mars.

But then, why did he feel as though his consciousness had skimmed past a peculiar magnetic field near the Moon and the Martian Jellyfish Nest region after entering the dream from Earth?

Du Qiu almost immediately formed a conclusion: it was most likely due to the attraction of a unique magnetic field that had pulled his consciousness towards those two regions during its journey through space.

In other words, it was just a coincidence.

Clearly, if interpreted that way, it implied that the upload module within that distant alien civilization’s machine exerted an incredibly powerful allure on his consciousness.

It meant that the magnetic fields of those two regions only managed to pull him a little closer.

However, once he was in the space between Mars and the asteroid belt, that force quickly propelled his consciousness right out of the Solar System.

No planetary magnetic field could hold or restrain it.

Du Qiu instinctively regarded his consciousness as a form of superluminal particle wave, for nothing else could explain how it traversed such a vast cosmic expanse in mere moments to reach the realm of dream civilizations.

If consciousness is indeed superluminal, then perhaps the notion of light speed as the ultimate cosmic limit needs to be revised with a new theory.

Of course, this was merely his personal musing, yet it didn’t stop him from issuing directives to every research institute at Dream Technology.

“Do not be shackled by Earth’s traditional theories. Approach every phenomenon without preconceived notions—don’t abandon investigations just because they defy classical logic,” he instructed.

“Adhere to rigorous scientific methods, dare to hypothesize, and verify meticulously. Only by breaking free of mental constraints can we truly advance in science.”

As Du Qiu’s thoughts rippled, several enormous white vortices appeared. This time, he chose the vortex of the Energy Supplier to enter.

Previously, Du Qiu had been researching a nuclear fusion energy device with the Energy Supplier, and significant progress had been made.

Thanks to the robust hardware of the Energy Supplier’s AI, Du Qiu had it create a simulation environment to continually model the nuclear fusion process.

This was Du Qiu’s latest major focus: to achieve nuclear fusion energy as swiftly as possible so that the interstellar fleet could journey even farther.

In fact, compared to Earth’s current nuclear fusion approaches, Du Qiu was already taking a shortcut.

Having mastered large-scale production of Metallic Hydrogen, he had opted for a higher starting point—using solid metallic deuterium-tritium as fuel to trigger fusion.

This fusion process would allow a target chamber to hold more fuel, significantly boosting reaction efficiency.

Another benefit was that it enabled the miniaturization of the fusion reactor.

Within the Energy Supplier’s simulated environment, the nuclear fusion experiment was run again. This time, the ignition phase lasted twice as long, nearly reaching the critical point for practical use.

Night after night in his dreams, Du Qiu conducted these simulations. Each breakthrough was meticulously recorded and refined in the quest for even longer, stable operational times.

Typically, one night’s dream time was just enough for one simulation run.

After completing another simulation and organizing the data, Du Qiu suddenly received a message from the Custodian.

“Lord, the mining of 153 Element Mineral on the Resource Planet has been completed. We just received fresh instructions to prepare for embarkation immediately.”

Startled, Du Qiu realized he had not been keeping a close eye on the status of the resource extraction bases. He hadn’t expected the 153 Element Mineral to be mined so quickly.

In the Custodian’s database, the 153 element wasn’t given a name but was labeled simply as 153—a designation reserved for a few rare and vital elements.

Although the database offered no further description, Du Qiu speculated that this must be a resource of immense importance to the dream civilization.

Otherwise, it wouldn’t have warranted such a massive mining operation that even risked hollowing out an entire planet.

Cautiously, Du Qiu ordered the Custodian to reserve some of the 153 Element and use various detectors at the production base to conduct tests, finally obtaining some preliminary data.

Yet, these basic metrics were perplexing, revealing little about any extraordinary properties.

At first glance, it appeared to be a non-metal element; aside from a high melting point of 2200 degrees, nothing else was notably distinctive.

Du Qiu, a top-tier materials scientist possessing knowledge of thousands of materials, was at a loss as to how this non-metal element could be useful.

Clearly, when it comes to the extraction capacities of alien dream civilizations, this material must be exploited on a massive scale.

What intrigued Du Qiu most was that this non-metal element was surely intended for high-grade product manufacturing—otherwise, the Custodian’s database wouldn’t have left it unnamed.

This meant that the 153 element was a treasure, perhaps akin to the rare earth elements on Earth, used extensively in advanced technologies.

Collecting his thoughts, Du Qiu responded, “Then proceed as per the embarkation instructions. Let’s see where our next destination lies.”

“Understood.”

“Also, project the external surveillance feed so I can watch the boarding process.”

“Yes, Lord.”

In the very next moment, the external feed filled the screen before Du Qiu’s eyes.

The scene of the entire resource planet left him utterly stunned.

The colossal southern canyon he’d seen at the start had completely vanished.

The production base had transformed and slowly ascended into the air, revealing that the resource planet beneath had morphed into a strangely irregular celestial body.

It now resembled nothing more than a small asteroid—a shattered, skeletal remnant of a once-whole planet.

As the feed shifted upward, Du Qiu was even more dumbfounded.

A gigantic warship spanned the heavens, yet from the perspective of the Custodian’s surveillance, only its midsection was visible.

How enormous must it be?

Du Qiu estimated that it was at least twice the length of the 3000-kilometer warship he had seen on the first resource planet.

Otherwise, such a visual effect wouldn’t be possible.

This super colossus stood at no less than 600 kilometers tall, bristling with countless entry points.

Surrounding it were myriad warships, numbering at least a thousand.

Among these, there were as many as 500 of the 3000-kilometer-long warships he had previously witnessed.

Even more numerous were slender, triangular fighter vessels, buzzing around the giant like a swarm of bees.

This was an enormous space fleet, with that megastructure clearly serving as its flagship.

Du Qiu marveled silently—when would he ever possess such a fleet?

Considering the might of the dream civilization’s fleet, even a warship of 1000 kilometers—a scaled-down version of the 3000-kilometer behemoth—could easily obliterate the Solar System.

A hitherto unimagined sense of crisis welled up within him.

No one knew exactly how far the dream civilization’s forces were from the Solar System, but if any slightly weaker alien power discovered it, they might easily annihilate Earth’s inhabitants.

No, he had to accelerate development and quickly build a fleet and defenses capable of protecting the Solar System. Otherwise, if any extraterrestrial force discovered it, complete annihilation could follow.

That long-forgotten cosmic dark forest theory proposed by that science fiction writer echoed in Du Qiu’s mind once more.