Chapter 362: Mysteries of Energy and Negative Matter

“Thank you, Star Ocean,” Chen Guangnan quickly expressed his gratitude, appreciative of Star Ocean’s thoughtful assistance.

Over the years, everyone has become well-acquainted with the AI, Star Ocean. Its voice—identical to that of the Boss’s wife—clearly signaled that it was the Boss’s most trusted assistant.

At Dream Technology, AIs have become ubiquitous. Although there were early concerns about their safety, these obedient machines have provided humanity with tremendous convenience so far.

Moreover, Du Qiu repeatedly stressed that the AIs at Dream Technology are bound by strict base-level restrictions, ensuring they will never stage a rebellion like the Pleiadians.

Over time, such reassurances dispelled the doubts of most people, leaving only a few mild concerns that were tightly kept in check.

After all, Dream Technology’s boss is Du Qiu—he had repeatedly guaranteed their safety. Why go against that?

After thanking Star Ocean, Chen Guangnan pointed to the energy vortex surrounding the fortress near White Spot displayed on the projection and said, “Everyone, notice how those meteor warships are steadily growing larger. They’re almost at cruiser size now.”

“This shows our enemy is growing increasingly impatient. I suspect their anxiety stems from an energy shortage,” he added.

Huo Mingchuan, Director of the Energy Research Institute, quickly joined in, “Old Chen is absolutely right. Although this mysterious enemy may not seem to affect the Tur Fleet’s status, they are actually draining its energy.”

“After all, counteracting the Solar System’s gravity isn’t an easy task; it’s like a tug-of-war with the Sun that’s been going on for over a decade.”

Du Qiu suddenly asked, “Everyone, could the recent decline in solar activity be due to this enemy?”

“This enemy consumes enormous amounts of energy—after all, fighting against the Sun’s gravity requires a great deal of it,” he explained.

Director Best of the Astronomy Institute’s eyes lit up as he said, “Boss, that idea makes sense. We haven’t conducted any observations or calculations on this yet, and we missed the best window for a comparative study.”

Du Qiu smiled and continued, “We already have numerous observation satellites orbiting the Sun which have recorded all the data. You can assign a team to request the relevant data from Nebula for a comparison, and then continue monitoring. Perhaps we’ll draw some conclusions.”

Director Best nodded enthusiastically, “Great, I’m eager to uncover how this enemy is silently waging its battle against the Solar System’s gravitational pull.”

As Du Qiu studied the live projection, he suddenly recalled his recent dream research on negative matter.

After ascending to a Level 4 Civilization, Du Qiu had gained deeper insights into the essence of matter.

He explained that matter exists in two forms: positive matter, which is what we normally see and interact with, and negative matter—the collective term for antiparticles.

As everyone knows, within atoms electrons carry a negative charge with a spin quantum number of +½, while positrons are the complete opposite, carrying a positive charge with a spin quantum number of -½.

Not only electrons, but neutrons, protons, and others also have their corresponding antiparticles.

Thus, matter composed of particles is positive matter; matter composed of antiparticles is negative matter.

Beyond positive and negative matter, there is also dark matter.

Dark matter remains a mystery. It was once theorized by Earth’s physicists as an invisible substance. Recent observations of cosmic microwave background anisotropy, when combined with the ΛCDM model, indicate that dark matter constitutes 85% of the universe’s total mass and 26.8% of its energy.

Over the past decade, Du Qiu had even developed the capability to manufacture warships within that star system he visited in his dreams.

It was the first time he learned that an attack-defense battle between two Level 6 civilizations in a single star region could stalemate for an entire decade without a clear victor.

This made Du Qiu immediately question the description in the Soldier Unit database that the Ge Ya Civilization was on the decline.

If a faltering Level 6 civilization could endure a decade-long battle around a base star system managed by a Level 4 AI of a Dominant Civilization without finishing it off…

then it would imply that the Dominant Civilization itself was in jeopardy.

A localized battle lasting ten years suggests that significant forces are tied up elsewhere.

Otherwise, the Dominant Civilization could have easily launched massive reinforcements and wiped out the invading Ge Ya forces in one stroke.

Since the conflict has reached a deadlock, it indicates that both sides are evenly matched.

Nonetheless, while watching the standoff, Du Qiu shifted his focus from bystander to secretly advancing his own development.

Over ten years, leveraging a large number of Soldier Units and equipment from his flagship, along with production data from the Custodian left over from Level 4 Civilization, he began his work.

Step by step, he manufactured various production devices, occasionally scavenging reusable parts from the wreckage of warships on the battlefield.

Notably, he even dispatched a small fleet using spatial jumps to return to the battlefield that was ambushed by the Ge Ya Civilization.

Sure enough, he recovered a half-destroyed Transport Ship which surprisingly housed an integrated production base – combining the roles of Producer, Processor, Maintainer, and Energy Supplier.

Though these systems were severely damaged, nothing could stop Du Qiu’s knack for repair—especially when a single Transport Ship contained more than one production base.

By cannibalizing parts from one area to mend another, Du Qiu managed to produce missing components and ultimately restored the integrated production base.

This greatly accelerated the establishment of his production system. Although he lacked data on Intelligent Fabricators and information on warships beyond Level 5 Civilization,

the maintenance records for the Soldier Units proved to be invaluable.

Especially after Dream Technology broke through the Unified Theory in Ice Age 8, ascending to Level 4 Civilization, Du Qiu’s progress in his dream research accelerated dramatically.

The Unified Theory is indeed the cornerstone of cosmic civilization. Once unlocked, it’s like obtaining the key to the universe’s secrets.

It not only unifies the four fundamental forces but also offers an initial glimpse into the essence of matter. Mastering it provides the pathway to truly understanding matter’s core.

On the flagship of the Dominant Civilization, some weapons could only be built by mastering these very theories.

Before grasping the Unified Theory, Du Qiu couldn’t even cobble together a rudimentary copy.

However, after understanding the Unified Theory and confirming the operational effects of several prototype weapons, he gradually deduced their underlying principles.

Notably, the Special Material Cannon he successfully replicated using Dream Technology’s current methods revealed, upon Du Qiu’s analysis, that its special material was actually negative matter.

Negative matter is matter with a negative mass; when it encounters positive matter, the two annihilate each other, vanishing into nothingness.

One kilogram of negative matter can react with one kilogram of positive matter or antimatter, causing both to disappear from the universe.

Moreover, during this reaction, no energy is released and no radiation is emitted.

Negative matter does not naturally occur in the real universe.

In other words, whenever a kilogram of negative matter is produced, a kilogram of positive matter is generated alongside it—meaning matter is effectively added.

According to current physical laws, the total amount of matter in the universe is conserved under the mass-energy conservation law.

Could this process then create positive matter from nothing?

The answer, of course, is no.

Producing one kilogram of negative matter inevitably results in one kilogram of positive matter, which then annihilate upon contact.

Thus, on a cosmic scale, the total amount of matter remains unchanged.

In other words, negative matter simply cannot exist in the universe for long.

It reacts with the omnipresent positive matter almost instantaneously—whether that positive matter was newly generated or already present.

Simply put, once negative matter appears, it must react with positive matter.

Hence, the weapon Du Qiu replicated—the super cannon—is powered by negative matter.

In essence, he successfully replicated the black box responsible for manufacturing negative matter: an ultra-long cannon barrel constrained by a magnetic field.

Because negative matter possesses negative mass, it travels faster than light in our universe.

Due to this property, negative matter is actually produced right at the cannon’s muzzle and, once formed, is immediately fired.