Chapter 118: The Power to Rewrite the Universe
"Oh, that's great!"
Lao Yu knew that as the rescued party, he actually had no right to choose. Even if he was used as a slave laborer by the other party, he could only blame his own bad luck.
The leader of the force, who was called "Executive Officer," could offer such treatment, which was already something to be secretly happy about.
Even if only half of it was fulfilled later, he would prostrate himself on the spot.
"Don't get too excited yet," Lu Yuan said with a smile, resting his elbows on the table and propping up his chin. "Let's start by introducing your past experiences."
Lao Yu dared not neglect, and the young Anton nodded repeatedly.
Through Lao Yu's narration, Lu Yuan learned about his unfortunate experiences over the past year.
Lao Yu was originally a ship Engineer at New Hope, usually responsible for salvaging and refurbishing various scrap ships, most of which were Star Alliance warships damaged and decommissioned due to combat.
These warships had high structural strength and system redundancy. After repair and refurbishment, their performance still far exceeded that of civilian ships. Therefore, they were often sold to "adventurers" for treasure hunting.
Over time, Lao Yu became friends with many adventurers and was deeply attracted by their treasure-hunting stories, which were half pure bragging and half adapted from real experiences. He also developed the idea of archaeological exploration.
Interstellar treasure hunting required entering remote star systems with no security guarantees, and the risks were high. Lao Yu initially couldn't find partners and could only rent a ship to work alone.
But he indeed had a talent for this line of work.
A few months later, Lao Yu actually dug up intact infantry power armor left by the Earth United Government on a remote planet and sold it to a black market merchant, earning his first pot of gold.
That was his initial and largest business.
Because the treasure came from the Earth United Government before the apocalypse, Lao Yu firmly believed that no matter how difficult it was in the future, he must learn Earth language well!
Later, due to his considerable fame, Lao Yu expanded his business, founded his own archaeological excavation and salvage company, acquired his own ship, and employed over 70 people.
At this time, he was actually quite wealthy and could have moved into New Hope's upper-class community to enjoy life, but he just couldn't sit still.
He finally saved enough money to buy a 200-meter-long used large ship, preparing for an even more magnificent adventure.
As a result, he encountered pirates and was completely wiped out, his ship also stolen.
"That group of pirates was called 'Dark Sun,' from the Elysium Island space station. They were very powerful. We actually had weapons on our ship at the time, but we were completely defenseless."
Later, while being trafficked as slaves, Lao Yu and his group were rescued by Apollo.
But this was not good luck.
"Apollo said they suffered losses and deaths during their engagement with the pirates, and all the costs would be charged to us! We could only pay it off by working for them for 40 years."
"What exactly was the work content?" Lu Yuan asked.
Lao Yu: "Mainly building hydrogen-3 mining facilities, because we were previously large-scale shipbuilders, and there are many commonalities between construction and shipbuilding."
"Hmm—"
Lu Yuan thought for a moment.
"It feels like you've been tricked."
Lao Yu: "Sir, do you mean—————."
"I suspect that 'Dark Sun' and Apollo are actually the same entity."
"Have you heard similar rumors in the Star Alliance? Some people have indeed speculated this, but these people often suffer 'accidents,' so over time, no one dares to spread rumors anymore."
Lu Yuan shook his head.
"I haven't had contact with the Star Alliance yet, but 'Apollo' in Earth legends is the Sun God, the son of the king of gods, and the brother of the Moon Goddess. This imagery, with 'Dark Sun,' is a perfect black and white contrast. It shouldn't be a naming coincidence."
Oh!
Lao Yu's face was full of reverence.
So that's how it is.
So this strangely pronounced company, "Apollo," has such a background! I used to think it was just a random name. As expected of the knowledgeable Earth Lord!
"Thank you for your guidance, that makes sense now!"
"You're welcome," Lu Yuan said. "I generally understand your background. Next, I'd like to know what you know about zero element. This is a key indicator for judging the decline of human civilization."
Of course, this was his way of tricking them into giving him information.
"Ah, this—"
Lao Yu and Anton both looked troubled.
"Sir, we are not physics experts, so we might not be knowledgeable about zero element."
"It's fine, just tell me what you know."
"Good!"
After Lao Yu's earnest answers, Lu Yuan was finally able to confirm some of his previous conjectures about zero element.
From an atomic scale, zero element is no different from ordinary matter.
Taking zero element hydrogen as an example, its atomic nucleus has only one proton, and everything appears normal.
However, the proton is not composed of two up quarks and one down quark as in normal circumstances, but rather three special fermions.
These fermions have the same spin as quarks, and their combined mass, charge, and magnetic moment are also exactly the same as a proton, but they possess completely different characteristics.
When the zero element concentration is high enough and the particle energy is large enough, this characteristic will be activated and manifest on a macroscopic scale in the form of a zero element field.
zero element is divided into several types.
The most common is Delta-type zero element, also known as 【Mass Effect Zero Element】, which temporarily reduces the mass of matter within the zero element field while other physical constants remain unchanged.
Mass Effect Zero Element is widely used in space travel. By carefully adjusting the shape of the zero element field to only envelop the main body of the spacecraft, and not the engine reaction chamber and nozzle, the mass of the spacecraft, including fuel, can be significantly reduced, while the mass of the engine exhaust remains unchanged.
This completely invalidates the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation.
In this situation, the spacecraft will gain much greater acceleration and maximum velocity increment than under normal conditions.
It is precisely because of the application of this technology that industrial ships can take off and land with only one percent of the theoretically required thrust.
The zero element reactor on Apollo space fighters has similar performance. Their Hall-effect thrusters can only provide about 320 kilograms of thrust. Although this is truly black technology compared to similar products in the 21st century, it is clearly not enough.
However, after activating the zero element reactor, the mass of the 17-ton space fighter gradually decreases to 0.8% of its original mass.
The engine's equivalent thrust is amplified more than a hundredfold. At the same time, due to the principle of Hall-effect thrusters, the fighter can accelerate continuously for a long time, eventually achieving an extremely fast maximum cruising speed, with a limit of about 1.3% of the speed of light.
In addition to Mass Effect Zero Element, there are three other types of zero element known to the Star Alliance:
Alpha-type zero element: Also known as 【Warp Zero Element】, used to locally rewrite spacetime structure to achieve faster-than-light warp travel beyond mass effect flight.
Beta-type zero element: Also known as 【Quantum zero element】, which can macroscopicize quantum physical effects, including quantum entanglement, often used to create lag-free long-distance instant communication devices.
Omega-type zero element: Also known as 【Antimatter zero element】, which can convert itself into antimatter.
Simply put, this is equivalent to "magic" in the real universe, an existence that can temporarily modify universal constants!
The latter three types of zero element are far rarer than Mass Effect Zero Element, and therefore more precious. They are usually only affordable by the main warships of top Star Alliance forces or a very small number of important figures.
Especially the last type, Omega-type zero element, is almost never circulated in the Star Alliance market, only occasionally available from certain legendary black market merchants.
"How is it, sir? Am I correct?"
"Right or wrong is not that important; I'm just using it to assess your knowledge level," Lu Yuan said with a slight smile, continuing his grand deception. "One last question: what treasure were you looking for a year ago?"
Anton glanced at Lao Yu, who thought for a moment and decided to speak.
"Sir, what we were looking for at the time was a huge 'ghost ship'!"