“You really don’t understand anything!”
The Apollo employee could no longer tolerate Ye Xing’s wisdom.
“Do you know what warp speed is? Warp speed is achieved using a zero element reactor, and its upper limit is only 99% of the speed of light. You still talk about crossing the galaxy in a day.”
“Moreover, long-range high-warp engines are very expensive,” another person said, “Even in the golden age, individuals couldn't afford them. There's no such thing as private customization. You are completely ignorant, just like everyone else here.”
zero element reactor?
What is zero element?
“Impossible, absolutely impossible!” Ye Xing suppressed the doubts in his heart, gesticulating wildly, “At their peak, humanity’s influence extended beyond the galaxy. There’s no way they didn’t have faster-than-light travel! Flying so slowly would be ridiculous.”
“No, who said there’s no faster-than-light travel? Am I less knowledgeable than you? Humanity expanded so quickly because of Jump Points, which are natural wormholes! Approximately 2% of all stars in the universe are connected through Jump Points. Ordinary civilian ships can only colonize and develop these 2% of star systems. The rest is true deep space, only accessible by golden age stargates and warp drives.”
Only the golden age?
Ye Xing grasped the most crucial piece of information.
It seemed Apollo didn’t have the capability for true faster-than-light free navigation!
They could only expand their influence through conventional space travel combined with Jump Point travel.
“Then… even going to the nearest planet would take a day or two, wouldn’t it be slower than trading in the Desert, enough to bore someone to death?”
The other party was so annoyed he laughed.
“A day or two? That would be a top-notch ship! Normally, the fastest would be a week. It even takes three hours to get to our satellite station, and to the wormhole station it takes…”
At this moment, the employee’s companion elbowed him hard.
You talk too much.
Not good!
Ye Xing knew he was about to be suspected, even though the other party, fueled by alcohol, had voluntarily divulged the information.
If he remained silent now, it would only heighten their suspicion. Instead, he had to act recklessly, like a complete idiot.
“No, then how do you guys pass the time on the way? Oh~ So you need female slaves, right? Hehehe, how exciting! A big cosmic party!”
“Enough! Get lost… I can’t have a single coherent conversation with you!”
Perhaps fearing that his big mouth would be reported to his superiors, the talkative Apollo employee had no intention of taking Ye Xing back for interrogation.
Besides, he hadn’t revealed any critical information.
He was stopped by his companion before he could truly spill the beans.
Moreover, the other party was an idiot.
Ye Xing continued to ramble until he was sharply reprimanded by the other party, then he sullenly left the bar.
Stone Bro looked at the grassland with great admiration.
Professional intelligence gathering is truly something else!
The grassland, however, couldn’t bear to watch.
How embarrassing!
He absolutely couldn’t do such a thing!
He waited for a while longer, confirmed that it wouldn't arouse suspicion, then bid farewell to Stone Bro, left the bar, and met up with Ye Xing in the alley outside.
Half an hour later, Ye Xing reported the situation via radio to Lu Yuan, who was returning to Devil Mountain Camp.
Lu Yuan immediately realized that this intelligence was actually far more important than weapon parameters!
“Ye Xing…”
“What is it, Boss?”
“You are truly worthy of the title ‘Chief Investigator’!”
“Of course~ You can rest assured when I handle things. Next, Grassland and I plan to take a look around the temple, then figure out how to secretly steal the blueprints for the space fighter!”
“Good, be sure to be careful. The most important thing is not to be detected and to maintain our intelligence advantage!”
“Received! End of call!”
Speed is of the essence in war.
Even the most powerful weapon is useless if it cannot be delivered to the battlefield in time.
It took Apollo three hours to get to the “satellite station.” The “satellite” likely referred to one of Li Star’s two moons, and Jubian had already calculated the distances of these two moons through astronomical observation: 370,000 kilometers and 510,000 kilometers, respectively.
Thus, Lu Yuan had a rough idea of Apollo’s space travel speed, which was between 120,000 and 170,000 kilometers per hour.
Compared to the scale of the universe, this was extremely slow, traveling at most over 4 million kilometers a day. It would take a month to get from Earth to the Sun, and an average of two and a half years to reach Neptune at the edge of the solar system!
But the Apollo people said it would take over a week to get to other star systems. Could it be that the wormhole Jump Points were very close to Li Star?
Closer than from Earth to Mars?
Lu Yuan thought about it and decided that this was unlikely.
If that were the case, the actual distance between the wormhole and Li Star would constantly change due to Li Star’s rotation around the sun, and the change would be significant.
If the round-trip time was a relatively fixed value, then it meant the wormhole was very far from the central star of the star system, much farther than the radius of Li Star’s orbit around the sun.
No… This problem needs to be consulted with a professional.
Upon returning to Devil Mountain Camp, he immediately sent a message, calling Jubian and Nan Guo de Xue to the staff cafeteria.
Other players, hearing about important intelligence, also came to join in the fun.
They knew that the main storyline was about to have a major progression.
“That kid Ye Xing said that? Hmm… Interesting.”
Jubian stroked his chin and pondered for a while.
“If going to the lunar base, assuming the space fighter accelerates continuously in the first half and decelerates in the second half, and considering comfort, the acceleration doesn't exceed 1.5 G throughout the journey, then it indeed takes about 3 hours.
“Maintaining this acceleration, it would only take 56 hours to reach the Sun, which is not slow. However, the maximum speed during this period would be five thousandths of the speed of light, which already exceeds the maximum delta-v that nuclear-powered engines can achieve. Uh, I mean velocity increment.”
“Hey, no… You’re wrong, aren’t you?” Ma Lou questioned, “Aren’t reactionless nuclear fusion engines supposed to be able to fly at over ten percent of the speed of light?”
“Unfortunately, if this game’s settings are realistic enough, no, they cannot. All spacecraft using reaction engines have a maximum flight speed that can be calculated using the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation. The specific formula is: velocity increment = specific impulse · ln (initial mass / final mass). The proportion of fuel to total mass in military vehicles should not exceed 70%, and one cannot only consider acceleration, but also deceleration. To fly at ten percent of the speed of light, the specific impulse must exceed ten million seconds.
“To put it simply, a specific impulse of ten million is severely beyond the theoretical limit of nuclear fusion, exceeding it by about one hundred to one thousand times. Only antimatter engines can satisfy that.”
“Then what’s the point…” Black Smoke was very disappointed, “In the future, will we really have to live on warships for several months to go to other planets?”
“No need. According to Apollo’s intelligence, humanity successfully invented warp engines after we set sail, reaching a speed limit of 99% of the speed of light.”
Lu Yuan threw this bombshell at everyone.
“Even within Apollo’s understanding, advanced ships can cross Jump Point wormholes in a single day, achieving interstellar travel.”
Black Smoke: “Oh~~~ That’s great! You scared me!”
Tart: “What is warp speed?”
Black Smoke: “This warp speed… it’s when a spatial curvature bubble pulls the spaceship, and then, and then… Oh, anyway, it can break through the speed limit Jubian just mentioned! Little girl, you haven’t even heard of this, and you’re playing a space sci-fi game?”
Tart: “My marksmanship is good. Want to try a one-on-one?”
The players all breathed a sigh of relief.
It seemed that “Star Ocean” wouldn’t become a super slow-paced online game just because it opened up full-simulation space content.
Only Jubian maintained a constipated, serious expression.
“No, still not right! Executive Officer, according to the principle of a warp engine, it doesn’t have a process of acceleration and deceleration. If Apollo uses a warp engine to go to the moon and it takes three hours, then their average speed during that time is the maximum speed of the warp engine! It’s only one ten-thousandth of the speed of light, on par with nuclear power, not nearly fast enough!”