A day later.

After receiving proper nutrition, Chen Chen had returned to tip-top condition. He received a swift report from X-112.

“Sir Commander, we have rea.s.sembled the black slate you collected.”

Chen Chen was delighted by the good news brought by X-112. Shortly after that, a Black Knight showed up and presented a tightly sealed gla.s.s bottle in front of Chen Chen.

Chen Chen immediately noticed a small black slate levitating in the middle of the gla.s.s bottle. It exuded a faint glow inside it.

“Civilization Monolith…”

Chen Chen carefully uncapped the bottle and placed the black slate in his hand. An unknowingly familiar sensation came over him the moment he placed it in his hand.

This seemed to be the way of the Civilization Monolith accepting him as its new owner, having inherited it from its previous owner.

With this suspicion in mind, Chen Chen shut his eyes and injected his presence into the black slate.

“Thump!”

A shockwave surged from the black slate. Chen Chen felt his spirit ascending to another plane. His inner conscience rose above Blacklight City and watched over it like an ancestral being.

This was the vantage point of G.o.d…

From this vantage point, the Blacklight City in this end dimension took on a different form – a faint beam appeared above the city. It was a column of energy with the shadow of a black chain dwelling inside it.

The chain was in a poor shape, with many cracks and rusted spots riddled over its cuffs. Still, it stubbornly clung onto the beam of light, acting as a symbol of restraint.

“Law and order…”

Chen Chen narrowed his eyes and subconsciously interpreted what this chain represented.

Despite the ruined condition of the chain, one could see that there were many signs of repair done over time as well. He recognized that this was a symbol of the complete restructure he had performed on the city nearly a decade ago when he revamped the ruling cabinet.

Despite Chen Chen's efforts, the chain was still rusting away at a steady pace. It seemed even his efforts of ushering a new ruling group was unable to purge off the darkness within. Furthermore, the new rulers which he had appointed himself were beginning to show signs of corruption like their predecessors…

Live long enough and you would see the heroes turn into villains as well.

Chen Chen's eyes followed up where the beam of light pointed at. At the end of the chain, he spotted a faint shadow of a cross with an old man nailed to it. The face of this figure was blurred but it had an enchanting effect of projecting the face of whoever was beholding it.

“Religion.”

Chen Chen understood that this was a religious symbol. This religion originated from the period during the fusion calamity. The Joint Resistance Army needed a recognizable icon to rally the hearts of the people to rebel against the mightiest Divine Fusion Church and so they propagated the cross to the commoners.

Chen Chen saw many other things within the beam of light. He saw weapons that represented technology and war. He saw sullen faces and figures that represented different facets of the city. This was the city's principle of civilization.

Chen Chen continued craning his neck upward until he gazed at the sky and could see the figure of an enormous Consciousness Stealer looming over the entire planet.

This was to represent that this was a dimension ruled by the Consciousness Stealer. Under its governance, the Blacklight City and Joint Resistance Army were merely one of many bodies struggling for survival.

In this realm, the Consciousness Stealer was the embodiment of the principle of civilization…

Chen Chen retracted his gaze. His consciousness promptly exited from this divine perspective and returned to his body.

“How spectral.”

Chen Chen commented on the experience, “This thing surpa.s.ses any technological creation. Just like the USB drive, it maintains an anch.o.r.ed characteristic even within the multiverses.”

“Perhaps this isn't a product of technology?”

X-112 suggested, “The scale of the universe is far beyond our comprehension. This black slate might not be a man made creation. It could be gifted to mankind by another civilization.”

“You make a very good point.”

Chen Chen agreed with several convinced nods, then he shut his eyes again and sensed the energy lurking within the black slate this time. There was a formless energy rippling within its confinements.

This time, he projected his consciousness into it and fused with the ent.i.ty inside. The culmination of both presences enveloped a one-kilometer radius around its center.

Chen Chen sensed that every being within this radius had become an extension of himself. With a simple thought, he could alter their minds and have them carry out his will.

By simply invoking his mind, he saw a fat, wretched man sitting on the sofa in the official office of Blacklight City. This man was in the middle of dealing a shady affair with someone else. His guest was a skinny, frail man who tried endlessly to flatter himself.

The frail man unzipped a bag he carried with him to reveal several gold bars stashed inside. The fat man was satisfied with what he saw and expressed it with several contented nods. He said something to the frail man and patted his shoulder energetically.

The very next second, the fat man shot up from his seat with a dazed expression overtaking his previous enthused expression. He stood blankly and turned to the window, then he approached it and proceeded to open it then leaped out of it unhesitantly, leaving the frail man who was baffled by this unexplainable event.

After getting rid of one parasite within the system, Chen Chen continued scanning across the region covered by the power of the black slate. After feeling that his concentration had been exhausted, he immediately retracted his consciousness.

“Phew!”

Chen Chen felt clear-headed again after retracting his consciousness. He looked at the time and found out that he had been using the black slate for half an hour.

Surely enough, the black slate granted the ability to manipulate and dominate humans, but this puppetry was only temporary and the strings cut off after the black slate's powers were suspended.

Based on Chen Chen's previous observation, Zhao Shanhe's range was no more than a hundred meters. Each use of the black slate was extremely mentally exhausting, but even with his initial use his range was already ten times that of Zhao Shanhe's, and his duration extended as well.

“With this power, is there still any obstacle to leading mankind to s.p.a.ce?”

Chen Chen smiled and drew his palm into the shape of a fist, absorbing the black slate into his body and allowing it to fuse with himself.

“Time to return.”

Chen Chen turned to one of the Black Knights nearby. “X-112, I'll leave the work here to you. If any problem arises, you can find me with the time machine.”

“Understood.”

X-112 nested inside the Black Knight nodded. “Don't worry Sir Commander, I'll keep watch over here.”

Chen Chen nodded firmly and pocketed the USB drive before heading to the secret warehouse where the time machine was located. He returned to reality using the time machine and with that, the three-month-long Event Horizon expedition had come to a close.

If the civilization in Event Horizon could be described as to have entered its twilight years, then the landscape of the reality dimension where Chen Chen resided could draw parallel to a radiant sun rising across the horizon.

The emergence of nuclear fusion reactors had ushered in an era of unlimited energy for mankind. Coupled with the emergence of countless aeros.p.a.ce technologies, mankind had unchained itself from the shackles of the earth and evolved from the status of planetary natives to a proper interstellar civilization.

Before Chen Chen returned, he had already sent the s.p.a.ce warp engine technology from Event Horizon back to reality before him. By the point of his return, there were already thousands of aeros.p.a.ce scientists and experts of the Blacklight Biotechnology s.p.a.ce Department gathered in a hub located in the southern suburbs of the Eco Science City. Each one of them eagerly dissected the s.p.a.ce warp engine to see what knowledge they could extract from it.

This was the first thing Chen Chen was informed of upon his return to reality.

These scientists had signed an appropriate agreement with Blacklight Biotechnology. Even without the installation of the G.o.d chip within them, Chen Chen was not worried about the technology being leaked to the Earth Federation.

Blacklight Biotechnology was a powerful force to be reckoned with. As long as Chen Chen maintained his position of not selling the relevant technology, even all four major continents united could not force his hand.

Besides, the scientists were no fools either. They should know that with all the benefits they gained from Blacklight Biotechnology, it would be unwise to leak the information to other parties. The consequences would be extremely dire for the perpetrator.

At this stage, Blacklight Biotechnology could openly lay out all their cards on the table instead of having to take the cautious approach every time and make the extra effort to keep their secrets well hidden.

After returning to his office, Chen Chen cast the live feed in the aeros.p.a.ce department onto the display. He was immediately pleased by what he saw.

“It may take some time for them to fully dissect this s.p.a.ce warp engine technology.”

Little X stepped into the room wearing a dress and reported, “Based on what we've collected so far, it'd seem that the s.p.a.ce warp engine technology is fundamentally flawed. It doesn't function by directly warping the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p from one point to another. Instead, it warps into the subs.p.a.ce first and uses the subs.p.a.ce as a transit point before it warps again to its final destination. The flaw with this approach is that it exposes the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p to the corrosion of the subs.p.a.ce during the warping process.”

“Is that so?”

Chen Chen scowled and remembered a piece of relevant information.

The so-called subs.p.a.ce was essentially a barrier separating the positive matter s.p.a.ce and the antimatter s.p.a.ce. Einstein had theorized the existence of the subs.p.a.ce more than a century ago.

Based on the established Theory of Relativity charted by Einstein, it could be concluded that if the existing world existed in a positive matter state, then there must be a subsequent anti-matter world as well. The two sides interacted mutually to ensure that the universe maintained its balance and avoided a collapse of any form. In this sense, the subs.p.a.ce maintained a delicate balance between the two halves.

Some scientists once believed that generating a powerful magnetic field could simulate a gravitational field that could be used to push a s.p.a.cecraft at extreme velocity. If the magnetic field was powerful enough, the s.p.a.cecraft would enter a s.p.a.ce beyond our dimension and achieve faster than light travel. Upon the dissipation of this magnetic field, the s.p.a.cecraft would return to our present dimension.

To put it in simple terms, the universe as we knew it could be described as a sphere. No matter how fast a s.p.a.cecraft traveled, it would only glide along the surface of this sphere.

The profoundness of s.p.a.ce warp engine technology stemmed from how it was able to break through the boundary of conventional travel. It penetrated through the surface of this sphere to arrive at another point of the sphere. This was the essence of subs.p.a.ce navigation.

The wonder of subs.p.a.ce navigation was that it could easily compress a ten-thousand years voyage to just one year.

By compressing a ten-thousand years voyage to just one year with subs.p.a.ce navigation, a stupendous amount of time and resources could be conserved.

In other words, the s.p.a.ce warp engine technology Chen Chen obtained from the Event Horizon dimension was a magnetic field generation device that could create such a powerful concentration of gravitational force that it penetrated reality and the subs.p.a.ce.

“But I have some concerns.”

Little X noted with a wry face, “With the implementation of s.p.a.ce warp in the real world, there's a possibility that we may face a similar terror like what was shown in Event Horizon…”

“There's always the possibility.”

Chen Chen noted with a quick smile, “This has always been the case with the implementation of technology. In a similar vein, do you think it was a mistake to adopt nuclear technology?”

Little X pouted. “That's not what I was saying…”

“Whether it's nuclear technology or s.p.a.ce warp technology, the principle is the same as always.”

Chen Chen explained, “The progress of civilization is always full of thorns. The further we travel down the road of technology, the higher the stakes become as we tread closer to potential destruction. The emergence of nuclear weapons can be said to be the first such major trial experienced by human civilization. The first deployment of the nuclear bomb terrified the world down to its very core and drew concerns that it would lead to the doom of mankind. But in the end, haven't we preserved and even managed to utilize nuclear technology for greater purposes?”

Chen Chen did not wait for Little X's reply to continue. “Nuclear weapons are just the beginning. From there on, there are anti-matter weapons, bio-genetic weapons, and further biochemical inventions that may very well backfire on its creators and wipe them out. We can observe this happening with some of the dimensions we've been to. These are the barriers to innovation.

“We have been theorizing what's called The Great Filter standing in the way of evolution of civilization. If The Great Filter truly existed, then nuclear technology would be one of the layers of this filter and s.p.a.ce warp engine another one of them. Each new technology we reach into is another layer of this filter.

“However, just like nuclear weapons, the transition to s.p.a.ce warp engine technology may bring in a corresponding crisis as well. The first usage of s.p.a.ce warp technology may bring us into some form of an unknown ent.i.ty in the subs.p.a.ce. Without proper knowledge and equipped defenses, our civilization may share the same fate as the Event Horizon dimension and be driven to destruction by the subs.p.a.ce…

“But s.p.a.ce warp technology is essential to mankind's s.p.a.ce voyage.”

Chen Chen preached, “Without it, we'd need to travel for centuries only to navigate beyond the solar system. This is very inefficient and even inoperable. Only with the s.p.a.ce warp technology can we consider ourselves a qualified interstellar civilization, otherwise, we humans will be forever bound to patrol inside the solar system only.”

Little X was enlightened by Chen Chen's profound sermon.

“It's redundant now for us to worry about the potential subs.p.a.ce devastation that might be caused by the transition to s.p.a.ce warp engine technology. Instead, we should make preparations and begin exploring how we can neutralize the dangers of the subs.p.a.ce.”

Chen Chen noted, “Based on what we've gathered so far, the best way to resist the power of subs.p.a.ce is to put the crew into a cryogenic state. By doing this, the crew can be immune to the corrosive effects of the subs.p.a.ce. We can wait until the warp is completed and after emerging from the subs.p.a.ce to wake up the crew.

“In addition, we also need to have an effective plan against the puzzling existence inside the subs.p.a.ce. Now, this is what we'll need to further discuss…”