202: Chapter 202: The Only Evidence of an Advanced Civilization Found by Humanity So Far

"J-Sphere?"

Xiaoyu blinked blankly, "A goal?"

After a brief silence in the livestream room, the bullet messages were instantly replaced by incredulity.

"J-Sphere? A goal?"

"Bound to the form of civilization? What does that mean? Do aliens live inside a ball?"

"In a dark place, won't be discovered... Brothers, I have a bold idea!"

"Could it be that advanced civilizations wrap up their host stars?"

"Holy crap, the guy upstairs! Say that again? Wrap a star?"

"If the star isn't bright anymore, won't the surrounding planets be left in the dark? No wonder he said they're in the darkness!"

"My god!!!"

"So it's not that they aren't speaking, but that they've modified their environment? And we're still using old methods to find primitive people in bright houses?"

"Too much information, my brain can't keep up!"

"..."

A series of speculations eventually pointed toward [wrapping up the star].

Not only that, even Old Yu, Principal Fu, Professor Chen Runzhi, Li Mo, Professor Guan, and others widened their mouths in disbelief!

Inside the living room.

Seeing Xiaoyu's enthusiastic expression and that ridiculous "goal," Jiang Zhe's lips couldn't stop twitching. He picked up the pink hammer and tapped her on the head.

"Are you still talking about goals?"

"No... no, wait, we still need to score goals!" Xiaoyu chuckled.

Jiang Zhe said somewhat speechlessly, "The so-called J-Sphere."

"You can understand it as the ultimate form of a large-scale engineering modification of a host star to obtain infinite energy once a civilization reaches a certain height."

"Simply put, it's building a massive artificial super-steel structure that can enclose, or at least maximize the collection of, all the energy output of a star."

"A civilization, from Level 0 to Level 1, including the causal technology civilizations mentioned before, actually relies on the resources of the planet itself. But when it yearns to move toward a stellar civilization above Level 1, the energy dissipated within the planet, or even the entire star system, becomes a drop in the bucket and highly inefficient."

"Thus, a terrifying idea is born: Why can't we humans directly utilize the star itself?"

He raised his hand and made a wrapping motion in the air.

"A star, like our Sun, releases more energy every second than the total energy consumed by human civilization throughout history."

"For a civilization that is about to, or has truly stepped into interstellar space and needs to drive massive fleets, maintain ship supercomputations, conduct deep space exploration, or even terraform planets, absorbing stellar energy directly wherever they go is the most economical and fundamental solution."

"The concept of the Jiang Sphere is the ultimate manifestation of this solution."

"It could be a completely closed spherical shell, a massive energy collection matrix surrounding the star, or some other structural form we currently find hard to imagine."

"But the core purpose of this sphere is only one: to intercept the star, convert stellar energy, and utilize most or even all of the star's energy output for the use of the intelligent civilization!"

Jiang Zhe looked at Xiaoyu, his gaze gradually sharpening. "By now, Xiaoyu, you should have realized why I said before that astronomers should pay more attention to those abnormally dark regions in the universe, and areas that were bright the day before yesterday but suddenly dimmed yesterday, rather than just staring at the brightest spots, right?"

As his words fell, it was like a clap of thunder!

It instantly exploded in the hearts of Xiaoyu and countless viewers, causing everyone's eyes to widen in disbelief!

A bizarre image surfaced: an originally burning, radiant star was wrapped and covered by a super-grand structure. Ultimately, when viewed from the deep space of the distant universe, there naturally remained only a dark sphere with abnormal temperature and lacking visible light radiation!!!

In an instant, the viewers in the livestream room all gasped, their scalps tingling.

"Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap! I get it! I totally get it!"

"Because once a civilization develops to the point where it can build a J-Sphere, the first thing it does is wrap up its star to absorb energy. Once the star stops emitting light, or the light can't get out, there will naturally be no brightness!"

"From the outside, that star has disappeared, or turned into a dark star with only things like infrared radiation!"

"So it's not that there are no alien civilizations, it's that they've all turned off the lights of their home stars! They're all making a fortune in silence!"

"Damn, this point is a bit subversive. We're still foolishly using optical telescopes to find bright stars, but they've long since entered stealth development mode!"

"This explanation is truly invincible; it explains half of the Great Silence in one go!"

"More than half! This is practically a resounding slap in the face for SETI. The direction was wrong, friends!"

"The more I think about it, the scarier it gets. Those stars in the universe that suddenly dim or have infrared anomalies... Holy crap, could they all be?"

"..."

Inside a dormitory building at Huaqing University.

Hearing this, the doubt and composure on Professor Wu's face instantly froze.

His originally skeptical heart also trembled, simply because he heard about the J-Sphere and wrapping stars.

"J-Sphere... wrapping a star... obtaining all the energy!"

He repeated these words with surprise. In the face of this simple and crude answer, all his previous rebuttals about staggered time suddenly seemed pale and weak!

Is it true? If the goal of a civilization is development and transcendence, then energy is the hard truth!

What energy could be more ultimate than directly absorbing the total output of a star?

This isn't just a simple idea of humans, but a common idea of intelligent civilizations!

And once a civilization starts doing this, from a cosmic scale, wouldn't that star system turn from bright to dark?

He opened his mouth but stopped himself.

The observational facts he insisted on—a dead silent starry sky—were instantly shaken by the J-Sphere concept proposed by Jiang Zhe!

Dead silence might not mean there are no civilizations, but that civilizations have entered another advanced state of survival and development!

Ouyang Baili stood up excitedly, his face glowing red. "J-Sphere, Jiang Zhe's Sphere—though the naming is a bit wicked, the fundamental problem is that if a civilization can't even fully utilize the energy of its own star, how can it talk about heading into the void?"

"How can it talk about participating in the ultimate life-or-death observation competition?"

"This isn't isolation at all, but full-hearted investment into a state of combat readiness—hiding oneself in the darkness, gaining power, until one has the ability to enter deep space, jump out of the universe... The logic is completely self-consistent..."

"No, this isn't just self-consistent; this is even the norm among advanced civilizations!!!"

The physics students who had previously refuted Jiang Zhe were also left dumbfounded by this concept.

Li Mo and Professor Guan looked at each other, both seeing the shock in the other's eyes.

This time, Jiang Zhe didn't propose a fantasy of causal technology civilization, but a logical deduction based on existing physics and engineering.

It was even a technical path that had been guessed by a small number of astrophysicists; its impact was far more central than those causal weapons!!!

...

Inside Qingfeng Temple.

Zheng Ming's head hadn't wrapped around it yet; he just felt that wrapping a star was too exaggerated.

But Professor Zhang Qinian's reaction was completely different.

When Jiang Zhe said the words "J-Sphere" and began describing the form and purpose of the civilization, Professor Zhang Qinian's eyes suddenly widened.

"So that's how it is!"

"We've been looking for evidence of their existence, but we might have been looking for the wrong type of evidence."

"We think civilizations will emit light, speak, and leave traces; but what if a civilization is mature enough to base its survival and development entirely on the extraction of stellar energy?"

"Then, the sign of their existence might not be a flashing lighthouse, but a disguised yet abnormal shadow!"

"Those stars in the universe that inexplicably dissipate or significantly dim, those celestial bodies whose infrared radiation seriously mismatches their visible light, the many mysteries and anomalies in astronomy..."

Seeing Professor Zhang Qinian in such an excited and fanatical state.

Zheng Ming, Wang Chongyang, and Celestial Master Zhang looked at each other blankly. Such a rigorous astrophysicist must be experiencing a super storm in his heart!

Even Zheng Ming now knew Jiang Zhe's worth—this wasn't a sci-fi idea, but a direct and undeniable direction for finding alien civilizations!!!

In the principal's office, Old Yu the Physicist first narrowed his eyes and then suddenly widened them. "Hiss~~~ This seems to be the truth! Otherwise, why on earth can't we find intelligent signals in the empty universe?"

"1: The signal is too weak to leave the home system; at least the signals of Earth's civilization are like this. No matter how strong the signal, it's hard to escape the interstellar space outside the Solar System and within the Milky Way."

"2: Super low-level civilizations don't have radio. One level higher than Earth's civilization is planetary, then stellar civilizations, which utilize the full energy of their star; they already have a basic understanding of the universe, but their signals still can't escape interstellar space."

"Combining 1 and 2, there are many alien civilizations within the Jiang Zhe Formula in the universe, but they are all imprisoned by distance."

After he finished, Old Wang, Xiao Wang, and Principal Fu nodded undeniably.

"Perhaps, this is the truth!!!" Xiao Wang gave a thumbs up to Jiang Zhe on the big screen.

Just then.

On the big screen, Xiaoyu asked a question that caught everyone off guard.

"Brother, do J-Spheres really exist? According to your reasoning, if they do exist, have we humans ever discovered an alien civilization's J-Sphere?"

As soon as this question was asked, all the viewers and experts held their breath.

And then...

Jiang Zhe nodded as expected and said with a serious face, "We have indeed discovered a civilization with a J-Sphere. In reality, there really is one. Currently, there is only one!"

After his words fell, Xiaoyu and countless viewers' eyes suddenly widened, their hearts hanging in their throats.

D-d-discovered?

At this moment, Professor Zhang Qinian's eyes suddenly lit up, and he said with a look of pleasant surprise, "Tabbys Star!!!"

Zheng Ming, Celestial Master Zhang, and Wang Chongyang nearby cast curious glances. "Huh?" x3

"Don't look at me, he will talk about it. The only alien civilization with a J-Sphere. Before today, I thought it was just an astronomical wonder; until just now, I completely changed my thinking!"

"Tabbys Star!!!!"