239: Chapter 239 Spiral Barrier

Gao Yuan didn't even know how long he would have to fly.

Because even the clocks had stopped. He had no concept of time now.

Right now, he couldn't even go find Gao Gan; Gao Gan was on another battleship.

Gao Yuan couldn't get out, nor could he contact Gao Gan.

The only place he could move around in was the interior of this battleship.

Extreme boredom...

Sometimes Gao Yuan even wondered what the point of living like this was.

He would eventually get tired of the scenery outside. He had chatted with every crew member and even pretended to play games. Gao Yuan finally understood why the Polaris people didn't develop FTL travel...

Who could endure such a lonely scene?

Compared to this, a wormhole was simply much better.

You couldn't feel it, and it didn't take long...

Gao Yuan thought a century had already passed.

But the battleship was still shuttling along, with no sign of stopping anytime soon.

Gao Yuan began to get restless and started looking for ways to find some stimulation...

He slammed his head against the hull of the battleship and even went to the warehouse to thrust his hand directly into an Antimatter storage container.

Even if it meant feeling pain, it would be fine.

Here, there was no one to talk to, no pain, no time, no food, no drink... he didn't feel sleepy or hungry...

If there were a next time, Gao Yuan would definitely not choose this method of flight.

It was too agonizing.

Now, Gao Yuan sat blankly on the floor like a statue, his eyes unmoving, his mind wandering infinitely...

Was the universe... actually just a cell of a giant lifeform?

The expansion of the universe was essentially the growth of a cell.

Beyond the universe was more universe; this world was just an infinite set of nesting dolls.

Celestial bodies were nothing more than elementary particles, nebulae were tissues, and Spiral Arms might just be neural networks.

Gao Yuan didn't know if his thoughts were correct, but it didn't matter. Even if they were true, so what?

The so-called four-dimensional life and three-dimensional life... there was no difference; they were all viruses within this lifeform.

If a Four-Dimensional Civilization was a virus, then humans were at most viroids.

Viroids are simpler and smaller in structure than viruses, lacking even a protein coat, consisting only of a circular single-stranded RNA molecule!

Viroids cannot directly infect cells; they can only spread when a cell is damaged and loses its membrane barrier.

Just like humans, who couldn't leave the Solar System on their own and only took the opportunity to escape when the Solar System collapsed.

Thinking about it this way, it did make sense.

If humans were just a viroid, and they now wanted to enter a neural network, was it possible?

I don't know...

Gao Yuan would rather die now than stay inside the battleship.

This kind of life was far worse than death.

Lost in these idle thoughts, Gao Yuan felt as if another hundred years had passed. He was very peaceful now; nothing could excite him.

At that moment, the battleship suddenly began to vibrate.

Gao Yuan was stunned...

We've arrived?

Just as the thought crossed his mind, he noticed the battleship suddenly beginning to disintegrate inch by inch!

It looked slow, but in an instant, the battleship was gone.

It was as if there were a barrier ahead; the battleship vanished upon hitting it.

All the humans abruptly appeared in this void. The only thing to be thankful for now was that the temperature here wasn't low, and there was oxygen...

Even without the battleship, humans wouldn't die immediately.

Mo Yun, who was beside Gao Yuan, was startled.

"What happened? Did we fail?"

The others were in the same state.

In their eyes, after the gravitational field formed, the battleship entered Subspace, and then they arrived here...

There was no pause in between.

Only four-dimensional beings like Gao Yuan and Gao Gan knew what they had experienced.

Sometimes, knowing nothing at all is simply pure bliss.

Gao Yuan looked at Mo Yun with a face full of envy: "That's nice..."

"Marshal, what's going on? Where's our battleship?"

"We've reached the Spiral Arm. No metal objects can enter here!"

"So, are we going in now?"

Gao Yuan nodded...

But people soon discovered that there seemed to be an invisible barrier outside the Spiral Arm that humans simply couldn't cross.

Gao Yuan walked forward a few steps as if entering water. After a few seconds, his breathing suddenly became clear.

Looking back, he could see Mo Yun and the others talking, but not a single sound from outside could reach him! Only light could pass through.

Gao Yuan looked at himself: "What's happening?"

Gao Gan came over: "They can't get in! Only complete bodies can enter!"

"And then..."

"Only by destroying this barrier can we let them in!"

At this time, there were four others beside Gao Gan, all of whom were complete bodies created by Gao Qiu.

Gao Yuan looked at himself and then at the others. There were only six of them, empty-handed. How were they supposed to destroy this barrier when they didn't even know what it was?

"Don't worry, they'll be fine for the time being! Let's take a look first!"

Gao Yuan turned around. The interior of the Spiral Arm was much livelier than the outside. As far as the eye could see, a vast number of celestial bodies were constantly moving, connected by gas clouds, and there seemed to be a passage inside.

The gas in front of Gao Yuan seemed to be gathering toward the center... even his body was involuntarily flying in that direction.

"What's going on?"

Gao Yuan hurriedly steadied himself.

"Large-volume gas clouds become unstable due to their own gravity, causing collapse. It should be the beginning stage of the collapse now, so the internal pressure of the gas cloud is very small."

"What are the consequences of such a collapse?"

"As the collapse begins, matter accelerates toward the center under the influence of self-gravity. Once the linear dimensions of the matter have shrunk by several orders of magnitude, the situation changes. On one hand, the density of the gas increases drastically. On the other hand, because part of the lost gravitational potential energy is converted into thermal energy, the gas temperature also increases significantly. Since gas pressure is proportional to the product of its density and temperature, the pressure grows even faster during the collapse process. Thus, a pressure field sufficient to counteract self-gravity quickly forms inside the gas. This pressure field eventually stops the gravitational collapse, establishing a new mechanical equilibrium configuration called a Protostar! Which is the predecessor of a star!"

Gao Yuan frowned: "You mean a star is forming here? Will we be burned to death?"

"Unlikely. Star formation takes anywhere from tens of thousands to hundreds of millions of years. If you want to be burned to death by a star, you'd need to stay here for at least a hundred thousand years..."

"A hundred thousand years..."

Gao Yuan shuddered: "By the way, Gao Gan, was it uncomfortable for you during the flight?"

As soon as this question was asked, Gao Gan and the four people behind him turned pale, clearly having been struck a chord.

"It's nothing, I was just asking. What should we do?"

"Let the others in, find a suitable base here, and rebuild human civilization! Once we have civilization and a fleet, we can set off for the Galactic Center!"