250: Chapter 250 Star-Eating Beast

A solution had been found.

The modifications began.

Underground factories began modifying the warships.

During this time, humanity was effectively blind; the modified warships were launched into the sky soon after.

The new warships were indeed better adapted to the environment of the Spiral Arm Core.

However, detecting the environment within a stellar storm was an extremely difficult task.

High-energy rays would interfere with any emitted electronic beams, leading to unpredictable errors in detection.

Nevertheless, the warships still managed to gather a significant amount of data in space.

This information held immense reference value for humanity.

The real-time information sent back by the warships showed...

Between 2 to 3 light-years ahead of the Ideal Star lay a massive White Dwarf.

Given the Ideal Star's current trajectory, it would enter the White Dwarf's gravitational range in approximately twenty years.

This White Dwarf was different from other celestial bodies.

According to the feedback, everything—matter and celestial bodies alike—within the Spiral Arm Core was flying in the same direction.

This included the current Ideal Star; even without any propulsion, it continued to advance steadily. Yet, that White Dwarf remained stationary!

One must realize that there are no stationary celestial bodies in the universe! And yet, the White Dwarf was stationary.

This instinctively made Gao Yuan feel a sense of danger!

Their current location was the Spiral Arm Core, which was different from the universe outside; Gao Yuan called it the Inner Universe!

This Inner Universe was likely what the Polaris people had previously believed to be a wormhole.

Because it was impossible to detect this place from outside the Spiral Arm, any light entering would become part of the stellar storm, swept along toward the front.

This led the Polaris people to mistakenly believe it was a wormhole!

The passage inside the core should lead directly to the Galactic Center.

Both the Polaris Civilization and Cangming No. 1 claimed that faster-than-light travel was possible within the Spiral Arm Core, but so far, humanity had not found a way to achieve it.

This was likely because humanity's own technology was too weak; even their current civilization had been forcibly elevated—part of it came from a parallel world a thousand years in the future, part from other civilizations after the Solar System's upheaval, and another part was aided by Cangming No. 1, with only a very small portion being developed by humans themselves.

It could be said that if humans relied solely on themselves, they would likely only be able to reach the Moon at most by now.

Gao Yuan knew that there must be secrets within this Spiral Arm Core that he was unaware of.

All of this required him to discover it.

And now, a White Dwarf had appeared ahead.

A White Dwarf is a type of star with low luminosity, high density, and high temperature. It is named a White Dwarf because of its white color and relatively small size.

White Dwarfs are stars in the final stages of evolution, primarily composed of carbon and covered by a layer of hydrogen and helium. Over billions of years, a White Dwarf gradually cools and dims; it is small in size and low in brightness, but high in density and mass.

Great mass means great gravity...

How strong is the gravity on a White Dwarf? It is over a hundred million times that of the Ideal Star.

Furthermore, the gravity exceeds molecular forces.

This means that once any matter enters the White Dwarf's gravitational range and falls into its interior, even molecular structures cannot be maintained; the matter disintegrates into an atomic state!

Therefore...

Gao Yuan now had to adjust the course to avoid being captured by the White Dwarf's gravitational waves.

But just as he began to adjust the Ideal Star's direction, he discovered...

The Ideal Star could not change its course at all, as if... it were locked by some kind of force field.

Discovering this, Gao Yuan was terrified.

Unable to change course?

What on earth was going on?

Gao Yuan tried countless methods, activating all sorts of engines within the Ideal Star, but the course did not change in the slightest.

If it couldn't be changed, the Ideal Star would inevitably enter the White Dwarf's gravitational range...

Everyone would be disintegrated into an atomic state!

Gao Yuan panicked...

But fortunately, there was still time; humanity had at least twenty years to respond.

Gao Yuan gathered scientists to try countless methods, but none could change the state of the Ideal Star...

Someone even suggested abandoning the Ideal Star and having all of humanity board the warships; calculated this way, twenty years would be enough.

But Gao Yuan was unwilling...

Humanity had already abandoned Earth once.

Now, this Ideal Star carried all of humanity's hopes; after only a few decades, was it to be abandoned again?

Gao Yuan decided on a two-pronged approach...

First, build a fleet large enough to carry all of humanity.

Second, launch more probes toward the White Dwarf to see what exactly was on it.

Preparing for both possibilities.

A large number of probes flew toward the White Dwarf; once these probes got close, they would soon crash, but they could still send back some information before doing so...

Synthesizing this information, Gao Yuan was shocked to discover that on the absolutely smooth surface of the White Dwarf, there was a massive creature.

Because of its immense gravity, the surface of the White Dwarf was extremely smooth, a structure similar to the "water droplets" described in "The Three-Body Problem," which were superweapons developed with great effort by the Trisolarans...

But on a White Dwarf, all matter was like that.

Gao Yuan couldn't believe that a creature could actually exist on a White Dwarf.

What kind of creature was that?

How could it be so large? It was so big that it could be spotted just by getting somewhat close to the White Dwarf; at first, Gao Yuan had thought it was a unique geographical feature of the White Dwarf.

As more information came in, Gao Yuan realized it wasn't a geographical feature at all, and normally, there shouldn't be any mountains or hills on a White Dwarf!

That thing moved; it was a creature...

A massive creature over ten million meters tall and with a horizontal volume exceeding five billion meters.

Although it was nothing compared to a planet, it already far exceeded the scope of human knowledge.

That giant creature was constantly breathing in and out in the direction of the Ideal Star...

And between this creature and the Ideal Star, a closed force field had formed.

It was this force field that was pulling the Ideal Star unerringly toward the White Dwarf.

Gao Yuan felt like his brain couldn't process this...

He suddenly remembered that in the data from Cangming No. 1, there was mention of a type of Star-Eating Beast; it was said that ordinary Star-Eating Beasts fed on planets and meteoroids! While a super Star-Eating Beast fed on stars.

Could it be that the thing on the White Dwarf ahead was a Star-Eating Beast?

Gao Yuan was stunned...

If it was a Star-Eating Beast, it was likely still a juvenile; after all, looking at its size, it could at most devour meteoroids...

Even the Ideal Star was too large for it.

Gao Yuan didn't know how it would swallow the Ideal Star, but he couldn't take the risk.

First, he had to break this gravitational field and escape the Star-Eating Beast's lock!

But how could the force field be broken?

Gao Yuan sent out countless suicide warships to attack the Star-Eating Beast, but as soon as the warships entered the White Dwarf's gravitational field, the Star-Eating Beast would leap up and devour them.

Gao Yuan realized that he wasn't attacking, but feeding it, so he decisively halted the attacks!