254: Chapter 254 The Arrival of a New Era

When Gao Yuan arrived at the Academy of Sciences, the atmosphere inside was as if they were facing a formidable enemy.

"What's going on?"

Gao Yuan grabbed a researcher and asked.

"Marshal, it's the Black Spheres; they turn people into monsters! And anyone bitten by those infected will also be infected!"

Monsters?

Gao Yuan soon saw the staff members who had been infected by the Black Spheres.

At this time, their bodies were pitch black, and they were locked in cages. Even so, they could not remain quiet; they were roaring and actually gnawing on the steel bars of the cages!

The sound did not seem to be produced by a human at all.

"Seal off these Black Spheres immediately!"

"What about these scientists?"

someone asked.

Gao Yuan pondered. How should they be handled?

"Freeze them at ultra-low temperatures, then thaw and treat them once a solution is found!"

The others looked at each other in dismay...

Ultra-low temperatures can instantly freeze the water within human cells, but... modern scientific theory has already proven that when water freezes, the volume expansion actually destroys many delicate cellular structures.

Saying they would be thawed later was actually impossible!

So, this was just a more tactful way of saying humane destruction.

But in this situation, if they were not frozen, these infected people would die within two days at most due to excessive consumption and organ failure...

Life-Sustaining Base Fluid was also useless.

However, no one objected...

And so, people began to seal the area and prepare liquid nitrogen.

When Gao Yuan came out, his face was full of regret...

Every researcher was a treasure.

Just one Black Sphere had caused the loss of over a dozen.

What exactly were these Black Spheres?

Gao Yuan read the experimental report. Preliminary monitoring showed intense life activity inside these Black Spheres; they were actually a type of life form.

Just as the scientists were preparing to study them further, the Black Spheres emitted a type of radiation... and then... the scientists were infected.

These Black Spheres had arrived at the Ideal Star along with those high-energy radiation storms.

Could it be... the Star-Eating Beast?

Then were these Black Spheres the cells of the Star-Eating Beast, or bacteria it carried?

Gao Yuan did not know...

He did not want to study them now either.

So he ordered the destruction of these Black Spheres to avoid a large-scale infection caused by a moment of carelessness, which would be disastrous for humanity...

If a biological crisis occurred on the Ideal Star, it would be an absolute cataclysm.

The Black Spheres, sealed within a super-strong magnetic field, were quickly sent to a sealed room made of super-strong alloy.

Here, high temperatures, high radiation... everything had been tried. Not only did the Black Spheres not die, but they became even more active.

At this moment, the newly appointed President of the Academy of Sciences, Li Qiu, stood beside Gao Yuan.

"Marshal, conventional methods cannot kill these Black Spheres. They are resistant to high temperatures, high pressure, and high radiation! We've tried lethal poisons and corrosive liquids... but they all failed!"

"These Black Spheres arrived with high-energy radiation, so high temperatures and high radiation are definitely useless against them! These Black Spheres should also be four-dimensional life forms, so lethal poisons and highly corrosive solutions that work on humans will certainly not work on them! Try low temperatures; if that doesn't work, use Antimatter..."

In Gao Yuan's view, any life form, as long as it was composed of matter, could not possibly withstand Antimatter.

...

But soon, Gao Yuan received a report.

Low temperatures were also useless against the Black Spheres.

The staff used Antimatter particle beams to strike them. Under the impact of the Antimatter particle beams, the Black Spheres shrank tenfold in volume, but they still were not destroyed...

These shrunken Black Spheres were extremely hard, beyond human comprehension.

Gao Yuan returned to the room where the Black Sphere organisms were stored.

By now, the Black Spheres had shrunk to the size of oranges, resembling pieces of Black Jade.

These Black Spheres could actually resist Antimatter after shrinking.

This was beyond Gao Yuan's expectations.

After various instruments tested the Black Spheres, more surprises awaited Gao Yuan.

These Black Spheres had no attributes, and no matter could be detected, as if... the spheres had turned invisible.

No instrument could detect them.

However, they could be seen with the eyes and felt with the hands, while life activity inside the Black Spheres had ceased.

Fortunately, they had truly turned into pieces of strange Black Jade.

This Black Jade was extremely hard; dropping it on the floor could smash through humanity's strongest alloy plates.

At this time, Gao Gan proposed a hypothesis.

"Gao Yuan, if these Black Spheres are Star-Eating Beast cells, then these shrunken Black Spheres should be the Star-Eating Beast's cortex! These withered cellular tissues would turn into armor! Protecting the Star-Eating Beast!"

"Then are these shrunken cells harmful?"

"I don't know, but we can conduct experiments on animals. We'll know once we test them on mice in the laboratory!"

Time was the one thing humanity did not lack now.

A month later, various experiments were completed. After being struck by Antimatter particle beams, these Black Spheres no longer had any special characteristics; their only trait was hardness...

Research found that these Black Spheres were an excellent material! If used to build warships, they could block all attacks! And they would be indestructible!

...

This made Gao Yuan overjoyed.

He began to try artificially cultivating the Black Spheres.

If these Black Spheres really were Star-Eating Beast cells, then Nuclear Fusion could be used as an energy source, and various metals could be fed to them as food.

On the first attempt, the Black Spheres successfully began to divide and replicate.

Gao Yuan had a massive plan: to cover the entire surface of the Ideal Star with Black Spheres so that the Ideal Star could withstand any stellar storm.

Now the surface of the Ideal Star had high-energy radiation and various materials. He only needed to let these Black Spheres reproduce, and once they covered a certain area, use Antimatter particle beams to strike them, causing them to lose activity and shrink.

This process continued for fifty years...

By now, the nova explosion caused by the White Dwarf had long since ended.

And the Ideal Star had now become an all-black Ghost Planet.

The Black Spheres had now become humanity's strongest material.

Furthermore, they were simpler to manufacture; as long as energy and materials were provided, the Black Spheres would reproduce and grow on their own, and after being inactivated and shrunken, they would become the best material.

After the Ideal Star was covered in the Black Sphere material, Gao Yuan was surprised to find that the flight speed of the Ideal Star actually began to climb continuously.

Previously, 10% of the speed of light was the limit of the Ideal Star...

But now, in just a few short years, the speed of the Ideal Star had broken through 15%!

Gao Yuan's heart was shaken...

Could it be... that in time, the Ideal Star could exceed the speed of light?

Could this giant beast material be the key to breaking the light speed barrier?

All of this only required the verification of time.

Gao Yuan began to look forward to it.

The speed of the Ideal Star was getting faster and faster!

A hundred years later, the Ideal Star had reached 50% of the speed of light, but the acceleration was still ongoing!

During this period, Gao Yuan never encountered any other civilizations or biological beings.

Three hundred years later...

The Ideal Star had reached 99% of the speed of light!

According to basic physical theories on Earth, the greater the mass, the slower the limit speed. A planet as large as the Ideal Star should be absolutely unable to reach 99% of the speed of light!

At this moment, all human scientists went wild.

A planet, its speed about to break through the speed of light...

What a new era this was!