Epoch of Twilight

Did the humans gain any benefits from the Dicerebral Men?

From the data they gleaned, there were a few examples.

By solely looking at the annual energy expenditure, the Dicerebral Men’s annual energy expenditure was about a hundred of a billionth in comparison to that of the humans. The amount of energy used by a vessel from the curvature war fleet had already exceeded the total amount of energy required by their entire civilization, let alone the huge differences in their technological advances.

If the humans wanted to eliminate the Dicerebral Civilization, it would be as easy as squashing an ant.

The difference in strength between both civilizations was unimaginably great. To the Dicerebral Civilization, they were probably of some use to the humans since the humans did not destroy them. However, the human civilization was only concerned with their image and the way they behaved within the cosmic plains.

In a famous sci-fi novel, there was mention of a law of a dark forest. It described the cosmos being like a dark forest, where every civilization was like a hunter armed with a rifle as they stalked the jungle like a phantom. Once the hunter discovered another living organism, he would have to first fire his rifle to eliminate it. This was because the hunter would have no way of determining the intentions of the opponent — whether it had good or ill intentions. The only thing to do was to preemptively eliminate the threat to protect oneself.

However, to a civilization such as the humans, the law of the dark forest was not applicable. The universe was not dark, at least within the detection range of the humans — within a diameter of 1,500 light years. Every civilization was spotted, and they could neither hide or run. Every message flowing through would pass through the humans.

If the universe was described as a map full of mist and darkness, then humans had obtained an ability to disperse the mist within a small range.

However, not even the maddest lunatic dared to assume that the humans were at the apex of the universe. The three-dimensional universe alone was vast enough that even to this day, the humans had never left the Milky Way.

Within the detection range of the human civilization alone were already twelve extraterrestrial civilizations that could leave their home planet. The entire diameter of the Milky Way was about 10,000 light years, and scientists had theorized that there was a possibility of there being over a thousand civilizations capable of leaving their home planet within the Milky Way, and those were only the civilizations that could leave their home planet. If the civilizations that could not leave their home planets were to be taken into account, the number could possibly reach the tens of thousands.

Also, the Milky Way was just an ordinary member of the galaxy cluster, the current galaxy group was also a member of the Virgo Supercluster, and it was only an insignificant part of the universe.

Within the galaxy, the civilizations were like clouds and smoke and among those civilizations, their civilization much weaker than the humans. Naturally, there were also civilizations far more powerful than the humans.

One could stand atop the bridge to gaze at the scenery but there would naturally be people standing on the skyscraper in the scenery to return the gaze. Similarly, while the humans were observing other civilizations, they were being observed as well.

Within a universe that obeyed the law of a jungle, a brutal, aggressive evil that sought to destroy other civilizations, would naturally attract an even more powerful civilization that had ill intentions. This was not due to the value of justice and kindness. Instead, it was because the existence of these civilizations would bring chaos and terror to the other civilizations. Being vigilant and wiping out these terrorizing civilizations in the meantime would probably not attract much scorn from the other civilizations.

For this reason alone, the humans had been extra careful with their conduct and would only be active within their own star system. They did not even conduct expeditions like the Glassians did in the past let alone have any basic form of communication with nearby civilizations.

If it was not for the Dicerebral Men being too close to their solar system while being in an arms race with the humans, both of their civilizations would not probably be at odds with each other. If this location was not geographically superior to forward their base, the humans probably would not even pay attention to them.

...

Months later, a small curvature drone gradually closed in toward a powerful civilization that was about 1,200 light years away from Earth after being in flight for over 20 years.

The opponent reacted swiftly before the drone even approached the five light-year mark. Before long, the small curvature drone had been intercepted by a large fleet.

Then, after firing a giant railgun, the human drone immediately self-destructed.

About 10,000 tons of anti-matter arranged neatly within the drone ship instantly exploded. The large fleet thoroughly searched through the remains in the entire star sector after the blast but aside from some scrap metals and the railgun, there was nothing left for them to salvage.

Within the rail gun was a harmless metal sphere that contained a 0.5 meter thick, paper-based information written in a kind of language along with coded data to engage in quantum communications with the humans. This book of knowledge of sorts could be easily decrypted to provide information on deciphering the human language by even those with basic intelligence.

Moments after the object had been discovered, it was sent to this civilization’s administrative star where they began analyzing it. A day later, both civilizations had initiated the first contact.

This civilization was called the Baja Civilization. Ever since the civilization’s development expanded beyond their home planet, tens of thousands of years had passed, and their population had reached over a hundred billion. They inhabited twelve different planets and had forces spread across five solar systems. Within tens of thousands of light years, they had always been the overlord of their solar system since they were no other civilizations capable of challenging them. Even the Glassians were like an insignificant ant to them.

That was until the humans rose so rapidly!

Initially, the Baja Civilization did not take any interest in neither Glassian nor human. In fact, the strength the human and Glassian civilization had back then was not even enough to spark their interest. Even if both civilizations fought one another, it would be like a cockfight to the Baja Civilization. It simply was not enough to attract their interest at all, even if the fight were to end up in the destruction of either civilization. It would be as insignificant as the death of an ant.

It was only until both civilizations had successfully developed the curvature technology and after one had successfully destroyed the other that they gradually became interested.

The fact that they had developed the curvature technology meant that they had evolved from a small to a big ant, even if the technology was still in its infancy. Even then, they had reached their limit of expansion and would not be able to threaten the Baja Civilization within several thousand years according to the law of civilization development. A few thousand years later, the Baja Civilization would have become even more powerful.

However what the Baja Civilization could never have had imagined was that the rate the human civilization was expanding was way too fast. It was unimaginably fast and was enough to strike fear within them. If a civilization’s standard growth rate was described as a gradual and steady progress, then the humans were growing by leaps and bounds.

When the Baja Civilization turned around to once again, pay attention to the human civilization, they were suddenly a potential threat to the Baja Civilization.

No overlord would be able to tolerate another rising force that could potentially challenge their position as an overlord. After they confirmed the potential threat of the humans, the Baja Civilization began preparations for war. On one side, they had initiated a large scale production of war fleets. On the other side, they had also begun increasing their anti-matter reserve.

There were about 1,200 light years between both civilization and this was an extremely long distance to the Baja Civilization. The energy required by an expedition of several thousand war fleets was still an astronomical amount, even for the Baja Civilization that owned three different Dyson Spheres.

Unfortunately after a few years of preparation, the Baja Civilization discovered that the humans had also begun war preparations.

After this discovery, a massive uproar occurred within the higher-ups of the Baja Civilization. The humans were within range of their detection. It was not that they could not detect the humans. Hundreds of years ago, the Baja Civilization had initiated a project to plant "eyes" in the nearby solar systems. Through hundreds of spatial wavelength detectors that were planted throughout every corner of the solar system, they managed to extend their vision to almost 2,000 light years — the maximum detection range of a single unit of the spatial wavelength detector was only about seven to eight hundred light years.

With this discovery, it left a deep impression about the technological prowess of the human civilization to the Baja Civilization. Once again, they felt an even more intense threat.

Be it their soldiers, a major event in their civilization, a life and death situation or their way or survival, none could be neglected.

War was never a child’s play. This was especially so for interstellar warfare that could spell doom to either civilization. Once defeated in war, the losing civilization would forever be in hell. This was why any mature civilization that went to war with a threatening civilization would usually be extra cautious.

With this hovering above their heads, the Baja Civilization’s original plan for a war had been delayed over and over again. Followed by the rapid expansion of the human military, this gradually turned into a huge arms race between two advanced civilizations.