Wandering Meteor

At the boundary between the Star Zone and the Cosmic Zone, an Entropy Wall suddenly appeared, blocking the escape of the Level 4 Civilization team, forcing them to split and search in different directions for an opening or the origin of the Entropy Wall.

Among them, part of the Level 4 Civilization encountered an Antimatter Nebula and was directly annihilated by the Antimatter Civilization; another part, after flying along the Entropy Wall for about three hundred years, suddenly observed a massive galaxy rapidly approaching from afar.

At first, these Level 4 Civilizations thought that the civilization within that galaxy was also an escapee like them. However, further observations revealed that the situation was not so simple. Because these civilizations all observed that within that approaching galaxy, there seemed to be an Entropy Beast, and though its shape was somewhat different from what they had seen before, some basic characteristics were the same, making it easy to recognize.

In the distant galaxy, the structure was clear, divided into Heliosphere Layer and Orbit Zone, within which thousands of planets were orderly orbiting. In the outermost part of the Orbit Zone, a black creature about half a light-year long, with a pair of horns and four legs, was flying at high speed. This creature was recognized by the Level 4 Civilizations as an Entropy Beast, since aside from the horns and legs, its other features were basically similar to those of an Entropy Beast.

Everyone knows that an Entropy Beast is a product of the Entropy Civilization, meant to eliminate things that cause entropy reduction in the universe. However, the situation with the galactic system ahead was completely different. The unique Entropy Beast was not devouring and annihilating civilized planets within the galaxy; instead, it seemed to be patrolling the outer Orbit Zone, appearing to guard the civilization within that galaxy. There was only one explanation: the civilization in that galaxy owned the Entropy Beast. After careful discussions, these Level 4 Civilizations consequently believed that the civilization ahead was very likely the mysterious Entropy Civilization in the Universe.

At this moment, these Level 4 Civilizations were aware that the Entropy Wall at the boundary was created by the Entropy Civilization, intended to prevent other civilizations from entering the Cosmic Zone. Considering the existence and motives of the Entropy Beast, it was almost certain that the Entropy Civilization intended to eliminate excessive civilizations in the universe to slow down the rate of universe's entropy increase, thereby prolonging the lifespan of the universe. Thus, once they figured that the civilization ahead was likely the Entropy Civilization, they unanimously dispersed and fled without agreement.

After all, if the Entropy Civilization discovered their presence, they feared they would be mercilessly annihilated by the Level 5 Entropy Civilization.

Although the Entropy Civilization far ahead might have already noticed them, they couldn't possibly just wait to die, let alone consider the impossible task of asking the Entropy Civilization to take them into the Cosmic Zone.

Apart from the likelihood of facing the Entropy Civilization, another factor they feared was the Central Constant Star in the approaching galaxy, for the mass of the Central Constant Star was about 2.1 billion Constant Star Masses, a rarity in the universe. This also indicated that the star was a greedy celestial body, and they naturally worried they might become "food" for the Central Constant Star. Even without being entirely certain that it was definitely the Entropy Civilization, after comprehensive consideration, they decided it was safest to avoid the civilization suspected to be the Entropy Civilization ahead.

However, what these Level 4 Civilizations did not know was that the civilization ahead was actually not the Entropy Civilization, but the Wandering Alliance.

But, at least one of their judgments was correct; the civilization ahead was indeed a Level 5 Civilization. After about three hundred years of travel and recovery policies, the Wandering Alliance had essentially completed its initial plans.

At this time, the Wandering Alliance had officially stepped onto the Level 5 Civilization stage and was very adept at mastering Information Control Technology. Although their mastery might not be as exquisite as that of the established Level 5 Civilizations, it was beyond the reach of any Level 4 Civilization.

The Wandering Alliance's smooth transition into Level 5 Civilization was primarily due to two favorable factors. The first was the further perfection of Information Wall Technology, which enhanced the Wandering Alliance's understanding and research of information theory. The second factor was the successful application of the Atomic Computer, marking the completion of the computer revolution, also referred to as the Nth industrial revolution of the Wandering Alliance. With the superior performance of the Atomic Computer, the Wandering Alliance had officially stepped into the era of microtechnology.

The successful application of the Atomic Computer led to the miniaturization of all devices in society, with the smallest reducing to the size of a molecule, which was the main reason the Wandering Alliance could ultimately control Information Particles and enter Level 5 Civilization. The principle devices for controlling Information Particles, researched by scientists of the Wandering Alliance, encompassed three kinds: the atomic cloud, the probability cloud, and the signal wave cloud. The principles of these devices differed, but their effects were the same, albeit with varying efficiencies, among which the signal wave cloud, as the newly developed device, had the highest efficiency. With the signal wave cloud technology, the Wandering Alliance successfully achieved long-term control of the movement and state of Information Particles, provided there were no severe external disturbances within a certain distance.

With the Wandering Alliance's advancement into a Level 5 Civilization, its original technologies also experienced significant leaps.

For instance, the Jump Engine, reinforced by new technologies, now allowed the Wandering Alliance to conduct long-distance transmissions, with the longest transmission experiment recorded at around ten million light-years, whereas previously, the Wandering Alliance could only perform jump transmissions within a range of tens of thousands of light-years.

This clearly showed the chasm between Level 4 and Level 5 Civilizations.

In addition to the advancement of Jump Engine technology, the Wandering Alliance's weapon technologies had also undergone a qualitative transformation. All previous weapons (Quark Decoherence, Flow Base Disassembly) were phased out and replaced with new weapons centered on information technology, such as the Information Zero Domain, Information Source Collapse, and Information Pulse, with the latter featuring three energy density modes. Low density comprised the Information Pulse, medium density comprised the Information Wave, and high density comprised the Information Torrent.

The Battle Stars produced by the Sixth Phase Nova Plan were all equipped with these weapons and an upgraded version of the Information Wall Protection Technology.

However, it's worth noting that after later discussions, the Wandering Alliance decided to change the series number of the previously named Information Battle Star to Source Material Battle Star, as Source Material better represented the core technology of the Sixth Phase Battle Stars. Hence, a special change in series naming was made, and the three thousand Battle Stars from the Sixth Phase Nova Plan were designated as Source Material No.1 to Source Material No.3000 Battle Stars.

Lastly, there were significant advancements and changes with the Entropy Beast. However, the Entropy Beast could no longer be called an Entropy Beast at this time...