章 35: Chapter 35: The Missing Radioactive Elements, the Third Civilization
A thousand years had passed.
Yan Xia also woke up.
What a long time, and he had spent another thousand years in the game _Divine Revelation_.
In these thousand years, he had experienced so much and witnessed the rise and fall of countless nations and races in the virtual world.
These experiences taught him a lot.
Even in _Divine Revelation_, a technological nation had emerged, which would become a simulated country. NPCs and players within it would provide "imagination resources" for the real world.
During these thousand years, Yan Xia had not asked Ella, who was in the virtual world, to report on external information. He believed Ella could handle everything.
If Ella couldn't handle it, there wasn't much he could do anyway.
In this wandering civilization, Yan Xia was the decision-maker, and Ella was like a collective brain. Yan Xia made the final decisions, and sometimes, when Ella's computational power wasn't enough, he would make the correct decisions. Ella was responsible for implementing the plans.
"Let's go to the Proxima Centauri system now, starting with Proxima Centauri c."
Yan Xia had received complete information before entering hibernation.
He now knew what to do.
Proxima Centauri c was more developed than Proxima Centauri b, making landing there safer.
"Yan Xia, I don't recommend going to Proxima Centauri."
Ella spoke up, using her virtual image, her face serious.
Yan Xia looked at her and felt she was worrying too much.
"Ella, you've completed the electromagnetic shield's iteration, and even high-density dark matter missiles can't penetrate my defenses."
"You don't need to worry about my safety."
Ella shook her head lightly.
"I'm not worried about the Proxima Centauri civilization posing a threat to you."
"Yan Xia, follow me."
She turned and walked towards the experimental area, and Yan Xia curiously followed behind.
The experimental area inside the spaceship was no longer spacious. Passing by the door, there were hundreds of brain-like biological laboratories, and Yan Xia entered the main chemistry laboratory.
All the technology here served chemistry, relatively simple, and its function was to observe smaller particles and analyze macroscopic chemical phenomena and their chemical properties.
Ella controlled over a dozen robots to start working.
One robot approached Yan Xia, holding four test tubes in its hand, each containing soil, metal, liquid, and nothing, respectively.
"What's this?"
"Just some randomly collected samples from Proxima Centauri c. They weren't specially selected."
"These three test tubes contain all the elements on Proxima Centauri c, including solids, liquids, and gases."
The robot poured the contents of the four test tubes into four instruments.
The analysis results appeared on the laboratory's screen.
"Do you notice anything unusual?"
Yan Xia looked at the information on the screen and then nodded affirmatively.
"82!"
"You just said these test tubes contain all the elements of Proxima Centauri c?"
Yan Xia thought Ella might be mistaken. In nature, there should be 94 elements with higher abundance.
However, Ella hummed in agreement.
"Yes, 82."
"All 82 elements are radioactive, which means Proxima Centauri c doesn't have radioactive elements."
"In these thousand years, I've made great efforts to find radioactive elements, even mobilizing massive resources, but to no avail."
"The same is true for Proxima Centauri b and Proxima Centauri d."
Yan Xia thought about it.
"Could it be because Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf star, lacking the massive energy and gravity of the Sun to synthesize these heavy elements?"
That was the only possible explanation.
"It's not that. Although red dwarfs can't synthesize radioactive elements themselves, Proxima Centauri is not a first-generation or even second-generation star. During its formation, it would have absorbed and merged with radioactive elements from the supernova explosion of its previous star."
"Moreover, radioactive elements are not just heavy elements. Light elements can also produce radioactivity through reactions, like carbon-14. Cosmic rays and asteroids can also carry radioactive elements."
"But I haven't observed any form of radioactive elements in the entire Proxima Centauri system, not even the weakly radioactive element bismuth, the 83rd element."
"Due to the scarcity of radioactive elements, the Proxima Centauri civilization turned to studying dark matter. Their civilization is much older than human civilization, taking 780,000 years to progress from level 0 to level 1."
"After discovering dark matter, their civilization entered a period of rapid development, advancing from level 1 to the current level 1.9 in just 6,000 years."
Yan Xia knew what Ella was trying to say.
Since radioactive elements are naturally produced according to the laws of nature, their absence now must be due to a civilization's actions.
If not the Proxima Centauri civilization, then it must be another civilization.
This other civilization has been collecting radioactive elements, and it hasn't stopped for a moment, continuing to this day.
The third civilization!
This was what Ella wanted Yan Xia to be cautious about.
The method of collecting these radioactive elements is unlikely to be like mining but more likely a technology that specifically attracts radioactive elements on a large scale.
And this absorption wouldn't be observable on a macroscopic scale.
This technology might be related to the four fundamental forces, and after understanding the light civilization, Ella had analyzed that a level 2 civilization could deeply develop the four fundamental forces.
A civilization with such advanced means to directly absorb elements must have already reached level 2.
The foundation of a level 2 civilization is grand unification!
Yan Xia thought about his previous speculations about the universe.
The Observer!
Perhaps the first observer of Proxima Centauri wasn't him but another civilization.
"Is there concrete evidence?"
Ella displayed an image.
"I collected this. It's a giant vacuum bubble that envelops the entire Alpha Centauri system."
This evidence was sufficient to prove the existence of the third civilization.
"If they can absorb radioactive elements, perhaps they can also absorb stable elements."
"Are the elements in the Solar System also being absorbed like this?"
Yan Xia was filled with a sense of creeping horror.
"Perhaps we are already being observed."
"We don't know if this civilization is benevolent or malevolent."
"Have they already discovered us and launched their battleships towards us?"
"Maybe they are in the Proxima Centauri system right now, but we can't detect them."
"We don't know about these things yet."
Yan Xia thought carefully and then made up his mind.
"If we are already being observed, we can't escape the sight of a higher civilization no matter where we go."
"Since that's the case, we can only continue to develop."
"Perhaps we really need to build a genuine civilization federation to defend against higher civilizations."
"So, we must control the Proxima Centauri civilization."
"Ella, clone me using my cells. I'll go to the Proxima Centauri civilization for communication."
"After that, I'll hide in the shadows."
"You should also pay more attention to the Hundred-Eyed Star and focus on technological development there. Ensure the Hundred-Eyed creatures receive our complete technology and progress."
"We must reach level 2 quickly."
"Only by achieving grand unification can we glimpse the means of a level 2 civilization."
The technological gap between civilizations makes the means of a higher civilization almost invisible to a lower civilization.
This sense of immense crisis loomed over Yan Xia.
He had now become the Proxima Centauri civilization of a thousand years ago, a prey!
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