The answer Luna obtained matched her suspicions.
The reason the Home Civilization could construct a behemoth like the Far Voyager was that their civilization's energy consumption had long ago reached the standard of a Type 2.93 Civilization.
Thus, this civilization was inconsistent with their previous assessment of Type 2.8.
But there was no helping it.
The characteristics of the galaxy created this reality.
The Milky Way's total mass is approximately 1.5 trillion times that of the Solar System, which means the Milky Way could supply the energy for over 1,500 Type 3 Civilizations.
If one judged a civilization's rank purely by energy, then the Milky Way ought to host dozens of Type 3 Civilizations.
However, the technological standard intervened.
The standard for a Type 2 Civilization is the mastery of the four fundamental forces.
The standard for a Type 3 Civilization is the control of dimensions and space.
Precisely because the civilizations within the Milky Way lacked the corresponding technology, those civilizations that had developed for untold years remained stalled at Type 2.8 and 2.9.
The so-called Type 2.8 and 2.9 merely distinguished the maximum development values reached by these civilizations in the absence of spatial science; simply put, it was a technological ceiling. Every civilization has its unique sciences, and the ceiling for these sciences is sometimes 2.8 and sometimes 2.9—this is their fundamental difference.
Of course, the objective tenfold difference in strength still existed, it was just that the gap between Type 2.8 and Type 2.7 had been widened.
This meant that the gap between human civilization and a Type 2.8 Civilization was not actually a thousandfold; it could be several thousands or even ten thousandfold.
The resulting outcome was exactly as displayed 1,700 years ago.
Absolute crushing force.
A single fleet achieved that.
And fleets like this, in Dudumu's memory, numbered in the hundreds within the Home Civilization, and more could be produced at any time.
After all, these ships were essentially clusters of life forms from the Home Civilization.
"What a monster of a civilization!"
After reading the memories, Luna's only thought was: how could human civilization possibly defeat this one?
Through art?
Through imagination?
Even if a cat could defeat a tiger through imagination, they were currently the difference between an ant and an elephant.
Surely many Divines would fall into despair!
Even she felt a sense of suffocation.
What sustained this civilization at Type 2.8 was not the number of warships, but true science.
"It's coming!"
Luna received the signal.
She released her energy.
This energy surged continuously toward the front of the warship.
"I hope everyone has retreated!" Luna could only pray so.
The warship was about to attack.
This would be the first time human civilization witnessed a Type 2.8 Civilization taking action.
All the energy surged forward.
The energy that human civilization would need ten thousand years to store was effortlessly discharged at this moment.
The terrifying energy did not resemble any other weapon existing in the universe; it wasn't spectacular or shocking, but rather calm to the extreme, its traces impossible to see.
But Luna was certain: it had been triggered!
...
City of the Sword of Decapitation.
Everyone had retreated.
All that remained was an empty city.
It had maintained such prosperity for so many years and was constantly progressing. Yet, when faced with transcendent combat power, they still had no choice but to withdraw.
"Will that initial scene repeat itself?"
The first scene upon entering four-dimensional space.
Human civilization's crushing victory over the first four-dimensional civilization. That battle had cost them almost nothing before the other civilization collapsed and surrendered.
Ayla's calculations were unclear.
A part of her remained here, attempting to gather more intelligence on the enemy. She watched continuously.
Then, she saw the reason the enemy reached this battlefield so quickly.
This was the edge of the Milky Way; a super-powerful civilization shouldn't exist here, yet the opponent had arrived nonetheless, likely traveling over tens of thousands of light-years.
But only ten thousand years had passed since the war began. The second civilization's plea for help was likely sent only a few thousand years ago.
In her observations, the opponent's entire fleet warped, then vanished in an instant—roughly 0.3 seconds—reappearing 2 light-years ahead of its original position.
There was only one explanation for this.
Space Jump!
The opponent created a short-range wormhole in front of the fleet!
This kind of wormhole likely wasn't generated by a Black Hole; Black Holes are terrifying, capable of easily folding space over distances of 2, 20,000, or even 200 million light-years.
The opponent was using pure spatial technology.
Ayla had simulated this as well.
Stacking the space in front of a warship requires a massive amount of energy, and they lacked the corresponding technology. Crossing a distance of 2 light-years would require the total energy production of a Type 2.7 Civilization for 5,000 to 20,000 years, depending on the technological level and energy efficiency.
Regardless, the opponent possessed such technology.
Now Ayla was actually starting to waver. Should the opponent really be classified as Type 2.8?
The reason she initially placed them at Type 2.8 was that the civilization's absolute dominance meant they couldn't be below that rank.
Human civilization had already encountered the Type 2.6 Flyer Civilization. Thus, a Type 2.7 Civilization wasn't that hard to imagine. Only a civilization of Type 2.8 or above could match the combat power shown by the opponent.
However, the emergence of Space Jump technology made Ayla feel that the opponent might be more than just Type 2.8.
Just as Ayla was thinking this, suddenly, the entire Star City shattered.
It shattered without warning, dissolving into countless fragments. These shards converged toward the center, drawn by a massive gravitational pull. At that point, a colossal source of gravity appeared.
The presence of this source of gravity caused the Dimensional Bridge within the dimensional gateway to fracture. The entire dimensional gateway became extremely unstable, beginning to flicker.
Ayla could no longer observe the gateway's current state.
It appeared and disappeared.
There was a sign of imminent collapse, much like a flickering lightbulb, terrifying in a normal context, but this was a terror of a different dimension entirely.
Immediately after, Ayla felt everything around her turn dark. The starlight from outside could no longer reach her current position.
Unless she had fallen into a black hole, but as she still existed, the most likely scenario was that she had been isolated.
This isolation was unknown to Ayla. She scanned the current state of space.
Sealed!
Compressed!
Stretched!
Chaotic!
It seemed every attribute had congealed there.
A brief lapse in time followed the instant of impact.
When she saw the light once more, Ayla could not believe what she witnessed.
A Star City still existed.
But it was no longer the City of the Sword of Decapitation. It was a fortress of an alien civilization. It aimed its weapons at the dimensional gateway below. If human civilization from the third dimension attempted to return through this gateway, they would be mercilessly annihilated.
"Reconstruction!"
"Is this the methodology of a top-tier civilization?"
The massive Star City had transformed into a complete fortress in the blink of an eye.
"But why do I still exist?"
Ayla wondered.
But a moment later, she realized she herself was different.
She had been reconstructed into a lifeform of an extraterrestrial civilization. This was power akin to creation itself.
At that moment, after an untold number of space jumps, the enemy civilization's warship arrived at the Star City. As the gargantuan vessel streaked across the sky, Ayla felt a sense of insignificance like never before.
The opponent could have easily wiped them out, yet they chose another method. Not because it was better, but simply because they could. In their eyes, the human ants were merely a resource for their civilization.
This sensation was even more intense than when facing the Olive Branch Civilization.
So intense that even Ayla could not help but tremble!
The enemy civilization's warships dispersed across the sky.
Ayla now possessed fragments of data regarding the structure of this hostile civilization. But it was useless. The Dimensional Bridge had been destroyed. She had no way to transmit this information back to the third dimension.
She could choose to remain here, attempting to bluff her way into the enemy's internal ranks, but she knew that was a delusion. Even if an alien civilization tried to mingle under her own watch, there would be nowhere for them to hide, let alone from a civilization as powerful as this.
Ayla decisively chose self-destruction, eroding every trace of her presence.
Just as she believed it was all over...
Her body restored itself.
The collapsed physical form reverted to its original state. It was as if she were controlled by a creator deity.
"We simply aren't on the same level."
"But fortunately, no matter how strong they are, they cannot recover that."
Information swallowed by a black hole cannot be recovered. However, Ayla discovered she could no longer move. She was unable to repeat her previous actions.
Clearly, the first time had been her only chance.
Yet at this stage, Ayla actually felt a sense of relief. Because when she had prepared for the retreat, she had already considered this point. Facing a high-level civilization was like facing a Connecter, resistance was impossible.
Thus, she had purged the vast majority of her data, leaving only the basics. The amount of information the enemy civilization could extract from her was limited.
...
Three dimensions.
Observation station.
Ayla witnessed the collapse of the Dimensional Bridge, which signified their total severance from four-dimensional space.
The expedition had ended.
"Archon Commander, what should we do next?"
The Dimensional Bridge had taken thousands of years to build. To re-establish it would require a vast amount of time, and there was no way to confirm if the enemy on the other side had departed.
The one asking was the station master of the observation station. Once Ayla had focused her attention on the fourth dimension, she had stopped managing things on this side.
The station master's name was Siqi.
It was Siqi who had originally proposed the Dimensional Bridge. In the past, Siqi had questioned Ayla, but after ten thousand years, having served as station master for that entire duration, he understood that although his title was merely station master, the weight of the matters he had to consider was immense.
Ayla's past caution had now become the strict principles he followed.
"Abandon this dimensional gateway. We have several others within our territory. Reroute research to those other dimensional gateways immediately."
The other dimensional gateways also had observation stations, but those truly functioned only for observation.
"Then, am I meant to abandon this place?" Siqi asked, somewhat reluctant to relinquish the power in his hands.
This station master was no ordinary commander. He had gained significant wealth and status through this position. Furthermore, it was only because of this observation station's existence that he possessed such an extended lifespan.
"No. I left a few contingencies in the fourth dimension. If they succeed, we can still use this gateway to reach four-dimensional space."
"After all, dimensional gateways pierce through from the third to the eighth dimension. The distance between each dimension and our third dimension is identical. This passage leads to the fourth dimension only because it happened to connect there."
In other words, other dimensional gateways might lead to the fifth, sixth, or other dimensions. If Ayla abandoned this location, it meant abandoning the fourth dimension entirely.
Hearing this, Siqi breathed a sigh of relief.
Ayla continued: "I will leave 500,000 warships here. The remaining fleet will be deployed into the war with the Flyer Civilization. I will head to the Flyer Civilization front myself. These 500,000 warships are yours to command."
Siqi's relief vanished instantly, replaced by fresh tension.
The capable are always burdened with work. If one lacks talent, then feigning incompetence is the only way out. Accepting this responsibility meant he would be tied down by endless affairs. The more power he gained, the greater the liability. If anything went wrong, he would be the first to take the blame.
Thus, he decisively refused.
"Archon Commander, I believe we should find someone with a military background to manage this."
Ayla said nothing more.
In truth, she had wanted to groom Siqi. Once the dimensional war arrived, if there wasn't a well-rounded talent to oversee the big picture, systemic imbalances would occur during the conflict. One person in charge of this sector, another in charge of that, neither listening to the other, resulting in total inefficiency.
Since Siqi didn't want the opportunity, she would look for another scholar. A scholar who could command the respect of all other scholars through knowledge while possessing the leadership to direct the military.
Of course, the best candidate in Ayla's eyes was Luna.
However, at this stage, it wasn't appropriate for Luna to take on such a burden. Luna's main persona was occupied with solving small internal problems within human civilization, while Ayla handled the grand-scale issues. This had been decided from the start.
If she assigned Luna here, wouldn't that be an admission that she was seeking Luna's help? Ayla's pride made her resist doing such a thing.
Naturally, the most important reason remained the Connecter.
As another holder of top-tier clearance, if Luna were present, it would be far too easy for the Connecter to obtain both supreme authorities. The fundamental reason Luna left was to decentralize that power. Even if Ayla were compromised, Luna could still use her authority to take action.
Since that past incident, Ayla had modified the foundational defenses of the Federation system, making it even harder to infiltrate. Even if a breach occurred, the core system's design would prevent it from spreading throughout the entire Federation.
In other words, Ayla was now independent of all other systems. She only controlled the central system, while the other systems were governed solely by the Boundary God.
It sounded like how things were before. In reality, while the Boundary God was independent in the past, Ayla could still use her clearance to manipulate it into doing everything. Now, Ayla could only achieve this by issuing commands, not by direct control.
Ayla's server had already begun operating on the warship. She stared into the profound depths of the dimensional gateway. She didn't know if the Divines on the other side could pull it off.
"To what extent can the ten-thousand-year foundation of human civilization truly reach?"
...
Four dimensions.
The Gol Fortress.
This was the name given by the Home Civilization, because the civilization that summoned them was called the Gol Civilization. Gol wasn't just a name: it was a type of crystal.
Luna had arrived at the planet occupied by the Gol Civilization. They were developing a form of crystal technology. The crystal served as their construction material, their warship plating, their energy conduits, and even their food.
Previously, everyone had referred to this civilization as the "Universal Civilization."
As the fleet dispersed, Luna landed within the Star City. She saw many individuals congregating in one direction. She followed, and after communicating with other units, she discovered that the location held the only prisoner.
Luna flew over. Seeing that the prisoner looked human, a wave of confusion struck her, but then a stream of data entered her mind, information extracted from the prisoner's body.
Instantly, Luna realized who it was.
Ayla!
Their Archon Commander. To think she hadn't left? What was she doing staying here?
Based on the received data, this Archon Commander seemed to hold no useful information at all. It appeared she had long anticipated being captured. Luna had no idea what these alien lifeforms would do to her next.
Luna had no intention of helping this Archon Commander. She wasn't that close to her. In fact, following that thought to its conclusion, this entire mission was linked to her.
Divines never harbored good impressions of those who issued missions. To them, mission-givers were like demanding clients: constant requirements, always leading into certain-death scenarios.
Furthermore, because Hyperdimensional Space didn't require the creation of a perfectly flawless world, many missions felt absurd and nonsensical. If not for the regulations, most participants would likely prefer to hack the mission-giver to pieces rather than kill the actual enemy.
Luna departed immediately. She had to find a way to locate her teammates. She didn't know where they were now.
The other thousand-plus Divines and nearly two hundred super-officers should also be within this Star City. However, there were so many lifeforms here: she didn't know if their initial plan would work.
The lifeforms of the Home Civilization possessed no emotions. They were like a swarm of worker bees, diligently maintaining their civilization.
Unlike the Olive Branch and Flyer civilizations, the Home Civilization had no social classes. Every individual was a leader of the Home Civilization. They co-built their "Home" and endured any hardship.
Furthermore, the lifeforms of the Home Civilization were not entirely mechanical. In direct contrast to human civilization, where most retained their flesh while adding a few mechanical components, the Home Civilization replaced the vast majority of their bodies with machinery, leaving only a tiny fraction of flesh.
It was hardly enough to be called flesh. It was merely a few neural-related components, equivalent to a human replacing everything except for the brain with machinery.
Yet, there were differences.
According to Dudumu's memories, the earliest ancestors of this civilization were neural organisms. Their entire bodies were 90% composed of nerves. Luna had encountered such beings in Hyperdimensional Space, but those were merely data constructs: she hadn't expected them to exist in reality.
As four-dimensional beings, the individuals of the Home Civilization differed greatly from three-dimensional ones. Their biological structure was highly fragmented, yet perfectly interconnected.
From a three-dimensional perspective, a Home individual appeared to be made of countless separate entities, much like a human is made of cells. But in four-dimensional space, one would see that these entities were actually a single whole. They had no concept of cells, as each individual was essentially one massive, singular organism.
Theoretically, this was nearly impossible, as biological life requires complexity to generate complex thought.
But in the fourth dimension, within the biological nature of the Home Civilization, their complexity is formed through four-dimensional spatial characteristics.
The fourth dimension can be perceived as an "inside-out" structure. These creatures are essentially a series of layers wrapped within layers, heavily overlapped to create countless grooves. It is through these grooves that complex information is generated.
Luna was no biological expert; her understanding went only this far.
Because of the dual nature of individual independence and collective unity within the Home species, Luna was able to move around freely.
She separated from the crowd to observe this majestic fortress.
Even knowing some of this civilization's technology, she found it hard to believe that such a thing was created in a mere instant.
What a formidable, god-like power.
This magnitude of power was no different from a beam of radiation striking Earth and instantly reshuffling every living being, every building, and every piece of technology into an entirely new civilization.
A creator deity could do no better.
Moving forward, Luna reached the core of this fortress.
Her original thought was to blow up the enemy's energy points and then annihilate them.
But now, knowing the characteristics of these creatures, she realized such a tactic would inflict no damage upon this civilization.
Every individual unit of the Home Civilization was immensely powerful.
They were equivalent to the Strong Interaction Droplets found in certain novels, possessing absolute defensive power against lower civilizations.
Most of the Federation's super-range weapons would be nothing more than free snacks for this civilization.
Yet, precisely because of this, the civilization was overly balanced. One could say their entire technology was the biological makeup of the species itself. Back 1,800 years ago, Luna's destruction of dozens of their warships was the only thing capable of shocking them.
At least in Dudumu's memory, she saw the overall choice the Home Civilization made following that incident.
They had no emotions, yet they exhibited behaviors identical to fear and hesitation.
Because of that, they were stalled for 1,700 years.
Only after confirming that human civilization took no further action, and concluding through calculation that the previous event was a high-level trick rather than a standard weapon, did they conduct this second expedition.
This current attack was merely a probe. If human civilization unleashed that same combat power again, for the sake of caution, the Home Civilization would request even more individuals.
That would be a standard fleet of the Home Civilization.
Indeed.
These current 3,000 warships weren't even considered a standard fleet by the Home Civilization; they were merely a common squad.
A true fleet scaled between 48,000 and 51,000 warships. There was no precise figure. The Home Civilization seemed to lack rigid regulations internally, as long as a rough approximation was met.
Information gleaned from memory revealed the source of this lack of regulation.
Standardization has its benefits for a civilization like humanity. Because humans are inherently chaotic and imprecise, standards can constrain them to achieve relative precision.
However, for the Home Civilization, they were too precise. Excessive precision leads to a rigid civilization. Their solution was to loosen that precision to allow for flexibility.
Because of this flexibility, after occupying this location, the Home Civilization encouraged all individuals to act freely, utilizing their independent perspectives to create variation.
This actually provided Luna with many conveniences.
Any unexpected action she took would not be rejected or suspected by other individuals. Instead, many would attempt to learn from her because of her uniqueness.
For instance, Luna turned her body green.
Other individuals discovered that this allowed for a bit of personalization, and subsequently, one by one, they turned into a riot of colors.
This trait felt like the innocence of a child, yet within a civilization and a society, it displayed unimaginable efficiency.
The Archon Commander's mind had been purged, but she still retained some common knowledge of human civilization. This common knowledge was being adapted by other individuals into their own expressions. For example, some individuals turned directly into human forms to walk around, while others transformed into animals.
To them, these were all interesting experiments. They sought innovation through countless trials, evolving toward greater perfection.
At this moment, Luna finally understood the defining characteristic of this civilization.
This was a civilization that grew through constant imitation.
The Home Civilization was an exceptionally isolated one, possessing little information regarding other top-tier civilizations in four-dimensional space.
Luna previously didn't know why this was, and it seemed the other individuals didn't know either, nor did they think they needed to.
But now Luna understood. Because other civilizations were aware of this trait, no one was willing to interact with the Home Civilization and grant them strength. After all, prior to the dimensional war, civilizations within each dimension were mutually hostile.
Even now, it couldn't be said that dimensional civilizations were entirely peaceful and friendly.
Just like human civilization and the Flyer Civilization in the three-dimensional world at this moment. These two young civilizations had already experienced friction after only tens of thousands of years of contact.
Those super-civilizations, with histories spanning tens of millions or even billions of years, had likely endured countless wars and were even less inclined to trust one another.
"It seems finding the others will be relatively easy."
Luna moved continuously through the fortress, and eventually, she spotted an individual that had transformed into a tangerine.
She was certain that tangerines did not exist in the Archon Commander's memories. Logically, that had to be one of their own members.
He was using this to lure others in.
Sure enough, a few individuals were soon drawn over. They transformed into items absent from the Archon Commander's records, cross-referenced identities, and then casually dispersed.
For a Divine, handling a minor task like this was effortless.
Luna also transformed into an architectural object, the form of which attracted many individuals.
After interacting with several units, she discovered that not everyone was on her side. Some were merely curious bystanders who approached to ask what exactly she had turned into.
The communication method of the Home Civilization was unique, entirely biological rather than mechanical. Due to their advanced nervous systems, they communicated through neural-triggered electrical wave signals.
There was also a deeper form of communication involving physical connection: mating.
During mating, beings of the Home Civilization shared all their information with each other without reservation.
This was quite strange. Such a high-level civilization still relied on such a primitive method of reproduction. In the Federation, the act of mating was uncommon. Most people simply married and then provided genetic segments to a hospital, where specific equipment managed development from embryo to adult. It was said that some groups had even removed their reproductive organs entirely.
For them, such things no longer triggered desire. Despite official Federation regulation, the era of low desire continued to explore new depths.
After several hours of waiting, Luna finally found her teammates.
In fact, they had converged much faster on their own, with Luna being the last one to join.
"I never expected this civilization to be such a scene."
Blacklight had conducted extensive simulations of this civilization before arriving, but every single one was wrong. The wonders of the universe exceeded the scope of imagination.
"A civilization with no social hierarchy, it's a first for me, and yet it's so incredibly orderly."
Even with the memories in her head explaining how it worked, Marionette Actor found it far too fantastical. Self-discipline was the hardest thing for humans to achieve.
"Alright, enough with the sentiment. What we need to do now is find a way to dismantle this civilization."
"Now that they've taken root here to control this dimensional gateway, if we don't destroy this place, we'll likely be trapped in the Fourth Dimension forever."
Bubu is not No-no had no desire to linger. After all, they weren't truly part of this species. Because of the civilization's traits, they might be fine in the short term, but as contact continued, the day would inevitably come when they were discovered.
As beings of a near-top-tier civilization, the individuals of the Home Civilization possessed very high intelligence. They simply lacked the primary attribute of human civilization: imagination. That was all.
If this civilization were so easily infiltrated, it wouldn't have survived until now, growing so formidable.
One Sword Immortal seemed to know something more.
"Actually, they don't need to identify us, nor do they need to eliminate us."
"The creatures of this civilization are constantly trending toward Assimilation. You've seen how other individuals imitate us, this isn't a free choice they make, but a passive biological function."
"Theoretically, even if we do nothing, as time passes, we will become more and more like the individuals around us. Not just in appearance, but in thought. Eventually, we will dissolve into them, becoming indistinguishable."
"The original owner of this body I'm in was not a member of this civilization."
Hearing this, everyone felt a chill in their hearts.
"That means we must come up with a plan quickly!"
But this civilization was too difficult to crack. What kind of method could destroy a civilization that had no social hierarchy, no infighting, no internal conflict, and possessed such terrifying military might?
Perhaps it was precisely because they were so unsolvable that the Home Civilization had endured for over a billion years.
"Since they imitate everything, can't we just give them a piece of fatal information?" True Lord suggested.
"How could it be that easy?"
Blacklight looked around.
"You're making it sound way too simple."
"They only imitate things that have value. They retain the useful parts and discard the dross."
"Killing off one or two might work, but affecting a larger number is nearly impossible. You have to remember, their intelligence is, if anything, higher than ours, not lower."
These creatures didn't have much social interaction, appearing like children who only knew how to copy and paste, but that had nothing to do with intelligence.
Intelligence is the capacity to perceive objective reality and solve problems.
What these creatures lacked was actually EQ, Emotional Intelligence.
Specifically: self-awareness, self-regulation, self-motivation, empathy, and social skills. These are the five core pillars of EQ.
EQ is forged through experience, an environment the Home Civilization simply did not have.
At this point, Luna spoke up: "What would happen if we bestowed EQ upon this civilization?"
They were, after all, masters of imitation. EQ wasn't purely detrimental, so they would inevitably learn something from it.
The only method Luna could conceive of was to exploit this civilization's social structure, causing a systemic collapse from within.
However, Blacklight rejected this proposal.
"We don't have that kind of time."
"A systemic collapse like that could take tens or even hundreds of thousands of years to complete. Furthermore, as a near-top-tier civilization, they must possess some form of self-correcting mechanism. This kind of collapse would require external force to intervene, much like the destruction of the Olive Branch Civilization."
"And right now, we have neither the time nor the strength."
The Divines fell into a heavy silence.
This task looked simple on the surface, but upon reflection, it was extraordinarily difficult.