Although she had glimpsed it, she could not take these things with her, a lingering regret.
"But if I were to build an all-purpose tool, could I carry these technologies out?"
Luna pondered this.
If a tool wouldn't work, perhaps she could construct an integrated physical apparatus.
The Home Civilization's technological database required a voting process. Not all technologies were curated; the sheer volume was too vast.
During this period, Luna might be able to obtain it.
In fact, the Home Civilization had once suffered the experience of having its technology stolen. That civilization had been Type 2.7, but relying on stolen tech, it blossomed into a Type 2.9 civilization within a mere few million years.
It sounds a bit mythical, especially since the Home Civilization itself is still Type 2.8.
In reality, the Home Civilization functions like a tree of wisdom. It possesses immense intelligence, yet this does not necessarily equate to overwhelming power. Many of its technologies could have been advanced further, but because they deviated from the Home Civilization's mainstream technological path, they were shelved.
It might sound as if the Home Civilization is foolish or stubborn.
But within this lies profound wisdom.
Different civilizations function differently. In a chaotic civilization like humanity, throwing in any new element is like stirring a dye vat, no matter what is produced, it won't fundamentally disrupt the status quo.
But for a peaceful civilization like the Home Civilization, abandoning existing technology to research those shelved alternatives is like dropping a single rat dropping into a pot of soup; it creates an immediate threat of civilization-wide collapse.
If they were the only civilization in the four-dimensional Milky Way, that might be manageable. However, other civilizations have their eyes fixed on them; internal instability would expose them to immense threats. These threats are ones they have no way to resist.
Every civilization arrives at its current state for a reason, dictated by internal and external forces.
Each civilization that has evolved to such a level of might necessarily possesses its own set of advantages, much like how, right now, Luna and the Divines find themselves utterly helpless against the Home Civilization.
The concept of consciousness, once leaked, is a double-edged sword.
The Home Civilization has already transmitted information regarding consciousness back to its core. Even if Luna weren't here to analyze it, within a few hundred years, the Home Civilization would master consciousness, perhaps even surpassing humanity's progress. Consequently, the Home Civilization would gain the ability to both defend against human attacks and utilize consciousness to strike back at humanity.
If Divine Luna still held the memories of being a leader of humanity, she would undoubtedly be hesitant in this regard, rather than being as decisive as she is now.
When all is said and done, the fate of a civilization is a distant concern; what she needs is to survive the present.
The struggle dragged on.
Four years passed in the blink of an eye.
Luna had assumed someone would act prematurely, but she had overthought it; the Divines and the super-officers all remained motionless. This was likely due to her own influence.
Even so, it wasn't as if no one had slipped up during those ten years.
Although no direct information had leaked, several individuals had indeed vanished. Everyone operated in teams for this mission, yet some who had been laughing and joking just a day before would suddenly vanish the next. It was hard not to suspect they had been discovered.
Within the Home Civilization, individuals possess the capability to automatically process spies after obtaining sufficient data.
Some Divines had wondered if this meant they were free to kill. In reality, they weren't. Before committing murder, one must undergo a trial process, a procedure to judge the perpetrator that requires the presentation of evidence. These proceedings aren't held before other individuals; instead, every Home Civilization unit possesses something called a Heart-Gate.
The Heart-Gate can essentially be viewed as a localized download of the civilization's legal code, which runs autonomously within the individual. If one's actions are determined to be consistent with the law and logic, and devoid of negative impact on the civilization, they can be carried out.
This is effectively a system-level "bug."
However, this bug poses no clear harm to the civilization's internal workings; it is only a hindrance to invaders like them.
Internal conflict is non-existent within the Home Civilization; as long as no one displays behavior that violates the rules, no individual ever utilizes this function. In Dudumu's memories, the last time it had heard of this being used was 2.74 million years ago.
Human civilization's history doesn't even amount to the decimal place of that figure.
Regardless, Luna continued to execute her plan, step by steady step.
The others in the squad were doing the same.
Blacklight's plan was difficult, so Marionette Actor and Bubu is not No-no were assisting him.
To avoid drawing suspicion, he directly handed over a Divine's profile to a Home individual, prompting that individual to act and eliminate the Divine.
It was a despicable move, but as Divines, they didn't hold many moral standards. The mission brief never specified whether they could exploit one another. Since that was the case, Blacklight felt no burden of conscience.
Blacklight provided Luna with information on how to kill a Home individual, most of which revolved around authorization.
Technological authorization ensured the executor was far more powerful than the target; faced with technological dominance, the target had no ability to resist. However, as a Divine, Blacklight also deduced some information from the execution tool itself.
The execution tool used a particle targeted at biological tissue, capable of piercing defenses to strike the protected flesh directly, causing it to collapse instantly.
It was worth noting that four-dimensional lifeforms were also carbon-based; they possessed no resistance against high-energy matter strikes.
Theoretically, as Divines, they should have regained some counterattack capabilities ten years in, but according to Blacklight, these were specialized weapons, entirely unreasonable, where even a one-second reaction time was considered too long.
"The targets for framing have already been plotted; you need to be careful."
Blacklight warned Luna, while he prepared to research exactly what that particle was. The execution tool wasn't on the hardware level, but the software level.
This implied that they already possessed such weapons; they were simply locked away. Blacklight had found a direction, but True Lord wasn't as fast.
Blacklight gave True Lord the same warning.
For the sake of seeing his favorite girls again, True Lord became even more cautious. This resulted in him still lacking a viable plan to destroy the fortress beneath their feet; his progress was agonizingly slow.
Relatively speaking, One Sword Immortal had actually managed to achieve something.
In the fourth dimension, he discovered a force called phase-force. It wasn't about mutual attraction, but rather qualitative similarity. "Qualitative similarity" is a term often used in philosophy, pointing toward a fundamental essence.
Phase-force of qualitative similarity was essentially a fundamental force. One Sword Immortal altered this fundamental force, dubbing it Anti-Qualitative Phase-Force. However, while progress seemed rapid, it still existed only in theory and had not been put into practice.
Luna couldn't dwell on these; after all, she wasn't researching in isolation. The other units weren't fools; if she tried to research openly, she'd be the first one executed.
But....
Everyone was powerful, and their initiative was strong. Before total assimilation took hold, they would be able to carry out a plan, ensuring they wouldn't die without a fight.
...
Consciousness was merely a lure to keep as many individuals as possible focused on it.
Luna had achieved her goal. Leveraging this trend, the other Divines also began to act.
Two years later.
Some Divines started taking action, attempting to move against the Home Civilization individuals through information pollution. True Lord was the one who relayed this news to Luna.
"This is seriously disrupting my progress. I expect there will be plenty more of this, so I probably won't be able to do much for the next ten years."
The main reason he told Luna was the hope that they could slow down their own plans.
Luna wasn't surprised. In truth, she wasn't in that much of a hurry herself.
"Slowing down might be for the best. It allows for more preparation and more data gathering."
"Even though I still can't extract any high technology in this individual state, I feel like I've gained quite a bit recently."
All of Luna's memories regarding those advanced technologies had completely vanished.
"Mhm. Since you've merged with those units, have you sensed any impact from the information pollution?" True Lord wanted to obtain information on this specific aspect.
Luna suspected he was still looking for a way to fish in troubled waters.
"Don't even think about it."
"The opponent is a civilization that has developed for over a billion years. If they were really that easy for us to break, human civilization would probably be able to occupy four-dimensional space directly after this."
It definitely wasn't working. Luna hadn't even heard other individuals discuss that information.
In fact, the same applied to the actions of many other Divines. She was certain those units knew about the information, yet they simply didn't talk about it.
It wasn't that they were avoiding the subject in front of her. It was simply that they felt it wasn't necessary.
The feeling they gave Luna was that of a behemoth staring at ants moving upon its body; this behemoth possessed a lifespan of eons, while the ants on its back were replaced by a new generation every year.
Indifference.
That was the most accurate adjective.
Even if the current situation involved a civilization launching an attack against them.
This was the first time Luna felt her own insignificance and the insignificance of human civilization. Her memories within Hyperdimensional Space were a continuous streak of victories; though she encountered threats and hardships, Luna always found numerous ways to resolve them.
But this time, she couldn't offer any good suggestions. This disparity wasn't something that could be felt intuitively; it had to be experienced deeply.
"That's fine, let's not take unnecessary risks."
"To be honest, progress at this stage is quite smooth, we just lack the chance to test it."
"One Sword Immortal's research is finished. If he can take the first step, I expect I'll start immediately after. That would be the best timing."
Having spent thousands of years together, they understood each other well. Luna didn't believe One Sword Immortal would start so soon.
"You'll need to go negotiate with him; he's probably waiting for you to move first."
Hearing this, True Lord felt it was quite likely.
"That little rascal. I'm going then."
With that, True Lord departed. He looked young, but his age was immense; he had spent over 110,000 years in Hyperdimensional Space, a veteran among veterans.
After seeing him leave, Luna took out a small object.
It looked like a 6x6 Rubik's Cube.
But in reality, it contained remarkably advanced technology. It was already equivalent to a powerful Transcendent Realm.
It possessed formidable power, and the energy density stored within was terrifying; this was her most recent achievement.
Yet she didn't know what specific technology it contained.
If she attempted to scan this technology in her current individual state, she would be detected instantly. Every unit would receive the information and fix their collective gaze upon her.
"I suspect I wouldn't have built a pure weapon."
"This thing is probably related to the escape."
Even if she couldn't know for certain, she could still speculate.
As long as she didn't delve into deep research, she would be fine. Judging by Luna's understanding of her own character, she had always been a person who kept hidden trumps.
Having gained a deeper understanding of this civilization, she would have surely considered what to do if the plan failed.
"Initiate research!"
She now summoned other units.
They arrived instantly, forming a square box that encased Luna, and then the entire box descended toward the depths of the fortress.
Upon receiving the necessary data, Luna looked once again at the Rubik's Cube in her hand.
"It really is me!"
She soon arrived at a specially constructed laboratory. Numerous high-tech devices from the Home Civilization were available for her use.
Every time she saw this technology, Luna's heart skipped a beat. Each piece of equipment here, if brought to the Federation, could likely buy half of it.
"Activate Mother Machine of Creation!"
Luna stood before a fabrication table. The Mother Machine of Creation, barely over 200 meters long, opened up.
It resembled a coffin.
Its interior contained a vast space, filled with chaotic matter. Luna only needed to manipulate the design to freely assemble that chaotic matter into any object she desired.
Anything could be realized within, provided it did not exceed the energy threshold. And the precision was incredibly high.
The Federation also possessed miniature factories, but the two were entirely different entities. A miniature factory can only build pre-designed items, whereas the Mother Machine of Creation can manufacture anything, including things never seen before. One only needs to input the data, and it can research and produce it.
It's like someone inputting a string of text: trees, flowers, houses, and then an image featuring all three appears. The Mother Machine of Creation can filter through countless combinations to select the optimal solution; an inferior product would never occur.
This could be called the core technology of the entire Home Civilization.
The first time Luna saw this object, its sheer power left her breathless. One could say that even a primitive civilization, upon acquiring this, could evolve into a galactic top-tier civilization within a few thousand years.
The core region of the Home Civilization possessed a Mother Machine of Creation as large as a star. Upon merging, Luna unlocked information about that machine.
That Mother Machine of Creation could create not just technology, but entire civilizations and star systems.
The core of the Home Civilization.
Home!
A small universe constructed using 1.3 million star systems. Within it existed over 700,000 created civilizations. Among them, 4,921 had surpassed Type 2, 31 had exceeded Type 2.5, and 2 had reached Type 2.7.
As long as resources were sufficient, the Mother Machine of Creation could build everything, truly, everything.
The machine before Luna was merely a small one; yet even this small machine, during the short years she had used it, had created objects capable of overturning all of human civilization.
"Indeed, how could victory be achieved against such a civilization?"
Seeing this, Luna had already begun thinking about escape. This was an entity that human civilization simply could not compare to.
"A pity, it cannot create space."
Space is the primordial origin of everything. To master spatial force is to master the essence of all things. A Type 3 civilization merely achieves seeing space and traversing space, whereas truly grasping space is, in Luna's estimation, the boundary of a Type 4 civilization.
And a Type 4 Civilization signifies a universe-level civilization, capable of acting without restraint within its native universe. Generally speaking, because every integer rank in civilization level represents a billion-fold difference in power, every decimal point represents a tenfold difference.
A Type 4.0 Civilization can only be truly crushed by a Type 4.2 Civilization; a Type 4.1 might only be considered superior, and in a real war, the outcome would be unpredictable, much like the past conflict between human civilization and the Filament Civilization.
She stopped dwelling on such thoughts.
Luna resumed her research on the Rubik's Cube. She now knew exactly what her Rubik's Cube was.
A Dimensional Bridge.
Indeed. What was originally a massive Dimensional Bridge had been transformed into a compact Rubik's Cube with the help of the Home Civilization's Mother Machine of Creation.
As long as she tossed this cube into the dimensional gateway, the third and fourth dimensions would immediately link, forming a stable passage with the exact same effect as the original Dimensional Bridge.
The technological gap was simply too vast. After all, it was a ten-thousand-fold difference in scientific prowess.
In Earth's era, the scientific gap between the most developed nations and the third world was perhaps only several-fold; even between the largest developing nations and the leaders, the gap was actually two to three times, with the most critical disparities narrowing to mere percentages.
Even a several-fold difference created a gap as wide as a chasm. Let alone ten thousand-fold.
"As expected, there's no need for delusions of grandeur. Just focus on escaping."
Luna continued to refine the Dimensional Bridge in her hands. She hoped this Dimensional Bridge wouldn't be a single-use item but could be used repeatedly; that way, after escaping, it could be retrieved to study the science embedded within it.
She immersed herself in the continuous research and fabrication. She became oblivious to external events.
It took another five years before she finally completed the Dimensional Bridge Rubik's Cube. After de-merging back into her individual state, she contacted Blacklight to check on the situation.
"I thought you'd already been assimilated," Blacklight joked from the other end of the comms before adding, "Over half of the Divines are dead."
Luna was shocked.
"What happened?"
"What else could happen? As a Divine, you should know exactly how arrogant a Divine can be."
"Actually, if you hadn't been occupied, we would have started the plan already. Once a plan starts, it can't be stopped; whether it succeeds or not is in the hands of fate."
"In over ten years, we haven't gained a truly deep understanding of this civilization, since most information is hidden within the collective. The only thing we can do is take risks."
"The other Divines were just one step ahead of us."
Blacklight spoke casually.
As Divines, they had faced life and death many times before. Surviving initially might rely on strength, but afterward, many times it came down to luck. It was clear that strength alone couldn't complete this mission, so they'd just have to bet on their luck.
"Are Divines really that fragile?" Luna asked, not quite understanding the other Divines' mindset.
"It's a matter of knowing oneself and knowing the enemy. Only when you truly know the enemy's correct strength do you know what you're capable of."
"The Divines who don't fear death are the true Divines at a time like this."
"Everyone understands what the result of assimilation is."
Divines might not have much affection for human civilization, but that didn't mean they had any for the Home Civilization either. They already knew what kind of civilization it was; once assimilated, there was virtually no difference between them and the dead.
The worst outcome was that their memories would be fully controlled, so death was preferable. Currently, as individuals within the Home Civilization, they held the same rights and could still control their own life and death.
"True."
"Are you all ready?" Luna inquired.
"Mhm. True Lord has scouted the location for the demolition; he tracked you when you merged and dove into the fortress core to find the central region."
"His Transcendent Realm deals immense damage to machinery, which reminds me of someone, Skynet, the one who controlled the machine world."
This surprised Luna as well.
Within Hyperdimensional Space, a Divine is capable of controlling worlds created by the Main God.
The machine world was originally a low-level domain, but as more people entered and left behind more traces, it gradually upgraded into a Divine-level world. Skynet was the core of that world, but at some point, a Divine usurped Skynet and became the entity themselves.
Now Blacklight suspected that True Lord's true identity might be Skynet.
Although they had spent thousands of years together, no one had revealed their true identity. The fact that True Lord allowed Blacklight to guess suggested he felt the situation was too dangerous for deep secrets.
Luna was merely surprised; she didn't feel the need to delve deeper.
"What about Marionette Actor? She seemed set on finding the traitor."
"No, she gave up on that. Instead, she contacted several other Divines. Her talent for deception is quite effective; she plans to convince these Divines to execute their plans ahead of us to provide cover. At least she's contributing."
One shouldn't be fooled by Marionette Actor's appearance. She looked like a youthful girl, but in reality, she was a master of manipulating the human heart.
"One Sword Immortal is currently being hunted."
"His experiment?"
"Mhm. I don't know what he was thinking; he probably wasn't confident. The deaths of the other Divines made him feel his own methods weren't good enough, so he tested them."
"He tested it on himself and then requested a merger. But none of the other units could merge with him. He thought he could bluff his way through, but for some reason, he's still being hunted."
"Bubu is not No-no..."
"Forget it, I wasn't counting on her!"
Hearing that name, Luna gave up on the inquiry. Unlike the others, she truly didn't use her head.
"Yeah, she didn't have much of a plan. She was hiding out, then for some reason, she was discovered and executed by a unit's adjudication."
Dead!
It was expected. One or two of them in this group were bound to die. A Divine who wasn't intelligent or well-rounded couldn't survive on a battlefield like this.
"When do you plan to act?"
"Shouldn't I be asking you that?"
The core of this squad was actually Luna.
It wasn't just because of Luna's previous Divine prestige; this team was originally organized by her.
Otherwise, given the solitary nature of Divines, everyone would have preferred fighting alone. Initially, they weren't all that compliant, but after the event where dozens of enemy warships were destroyed, the others grew closer to Luna.
Of course, they did so with their own motives.
"I'm ready."
"This timing is perfect. I'm afraid some of us won't be able to hold out against the assimilation much longer."
Luna looked at the Rubik's Cube in her hand. On it were written the words "Complete" and "Usage: Toss into dimensional gateway."
Since it was finished, it was time to take the gamble. As for the final outcome, a Divine exerts their maximum effort within a limited timeframe. Considering the time constraints, the current plan was the optimal one.
If it were an ordinary person trying to devise a plan to sabotage a civilization far beyond their own strength in just over ten years, the planning stage alone would likely take centuries, let alone the preparation and execution.
It was just a bit strange...
"Alright, I'll have a word with Marionette Actor." Blacklight hung up the communication.