Rebirth of the Super Battleship

As Xiao Yu issued the command, the 200,000-plus nuclear fusion reactors installed along the large particle collider around Tianyuan IV roared to life at full capacity. Instruments at the starting point launched two protons in opposite directions. These protons, once released, entered the first stage of the accelerator, where their speed increased, then the second stage, where they accelerated further, and so on.

Stage by stage, the protons were accelerated to velocities infinitesimally close to the speed of light.

According to relativity, accelerating even a single proton to the speed of light would require infinite energy—an unbreakable limit proven by countless experiments. Xiao Yu was no exception to this universal law.

However, the energy generated by more than 200,000 nuclear fusion reactors was colossal. All of this energy was directed at accelerating the two protons, driving their energy levels to unimaginable heights.

The protons were now moving at speeds so close to light that the difference was negligible.

This is why larger particle colliders have greater scientific value: the larger the collider, the higher the acceleration achievable for particles. At the moment of collision, higher energy levels yield more meaningful scientific insights.

The particle collider built by Xiao Yu around Tianyuan IV was capable of accelerating the particles to energy levels equivalent to those one femtosecond after the Big Bang. At such energy levels, the colliding particles would shatter completely, revealing the secrets hidden within their structures.

Fueled by the full power of the nuclear fusion reactors, the protons accelerated continuously until they collided violently at a precise point within the collider.

At the collision site, the temperature exceeded hundreds of billions of degrees. In that moment, the energy levels far surpassed those of two neutron stars colliding.

Yet, paradoxically, the total energy involved in this collision was smaller than the kinetic energy of a single high-velocity machine gun bullet. This seeming contradiction arose from the particles’ minuscule size. Much like how a woman’s high-heeled shoe exerts greater pressure on the ground than an elephant’s foot, size does not equate to mass.

Xiao Yu observed as a microscopic black hole briefly formed at the collision site. However, it evaporated almost instantly, disappearing before it could consume any material. Its minuscule size rendered its lifespan vanishingly short.

At the moment the black hole vanished, Xiao Yu’s ultra-precise observational instruments detected numerous indescribable phenomena. The sheer volume of data overwhelmed him, leaving no time for immediate analysis. He instead recorded everything meticulously for later study.

The first collision experiment lasted 30 minutes. Xiao Yu gathered several terabytes of observational data.

This raw data would serve as the foundation for Xiao Yu’s research into the microscopic world.

“I hope the completion of the large particle collider around Tianyuan IV will bring breakthroughs in the microscopic realm, help me overcome the barriers of superluminal communication technology, validate the Higgs mechanism, or even unify the four fundamental forces,” Xiao Yu murmured to himself as he turned to the sea of data, beginning intensive calculations.

Xiao Yu understood that even if he derived definitive physical formulas now, their practical applications would take time to manifest. Just as Einstein’s mass-energy equivalence formula took decades to lead to the atomic bomb and further decades to the nuclear power plant, the lag between theoretical physics and technological application was inevitable.

Yet, the importance of physical theory lies in this very aspect. Without foundational physics to guide development, technological progress would be directionless.

As foundational physics advances, civilizations inevitably encounter technological stagnation, where technological growth outpaces theoretical innovation. This happens because physical theories grow increasingly complex, requiring the collective efforts of generations of scientists to advance even incrementally. Such progress might take thousands of years, tens of thousands, or even eternity.

Xiao Yu possessed a unique advantage in this regard. With sufficient computational power, Xiao Yu’s ability to drive technological advancement singlehandedly rivaled, or even surpassed, that of entire civilizations combined. He saw no need to regret the millennia spent in transit—on a cosmic scale, thousands of years pass in the blink of an eye.

Furthermore, Xiao Yu had another edge. He once calculated that if humanity reached a population of 100 billion and possessed his current level of technology, building the large particle collider around Tianyuan IV would still take several centuries. This is because a civilization’s resources are spread across countless development fronts, unlike Xiao Yu’s focused execution.

Analyzing the data from the first collision experiment took Xiao Yu three months. Afterward, he initiated the particle collider again for a second collision test, carefully comparing the new data with the previous set to eliminate potential experimental errors.

During these two experiments, Xiao Yu observed a remarkable new particle. It had no spin, no charge, and was extremely unstable, decaying almost immediately after its creation. While Xiao Yu was certain it was a novel boson, he could not yet confirm whether it was the Higgs boson. Further verification would require additional experiments.

Over the ten years following the completion of the large particle collider around Tianyuan IV, Xiao Yu conducted hundreds of collision experiments, gathering vast amounts of data. After comprehensive analysis, Xiao Yu finally arrived at a conclusion: the new boson he had discovered was indeed the legendary “God Particle,” the Higgs boson.

At that moment, Xiao Yu felt an immense sense of relief. The significance of the Higgs boson was monumental.

Earth’s scientists had once developed the “Standard Model,” a framework predicting the existence of 61 fundamental particles in the microscopic world. Sixty of these particles had been experimentally verified, but the Higgs boson had remained elusive.

If the Higgs boson were proven not to exist, the Standard Model would be invalidated, forcing humanity to reconstruct its understanding of microphysics. Conversely, verifying its existence would solidify human physics theories and provide a critical explanation for one of the universe’s most fundamental questions: where does mass come from?

The Higgs mechanism posits that the universe is permeated by a field called the Higgs field. Particles interact with this field to acquire energy, and since energy equates to mass, everything in the universe possesses mass as a result. The Higgs boson, predicted by the Standard Model, is an inevitable byproduct of this energy acquisition process.

By confirming the existence of the Higgs boson, Xiao Yu also validated the Higgs mechanism and the Higgs field. This opened the door for Xiao Yu to explore the mechanism further and, potentially, to unlock the secret of extracting energy from the void.

While researching the Higgs boson, Xiao Yu encountered another strange phenomenon during the hundreds of collision experiments.

He observed that the total mass—or energy—of the system inexplicably increased. For instance, if the combined mass of the two colliding particles was 10,000, the mass of the collision debris would measure 10,001.

The sheer number of experiments ruled out measurement errors. Xiao Yu’s repeated increases in experimental precision eliminated the possibility of external material contaminating the collisions.

So, where did this additional mass come from? Puzzled, Xiao Yu embarked on an extensive research effort, but he could not find an answer.

Unable to resolve the mystery, Xiao Yu decided to temporarily set aside the issue, storing all experimental data for future investigation.

After verifying the Higgs boson’s existence, Xiao Yu shifted his focus to researching superluminal communication. Perhaps buoyed by the recent success, Xiao Yu made rapid progress. By the 20th year following the completion of the large particle collider, Xiao Yu successfully constructed the first superluminal communication device.

Two devices were built. One was installed on Tianyuan A, and the other at the particle collider. Xiao Yu planned to send a signal from the device on Tianyuan A to the one at the collider, which would then relay the message back using conventional communication methods.

The devices were 21 million kilometers apart. Using traditional signal transmission, a round trip would take 140 seconds. However, with superluminal communication for the outbound journey and conventional transmission for the return, Xiao Yu expected a response in just 70 seconds.

Including signal processing time, the total delay was calculated to be no more than 70.3 seconds.

Stationed in geosynchronous orbit above Tianyuan A, Xiao Yu steadied his thoughts, activated the device, and sent the first signal:

“Hello, Universe. My name is Xiao Yu, and I come from Earth.”