Chapter 370 Monster

Black hole.

The deepest, darkest and most mysterious thing in the universe.

Of course, in this era, the "mystery" of black holes needs to be questioned.

Because the Empire's research on black holes has long been no longer limited to theory. Instead, it has started to practice.

Relying on the superluminal navigation technology of spacecraft developed in the early years, the Empire's research on black holes has long been feasible, and there have always been people conducting research in this area.

Chen Ming has met a lot in the past six months.

It's just that under normal circumstances, studying black holes is something that professionals do, and ordinary civilian ships can't do superluminal navigation, they can only do close to the speed of light.

Only some special ships can do real superluminal navigation, which is more troublesome.

Therefore, the knowledge of black holes themselves is obviously not enough among the people and those who are not related to this research.

Just like Chen Ming has never encountered the existence of any black hole along the way, so his understanding of black holes is not detailed.

Moreover, with the discovery of hyperspace and FTL navigation, hyperspace channel technology has essentially replaced FTL navigation technology.

Whether in terms of practicality, popularity or safety, hyperspace channel technology is better than FTL navigation technology.

But this does not mean that this technology has been completely eliminated, nor does it mean that Chen Ming will miss this important technology in the history of ship development when learning ship technology.

The key to the existence of this technology is the study of black holes.

In the special occasion of studying black holes, only FTL navigation technology is a technology that must be mastered.

Otherwise, let alone investigating black holes, if you accidentally fall into the event horizon of the black hole while running near the black hole, that is, within the range where even light cannot escape.

It can almost be said that universal means can escape from it.

Not even hyperspace.

Because there are not only hyperspace channel clouds in hyperspace, there are also gravity wells formed by massive celestial bodies.

The hyperspace channel engine itself also uses gravity wells to enter and exit hyperspace.

The concept of a black hole as a whole can be said to be the most massive celestial body in the universe. Its gravity well in hyperspace will be particularly obvious and huge.

Therefore, when the spacecraft falls into the event horizon of the black hole.

In the hyperspace position corresponding to the spacecraft, it has already entered the area affected by the depth of the black hole's gravity well.

As long as it enters hyperspace, it will be destroyed by gravity faster than in the normal universe.

If you want to come out alive after entering the black hole's event horizon.

Either use superluminal navigation technology or use jump technology.

Jump engines are only equipped on ships above the cruiser level, and after the jump engine is used, it damages the basic structure, which will cause subtle damage to the basic structure that is almost impossible to detect with the naked eye.

It is very troublesome to repair this kind of damage with normal repair methods, and the maintenance cost is extremely high.

And with the high material consumption, the cost is even higher.

Chen Ming uses jump all day long as if it's free because he has psychic power. His psychic power can easily repair this kind of damage. He can repair the jump engine of the spacecraft at a very low cost and very fast speed.

But in the past, there was no such good conditions as Chen Ming.

So the superluminal navigation technology was preserved as a technology that must be used under specific conditions.

Although Chen Ming's spacecraft did not carry a superluminal navigation system, his situation was fine when he passed through the wormhole and arrived in front of the black hole.

He was just affected by the gravity of the black hole and had not been pulled into the event horizon of the black hole.

And the sense of danger that he felt before passing through the wormhole, which could completely cover him, just came from this black hole.

This shows that this danger is visible, and generally speaking, it is unlikely to pose an effective threat to him.

It's just that after he really passed through the wormhole, the sharp sense of danger he felt on the way through disappeared.

It is unclear whether the danger actually comes from the process of passing through the wormhole, or whether the source that could cause danger has left after he passed through the wormhole or something else.

But it is not a bad thing that there is no danger now, right?

Chen Ming looked back at the wormhole behind the highest point. It is not in a special galaxy like the wormhole in the Origin Galaxy, but a wormhole on the trajectory of movement around the black hole.

Although it looks okay at present, it can be seen without calculation that gravity is still attracting the wormhole closer to the black hole.

Sooner or later, the wormhole will fall into the black hole.

Chen Ming does not know what will happen if the wormhole falls into the black hole, and he does not want to know.

But he knows how to extract the singularity in the wormhole.

If there are irreversible consequences, he will definitely solve the problem before the consequences appear.

Of course, the premise is to ensure the safety of the surrounding area first.

The black hole itself should not be dangerous, as long as you don't commit suicide.

So what Chen Ming has to deal with is the safety of the surrounding area.

When doing things in an unknown place, the first thing to consider is of course safety.

He first needed to find out if there were any galaxies or celestial bodies nearby that he could use to settle down, and confirm whether he was in the star field observable by the empire or in a truly unknown star field.

Then he turned back to consider the wormhole itself.

Chen Ming controlled the spaceship to turn around and accelerate to temporarily leave the area, but at the moment when the engines of the three spaceships began to accelerate.

The sharp sense of danger that had disappeared before suddenly stabbed him again.

Chen Ming immediately controlled the battleship to make a maneuver, but a purple-black beam shot out from the black hole behind still swept across a Stardust-class ship that had no time to open its shield.

And the place on the Stardust-class ship that was swept by this beam seemed to be gripped by some kind of terrifying pressure, and was directly twisted into a circle of steel twists.

Most of the systems of the spaceship were also damaged under this heavy pressure.

Even if the beam disappeared, Chen Ming still felt a psychic force entangled in the damaged area of ​​the Stardust, continuing to exert huge pressure on the interior of the ship.

It was gradually crushing the collapsed Stardust-class into a ball of metal.

The beam that can escape the black hole is definitely not a normal beam, it should be a projection of some kind of psychic power.

There is something in the black hole's event horizon that casts its power.

This familiar scene made him seem to see the day when he and Yan Xiong had a conflict, and Yan Xiong used his psychic power to control metal to twist his Iron Ore into a metal ball.

Chen Ming felt a string in his consciousness tighten.

He decisively controlled the High Point and the remaining Stardust-class to make a short-distance jump and pull enough distance from the black hole behind.

Then he immediately turned the bow, and all the sensors were activated at full power, trying to find out what was in the black hole's horizon.

However, Chen Ming's ship did not prepare special equipment for investigating the black hole area.

Although the sensors at the High Point are top-notch, they are not suitable for the current situation.

Fortunately, the existence in the black hole did not continue to release the beam outside the black hole.

And the sense of danger in Chen Ming's perception has gradually disappeared, as if it was just a warning, warning Chen Ming not to get too close to the black hole.

But Chen Ming's face was no longer expressionless at this time.

He just labeled the things in the black hole as doomed in his mind.

Whether it is to pave the way for the fleet to arrive here later, or to kill the danger at the earliest time, or simply for revenge.

He must enter the horizon of the black hole, and he must completely solve the things in the black hole.

Chen Ming took another look at the deep black hole, and drove the Supreme Point and Stardust to temporarily leave this area.

At the same time, he picked up the terminal and found the address book list of some people with some status and ability in scientific research that he had met in the past six months.

After flipping through it, he found the phone number of the director of a research institute that studies celestial bodies and focuses on black holes.

After spending a few minutes to successfully borrow the appropriate equipment, and spending a few more minutes to bring the equipment under his control.

Chen Ming installed these black hole exploration equipment on the remaining two ships.

However, Chen Ming could not get the best equipment that could directly penetrate the horizon for reconnaissance for the time being, and even if he got it, he would need time and a special place to install it.

It doesn't mean that you can just find a ship and use it directly.

So Chen Ming needs to pass through the horizon of the black hole to conduct reconnaissance next.

But this just meets his needs.

He wanted to see what was targeting him in the event horizon, and then kill it.

The only remaining Stardust-class robot was assigned a robot controlled by Chen Ming himself, and it began to turn around and approach the event horizon of the black hole.

Soon.

From the robot's perspective, Chen Ming once again sensed a growing sense of danger.

And at the moment when the robot sensed that the sense of danger reached its peak, he started the jump engine and forcibly jumped into the event horizon of the black hole.

And this jump just happened to avoid a purple-black beam shot out of the black hole.

In the event horizon of the black hole, Chen Ming could only see countless distorted lights with his visual sensors, as if a colorful black made it impossible for people to distinguish the internal situation through vision.

But after Chen Ming prepared special equipment, the event horizon of the black hole was no longer a cage that swallowed everything.

He could use these devices to intuitively detect the situation in the event horizon of the black hole.

But he was suddenly stunned when he looked at the data sent back.

Because in addition to detecting the black hole itself, the sensor also detected something about the size of a scavenger, a living thing.

Right in the center of the black hole.

There was something like a dark maggot struggling to crawl out of the black hole.

But it seemed to be confined in the black hole and could not completely escape the control of the black hole no matter what.

The head of this maggot-like thing was not round, but very sharp, and a huge mouth opened at the tip, full of curled sharp teeth.

On both sides of its half body that had stuck out of the black hole, there were long and sharp limbs like arthropods.

These limbs were twitching and struggling frantically, but they could not change the current situation of this thing being trapped in the black hole, and could only make it look more frantic.

From these characteristics, it seemed that it was not a substantial creature, but a manifestation of the existence of other dimensions after entering the normal universe.

Because its curled teeth have no ability to chew and tear prey, and there is no meaning for its existence, as if it is a pure embodiment of malice.

And its lack of eyes does not prevent it from observing the universe and attacking anything close to the galaxy.

And its actions are obviously trying to leave the world behind the black hole and truly enter the normal universe.

It's like... the scarlet dimension.

"I didn't expect that guess to be true."

Chen Ming muttered to himself.

His meaning is also very clear, referring to the question that the Empire has been discussing in astronomy about whether there is really a new dimension behind the black hole.

A long time ago.

With the development of hyperspace technology, wormholes, and stargate technology, the Empire has always discussed what kind of things exist behind black holes.

And the most discussed, of course, is a new dimension.

And with the mastery of superluminal technology, the Empire's investigation of black holes has been advancing.

But the exploration of the world behind black holes has been stagnant.

There are many reasons for this.

Not only can hyperspace technology not be applied to the investigation of black holes, but also the dimensional infection caused by the scarlet dimension makes it difficult not to doubt whether there will be any equally bad problems in the black hole dimension.

Moreover, the huge gravitational force of a massive celestial body like a black hole itself has an immeasurable impact on ships.

So far, all experiments to explore the world behind black holes have ended in failure.

Exploring the dimension behind a black hole is difficult.

But the guess has not changed, that is, there is a high probability that there is a dimension or plane similar to hyperspace behind the black hole.

Of course, from now on, the existing dimension will definitely be more similar to the phase space and the scarlet dimension.

No matter what it looks like, the dimension behind the black hole is very far away from the normal universe, and it is much more difficult to pass through the black hole than to any known and discovered dimension.

The dimension behind the black hole is not like the phase space and the scarlet dimension, which have long been in contact with the normal universe.

What's more, Chen Ming has now personally seen the scene where the big black maggot failed to pass through the black hole.

Although it was stuck on the black hole, it did not seem to affect its influence on the normal universe by the part that had already drilled out.

It could already use that powerful force near the black hole to easily destroy the cruiser.

Even from the situation of Chen Ming's Stardust class being pressed into a high-density metal ball by the psychic power.

Even the armor and hull strength of the main battleship may not be able to directly resist the direct damage from it.

The shield may have some blocking effect, but unless it is really tried, no one can say whether it can be blocked.

However, he can test this problem now.

After the Stardust class jumped and dodged according to Chen Ming's command to avoid the deep purple beam and entered the black hole's horizon, the sensor captured the appearance of the monster.

The monster suddenly seemed to be crazy, and its limbs waved more crazily.

At the same time, the crack full of curved fangs opened almost 180 degrees in the direction of the Stardust class.

A purple-black ball of light was gradually forming in the center of the crack.

When the energy of the light ball was condensed to the extreme, a purple-black energy beam burst out and once again shot at the Stardust that entered the field of view.

Chen Ming immediately made the Stardust class perform a short-distance jump again, and once again dodged the gravity psychic energy beam shot by the monster.

But this energy beam did not dissipate directly, but continued to approach the Stardust under the swing of the monster's head.

The second Stardust was about to be destroyed again.

However, Chen Ming's psychic energy was suddenly stimulated at this moment.

With the help of the scarlet power, the Stardust class was forcibly moved several kilometers, and once again dodged the beam.

At the same time, the short-distance charging of the Stardust jump engine was completed, and when the monster shook its maggot-like head and threw the purple-black beam again.

The Stardust jumped again and hid away.

And this time, the jump allowed the Stardust to successfully approach the core of the black hole and stick to the monster's madly waving limbs.

Countless meteor fighters were released by Stardust, flying into the abyss like countless red meteors.

In a blink of an eye, all these meteors went out.

The meteor fighter was too small and its armor was too weak. The moment it got close enough to the black hole, it was destroyed by a gravitational force on the dark monster that was stronger than the black hole next to it.

And the superposition of the two gravitational forces was still destroying the structure of the Stardust-class ship.

But Chen Ming had no intention of retreating.

In order to prevent this Stardust-class ship from following the footsteps of the previous Stardust-class ship, he chose to increase the investment in Stardust's maintenance psychic energy, constantly supporting Stardust to continue to approach the black hole and the monster stuck in the black hole.

He wanted to see what this guy was, whether it was a spirit or some powerful creature.

Stardust passed through the flailing limbs.

The only tachyon spear carried on the hull was also trying to launch an attack.

However, those once turbulent torrents of particles lost their former sharpness when facing this monster.

The gravity psychic energy around this monster that can disintegrate everything dispersed all the particles fired by the tachyon spear.

His cruiser seemed unable to cause any effective damage to this monster.

Come to think of it.

The combat power estimated by the scavenger Chen Ming could face about a hundred battleships at the same time.

And the combat power of the psychic monster in front of him that passed through the black hole would definitely not be bad.

It was really a bit too much to think that just a cruiser could cause real damage to it.

But Chen Ming's purpose was not to cause damage to it.

His purpose was always to use the current opportunity to investigate more information about this dark monster.

The dark monster seemed to have discovered that the spaceship controlled by Chen Ming had an extremely exaggerated flexibility, and no longer tried to use it. Instead, it lowered its head, probably the thing on the head, and opened its bloody mouth of terrifying size, trying to eat the Stardust directly.

Stardust immediately moved towards the lower abdomen of the dark monster, which was the part where it was stuck in the black hole.

The data in this place may have some special value.

But suddenly, Chen Ming found that there seemed to be something wrong in the data transmitted back by the black hole sensor.

He immediately changed the original course of the Stardust and took some risks to approach the place where the sensor found something wrong.

As the distance shortened, the black hole sensor finally captured a clearer piece of data.

What made Chen Ming feel wrong was a limb of the black maggot monster that was drooping on the side of the body, as if it was dead.

And the wreckage of a spacecraft of a model that Chen Ming had never seen before was pierced into the root of this limb.

In a place so close to the black hole, Chen Ming's Stardust was even about to disintegrate itself, and it was only barely supported by Chen Ming's psychic energy for continuous repairs.

And this spacecraft that pierced into the body of the black monster did not have any damage torn by gravity.

There were only signs of damage over time.

This situation made Chen Ming think of only one possibility.

This is something left behind by the shining civilization.

The Shining Civilization originally intended to develop the Origin Galaxy, and the wormhole in the Origin Galaxy would certainly be part of the development. Even the existence of this wormhole was the reason why the Shining Civilization developed here.

Then of course there would be a spaceship belonging to the Shining Civilization coming here, passing through the wormhole, and clashing with the monsters in the black hole for some reasons that Chen Ming did not know.

Finally, they were left here.

Chen Ming suddenly felt jealous.

Because the design model of that spaceship was something that Chen Ming had never understood after studying ship technology for so long.

He had never heard of any spaceship that could withstand the pull of the gravity of a black hole for 30,000 years and survive as early as now.

That spaceship must have technology far beyond his technical level, waiting for him to obtain it.

And just as Chen Ming discovered this spaceship.

The Stardust class was also caught by the dark monster in the gap on the moving route because Chen Ming forcibly changed the direction of travel in the middle of the journey.

Just once.

The Stardust was torn in half by the dark monster.

Chen Ming's eyes in the black hole's horizon were also cut off.

The Stardust class was destroyed, but Chen Ming had already obtained enough valuable information.

He already had enough reasons to kill this monster, and now there is one more.

He must find a way to get the ship that is suspected to be from the Shining Civilization.

Chen Ming was determined to change his plan.

The black hole was there, and its threat was not immediate, so he did not want to deal with the trouble of the black hole at first.

But if there is such an unknown thing in the black hole that even the question mark of whether it is a living thing must be answered, it must first solve this disgusting thing.