Deep Space Wandering Fleet-Chapter 559 - 556

Seeing the students excited beyond measure, practically itching to boast in front of others, Zhang Yuan hastily changed the subject, "Alright, classmates, although this secret isn’t top-level classified, we still need to keep it as confidential as possible. It wouldn’t be suitable for it to become common knowledge."

"We have a strategic partnership with the Tos Civilization, and if all goes well, in the coming time, Curvature Spaceships from the interstellar trading market will take us away."

"But if those ships fail to arrive on time, we will still need to rent large spaceships from the Tos Civilization. After all, they have six Mother Ships, and we don’t need to waste time building our own... This will lead to a series of exchanges of interests between the two civilizations."

A civilization that wishes to develop sustainability must take into account all things, both big and small.

The entire neutron star collision plan, especially in its final phase, will need to leverage the power of the interstellar trading market, but we also cannot rely entirely on the marketplace...

If the trading market breaches the contract, we must still find a way to proceed with the entire plan.

The Planet Fortress, which already has basic propulsion capabilities, is currently traveling about 1.6 astronomical units away from the two neutron stars, following an orbit that is approximately elliptical.

The engineers have only initiated 20% of the planet engine’s capacity for the final safety checks.

When the topic came up, all the students were even more excited. They had never had contact with the so-called interstellar trading market, feeling both anticipation and doubt.

Looking at the students below, Zhang Yuan said, "If the ships from the interstellar trading market arrive on time, then these planet engines will start as scheduled, entering into the Three Body motion, and everyone will flee this Star Domain. Naturally, this is the best plan."

"As for the less favorable plan..."

"There are no Cosmic Strings in this Star Domain. If we were to use ion engines for propulsion, it would take three hundred years of travel time, undoubtedly affecting the optimal observation period. Our chances of acquiring Curvature Technology would decrease by several percentage points."

Seeing that class time was nearly up, Zhang Yuan quickly changed the topic, "Alright, that’s enough for today’s lesson. Class is dismissed. Please review what you’ve learned, and if you’re interested, take a look at the literature on the subject. Although the developments over the years haven’t been significant, the upcoming advancement work will depend on us."

"Class dismissed."

"Goodbye, teacher!"

A few students deliberately turned around and waved at him.

Zhang Yuan organized the documents in his briefcase, and only after seeing all the students had left the classroom did he let out a sigh of relief.

Being a professor or anything of the sort... it was unprecedented for him, and sometimes he felt quite pressured.

This course was difficult; the students were all meticulously selected and had at least a master’s degree... However, compared to the high difficulty of Extra Perception, it would still weed out a significant number of people.

At Deep Space University, he taught not only master’s and doctoral students but also undergraduates, mainly in Mathematics and New Civilization History.

A teacher imparts not only knowledge but also serves as a conduit for values.

Nowadays, elementary and middle school education for children are conducted by robots, which generally don’t lead to any major problems. The entire stratified education process is quite mature, and robot teachers are able to handle these tasks.

University, however, is different.

University represents a crucial link from school to society. After graduating from high school, students obtain a higher level of freedom. How to adapt to this higher freedom is an important issue. For example, in the past Earth Civilization, many outstanding students would decline during their university years — they performed well in high school, but couldn’t keep up at the university level; there were also some who rose anew at university, where their subjective initiative played a significant role.

Moreover, with the increasing difficulty of studies and the significant task of social work assignments, university teachers are still human.

Therefore, such human teachers should ideally have an exceptional moral character and be able to serve as role models.

The demand for moral character may even exceed the academic requirements.

If a teacher’s integrity is compromised, the more knowledgeable they are, the more reactionary they become, the group of students they instruct could also become a social nuisance.

Zhang Yuan didn’t have too many tasks at hand now; aside from teaching and discussing cooperative projects with the Tos People, he had plenty of free time to learn some new knowledge, which he found quite enjoyable.

"...The real research tasks haven’t even begun yet! Ah, I wonder if the spaceships from the trading market will arrive on time."

Zhang Yuan stretched lazily and headed to the "Big Food Bucket Restaurant," where he ordered a "Golden Spicy Chicken Roasted Rice Bun."

On the large screen in front of him, a broadcast showcased the developmental state of the entire civilization in recent years.

In the past 1,400 years, the majority of the resources of the New Human Civilization had been allocated to the construction of planet engines, with only a small portion designated for scientific innovation and population. Nevertheless, this had not resulted in a complete lack of progress in science.

The experience accumulated from long-term practical applications had led to a significant qualitative change in the field of engineering. Many spaceships had been upgraded, including those with ultra-large carrying capacities and more powerful engines. These experiences were certainly not useless.

From the TV, one could see countless spaceships coming and going above a Jupiter-like planet, collecting a vast amount of nuclear fuel.

The purpose of collecting nuclear fuel was to manufacture various super-large-yield hydrogen bombs.

There were also various military spaceships with powerful maneuverability, which had been produced in large quantities when relations with the Tos Civilization had deteriorated...

Even if curvature technology wasn’t obtained in this event, the performance of these spaceships would still qualify as the pinnacle of third-level civilizations!

Of course, the gap between the spaceships of third-level civilizations and those of fourth-level civilizations was significant.

If fourth-level civilization spaceships were compared to "supersonic stealth aircraft," then spaceships of third-level civilizations would merely be propeller planes from World War II. Second-level civilization spaceships were like wooden planes that could barely fly.

A fourth-level civilization fighting a third-level one meant an overwhelming victory, often without any losses.

However, when a third-level civilization fought a second-level one, although it was also an overwhelming victory, it wasn’t guaranteed to be without any losses.

This was one of the main reasons why some fourth-level civilizations were reluctant to widely spread curvature technology, even forming some treaties on the interstellar trading market.

Curvature technology brought about a tremendous increase in military strength and mobility.

If humans acquired curvature technology and advanced to a fourth-level civilization, they might also sign treaties concerning this matter.

As for other industries, although they hadn’t experienced any significant qualitative change, they had all developed in some way. Each industry had expanded its achievements a little, and the technology tree naturally sprouted many new shoots, just waiting for an opportunity to flourish rapidly.

"This period hasn’t been wasted, it’s been alright... Having developed to this point, we should be progressing slowly. How could we take big strides forward?"

After briefly going over the technological achievements as a whole, Zhang Yuan felt quite satisfied.

"Hey, Old Zhang, eating, huh!"

Lost in thought, he heard the voice of a capable man nearby—Engineer Ye Kaifu, who, like Zhang Yuan, was among the first batch of pioneers to leave Earth.

When Zhang Yuan was still Captain of the Kunlun Mountain Fleet, Ye Kaifu had been his able aide, mainly in charge of logistics work such as mining.

This kind of talent for mining was, of course, coerced into service.

Upon seeing this guy, Zhang Yuan also showed a cheerful smile, "What a rarity, you got a day off today? Eat—this golden chicken rice is on me!"

While eating, the two of them chatted casually.

Perhaps due to the influence of the times, the proportion of pioneers—among the initial 500,000 who left Earth who became Transcendents—was somewhat higher than in other eras.

Adversity truly did promote personal growth.

Zhang Yuan thought that the middle-aged and elderly people of this era, those who were not part of the last batch to leave with the previous spaceship, would likely also have a high proportion of becoming Transcendents.

Whereas, in other times, the proportion would relatively be lower.