Chapter 320 311 Silver Feather Army's tech tree
Chapter 320 311 Silver Feather Army's tech tree
Adorned in the ceremonial white attire of a Chancellor, Bai Zhongqi stood upon the podium, as hovering camera robots transmitted his holographic image to every warship of the Silver Feather Army. On these warships, over five million soldiers and their families of the Silver Feather Army watched him with tears in their eyes and excitement in their demeanor.
"I have not forgotten you," began Bai Zhongqi. Just this opening remark was enough to set more than two million Silver Feather soldiers ablaze with fervor, as they wept and quaked with indescribable emotion, and quite a few even performed the unique kneeling salute of the Silver Feather Army.
In four thousand years, the Silver Feather Army had never witnessed such a moment of joy.
However, Bai Zhongqi spoke a falsehood: just a few hours earlier, he had not even known what the Silver Feather Army was.
Yet now, Bai Zhongqi could profoundly sense the passionate ardor and veneration of these people in white from Iridium Star. If the average Iridium Star citizen's feelings toward the Chancellor were respect and obedience, then the Silver Feather Army's feelings were extreme zeal and absolute loyalty. No other term or concept had exerted a more profound influence on this wandering civilization. The Silver Feather Army's devotion and dedication to the title of Chancellor exceeded even the fervor of religious zealots.
This fanaticism had not diminished with the passage of time; instead, successive Governors of the Silver Feather Army continually strengthened and infused the Army's loyalty to the Chancellor and their fatalistic belief—that only by finding their Chancellor could the Silver Feather Army realize their life's true value and purpose. In the face of harrowing adversity and displacement, it was this belief in destiny that united the Silver Feather Army, allowing them to overcome countless difficulties and endure to this day.
Indeed, one could tell by looking at the population of the Silver Feather Army. While they might appear to possess over two thousand formidable warships, their population was just over five million. During four thousand years, the population of the Silver Feather Army had grown at an exceedingly slow rate, partly due to their continual losses.
"As the Chancellor of Iridium Star, I am overwhelmed by your actions. Five thousand years ago, I fought alongside your ancestors, sharing the taste of glory and victory. Due to certain necessities, I was separated from Iridium Star for five thousand years. But you have never ceased in your search for a world with me," Bai Zhongqi said, his voice heavy with manipulation. "Such persistence and dedication is indeed characteristic of our excellent qualities as people of Iridium Star. In the third world you traversed, we finally reunited, and it is indeed an exhilarating event. For I believe, together with me, you will achieve even greater feats and bring more brilliance to the Galaxy. And the civilization we create will be acclaimed throughout the Universe!"
Bai Zhongqi typically did not favor lengthy speeches - he could usually conclude within a few minutes. But on this occasion, Bai Zhongqi spoke for half an hour, ranging from praises for the Silver Feather Army, to "reminiscing" about the old days of Iridium Star, then looking forward to a bright future, and asking for the Silver Feather Army's support for his endeavors.
In reality, this served to fulfill a longstanding desire of the Silver Feather Army. They had been searching for the Chancellor for four thousand years, so it would have been unreasonable for Bai Zhongqi to speak only a few minutes and deny them their expectation. On the contrary, Bai Zhongqi wanted to further imprint his image into the hearts of the Silver Feather Army, merging it with the already deified image of the Chancellor that they held.
The reason was, he truly desired to control the Silver Feather Army.
Nian Deng had presented the situation of the Silver Feather Army to Bai Zhongqi. As a wandering civilization, the Silver Feather Army did not have as substantial a legacy as conventional civilizations, but everything they possessed was sufficiently enticing.
The integration of over five million individuals from a Universe Civilization into the civilization of Earth would inevitably aid in Earth's further transformation and development.
Zero had roughly calculated the civilization level of the Silver Feather Army, excluding aspects such as civilization scale, Administrative Star, and population. From a technological standpoint, the Silver Feather Army was at Level 25, having already begun to evolve into a High Level Civilization.
More importantly, the Silver Feather Army followed a completely different path of civilization and technological development than the United Empire of Iridium Star. Many of their technologies were valuable for reference and could even compensate for some of Iridium Star's shortcomings.
After Bai Zhongqi's speech, Mo Laitong, the head of the Scientific Research Institute, gave him an overview.
"...In essence, the technological trajectory of the United Empire of Iridium Star is based on artificial intelligence and robotics, due to the effect of your Supreme Command, so we have no worries about AI rebellion or robot rampage, making us one of the few advancing to such a degree in AI and robotics outside of pure machine civilizations.
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The Silver Feather Army's technology mainly comes from other civilizations and involves integrating these technologies. The Silver Feather Army also follows a defined path, which is the 'advanced materials civilization.' You can see evidence of this on their warships, which are exceptionally well-designed, better even than the ones we've built. The reason is that they use a civilization-specific advanced material—a secondary nano-level editable material. They utilize this intelligent material to achieve many functions mechanically, which we are also exploring, as seen in our widely-used photon-brain intelligence devices. The Silver Feather Army has taken it further. They've created a variety of powerful and valuable items with this material.
Of course, I think the most interesting aspect is this programmable transformative material, capable of changing physical appearance and certain properties, thereby achieving different effects. This is most exemplified by the Silver Feather Army's Powered Individual Armor, armor so thin it looks like fibrous textile yet integrates power supply, defense, and offensive capabilities—all in one, and quite impressive."
Bai Zhongqi wasn't fully comprehending, and it all seemed enigmatic. In essence, Iridium Stars excelled in atomic-scale manufacturing, with explosive manufacturing capabilities in material decomposition and shaping. What the Silver Feather Army had accomplished was a type of simple substance, which looked like nothing more than a sheet of metal but potentially integrated storage, computing, communication, and even energy weapon functionalities. Moreover, this metal sheet might also be capable of transformation.
With an air of regret, Mo Laitong remarked, "I've taken a brief look at the principles of this secondary nano-level smart material, and it executes extremely ingenious micro-manipulation, signifying how much further we have to go in understanding the physical laws of the Universe. This material cannot be created through Atomic Substance Construction; it requires traditional Silver Feather Army methods."
Bai Zhongqi nodded, seeing that Mo Laitong had big ambitions. If it were indeed possible to combine Atomic Substance Construction with advanced materials, Iridium Star's might would be more than just exponentially enhanced. Even without merging the two, the combined strengths they could produce were already considerable.