309: Another universe?

"Come on, follow me. I'll brief you on your mission."

With that, he turned and started walking, signaling Li Yang to follow.

Yan Ze slowly led Li Yang to a massive control panel.

Lights flickered on the control panel, and various complex symbols and data constantly jumped, displaying the operational status of all systems within the Space Station and monitoring information on the spatial rift.

After Yan Ze stopped, he slightly raised his head, his gaze fixed on the spatial rift, which was faintly visible in the distant starry sky, his eyes revealing a hint of solemnity and focus.

"This spatial rift has been present for over a year now."

Yan Ze's voice was low and steady, as if he were recounting a mysterious story.

"Due to some special reasons, we established this Space Station here to conduct comprehensive research on it. And after this period of study, the results we've uncovered are quite surprising."

After Yan Ze finished speaking, he slowly turned his head, his piercing gaze fixed on Li Yang, a hint of expectation in his eyes, and asked with a smile,

"How about you guess where this spatial rift leads?"

Seeing this, Li Yang stared at the mysterious spatial rift, his mind swirling with thoughts.

The form and aura of this spatial rift inexplicably reminded him of the Subspace rifts he encountered during a previous mission.

Although there were differences between the two, the mysterious and unknown feeling was identical.

"Is this Subspace?"

Li Yang frowned slightly, asking tentatively.

His gaze was fixed on Yan Ze, trying to catch a clue from the other's expression.

"Oh, it seems you've entered Subspace before. No wonder the higher-ups sent you here."

A flicker of understanding crossed Yan Ze's eyes, and the corners of his mouth curved slightly. He pushed up the glasses on his nose, then shook his head with a touch of regret.

"But unfortunately, you guessed wrong."

Yan Ze turned around, facing the spatial rift, his arms crossed, his eyes revealing confidence and pride in the scientific achievement.

"This spatial rift, after our long and rigorous research and analysis..."

He paused, then emphasized,

"...is a passage to another universe. However, at present, we don't yet know whether it leads to a finite or infinite space."

Hearing this, Li Yang couldn't help but widen his eyes, a surge of intense surprise and shock rising in his heart.

"Another universe..."

He murmured to himself, his voice filled with disbelief.

However, after a brief thought, Li Yang realized this wasn't entirely impossible.

After all, as a Level Seven civilization standing among the stars, the Empire possessed highly advanced technology and vast reserves of knowledge.

Throughout its long history of development, the Empire's exploration had already spanned countless Galaxies, and its understanding of the universe far surpassed that of ordinary people.

Let alone discovering other universes, even with immense power to travel to and conquer other universes, theoretically, it wasn't impossible.

"Yes, this is not the first time the Empire has encountered other universes."

Yan Ze's expression was serious, and he looked deeply at Li Yang as he slowly explained.

"In the Empire's long history of exploration, we have had many contacts with other universes. However, we have not yet fully explored this vast universe we inhabit, and countless mysteries still await us to uncover. Therefore, from a strategic perspective, the Empire naturally will not easily waste a large amount of manpower, material resources, and financial resources to rashly explore other universes. After all, our primary task is to consolidate our position in this universe and deeply tap into its resources and knowledge."

"Then why am I being sent this time?"

Li Yang looked puzzled, his brows slightly furrowed.

Since the Empire was not currently focusing its main energy on exploring and occupying other universes, he certainly wouldn't have traveled all this way just for fun.

He really couldn't understand what considerations were hidden within this.

"It's like this..."

Yan Ze adjusted his glasses and continued.

"As I just said, while we clearly know this spatial rift is a passage to another universe, we don't know the spatial nature of that universe. The 'finite space' I mentioned here can be broadly understood as something similar to the Subspace within our own universe. If you pass through the spatial rift and find it to be a finite space, then your scope of exploration will be relatively limited, perhaps only a few worlds, or just one world, or even nothing at all.

But if it's an infinite space, that means it's a complete and boundless universe. For such a vast and unknown domain, with our current capabilities and resources, the meaning of exploration is not significant, because that would be an almost endless task, consuming a large amount of resources and making it difficult to achieve substantive results."

Yan Ze paused slightly, his gaze fixed on Li Yang, his expression becoming increasingly serious.

"And if, through your investigation, it is determined that that universe is a finite space, then please make sure to delve deep into it, gather as much relevant intelligence as possible, including but not limited to information about its environment, creatures, and civilizations, and also collect some representative samples to bring back. This information and these samples are of crucial importance for us to understand other universes and improve the Empire's cosmic knowledge system."

After hearing Yan Ze's detailed explanation, the doubts in Li Yang's mind finally vanished.

Yan Ze continued,

"After all, according to the Empire's historical records, worlds or planets within such independent spaces often possess unimaginable wonders. Not only do the civilizations nurtured there have unique characteristics, completely different from everything we know, but they also often hide many unexpected and surprising discoveries. These unique discoveries, perhaps after research and development, could bring new opportunities for the Empire's development and become a key driving force for its progress."

"Understood."

Li Yang looked at Yan Ze with determined eyes.

"Are we departing now?"

At this moment, he was already prepared to face the challenge, his heart filled with a desire to explore the unknown.

"No, please wait a moment."

Yan Ze's expression was grave, and he spoke with serious solemnity.

"The current state of this spatial rift is unstable, like a pontoon bridge on a turbulent sea, where changes can occur at any time. Therefore, we need to use additional energy for assistance to ensure the spatial passage remains relatively stable for a certain period. Moreover, there's a specific directive from above: you yourself cannot go personally."

Yan Ze paused slightly, his eyes revealing worry and concern.

"The main reason is that there are too many unstable factors in this spatial rift. Even with our research team fully providing technical support and energy assistance, we cannot guarantee your 100% safe return. The uncertainty is too great; we cannot allow you to be exposed to such immense risk."