Agent047
patreon
842 - #LDWHT263847
🕑 Added 2025-02-07 22:08:16 +0000 UTCAron’s laughter lasted for quite some time, echoing through the simulation. He felt it deep within him—the climb was nearly over. He had been struggling up an impossible mountain, but now, at last, the summit was within reach. All that remained was the slide down, far easier than the ascent.
His exhilaration gradually settled into focus.
“Time to put in the work,” he muttered, his voice filled with determination.
The simulation around him shifted, morphing into the familiar confines of his laboratory. Knowledge alone wasn’t enough; raw information was meaningless without digesting it.
Beside him, Nova materialized in her physical form, this time clad in a researcher’s uniform—symbolic of the role she intended to play. She adjusted her sleeves with practiced ease, but Aron spoke without looking at her.
“We’ll need to dedicate significant time to this,” he said. “Not just us, but the Lab City researchers as well.”
He paused, considering the scale of what lay ahead. “Fully digesting and implementing this tech won’t be easy, but once we’re done…”
His golden eyes gleamed with anticipation.
“…the things we create will change everything.”
Both of them knew—this was a turning point.
Once this technology was fully integrated, the empire would become an even more formidable force.
………….
Three Months Later.
In an abandoned patch of space, a void so absolute it seemed as if the universe itself had forsaken it, there was nothing—no light, no movement, no matter.
A darkness beyond darkness.
Anyone who found themselves here would question whether they had lost their sight or if existence itself had ceased around them.
But this near-nothingness didn’t last.
A distortion rippled through the void—subtle at first, barely perceptible, like a dot forming in the fabric of space itself. Then, it grew.
It was as if a perfectly sealed box had been pierced, allowing the faintest glimmer of light to spill through. And yet, paradoxically, that light revealed nothing—for there was nothing inside to reflect it, nothing to interact with the stray photons that now passed freely through the growing rift.
The dot expanded, swelling into a vast circle, its shimmering borders dusted with what looked like cosmic glitter. Yet, at its center, there was nothing—no hint of what lay beyond, as if an unseen veil obscured the other side, allowing only the faintest slivers of light to seep through its edges.
Without a point of reference, its scale remained unknowable. Was it no larger than a coin? Or vast enough to eclipse a planet?
Then, without warning, something pierced through the veil.
Like a knife slicing through paper, an object pushed through, forcing its way into the void.
It was sleek, metallic, and unidentifiable, yet undeniably man-made. A moment later, another followed. Then another.
For an entire hour, the process repeated.
With each passing moment, the size and the number of the objects increased, pushing the limits of the expanding rift.
Then, the final object arrived.
It was massive, nearly matching the hole’s exact size. As it passed through, it scraped the shimmering edges, but just as it reached the halfway point—
The hole collapsed.
In an instant, the rift snapped shut, cutting the colossal object in half.
The severed surface gleamed, smooth and reflective as a mirror—a perfect, impossible cut.
A moment later, a voice resonated through the void:
{TEST #LDWHT263847 OVER.}
With that declaration, the scattered objects flickered, their forms dissolving into nothingness—deconstructed, as if they had never existed.
The void reclaimed its silence.
But even that did not last.
The instance was terminated.
{With that, we can finally say we understand all the requirements for safe Long-Distance Wormhole Travel,} Nova stated, her voice steady as she sifted through the mountain of data collected from the test.
Aron, arms crossed, watched the final data streams in deep thought. “The results are almost the exact opposite of what I initially expected.”
{You mean the energy expenditure?} Nova asked, already predicting his line of thinking.
Aron nodded. “Yes. But now that I see the numbers, it makes sense.”
A third voice chimed in, breaking the analytical atmosphere with a touch of amusement.
"Care to catch me up on the exposition, dear?"
The speaker had been there the entire time—a silent observer—but now, curiosity had finally gotten the better of her.
Aron chuckled at the question, turning to face Rina, who had made a habit of dropping in on his research—sometimes to spend time with him, other times just to observe. He didn’t mind; if anything, he welcomed it.
“Previously,” he began, “I assumed that from the moment a wormhole was opened until it closed, you’d need to constantly supply a fixed amount of mana to maintain it. But the actual results were quite different.
"It turns out that most of the energy is consumed during the creation of the wormhole—and the further apart the two ends are, the greater the mana cost. But once the wormhole is open, only a fraction of that energy is required to sustain it. The next major energy expense happens when an object passes through, with the cost scaling based on the object’s size. A small object barely consumes anything, while a massive one demands significantly more.”
Rina took a moment to digest his explanation before speaking. “Then why aren’t the Trinairans—or any other civilization that has this tech—using it that way?”
Even with just a brief explanation, she could already see how this discovery revolutionized wormhole technology. Based on what she knew—thanks to her high access level to the Akashic Records—no known civilization was utilizing this tech anywhere close to its full potential.
Aron hesitated for the briefest moment before replying, feeling a slight sting at the half-truth he was about to tell.
“That’s because this is our improved version—built using their knowledge as a foundation and then refined far beyond what they’ve achieved,” he said. It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the whole truth either.
The real reason? He had used his remaining SP to elevate all their knowledge to true Tier 1. Many of the civilizations’ specialized pieces of knowledge they had gained were incomplete, lingering just short of that threshold. That final push had drained him, consuming nearly everything he had, leaving him with only a few hundred SP to his name.
But that was a detail he had no intention of sharing.
“So does that mean we’re officially a step ahead of the Trinarian in spatial technology?” Rina asked, clearly surprised that they had achieved such results in only three months of real-world time.
“That would be true,” Aron replied carefully, “if what they gave us was truly their latest knowledge and not an outdated version.” He deliberately avoided a definite yes—confirming it outright could complicate things more than necessary.
“Woow,” Rina breathed out, not bothering with Aron’s skepticism. Instead, she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly.
“Congratulations,” she said warmly. She knew how much time and energy Aron had poured into this research. For the past three months, he had barely taken a moment to breathe, pushing himself relentlessly. Now that the results had finally come in, it meant he could finally relax—even just a little. That alone made her happy, both for him and for them.
Aron simply smiled, returning the hug without hesitation.
Meanwhile, Nova, realizing she had suddenly become a third wheel, silently disintegrated, leaving the two lovebirds to themselves. As she did, she reconfigured the lab’s interior, seamlessly transforming it into a cozy home—a space for them to unwind after months of tireless effort.
Comments
Sol_Invictus
Yeah, by the way. Quantum communication is the most efficient, and besides, you can create, for example, five wormholes so that if one fails for some reason, the signal will still go through.
jordan payet
Thanks for the chapter ☺️ If i understand correctly, the most costly is opening the wormhole at first depending on how far it is. Then it cost next to nothing to maintain it open as long as its not big things that go there ? If that’s the case, couldn’t he just drop space communications tower at some places, then open a small wormhole inside, that will be charged to transmit data ? So bypassing the distance problem you added with quantum comms 🤔
Sol_Invictus
TYFTC!!!! FINALLY!! Historical moment
Jade
I'm not first haha
GripenSupremacy
Still second tho
GripenSupremacy
indeed
GripenSupremacy
TYFTC
Kryonic
That's a great start to my weekend
