Humanity is missing, luckily I have billions of clones-Chapter 408: The Star is Sick

How to leave a trace without affecting the normal development of this primitive civilization, while also enabling them to help themselves in the future, requires skill.

As it happened, Tom explored this solar system and unexpectedly discovered an asteroid with a rather peculiar orbit.

The longest part of this asteroid reached 50 kilometers, and its total mass was as high as 20 trillion tons. According to Tom’s calculations, in about 500 years, there was a probability of over 95% that it would collide with that planet.

The impact of an asteroid with such high mass and such a large volume would unleash tens of times more energy than the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs.

And according to the trajectory of normal development, it was almost impossible for this civilization to have the ability to stop this asteroid impact after 500 years.

The ultimate demise of this civilization seemed inevitable.

However, now that Tom had arrived, the course of events was naturally different.

"This asteroid is a suitable place. I’ll leave my mark here..."

Tom thought indifferently, casually assigning a few spacecraft, carrying corresponding equipment, to land on that asteroid, and then slightly pushed its orbit away.

Afterward, Tom left a cube with a side length of 1 meter on it.

This cube was made of Strong Nuclear materials and could resist the effects of interstellar radiation extremely well in a low-speed environment, maintaining visibility without significant damage for at least several million years.

Its side length was strictly one meter, and the lengths of all its edges were the same, completely identical.

Of course, with Tom’s level of technology, he could still detect errors, but for this primitive civilization, even if they developed to the point of landing on this asteroid one day, they would not be able to detect any errors.

Tom could imagine the level of shock this primitive civilization would face when they finally landed on this asteroid and discovered a cube there that they could not detect any errors in, no matter what.

And Tom knew that once they had sufficient capability, this civilization would inevitably land on this asteroid.

The reason was simple: since they had developed to a level of technology sufficient to land on this asteroid, they must have a sufficiently profound understanding of celestial mechanics.

And the orbit of this asteroid, due to Tom’s interference, had undergone an extremely strange change.

They could calculate that the normal orbit of this asteroid had a very high probability of colliding with the large planet where their civilization resided. However, due to some unknown factors, the orbit of this asteroid had become so strange, and it just happened to avoid the consequence of colliding with their large planet. Therefore, any civilization would want to investigate the reason.

Once they began observing this asteroid, trying to figure out the reason, they would discover the cube he had left behind.

On this cube, Tom also engraved some of the text used by this primitive civilization.

"When you have the capability for interstellar travel and truly enter space after leaving your home planet, please help us look for fleets or civilizations with the following characteristics.

Below this cube, there is also a gravitational wave communication device. If you make any discoveries, please inform us of the relevant information through this gravitational wave communication device. At that time, we will provide you with sufficient compensation according to your needs.

Pushing this asteroid away to prevent it from colliding with your home planet and causing the demise of your civilization is a demonstration of our sincerity.

Respectfully, the Bluetoth Civilization, Milky Way Calendar XXXX."

After completing these tasks, Tom planned to leave. But just then, some information detected by the miniature stealth probes scattered within this primitive civilization piqued Tom’s interest.

"Oh? Are they at a crucial juncture in the path of civilization’s progress?"

...

Under the dazzling sunlight, one of Tom’s probes floated quietly in the sky, unnoticed by anyone, attracting no attention, silently observing everything within a radius of several kilometers.

Through this probe, Tom saw a poor village and a dilapidated house.

Several strong intelligent beings of that primitive civilization, together, brutally kicked open the fence of this house and forcibly entered, dragging out a young female with only two arms, a sign of a lower-class person, but whose appearance was extremely in line with the aesthetic of that primitive civilization.

The young female struggled desperately, crying and shouting in despair: "I won’t go with you! Let go of me! Help!"

The parents of this young female received the news and rushed back from the farmland outside the village, just as they confronted the strong men.

The father was full of anger, rushing over aggressively, his arm already raised high halfway there.

Upon reaching them, he slapped the young female’s face heavily.

The young female looked at her father, full of shock and fear, and saw her father turn his head, looking at the strong men with a fawning expression: "Masters are merciful, Masters are merciful, are you finally willing to take my little girl..."

One of the strong men snorted arrogantly, ignoring the young female’s desperate cries, and forcibly dragged her away.

The father was still bowing and scraping, and the mother finally couldn’t bear her emotions and cried out: "Child, it’s not that your father and mother are heartless and don’t want you, it’s that only by following the masters can you have a way to live...

The masters were originally unwilling to take you, your father and mother knelt there and begged for three days before the masters were willing to accept you..."

...

In a town a dozen miles away, the streets were full of tattered, dying beggars. Next to the beggars was a bustling restaurant.

In a private room, the table was laden with delicious food. A stout middle-aged man with three arms quietly slipped a bag into the hand of another person, saying fawningly: "Official, the approval of that batch of firearms and gunpowder depends on you..."

...

Thousands of miles away, in a luxurious palace complex, female beings with four arms played leisurely, their laughter echoing constantly. An extremely strong male being, also with four arms and wearing a magnificent crown, sat leaning back in a large seat, watching the female beings playing before him, laughing loudly.

A person in official attire walked in, not looking left or right, and respectfully reported: "Your Highness, the weather is favorable now, the four seas are peaceful, the commoners can also eat their fill all day, with meat at every meal, and the world is praising your virtues everywhere..."

"Hahahaha!"

Hearing these words, the strong male being burst into hearty laughter again.

...

On the plain, a group of tattered, sallow-faced bottom-level two-armed beings were confronting a group of people in official uniforms.

"Heaven isn’t giving us a way to live! Rebel! Rebel!"

A bottom-level two-armed being roared with grief and indignation: "Kill them! Kill!"

...

Thousands of miles away, in the towering mountains, a group of strong male beings with a barbaric and cruel aura gathered together.

"The king of the Southern Empire is incompetent, officials are rampant with corruption, and civil unrest is everywhere. This is our opportunity..."

"Invade the Southern Empire! Seize the throne! Make all the people of the Southern empire slaves, and let them herd for us!"

"Kill! Kill!"

...

Under the miniature stealth probes, everything happening on this planet, one by one, entered Tom’s mind.

"Alas..."

Tom sighed softly.

Facing these hardships, Tom was filled with pity. But he also knew that he could not easily intervene.

Either don’t intervene, or once you do, you have to see it through.

Because he was always going to leave and couldn’t stay here for too long.

And once he displayed divine power, even if it could save them for a while and alleviate the immediate hardships, after he left, this civilization would inevitably face greater hardships.

Because they would almost certainly worship him as a deity, and perhaps even a strict deity worship organization would emerge. And such an organization would inevitably go astray after he left, further restricting the ideological and cultural development of this civilization.

This was an objective law of civilization development.

"A good life still needs to be fought for by yourselves. I can’t help you."

Tom thought indifferently: "However, there is one thing I can help you with.

Those barbarians, I’ll help you deal with them."

Although the Southern Empire on this planet had developed rudimentary gunpowder technology, corruption was rampant, the quality was poor, and it did not have an advantage against cold weapons.

If the barbarians invaded, they would definitely not be able to resist.

In Tom’s view, the corruption of civilization and the rebellion of the lower class to overthrow the upper class were objective laws of civilization development, and he could not easily interfere.

It was precisely through these constant changes that civilization could continuously progress.

But barbarian invasion, which abruptly interrupted the process of civilization development and even led to civilization’s regression, was an unexpected event.

Solving the barbarians could, at most, be considered pushing the process of civilization development back onto the right track, not pulling up seedlings to help them grow.

"What means should I use to deal with those barbarians?

Not only do I need to deal with the barbarians, but the means cannot be too direct, to avoid the emergence of deity worship... Hmm, I’ll create a plague."

Tom quickly collected some biological samples of the barbarians, and using his biological technology, in just a few days, he developed a targeted virus specifically for the barbarian genetic targets and casually released it.

This virus would only target these barbarians; no other organism would be infected. Once most of the barbarians were killed, these viruses would naturally die out due to the disappearance of their hosts, also avoiding the possibility of continuous mutation.

In the towering mountains, countless barbarians had gathered together.

Banners fluttered, long knives gleamed, barbaric and bloodthirsty, killing intent soaring.

But at this moment, a low-level soldier suddenly started coughing violently, uncontrollably.

...

Five days later, this army of over a hundred thousand people silently disappeared into the mountains.

By this time, Tom had already thrown the dozen or so spacecraft that entered this solar system directly into the Sun to destroy the evidence, and the main fleet 1.5 light-years away had set sail again, entering warp space.

During the long journey, Tom still maintained the pattern of sometimes stopping, sometimes sailing far, and constantly throwing probes into space during the long voyages, allowing them to maintain a speed of 70% of the speed of light, continuously expanding his detection area.

Hundreds of years passed in a hurry, and Tom traveled another thousand light-years.

Tom visited one solar system after another, passed through one nebula after another, witnessed the birth and demise of stars, but still failed to find any trace of a second civilization.

Until now.

At a distance of dozens of light-years, Tom once again detected industrial characteristics in a certain solar system.

This discovery invigorated Tom.

"This civilization’s technology level is quite high. At least it’s at the Strong Nuclear stage and can conduct interstellar travel.

Hmm... there’s a life-bearing planet there. This should be the home system of this civilization? They haven’t undergone a complete civilization migration yet?

But the state of this star doesn’t seem very good. It’s only 5 billion years old, so why is it starting to show signs of expansion?"

That was clearly a star with a lower mass than the Sun, with a lifespan of at least 11 billion years. It was only in its prime, yet it was already aging prematurely.

With gravity-level technology, Tom quickly figured out the reason.

"So that’s how it is..."

In Tom’s view, this star had a congenital "defect". 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Too many heavy elements gathered in the original nebula that formed it, and as the star subsequently formed, they accumulated in its core, like a mass in the human body, hindering the normal process of material convection within the star.

When the star was young, there was enough hydrogen, and this "mass" could not affect the whole. But as the star’s age gradually increased, too much hydrogen was fused into helium, and this mass began to play a role.

It was like a mass in the human body starting to obstruct blood flow.

"A star with congenital heart disease, rare, truly rare."

Tom exclaimed with admiration.

The current age of the universe is only about 17.3 billion years, and usually, the heavy element content in the original nebula is not too high. But perhaps due to the material ejected by multiple supernova explosions, the original nebula that formed this star happened to have such a high heavy element content.

"This civilization is both unlucky and lucky.

Unlucky because their home star has congenital heart disease, but lucky because it didn’t erupt until they developed to the Strong Nuclear stage and had the capability for large-scale interstellar travel.

Then it’s very simple. Form a large-scale fleet, carry all the population and wealth within the civilization, leave this solar system, and evolve into a space civilization...

Wait, what is this civilization doing?"

Tom investigated carefully, and the result left him speechless.

On the home planet where this civilization was born, Tom saw over a million giant thrusters.

Those giant thrusters pointed straight up at the sky, continuously spraying hot, thick exhaust flames.