Chapter 266: Rules of Astral Travel; Approaching Confluence Period (2)
Chapter 266: Rules of Astral Travel; Approaching Confluence Period (2)
“The principle of the shuttle device is to pass through the Astral Membrane and send things into another universe. The Astral Membrane is a little similar to a different kind of supermarket barcode. Its function is to filter everything from the outside world and restrict abnormal information that doesn’t belong to one’s own plane. Therefore, many technologies and items can’t travel through it…
On the other hand, living beings don’t seem to be in the filtering category. However, if the superpower system conflicts, although the abilities that they already have will not be deprived, the related abilities will be suppressed and might even be unable to activate.”
“Scientists believe that planes are the universe, and the universe is expanding endlessly. Therefore, the longer a plane lives, the larger its volume will be, causing this membrane to become thinner and thinner, so the filtering effect will slowly decrease… Therefore, the filtering intensity of the older planes will decrease.”
“For example, the alternate realms are like the human body. The Astral Membrane is an immune system, and the thing that enters through it is an external virus. As a person gets older, their immunity will decrease, and they will be more likely to be invaded by a virus and fall sick.”
Hearing this, many people revealed strange expressions.
Although the example was very straightforward, it felt strange to compare oneself to a virus…
At this moment, Xu Lingyun suddenly raised his hand.
“Teacher, if the plane is a universe, then based on probability, it’s very easy to travel to an uninhabited deep space instead, right? Wouldn’t that be equivalent to dying on the spot?”
“Good question.”
Shen Xinqin smiled gently.
“This is a problem that scientists haven’t figured out yet. Transmigration seems to have the effect of tracking and locating life signals. When explorers travel over, they will always land on living planets. There seems to be some kind of magnet-like pattern. The probability of falling into deep space is almost zero…”
“Therefore, the movement path and location of the explorers from all countries are usually on the same planet. Because the Astral Membrane filters a lot of technology, we can’t develop the other party’s universe. As for the Exploration Bureau, they typically name the other dimension based on the civilization of this planet.”
Hearing this, Zhou Jing couldn’t help but pinch his chin. He felt that his previous guess was right, and his heart couldn’t help but tremble.
“They didn’t know this, nor did they know that… Then how did you create that shuttle device?”
“It was not developed by us at all, right!”
… Of course, it was also possible that this was confidential and they would not be told about it.
Shen Xinqin did not say much about this question. Before anyone could ask further, she changed the topic,
“For the various planes that have been explored, the various countries have an evaluation system — by taking into account the level of civilization, technology, resources, filtering intensity, power conflict, danger, potential threat, and so on, the value of traveling and exploring the world is divided into three levels.
According to the value of the exploration, the manpower and resources invested by the explorers of the various countries will be different. There are also differences in the exploration plans… For example, there’s no point in interfering too much in a low-value plane. Usually, the explorers will only gather intelligence and knowledge, a short-term exploration.”
“As for the high-value planes, the Exploration Bureau will formulate a long-term development plan. They will establish a foundation there, plan to develop, and lurk deep inside.”
“For example, the primitive civilization plane we previously mentioned. We call it the ‘Mutant Beast Civilization Plane’. It’s a typical low-value Astral Realm. The countries will only invest very little in it. They won’t let anyone stay there for a long time at all. Once the time is up, they will all retreat. Under such circumstances, there naturally won’t be a long-term plan.”
“That’s great…” Zhou Jing grinned to himself.
Jason and Bill had finally made a name for themselves and were moving towards the peak of their lives. He did not want too much external interference.
“Teacher, when will the next plane convergence happen then?”
Suddenly, someone in the crowd asked curiously.
Zhou Jing perked up and pricked up his ears.
Shen Xinqin did not mind and replied casually,
“According to the Exploration Bureau’s map of the plane’s gravitational tide, a plane that has been explored before is approaching. The gravitational strength will reach the threshold of the shuttle device activation in three months and enter a new confluence period.”
Everyone immediately looked forward to it.
Although everyone had yet to graduate and was far from being in the military, they could not help but fantasize.
“Three months!”
Meanwhile, Zhou Jing lowered his head slightly to hide the glint in his eyes.
As long as there was a confluence of planes, his interface would be able to connect to the Astral Realm.
Between his travel interface and the main world’s travel device, although he did not know who had the higher threshold of gravitational strength, it would be obvious in three months.
At that time, he would most likely be able to activate Astral Travel again!
This was the best news he had heard today.
Shen Xinqin looked at everyone’s yearning expressions and smiled,
“The Exploration Bureau has a lot of known planes and is quite rich in information. Moreover, many of them are confidential. Some of them can only be accessed after joining the Exploration Bureau. Therefore, our course is mainly based on the study of popular science to increase everyone’s understanding of otherworld exploration.”
(TL Note: Popular science (also called pop-science or popsci) is an interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is more broad-ranging. It may be written by professional science journalists or by scientists themselves.)
“Also, the learning process of the course is adjusted according to the results of the mapping… In other words, the plane we will be studying in will only be about planes that have just passed the confluence period, about to enter the confluence period, and those already in the confluence period. The other temporarily unrelated planes will not be mentioned.
Everyone’s luck is good, since there’ll be a confluence period this semester. At that time, I’ll get some real-time action reports from the Exploration Bureau that aren’t considered confidential. They’ll be used as lesson materials for everyone to study and understand the actions of the explorers in the astral world.”