Zhang Xiaoman initially bought this item specifically for its secretive communication capabilities.
The introduction in the gang store clearly stated that the Star Network Terminal used a transmission method not yet controlled by humans: neutrino communication.
This meant that Zhang Xiaoman would no longer have to worry about being eavesdropped on while communicating with other members of the Star Alliance.
However, this came with a downside: it could only communicate with other wristwatches, as it was unable to make calls to regular mobile phones. Since phones receive electromagnetic signals and the wristwatch used neutrinos, they were incompatible.
After checking all four items, Zhang Xiaoman found himself with some free time. In the last moments, he tried to practice the Enlightenment Technique while grinding away the vast amount of spare time.
During this period, Zhang Xiaoman would also read the notebook his mother gave him and sometimes continue to browse the gang store to see what else he could currently make use of.
Besides, Zhang Xiaoman would also take a couple of walks outside the Original Realm Space to admire the beautiful starry sky over Rebirth Island.
Hours flew by, and Zhang Xiaoman’s day of "closed-door cultivation" came to a temporary end. After a night of trial and exploration, he had managed to hesitantly arrange the Enlightenment Technique’s Magic Technique into the tenth position of sequence 216.
Don’t underestimate the progress of merely ten steps. With the current quantity, each step backward in the sequence made the difficulty increase substantially compared to the previous ones, indicating that the later steps would become increasingly difficult.
Besides the monotonous skill-practice sessions, he had two interesting discoveries.
The first was about Dark Energy. After converting Inert Dark Energy into Active Dark Energy, Zhang Xiaoman could clearly perceive some characteristics of the Dark Energy Particles through his control power: lively, repulsive, high-speed, constant.
For instance, the lively and repulsive traits meant that arranging the Dark Energy Particles felt like a kindergarten teacher organizing a line of children. Each Active Dark Energy Particle was like a child, always moving and very "restless."
When Zhang Xiaoman arranged more of them, these little guys would start "horsing around" and wouldn’t stay calm. And as the number increased, the line would get more and more chaotic. This is why as the Dark Energy Technique construction proceeded, the difficulty also escalated.
Let’s talk about the high-speed trait. When Zhang Xiaoman used the Dark Energy in his body to activate the surrounding Inert Dark Energy, the converted Active Dark Energy Particles would become "uncharacteristically active," changing from the original "sluggish snails" into "agile cheetahs."
As he arranged them, Zhang Xiaoman noticed that these Active Dark Energy Particles were particularly fast, and their speed would increase further as the sequence level rose. Just sequence 216 alone already had a speed close to half the speed of light, approximately 150,000 kilometers per second.
When it got to sequence 200, the speed noticeably increased, approaching two-thirds the speed of light, roughly 200,000 kilometers per second, which was quite terrifying.
"If this trend continues, could it possibly exceed the speed of light?" Zhang Xiaoman was shocked at the time.
As for the speeds of particles in higher sequences, he did not test them. After all, the higher the sequence level, the more Dark Energy required for conversion, and he didn’t have the spare energy to waste at the moment.
However, Zhang Xiaoman did whimsically name this phenomenon—Dark Speed, the speed of Active Dark Energy Particles moving within a Dark Energy Field.
Since Active Dark Energy Particles were divided into 216 immutable and invariable sequences, this speed was not unique.
And because it only existed within the unobservable Dark Energy Field, it couldn’t manifest in real-world conditions and thus had no method to be utilized currently.
As to whether high-sequence Dark Energy Particles would exceed the speed of light and what impact it would have on the existing physical system of humanity if they indeed could, that was beyond Zhang Xiaoman’s concern. After all, he wasn’t responsible for weighing down Einstein’s coffin lid.
"Could it be that I’ve inadvertently discovered a new system? Should I also be awarded a prize or something..."
Zhang Xiaoman sighed about this discovery and didn’t dwell on the issue any further. After all, whether physics or mathematics, these were just academic theories defined by humans and didn’t represent the truths of the universe.
Thus, when he came in contact with some things "beyond common sense" through the system, he wasn’t overly surprised.
Then there was the second interesting discovery, which compared to the previous headache-inducing Dark Energy Sequences, was much simpler—it was about setting the teleportation location of the Starry Stone.
Zhang Xiaoman accidentally stared at the big stone at the entrance, marked with the words "Original Realm," and to his surprise, he discovered it had an attribute panel too. This stone’s function was to designate the landing location after using the Starry Stone.
[Starry Stone・Mother Stone]
— The anchor point for using the Starry Stone; only one can exist at a time.
"So that’s why I always appear next to this rock whenever I use the Starry Stone to return to the Original Realm..."
Zhang Xiaoman finally had an answer to a small question in his mind.
After using the Starry Stone to return from Rebirth Island, he attempted the Enlightenment Array drawing a few more times. This time the outcome had improved, advancing from the tenth to the eleventh position.
"Right, I also made plans with Master Liu to have lunch at his place today, better call it a night, or I might miss out on buying that special goose on Meihua Road..."
Zhang Xiaoman tidied up a bit, prepared to use the 100 points of Dark Energy he saved up to activate Unlimited Teleportation to head home. With his mother at home acting as a "friendly unit" for positioning, he could save on using a Star Alliance Marker.
Quickly summoning the system panel, Zhang Xiaoman raised his hand to click on the lotto draw function. As for this daily routine operation, he could do it without any prayers to increase luck, completing it quite effortlessly.
Then, a burst of blue light from a spatial distortion, which made him unexpectedly put down what he was holding, moved over to gently cradle it in his palm.
"This ability... seems like it’s from some assassin-themed single-player game, right?"