Humanity is missing, luckily I have billions of clones

Tom's energy remained almost entirely focused on technological development.

Numerous large scientific devices, countless large, medium, and small laboratories, over a billion clones, and millions of Bluetoth scientists toiled relentlessly, not daring to rest for a single day.

Time slowly passed under these circumstances, and in the blink of an eye, over six hundred more years had elapsed.

The vast distance of 50 light-years was quietly traversed by Tom through day-after-day navigation.

At this stage, the fleet's distance from the solar system had reached over 80 light-years. The Sun, viewed from here, had its apparent magnitude reduced to approximately 7.

The dimmest star that the human eye can see under ideal conditions has an apparent magnitude of about 6.5.

This means that the Sun was now invisible to the naked eye.

Tom looked out at the starry cosmos and also saw a sky full of stars. But among those stars, the Sun was no longer visible.

"A thousand years have passed in the blink of an eye…"

Tom sighed softly.

Over these years, although he still couldn't develop technology as freely as he could within a star system with abundant resources, carrying so many extra supplies did, after all, support a certain degree of technological progress.

After a thousand years of unremitting effort, Tom's technological level had made significant advancements across various fields.

At the application level, whether it was spaceship hulls, radar detection, electromagnetic cannon components, thrusters, nuclear reactors, or even chemical engineering, metallurgy, casting, and so on, almost all had seen improvements compared to before departure.

Tom had even updated and iterated the blueprints for his various spaceships three times in the simulator. It was estimated that the comprehensive performance of the latest generation Aerospace Carrier could even be improved by a full 10 % compared to the current one!

This was an improvement at the comprehensive performance level, and this improvement was indeed immense.

Unfortunately, this was only an estimation. Limited by resources, Tom had not yet manufactured even a single new type of spaceship.

At the fundamental theoretical level, Tom comprehensively integrated all past theories, accumulated a wealth of observational data on the Strong Nuclear Force and quark-gluon plasma, and better incorporated the Strong Nuclear Force into the Standard Model framework.

Significant progress was also made in condensed matter physics, quantum physics, and mathematical principles.

The improvements in biotechnology were equally substantial.

Based on the continuous iteration and improvement of Hestia AI, and molecular-level whole-genome map analysis, Tom attempted to use new techniques to manufacture a batch of clones. Through generation after generation of optimization and iteration, his maximum consciousness connection count had slowly increased to approximately 1.5 billion, achieving a full 50 % improvement!

A maximum consciousness connection count of 1.5 billion meant that he could awaken almost all of his 3 billion clones.

After all, accounting for necessary rest and rotation time, roughly twice the maximum consciousness connection count of clones would be needed to be sufficient and not so extreme.

However, also limited by resources, Tom did not awaken those 1 billion clones, but instead maintained the situation where 2 billion clones remained conscious.

Overall, this thousand-year voyage saw immense overall technological progress. However, there was still some distance to go before truly achieving Unified Strong Nuclear Force and breaking through to a Strong Nuclear Civilization.

Now, a thousand years had passed. No matter how much was saved, the supplies carried at the time of departure were almost depleted.

It was necessary to choose a star system to stop and resupply.

Hundreds of years ago, Tom had already begun preparing for the fleet's stop and resupply, and had started selecting suitable star systems.

After identifying the target, for these past few centuries, he had consciously adjusted the fleet's course, continuously approaching this star system.

At this moment, the fleet was only about 1.2 light-years away from its target.

It was a steadily burning, stable, middle-aged star, slightly smaller in mass and size than the Sun, and approximately 3.5 billion years old.

It had a sufficiently large internal planetary system, yet it wasn't as chaotic as the Altair System, making it an ideal place to stop for resupply.

Under Tom's command, the fleet sailed toward this yellowish-red star.

Once the distance and direction were properly adjusted, Tom finally issued the first deceleration order in a thousand years.

Immediately, the main engines of tens of thousands of large spaceships and Aerospace Carriers, which had been dormant for a millennium, simultaneously activated, unleashing a powerful thrust toward the star. Driven by these countless engines, the faint decelerating gravity that had been absent for a thousand years reappeared within the spaceships.

After several decades of deceleration, the massive fleet finally entered the star system.

Looking at the bright star, and the massive gas giants and several rocky planets before him, Tom felt no excitement about finally arriving at a resource-rich star system; instead, he was filled with melancholy.

Because Tom knew that no matter how many resources there were in this star system, they did not belong to him.

During this stop, he would not be able to achieve a large-scale upgrade of the fleet, nor apply the technology developed and accumulated over a thousand years to the fleet, nor conduct large-scale scientific experiments here without regard for resource consumption.

All he could do was complete the resource collection and the construction of the camouflage fleet as quickly as possible, at most performing an upgrade of critical fleet components, and then he would have to set sail again, escaping from here.

Tom had planned the entire stop for only 30 years.

There was no other way. The Mechanical Disaster could pursue them here at any time, and Tom truly dared not waste any more time.

It was also fortunate that his maximum consciousness connection count had increased to 1.5 billion. Otherwise, 30 years might not have been enough time.

"Begin construction."

Tom gave the command listlessly.

Although he felt melancholy, the construction work dared not be delayed for a moment.

Under Tom's control, countless industrial spaceships landed on rocky planets or moons, countless Jupiter aircraft entered gas giants to collect deuterium, and under the control of Hestia AI, countless robots and intelligent machines began to busy themselves, as factories rose from the ground and began to roar day and night.

Within just a few years, this strange, desolate star system began to flourish, but it only lasted for just over two decades before quickly becoming deserted again.

Resource collection had been completed.

Fleet repairs, necessary component upgrades, the manufacturing of the decoy shell fleet, and the deployment of hydrogen bomb traps within this star system—all tasks had been completed.

So, it was time to leave.

Like a traveler staying a night in an inn and then hastily resuming their journey at dawn, a total of six fleets once again sailed in different directions.

Watching the star gradually shrink and dim, the past 30 years felt like a fleeting dream.

Tom gritted his teeth inwardly: "On this long voyage, I must overcome the fundamental physics theoretical hurdles; I must break through to become a Strong Nuclear Civilization!"