Humanity is missing, luckily I have billions of clones-Chapter 407: Leaving a Mark

Accelerating rapidly at a speed of several meters per second squared, this fleet soon reached a point 1.2 light-years away from the main star and successfully entered superluminal warp travel status.

At this point, in addition to the numerous deep space detection equipment within the main fleet, those probes also began to be launched by Tom one by one.

Without the main fleet’s maintenance, they would detach from warp space and enter normal flat space. Then, the fuel loaded inside them would accelerate them in all directions, accelerating up to 70% of the speed of light.

For every minute that passed, Tom’s main fleet would travel a distance of approximately 48 million kilometers, and correspondingly, about 25,000 probes would be released.

Just as a fleet in normal cruising status would inevitably dissipate its own molecular cloud into the surrounding space, this large number of probes were continuously discarded into the surrounding space by Tom like garbage, and then constantly spread outwards into the surrounding space.

That’s right, what Tom was doing now was very simple.

The universe is vast, making it truly difficult to find traces of the Grey Worm civilization?

Then I will rely on my super strong industrial capabilities to manufacture enough probes, launch them all into space, and let them help me search together!

As long as the number of probes I scatter is large enough, and as long as the time is long enough, then, even with my gravity-level technology, it may not be impossible to search the entire Milky Way!

And once these probes detect a fleet matching the characteristics of the Grey Worm civilization, they will immediately broadcast encrypted information that only he can decipher to the entire universe in the form of gravitational wave broadcasts.

Utilizing the property that gravitational waves essentially do not decay, even if the probe sending the gravitational wave signal is located at the opposite ends of the Milky Way from him, he will eventually receive this information one day.

It’s just that the signal transmission speed is limited, so he needs to wait, and he can afford to wait!

I said long ago, I will search high and low, no matter how much I have to pay or how much time it takes, I will find your Grey Worm civilization, obtain intelligence, and then completely destroy you!

Of course, these probes were not only tasked with searching for the Grey Worm civilization. Tom was also searching for other civilizations, regardless of their level.

Once he detected traces of other civilizations, Tom would attempt to make contact, adopting methods like promising benefits, to get other civilizations to also keep an eye out for the Grey Worm civilization’s traces.

This was the plan Tom had come up with for searching for the Grey Worm civilization.

Although the project was massive and bound to be time-consuming, as long as he persisted, Tom believed there would eventually be a result.

Time quietly flowed by during Tom’s long journey.

Probe after probe flew away and disappeared, and aerospace carrier after aerospace carrier went from fully loaded back to empty.

In the blink of an eye, several decades passed. A total of one trillion probes were all launched into interstellar space by Tom, and this long journey of 200 light-years was also completely traversed by Tom.

After casually finding a solar system to dock, completing a series of supply replenishments, and producing enough probes again to fill those aerospace carriers, Tom then embarked on the journey of continuously scattering probes along the way.

He repeated this process: when the probes were used up, he would build more, and when he had enough, he would launch them again. His travel path was also completely unfixed, sometimes heading towards the Silver Heart, sometimes deviating, sometimes moving away, but the general direction always followed the principle of expanding the search area.

Over a thousand years quietly passed. The number of probes scattered into space by Tom had already reached over a hundred trillion.

But... not to mention the Grey Worm civilization, not even a single low-level civilization was detected.

"This universe is truly vast and empty..."

Tom sighed in his heart and once again embarked on the journey of continuing to scatter probes.

Another hundred years flew by in a hurry. One day, Tom finally received a piece of information.

A certain probe, while passing through a certain solar system, detected a faint trace of industrial characteristics!

This news invigorated Tom.

Although from the industrial characteristics, it was just a low-level civilization, roughly between primitive and electromagnetic, far from even the most basic space travel, it was still a tangible civilization nonetheless.

Since it was a civilization, even a low-level one, there was hope and potential for it to provide assistance to him.

Because this search of his was destined to be time-consuming, it might not yield results even after a hundred thousand years. And a hundred thousand years... is enough time for a primitive civilization to develop to the Strong Nuclear level, or even higher stages.

Tom then issued an order, changing course, and headed towards that distant solar system which was already over 400 light-years away from him.

At a cruising speed of 2.7 times the speed of light, in just over a hundred years, Tom’s fleet appeared at a location 1.5 light-years away from the main star.

The main fleet remained docked there, while a sub-fleet consisting of over a dozen spaceships began to advance towards the interior of the solar system.

By this time, more intelligence about this civilization had been gathered, letting Tom know that the civilization living on this planet was roughly at the stage of transitioning from cold weapons to hot weapons in terms of technological level.

They had already made gunpowder firearms, but their performance was still very poor, and they had not created a significant gap compared to cold weapons like bows and crossbows, or throwing weapons.

"I originally thought that even if this civilization’s technology was backward, it would at least be an electromagnetic civilization, and would have at least mastered the basic application of electricity..."

"I didn’t expect it, it’s actually a primitive civilization that doesn’t even know how to use electricity."

"Well, well, well, primitive is primitive, as long as there is potential for development."

Two or three years later, this fleet, consisting of only over a dozen medium and small spaceships, arrived at the planet’s orbit, releasing a large number of miniature probes that penetrated into the interior of this civilization, searching for all information related to its writing, culture, language, etc.

Living on this planet was a type of multi-limbed intelligent life, and the number of limbs was not fixed. In their culture, it seemed that the more limbs one had, the higher their status.

Those serving as high-ranking officials in a country generally had more than four limbs.

"The more limbs one has, the higher the demands on the brain, and the corresponding intelligence is higher, and their own combat power, work ability, etc., are also stronger. This kind of arm worship can be considered reasonable."

"But now your civilization has moved away from the more primitive state where everyone needed to hunt and farm to survive. Your productivity has developed, and a managerial class that does not personally participate in labor has emerged. The intelligence required for social management is different from the intelligence needed for hunting and farming."

"Those with more limbs can smoothly climb to the top, while those with fewer limbs can only be stuck at the bottom. Judging intelligence by the number of limbs now is a bit like ’carving a mark on a boat to find a lost sword’..."

Tom felt a bit speechless in his heart. However, recalling the history of Human Civilization where people’s status was judged based on messy things like color and caste, that hint of contempt in his heart disappeared with a slight awkwardness.

Everyone is like this, the pot shouldn’t call the kettle black.

Forcibly elevating this civilization’s technological level and making them rush into the interstellar era was something Tom would not do.

If the social organization had not developed to that extent, forcibly raising their level would be a disaster for them.

Unless he could stay here for a long time to guide this civilization, but it was clear that Tom was too lazy to expend so much effort.

"Then I’ll leave a little mark for you..."

Tom thought lightly.