At the current speed, even a relatively famous blue supergiant looked a bit reddish to Tom, like a red dwarf.

At the same time, the flow of time also changed.

Previously, when the fleet was at 8% the speed of light, time within the fleet only slowed down by about 0.32%, meaning that for every 365 days outside, approximately 364 days passed within the fleet, one day slower than the outside.

But now, at 50% the speed of light, time slowed down by a full 13.4%!

As a result, when 365 days passed outside, only about 316 days passed within the fleet!

It slowed down by a full 49 days!

Changes in time would cause many problems. For example, when Tom communicated with the clones remaining in the Pegasus V342 star system, the time difference would lead to many confusions.

For instance, if a clone described detecting an XX event a year ago, Tom's backward calculation based on his own time would lead to errors.

There was no other way; Tom had to readjust the time parameter values to avoid these errors.

At the same time, Tom also saw that the previously less noticeable interstellar particle collisions had now greatly increased in power.

They were like high-energy heavy nuclear radiation, constantly bombarding every ship in the fleet.

Tom once conducted an experiment: he put a cow into a device that was only sealed but had no radiation protection, and left it in interstellar space for a few minutes without energy shield protection, then retrieved it.

After just a few minutes of interstellar heavy nuclear radiation, this strong bull showed symptoms within a mere ten-odd minutes.

It began to vomit, develop a fever, spit blood, and eventually died.

The overly intense interstellar radiation broke the chemical bonds in its cells, causing the cells to lose their ability to replicate. As a result, its damaged skin could no longer repair itself, and its internal mucous membranes, once damaged, could no longer recover, leading to its death.

Tom didn't even dare to let the clones eat this beef; he simply threw it away as trash.

God knows what elements these heavy nuclear radiations created in its body; eating this beef would probably lead to fatal diarrhea.

At this moment, the vast and tranquil space seemed to become fraught with danger.

Fortunately, the faint yellow glow around every large spaceship, like a magical candle, protected all life and all creations with its light, preventing external harm from entering.

Time thus quietly flowed by. At this stage, Tom no longer engaged in large-scale multi-disciplinary research but instead focused his main efforts on the development of biotechnology.

The Flying Star had been consumed, and material supplies were no longer abundant. Biotechnology research did not require too many resources, so it was a good time to concentrate on making breakthroughs.

Tom had always had a premonition that after major breakthroughs in all other disciplines, his biotechnology would also inevitably see a breakthrough.

After all, biology is also closely related to physics; there's no reason why basic physics and other disciplines would break through, but biology wouldn't, right?

So Tom dedicated himself to research for over twenty years, finally developing the latest gene editing solutions, new gene editing tools, and various auxiliary modification tools. He then produced 1000 new clones and placed them in cultivation tanks.

After about half a year of development, the latest 1000 clones were born.

"With so many technological breakthroughs and so many iterations and optimizations, how much can the maximum consciousness link count for this batch of clones be increased?"

With a bit of anticipation and nervousness, Tom began his attempt.

After transferring his consciousness to one of the clones, he again tried to connect to his existing clones. Instantly, Tom once again had that feeling of an "empty semi-truck."

There were currently 1.9 billion clones in an awakened state. Previously, his maximum consciousness link count was only 1.5 billion, unable to connect all of these clones.

But now, he had connected 1.9 billion clones, yet he still felt "empty load"!

Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Tom decisively gave the order to awaken all clones in hibernation. In an instant, the total number of awakened clones reached 3 billion.

Tom once again connected the consciousness of all 3 billion clones. But... Tom still felt he had reserves and could connect more clones!

However, there were no more clones for Tom to try connecting to. This was because the entire fleet only had 3 billion clones in total.

At this stage, the fleet's material reserves were limited, and it was not the time for large-scale clone production.

Tom felt both excited and regretful.

"How much this increase has brought the maximum consciousness link count to, I won't know for now. That will only be known when I reach a star system, have sufficient materials, and produce enough clones.

However, even if the maximum connection count is only 3 billion now, this increase is already significant enough.

The larger the base, the smaller the increase. But now, this is at least an increase of over 100%!"

With the breakthrough in biotechnology completed, Tom's large-scale scientific research officially came to an end.

The current material reserves were insufficient to support large-scale research in any discipline.

"It's time to find a star system to dock in."

Tom thought to himself, "Now, I have traveled for over 20 more years at 50% the speed of light, covering a distance of over ten light-years. Even if that Mechanical Disaster were to pursue me again, it would take at least a hundred years.

A hundred years is completely enough for me if I'm just gathering resources."

With his current technological strength, Tom was not without a fighting chance if he fought to the death.

But, there was no need.

Every bit of time I delay, I become a little stronger. If that's the case, then why not delay as much as possible, until I have an absolute technological advantage and 100% certainty of victory before fighting the Mechanical Disaster?

Living in this crisis-ridden universe, it's better to be cautious.

Thinking this, Tom adjusted the course, maneuvering the entire fleet towards a nearby star with a more suitable environment.

That star burned quite stably and had three planets around it, two rocky and one gaseous, making it an excellent place to gather resources.

Reversing the fleet's thrust direction, the long-dormant thrusters restarted, beginning to fiercely blast light towards that star.

Time quietly passed, and the fleet's distance to this star grew closer.

A piece of information suddenly arrived within Tom's fleet.

"Esteemed guest, hello, this star system has become the temporary base of our 'Havilah' civilization.

…"

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