The Human Alliance fleet slowly rotated around the central black hole on the outer edge of the massive accretion disk.

Round and round.

During this period, the massive fleet narrowly missed the Lost Star several times.

Each time, the fleet would send out more or less probes to explore the lost planet.

At first, when the probe reached the ground, the vengeful giant tree would cautiously launch a probing attack with its roots.

As for why we were so cautious...

Even now, saplings are only just beginning to grow in those two huge bomb craters!

Moreover, every now and then a few strange-looking things would whistle through the air, and who knows if they would bring down an attack like last time!

It's not stupid, so naturally it won't risk its life to provoke humans again.

After several attempts, the giant tree seemed to have figured out the pattern and gradually became familiar with these iron lumps from the sky.

Furthermore, because these iron lumps release a large amount of radiation when they land and take off, the giant tree will "ambush" them in advance.

Like a pilgrimage, leaves and roots alike gather near the probe, waiting for that "gift from nature".

As for the lost giant insects, this pattern was gradually discovered.

However, being small and weak, they obviously could not break through the giant tree's "blockade" and could only "lick" some radioactive material that the giant tree had missed in the most remote outer areas.

Even so, the arrival of the probe was a rare celebration for them—at least, the giant trees would no longer attack them.

...

Time always flies when you're doing research.

Especially in the study of black holes, receiving data alone consumes more than 80% of the entire research process.

Inside the laboratory.

Have any signs of the existence of gravitons been detected?

Lu Yongchang asked with a gloomy expression.

"..."

There was no response.

Lü Yongchang took a deep breath to calm his inner anxiety.

Five years!

"It has been a full five years since the black hole probe successfully arrived at the target area!"

"Five years of continuous observation have failed to detect any trace of gravitons!"

"Let alone the so-called superstring gravitational constant, we haven't even grasped a hair of the graviton!"

Inside the laboratory, Lü Yongchang's agitated voice echoed.

As he spoke, the bright green background of the technology tree system seemed to reappear in his mind.

[The Missing Constant: The Search for the Graviton]

According to the tech tree, to obtain the superstring gravitational constant, it is necessary to find the so-called graviton.

But even now...

“Yongchang…” Fang Xu hesitated before speaking, “Let’s wait a little longer.”

"If we take the time of the black hole detector as the benchmark, it has only been a little over five days since it arrived at the target area."

"Do you think I don't know about this?" Lü Yongchang's face grew increasingly grim.

"Is it possible that this is precisely why I'm so irritable?!"

Even before the experiment began, he was prepared to spend a lot of time on it.

But after waiting for five years, all he got was a series of largely useless data, a fact that was still hard for Lü Yongchang to accept.

Five years! That's a total of five years!

In the past, five years would have been enough time for him to research and develop countless technologies!

"Although the fleet has ample supplies, they are still limited."

"To resist the gravity of a black hole, we have to consume a lot of energy every moment."

"What if, what if it takes a year for the black hole detector to observe the data we want?"

"This means the fleet will have to stay here for 360 years!"

Fang Xu fell silent.

Like Lü Yongchang, this problem has been troubling him as well.

"Based on zero calculations, we can only stay here for a maximum of five hundred years."

"It seems there's still plenty of time, but based on the data we've gathered so far, I don't think the probe will be able to give us a satisfactory answer within this timeframe!"

"Can we really find gravitons within five hundred years?!"

Lü Yongchang's voice still echoed in the laboratory.

"That……"

He Bilin's voice came from not far away: "Professor, what do you think we should do?"

Lü Yongchang also fell silent.

The laboratory was quiet. The academicians subconsciously slowed their breathing, afraid of disturbing Lü Yongchang's train of thought.

"Keep the probe sinking!!"

Lu Yongchang's firm voice suddenly pierced the silence in the laboratory.

“But this is already the limit that the probe can reach!” He Bilin’s expression changed slightly, and he immediately retorted, “If it continues to sink, the probe’s antimatter engine will not be powerful enough to break free from the black hole’s gravity.”

"The probe will lose its ability to maintain its orbit."

"Under the black hole's gravity, it will continuously fall towards the black hole's event horizon until it is swallowed by the black hole!"

"That's not the most important issue."

"As the distance between the detector and the black hole continues to shrink, the time deceleration effect will continue to increase."

"The time required to receive a complete piece of data will increase significantly!"

Lu Yongchang did not respond to He Bilin's words immediately, but instead reached out and pulled over a holographic image.

He gestured for Zero to clear all the data on the projection before speaking again.

"I've been thinking about a question for a while now."

"Perhaps due to a lack of understanding of the specifics of black holes, there were some issues with our initial estimates."

"The spacetime curvature in the region where the detector is located is still not large enough to expose gravitons directly to the visible universe!"

As he spoke, Lü Yongchang raised his hand and began to write on the holographic projection in front of him.

"This is……"

He Bilin, who was standing to the side, frowned and murmured softly, "What was the formula we used to calculate the conditions for the appearance of gravitons?"

“Not bad.” Lü Yongchang nodded, his hands moving without pause, writing down lines of profound numbers and letters with fluid grace.

"Among the data transmitted back by the detector, several pieces of data caught my attention."

"Although they are not related to gravitons, they deviate slightly from our previous models of black holes."

"The observation period is still short, and we cannot yet determine whether this is an experimental error."

"But if we import these deviation data into the extrapolation process..."

Lu Yongchang's movements became faster and faster, and the handwriting on the projection became increasingly illegible.

Fortunately, the academicians present were already used to Lü Yongchang's messy handwriting, so it was not too difficult for them to recognize it.

"We can easily reach a conclusion."

Lu Yongchang suddenly stopped writing and drawing, then gently tapped a string of numbers with his finger.

"The spacetime curvature near the black hole detector is still far from sufficient!"

P.S.: Two updates a day will resume tomorrow!