Tom knew that solving the material property changes caused by particle collisions at high navigation speeds was only one aspect of the technology of a third-tier Strong Nuclear Civilization.

Beyond this technology, a Strong Nuclear Civilization must also possess other advanced technologies to match it.

Propulsion technology, energy technology, detection technology — all comprehensively surpassed those of a second-tier Electroweak Civilization.

And the core of all these advanced technologies was the Unified Strong Nuclear Force.

In physics terms, it meant merging SU(3) × SU(2) × U(1) into a larger group such as SU(5) or SO(10).

To put it more simply: for example, there is a stainless steel cup and a stainless steel pot. Originally, people thought these were two different things. But after further research, they realized that these two things are actually both stainless steel; the different shapes are merely different manifestations of the same material. They are, in essence, the same thing.

Previously, humanity's unification of electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force into the electroweak force was exactly this kind of model.

Now, beyond the stainless steel cup and pot, people had discovered another object — a dagger made of special steel.

If research revealed that the material used to make this dagger was also steel, only with different alloy elements from stainless steel, then unifying "special steel" and "stainless steel" meant finding their common base — iron. Both are simply different manifestations of iron after adding trace elements.

Applied to fundamental physics, this was equivalent to unifying the electroweak force and the Strong Nuclear Force.

After unifying electricity and magnetism into electromagnetism, then electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force into the electroweak force, the next step was to unify the electroweak force and the Strong Nuclear Force into a single unified force. Mastering the "Grand Unified Theory" that described this entire framework of fundamental physics would grant a civilization this core foundation — and based on it, they could develop an entire series of advanced technologies.

As early as the human era, scientists had already made many attempts and studies to unify the Strong Nuclear Force. In the process, they achieved an extremely important result: the Standard Model.

The Standard Model succeeded in placing the three fundamental forces — electromagnetism, the Strong Nuclear Force, and the weak nuclear force — under the same theoretical framework, using a single language of physics to describe them.

Although this achievement was monumental, it did not truly unify these three forces into a single one.

Tom had originally thought that, based on this achievement, his own unification of the Strong Nuclear Force would be relatively simple. However, the technological data from the Bluetoth showed there were still far too many obstacles — far more difficult than he had ever imagined.

"But… as long as I am given enough time, and enough material foundation, I will definitely break through this obstacle and complete the transformation from an Electroweak Civilization to a Strong Nuclear Civilization."

Gazing at the still-distant Altair, Tom thought silently to himself.

Now that they had passed through the nebula, the fleet's repair work immediately began.

Large numbers of clones and robots, as well as various small spacecraft, converged on the large ships, systematically dismantling, repairing, or replacing damaged equipment and armor.

It was fortunate that Tom had brought enough supplies. Otherwise, the losses from repairing the damaged spacecraft alone would have exhausted the fleet.

Time continued to pass quietly, and in the blink of an eye, several more centuries had gone by.

Through day after day of navigation, constant small-scale experiments, theoretical calculations, and conjectures during the journey, Tom's massive fleet finally arrived at a location only two trillion kilometers from Altair.

Analogous to the solar system, this distance would have already entered the Oort Cloud region of Altair.

However, the situation with Altair was quite special.

It was too young — its current age only about 800 million years, much younger than the Sun. This meant it had not yet had time to form a stable and mature Oort Cloud; many celestial bodies that would form it were still clustered closer to the star.

From several light-years away to this current distance, Tom had already entered Altair's gravity boundary but had not found any macroscopic celestial bodies.

But it didn't matter.

Continuing forward, the matter density of the Altair System rapidly increased — even higher than the matter density inside the solar system.

Tom's fleet initiated full-power deceleration.

Numerous tail flames sprayed out in the direction of Altair. The faint gravity that had disappeared for centuries reappeared aboard every spacecraft.

The brightness of Altair also rapidly increased during this process.

Through the telescope, Tom could already clearly see this young, vigorous, and vibrant massive star.

It was overall oblate in shape because its rotation speed was too fast. Its color was yellowish-white because its surface temperature was higher than the Sun's.

Tom saw an endless number of celestial bodies revolving around it — rocky planets larger than Earth, still in their early stages of formation, their surfaces covered in lava, constantly enduring impacts from small celestial bodies. He saw massive gas giants, four times Jupiter's mass but nearly identical in volume; he saw numerous satellites orbiting those gas giants, the largest exceeding Mars in both mass and volume.

It already fully qualified to be a major planet, but the gravity of its parent gas giant was too immense. In the foreseeable future, it would be unable to break free and would only exist as a satellite, unable to be called a major planet.

Besides these two large planets and one large satellite, Tom saw a massive debris disk composed of trillions of celestial bodies.

These were the remnants from the formation of Altair and its planets.

Such a massive debris disk, located approximately 200 million kilometers away, revolved around Altair like an enormous belt.

Beyond the debris disk, countless asteroids, comets, and other celestial bodies hurtled through the system, either colliding with Altair or impacting large planets and moons.

The entire star system seemed to be staging an endless game of collisions.

Such a vibrant and chaotic system seemed completely unsuitable for life.

However, Tom was extremely satisfied with this.

The reason was simple: with his current level of technology, mere collisions could no longer threaten him.

Such a resource-rich, material-abundant star system was paradise for Tom.

Time continued to pass quietly, and in the blink of an eye, several more years had gone by.

Altair appeared brighter and brighter to Tom.

When Tom's massive fleet docked near the enormous gas giant, approximately 1.6 billion kilometers from Altair, its apparent magnitude had increased to −24.2.

This meant its brightness reached about one-tenth of the Sun's brightness as seen from Earth at noon, and at the same time, about forty thousand times brighter than the brightest full moon seen from Earth.

This brightness was already enough to make a clone feel dazzled, unable to look directly at it.

The clone hosting Tom's consciousness turned its head to look at the massive fleet.

After hundreds of years of long-distance travel, the spacecraft were riddled with holes, full of damage and repair marks.

The numerous giant cargo ships and the many material compartments of the Aerospace Carrier were shriveled, their supplies almost completely consumed.

During the long voyage, Tom had accumulated hundreds of millions of experimental requirements, but due to the lack of supplies, he was unable to conduct relevant experiments or achieve technological breakthroughs.

Although he could not yet be said to be at the end of his rope, he was not far from it.

Now, he had finally arrived at this star system.

Here were gas giants larger than Jupiter, containing an infinite amount of fusion fuel; massive satellites, large planets, dwarf planets, and countless asteroids and comets — all rich in various minerals ready to be mined.

Here, apart from his own forces, there were no other intelligent beings.

Since its formation, no intelligent life had ever set foot here. All the resources were available for him to use freely.

Given this...

Tom was filled with heroic spirit and finally issued the long-awaited command.

"Altair System Construction Project… begins!"

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