Chapter 102 - Absolute Defense of Space Transfer

The night was silent.Outside, the snow had stopped, and the whole world seemed to sleep; everything around was so quiet that one could hear the sound of the oil lamp’s flame flickering in the room.

“Hoo-hoo…”

Pandora, leaning against a corner of the wooden bed, seemed uncomfortable, furrowed her brows, shrunk her neck, changed her position, and continued to sleep with her eyes closed.

Richard looked up, then dipped the tip of the quill into the ink and set it upon the papyrus, pondering as he began to write.

“Shh-shh-shh…” The quill’s tip rubbed against the surface of the papyrus, making a faint sound as it swiftly drew out lines of ink, forming characters.

“After testing, the phenomena displayed by the Iron Ring align with the descriptions of a series of so-called ‘space items.’

Its primary attribute is the ability to store a certain amount of objects into a storage space. This storage space is isolated from the external world, and time elapses normally within it, subject to gravity but not affected by other external forces (proven by the second and third tests).

To achieve such effects, as far as is currently known, three areas of technology that could have developed to reach this point include: rapid 3D printing technology, space compression technology, and space transfer technology.

Rapid 3D printing technology, also known as rapid prototyping, is based on digital model files. Using powder metal, plastic, or other bondable materials and a digital technology material printer, objects are constructed via layer-by-layer printing. On modern Earth, this technology is widely applied in fields such as jewelry, industrial design, architecture, engineering and construction (AEC), aerospace, firearms, and more.

It is foreseeable that with technological advancement, after breakthroughs in synthetic protein printing technology and atomic recombination printing technology, in theory, it could be possible to print everything that exists in the world, including life itself.

Thus, the Iron Ring can be explained by 3D printing technology: when an object is attempted to be placed into the Iron Ring, the ring quickly scans the object’s exterior and interior, makes a rapid model, then dematerializes the object through technology, only storing the object’s digital model file, making it seem as though the entire object has been stored.

And when retrieving the object, the Iron Ring quickly performs 3D printing, recreating an object just like the original according to the saved digital model file, appearing no different from the object that was stored.

However, such technology would obviously consume a tremendous amount of energy and material, leading to great waste. When storing living things, the creature is killed first and then another creature is manufactured, which makes no sense. Furthermore, the technology for annihilating matter and the technology for limitless raw material storage must be far superior to 3D printing technology. Most importantly, this technology would lock in the state of an object at the moment of insertion (scanning), resulting in a time freeze, which doesn’t match observed phenomena (such as sand in an hourglass flowing). This can mostly be ruled out.

Excluding rapid 3D printing technology, next is space compression technology. This technology is about using some means to compress a vast space into a very small volume, i.e., the Iron Ring can be seen as a cleverly folded box that can contain far more than its apparent size would indicate.

In this case, the materials put into it don’t disappear, and the external world can still influence them. Therefore, as more material is placed into the Iron Ring, it should appear increasingly heavy. After all, the internal objects will be influenced by all external forces. This doesn’t match observed phenomena (the Iron Ring has consistently been lightweight), and it can be excluded.

Finally, space transfer technology, which can also be termed space folding technology (different from space compression). Based on Einstein’s general theory of relativity from modern Earth, it can be determined that gravity can cause spacetime bending, thereby making the distance between two points in three-dimensional space not necessarily a straight line.

That is, although there could be an immense distance between two locations, if spacetime curvature makes the two coincide, one could instantly reach the other point. For example, this is like dropping an object from a mountain and having it directly fall into a sealable box set up thousands of miles away, through some folded point in spacetime.

From this perspective, the Iron Ring is not so much a space item as a space gate, and the storage space it connects to is the real space item. When placing something into the Iron Ring, it is not truly within the Iron Ring but rather in some faraway storage space. This inference largely explains all the phenomena observed in the tests.

For example, because the Iron Ring and the storage space are in two overlapped yet distinct spaces, the forces acting on the Iron Ring do not affect the storage space. The forces and the mass endured by the storage space also do not affect the Iron Ring. Thus, the Iron Ring is merely a door, a gateway to an unknown location’s storage space.”

“Shh-shh-shh…”

He paused his writing for a moment, dipped the quill into the ink again, and Richard pondered briefly before continuing to write.

“This hypothesis is obviously counterintuitive, but it conforms to science. And with it, the Iron Ring could be used for purposes other than storage.

After testing (the thirteenth and fourteenth tests), the storage space linked by the Iron Ring was confirmed to have extremely high strength. This is probably designed to ensure durability under high gravity forces. And this strength can be used to perfectly defend against all forms of projectile attacks, immune to their damage.

Because if used properly, the spatial entrance of the Iron Ring can act as a shield. What makes it different from a normal shield, which can only block attacks, is that the Iron Ring can absorb the attacks into it. For example, a powerful Ice Spear shot can be directed straight into the Iron Ring, placed into the storage space. Since the spaces are distinct, the Ice Spear’s attacking force would burst within the storage space, and by the time it’s taken out of the Iron Ring again, all of its force would have dissipated, without causing any harm.

This defense is absolute, one that will not fail. However, it does have limitations. On one hand, it requires ensuring that attacks are absorbed accurately into the Iron Ring. On the other hand, the attacking force bursting within the storage space could damage items stored there. If it’s just to defend against a ball of Acid Liquid, allowing it into the Iron Ring to corrode precious materials is clearly a loss not worth considering. It would be better to dodge or use other methods of defense.

Hence, the defense provided by the Iron Ring is only suitable in crisis situations, for unavoidable attacks that could endanger life. After all, life is more precious than saved items. This could be a secret trump card, a hidden ‘Absolute Defense of Space Transfer’.”

“Shh-shh-shh…”

The quill came to another stop, dipped into the ink once more, and Richard continued writing.