This peculiar method of connection was... quantum entanglement.
The phenomenon of quantum entanglement had been discovered by humanity as early as the Earth era.
It was a "ghostly" connection that existed between microscopic Particles.
When the state of one Particle in an entangled pair was determined, the state of the other Particle could also be determined. This process was instantaneous and independent of the distance between the two Particles.
To make a rough and not entirely accurate analogy, it’s like having one red ball and one green ball in a bag.
Two people each take a ball from the bag, but neither knows the color of the ball they’ve taken.
Afterward, the two people travel to different planets—for example, one goes to Mars while the other stays on Earth.
The minimum distance between them is now 40 million kilometers. Using conventional electromagnetic wave communication, the one-way communication delay would be about 133 seconds.
But now, the person on Earth opens their bag and sees that the ball they took is green.
Thus, without any delay, they know that 40 million kilometers away, the ball in the other person’s hand must be red.
This is quantum entanglement.
Of course, true quantum entanglement is extremely complex and impossible to understand without a sufficiently deep knowledge of physics. But simply put, this is roughly the model.
Back in the Earth era, people dreamed of harnessing the "real-time, zero-delay" characteristic of quantum entanglement for communication, but they were never able to achieve it.
They hadn’t even found a viable approach.
But now, thanks to a huge breakthrough in fundamental physics, Li Qingsong finally had a chance to make it happen.
At this very moment, two massive devices aboard two ships, separated by about 30 million kilometers, were connected in this manner.
Right now, on the console of one of the ships, Li Qingsong, controlling a Clone, typed in a string of characters.
The next moment, that string of characters appeared on the display screen of the other ship, 30 million kilometers away. Then, it was transmitted back via conventional electromagnetic wave communication for confirmation.
After waiting for about 100 seconds, Li Qingsong received the confirmation message.
Comparing this message with the original, Li Qingsong was stunned to see that the information from both ends was basically identical!
In that moment, sheer ecstasy surged through Li Qingsong.
The current quantum communication technology—or rather, Super-distance Communication technology—was still extremely primitive. Its terminals consumed immense energy, were enormous in size, and even required a large spaceship just to house them. Furthermore, the communication speed was incredibly low, and uncontrollable errors were frequent. But none of that detracted from a single, momentous fact.
He had well and truly mastered Super-distance Communication technology!
All that was needed in the future was merely iterative optimization.
It was just like with humanity in the past: once the atomic bomb was built, could nuclear fission power plants be far behind?
’In the future, once Super-distance Communication technology matures, I’ll no longer be constrained by vast distances when developing Star Systems.’
In fact, even now, Li Qingsong’s overall production and research efficiency would be massively boosted by the emergence of Super-distance Communication technology.
This was because Li Qingsong’s fleet was currently too vast. The two ships farthest apart could be separated by more than 30 million kilometers.
Even with Li Qingsong positioned at the center of the fleet, there was still a delay of about 50 seconds when communicating with ships and Clones at the fleet’s edge.
Even with the support of the Divine Craft AI, this 50-second delay still had an approximate 5% impact on overall production efficiency.
Soon, this 5% impact could be eliminated.
Li Qingsong invested more research power into Super-distance Communication technology. As a result, the relevant technologies were rapidly optimized and iterated upon.
Not long after, Li Qingsong achieved another technological breakthrough.
He successfully developed a neural chip suitable for the human body.
This was a chip that could be implanted into the human brain to directly translate the information from neurons into data.
This breakthrough might have seemed insignificant on its own, but when paired with Super-distance Communication technology, it brought about a tremendous change to Li Qingsong’s operational paradigm.
Now, two Clones implanted with the first-generation neural chips were positioned on opposite sides of the fleet, 30 million kilometers apart.
Li Qingsong’s consciousness resided within the body of one of the Clones.
The next moment, a thought crossed Li Qingsong’s mind, and he issued a command to the other Clone.
Previously, Li Qingsong’s consciousness would have been transmitted to the other Clone at the speed of light via that still-unexplained method of communication, resulting in a one-way communication delay of 100 seconds.
But now, the communication model had changed.
The brain information from the Clone containing Li Qingsong’s consciousness was first transmitted to the neural chip.
The neural chip sent a signal to terminal A of the Long-range Communication Equipment.
Terminal A was in a state of quantum entanglement with terminal B of the Long-range Communication Equipment, allowing for Super-distance Communication.
Thus, the information and command were transmitted to terminal B instantaneously.
Terminal B then sent a signal, connecting to the neural chip in the other Clone’s brain.
The neural chip issued the command to the other Clone’s brain. As a result, despite being 30 million kilometers away, that Clone executed Li Qingsong’s "stand up" command just 0.1 seconds after Li Qingsong’s primary consciousness issued it.
The communication delay between the two had been reduced a thousandfold, from the original 100 seconds to the current 0.1 seconds!
Furthermore, this 0.1-second delay wasn’t even from the Super-distance Communication itself, because Super-distance Communication consumed no time at all.
This 0.1-second delay was the processing, translation, and signal transmission latency between the brain’s neurons and the neural chip, and between the neural chip and the Super-distance Communication terminal.
Even if the distance between them increased to 60 million kilometers or decreased to 10 million kilometers, the delay would remain an unchanging 0.1 seconds.
And with future technological advancements, this delay would only continue to shrink.
At this moment, a true thrill surged through Li Qingsong.
For thousands of years, Li Qingsong had always been limited by the connection speed to his Clones. But now, with this technological breakthrough, that limitation had been shattered.
Li Qingsong could almost see the image: billions of his Clones, scattered across the Star System, separated by tens or even hundreds of billions of kilometers, yet still executing his commands in real time, with no delay, all under his unified control.
It was certain that Li Qingsong’s industrial, research, and all other capabilities would skyrocket because of this technological breakthrough!
Having now truly verified the feasibility of this system, Li Qingsong threw himself into the research and improvement of the neural chip and Super-distance Communication with even greater enthusiasm.
He even laid out what could only be described as a magnificent plan.
Within the next ten years, he would implant a neural chip into the brain of every single Clone, completely revolutionizing the connection model between himself and his Clones!