In the Empire, when the level of technology has developed to an astonishing height, if breakthrough progress is desired in some key areas, promoting a core project on the level of basic science often requires the linkage of tens of planetary systems at least, and thousands or even tens of thousands at most. The timeline for promoting these projects is often measured in centuries, and ultra-long cycles of ten thousand or even one hundred thousand years are not uncommon.
This is not an exaggeration.
Take, for instance, the publicly available knowledge obtained from Ren Zhong's earl authority. Despite the diligent efforts of the researchers and scholars in the Source Star Fleet, they still mainly focus on assimilating existing knowledge.
No one can advance even one step forward based on the current knowledge.
Even just verifying established principles requires a consumption of resources and time that is beyond imagination.
