"In addition, the remanufacturing of the [Battering Ram] and the maintenance of various starships also need to be put on the agenda."

"Based on Zero's estimate, we will need to wait at least five years before we can carry out the original voyage plan."

Upon hearing this, everyone seated in the command center frowned.

"Professor, five years... isn't that too long?" Fang Xu was the first to voice the concerns of the researchers.

Lü Yongchang shook his head and remained silent.

A hint of anxiety flashed in Fang Xu's eyes: "The Cleaners Civilization and the Pastoral Civilization are both focused on us right now."

"Leaving aside the pastoral civilization, the Cleaner civilization alone, having lost a probe, is highly likely to send us actual warships!"

"I suggest we set off immediately!"

"Currently, our energy reserves are sufficient to support the first phase of interstellar travel. Weapons and equipment, and energy replenishment, can wait until we reach the target star system!"

Lu Yongchang sighed and said softly, "Of course I know what you're talking about."

"However, the five-year repair period cannot be shortened any further."

"The target star system is 42.3 light-years away from us."

"Leaving aside whether we will encounter space pirate civilizations like the Latour civilization during this 42.3 light-year journey, let's just talk about the target star system."

"We know absolutely nothing about it; we don't even know if there's any civilization there!"

"If the human fleet rushes forth without adequate preparation, it will likely face annihilation!"

Fang Xu fell silent.

Not only Fang Xu, but all the researchers present fell silent.

It can be said that humanity is currently facing a dilemma.

On the one hand, a certain amount of preparation time is needed to embark on ultra-long-distance interstellar travel!

On the other hand, the arrival of the Cleaners' civilization detectors proves that advanced civilizations have taken notice of human civilization, and they must extricate themselves from this dangerous place as soon as possible!

After waiting a moment and seeing that no one objected, Lü Yongchang finalized the plan:

"In order to conserve zero computing power as much as possible, everyone needs to immediately enter a state of hibernation."

"Five years from now, Zero will control the fleet to head to the target star system."

After saying that, Lü Yongchang directly removed the electromagnetic adsorption device on the chair, stood up, and walked towards the door of the command center.

"Start executing the plan immediately."

"We have no time to dawdle!"

...

Triangulum Galaxy Bridge.

A shadow appeared on the galaxy bridge, which was made up of extremely rare neutral hydrogen atoms.

Then, an extremely obscure and hidden wave spread into the distance.

"[Silk], hurry up."

A few seconds later, a similar wave came from a distance.

You make it sound so easy!

"You're a four-dimensional being, do you think I can outrun you?!"

"Couldn't you have given me a ride?!"

Accompanied by extremely heavy fluctuations of "resentment," a thin line with no width or height, seemingly extending infinitely without end, "slowly" drifted in from afar.

The beginning and end of the thin line gradually disappeared into the dark universe.

Faced with his companion's complaints, Shadow trembled slightly and sent another message.

"There may be probes from the Cleaners civilization within the Triangulum Galaxy, so it's not convenient for me to open the wormhole."

【Silk】 replied irritably, “Yes, yes, you’re right.”

"Now we can open the wormhole, right?"

"If we dawdle any longer, by the time we reach the Milky Way, it'll probably be too late for us!"

The shadow did not respond; it simply remained silently in place.

"I sensed a fluctuation in the [painting]." The shadow suddenly conveyed a message.

"【Painting】?" 【Silk】 was slightly taken aback, then quickly replied, "Isn't he dead? You must be mistaken."

As a one-dimensional being, the silk did not sense anything unusual.

This is normal.

Among dimensional beings, even though [Silk] has advanced to the eighth level of civilization, its perception ability is still the worst.

The shadow remained silent.

After a long wait, it sent out another message.

"No, it's not a [painting], it's a two-dimensional phenomenon that goes beyond the normal range."

"It occurs at the coordinates given by the [drawing]".

"What do you mean?" [Silk] hurriedly asked, "[Painting] is still alive?"

The shaded surface rippled again.

"It shouldn't be."

"Perhaps the cleaners discovered the primitive civilization mentioned in the painting."

Upon hearing this, [Silk]'s tone immediately became more urgent: "Then what are we waiting for?"

"If you dawdle any longer, be careful [the membrane] comes looking for trouble!"

The shadow did not respond, but its actions conveyed its attitude.

Several overlapping, spherical structures appeared in the originally calm three-dimensional space.

This incredibly complex structure far exceeds the limits of what humankind can currently imagine.

It has no physical form; it is like a gray shadow, constantly twisting in space.

[Silk] showed no surprise at the scene before her.

It knew that this was a projection of a four-dimensional being's time into three-dimensional space.

Just as two-dimensional characters can never understand or imagine the three-dimensional world we live in, humans living in a three-dimensional world cannot imagine what four-dimensional space looks like—we can only see its projection, but cannot imagine its original form.

unless……

Elevate yourself to a higher dimension and enter the fourth dimension.

Only in this way can humanity attempt to understand information from the four-dimensional world.

As the spherical structure continued to twist, a perfect sphere slowly appeared in the universe.

The surface of the sphere is scattered with starlight, which twists and turns as the sphere moves, forming a beautiful and colorful band of light.

Surprisingly, if someone were to perform a comprehensive reconstruction and comparison of these starlight, they would discover a huge problem.

These starlight cannot be observed from our current location.

If we observe a wider area, we can discover that the source of these starlight is none other than the Andromeda Galaxy, 800,000 light-years away!

Faced with such a wondrous scene, both [Silk] and [Time] remained remarkably calm—simply due to practice.

"Si, hurry up and keep up."

"Let's go to the Andromeda Galaxy first to replenish our energy before heading to the Milky Way."

With a strange fluctuation, the constantly twisting spherical structure vanished from its original spot.

As for the thin line, which only has the attribute of length, it also burrowed into the standard sphere in the next moment.

The sphere vanished instantly.

The starlight it brought also dissipated into the dark universe.

The galaxy bridge has returned to calm.

After an unknown amount of time, a spherical probe appeared on the galaxy bridge.

Amidst flashes of azure light, messages were sent toward the Andromeda Galaxy.