"Silence!" A calm and composed voice, yet with unquestionable majesty, sounded, instantly suppressing all the noise.
The head of the coordination center, an old general with white hair and a face as stern as a rock—Raymond Custer—strode out from behind the command seat. His gaze, like a hawk, instantly locked onto the red data on the main screen and the continuously flashing, yet unidentifiable, "Undefined External Coordinates."
"Report the situation! I want the most accurate one!" Raymond's voice was firm.
"General!" A senior operator in charge of core network monitoring responded immediately, his voice trembling slightly. "Three seconds ago, the core layer of the Star Dome Network detected a strong, short-lived law resonance shock! Its fundamental properties... are highly similar to the core of our 'World Tree', but... older and purer! The source of the shock is located in deep outer space, and the coordinates cannot be precisely located, pointing to the direction of the Gould Belt! The shock triggered local energy turbulence in the Star Dome Wall, and there is no matching record in the core database! The preliminary judgment is... the release of unknown mythical-level order source energy!"
"Mythic level? Externally homologous?" Raymond's brows knitted into a deep "川" shape, his eyes sharp as a knife. "Is the core of the 'World Tree' reacting?"
"Yes!" another operator immediately chimed in. "The World Tree's core energy readings experienced a peak fluctuation at the moment of impact! Although it was extremely brief, it was undeniable! The resonance was clearly directed!"
Raymond's breathing hitched slightly. The World Tree Core... that was the heart of the Ark, the source of the Starry Sky Network. A Mythical Order Energy resonating with it appeared from outside? This news was too shocking, too bizarre! Especially since the Ark had just experienced the "Ark Core Defense Battle," losing many top fighters including Pei Du, and even "Frost" was completely silent!
A sense of foreboding, like a cold, venomous snake, crept into Raymond's heart. He suddenly recalled Pei Du's final, decisive message, his relentless charge into the depths of the Sea of Entropy... Could this strange energy outburst be connected to him? Or... was it a new, unforeseen shift in the direction of the rift in the Sea of Entropy?
"Immediately raise the Ark's defense level to orange!" Raymond said without hesitation, his voice like the collision of steel. "Activate the highest-level deep space scanning array and focus on the Gould Belt! I want the exact coordinates of the energy source! Mobilize all standby fleets of the 'Insight' sequence and move towards the area! Notify the Supreme Council and the head of the Academy of Sciences! This is not a drill! We may have... come into contact with a cosmic-level unknown variable!"
A piercing alarm instantly resounded throughout the Ark's central command area, quickly spreading throughout the ship. Orange warning lights flashed in every corner of the coordination center, illuminating the solemn, tense, and even tinged with a hint of dazed fear on everyone's face with uncanny clarity.
The Ark, the lone ship carrying the last spark of humanity, had just taken a breather from a brutal defensive battle when it was once again pushed to the edge of an unknown storm by the incomprehensible ripples of laws from the edge of deep space.
Deep in the Ark, in the Academy of Life Sciences, there is the highest level "stasis monitoring center".
There were no piercing alarms, only the steady, monotonous ticking of instruments required to maintain minimal life support. The air was icy cold, carrying the distinct scent of disinfectant and nutrient solution. A soft, dim light streamed down from the ceiling, illuminating the stasis life support pods arranged like crystal coffins.
In one of the life support cabins, a figure was quietly floating.
Xu Shuangyao.
She looked as if she were deep in sleep, her face pale, almost transparent, her long lashes casting a faint shadow beneath her eyes. Her once lively and deep eyes were now tightly closed, like two doors forever locked. Her long, smooth black hair fluttered slightly in the nutrient solution. Countless tiny tubes connected to her body maintained her minimal physiological functions, but also acted like chains, binding her to the boundary between life and death.
Her consciousness sank to the bottom of the deepest, coldest ocean. No light, no sound, no perception. Only a void, an eternal silence. The complete dissipation of the Frostmark not only stripped away her last bit of strength, but also ripped away the last pillar that supported her consciousness. All her will, all her emotions, vanished with the final execution of that icy command. Like a burned-out star, only cold, heavy embers remained.
[External…Ripples of Law…Detection…]
[…Same origin…Order…Origin…Strength…Mythical level…]
[…correlation…analysis…directivity…fuzziness…existence…information residual characteristics…confidence…0.0003%…]
On the monitoring screen embedded in the outer wall of the life support module, the curve representing brain wave activity remained a nearly straight line, without any fluctuations. The various vital sign data remained unchanged, like a frozen glacier.
However.
At the same moment when the ripples of the laws of the Star Network swept across the Ark, triggering the highest alarm in the coordination center—
Inside the life support cabin.
Xu Shuangyao was suspended in the nutrient solution. The tip of the index finger of her lifeless, pale, and slender right hand trembled very slightly...
The magnitude was so small that even the most sophisticated vital signs monitors didn't capture any data anomalies.
That tremor was so quick it seemed like an illusion. Then, everything returned to dead silence.
Inside the monitoring center, there is only the regular ticking of instruments, which never changes.
It was as if the imperceptible tremor just now was just an illusion of light and shadow, just a meaningless quantum fluctuation in the cosmic background radiation.
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