Todd still maintained his refined appearance, but anyone familiar with him could tell that his face had darkened somewhat.
Strange, mysterious, impossible to understand. A hundred thousand warships had vanished without even making a ripple. And now he was being told that no traces of battle had been found? Not a single missile aboard those warships had been fired, nothing had happened inside them, yet all the people aboard those hundred thousand ships were gone?
What the hell, was this haunted? What about the psychic Participants, the inheritance Participants, the S-class Participants in there? They had all vanished without even losing a hair?
And there was also the reconnaissance fleet that had only just been dispatched and arrived at Earth. There might have only been a thousand warships, but ten S-class Pilots had been stationed among them. Ten more S-class Pilots—and they were gone too?
Todd's expression darkened. "You found nothing?"
The reply from the other end of the communication was muffled. "Nothing. We found absolutely nothing. The reconnaissance fleet seemed to have vanished out of nowhere; we couldn't even find a single fragment. So now we can only return to the fleet here. But there isn't anyone aboard the fleet either. With only the few of us, at most we can operate a single warship and leave."
"How could this happen?" Todd's mind was filled with question marks, utterly baffled. "There was no battle, yet the people disappeared. So many people. No enemy fleet was found, not even wreckage. If enemies had appeared, how could they have left the warships behind while only the people vanished? It was as if everyone suddenly disappeared without noticing anything, without any warning whatsoever."
"There were quite a few S-class Pilots among those hundred thousand warships. The thousand ships may have been fewer