The middle-aged operations captain's expression was grim,
but with his protective mask obscuring his face, many could not tell what expression he wore.
Still,
the man slowly asked an old colleague not far away, who was much older than him but had also handled technical work for many years:
"Ke Luoen,
do we still have a chance?"
But Ke Luoen offered no further technical explanation. He merely sighed.
"Forty-seven seconds remain."
The white Vermont man, already in his fifties, turned to look at the countless data screens displaying the monitoring beacons being deployed.
Within those spatial structures invisible to the naked eye,
spatial stability was loosening at a terrifying rate. Traces of instability spread and multiplied like ink dispersing through clear water.
"We need to evacuate immediately!"
Someone shouted anxiously, his voice even trembling slightly.
But the moment he said it,
another voice, filled with helplessness and unwillingness, interrupted him.
"But the Kuiper Belt—
the platform in the Kuiper Belt took unimaginable resources from multiple nations to build. Are we really just abandoning it...?"
"That isn't what we should be considering right now! Will sacrificing the few of us save the entire platform?
There's nothing we can do now. Nothing at all!
If there were only a few Shadow Lifeforms, it would be fine, but this is no longer a matter of a few or a few dozen!
Do you understand?!
Even if the black mirror of the Lightless Mirror can kill ten thousand Tindalos Hounds in an instant,
they're still multiplying endlessly!
We're completely finished. We can only seal the Other Shore Gate as quickly as possible and prepare to ask a sixth-rank Apotheosized Being for help."
But upon hearing that answer,
the operations captain looked at the countdown and asked one final question.
"Shut up, all of you!