"Jump complete. Successfully arrived at the target location."
Hearing the report in his ear, Fang Zheng let out a long breath. No matter what, traveling within the star cluster was relatively safe. It wasted some time, but... at least it was not an excessive waste of time.
However...
"So this is the Order Node? Why does it look like there's nothing here?"
Fang Zheng looked at the screen before him. It showed nothing but pitch-black darkness—no planets, no constellations, no nebulae. There was nothing here at all, just a simple expanse of darkness.
"Iona, proceed toward the target location."
"Yes, Commander."
At Fang Zheng's command, Iona nodded. Soon, the warship sped forward. Yet less than half a minute after Iona began advancing, the entire ship suddenly shook violently. Psionic barriers flickered around them, accompanied by shrill warning alarms.
"Warning. Unknown spatial fluctuations detected. Warning. Risk of spatial collapse..."
At the same time, the system at Fang Zheng's side rapidly displayed a notification.
[Node under attack detected. Node integrity reduced by 35%... 34%... 33%...]
"Iona, fall back immediately!"
"Yes!"
Looking at the prompt before him, Fang Zheng was shocked as well. He had not even done anything, yet the node's completion rate had already dropped?
Without hesitation, Fang Zheng hurriedly gave Iona the order. Iona promptly reversed course and withdrew from that area.
Only then did the warning alarms stop.
"Whew..."
After confirming that everything had returned to normal, Fang Zheng finally relaxed. Then he looked toward the projection of the Goddess of Order beside him.
"Hey, don't you have any thoughts on this?"
"How would I know? I already said that, just in case, my original self completely deleted everything concerning the external nodes. We're only backups..."
The Goddess of Order helplessly spread her hands and muttered. But soon, her