After the Command Center fell into an eerie silence for several seconds, Sandora called out again. "Engineering Team, return immediately. Your mission is complete. I repeat, return immediately. This is an order."
Several more seconds passed, yet there was still no response. Everyone present exchanged looks. Had something happened?
Tawell, who was in charge of on-site coordination, immediately judged that the situation might have taken a turn for the worse. The work vessel's signal had completely vanished from the communicators, and every member of the First Engineering Team had disconnected from the Spiritual Network. In an instant, the joy of a mission nearing completion had turned into a sudden disaster. After another unanswered call, Tawell turned to her support staff. "Emergency Support Team, check all channels immediately. Increase the obelisks' output and prepare to force entry through the gate. Second Engineering Team, prepare a recovery vessel. Your ship is the only one that can still enter the gate..." Before she could finish, a report from the lower consoles interrupted her. "Chief Technician, the Abyss Gate's stability is dropping rapidly! The obelisks are nearing their output limit!"
"What?!" Tawell stared at the monitoring data in shock. If she had known how to swear, she would surely have started by then. "What is going on? Why is the gate's stability suddenly dropping?"
A senior assistant technician rapidly checked the data and instrument logs while reporting loudly. "Cause unknown, but we must have caused too much information exchange between the Abyss Domain and the material world... This makes no sense. The gate's stability did not decline this badly even when deep-diving began. This time, we only transmitted several databases..."
"Enough. Analyze the accident later. Right now, we need to find a way to save the Engineering Team!" Sandora suddenly spoke, cutting off the