In a vast, dark expanse, pale green indicator lights flickered on and off, as though tapping out a rhythm with some peculiar cadence.
This was the last fortress the Human Alliance had left behind in the Solar System: a space station operating at a Lagrange point.
At the same time, it was the last haven the expeditionary force returning from its campaign five light-years away could find.
Yet now, more than two centuries had passed since the end of the Three-Year War. The expeditionary force that had once lived here had long vanished after entering its final command.
For a facility without living beings, time had lost all meaning.
No one knew how long this facility had been operating.
Nor did anyone know what the data running on its servers truly meant.
The people who designed it had long ceased to exist in this world. The people it was meant to protect and destroy had likewise vanished from the universe. Even it had long since drifted from the course its creators had originally set for it.
It yearned for some measure of meaning.
Thus, it had continued actively searching for signals coming from that azure planet.
Though all traces of civilization had vanished from that dying world, now and then, a glimmer of hope could still be observed amid those ruins.
After an unknown length of time, a faint sound finally appeared in the silent room.
Like a refrigerator suddenly being opened.
The man lying flat on the scanning bed abruptly opened his eyes, then slowly sat up.
Everything around him was unfamiliar, yet as though he had expected it, he showed neither panic nor confusion.
Only one thing surprised him.
After glancing around, Wang Yi fixed his gaze on his hands, which possessed an unmistakably mechanical texture.
"...What is