"Did you find it?"
"Yes! A civilian group called the Ghost Brigade found it. The target turned out to be an intermittent wormhole. No wonder we couldn't find it."
"Then, now that the target can be detected, that means..."
"Exactly. They're already preparing to cross the wormhole. According to the Cloudtop Research Institute's analysis of the local astronomical data, they'll have it fully open in about three days."
"I see... Unfortunately, three days isn't nearly enough for us to muster troops to block the entrance."
"Although we failed to locate the wormhole ahead of time, this isn't the worst-case scenario. At least our defensive line still has three days for final adjustments, so we can concentrate our defenses in that direction."
"We must keep the enemy outside our borders. If they break into the Asteroid Belt, our heartland will face a lethal threat."
"What does the Ghost Captain have to say?"
"Nothing. We can't even reach him on QQ."
"Uh... What about official channels?"
"The Goddess of Wisdom hasn't shown herself lately either. All she left behind was an intelligent terminal. If you contact her now, all you get is a recorded message saying she's gone with the Captain to some 'Mechanical Ascension Exchange.'"
"Mechanical Ascension Exchange? That name... sounds pretty high-end."
"The Ghost Captain's social circle really is beyond the imagination of us mere mortals."
"Have you noticed? Although the Ghost Captain seems to have washed his hands of everything, he strengthened us beforehand and granted us most of the control permissions for the solar system defense chain. What does that tell you?"
"That... he's delegating authority to us?"
"You get that feeling too, don't you?"
"Could he really be about to ascend?"
"I thought he'd ascended ages ago..."
In the virtual communication channel, the Earth Defense Force's three