The vanguard of the Star Beast coalition reached the outer edge of the territory's boundary on the twenty-seventh day after Chen Dai took command of the Northern Sector Defense Line.
It was a standard time marker with no celestial reference points, shown in Zero One's system as the fourth hour after the start of the regular dusk cycle. Chen Dai was standing at the edge of the outpost platform when, in his perception, the advancing energy mass abruptly changed its movement pattern—from a steady advance to an accelerated sprint. The window of change was extremely brief, as though a unified command had been issued to every formation at the exact same instant.
The moment he sensed the change, he pressed the alarm button on the command console. The thousand Rootlines distributed across every node of the formation received his energy signal simultaneously—not through communication equipment, but through Core Resonance. The signal originated from his core and spread at tremendous speed through the network linking the Rootlines, reaching everyone across the entire defense line.
A thousand warm golden points of light flashed at once, then swiftly moved into their predetermined tactical positions.
The Star Beast swarm's first assault came quickly. When they poured out from the gray-white void beyond the boundary, they were utterly unlike the scattered beast packs Xu Wuyi had seen on the Astral Battlefield. This was an organized charge. The creatures in the front ranks were larger, with thick shells, pressing toward the front of the defense line like moving walls; those in the rear were smaller but faster, weaving through the gaps in the front ranks as they advanced, their distribution seemingly calculated with precision.
Chen Dai did not wait for them to reach the defense line before ordering a counterattack. Before the beast swarm entered effective