At the border of the Enrojet Alliance.
Flat around the edges and raised in the center, the saucer-shaped border outpost hung silently in the vastness of space, guarding the Enrojet Alliance's frontier.
Hume sat silently in the observation room, gazing at the view beyond the porthole.
Beyond the porthole lay an unchanging starscape.
Outpost Watchkeeper-that was his position, and also his designation.
It sounded decent enough, but in truth, it was a miserable job nobody wanted.
His parent civilization was an unremarkable level three civilization within the Enrojet Alliance.
Almost all outpost watchkeepers came from level three civilizations.
That was only natural.
Individuals from level one and level two civilizations had too little scientific literacy, making training too costly. They were not considered candidates for outpost watchkeeper positions.
As for level four civilizations... they already wielded considerable influence, and naturally had no interest in such a miserable job.
Nobody wanted to spend all day staring blankly at an unchanging starscape.
Besides, in a sense, staring blankly was already the best possible outcome.
If something unexpected happened, outpost watchkeepers were often the first names on the casualty list.
Thinking back to that terrifying incident not long ago, Hume felt a deep surge of lingering dread.
The Alliance's border had been peaceful for a long time. The civilizations in the surrounding star systems all knew that this region belonged to the Enrojet Alliance.
Especially after the Enroget Civilization mastered the grand unified theory and advanced to a level five civilization, border watchkeeping had become one of the most idle jobs in the Alliance.
Hume had never imagined he would encounter anything like this!
That day, alarms blared through the quiet border outpost, and deep-blue warning lights flashed at an extremely high frequency.
Then he saw the highest-level warning indicator light up.