The Gardener Faction.
As the subtle spacetime fluctuations slowly dissipated, [Time] and [Thread] reappeared in the empty cosmos.
They had now passed through a wormhole to the so-called "assembly zone"-a sparsely populated stretch of stars ten thousand light-years from the Andromeda Galaxy's central black hole.
"[Time], are you sure nothing will go wrong if we just leave them at the edge of the galaxy?"
The moment they emerged from the wormhole, [Thread] questioned [Time]. "If they tell the Cleaners about our existence..."
The gray spherical form drifted slowly as [Time] rejected the possibility without hesitation. "Impossible!"
"You know what Silicon Ray is like. They'd never do something so thankless!"
"Besides..."
"According to what we know, relations between the Cleaners and the Neutral Faction aren't exactly good right now."
[Thread] fell silent for a while, and the writhing of their tangled threads grew increasingly complex.
"You should know that Silicon Ray isn't who I'm worried about."
"I'm worried about the level seven civilization behind them."
"The Enroget Civilization?" [Time] sounded hesitant. "Surely not? They're also a member of the Silicon-Based Alliance. With Silicon Ray keeping an eye on them, they have no reason to do something like that."
"I don't know why, but the design of the Enroget Civilization's warships looks familiar."
[Thread] dropped another bombshell. "I think I've seen them in the Milky Way Galaxy."
This time, [Time] fell completely silent.
Their encounter in the Milky Way Galaxy had become a scar neither of them could bear to mention.
Hua's death was bad enough, but even the Two-Dimensional Fragment had fallen into the hands of the Cleaners Civilization!
They had utterly disgraced themselves!
Prompted by [Thread], [Time] began recalling that painful past.
Suddenly, as though something had occurred to them, the fluctuations of their gray, shadowy structure intensified.
"You mean...