Sunset faded into dusk, and the bright moon climbed into the sky.
The vast sea of stars filled the heavens, yet even that couldn't obscure the enigmatic Talos—the gas giant hanging high above.
"This thing's way bigger than the moon."
Hao Fan leaned against the railings of the Hub Zone base. Beneath the shadow of his hood, his eyes looked distant—as if he'd drifted into some memory.
"…What a long day."
He slowly stretched, then yawned weakly, giving off the impression of being completely undefended.
But in truth, after the string of fights during the day, the once-ordinary man had been tempered quite a bit.
And tonight, he'd accompanied the Administrator to watch Advanced Combat Records, then watched Basic Combat Records alone afterward—successfully absorbing a lot of combat knowledge.
He'd even witnessed fragments of the First Angel War on the footage, like watching a 3D movie.
By the time it ended, it was already late.
"The Administrator still isn't resting—she said she wants to draft a blueprint for the Integrated Industrial System. Chen Qianyu went to chat with a few Angels she spotted during the day. As for Perlica… she seems to have gone to see Supervisor Qin… Everyone's got something to do."
Hao Fan muttered while counting on his fingers.
Of course, it wasn't like he felt lonely because his companions were gone.
If anything, as an orphan, he'd always been the more solitary type. Before transmigrating, he didn't even have a single friend.
As for now—
Endfield Industries had become the place that took him in.
And the Hub Zone base was where he currently lived.
For that, Hao Fan felt genuine gratitude.
Still, as an outsider, all of this remained unfamiliar to him—or at best, he understood it in a shallow way.
For instance, in Hao Fan's eyes, Endfield Industries was simply an independent corporate organization devoted to development and construction.
Of course, that "understanding" was about as credible as calling Rhodes Island a "pharmaceutical company"—fine as a joke, but anyone who actually believed it was an idiot.
Because, as Perlica had told him, Endfield Industries even had the Di Jiang—a spacecraft parked in geostationary orbit over Tower Guard II…
Damn it!
What kind of normal company owns a spaceship? That's beyond "advanced tech"—it's absurd.
Hao Fan hadn't seen it himself, so it didn't feel completely real—but it still sounded outrageous.
And when he learned Perlica had ridden a motorcycle to the Hub Zone base, he wanted to complain even more.
You've got a spaceship, but you can't make a surface vehicle that flies for commuting?
A motorcycle—seriously?
Hao Fan thought, exhausted, while idly turning over a battery he'd picked up at the Originium Byproduct Center—
A Low-Capacity Valley Battery.
An industrial product made from Originium powder and amethyst components.
In other words: a battery produced via device encapsulation, usable for power generation, device charging, or trading with outposts.
Side note: If the casing breaks, the contents can leak and threaten human health—handle with care.
"Feels pretty useless… I'll trade it for something to eat later."
He stuffed it into his pocket.
Tomorrow, when he went to the Workers' Home, he'd see if he could barter with it.
As for now—though it was late, he couldn't quite sleep.
A photo showed a sleepless Doctor.
"I'm clearly tired, but I still want to take a walk. Is this staying up late, or insomnia? Eh, whatever."
He shrugged, then pulled out something he'd found in the central control tower: a "suicide note" tossed into a trash bin—
I might not make it.Angels everywhere—I don't want to die.But I don't want to die like a coward, either. I'll probably take the initiative and stand on the front line.I don't have family, and I don't have friends. My only inheritance is the stuff in my dorm.Split it however you like. My savings aren't hidden well—please donate them to the children who lost their parents in this attack.…HAHA! The Administrator is here! I'm not dying anymore!
"Pfft—"
Hao Fan burst out laughing.
Whoever wrote a "suicide note" like this had to be an interesting person… huh?
Just then, out of the corner of his eye, Hao Fan caught sight of something in the distant wilderness—a red-haired girl who looked strangely familiar.
But when he raised his head and focused, there was nothing.
"…Weird. Was that my imagination?"
Frowning, he was about to open the game map when someone suddenly tapped his shoulder.
"Good evening, Doctor."
Perlica had approached at some point without him noticing, smiling as she greeted him.
The lack of warning made Hao Fan jump.
And before he could respond, her second line shocked him even harder.
"Or should I call you… Doctor?"
…
Very few people knew this.
In Endfield Industries' personnel archives, there existed a special group of operators—
They all had an additional, highly classified supplementary file.
They possessed direct communication privileges with Endfield's senior management.
They were personnel seconded from Rhodes Island under The Framework Agreement on Specialized Technical Post Cooperation Between Endfield Industries and Rhodes Island Pharmaceuticals.
But in practice, they didn't often work inside Endfield facilities, nor did they always execute Endfield missions.
They were spread across Tower Guard II, serving in all kinds of roles.
And those special operators all shared one little-known identity—
Re-Travelers.
Because the "First Originium"—the one that passed through the Star Gate and arrived at Tower Guard II—was contaminated during the final decisive battle of the First Angel War.
Originium suffered conceptual damage, and its nature degraded.
Yet unexpectedly, even in its polluted, chaotic "internalized universe," there still remained intact fragments of information.
Those fragments were like an endless beam of light—becoming the only visible thread within the corrupted flow of information.
For various objectives—under the Administrator's and M3's tacit permission—
Rhodes Island's then-leader Warfarin began emergency salvage research on the contaminated "First Originium."
During that process, for unknown reasons, the "inversion" property of the trans-domain around that informational thread became unusually gentle.
And so, as Warfarin analyzed it, the "depth reading" of one information fragment spontaneously rose—causing the fragment to "precipitate" out of the internalized universe into real space.
Which is to say:
A Re-Traveler is a lifeform created by Originium, and also an information fragment re-manifested from the Originium Forest.
Therefore, in summary—
The arrival of the first Re-Traveler on Tower Guard II was actually an accident.
The Administrator didn't know about the phenomenon, and Warfarin clearly wasn't prepared either.
Judging by results alone, after leaving the Originium Forest, Re-Travelers generally showed friendly, cooperative attitudes toward Rhodes Island and the Administrator.
Additionally, Re-Travelers seemed able to clearly recognize themselves as independent individuals.
Even though they understood parts of their "memory prototype" life experiences and relationships from Terra—and thus possessed certain "former" skills and abilities.
Later, Warfarin discovered a way to communicate with the information fragments.
Suppressing the worries of other informed parties, she began actively exploring the Originium Forest, retrieving those fragments willing to come to Tower Guard II, and designing an entire process for their entry into this world.
Many Re-Travelers had already arrived during the Administrator's slumber.
Starting from the intent to help the Administrator, they each set off on their own journeys—seeking their own missions.
Without question—
Bringing back Re-Travelers was almost equivalent to creating life.
Warfarin shouldered that responsibility alone.
Sometimes she vented the pressure to those in Endfield who were in the know.
But every time, she would always end by repeatedly emphasizing how her many years of life experience (once "100 years," corrected to "500," once "50," corrected to "300," now stated as "20") had let her "quickly" persuade herself.
Rhodes Island and Endfield—no matter what—were willing to believe in the light seen within the forest, and the wills born in chaos while following that light.
I believe so too.
....
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