Abnormal crossing

Chapter 261 The Silent Zone

Just as Gu Wei was being drilled by the instructors and was screaming in pain.

A mysterious area where the known and explored domains of the Star Sea meet.

This is the very edge of the Star Sea civilization, as if the universe has exhausted all its noise and vitality here.

There were no busy shipping lanes, no flashing beacons, and even the wandering stardust seemed thin and weary.

Look up.

Only a few aging stars shone faintly and coldly in the distance, like candles about to burn out, barely illuminating this seemingly forgotten corner.

This is the Silent Zone, renowned throughout the starry sea, a place even the most fearless exploration teams hesitate to venture into.

Gravitational ripples on a light-year scale are everywhere here, their origins and destinations unknown. In the void, there often appear some unimaginably huge geometric phantoms that can even directly interfere with and change the physical properties of spacecraft—not by stretching or changing length or modifying energy, but by directly making an object two-dimensional.

Some of its special energies are so complex that even the eighth-order Arbitrator civilization struggles to decipher them.

The entire Silenced Zone's radiation area exceeds four thousand medium-sized galaxies, equivalent to 5% of the known domain area. Compared to the Silenced Zone, the Aurora Maze, which is also rife with gravitational ripples, is practically an immature child.
At this moment.

In the deepest part of this no-man's-land where even the starlight seems exceptionally distant.

An area that has never been set foot in by any civilization.

Countless ruins of dilapidated buildings and the remains of enormous equipment float silently here, forming a boundless, desolate graveyard.

These remains are not simply technological artifacts; they also contain a large number of stone artifacts, such as slabs, in various shapes and with surfaces covered with dense, complex, and dazzling patterns and symbols.

Among these ruins, one peculiar building stands out in particular:

It consists of countless huge, rusted gears, reaching a height of hundreds of kilometers. Some of the gears are even as large as small spaceships in diameter. They mesh together to form a huge and complex structure, similar to the internal movement of a clock.

All the gears on the structure had long since stopped turning, leaving only absolute emptiness and frozen time.

However.
Click——

At a certain moment, one of the gears on the left side of the structure suddenly moved forward one step without warning.

Swah——

At the same time, a figure quietly appeared on the raised spokes of the gear.

The figure was a little over three meters tall, with an upright posture, surrounded by a flowing, seemingly living "black barrier," from which only a human-shaped outline could be seen from a distance.

The moment the figure appeared.

The surrounding air seemed to ripple slightly.

Swah——

An invisible sense of locking suddenly surged from the void, like countless cold needles, simultaneously blocking every inch of space around the black figure.

A few more seconds passed.

Behind a pile of twisted metal and broken stone slabs, a broken figure or object floated out unsteadily.

This is a skull that is only half full and covered in rust.
Mechanical cat head. The cat head is only the size of a normal living person's fist, and its surface is covered with dents and tears of various sizes. The only remaining bionic eyes flicker with a faint red light.

Its drifting trajectory was unstable, sometimes rising and sometimes sinking, and finally it barely stopped in the void not too far from the gear structure.

Then, the cat-headed creature's single eye struggled to focus on the tall figure on the wheel spokes, and a synthesized electronic voice came from its mouth: "Hayel Beacon not activated. You shouldn't be here at this time."

Upon hearing this, the figure known as Hayel slowly turned his head, the surrounding blackness flowing as if it were alive, making his profile appear even more profound: "The timeline is still out of sync, I really shouldn't have come here rashly, however..."

talking.

Hayel slightly raised his head, which was shrouded in darkness, as if "looking" at the cat's head: "I have come here to fulfill my promise."

Fulfillment of the contract?

The mechanical cat head stared at Hayel, whose face was obscured, for a few seconds, then immediately guessed what was going on: "Any news about the other four-way triggers?"

“That’s right,” Hayel said, his posture upright and his tone still calm. “The Watch Protocol stipulates that no matter how spacetime is out of sync, any message involving the four-way trigger must be communicated to each other immediately, overcoming all obstacles.”

Upon hearing this, the remaining half of the mechanical cat's head nodded slightly: "The agreement is valid, the logic review has passed, and the alert has been lifted. Long time no see, old friend. It seems you haven't succumbed to temptation."

Although its tone still carried the coldness of electronic synthesis, the address of "old friend" subtly revealed a hint of warmth belonging to bygone years.

at the same time.

call out--

The sense of being locked onto the black figure vanished, turning into nothingness.

Hayel didn't seem to care at all, and without even saying a word of politeness, he steered the conversation back to the original topic: "Let me start with the basics. The Origin Trigger is still being guarded in its old location, which is the headquarters of the Star Alliance, so it can be considered barely safe."

"However, the higher-ups of the Star Sea Alliance seem to really like using it to bait their nests. They've caught quite a few high-level alien life forms. I heard they even attracted a big one a while ago. It's a temporary way of making the most of it."

The mechanical cat's head flashed red, signaling Hayel to continue.

"Next up is Twilight Trigger."

Mentioning Twilight Trigger.

Even Hayel, who had always been calm, suddenly became more subtle in his tone: "I don't know what the decision-makers on the other side were thinking. During the time you and I were asleep, they actually released the Twilight Trigger."

"Released?" The mechanical cat paused slightly, its tone tinged with doubt. "What do you mean?"

"Literally, it's like releasing a message in a bottle on the beach, searching for someone destined to find it," Hayel patiently explained. "A while ago, the Twilight Trigger seemed to have ended up in the hands of an exploration team called Polna, but a few days later it was stolen by some old long-haul driver. I think his ship was called something like the 'Punk' or the 'Moth'."

“Don’t worry about him,” the mechanical cat head pondered for a moment and quickly made a statement: “Let them do their experiments if they want. That guy with the dangling face may have a lot of weird ideas, but he’s never let us down when it comes to important matters.”

"Besides, the Twilight Trigger isn't a common item that ordinary people can handle. It's even the most special one among the four-way triggers. If you were to take that thing on the road, the ship might be gone while we were chatting."

At this point, the cat-headed man's tone became even more certain:

"In short, it's pointless to remember the names of those random passersby who die easily, and they certainly won't affect the overall situation. You and I should focus our energy on military matters."

Note:
I'm looking for some minor characters from mech games. Please include their ID, gender, and mech model. If you can't think of a mech model, I'll assign one randomly. Names that are too ridiculous will not be included.

(End of this chapter)