299: Pre-job training and delayed emails

In the Silent Corridor, "days" are merely a relative concept. There are no sunrises or sunsets, no changing of seasons; there is only S-001's cold, precise system timer, ticking silently on everyone's terminal, recording the flow of what is known as "Standard Time."

Yet the members of the ranger adapted quickly to this eternal, unchanging rhythm—or rather, they created their own new time scale through "pre-job training" and "KPI sprints" that were so intensive they were breathless.

Mute, that former member of the watchers—though he himself couldn't figure out if he was a full-time employee or a secondary administrator—had now become the most demanding "training instructor."

Although only a few crystal fragments remained to carry his broken consciousness, his understanding of this corridor was like a fish's understanding of water or a bird's understanding of the wind. It was an instinct earned over long, long years, perhaps at the cost of a few painful lessons.

The "Silent Corridor Basic Environment Simulation Training Ground (Safe Mode)" opened by S-001 had become their new classroom. It was not a physical space, but rather a virtual yet incredibly realistic training environment constructed on a relatively stable gray "land" near the spaceship, where the heart of silence diverted a sliver of computing power to weave together force fields and energy projections with astonishing precision.

Here, they could "experience" various typical conditions of the corridor relatively safely—albeit in a significantly weakened version.

"Rookies, wake up! You think 'silence' just means keeping your mouth shut? Naive!" Mute's voice exploded in the virtual space of the training ground.

At this moment, his consciousness was projected through a data stream before everyone as a slightly blurry humanoid outline delineated by countless silver points of light. He hovered in mid-air, mercilessly "scolding" Excellence and Stardust below, who had just been sent tumbling by a simulated "silence turbulence."

Excellence struggled to climb up from the cold energy aftershocks that felt like they could freeze his thoughts, feeling the Power of Order within him running sluggishly, like a rusted gear.

Stardust's situation was worse; she relied more on precise calculations and control, and her defense against such impacts—which acted directly on the foundation of existence and were nearly at the level of the rules—was weaker.

She knelt on one knee, her short gray hair disheveled by the invisible energy flow, her face somewhat pale, but her eyes were frighteningly bright—the gleam of excitement that comes from discovering new laws and touching upon the essence of the unknown.

"silence," Mute's light-projected arm waved, and the surrounding environment instantly transformed from a flat gray mirror into a labyrinth of countless tiny energy vortices and intersecting conceptual "folds," "is the extreme manifestation of Order, the 'zero state' of information, the 'absolute zero' of energy, and the 'end' of all movement. Here, anything that is not 'ordered' enough, not 'stable' enough, or not 'restrained' enough will be assimilated and diluted by 'silence,' eventually becoming a part of this gray background, not even leaving a bubble behind!"

He paused, his face composed of light points seemingly turning toward Excellence: "Your Power of Order, kid, is essentially about 'building,' 'maintaining,' 'creating structures,' and 'defining rules.' But the 'silence' here is about 'deconstructing,' 'dissolving,' 'smoothing out differences,' and 'returning to the base.' They look like mortal enemies, but in reality, they are two different weapons against the same enemy—'chaos.' One builds a wall to block, the other drains the water. Different paths, same goal!"

Excellence panted, trying hard to understand these words. He attempted to adjust the way the Power of Order operated within him, no longer forcefully projecting it as armor or a weapon to resist external pressure as he had before, but instead guiding it to become dense, flexible, and restrained, forming a thin yet tough membrane on his skin, striving to simulate the stable attributes of the surrounding "silence" environment.

Sure enough, the ubiquitous sense of rejection and the bone-chilling sensation of erosion immediately eased significantly.

"Yo, not slow to react!" Mute's voice carried a hint of approval. "But this is just the first step! Just making yourself look like a rock only turns you from a 'conspicuous living target' into an 'inconspicuous rock target.' The real trick is to understand the 'rhythm' of 'silence,' to perceive the 'breathing' and 'pulse' of the entire energy network, and to find those 'gaps,' 'Nodes,' and 'fulcrums' within the 'silence.'"

His light-projection pointed toward an area in the distance that looked calm but actually had complex energy flows: "It's like diving in an ice sea; you can't fight the water pressure head-on. You have to find the gaps between the currents, use the buoyancy, and go with the undertow. Here, resisting 'silence' head-on is the stupidest choice. You have to learn to 'borrow strength,' or even... 'merge' into it, become a part of it, and then 'emerge' when you need to."

The subsequent training was arduous and in-depth. Mute began to teach techniques for identifying and utilizing the internal energy network of the Silent Corridor.

How to judge the stability level and energy concentration of an area by observing the subtle color differences and flickering frequencies of the light on the surface of those black "silence Nodes"; how to identify those relatively stable "interlayers" or "vortex cores" where one could temporarily take shelter within the seemingly violent "silence turbulence"; how to use certain special energy structures—which Mute called "silence folds" or "conceptual faults"—to perform unexpected short-distance movements or achieve perfect concealment; and even how to guide a sliver of the power of "silence" to interfere with, delay, and disintegrate attacks based on "chaos" or "disorder" principles.

"Remember, in this damn place, 'silence' itself is the most badass weapon and tool!" Mute boasted not without pride. "Back in the day, when I still had my clearance, I could make an area fall directly from 'information active' into a 'conceptual vacuum' with a single thought. Whatever chaotic spawn or blind intruder it was, they'd first be stripped of all their fancy shells upon entering, then 'silenced' into a lump of immobile 'background noise,' and finally slowly dissipate. That was the prestige of being one of the watchers!"

But after the bragging, his light-projection dimmed a bit, and his voice lowered: "...Sigh, a hero shouldn't dwell on past glory. As for now, with a broken consciousness and a few fragments, I can only teach you the basics. If you really want to fully control this network, restore the clearance of the watchers, and let you guys walk sideways in this territory... the road is still long."

Excellence and Stardust studied with extra desperation. They knew clearly that in this place with bizarre rules and lurking dangers, strength was the only guarantee of survival and the prerequisite for completing those "KPIs" and uncovering more mysteries.

Evelyn, while assisting with energy regulation and data recording in the training ground, thirstily absorbed knowledge from the database opened by S-001 regarding Silent Corridor engineering, silence energy dynamics, and underlying physical rules.

This knowledge far exceeded the scope of what the Harmonic Alliance or even White Elder knew, opening a door for her to a whole new field. And although White Elder remained deeply silent most of the time, his occasional questions or insights often inspired everyone to think about the complex relationship between "Order," "silence," and "chaos" from a higher dimension.

Meanwhile, the "auxiliary work" arranged by S-001 was also unfolding simultaneously.

Under Mute's remote guidance, Excellence began trying to use his Power of Order, which was gradually taking on the rhythm of "silence," in coordination with the silver, mercury-like micro-repair nano-clusters deployed by S-001, to repair several minor structural damages located at the edge of the energy network caused by previous abnormal tides and the activities of the Heart-Devouring Demon.

This work was extremely testing of patience, control, and micro-manipulation of energy. Any slight unstable energy leak could be like a spark falling into an oil depot, triggering a chain reaction of disorder in the local energy network.

But every time a repair was successful, watching the lines representing energy flow on the monitoring screen become smooth and stable again, a strange sense of accomplishment would well up in Excellence's heart—it was a sense of participation in personally maintaining this ancient and great facility, and it also gave him a more personal understanding of the essence of the power of "silence."

Stardust, leading Evelyn, plunged into the work of building a "Heart-Devouring Demon behavior prediction model."

Combining the first-hand perceptual data obtained from training, the massive "Chaotic Erosion Entity Energy Spectrum Library" provided by S-001, and every detail recorded during that previous life-or-death battle, they attempted to find traces of Order within the chaos of disorder.

This work was tedious, complex, and full of frustration, but Stardust enjoyed it. She discovered that the seemingly completely random and instinctual attack patterns of the Heart-Devouring Demon actually possessed patterns that could be summarized and quantified at certain very basic levels—such as the "devouring priority" for energy sources of different natures, the almost instinctive hatred and priority attack tendency toward the powers of "silence" and "Order," and even certain statistical laws regarding the extension and retraction of its energy tentacles.

Although they were still far from accurately predicting every attack of the Heart-Devouring Demon, the initial model they built could already provide valuable probability references for defense and evasion in specific environments.

Mute himself, in addition to serving as a "devil instructor," spent most of his time immersed in that part of the database opened to him at the "former administrator" level.

Like an archaeologist, he tried to piece together fragments about the "Main System," "other Silent Corridor units," the truth behind the "silent lurking" directive, and the reasons for his own memory loss from the vast sea of logs, technical documents, encrypted memos, and fragmentary records.

This work progressed slowly; the records were often vague, key parts were locked by higher permissions, or they were simply large sections of blanks and corruption. But Mute was tireless, as if playing a huge jigsaw puzzle about his own past; every time he found an edge piece, it could make him excited (or depressed) for a good while.

Time passed quietly in this "work and study" that was so fulfilling it was almost exhausting.

Excellence's control over the Power of Order, especially his adaptability and application techniques in the "silence" environment, had visibly improved by a level. After countless iterations, the accuracy of Stardust's model had steadily improved.

Evelyn's database had expanded countless times over, and her optimization suggestions for the spaceship's systems began to take on "Silent Corridor characteristics."

The repair progress of the ranger itself had steadily advanced to 92%. Although those advanced modules (main weapons, scientific research arrays, "silent escape" system) still carried glaring red labels, at least now, the ship no longer looked like a pile of barely pieced-together scrap metal, but more like a veteran ship that had been through brutal battles, scarred but with its spine unbroken, quietly lying dormant and waiting for the right moment.

That day, Excellence had just completed a high-difficulty exercise in the training ground—attempting to guide a sliver of "silence" energy with the Power of Order to construct a simple "silence bubble" in his palm.

This was a low-level, practical technique Mute had taught, which could be used to temporarily reinforce the information structure of small objects or isolate weak energy erosion.

He was fully focused, his mental power highly concentrated, fine beads of sweat seeping from his forehead. In his palm, a transparent "bubble" that was almost invisible to the naked eye and slightly distorted the light was struggling to take shape.

Suddenly, S-001's voice rang in everyone's minds, as calm as ever, but upon closer listening, it seemed to carry a hint of an extremely rare, almost "programmed confusion" fluctuation?

Notification: Silent Corridor core energy reserves have recovered to the protocol preset threshold — 45.3%. 'Main System Connection Attempt Protocol' trigger conditions met. The first low-power directional status report transmission program will initiate in 60 standard minutes.

Excellence's hand trembled; the 'silence bubble' in his palm burst with a soft 'pop.' The escaping energy stirred a faint ripple in the air, ruffling the hair on his forehead. But he was completely unaware, suddenly lifting his head, his eyes flashing with shock, anticipation, and a hint of nervousness.

The others on the bridge also stopped moving instantly. Stardust lifted her eyes from the complex data model, her grey eyes looking sharply into the void, as if she could pierce the hull and see the invisible information transmission process. Evelyn's projection froze slightly. Even Mute, who was immersed in the database, saw his fragments suddenly brighten.

Finally, they were going to try to contact that legendary 'Headquarters'! Although it was just a one-way report transmission, akin to throwing a message in a bottle into deep space with a high probability of disappearing without a trace, this was undoubtedly the first step they had taken toward touching a greater truth since entering this mysterious realm.

"Is the report content... confirmed?" Excellence's voice was a bit dry; he cleared his throat. "Especially the part about us?"

"The report content has been automatically generated by this management unit (S-001) in accordance with the 'Status Reporting Standard Protocol V7.3' and has completed a logical self-check." S-001 replied stiffly. "The content is objective and complies with information standards. The part involving the 'temporary assistant' team has undergone necessary desensitization processing, containing only basic biological/energy characteristic descriptions, summaries of public behavioral records, current status assessments, and 'Assistant Protocol' filing information; it does not involve specific memory content, deep psychological activities, or personal privacy data. The report mainly consists of the following: Silent Corridor unit (ID: Delta-7) basic status summary; brief descriptions of recently recorded abnormal events (Sea of Chaos tide energy characteristic anomalies, 'Heart-Devouring Demon' activity frequency and pattern changes); core management system (S-001) self-check report; and supplementary reports regarding the detection of 'new Power of Order carrier intervention,' 'former the watchers Mute (consciousness fragment state) signal re-activation,' and 'Temporary Assistant Protocol already initiated and initially executed'."

"That's good." Excellence breathed a sigh of relief, but his heart remained heavy. This report was, to some extent, their "resume" and "status report," which would be sent to that potentially high-and-mighty, or perhaps long-extinct, "Eternal Tribunal" or "Balance Council."

"What happens after it's sent? How do we confirm if it succeeded? Or... is there a possibility of receiving a reply?" Stardust asked the key question.

"The transmission program will utilize the 'heart of silence' stored energy, activate the special communication protocol module in the corridor's deep energy network, generate a high-intensity encrypted information packet, and attempt to send it directionally through a special stable channel near 'the gate,' based on the 'Order-Chaos boundary membrane Resonance principle,' to the preset logical coordinates of the 'Anchor of Order' / 'Eternal Tribunal'." S-001's explanation was, as always, detailed and full of technical jargon. "The information packet will enter the Deep Information Sea for super-distance transmission. Due to the unknown distance of the target coordinates, the unknown state of the current channel, and the unknown activity of the target system, it is impossible to estimate the exact arrival time of the information packet, nor can it be guaranteed that it will definitely reach the target area. Based on historical communication record analysis (up to before the communication interruption) and current boundary stability assessment model calculations, the probability of the information packet being successfully received and processed by the target system... is less than 0.03%. The probability of receiving an effective reply requires further superposition of multiple uncertainty coefficients on this basis; currently, the model cannot provide a meaningful value."

A reception success rate of less than three in ten thousand. This probability was so slim it was despairing. But however slim, it was ultimately a glimmer of hope, a candle flame that might exist far away in the darkness.

"Send it." Excellence took a deep breath and made his decision. "At least let 'Headquarters' know — if it still exists and can receive it — that Delta-7, this 'branch office,' hasn't completely closed down, is still barely operating, and also... has hired a few flustered 'temporary workers'."

"Command confirmed. Transmission program entering final preparation stage. Countdown: 57 minutes... 56 minutes..."

During the next hour, the atmosphere on the bridge became subtle and heavy. There was a sense of anticipation for casting a letter of hope into the unknown deep space, alongside a sense of indifference born from knowing it was likely futile, and even a hint of secret unease — would this report instead expose their existence and attract unwanted attention?

Everyone silently organized their recent work logs and personal insights, as if making final preparations for their "performance review." Mute stared blankly at the vague records about the "Main System" on the screen, the light of his fragments slowly flickering, not knowing what he was thinking, or what long-shattered fragments he was recalling.

Time passed in the silent countdown.

"Transmission program initiated. Starting energy focusing... Establishing dedicated communication link... Final encapsulation and multi-layer encryption of information packet... Sending."

The moment S-001's voice faded, everyone felt a strange "sense of detachment." It wasn't a physical movement, but rather as if the "background sound" of the entire corridor — that eternal, low "silence" — had "missed" a small piece for an extremely short moment. A pure, condensed energy with an indescribable aesthetic of Order quietly overflowed from the direction of the "heart of silence," silently merging into the surrounding massive energy network, flowing along an extremely complex path, rapidly rushing towards the direction of "the gate," and finally sinking into a seemingly empty void next to the gate, like a drop of water merging into the sea, disappearing without a trace.

There was no brilliant light, no surging energy, only a "ripple sensation" that was so slight one might think it was an illusion, permeating the mental level, and passing in a flash.

"Transmission complete. Energy consumption meets expectations, accounting for 0.7% of total current reserves. The encrypted information packet has been successfully injected into the Deep Information Sea transmission channel. Subsequent status tracking... is not feasible. The signal has left the monitoring range of this unit." S-001's report was concise and firm.

It was over. An information packet carrying traces of their existence, status reports, and slim hopes had just been thrown into the vast, incomprehensible torrent of the Deep Information Sea, heading to an "address" that might have long been abandoned, or simply could not be reached.

The bridge fell into a brief silence. In that silence, there was relief, the faint emptiness after expectations fell through, and a kind of calm of "what needed to be done has been done."

"Alright, the 'email' has been sent." Excellence broke the silence first, trying to make his tone sound relaxed. "As for whether the 'Headquarters' inbox is full, whether the secretary is on vacation, or if the boss saw it... that's not something we 'branch office temporary workers' can worry about. Life must go on, and KPIs must be grinded. Senior Mute, isn't it time to start the promised advanced class on 'Silent Network Node Identification and Emergency Energy Invocation'? I don't want to be swept into an 'information sauna' and get a chilling wash like in the last simulation when we actually hit a 'silent storm' next time."

"Hmph! If the foundation isn't solid, the earth will shake! Did you fully understand this morning's 'Silent Force Field Three-Layer Composite Structure'? Did you draw the energy circuit simulation diagram? Did you pass the theoretical assessment? And you're already thinking about skipping grades!" Mute's light and shadow "glared" over irritably, but the training ground's virtual environment had already begun to change accordingly, and new complex energy structure diagrams and data streams began to appear in the surrounding space.

Life seemed to have returned to the tense and regular "training-work" cycle. The report sent to the "Main System," like a stone thrown into a deep pool, caused ripples that quickly subsided, covered by the daily busyness.

Three days later.

Excellence sat cross-legged on a simulated, relatively stable "silent reef" at the edge of the training ground, closing his eyes and focusing. He was attempting a more precise operation: not only using the Power of Order to simulate "silence" attributes, but also trying to guide a trace of real "silence" energy from the environment, binding and shaping it. This was a dangerous act; if he was not careful, the "silence" energy he drew could backfire on himself. He was cautious, his spiritual power like the finest spider silk, slowly probing out, contacting, testing, and guiding the cold, heavy "silence" power around him that seemed to be able to freeze all active thoughts...

Just at the moment when that faint strand of "silence" energy was about to form some simple structure under his will —

"Report."

S-001's voice suddenly rang out, calm and waveless, but in Excellence's highly concentrated mental Perception, it was like a thunderclap. His hand trembled, the fragile connection instantly broke, and the drawn "silence" energy lost its restraint and exploded silently. Although it didn't cause substantial damage, it made him feel as if his thoughts had been doused with ice water, and he shivered violently.

But he couldn't care about that, because he keenly noticed that S-001's opening this time seemed... to have omitted the usual "Notification" or "Warning" prefix? And, the underlying frequency of its electronic synthesized voice had a trace of an extremely subtle, almost imperceptible... change?

"Received... communication feedback from an unknown source. Signal strength: extremely weak. Priority: low. Characteristics: delayed, encrypted. Preliminary analysis points to... sending source logical tag: Silent Corridor unit, ID: Epsilon-3."

Excellence opened his eyes abruptly, his pupils contracting.

Inside the bridge, all sound disappeared. Stardust stopped her fingers sliding on the data screen. Evelyn's projection froze. The light of Mute's fragments suddenly locked, and then began to flash violently and irregularly.

Epsilon-3? Another Silent Corridor unit?!

"Information packet decrypting... Decryption complete. The core content is a status confirmation code, and... an additional text message." S-001's tone was still steady, but that subtle "sense of anomaly" was more obvious, as if its absolutely rational logical core had also encountered a situation that was difficult to categorize.

"Status code: 'E-3 - Alive - LowPower - Silent'." (Epsilon-3 unit - Alive - LowPower - Silent state)

"Additional text message, using the standard communication protocol basic character set, but the encoding format is extremely ancient. After comparison, it approximates a variant of the 'Third Era Protocol' from the early system period. The content is as follows:"

S-001 rarely paused for a full two seconds, then, using that clear, steady, yet at this moment, incomparably eerie electronic voice, repeated word by word:

"Delta-7, signal received. Still existing. Silent lurking continues. Beware... 'the listeners' in the depths of Chaos. They are looking for... the 'key' and the 'echo'. Do not respond lightly. Wait... for the true 'Resonance'."

Deathly silence.

Inside the bridge, it was as if even the air had frozen. There was only the lowest hum of equipment operating, and the intense heartbeats of each person.

Another corridor unit! It's "alive"! Even if it's in a "low-power - silent state"! And, it received the signal? Was it the report they sent to the "Main System" earlier? Or something else? How could it receive it? And how would it know Delta-7's ID?

What was even more heart-palpitating was the content of the message.

"the listeners..." Stardust's voice was a bit dry. Deep within her gray eyes, shock and rapid thought surged. "Conscious entities... in the depths of chaos? Searching for the 'key' and the 'echo'?"

"The 'key'..." Excellence looked at his own hands instinctively, then at the pedestal where Mute resided. "Does it refer to my 'Power of Order'? Or the 'stone of silence'? Or... both? And what is the 'echo'? Some kind of signal? Some kind of... 'Resonance'?"

"Do not respond lightly..." Evelyn's voice carried a trace of worry. "Is this warning us not to actively send information that might expose our location or characteristics? Then what about the report we previously sent to the 'Main System'..."

"Wait for the true 'Resonance'..." Mute's voice finally sounded, filled with confusion and a hint of irritability. "What the hell is this supposed to mean? What kind of 'Resonance'? Resonating with whom? What exactly does that guy Epsilon-3 know? Why only say half of what needs to be said? And, when the hell was this signal sent? Why is it only arriving now?"

S-001's voice interjected at the right moment, carrying its characteristic, emotion-dampening calm analysis: "Supplementary analysis: The end of the information packet contains a large amount of unparseable noise, suspected to be severe attenuation and damage caused by the signal being extremely weak, the transmission path being complex, or it being ancient. Preliminary reverse parsing of the timestamp (if it exists and is readable)... failed. Based on the phenomenon that the arrival time of the information packet is highly close to the sending time of our previous status report, probability deduction: There is a 74.2% probability that this information is not a real-time reply to the report we sent, but rather outdated information that already existed in the 'Deep Information Sea', 'delayed' or 'accidentally echoed' due to specific 'information vortex', 'Spacetime Fold', or 'boundary membrane Resonance' effects. Its specific sending time may be far earlier than the sending time of our report. Therefore, the timeliness of this information, what the 'signal' specifically refers to, and the current exact status of the Epsilon-3 unit cannot be verified, and its credibility is questionable. This communication has been marked as 'Pending Verification - Low Credibility - Delayed Outdated Information' and archived."

Outdated information? A delayed echo?

This explanation slightly reduced the immediate sense of threat from the information but did not diminish the astonishing amount of information it contained in the slightest.

Another corridor unit had indeed existed, and it might still exist in some kind of "low-power - silence" state! It was clearly also executing the "silent lurking" Order! Moreover, it had issued a warning—a warning about the existence of "the listeners" in the depths of chaos, searching for the "key" and the "echo"!

"Senior Mute," Excellence's voice carried a tension he hadn't even realized himself, "Epsilon-3... do you have any impression of this name? Even a little bit?"

The light of Mute's fragments flickered rapidly, as if undergoing an intense internal retrieval and struggle to recall. A few minutes later, the light dimmed, and his voice carried frustration and confusion: "No... there is a record of this designation in the database, but only basic file entries; there are no detailed logs or personal records remaining. But the designation itself... Delta-7, Epsilon-3... this conforms to the 'Main System's' Greek alphabet sequence naming convention. This means that, at least in some 'sequence group', we are not alone. There are other 'gatekeepers', behind other 'gates', experiencing similar things... perhaps in even worse situations than us."

"Beware of 'the listeners' in the depths of chaos..." Stardust repeated in a low voice, her fingertips tapping unconsciously on the console, "This confirms our initial guess. The abnormal tides are not a natural phenomenon; there is very likely some existence behind them that possesses consciousness and is capable of perceiving or even guiding the power of chaos. And their goal sounds very clear—the 'key' and the 'echo'. We have very likely already been noticed, or are being searched for."

"Our report has already been sent out." Evelyn reminded again; her logic core made her consider the worst-case scenario, "Although S-001 assesses the probability of interception as extremely low, it is not physically impossible. Especially given the clear existence of 'the listeners', and the fact that their methods are unknown."

Excellence took a deep breath, the cold air cooling his boiling thoughts slightly. Surprise, vigilance, immense confusion, faint unease... various emotions mixed together like an overturned palette. This sudden "delayed email" was like a hand reaching out from the mists of time, patting his shoulder and handing him a note filled with warnings and riddles.

"S-001," he ordered in a deep voice, his tone regaining composure, "Elevate the security clearance of this message from Epsilon-3 to the highest level. Before we have sufficient capability and intelligence to assess the risk, suspend all non-essential outgoing proactive information that might contain sensitive data such as 'new Power of Order characteristics', 'details of Mute's consciousness recovery', or 'composition of the temporary support team'. The regular status report format needs to be re-reviewed and modified."

"Instructions recorded and executed. Information security clearance has been elevated. Outgoing communication protocol has entered 'review mode'. Please note that this mode may affect the timeliness of some automated reports."

"Additionally," Excellence's gaze became sharp, "Initiate a specialized analysis task. Concentrate resources and, across all database levels open to us, search with full effort for any records potentially related to keywords such as 'key', 'echo', 'the listeners in the depths of chaos', or 'Epsilon-3 unit', even if it's just legends, hypotheses, fragments of words, or traces of deleted files. At the same time, attempt to analyze the encoding characteristics and energy residues of the message itself to see if we can deduce its approximate 'age' or the general situation at the time of sending."

"Analysis task added to the highest priority queue. It is estimated to consume 37% of regular system computing resources, and some low-priority maintenance tasks will be delayed." S-001 replied.

"Proceed." Excellence nodded, then looked out the porthole at the eternal giant gate standing silently in the distance. The 'Sea of Chaos' behind the gate, looked at now, seemed to have a hint of ominousness in its churning darkness. "It seems our 'work plan' needs major adjustments."

He turned to his companions, his tone firm: "Besides continuing to improve our strength and maintain the corridor, one of our next core objectives is to figure out what these 'key', 'echo', and 'the listeners' actually are. Also, that Epsilon-3 unit... if it is truly still 'silent lurking' somewhere, we must find a way to establish a more reliable connection with it without bringing trouble upon ourselves, even if it's just to confirm its status and exchange some information."

"This is very dangerous; that message clearly warns 'do not respond lightly'." Stardust reminded, but there was no opposition in her eyes, only calm weighing of options.

"I know." Excellence admitted, "But waiting passively and hiding ourselves completely is equally dangerous. We don't know the search methods of 'the listeners', and we don't know the specific definitions of 'key' and 'echo'. Sitting here, we are blind and deaf. We need information; we need to understand what kind of situation we have been dragged into. This message from Epsilon-3 is a breakthrough; although vague, it at least tells us that we are not the only 'variable', nor the only ones groping in the dark. This... is somewhat of a 'good news that isn't good news'."

"A 'good news' wrapped in thick mysteries and warnings, and it's also a 'delayed delivery', damn it." Mute muttered, but the light of the fragments was no longer frustrated; instead, it flickered with a hint of familiar, adventurer-like excitement, "However, it's finally something like a proper 'plot'. Epsilon-3... wonder which ancient antique from what era is gatekeeping. Judging by the tone, it seems to know some inside information? Too bad the signal is as rotten as if it were chewed on by chaos, and it's also delayed by who knows how many thousands or tens of thousands of years... tsk."

Hope and crisis, like twins of light and shadow, were once again tightly intertwined in this forgotten 'Silent Corridor'.

The "temporary workers"" "work life", which had just gotten on track, busy and fulfilling, was completely shattered by this "delayed email" from a strange "colleague", full of mysteries and warnings. Beneath the calm training grounds and repair work, undercurrents began to surge.

And on the other side of the 'Deep Information Sea', where the information finally arrived and which even S-001 could not track, in that absolute dark void wrapped in solidified silence and broken rules that could not be measured by distance, deep within the deepest and most ancient crack on the surface of that broken black crystal, which was only one-tenth its original size, that tiny glimmer that had flickered like a hallucination, long after the information wave had passed, seemed to... pulse once again, extremely, extremely slowly.

So faint it was as if it didn't exist.

So distant it was as if it were just an illusion in the eternal silence.

Meanwhile, in the deepest, darkest depths of the 'Sea of Chaos', those massive, indescribable shadow "vortices" condensed from pure malice, broken concepts, and twisted rules seemed to have increased their writhing frequency by an imperceptible fraction due to some incomprehensible 'Resonance' or "disturbance".

A tiny, purple-black, compound-eye-like dim spot of light flickered in the "depths" of a certain vortex, transmitting a wave of thought mixed with greed, hatred, ancient confusion, and a hint of... eerie "anticipation" to the endless chaos around it:

"...'echo'... faint... ripples... direction of the gate... the scent of the 'key'... clearer... find... must find... devour... grow..."

The tides of chaos surged silently, their direction seemingly pointing more clearly towards that giant gate that separated 'Order'.

Inside the "ranger", Excellence and Stardust had already begun to reformulate their training and research plans, shifting their focus to information defense, concealment techniques, and targeted exploration of the concepts of 'key' and 'echo'. Evelyn was strengthening the ship's passive sensing and anti-reconnaissance systems. Mute plunged headlong into the piles of old papers, frantically searching for any clues that might be related to Epsilon-3 or "the listeners".

The storm had not yet arrived, but the air pressure was dropping. The 'echo' from deep space had already arrived, and 'The Whisper' from the depths of chaos was approaching. For these "temporary workers" at the cosmic frontier outpost, every breath they took, every heartbeat, every increase in their strength, was invisibly creating a subtle 'Resonance' with that ancient warning, the distant echo, and the covetousness in the darkness.

When would the true 'Resonance' arrive, and in what way? No one knew. But the waiting was no longer passive hibernation; it was a gaze fixed on the darkness with tightened strings.