Originally, I had planned to investigate the anomaly alone since I already knew what it was.
However, Andrea refused almost immediately after noticing my plan.
“You’re planning to approach an unidentified spatial anomaly by yourself?” she asked while staring directly at the holographic projection.
“Commander, our scanners can’t even properly identify what that thing is.”
Her golden eyes remained fixed on the distorted readings for a moment before she continued more quietly.
“If something unexpected happens out there… At least let someone come with you.”
She paused briefly before letting out a small breath. There was unmistakable worry in her voice as she looked at the unstable spatial data floating between us.
I knew the anomaly itself was not dangerous. Yet seeing her look that worried made me feel slightly guilty. In the end, I gave in and allowed her to come along. Besides… Having someone else there felt better than making the trip alone.
With that decided, the two of us boarded the Atlas Voyager alone.
Compared to the small atmospheric beginner spacecraft I had first arrived in, the Voyager was a completely different class of spacecraft altogether.
The interior was designed for long-range space operations rather than short planetary transport missions. The main cockpit alone was large enough to comfortably accommodate five personnel, with multiple holographic control stations surrounding the central command seat. Transparent forward panels stretched across the front of the cockpit, providing a direct view into space while tactical projections and navigation data continuously moved across the surrounding displays.
Behind the cockpit extended the main interior sections of the vessel.
Cargo storage compartments occupied a significant portion of the lower deck, designed to transport supplies, equipment, resources, and future expedition materials between planets and orbital facilities. Adjacent to the storage sectors were compact habitation rooms, emergency medical systems, atmospheric regulators, and reinforced life-support modules capable of sustaining the crew for extended deep-space travel.
Since this was only intended to be a short investigation mission, we did not bring any additional personnel.
After departing from the orbital Starport, Andrea and I guided the Atlas Voyager away from the planet and into open space beyond the outer orbit.
This would also be our first true Faster-Than-Light voyage. Even Andrea looked slightly tense while monitoring the navigation systems. The FTL drive had only recently been integrated into the Voyager, and despite the research team's countless simulations and calculations confirming its stability, actually activating it for the first time still felt entirely different.
A faint mechanical hum slowly echoed throughout the ship as the Eterna Drive core began charging beneath the vessel, powered by the continuous flow of refined Celestium Ferrofluid circulating throughout the propulsion system.
Outside the cockpit window, pale blue energy started flowing across the Voyager’s hull while surrounding space itself began distorting subtly around the ship.
“FTL synchronization stable,” Andrea reported quietly.
I nodded once before activating the drive.
Using the Atlas Voyager’s newly installed FTL system, the journey only lasted a few seconds.
The moment the drive activated, space outside the vessel distorted violently before the surrounding stars stretched into endless streams of light. The Atlas Voyager surged forward through warped space, crossing enormous distances almost instantly.
For a brief moment, normal perception itself seemed to disappear. There was no sensation of acceleration, no feeling of movement, only distorted light flowed endlessly outside the ship as though space itself had folded around the Voyager.
Then, almost as suddenly as it began, the distortion vanished. Just as quickly, normal space returned. The Voyager exited FTL near the anomaly sector orbiting beside the neighboring planet's moon.
The moment we arrived, both of us were awed at the sight.
What appeared before us was a colossal rhombus-shaped structure suspended motionlessly within space. Its sheer size dwarfed the Atlas Voyager completely.
The structure resembled an enormous monolithic station constructed from dark metallic material, its surface smooth and angular with almost no visible seams or external machinery. There were no visible engines. No lights. No movement. The entire station remained completely silent within the void.
Yet despite its apparent inactivity, the surrounding space itself felt distorted.
Stars near the structure appeared slightly warped, while faint spatial fluctuations rippled continuously across the edges of the colossal station, like invisible waves bending reality itself.
The object anomaly looked ancient. To others, it was simply beyond comprehension. However, to me, it felt familiar.
Andrea stared quietly through the observation window, her golden eyes reflecting the massive structure looming outside the ship.
“That’s the anomaly…?”
I nodded slightly while keeping my eyes on the colossal station before us.
“Yes. We’re going inside.”
For now, I decided not to reveal what it truly was yet.
Andrea and I carefully guided the Atlas Voyager around the enormous structure while searching for a possible entry point.
Up close, the station felt even larger. Its dark metallic surface extended endlessly across our field of view like a floating artificial continent drifting silently through space.
Eventually, we located an opening at the center of the structure itself.
A massive tunnel-like passage embedded directly into the station’s core.
The moment the Voyager entered, the surrounding darkness swallowed the ship completely. The Voyager’s forward lights automatically activated.
Powerful beams illuminated the enormous corridor ahead of us, revealing dark metallic walls stretching endlessly into the structure. Dust-like particles drifted silently through the airless chamber while the ship’s lights reflected faintly across the smooth surfaces surrounding us.
During the entry, neither of us spoke and continued forward. The tunnel stretched deep into the structure before eventually opening into an enormous circular chamber.
At first glance, it appeared to be a dead end.
Yet extending from the middle of the chamber was a gigantic circular platform suspended above a seemingly bottomless hollow beneath the station. Ancient metallic patterns were embedded across the floor while faint reflective lines became visible whenever the Voyager’s lights passed over them.
I carefully guided the ship onto the platform.
The moment the Voyager landed, the sound of the engines faded into silence. After shutting down the systems, both of us stepped out onto the platform. The chamber remained almost completely dark and uninhabited.
Only the Voyager’s external lights illuminated the surrounding area, casting long shadows across the massive chamber while revealing fragments of the ancient structure around us.
The no machinery that moved around us. No sounds echoed through the station. There was only silence.
Looking ahead, at the very center of the platform rested a flat rhombus-shaped device mounted atop a dark metallic pedestal. Its smooth surface reflected faintly beneath the ship’s lights, almost blending into the darkness surrounding it.
I smiled slightly.
“Stay here.”
Andrea quietly nodded as I walked toward the center of the platform.
The closer I approached, the more the surrounding silence seemed to deepen around the device itself. Stopping in front of the pedestal, I slowly placed my hand onto the flat rhombus-shaped surface.
The moment contact was made, a sharp pain suddenly pierced through my palm. I frowned slightly but remained still, fully aware of what was happening.
The device detected my hand and took a blood sample.
Thin streams of pale blue light immediately spread beneath the smooth metallic surface while unfamiliar symbols flickered briefly across the edges of the pedestal.
It was then,
The entire station began slowly powering up.
A deep mechanical hum echoed throughout the colossal structure as dormant systems awakened one after another across the ancient station.
Lights illuminated throughout the massive chamber.
Far above us, gigantic sections of the structure slowly activated while streams of pale energy spread across the walls like veins of light reawakening after countless years of dormancy.
Andrea’s eyes widened slightly as the darkness surrounding us gradually disappeared. And at that exact moment, a familiar notification sound echoed inside my mind.
Ding!
[Eternal Node: 447,432 has been successfully claimed!]
[Node Interface Unlocked!]
[Eternal Star Map Unlocked!]
[Mission Updated!]
The familiar system notifications continued appearing before my vision, one after another, while the station around us slowly awakened from its ancient dormancy.
Without hesitation, I immediately opened the newly unlocked interface.
━━━━━━━━━━━
[ETERNAL NODES]
[OWNED: 1]
[1.) Eternal Node: 447,432]
[Node Status: Active]
[Total Celestial Bodies: 5 Planets]
[Primary Star: 1]
[Moons: 7]
[Available Resources: Celestium Crystal, Hydro Celes Fluid]
[Energy Conversion Sequence: Eterna Energy, Celestium Ferrofluid]
[Classification: Tier 1]
[Current Owner: Atlas]
━━━━━━━━━━━
A faint breath escaped my mouth as I stared at the interface.
That’s right… This station was a game mechanic.
An indestructible territorial node.
Aside from the territorial data, its primary function was the active universal star map.
Back in the game, non-players were completely barred from entering these nodes. They functioned as neutral safe zones created solely for players. However, that protection only applied to non-players.
Players themselves could still fight inside these nodes freely. In truth, the entire galaxy operated under an open PvP zone. However, whether war actually happened still depended entirely on the players themselves. Because in every world, war was expensive.
It was no different in this game. Fleet construction, logistics, territorial defense, resources management, orbital infrastructure, planetary invasions, and military deployments. Every conflict consumed unimaginable amounts of resources. A single large-scale galactic war could bankrupt entire civilizations if handled poorly.
I nodded as I looked at the Node Interface before opening the starmap, causing the surroundings around us to suddenly shift as though reality itself had disappeared.
In an instant, it felt as if Andrea and I were standing directly within the universe itself.
A massive three-dimensional projection expanded endlessly around us, displaying a third-person view of the Eternal Node station alongside the surrounding planets, moons, and even the Atlas origin planet orbiting within the system.
Entire orbital paths illuminated throughout the darkness while celestial bodies slowly rotated around the projection like a living model of the star system itself.
Andrea froze as she looked around the infinite holographic space surrounding us.
Then I slowly zoomed outward.
The surrounding star systems rapidly expanded across the map as more sectors appeared one after another beneath layers of fog. And the further the map zoomed out,
The clearer the true structure of the universe became.
The Eternal Map was not random.
It formed a gigantic circular galaxy.
An unimaginably massive spiral-like structure divided into countless sectors spreading endlessly outward from the center of the galaxy. Each sector contained its own Eternal Node that functioned as the territorial core of that region.
And at the very center, far beyond our current range, was the origin zone containing the lowest numbered Eternal Nodes in existence.
Zooming outward even further, most of the surrounding sectors around us remained hidden beneath enormous layers of dark fog.
Unknown territory. Unexplored space. However, scattered throughout the visible regions of the galaxy, small red dots slowly began appearing across the map.
Each one represented a claimed Eternal Node.
A territory already occupied by another player.
Their surrounding sectors remained hidden beneath a fog as well. Capturing those nodes reveals the entirety of the whole section of that territory, which means exposing the player's origin base, once destroyed, basically a total shutdown.
This universe was endless. If I zoomed out more, it wouldn't stop. However, this game was never truly about endlessly exploring outward into infinity.
It was about progression. Building towards a stronger civilization. Toward higher-ranked Eternal Nodes closer to the galactic center.
To simplify it, the entire galaxy was divided according to Node Tiers.
The outermost regions of the galaxy, beginning from Eternal Node #100,001 and beyond, were classified as Tier 1 Nodes with T1 resources.
From there, the closer a civilization moved toward the center of the galaxy, the higher the node classifications became.
━━━━━━━━━━━
Tier 1 Nodes → Eternal Node #100,001 → ∞
Tier 2 Nodes → Eternal Node #50,001–100,000
Tier 3 Nodes → Eternal Node #10,000–50,000
Tier 4 Nodes → Eternal Node #1000–9999
Tier 5 Nodes → Eternal Node #100–999
Tier 6 Nodes → Eternal Node #51–99
Tier 7 Nodes → Eternal Node #10–50
Tier 8 Nodes → Eternal Node #1–9
━━━━━━━━━━━
The lower the node number, the closer the territory was to the galactic center.
And Node Tiers were directly tied to civilization progression.
Which also meant one terrifying reality.
The closer one moved toward the galactic center, the more terrifying the civilizations could become.
Right now, if this were still the game I remembered, the strongest of the Galactic Federation itself would only be positioned around Tier 5 nodes.
Not because they were weak, but because the inner regions of the galaxy should be effectively sealed off.
Beyond the Tier 5 sectors, the surrounding space became increasingly unstable. Massive galactic storms, spatial distortions, gravitational anomalies, and dimensional rifts spread across entire regions of space, forming natural barriers like gigantic walls dividing the galaxy itself.
Tier 6 territories and beyond were almost completely isolated from the outer galaxy.
Even advanced automated navigation systems would fail within those storms.
In the original game, progressing beyond those barriers required direct player intervention. A special progression mission and node activations.
Only by fulfilling specific conditions could civilizations push deeper toward the inner galaxy.
Reaching that part, the encounter with the Galactic Federation would become inevitable.
I let out a slow sigh before closing the Eternal Map.
The endless holographic galaxy surrounding us immediately collapsed inward before the chamber gradually returned to its original form.
Only this time, the station was no longer dark.
Soft pale lights now illuminated the massive chamber while luminous energy lines flowed slowly across the walls and platform beneath our feet. The once dormant structure had fully awakened after being claimed.
Andrea quietly looked around the enormous chamber, her golden slit-draconic eyes reflecting the pale light spreading across the ancient structure as she asked what this place was.
I explained to her that this place was called an Eternal Node, a structure that allowed me to access the universal map system we had seen earlier.
Although the scale of everything she had just witnessed should have been impossible to comprehend so quickly, I felt that she adapted far faster than an ordinary person would have.
Having successfully claimed the Eternal Node, its functions had become fully accessible through the player system interface.
With the business here finished, Andrea and I returned to the ship, and as the engines slowly restarted beneath the platform, my attention shifted toward the system mission interface floating before my vision.
━━━━━━━━━━━
[Mission Objective: Hunt a Darken Spawn]
[Reward: Gene Enhancer Tier 2]
━━━━━━━━━━━
Before anything else, I needed an advantage first.