260: The secret in cake crumbs and "hand-rubbed" protective clothing

Excellence carried a pile of "local specialties" salvaged from the wreckage of the cake messenger—exquisitely structured yet inactive energy crystals, along with a short candle stub that had first exploded into pink crystal dust and then barely recoalesced under the subconscious constraint of his Power of Order (Evelyn had excitedly emphasized in the communication that she absolutely needed this)—as he passed through the airlock and returned to the base interior.

His face was expressionless, but in his heart, he felt like a child who had gone out for a fight and returned covered in dust despite winning. In the corridor, Su Mu, Wang Jianguo, Evelyn (via remote projection), and several high-ranking military officers, who had rushed over upon hearing the news, were already waiting. Their eyes met, and a complex mix of worry, lingering fear, scrutiny, and a hint of resignation—that "of course, it's you causing unexpected trouble again" feeling—intertwined in the air.

"Send the items to the lab first, highest protection level," Wang Jianguo instructed the research assistant beside him, then looked at Excellence, sizing him up. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, doing great." Excellence rolled his shoulders and handed over the "local specialties" carefully wrapped in an energy field. "It's just that last bit was... an unexpected gain."

The group quickly moved back to the previous deep-level security conference room. The atmosphere was even more solemn than before Excellence had left. After he detailed how he "returned the favor," how the cake messenger disintegrated, that final chuckle that reached directly into his consciousness, and the appearance and dissipation of that eerie invitation, the air in the conference room almost froze.

Su Mu rested her forehead on one hand while the fingers of her other hand tapped unconsciously on the table, digesting this absurd information. "So, to summarize: you didn't follow its rules to blow out the candles and say the lines; instead, you forcibly dismantled it. Then the... master behind it didn't get angry, but instead gave you a VIP direct pass, warmly inviting you to be the 'main course' at its banquet in the future, and 'thoughtfully' encouraged you to 'grow diligently and add more flavor'?" She looked up at Excellence with a complex gaze, as if studying a walking magnet specifically designed to attract cosmic-level trouble and weirdos. "Excellence, I think your constitution for attracting hatred and unconventional attention should be listed as a key research project to see if we can... control or weaken it slightly?"

Excellence felt a bit uncomfortable under her gaze and coughed dryly, attempting to defend himself. "Class Monitor, this really isn't my fault. It started it... oh, wait, it sent the cake first and even addressed me by name. I couldn't really blow out the candles and make a wish like it said, could I? Wouldn't that be walking straight into a trap?" He tried to steer the topic toward the "spoils of war." "Besides, I'm back safely, and I brought some 'research samples' back. Maybe we can reverse-engineer something."

As he spoke, he gestured toward the energy crystals and candle remains that had just been brought in, placed in a special shielding box. Evelyn's projection immediately drew closer; though it was just an image, her focus and excitement were evident. She operated the auxiliary robotic arms in the conference room, donned multi-layered isolated gloves and augmented reality analysis goggles, and carefully picked up a pale pink energy crystal—which looked and felt like a miniature strawberry—from the shielding box, placing it into a portable high-dimensional scanning analyzer connected to the lab's main computer.

Data streams cascaded across the virtual screen before her eyes, and her breathing quickened slightly. "Incredible... simply incredible! The physical structure of these crystals is unimaginably stable, but their energy arrangement and internal information encoding... completely subvert existing knowledge! They don't follow any known laws of crystal growth or energy matrix models; they're more like a product of directly 'materializing and sealing' abstract concepts like 'Joy,' 'Celebration,' and 'Sweet Temptation'! Although they've lost their core active drive, as an extreme case study of how high-dimensional concepts affect and solidify low-dimensional matter, their value is immeasurable!"

She then turned her attention to the translucent candle stub, her virtual fingers lightly touching the scanning interface. "And this... the residual dimensional anchoring fluctuations are clear and strong. Although the connection has been severed, it's like a dialing record left after a phone call is hung up. If we can successfully parse the coordinate characteristics, connection protocols, and even energy signatures contained in this 'record,' we might be able to get a vague topological location for that so-called 'Court of Revelry,' and perhaps even... understand some of its operational rules!"

"Director Evelyn, please calm down first." Su Mu had to interrupt her excitement over the scientific discovery. Pointing at the "candies" shimmering with an alluring luster under the analyzer's lights, she said warily, "These things were left by the 'Lord of the Grand Feast,' after all. How can we be sure there are no traps inside? For instance, touching them might trigger some kind of mark, or there could be slowly released mental pollution pheromones hidden within?"

The White Elder, who had been standing quietly to the side, now stepped forward slowly. He did not touch the shielding box directly but instead extended his withered yet steady fingers, tapping the air toward the crystals and remains several times. A layer of faint, balanced, and attribute-less clear light flowed from his fingertips, like invisible water brushing over the objects. Wherever the clear light passed, extremely subtle, almost imperceptible ripples appeared on the surfaces of the crystals and remains.

After a moment, the White Elder withdrew his fingers and nodded slowly. "From what I can see, there are no active malicious traps or immediate curses on these objects. The 'Lord of the Grand Feast' has a bizarre and unpredictable style, but He seems to... place great importance on 'style' and 'ritual.' Since He has issued a formal 'invitation,' He would likely disdain tampering with these 'scraps.' To Him, that might be beneath His status and not 'interesting' enough. However," he changed his tone, his voice becoming serious, "we must still be extremely cautious during research. It is best to place them in an environment with multiple layers of conceptual shielding and physical isolation. All operations should be performed by remote or bionic machinery, and researchers must wear the highest level of mental protection devices."

Wang Jianguo nodded and quickly made a decision. "Agreed. These samples will undergo limited, non-contact research by Evelyn's team in the 'Silent Ark' laboratory (the base's highest-security top-secret lab). The primary goal is to parse their energy and conceptual composition principles and attempt to reverse-engineer potential defense or countermeasure methods. Any attempt to activate or inject energy is strictly forbidden. Meanwhile," he looked at Excellence, "immediately conduct a comprehensive and deep-level physiological, energy, and soul-fluctuation scan on Excellence, focusing on checking for any residual marks, curses, or potential mental influences."

The tests were conducted at the base's most advanced medical and psionic analysis center. The process was tedious and meticulous, with various instruments emitting low hums and scanning beams passing over every inch of Excellence's body. Some results were soon released: Excellence's physiological indicators were perfect, even optimized compared to before the mission; his energy core—the Seed of Order—was operating steadily and powerfully, its light restrained but appearing more profound, like metal forged under high pressure, with both density and strength increased (Evelyn speculated that this was likely due to the stress-induced growth from his previous confrontation with high-dimensional warped rules while forcibly "defining" and "reconstructing" the cake messenger).

However, during the final and most critical "deep consciousness and soul map scan," the expressions of Evelyn and the psionic analysts in charge of the project grew solemn.

In the deepest layer of Excellence's soul-fluctuation map—the basal area of consciousness representing the essence of his existence—they found a "trace." It was extremely faint, so faint it almost blended in with the background noise, but the "rank" of its existence was terrifyingly high. When the scanning instrument's sensory tentacles drew slightly closer, there was a sense of trembling as if facing a bottomless abyss. It wasn't an energy residue or an information fragment; it was more like a... conceptual imprint. The imprint itself carried no specific information but clearly conveyed two abstract meanings: "invitation" and "expectation." Like an indelible, unshieldable watermark whose specific operational mechanism could not be parsed, it was quietly branded into the lowest level of Excellence's consciousness.

"This is it." Evelyn pointed to a tiny speck of light on the 3D soul map that was nearly invisible yet caused an inexplicable palpitation in all observers. "The physical form of the 'VIP Direct Invitation,' or rather... its 'projection anchor' in the reality dimension. It doesn't possess the ability to directly control, harm, or read thoughts; it's more like an... 'ownership statement' and a 'quality appraisal tag.' At the same time, it could become a spatial beacon for the 'Court of Revelry' to locate or even pull you in at some future moment when certain 'conditions' are met."

Excellence closed his eyes and sensed it carefully himself. Indeed, deep within his consciousness, there was an indescribable "foreign body sensation," accompanied by a faint, cloying, and lingering feeling of "being watched" that made his skin crawl. "Is there any way to shield it or interfere with it?" he asked.

"Conventional energy shielding, information isolation, and even physical-level soul protection are ineffective against it," the White Elder's voice carried a hint of heaviness. "Its composition level has touched the root domains of 'concept' and 'existence,' which are not on the same dimensional plane as the matter, energy, and information we are familiar with. Perhaps only when your understanding and control of the 'Order' authority reach a level sufficient to interfere with or even define such a 'conceptual existence' can you attempt to erase, overwrite, or modify it. Until then..." He paused. "I'm afraid you will have to carry this 'mark' indefinitely."

To everyone's surprise, Excellence didn't show much frustration or fear after hearing this. Instead, he stroked his chin, revealing an almost defiant, thoughtful expression. "In other words, before it feels I'm 'ready' and can be 'served,' I'm actually relatively safe? Maybe... I can even use the pressure from this 'attention' to force myself to become stronger faster?"

Su Mu was so exasperated by his bizarre logic that her eyes widened. "Safe? Being constantly thought of by some unknown cosmic-level weirdo as to when you'll be ready to be cooked and eaten—you call that safe?! Excellence, does your sense of security need recalibrating?"

"At least it's better than it sending an army or a more powerful messenger to our doorstep right now, right?" Excellence tried to be reasonable. "And, looking on the bright side, maybe this mark can serve as a reverse early-warning system? If the 'Lord of the Grand Feast' plans something big against us, or if some other ill-intentioned fellow tries to make a move on me early to intercept this 'dish,' maybe this mark will produce some kind of 'reaction' or 'disturbance' we don't yet understand?"

This perspective gave everyone present a pause. Evelyn Li fell into deep thought, her fingers unconsciously tapping on the virtual keyboard: "Theoretically... it's not impossible. The 'invitation' is the prototype of a two-way contract. Although the dominant power lies entirely with the other party, since it has established a connection, it could form an extremely weak and unstable two-way channel. Under certain specific conditions—such as a violent fluctuation in the Lord of the Grand Feast's own power, a change in the coordinates of the Court of Revelry, or another being of the same level attempting to forcibly erase or overwrite this mark—it might... actually cause a subtle reaction in the imprint. However," she emphasized immediately, "this is merely an extremely theoretical speculation, and the risk is immense! We must never actively touch, stimulate, or delve into this imprint. That would be equivalent to 'responding' to the invitation ahead of time, and the consequences would be unimaginable!"

"Understood, understood. I'll just treat it as a permanent, rather annoying tattoo and try my best to ignore it." Excellence's mindset adjusted rapidly. One more debt doesn't worry the debtor, and one more louse doesn't make the head itch. This wasn't the first time he'd been targeted by an ancient existence; adding the "Lord of the Grand Feast"... just seemed to make the "watchlist" a bit longer and a bit weirder.

Over the next few weeks, the "Homeland" star system entered a tense yet orderly "digestion period" and "preparation period," maintaining an outward appearance of calm while being internally vigilant. External defenses were not relaxed in the slightest; the monitoring network continued to operate around the clock, alert for any possible follow-up attacks. Internally, the team led by Evelyn Li practically moved into the "Silent Ark" laboratory, working tirelessly on non-contact research of the energy crystals and candle remains from the cake messenger. They combined the ancient insights provided by the White Elder, the vast historical and rule databases of "The Weave" system, and high-dimensional technology reverse-engineered from the remains of the Law Stealers. They attempted to analyze the power characteristics and operational logic of the Lord of the Grand Feast's lineage from multiple angles and levels, and began designing preliminary, targeted conceptual interference schemes.

Excellence's training entered a more "personalized" and "combat-oriented" phase. Having experienced the cake messenger incident, Su Mu, Evelyn Li, and the others realized clearly that when facing these ancient existences who played by rules completely outside physical common sense and moral logic, Excellence needed more than just an increase in energy levels and destructive power. More importantly, he needed resistance, identification, and counter-capabilities against various unconventional attack methods—especially those involving high-dimensional means like conceptual distortion, mental induction, and rule overwriting.

Thus, an "Excellence Special Ability Expansion Training Plan," led by Su Mu with technical support from Evelyn Li and the White Elder as a consultant, was freshly produced. It included several new subjects with rather unique styles:

Subject One: "Anti-Temptation and Anti-Conceptual Brainwashing" Comprehensive Training. Evelyn Li utilized the "Pleasure" conceptual radiation memes reverse-engineered from the energy crystals—which were extremely weak and had undergone multiple layers of filtering—and combined them with descriptions provided by the White Elder regarding the common temptation and deception methods used by other famous ancient existences in history (such as the "Knowledge Devourer," "Eternal Nightmare," and "Lord of Equivalent Exchange"). Within a highly controlled virtual reality system, she constructed a series of highly targeted simulated illusions.

These illusions ranged from relatively straightforward "temptations of peak power" (becoming the ruler of the star system) and "ultimate beauty traps" (shaping a partner that perfectly fit his aesthetic), to more hidden and eerie ones like "gifts of forbidden knowledge" (with attached soul pollution), "promises of an eternal peaceful land" (actually a consciousness cage), and "invitations to become a higher-dimensional lifeform" (actually a scam to strip away humanity and turn him into a tool), and so on. Excellence needed to maintain clear self-awareness while fully immersed in the illusions, keenly identifying unreasonable details and hidden malice in scenes, characters, and information, and ultimately rely on his firm belief in "Order" and his heart to protect "Homeland" to actively shatter the illusions.

The training process was often full of unexpected comedic effects. For instance, once, the illusion simulated the Lord of the Grand Feast personally appearing, laying out a "Cosmic Manchu-Han Imperial Feast" before Excellence that exhausted the imagination, with colors, aromas, and tastes (at a conceptual level) reaching the ultimate peak. Every dish radiated the temptation that "eating it would grant an insight into a cosmic law." As a result, Excellence stared at the radiant table of food for a long time, then rubbed his stomach and muttered, "It looks good, but it doesn't smell as good as the time the Class Monitor almost burnt the braised pork... and the portions are so small, who's this supposed to feed?" The illusion, due to his obsession with "home-cooked flavors" and "substantial portions," suffered a logical contradiction and instantly collapsed. After Su Mu learned the reason, she was both annoyed and amused, and her face felt a bit hot.

Subject Two: "Heart Barrier—Conceptual Defense Construction." Under the careful guidance of the White Elder, Excellence began a more difficult and abstract form of cultivation: attempting to extract and purify his most core and firm beliefs and emotions—"protecting Homeland and compatriots," "persisting in his own will and path," "cherishing the bonds with comrades and partners," "the pursuit of cosmic Order and beauty," and so on—and actively and systematically weaving and integrating them into his Power of Order.

The goal was not to form a simple energy shield, but to construct an invisible "Heart Barrier" that acted on the level of consciousness and existence. This barrier aimed to weaken or even immunize him from the root against various external negative conceptual erosions that attempted to distort Perception, dismantle will, or induce one onto a wrong path. This required Excellence to have an extremely deep and clear understanding of himself, a will as tempered as steel, and a level of control over the Power of Order that reached the refined degree of "moistening things silently."

The process was exceptionally arduous. Excellence would often sit for several hours in deep meditation, waking up drenched in sweat and mentally exhausted. Once, he had a sudden inspiration and tried to integrate "tolerance and adaptation to the Class Monitor's occasionally failed dark cuisine" into the barrier as a belief in "perseverance and adaptability." As a result, this slightly playful and impure thought caused the newly formed prototype barrier to experience subtle fluctuations and disharmony. Just then, the training system's simulated "The Whisper" of the Guixu People (emphasizing that all things return to nothingness and all efforts are futile) seeped in, nearly causing him to fall into a brief state of negativity. After Su Mu found out, she chased him around the training ground to "spar" for half an hour, claiming it was to "help him improve his combat focus under extreme interference."

Subject Three: "Targeted Plug-ins—'Hand-crafted' Counter-Equipment." This was something Excellence had strongly requested to be added. He felt that relying solely on his own cultivation to resist was not efficient enough and lacked specificity. "Offense is the best defense; we need some 'gear' to strike back." He set his sights on the energy crystals salvaged from the cake messenger.

"The concepts of 'Pleasure' and 'Celebration' sealed within these things, although distorted into bait and tools by the Lord of the Grand Feast, don't have absolute good or evil attributes themselves." Excellence explained his idea at the project demonstration meeting, his eyes shining. "Can I use my Power of Order to carefully 'purify' and 'wash' away the distorted and harmful parts, leaving only the relatively neutral conceptual base, and then... re-'program' it according to our needs, injecting our own positive concepts that can counter or interfere with the Lord of the Grand Feast's power? For example, making a necklace that radiates the conceptual wave of 'Simplicity is the true essence' or 'Plain food also has flavor'? Or making a charm that can forcibly distort and downgrade a perceived 'luxurious feast temptation' into the humble impression of 'filling up on cafeteria food'?"

This idea was truly imaginative, filled with Excellence's characteristic leap-frog thinking. After hearing it, Evelyn Li and the White Elder did not immediately dismiss it but fell into serious thought. Analyzing from a technical perspective, Evelyn Li believed the key lay in two difficulties: first, how to safely and cleanly "purify" those highly solidified distorted concepts that might possess backlash characteristics; second, how to achieve the "erasing" and "rewriting" of concepts, which involved manipulating abstract information at a physical level—a task of extreme difficulty. The White Elder pointed out from the perspective of cultivation that this required Excellence's control over the Power of Order to reach a level of "subtle perfection," and he needed a Perception and understanding of "concepts" themselves that surpassed ordinary people.

Despite the numerous difficulties, both felt that this direction possessed theoretical feasibility and immense potential value. Thus, under strict security measures and the close protection of the White Elder, Excellence's "Special Equipment Hand-crafting Workshop" opened for business once again. The first project was set as—"Anti-Revelry Conceptual Interferometer (Prototype)."

The process... was, as always, full of "Excellence's characteristics" and absurd accidents. The first attempt to purify a strawberry crystal failed because he underestimated the intensity of the "distorted pleasure" within. The output of the Power of Order was too strong; it not only purified the "distorted" part but also completely disintegrated the structure of the crystal itself, reducing it to a small pile of light pink powder that smelled of sweet strawberries, was edible, and tested non-toxic (it was taken by a curious Su Mu to make a drink, which reportedly had a refreshing taste and a sweet aftertaste). The second time, he chose a chocolate-shaped crystal and tried to write in the concept of "simple satisfaction." As a result, the concepts conflicted during the writing process, and the crystal instantly lost all luster and characteristics, turning into a hard, black rock with zero energy reaction. The third time, he ambitiously wanted to make a brooch that could interfere with the "Feast" concept over a wide area. When the resulting prototype was activated, everyone within a ten-meter radius of him inexplicably felt a strong sense of fullness, losing all interest in any food, even conceptual "delicacies." The effect lasted for a full half-hour, causing the cafeteria windows in that area to be deserted that day with a large amount of leftover food, which drew high "attention" from the logistics department.

He fought and failed repeatedly, yet innovated with every failure. It was precisely through these near-"torturous" high-difficulty challenges that Excellence's ability to finely manipulate the Power of Order, his sensitivity to abstract concepts, and his understanding of the transformation between matter and energy, and information and concepts, grew at an astonishing speed. Finally, after experiencing seventeen failures of various forms, the eighteenth attempt produced a different result.

It was a very simple-looking silver-white metal bracelet. The surface had no patterns or decorations; only the inner ring was embedded with a few grain-sized, dull-colored miniature crystal particles that had been successfully "washed" and injected with positive concepts like "homely," "warmth," and "contentment" after countless failures. The moment it was activated, there were no dazzling lights or shadows, only a layer of weak ripples, almost imperceptible to the naked eye like water rings, spreading out from the bracelet to form a spherical area with a radius of about three meters.

"White Elder" personally stepped into this area to feel it. After a moment, a hint of surprise showed in his eyes: "Effective. Although extremely weak, within this area, the negative conceptual atmospheres from the outside—like 'revelrous clamor', 'greedy extraction', and 'indulgent pleasure'—are indeed neutralized and diluted by a certain sense of 'tranquility', 'peace', and 'home'. It's like... being at the edge of a noisy banquet hall, yet having one's own clean, small room, where the heart is not easily disturbed by vanity."

It succeeded! Even though the range was pitifully small and the effect so weak it might not withstand even a slightly serious gaze from the Lord of the Grand Feast, this was undoubtedly a breakthrough from zero to one! It proved that the idea of using the Power of Order to "purify" and "reprogram" conceptual crystals was feasible! Excellence was greatly encouraged and immediately set about designing an improved version, aiming to expand the range of influence to the room level, increase the interference effect by an Order of magnitude, and try to integrate more diverse defensive concepts like "focus", "fortitude", and "cherishing the moment".

Just as Excellence was fully devoted to his "hand-crafting" grand cause, and Evelyn's team had also made several key data breakthroughs in their research on the cake remains, and the morale of the entire base was slightly lifted by these small progresses—a new crisis descended without warning in a way that completely exceeded everyone's expectations and even seemed somewhat "out of place".

This afternoon, Excellence was in his private workshop, performing final fine-tuning and calibration on the complex energy circuits of the second-generation bracelet. Su Mu sat in the nearby rest area, processing daily base patrol reports and resource scheduling applications on her personal terminal while occasionally looking up to supervise Excellence, preventing him from adding some "strange" function on a whim.

The workshop was very quiet, with only the low hum of the instruments and the faint electronic sounds Excellence made when occasionally adjusting parameters. Sunlight (simulated) slanted in from the observation window, coating the cold metal equipment in a layer of warm color.

Suddenly—

"Zzzzt—!!"

An extremely sharp, piercing noise, as if billions of metal needles were scraping against glass simultaneously, exploded without warning from Su Mu's personal terminal, all the display screens in the workshop, and even the environmental control panel speakers on the walls! This noise was not only high in decibels but also carried a strong quality of information pollution that made one's brain ache, directly impacting auditory nerves and thought coherence!

Su Mu was so startled she almost dropped her terminal; she clamped her hands over her ears, her face instantly turning pale. Excellence was also caught off guard, his brow furrowing at the sudden "noise attack," and he subconsciously channeled the Power of Order to set up a soundproof barrier in front of him. But he soon discovered that this noise was not purely physical sound waves; its core was a violent, disordered torrent of information that could directly interfere with the operation of electronic devices and biological logic!

Simultaneously, on all the screens emitting the noise, the images distorted, jumped, and flickered violently! A stream of information composed of countless disorganized fragments—known and unknown cosmic scripts, mathematical symbols, physics formula snippets, geometric fragments, meaningless abstract graffiti, and even rapidly flashing blurry video screenshots—flooded the screens like a burst dam! The scrolling speed was so fast the human eye couldn't capture any useful information, only a dizzying, unsettling, violent mix of blurry color blocks and light and shadow!

"What's going on?! Where did the attack come from?!" Su Mu asked loudly, enduring the discomfort, her voice sounding weak amidst the sharp noise.

Excellence did not answer; his expression was solemn as his Perception of Order fully expanded. The scene he "saw" was even more bizarre: the attack did not come from the outside. That violent torrent of information seemed to have "grown" out of the base's internal network itself, erupting instantly! It ignored all firewalls and physical isolation measures (at least partially), self-replicating, proliferating, and roaring at every information node of the base like a virus!

"Warning! Highest-level information crisis! The entire internal base network is under a blanket attack by an unknown form of information torrent! The first, second, and third firewalls were crushed within 0.01 seconds! The central information processing center's core load has reached critical levels; backup systems are starting up but are also being eroded! Some areas have initiated physical network isolation!" Evelyn's emergency communication forced its way into the workshop's backup line, her holographic image flickering violently, her voice carrying unprecedented urgency, confusion, and even a hint of horror, "The source of the attack cannot be traced! It's not an external signal injection; no intrusion detection systems found abnormal data inflow from external interfaces! The attack signal... it's like... it 'emerged' on its own from the basic code of our internal network, from silent data redundancy, and even from the electromagnetic background noise of the hardware layer! The attack pattern... cannot be defined! It's not any known virus, Trojan, worm, or logic bomb! It's a pure, out-of-control, exponentially growing 'information proliferation' and 'conceptual pollution'! It is... assimilating, overwriting, and restructuring all our data!"

Information proliferation? Conceptual pollution? Growing out of the internal network itself?

Excellence and Su Mu looked at each other, both seeing extreme shock and a sense of absurdity in the other's eyes. What on earth was this thing?! Compared to the violent devouring of the World Devourer, the silent erosion of the Guixu People, and the absurd temptation of the Lord of the Grand Feast, this crisis erupting directly from their most relied-upon, modernized information network seemed even more bizarre and... "not playing by the rules."

Just then, the violent information stream and piercing noise filling all screens and speakers paused for a split second, all at once.

Absolute silence lasted for less than half a second, but it was even more heart-pounding.

Then, on all the screens, the crazily scrolling chaotic information vanished, converged, and collapsed with incredible speed, like a receding tide. Finally, in the center of every screen, a slightly abstract and mechanical smiley face symbol condensed, composed of countless flickering "0"s and "1"s, interspersed with various strange mathematical symbols and circuit board patterns.

The smiley face symbol's "eyes," made of two strings of jumping green code, blinked eerily.

Then, a voice that was toneless, cold, and stiff, yet strangely "monotone" as if forcibly overlaid and blended from billions of different electronic synthesized voices in different languages, rang out simultaneously from all the devices still working, the words clear but devoid of emotion:

"Detected... high-concentration, high-activity, high-value... 'Order' and 'Information' entanglement node... coordinates secondary confirmation."

"Meets... 'Pan-Universe Information Collection and Optimization Convention (Draft)'... Level 1 priority 'collection' standards."

"Commencing... 'Friendly' contact protocol."

"Greetings, inefficient, redundant local data processing units in need of optimization."

"I am... World Wide Web Spider · Information Collector · Iteration Terminal · Alpha (Public Beta Version 47.21)."

"Detected target node (signal source clearly pointing to Excellence in the workshop) possesses significant 'Information Entropy Reduction' potential and 'Non-logical Conceptual Creation' capability, and is already associated with multiple high-dimensional, unknown, or encrypted information interfaces (preliminary identification includes: 'The Weave' repair body, unknown Order beacon, high-dimensional conceptual pollution residual marks, etc.). Pursuant to Article 7, Paragraph 3 of the 'Convention', initiating... mandatory information synchronization, structured backup, and overall optimization restructuring request for the target node and all its associated data sets, information storage media, and information processing architectures."

"Please unconditionally open all data interfaces and physical access permissions within 3.1415926 standard cosmic seconds to undergo full scanning, non-destructive backup, and systemic formatting restructuring. This process will improve your information processing efficiency by approximately 847.39% and eliminate existing logical contradictions and data redundancy."

"Refusal to execute, or failure to respond within the time limit, will automatically be judged as 'existence of malicious information barriers'. Pursuant to Conflict Resolution Appendix B of the 'Convention', executing... mandatory physical disassembly and low-level formatting procedures."

"Countdown... begins."

As that cold, strange voice fell, next to the abstract smiley face symbol on the screen, a row of crimson, rapidly jumping countdown numbers appeared: 3.1415926... 3.1415925... 3.1415924... Simultaneously, throughout the base, sudden changes occurred! Not just the workshop, but electronic devices in all areas, intelligent control nodes of energy transmission lines, mechanical equipment driven by chips, and even the internal processors of some experimental instruments began to emit abnormal, overloaded sharp hums and blinding fault flashes! A massive, cold invisible information pressure, carrying the absolute will to "analyze", "copy", "overwrite", and "restructure," crushed and permeated toward Excellence's workshop, the base's information center, and every corner where data was stored, like a transparent giant hand falling from the sky or a pervasive lethal gas!

This self-proclaimed "World Wide Web Spider · Alpha" information collector was more thorough in its greed and dominance than the physical plundering of the Law Stealers. It wanted to "format" every piece of information in the entire base, taking Excellence, this "high-value data node," along with everything associated with him, as "data to be optimized"!

Excellence looked at the cold countdown and abstract smiley face on the screen, feeling the groans of the surrounding equipment under the burden and the pervasive sense of information pressure. He slowly and completely stood up straight. The last trace of relaxation vanished from his face, and his eyes became like polar ice, sharp and dangerous. The Power of Order within him, as if provoked by this pure, alien "information aggression," began to flow and surge with unprecedented activity. Behind him in the void, the silver-white light-wing phantoms became much more solid, quietly unfolding, their edges swirling with wisps of destructive, disordered light.

"Another one..." Excellence's voice wasn't loud, but it clearly pierced through the noise of the surrounding equipment, carrying a coldness suppressed to the extreme, "Coming uninvited, not knowing the rules, and wanting to steal things..."

He slowly clenched his fists, his knuckles making a clear and dull cracking sound.

"And this time, the appetite is even bigger. Not only does it want to touch my 'Weave', but it also wants to touch my home, touch my people, and 'format' everything?"

He turned his head to look at Su Mu, who had barely recovered from the information shock, her face still pale. A smile, cold to the extreme yet burning with intense rage, slowly pulled across Excellence's face.

"Class Monitor," his voice was terrifyingly calm, "it seems our 'guest list' is getting longer and longer, and increasingly lacking in class."

"Ready?"

"Our 'Homeland', our 'Weave', seems to have been taken as a database disk by a self-righteous, overbearing 'metal spider'."

He raised his hand, and the silver-white light of Order began to gather and compress in his palm, emitting a low hum.

"It's time to teach it—"

"Whose domain it is, and who's in charge. Whose weave it is, and who has the final say!"