295: Entrapment enforcement and fishpond explosion

I. Dead Silent Siege

The "Touch of silence" was soundless and noiseless, yet more heart-stopping than any roar.

Those twisted shadows emerging from the grey "mirror surface," composed of pure "silence," moved in a way so eerie it made one's scalp tingle—they didn't "walk" or "fly," but rather "smeared" and "covered" space itself.

One second they were on that dead-silent grey mirror a hundred meters away, the next, the edges of those cold shadows, which seemed capable of absorbing all "sense of existence" and "information," had, like thick ink dripped onto rice paper, "blurred" without warning onto the outer shield of the "ranger"!

"Evelyn! Emergency maneuver! Don't let them touch us!"

Excellence roared, simultaneously pressing his hands tightly onto the containment canister, pouring the surging power of "Order" within his body like floodgates opening into the "stone of silence."

According to Mute's not-so-reliable "user manual," this thing was now not only a "bait" and "stabilizer," but to some extent, also an "interference source" and "deterrent" against these derivatives of "silence."

The "ranger's" engines let out a sharp screech, the hull suddenly performed a near-vertical lateral roll, and immediately after, the attitude thrusters fired in reverse, forcibly executing a counter-intuitive emergency stop and change of direction in the void.

A "Shadow of silence," like a giant, invisible palm slapping down, grazed the edge of the shield, close enough for Excellence to "feel" the absolute "emptiness" radiating from that shadow, enough to freeze thought.

The moment the shadow swept past, the light of the ship's shield dimmed by more than a third!

It wasn't pierced by energy; rather, the "energy fluctuation information" and "defensive structural information" that constituted the concept of the "shield" had been briefly and brutally "erased" by that absolute "silence"!

Even more terrifying was the mental impact—Excellence felt his mind, during the fraction of a second the shadow grazed him, as if it had been plunged into liquid nitrogen at absolute zero, experiencing a brief, terrifying stagnation and blankness, as if his brain's processing core had been forcibly stuffed with a large chunk of sound-absorbing, cold void.

"Evasion successful! Shield energy loss rate 19%! Regeneration efficiency dropped by 73%! This shadow possesses the dual characteristics of 'Information silence' and 'Conceptual Erosion'!"

Evelyn's voice carried a clear system load warning tone.

"Not just one direction!"

Stardust's calm warning came through.

She had already entered combat mode, the muzzle of her uniquely shaped rifle shimmering with a faint, silver-blue ripple-like energy light, having switched to a certain "Psionic Field Interference" mode.

She did not aim at the shadow itself—physical attacks were highly likely ineffective against such entities—but instead adjusted her muzzle slightly, aiming at the area around the shadow about to "smear" onto the ship's flank, where the spatial structure was slightly distorted and the field of "silence" was abnormally active, and calmly pulled the trigger.

"Zzz—pop!"

There was no dazzling energy beam, only a near-invisible psionic harmonic beam that could cause subtle spatial "Resonance" was fired.

The beam precisely struck a small patch of the grey "mirror surface."

That area, originally as smooth as stagnant water, instantly rippled like a lake surface into which a stone had been thrown, spreading circles of chaotic spatial ripples with eerie, iridescent edges!

The effect was immediate!

The "Shadow of silence" that was "smearing" over suddenly stalled, as if a high-speed vehicle had suddenly plunged into a thick swamp.

Its distorted, unstable form showed momentary blurring and fluctuation, like a holographic projection with a bad signal, and there were even faint signs of "collapse" at the edges, dissipating a few wisps of cold, grey-white "silence" mist.

"Effective!"

Data streams flowed steadily in Stardust's grey eyes, her speaking speed fast, "The target relies on deep spatial connections and field 'Resonance' with the 'Silent Corridor Base' to maintain its form and movement! Interfering with the stability of the 'silence' field around its connection point can temporarily delay or even disrupt its structure! Continuous attacks on the same area may cause local field collapse!"

"Well done, Stardust!"

Excellence felt refreshed, while continuing to maintain the energy output to the "stone of silence" (the external "Resonance Fishing Device" was still working), he also began to try to divert a sliver of his mind to imitate Stardust's "Psionic Harmonic Interference."

But his power of "Order" leaned more towards macroscopic rule stabilization and guidance; in this kind of microscopic interference requiring extremely precise frequency control, the effect was far less professional than Stardust's special equipment.

He put more of his energy into maintaining the stable output of "Resonance" and staying vigilant against the other two more troublesome "environmental maintenance gadgets" that Mute had mentioned.

However, crises never arrive alone.

Just as they had managed to barely contain the siege momentum of a few "Shadows of silence" by relying on Stardust's precise interference, a new anomaly occurred!

That grey "mirror surface" area that had been struck by Stardust's psionic beam and was rippling with chaotic iridescent waves not only did not calm down but instead intensified as if boiling!

Immediately after, that "mirror surface," like melted candle wax, violently "caved in" and rotated inward, in the blink of an eye forming a giant vortex over ten meters in diameter, with iridescent flowing light inside, emitting a strong psychedelic and mental suction force!

"The 'echo Cage' has been activated!"

Mute's voice, carrying a tone of "I knew it" and "good luck," rang out in everyone's minds in time, "Careful! Don't get caught by its mental traction! This thing will, based on each trapped person's conscious activity, crazily copy, amplify, and distort the deepest distracting thoughts, fears, desires, and memory fragments in your heart, weaving them into a mental hell that is completely targeted at you, infinitely looping and constantly evolving! Once you fall in, trying to break free with your own strength... is hard! Very hard!"

Almost at the same time as Mute's warning, that iridescent psychedelic vortex suddenly erupted with a powerful, eerie "suction" that acted directly on the depths of the soul!

This suction was not a physical pull, but a "Resonance traction" aimed at consciousness.

Excellence, Stardust, and even "White Elder," who was closely perceiving the outside world through a mental link, all felt as if their core thoughts had been hooked by invisible hooks, uncontrollably sinking toward the depths of that vortex!

Deep in their minds, various thoughts usually suppressed or ignored by rationality surfaced like dregs, instantly activated and amplified: anxiety about the "Heart-Devouring Demon" lingering, despair about the ship's energy running dry, deep fear of the unknown terror behind that giant door, guilt that "White Elder" and Stardust might meet with misfortune because of his decisions... and even some absurd, trivial distracting thoughts, like what the unfinished synthetic food last time on "Resonance Star" tasted like, why Evelyn's projection always chose blue...

Once these thoughts appeared, they were crazily captured, distorted, and inflated by the vortex, becoming incredibly clear and full of emotional impact, like countless voices screaming, arguing, and tempting in their consciousness, trying to completely drown out their reason and clarity!

"Guard your spiritual center! Let all thoughts return to silence! Do not be taken advantage of by external demons!"

"White Elder's" old and resonant voice rang out like a great bell, exploding in the minds of everyone who was almost losing control!

A grand, gentle, yet incredibly firm ancient psionic wave swept through, like a needle of the sea, temporarily stabilizing their wavering mental defense line.

"However, this cage is insidious, specifically targeting flaws in the heart and mind; prolonged resistance is not the best strategy! One must use an extremely firm will to forcibly sever the link, or use a specific frequency of 'reverse silence harmonic' to counter its core 'Resonance' to break it!"

"Specific frequency?!"

Excellence, while desperately fighting against the distracting thoughts crazily growing in his mind and the increasingly strong mental suction, looked toward Stardust.

Cold sweat had already seeped from his forehead, and his temples were throbbing.

Stardust's state was clearly not good either; her body trembled slightly, and the data stream that had been flowing steadily in her grey eyes became chaotic and sluggish, clearly also resisting mental erosion with all her might.

But her powerful computational core as a semi-mechanical being was still running under overload, golden light flashing crazily in her eyes, clearly frantically analyzing and capturing the complex and variable mental fluctuation frequencies emitted by the "echo Cage" vortex.

Her special rifle adjusted again, the muzzle beginning to condense a faint, grey-white, near-invisible energy beam whose frequency was changing rapidly at a speed difficult for the naked eye to capture.

"Currently reverse-analyzing the cage's core mental 'Resonance' model... attempting to construct an anti-phase 'silence' harmonic sequence... need... time!"

Her voice carried the harshness of electronic noise.

"Time is not on our side! The shadows are surrounding us again! A new threat has appeared!"

Evelyn's urgent alarm pulled everyone's attention back to reality.

The few "Shadows of silence" that had been temporarily delayed by Stardust's interference seemed to have adapted to the interference mode, their forms stabilizing again, "smearing" and surrounding them from more dispersed and tricky angles.

More troublesome was that outside the porthole on the other side of the ship, several transparent bubbles, as light as soap bubbles, with surfaces flowing with dreamy, magnificent colors, yet emitting an aura of "existence dilution" that made one instinctively feel uneasy, were drifting, seemingly slowly but actually with erratic trajectories, toward the ship—without a doubt, this was the third type of "gadget" Mute had mentioned, the "Concept Dissolving Bubbles"!

In front, there were "Shadows of silence" blocking and eroding; on the side, there was the "echo Cage" sucking souls and confusing minds; behind, there were "Concept Dissolving Bubbles" tailing and polluting.

A standard three-dimensional encirclement, also accompanied by mental attacks and eerie threats at the level of existential concepts.

"Senior Mute! This is your understated 'gadget'?! This lineup is enough to fight a high-intensity dimensional conflict!"

Excellence, while clumsily commanding the power of "Order" to try to interfere with the nearest shadow (with little effect), couldn't help but roar at Mute in the mental link.

"Uh... well... maybe the 'standby' time was too long, and the malfunction level of this 'Environmental Maintenance and Expulsion System'... is a little bit more serious than I imagined? Or perhaps, this 'Resonance Fishing' signal you activated is, to them, more 'attractive' and 'provocative' than expected?"

Mute's voice was full of guilt and uncertainty, "Hold on! You must hold on! I believe you can do it! After all, those who can make it here are not ordinary people... By the way, friendly reminder, try not to use large-scale, high-energy attacks, as it's easy to scare away the 'fish' that haven't taken the bait yet, and more likely... to stimulate other more troublesome 'deep maintenance protocols' in this old system that I've almost forgotten..."

Excellence: "..."

He now highly suspected that this "Senior Mute," besides watching the gate and adjusting air pressure, also moonlighted as a "teammate-saboteur."

Just then, a sharp gleam suddenly erupted in Stardust's eyes, a sign of extreme focus and completed calculation: "Frequency locked! Anti-phase harmonic sequence construction complete—fire!"

"Zzz——————!"

A beam, so thin it was almost invisible, grey-white, without any heat or energy radiation, pierced like a scalpel precisely into the center of that constantly rotating, iridescent "echo Cage" vortex emitting psychedelic suction!

No explosion, no loud noise.

The psychedelic vortex shuddered violently, and the mental distracting thoughts and traction fields crazily circulating and amplifying inside seemed to instantly crash into an invisible wall of "silence" with a completely opposite frequency!

The iridescent light violently disordered, conflicted, and canceled each other out!

The vortex's rotation speed plummeted, its form beginning to unstably expand and contract, like a soap bubble about to burst.

"Crack... (sound of silent mental shattering)"

After a "crisp sound" like glass shattering that seemed to resound directly at the soul level, the light of the huge iridescent vortex suddenly dimmed completely and dissipated, as if it had never existed, leaving behind only a grey "mirror surface" that was slightly "wrinkled" but quickly returned to smoothness.

"Cage... broken!"

Stardust let out a long sigh of relief, her body swaying, and she steadied herself by holding onto the console.

The high-intensity reverse calculation and energy output just now was clearly a huge burden on her.

The data stream in her eyes had dimmed significantly.

However, the brief gap from breaking one "echo Cage" had already allowed more "Shadows of silence" and those few swaying "Concept Dissolving Bubbles" to approach to a dangerous distance!

The "ranger," like an insect caught in a spider web, kept emitting mournful energy alarms under the continuous "silence" erosion of the shadows, and the ship's maneuvering space was compressed smaller and smaller, almost to the point of being unavoidable.

Evelyn! Can you create a brief, high-intensity local spatial structural disturbance without using the main weapon or significantly increasing energy consumption?

No need to attack, just a 'jolt' to interfere with their force field connections and stability!

Excellence recalled in a flash the time he dealt with the "Greedy Aggregate" by using the "stone of silence" to have the passive force field "erase" the spatial imprisonment.

Since these "little trinkets" relied heavily on the "silence" force field and the spatial substrate, perhaps a strong, non-aggressive spatial disturbance could have a miraculous effect?

"Feasible plan: Overload the backup attitude control engine group, combined with the resonant frequency of specific parts of the hull (non-critical structures), to trigger a high-intensity spatial curvature tremor within a spherical range of about forty meters around the ship, lasting about 0.3 seconds.

Side effects: Increased metal fatigue in the corresponding parts, energy consumption increased by approximately 9.5%, and potential temporary malfunction of some precision instruments."

Evelyn's calculations were extremely fast.

"Execute! Now! Stardust, prepare to record the 'Resonance' feedback, focusing on anomalies in the disturbed area!"

Excellence shouted; this was a gamble in a desperate situation.

"Command confirmed. Spatial tremor—initiating!"

Deep within the hull of the "ranger," a low, teeth-grinding hum of metal twisting and energy overload erupted!

The entire ship began to tremble violently at a specific frequency!

At the same time, the gray "mirror" space around the ship seemed to be gripped and released by an invisible giant hand, instantly causing layers of intense, chaotic, and visible spatial wrinkles and ripples to surge!

The effect was unexpectedly good!

The "Silent Shadows" that were almost pressed against the shields and about to complete their "smearing" erosion were struck a fatal blow to their deep connection with the "substrate" and their own force field stability under the interference of the violent spatial structural tremor!

Their forms, like holograms with completely interrupted signals, flickered, twisted, and disintegrated madly!

Large patches of grayish-white "silence" mist peeled off and dissipated from them; the originally solid shadows became thin and transparent, and two smaller shadows even dissipated completely like smoke!

And those erratic "concept dissolution bubbles," like startled transparent jellyfish, suddenly shrank inward, their brilliant surface lights flashing wildly, as they scrambled backward in a panic, as if they had encountered a natural Predator.

"Interference successful! Target stability has dropped significantly! 'Resonance' sensors detected strong feedback! Coordinates marked!"

Evelyn's voice carried a rare fluctuation.

"Good chance!"

A silver light flashed in Excellence's eyes.

Seizing this fleeting window, he injected more power of "Order" into the "stone of silence," while adjusting the output direction and frequency of the "Resonance fishing device": "Evelyn! Adjust the 'Resonance' focus, avoid those disintegrating shadows and bubbles, and focus the scan on the area below and to the rear of where the spatial tremor was most intense! The 'fish' is likely startled!"

Sure enough, with the redirection of the "Resonance" ripples and the spread of the spatial tremor's aftermath, deep beneath a relatively "calm" gray "mirror" about eight hundred meters away from the ship, a few extremely faint, yet surprisingly "active" and "Order-inclined" seven-colored "ribbons" or "light fluffs," flowing like auroras, were "jolted" out of their hiding place like startled deep-sea bioluminescent creatures, swaying and wandering in that area in a daze.

The fluctuations they emitted were completely different from the dead "silence," and also distinct from the chaotic violence of the "Heart-Devouring Demon," filled with a pure, changing, and wonderful rhythm containing infinite possibilities.

"Detected high-activity, low-aggression, highly ordered chaos-derived energy/information aggregate! Characteristics highly consistent with the description of 'Gentle Chaos echo'! Quantity... three to four units!"

Evelyn's report carried a tone of confirmation.

"That's them! Stardust, cooperate with me, proceed as planned!"

Excellence's spirits lifted, and the fatigue was temporarily suppressed.

He immediately followed the near-metaphysical "fishing" technique taught by Mute, adjusting his own power of "Order" to a special frequency that was extremely gentle and full of the connotations of "inclusion," "guidance," and "soothing."

This power, through the wondrous conversion and amplification of the "stone of silence," turned into an invisible, warm, yet incredibly tough "energy-information net," gently enveloping those swaying "seven-colored auroras."

At the same time, Stardust also controlled her special rifle, firing beams of extremely weak, precisely frequency-modulated psionic harmonics.

These harmonics were not aggressive; they were more like a "shepherd's flute" full of "invitation" and "guidance," gently brushing over those "seven-colored auroras," guiding and dispelling their slight "unease," and slowly "driving" them toward the "homing net" woven by Excellence with the power of "Order."

This process tested patience and micro-management to the extreme.

If the force was slightly too strong, these fragile "Chaos Echoes" might be startled and flee, or even self-annihilate; if the force was insufficient or the frequency was wrong, an effective connection might not be established, letting them slip through the mesh.

Excellence felt as if he were weaving a dream-net to capture starlight on the edge of a violent quantum ocean using the thinnest spider silk, fully focused, with every neuron running at overload.

Luck seemed to have finally favored them for once.

Perhaps it was because Mute's "fishing blueprint" indeed contained profound principles, perhaps because of the natural affinity of the "stone of silence" as "bait" and "medium," or perhaps because Excellence's unique, vibrant, and orderly power of "Order" had an instinctive attraction to these "Chaos Echoes" that tended toward Order.

After experiencing initial slight resistance and confusion, those few "seven-colored auroras" were gradually attracted by the warm, stable, and "Order"-filled "net."

Like moths chasing light, or tired birds returning to their nests, they merged into it, one by one, gently, and finally, following the guidance of the "net," slowly flowed into the containment canister, contacting and merging with the silver-white light at the core of the "stone of silence."

The "stone of silence" in the canister suddenly shone brightly!

It was no longer a single silver-white, but began to circulate with gorgeous and dreamy seven-colored rays, like a strange gemstone with a miniature rainbow nebula sealed inside.

A pure, gentle, yet containing some indescribable energy and information fluctuation, as if from a fragment of the melody of the universe's creation, rippled out from the canister.

"Conversion process started! Energy purity... extremely high! Information flow is stable and ordered! Attempting preliminary analysis..."

Evelyn's voice carried a report of certainty.

"Haha! It's done! It's 'Gentle Rule Melody Fragments'! And it's mixed with a little pure 'possibility tide energy'! Kid, not bad! This is hot stuff!"

Mute's voice sounded again, full of undisguised excitement and... a hint of impatience?

"Quick! Strike while the iron is hot! Use your power of 'Order' to guide and divert it; part of the energy goes into the ship's core, and part of it gives this old guy's core fragment (referring to the 'stone of silence') a boost! Share the information flow as well; I'll see if there are any clues about that last mess..."

However, the joy and brief respite of the group lasted less than five seconds.

Perhaps it was because the "energy scent" produced by the recent violent spatial tremor and the successful "fishing" activity was too tempting, perhaps because the continuously operating "Resonance" device was still emitting special fluctuations, or perhaps it was purely because Mute's "dilapidated" defense and balance system, after experiencing continuous stimulation, finally began to "glitch" even more outrageously—

Directly below the "ranger," the vast, seemingly eternal gray "mirror" substrate, without warning, was hit as if by an invisible planet, suddenly surging with monstrous "waves"!

Not waves of matter, but violent "fluctuations" of space, rules, and the level of existence!

The entire visible "Silent Corridor" seemed to wake up from the deepest silence, beginning to "tremble" violently and irregularly!

Immediately following, on the gray "mirror" less than three hundred meters away from them, almost directly facing the towering gate, space was torn apart like a rag by a pair of invisible and violent giant hands!

A huge spatial rift with a diameter of over two hundred meters, with crazy purple-black energy arcs jumping at the edges, and an interior of rotating, absolute darkness and chaos that seemed to devour all light, suddenly appeared!

A mixture of chaos, destruction, and greed, far more ancient, violent, and "essential" than the "Heart-Devouring Demon," "eye of suffering," or even the "Greedy Aggregate," erupted from the depths of the rift like a beast that had been suppressed for billions of years!

The horror of this aura made Excellence feel his soul freeze in an instant; it was not malice directed at an individual, but the most primitive, most thorough desire for negation and devouring of the entire "ordered existence" itself!

At the same time, as if stimulated by both this terrifying aura and the violent spatial disturbance, the distant huge "the gate," which had only been letting out a faint flow of chaotic light through its crack, vibrated violently!

The cold silver luster flowing on the surface of the gate flickered wildly as if boiling, and the extremely complex ancient geometric patterns and symbols engraved on it flashed madly, emitting a "wail" and "alarm" that acted directly on the level of existence, silent yet heart-wrenching!

Even more terrifyingly, the crack that was originally just a faint glimmer instantly turned into a jet-like, crimson and purple-black intertwined torrent of light filled with violent energy!

It was as if on the other side of the gate, there was more than one behemoth, madly slamming and tearing at this last barrier, unable to wait to pour into this land of "silence," and even the ordered universe behind it!

"Highest level alert! Super-huge 'Chaos Erosion Source' detected! Energy level cannot be estimated! Exceeds all known archive records! Spatial structure is collapsing regionally! Target 'the gate' stability index is plummeting! Estimated time to complete failure: Cannot be calculated, but extremely short!"

Evelyn's alarm was so sharp it was almost distorted, and her projection was also flickering violently due to overload.

"It's it! One of the sources of the last abnormal tide! No... it might be the biggest 'trouble' of them all! Has it been hovering around here all this time?! Or was it completely drawn out by our movement just now?!"

Mute's voice was full of shock, anger, and a hint of deep-seated fear, "Damn it! This thing is not easy to deal with! It's not some 'echo' or 'derivative'; it is a 'concept-level Predator' bred by the deep-level unrest of the 'Sea of Chaos'! It specifically devours Order and structure! Quick! Stop all 'Resonance'! Retract the device! Prepare... prepare to run for your lives!"

Run? Where to?

This "Silent Corridor" is a dead end, the outside is void, and on the other side of the gate is an even more terrifying "Predator" lair...

Just at this desperate moment, Excellence's gaze was fixed on the huge gate that was vibrating violently, flashing wildly, and seemed about to be completely crushed by the pincer attack from inside and out in the next second.

He then looked at the spatial rift that was erupting with terrifying aura and expanding rapidly.

A thought, crazy to the extreme but perhaps the only glimmer of hope, struck his mind like lightning!

"Mute!"

Excellence roared at Mute with all his mental power in the consciousness link, "This 'the gate' of yours! Now, before it's broken open, if we take the initiative... use all my power of 'Order,' plus the energy stored in the 'silence core,' to simulate one of your strongest 'adjustment' actions from your peak period—not opening the door, but creating an extremely brief, tiny, directional 'pressure relief vent,' directing the pressure on this side of 'the gate' toward that rift, while using the recoil of the 'pressure relief' to close the door instantly... what would happen?!"

Mute: "!!! Kid, are you fucking crazy?! That's the pressure of the 'Sea of Chaos'! Even a tiny leak would be enough to wash away our 'existence' until not a trace is left! Let alone controlling the direction for recoil to close the door? The required precision for this operation is ridiculously high! One control error, and we'll be the first sacrifices to open the gates of hell ourselves!"

"I know!" Excellence was practically roaring, but his eyes were terrifyingly bright; it was the near-insane calm and sharpness that erupted after being pushed to the limit in a desperate situation.

"But look at that rift! Look at that aura! That 'big guy' is coming for the gate or us (the core in our hands)! It's working with something behind the gate! Once it gets all the way through, or the gate gets smashed open, we're one hundred percent doomed! We're dead either way, so we might as well gamble!"

"We'll initiate a 'flood release' ourselves, but the target won't be us—it'll be that rift! We'll use 'authentic,' high-purity 'chaos pressure' to strike that Predator and the opening it tore! Let's... fight fire with fire, divert the disaster, and then use the chance to close the gate!"

Stardust snapped her head toward Excellence, the data streams in her grey eyes instantly reaching an unprecedented peak density, clearly overloading as she calculated every parameter and possibility of this insane plan.

Her body was even emitting faint wisps of white smoke from the overload.

Evelyn's projection froze for a moment, then entered a state of unconventional, extreme logical deduction, her light flickering at a frequency too fast for the naked eye to catch.

From White Elder's mental link came a long, heavy sigh that seemed to traverse endless years, followed by a wave of support that was incredibly firm, even carrying a certain sense of determination:

"The universe is indifferent; it treats all things as straw dogs. Yet even straw dogs have the will to survive, and ants possess the courage to shake trees. Though this plan is a narrow escape from death, we are in a desperate situation where we must seek survival in danger. Kid, since your mind is set, let go and do it! I will risk this lingering soul of mine to protect your spirit from being extinguished and help you harness that monstrous power!"

Mute was silent.

The aura of destruction pouring from the rift was pressing in like a tangible tide, and the vibration of the gate had reached its limit, even beginning to show visible, minute, soul-trembling cracks!

"...Damn it! Let's do it!!!" Mute finally erupted with a roar mixed with fear, a 'what the hell' attitude, and a spark of ignited, insane fighting spirit.

"I'm opening the low-level emergency adjustment interface for the gate and the final control authority of the stone of silence for you—two seconds at most! Only two seconds! Use all your power of Order and your will to guide the core energy, simulating the 'silence tide: directional diversion' protocol from my strongest record! Target: the center of the rift! Then, at the moment the 'diversion' energy erupts and the recoil reaches its peak, use your will to slam the bolt shut! Remember, only two seconds! Even a tenth of a second more, and the interface might be reverse-contaminated by 'chaos,' or the gate might never close again!"

"Two seconds... that's enough!" The silver light in Excellence's eyes burned like real fire, and he hesitated no longer.

He clamped his hands onto the scorching containment canister like branding irons, fusing, igniting, and detonating the last sliver of the power of Order remaining in his body—newly converted and squeezed out by overdrawing his potential—along with that vast, cold, and pure energy of silence from the stone of silence, in a desperate, near-suicidal manner!

"Evelyn! Use all the ranger's energy to reinforce the structure at any cost, and prepare to withstand an incalculable impact! Stardust, prepare to cover our front with the maximum power of the 'broad-spectrum silence harmonic' the moment the 'diversion' is triggered, to weaken the leaking chaos radiation as much as possible! Old White, I'm counting on you!"

"Command confirmed! 'Absolute structural maintenance' protocol initiated!"

"Harmonic overload preparation complete!"

"Psionic barrier—fully engaged!"

The stone of silence, along with the entire containment canister, now seemed to have become a miniature, impending star of swirling silver-white and seven colors!

The runes on the canister's surface flashed wildly, even beginning to show signs of melting!

A terrifying energy fluctuation capable of warping space and freezing time condensed thunderously with Excellence at its center!

At the same time, on the giant gate that was on the verge of collapse, a tiny, yet dizzyingly complex "rune lock" composed of countless rotating silver geometric figures suddenly lit up and unlocked—that was the temporary interface Mute had opened, giving two seconds of access to the lowest level of the sealing and adjustment system of the gate!

Excellence's torrent of power, fused with Order and silence and filled with determined will, surged in like an apocalyptic flood that had finally found its only spillway!

"Now! 'silence tide: directional diversion'—open the floodgates!!!"

Excellence's soul let out a silent, limit-shattering scream!

In that instant, time seemed to stretch and freeze.

There was no deafening explosion, no retina-piercing glare.

Only a grand, spatial "pulse"—low to a frequency beyond everything—that seemed to come from the beginning of the universe's creation or the time of all things' end!

The towering giant gate, which had been vibrating violently, covered in cracks, and on the verge of being torn apart by internal and external forces, suddenly and extremely briefly "froze" the moment the "pulse" sounded!

Immediately after, at the very bottom of the gate, pressed against the grey "mirror" base and directly facing the crazily expanding spatial rift, the unimaginably thick gate body silently "bloomed" outward... a twisted, flickering, violently silver-white and chaotic-colored rift about a meter long, but only a hair's breadth wide at its widest point!

A true, unfiltered, and unbuffered flow of primal chaos from the deepest, most violent, and infinite-possibility-laden reaches of the Sea of Chaos—containing endless "change" and the purest source of "chaos" and "creation/destruction"—erupted and shot out from that hair-thin rift like high-dimensional energy that had been suppressed for aeons and had finally found a gap, erupting with indescribable density and speed!

However, this chaos torrent, capable of instantly annihilating a star system, did not spread wantonly.

Because the moment it poured out, it was forcibly bound, shaped, and guided by a power of the silence tide so powerful it was inconceivable, so refined it surpassed mortal understanding, and so cold it froze the soul—much like the universe's most brilliant artisan controlling the most violent fire of laws!

This silence tide, acting like the hardest mold and the most precise guide rail, forcibly compressed and shaped the gushing chaos torrent into a straight, devastating "energy/information javelin"—an entity condensed to the extreme, violent to the extreme, filled with the will of "pressure relief" and "diversion," and frantically intertwined with silver-white and purple-black.

This "javelin," moving at a speed beyond thought, struck true, squarely, and with pinpoint accuracy—"booming" into the very center of the huge spatial rift that was spewing out an aura of destruction and reaching out with a terrifying existence!

And, following the rift, it "stabbed" fiercely into the "body" of the indescribable "conceptual Predator" that was at the other end of the rift, trying to squeeze into this world!

"???!" (A shock of incomprehensible information and excruciating pain)

The Predator seemed to have been hit square in the face and pierced through by this sudden, internal, yet more "authentic," "violent," and "unfair" chaos torrent from inside the gate!

Its chaotic consciousness, filled with the desire to devour and destroy, was instantly overwhelmed by incomparable astonishment, excruciating pain, and a trace... of instinctive fear of a higher level of "chaos"!

It was like a robber smashing a door, suddenly hit head-on by a high-pressure water cannon from inside, and then having his stomach pumped with lava!

Before it could make any effective reaction, the chaos "javelin" guided and compressed by the silence tide had already erupted thunderously inside its "body" and the rift channel!

The violent chaos energy collided, annihilated, and exploded crazily with its own power!

At the same time, the terrifying recoil force formed by this eruption, mixed with the final, precise control of the silence tide—"Close!!!"

Excellence used the very last ounce of his soul's strength, coordinating with the interface authority Mute was withdrawing at top speed, and the final force of silence from the stone of silence's near-suicidal eruption, to issue his final, determined will command!

"Rumble—!!!"

This time, it was a terrifying, real, and undeniable loud noise that seemed to be two worlds colliding violently and then being forcibly separated, piercing through matter and soul!

The huge spatial rift, which had been forcibly "backfilled" with excess chaos energy and a pained Predator, was like an iron can stretched to its limit and then severely beaten; it first bulged outward violently, erupting with earth-shattering annihilation ripples that instantly swept away all "silent shadows" and "conceptual bubbles" in the vicinity, and then collapsed, compressed, and healed inward at a speed countless times faster than when it had opened!

In the end, it only left behind a highly unstable, slowly rotating, miniature space turbulence area, mixed with purple-black and silver-white, like a scar, which was rapidly fading and disappearing under the self-healing ability of the Silent Corridor.

And that giant gate, the moment the chaos torrent had erupted, the "directional diversion" was completed, and the recoil reached its peak, slammed shut at a speed billions of times faster than when it had opened, with a heavy roar that sounded like relief and a mournful cry!

It completely cut off that trace of leaking primal chaos aura! The wildly flashing silver light and cracked patterns on the gate flickered violently after closing, as if enduring the final impact, but eventually calmed down, dimmed, and returned to its previous cold, heavy, and ancient posture of silence.

Even the previously unstable chaos glow between the door cracks had now become extremely faint and steady, as if it had just experienced a thorough "pressure relief" and "reinforcement."

Inside the ranger, there was a near-eternal silence, save for the hissing of energy overload cooling and the heavy, bellows-like breathing of everyone.

Excellence collapsed directly onto the cold floor, his body trembling violently and uncontrollably, his face as pale as a corpse, with tiny traces of blood even seeping from his seven orifices.

The sharp pain between his brows felt as if it were tearing his entire skull apart, his body felt hollow, and even the strength to lift his eyelids seemed to have been completely drained.

Those short two seconds were a weight his life could not bear, a deadly waltz dancing with the most violent power in the universe, and a desperate struggle of his soul on the edge of annihilation.

He felt that his very existence had almost been completely torn apart, assimilated, and evaporated by that violent torrent of opposing "chaos" and "silence."

Stardust also knelt on one knee, relying on the console to keep from collapsing; the muzzle of her special rifle was emitting blue smoke, clearly having overloaded its output at the last moment.

The data streams in her eyes were completely extinguished, leaving only the most basic physiological maintenance light points; she was like a piece of precision machinery that had exhausted its energy, temporarily entering a state of forced sleep and recovery.

Evelyn's projection was so dim it was almost transparent, leaving only a blurry outline, her spiritual fluctuations as weak as a candle in the wind.

Even White Elder's mental link had fallen into a long, deep silence, as if exhausted by the immense expenditure, with only a trace of extremely weak fluctuation representing "existence," proving that he had not yet dissipated.

After what felt like a century, Mute's voice—filled with extreme lingering fear of having survived a disaster, unbelievable shock, and... a kind of near-fanatical excitement—finally sounded tremblingly and intermittently in Excellence's almost exhausted consciousness:

"Su...success? Did we... did we actually succeed?! You stabbed that 'conceptual Predator' back with a 'chaos javelin'? And blew up its 'dog hole' (rift)?! the gate... the gate closed? And damn it... it seems like a blessing in disguise, using the recoil to ram the seal tighter?! Kid... no! Big brother! Ancestor! You are my actual ancestor! This operation of yours... isn't just reckless, it's insane! It's divine! It's masterful! I, Mute, have witnessed the birth of the universe and watched the rise and fall of civilizations, but I've never seen anyone risk their life like this! Using 'chaos' as a weapon, 'silence' as a trigger, giving the 'Predator' an enema, kicking it back home, and then welding the door shut?! This script... even the craziest 'screenwriter' in the Sea of Chaos couldn't write this!"

Excellence lay on the ground, finding even breathing an effort, and could only use his last bit of energy to retort in his heart: It wasn't like I had a choice, forced by you and this crappy place... but, it seems... I gambled and won again? Should I go buy a lottery ticket with this luck... if the universe has lotteries, that is.

Just then, the stone of silence storage canister, which had undergone the "fishing" transformation and participated in the extreme "gate-closing guidance," suddenly emitted a series of subtle "click, click" sounds, its surface covered in spiderweb-like cracks.

Immediately after, an unprecedentedly pure, gentle, vast, and highly resonant flow of pure energy—multicolored with silver-white veins, highly resonant with Excellence's source of Order—mixed with a large amount of clear, orderly "information flow" that seemed to contain fragments of ancient cosmic laws, surged out from the cracks like a broken spring!

A portion of this energy flow automatically flooded into Excellence's nearly dried-up and cracked meridians and consciousness, bringing indescribable relief and nourishment; another portion, as if possessing life, precisely injected into the ranger's nearly depleted energy core and damaged parts, and dense, pleasant self-repairing sounds immediately came from inside the spaceship; a considerable portion was absorbed by the cracked canister itself, and those cracks were actually healing and repairing at a speed visible to the naked eye, with even more complex and profound silver patterns faintly appearing on the canister's surface.

"This is... 'catch' fully transformed? And the energy feedback and information sedimentation from the 'guidance' process?" Stardust, having regained a little consciousness at some point, murmured as she watched this scene.

"Exactly! It's top-tier 'Rule Melody Essence' and 'Orderly Information Crystal'! A huge boost! A super huge boost!" Mute's voice was full of ecstasy, "Absorb it quickly! Digest it! This wave isn't just breaking even; it's like hitting the cosmic jackpot! The fiercest 'guard dog' at the door was sprayed back by our own 'high-pressure water gun,' the door has been reinforced, and we even got all this high-purity Order-side energy and information for free! Although the process was so stimulating that I nearly had a heart attack (if I had one)... the result is perfect! Too perfect!"

With the influx of that pure energy, Excellence felt like the parched, cracked earth meeting a torrential flood, the feeling of weakness receding like a tide, and his shattered mental power beginning to reorganize and strengthen rapidly.

He even vaguely felt that his power of Order, after experiencing the direct confrontation, guidance, and cooperation with the most primal "Chaos" and the ultimate "silence," seemed to have undergone a thorough tempering and transformation!

It was no longer just a power to maintain rules and stability, but seemed to have gained a hint of an indescribable, profound quality that could "understand," "contain," and even limitedly "guide" chaos, becoming more condensed, agile, and... full of an all-encompassing "resilience."

The spaceship's energy readings were also rising rapidly, even exceeding the previous peak, and various damage indicators quickly turned green.

However, it seemed that fate's joke was not yet over.

Before they could fully recover from the dizziness of this "desperate comeback + accidental windfall," Mute's voice suddenly changed tone, carrying a hint of unprecedented doubt and... gravity:

"Wait... something is wrong. That 'big guy' was stuffed back in, the rift collapsed, and the door is closed tight... logically, the Silent Corridor should quickly return to absolute calm and enter 'energy-saving standby' mode. But why do I feel... the speed and intensity of the 'backflow' and 'calming' of this 'base' that carries us... are a bit beyond expectations? And those 'big black stones' (silent crystals) in the distance that serve as Nodes, their energy Resonance flickering... why does it seem like... they are synchronizing according to a rhythm I'm a bit unfamiliar with?"

Upon hearing this, Excellence and Stardust braced themselves and looked out the porthole.

Sure enough, the gray "mirror" base that had originally been "flowing" slowly and uniformly while carrying them was now flowing at a significantly faster speed, and the direction was very clear—it was converging towards the giant gate that had just experienced a earth-shattering "gate-closing battle"!

It was as if the "silence" energy of the entire area was being pulled by some force, flowing back and replenishing the sealing system of "the gate."

And those huge black crystals, the silver light on their surfaces was no longer a stable flickering, but began to flash and leap collectively in a complex, synchronized rhythm that seemed to follow some grand movement, with vast energy seemingly being mobilized and gathered inside.

"This... what is the situation again?" Excellence felt a sense of powerlessness; weren't there too many "moths" in this place?

"I'll sense it with all my might... Hiss—!" Mute's voice suddenly became tense and even somewhat horrified, "Not good! That wave of 'directional guidance' plus 'extreme gate closing' just now caused too much of a stir! Although it solved the immediate disaster, it also caused unprecedented violent shocks and disturbances to this core area of the Silent Corridor near 'the gate'! Now, the 'corridor's' own 'self-balancing and repair system' has been completely activated, and... perhaps because I've been in 'standby' for too long, coupled with the impact just now, some deeper 'underlying security protocols' or 'ultimate adjustment mechanisms' that even I was about to forget... have been triggered!"

"Underlying security protocols? Ultimate adjustment mechanisms? Doesn't sound like a good thing!" Excellence's heart sank.

"Of course it's not a good thing!" Mute's voice was anxious, "Simply put, once this mechanism is activated, it will consider the current area to be in a state of 'extreme instability' and 'high pollution risk.' It will do two things: First, accelerate the 'backflow' and 'purification' of 'silence' energy, treating all energy and existences with 'non-silence' attributes as 'impurities' or 'unstable factors,' and attempt to 'wash away,' 'annihilate,' or... 'reject' them through powerful 'silence' tides! Second, it may initiate a deep 'self-check' and 're-balancing' of 'the gate's' sealing system, a process... that will cause spatial and rule oscillations that even I can't predict, potentially affecting the entire area!"

Excellence, Stardust, Evelyn (barely recovered projection): "..."

So they had just solved a crisis involving a "conceptual Predator" and a spatial rift, closed the "security door," and as a result, because the "gate closing" commotion was too big, they triggered the highest-level "whole-house disinfection and structural safety inspection" program of this "house"?

And now, these few "temporary visitors in the house" (plus a sleeping "landlord" consciousness fragment), are very likely to be judged by this program as "bacteria" or "foreign objects" that need to be "disinfected and sterilized"?

Not only is this house's security system terrible, but even the property management system is so overbearing?!

"So what do we do now? Wait to be 'rejected' or 'purified'?" Excellence felt his nerves were already tough enough to serve as a spaceship's tow line.

"Two choices." Mute spoke quickly, "First, before the 'rejection' tide is fully formed, use the energy just replenished to immediately start that 'silent escape' and randomly jump away. But the success rate... with the 'underlying protocol' activated and spatial rules becoming more chaotic, I'm afraid it's even lower than before."

"...And the second?" Excellence had already guessed there must be a more "stimulating" option.

"Second, we... actively surrender? No, it's... go with the flow!" Mute's voice carried a gambler's excitement of burning bridges, "Since the 'base' is accelerating towards the sealing core of 'the gate' for 'backflow,' and 'silence' energy is gathering there for 're-balancing'... why don't we... catch this 'free ride'?"

"Catch a free ride? Where to?" Stardust asked vigilantly.

"To the most core area of 'the gate's' sealing system, where energy and information interaction is most dense—the 'Balance Node' or, in other words, the 'adjustment hub'!" Mute explained, "That is the 'control room' where the Silent Corridor is directly connected to 'the gate'! Once there, I might be able to use the gathered vast 'silence' energy and complete information flow to re-aggregate and repair my core consciousness faster! More importantly, we can directly obtain the most real, first-hand status data of 'the gate' and the Sea of Chaos! Even, it is possible to find a way to safely observe or... limitedly intervene in this 'deep self-check and re-balancing' process! Maybe we can find clues about the root of those 'Heart-Devouring Demons,' the truth of the last abnormal tide, and even the most ultimate secret of this 'gate' and the entire Silent Corridor!"

"This..." Excellence looked at Stardust and Evelyn. This sounded even crazier than "fishing" and "closing the door to beat the dog"; it was like sticking one's head into a cosmic-level engine running at full power to look at the blueprints.

Data streams lit up with difficulty in Stardust's eyes, clearly conducting a final risk assessment.

"Current energy levels can support one extreme reinforced random jump, with an estimated success rate of... 5.3%. Alternatively, one can attempt to build an 'Order-silence composite buffer shield,' with unknown strength, unknown ability to withstand the 'backflow' energy scouring, unknown ability to survive after arriving at the 'Balance Node,' and unknown possibility and risk of intervening in the 'underlying protocol' process... completely unknown." Evelyn provided cold, stark data.

A slim 5.3% escape rate, and a completely unknown, crazy option that might contain the ultimate answer but could also lead directly to ultimate destruction.

Excellence lowered his head, looking at the "stone of silence" in his hand, its cracks almost completely repaired, with magnificent silver-white and colorful light flowing inside, like a miniature universe.

Feeling the reborn, surging, and resilient new power within his body, he looked again at the grayish "mirror" torrent accelerating towards the giant gate outside the porthole, and the towering gate in the distance that seemed eternally silent yet had just experienced a stormy sea.

He suddenly grinned, revealing a smile belonging to a true explorer and gambler, full of endless exhaustion but also strange brilliance.

"Senior Mute."

"Huh?"

"Your 'homestead,' the property management fees are quite expensive, and there are so many things to deal with."

"...Ahem, prime location, cosmic core, understand."

"Fine!" Excellence took a deep breath, stood up straight, the silver light in his eyes lighting up again, but calmer and deeper than ever before, "Then I'll take your free ride again! Let's see what's at the terminal of this 'cosmic-level property maintenance' train!"

"Alright! Sit tight and hold on! This old driver will take you straight into the control room!" Mute's voice also suddenly rose, with a desperate excitement, "Final 'silence' authorization—open! Composite shield—generate! Target—'the gate's' Balance Node! Let's go!"

Following Mute's roar, a source of "silence" energy, far more vast, pure, and cold than before, surged out from the repaired "stone of silence," blending perfectly with Excellence's reborn power of "Order," instantly forming a transparent shield around the "ranger" that was as thin as a cicada's wing but flashed with countless complex silver geometric patterns and colorful Order streamers, as if containing some supreme law.

Meanwhile, Evelyn controlled the spaceship, no longer resisting the increasingly strong "backflow" traction, but instead adjusted her posture, like a master surfer riding a towering wave, actively and precisely "cutting into" the surging, grayish "mirror" energy torrent rushing towards the sealing core of the giant gate...

The "ranger," along with its crew who had just experienced a series of outrageous events—"fishing enforcement - fish pond explosion - closing the door to slaughter the dragon - being pitted by the property management"—was thus, like a leaf caught in a whirlpool, involuntarily but with a clear goal, swept towards this place of absolute silence, the most core, most mysterious, and most dangerous forbidden zone that connects the two cosmic realms of Order and Chaos—

The ultimate "Balance Node" and "adjustment hub" of "the gate's" sealing system!

What awaited them—was it the ultimate answer to reveal all mysteries, an opportunity to face the truth of the universe's origin, or... at the end of this crazy "free ride," would they welcome the final annihilation and end that even "existence" itself could not bear?

At least, Excellence felt that the "ticket price" for this journey was definitely worth it—although the payment method was a bit too stimulating. This damn universe's end, full of infinite possibilities and endless traps, is really... addictive.