Chapter 30 is not alive, it is "alive".

"Nanobot swarm..."

Academician Wang repeated these words, his eyes filled with shock and obsession.

"So that's how it is... So that's how it is! I should have thought of this sooner! Only nano-scale robots could achieve such a thorough decomposition without leaving a single trace! And only nanobots could form this kind of liquid metal-like structure that can deform at will and extend tentacles!"

In the Command Center, the other scientists were in an uproar.

"Self-cleaning coated walls, combined with fully automatic nano-cleaning robots... The achievements of this 'Tree of Life' civilization in automation and materials science are simply unimaginable!"

"This is no longer just a clean freak's obsession; it's a deep-seated, paranoid pursuit of 'purity' and 'order'!"

"But this isn't right!" the Minister of Security immediately pointed out the crux of the problem, his expression remaining grim. "If it's just a cleaning robot, why would it decompose bloodstains? Isn't it normal for bloodstains to appear on a medical ship? Does it 'clean' the wounded along with them?"

This question caused the scientists, who had just been excited by witnessing black technology, to calm down again.

Indeed, this was too abnormal.

"Its programming... might have glitched," a computer expert speculated. "Or rather, its programming was executed... too thoroughly."

"What do you mean?" Chen Weiguo asked.

"I've studied the structure of this ship and the texts we translated earlier." The expert pulled up some data and displayed it on the screen. "This 'Tree of Life'-class medical ship's highest directive is to 'maintain absolute sterility and environmental stability within the ship, and to provide the purest preservation environment for the 'Gene Temple'."

"After the ship crashed and all the crew perished or entered the 'Gene Temple', the ship's central AI likely entered an automatic 'Graveyard Mode'. In this mode, any organic matter, anything that could breed bacteria or disrupt the 'pure' environment, is classified as a 'pollutant'."

"So, it doesn't just clean up dust and trash." The expert's voice carried a hint of chill. "It also cleans up corpses, bloodstains, and even... any living thing that metabolizes and generates 'pollution'."

"Holy crap..."

In the cockpit, Lin Yuan felt a chill run down his spine.

He watched the white sphere drifting slowly past, feeling that it wasn't a cleaning robot, but a grim reaper cloaked in white.

A grim reaper without emotions, one that only meticulously executed the "cleaning" command.

"Then... then why didn't it detect me just now?" Lin Yuan couldn't help but ask. His drone was just a lump of metal; it shouldn't count as an "organic pollutant", right?

"Because your drone is inorganic and in a stationary state. In its judgment system, you are no different from a rock or a door," the computer expert explained. "However, once you move at high speed or generate intense energy fluctuations, you might be judged as an 'unstable anomaly', triggering its other... 'formatting' program."

"Formatting..." Lin Yuan felt his throat go dry.

He didn't doubt for a second that if his little piece-of-junk drone got entangled by those white tentacles, its fate would be no better than that bloodstain.

"Lin Yuan, stay where you are and don't move." Chen Weiguo's voice came through with unquestionable calmness. "Wait for it to pass. Intelligence Analysis Department, calculate its patrol route and cycle immediately!"

"Yes!"

Lin Yuan didn't dare to move a muscle, watching with wide eyes as the white sphere drifted slowly and silently past the door where he was hiding, then disappeared at the other end of the corridor.

Only when the green dot on the thermal map disappeared completely did Lin Yuan let out a long sigh of relief.

"Damn, that scared the hell out of me. This is scarier than encountering a 'Void Devourer'. That thing would just swallow you in one bite and end it quickly. This one treats you like trash and decomposes you bit by bit; just thinking about it is unbearable." He ranted frantically in his mind.

"Report! The patrol route has been preliminarily calculated!" the voice of the Minister of Intelligence Analysis rang out. "It is conducting a periodic patrol of the C-G levels of the ship. Based on its speed, it will return to this corridor at the entrance of the 'Gene Temple' in about forty-five minutes."

"Forty-five minutes..."

Chen Weiguo and Academician Wang exchanged a glance.

This amount of time was neither long nor short.

"Technology Department!" Chen Weiguo ordered immediately. "How long will it take to hack the 'Gene Temple' door?"

"Report, Director! We've already got a lead!" the head of the Technology Department answered immediately, their voice filled with excitement. "Although that door has a genetic lock, its energy interface seems to use a universal protocol! We just intercepted a short segment of its communication signal with the ship's central AI and found that its firewall level isn't very high!"

"Get to the point!" Chen Weiguo cut him off.

"The point is, we have over 80% confidence that we can 'trick' that door into opening within ten minutes by simulating the central AI's maintenance commands!" the head of the Technology Department said excitedly.

"Ten minutes?"

Everyone's eyes lit up.

Ten minutes, that was plenty of time!

They could enter the "Gene Temple" and get what they wanted before that terrifying "cleaner" returned!

"Good!" Chen Weiguo decided instantly. "Comrade Lin Yuan!"

"Present!" Lin Yuan immediately perked up.

"Now, return to the entrance of the 'Gene Temple' immediately! The Technology Department will guide you through the hacking operation! Remember, we only have one chance!"

"Understood!"

Lin Yuan's heart jumped into his throat again.

He carefully controlled "scavenger no. 2" to back out of the "Nutrient Distribution Center". After confirming that the white sphere had gone far away, he immediately accelerated and dashed toward the huge crystal gate.

Time is life!

When the drone stopped at the entrance of the "Gene Temple" again, the urgent voice of the Technology Department immediately rang in Lin Yuan's earpiece.

"Comrade Lin Yuan! Do you see the glowing interface at the bottom right of the gate? Yes! That's the one!"

"Use your mechanical arm to open the protective cover on it!"

Lin Yuan immediately complied. The drone's mechanical arm precisely pried open the small cover, revealing a complex multi-pin interface inside.

"Very good! Now, connect the 'multi-functional data probe' at the end of your mechanical arm to it!"

"Connection successful!"

"Keep it steady! We are now starting to inject the simulated signal into it! Energy output, prepare!"

In the Command Center, everyone stood up nervously, staring intently at the constantly jumping data stream on the screen.

And Lin Yuan was nervously staring at the direction where the cleaning robot had disappeared on the thermal map.

Please don't let anything go wrong, please don't come back early!

He prayed silently in his heart.

"Signal injection started!"

"Energy frequency matching... 23%... 47%..."

"Firewall protocol analysis in progress... Bypassing first layer... second layer..."

Time ticked away, second by second.

In the Command Center, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

"... 91%! It's about to succeed!" the head of the Technology Department shouted excitedly.

However, at that very moment, a sudden change occurred!

"Beep! Beep! Beep!"

A not-so-loud, but heart-stopping alarm sound came from another monitoring device.

"Report! The central AI communication signal has shown abnormal fluctuations! Our hacking attempt seems... seems to have triggered some kind of low-level alarm!"

"What?" Chen Weiguo's expression changed.

Before he could issue a new order, Li Na's panicked scream came through Lin Yuan's earpiece.

"Lin Yuan! Look at the thermal map! That thing... that thing has stopped!"

Lin Yuan suddenly switched his view to the thermal map.

He saw that two corridors away, the green dot representing the cleaning robot had indeed stopped moving.

Then, it turned around.

It headed straight for the entrance of the "Gene Temple" where Lin Yuan was, moving at least twice as fast as before!