52: Rebirth of Debris and Rifts in Trust

His consciousness sank into a cold, deep sea, drifting in endless darkness. After an unknown amount of time, a faint, stinging light pierced the darkness, forcibly pulling Lin Mo back from his coma.

He opened his eyes, his vision blurry, his entire body aching as if it had fallen apart. He was lying in a relatively intact corner of the gray fin shark transport plane's cockpit, cushioned by some materials salvaged from the wreckage. The cabin was filled with a strong metallic smell, dust, and a faint scent of blood. The overturned fuselage caused everything to be askew, and the emergency light provided the only source of illumination, making the chaotic scene look like a disaster area.

He painstakingly turned his neck and saw Wu Yong and Xiao Li anxiously gathered around Ling Shuang. Ling Shuang was still unconscious, her face as pale as paper, her breathing weak. Su Xi's life support pod was operating at its minimum capacity, relying on the last of its backup energy, with faint fluctuations on the life indicator curve on the screen.

They were still alive. This realization allowed Lin Mo's taut heartstrings to relax for a moment, but it was immediately crushed by a heavier reality.

"Mr. Lin Mo! You're awake!" Wu Yong noticed his movement and quickly came over, his face a mix of relief and despair. "Miss Ling Shuang hasn't woken up, and Su Xi's condition isn't too good either... We only have less than two days' worth of food and water left, and the transport plane... is almost completely destroyed."

Lin Mo didn't speak, he just silently mobilized a faint trace of spiritual power and sank into his sea of consciousness.

The situation was worse than he expected.

The surface of the jade slip was covered with tiny cracks, as if porcelain was about to shatter, and its light was so dim it was almost extinguished. The power of the seed of source blood was like a candle about to burn out, barely maintaining basic vitality. Although the information-side fragment was relatively stable, it had also suffered immense damage. The nascent rules recorded from the information singularity were like dust-covered treasures, requiring a large amount of energy and time to be "polished" and understood again.

The cost of forcibly using [Logic Rewrite] was enormous, almost shaking his foundation. He was now so weak that he could barely even cast the simplest cognitive misdirection.

"editor, full self-check, assess repair Possibility," he murmured in his mind, his voice hoarse in a way he didn't even notice.

The jade slip flickered very slowly, and the feedback information was cold and cruel:

"Main structure damage rate 71.3%, cannot self-repair."

"Energy core completely depleted, multiple energy circuits fused."

"Life support system (life support pod) backup energy remaining 3.7%, estimated maintenance time: 1 hour 47 minutes."

"External environment scan: Located at the edge of the Thunder Peak Mountain Range (low radiation zone), atmospheric composition breathable, unknown faint life signal detected (non-Corruptor characteristics). No severe weather warning in the near future."

"Conclusion: Survival resources extremely scarce, main body has lost mobility, survival probability (based on current state): below 15%."

15% survival probability... Lin Mo closed his eyes, a deep sense of powerlessness seizing him. He had the ability to glimpse rules, yet he couldn't even ensure basic survival.

"What... what should we do?" Xiao Li's voice, tinged with a sob, broke the silence. "Will someone come to save us?"

Rescuers? In this desolate mountain range, far from any known survivor factions? Hope was slim.

Lin Mo reopened his eyes, his gaze sweeping over the unconscious Ling Shuang, over the despairing Wu Yong and Xiao Li, and finally resting on Su Xi's life support pod. The life support pod's energy was about to run out, and once it stopped operating, Su Xi, in her current state, would surely die.

Cannot give up.

He struggled to sit up, but it aggravated his internal injuries, and a violent fit of coughing made his vision go black.

"Mr. Lin Mo, don't move!" Wu Yong quickly supported him.

Just then, Ling Shuang, who had been unconscious, suddenly moved a finger slightly and let out an almost inaudible groan.

"Miss Ling Shuang!" Wu Yong and Xiao Li rushed over in surprise.

Ling Shuang's eyelashes fluttered a few times, and she laboriously opened her eyes. Her gaze was initially scattered and confused, but it quickly focused, taking in the surrounding scene and the despair on everyone's faces. She didn't panic, she just took a deep breath, feeling her empty psionic pool and her extremely weak body.

"We're still alive..." Her voice was faint, yet it carried a reassuring steadiness. "The situation... is very bad?"

Wu Yong choked up and quickly explained the current situation.

Ling Shuang listened, then fell silent for a moment, her gaze turning to Lin Mo, with a question in her eyes. She remembered that moment before she lost consciousness, Lin Mo's incomprehensible methods that forced back the Predator.

Lin Mo met her gaze and slowly nodded, then shook his head. The nod confirmed that the enemy had been repelled, and the shake of his head indicated that he was no longer able to fight.

Ling Shuang understood. She struggled to sit up, and Wu Yong and Xiao Li quickly helped her.

"Which parts of the transport plane... might still be usable?" she asked, her gaze sweeping over the chaotic cabin. "Especially the energy and life support systems."

"The main energy is completely gone, and the auxiliary energy is almost depleted. The life support pod's independent battery only has less than two hours left..." Xiao Li replied dejectedly.

Ling Shuang's gaze fell on a relatively intact, independent device below the control panel, labeled "Environmental Data Recorder." Lin Mo had found it earlier in the Rust Bone Wasteland, and it had been connected to an auxiliary power source, maintaining minimum power consumption.

"Take it apart," Ling Shuang said, pointing at the recorder. "It has a high-density emergency battery inside. Although it's not enough to power the transport plane, it might... extend Su Xi's life support time."

Hearing this, Wu Yong and Xiao Li's eyes rekindled with a glimmer of hope, and they quickly began to dismantle it.

During this interval, Ling Shuang looked at Lin Mo and whispered, "What you used at the end... that wasn't psionic energy."

"It was a fragment of a rule," Lin Mo didn't hide it, his voice weak. "The cost was immense."

A hint of shock flashed in Ling Shuang's eyes, quickly turning to solemnity. "I feel... your condition is very bad. Worse than psionic exhaustion." She paused, then asked a sharp question, "If we can't find a stable energy source and supplies, how long... can you last? How long... can we last?"

This question was like a cold dagger, piercing through their temporary relief, laying the cruelest reality bare. Wu Yong and Xiao Li's movements of dismantling the equipment also slowed, and they looked at Lin Mo nervously.

Lin Mo remained silent. He couldn't give an answer. The 15% survival probability calculated by the editor was based on the premise that he could slowly recover some abilities. But if resources were completely cut off, that probability would plummet to zero.

His silence, in itself, was an answer.

The atmosphere in the cabin instantly became even more oppressive. Hope was like a candle in the wind, flickering uncertainly.

Xiao Li suddenly stopped what he was doing, looked up, his eyes red, looking at Lin Mo and Ling Shuang, his voice filled with uncontrollable panic and a hint of... doubt: "Mr. Lin Mo... Miss Ling Shuang... can you... can you really lead us to survive? We followed you out of the Shelter, crossed the Withered Land, and now... are we going to die here?"

Cracks of trust, watered by despair, quietly began to grow.

Wu Yong opened his mouth, wanting to scold Xiao Li, but looking at the surrounding chaos and the dying state of their companions, the words caught in his throat. Fear and doubt, like a virus, spread rapidly in their desperate situation.

Lin Mo looked at the fear and doubt in Xiao Li's eyes, at the struggle on Wu Yong's face, at the solemnity and exhaustion between Ling Shuang's brows.

He took a deep breath, suppressing the intense pain in his body and his mental exhaustion, and with all his strength, made his voice sound as steady and firm as possible:

"We will survive."

His gaze swept over everyone.

"If the transport plane is broken, we will repair it, or find a replacement."

"If the energy is gone, we will go find it."

"If food and water are gone, we will go get them."

"As long as we are alive, as long as the pull of the logic anchor remains, the path is beneath our feet."

He didn't promise miracles, he simply stated a fact, a determination.

Just then, the dismantled environmental recorder suddenly let out a faint "beep," and the screen lit up, displaying a line of information that had just been parsed from its internal, outdated database:

"Stable geothermal energy signal detected nearby... Coordinates: Northeast direction, straight-line distance approximately 5 kilometers... Signal characteristics match records from the Old Era 'Seventh Geothermal Observation Station' archive..."

Geothermal! Stable energy!

In the midst of despair, a glimmer of light pierced through the heavy gloom.