207: Chapter 207 The Mission of the "Scavengers"
The forty-eighth hour after the activation of the "Beyond" state.
In the Central Command Hall of the Ark city, the massive holographic star map was divided into two sections.
On the left was the frantically operating human defense line—dense construction progress bars, fleet assembly light points, and resource flow trajectories, resembling a pot of boiling molten steel, scorching and volatile.
On the right was a cold, deep-space view where four highlighted light points, bearing ominous dark red outlines, were steadily advancing toward the interior of the Solar System along precisely calculated orbits, accompanied by a constantly ticking countdown: Estimated contact window: 114 standard cycles.
No one spoke in the hall, save for the faint humming of data streams refreshing and the occasional low-voiced confirmation command.
The air was as taut as a fully drawn bowstring.
Lin Mo stood between the two, his gaze scanning back and forth between the scorching and the cold like a hawk.
His brain was operating at high speed, processing the massive influx of information every second, yet a deeper part of his mind was locked onto the "Watchers Broadcast" received forty-eight hours ago.
"Scavenger-Type 7"... "Purification Protocol"... "Unregistered - Potential Disorder Factor"...
Behind these words lay a cold and deadly "testament executor" left behind by a vanished super-civilization.
To fight it, one must first thoroughly understand it.
"Analysis team, report." Lin Mo's voice broke the silence, calm and without a ripple.
The holographic images lit up, and the "Watchers Broadcast In-Depth Analysis Group," led by Dr. Elena Chen and several top information decoding experts and cosmic sociologists, appeared on the side screen.
Everyone had deep-set eyes, but their gazes were sharp; clearly, the forty-eight hours of sleepless work had yielded key progress.
"Consultant Lin, everyone," Dr. Chen's voice carried a weary huskiness, but her speaking speed was extremely fast, "We have conducted a cross-analysis and associative deduction on the final 'Watchers Protocol' broadcast and the fragmented logs received earlier.
Combined with the cosmic civilization evolution probability model established by "Fuxi" based on all known data, we have a clearer understanding of the 'Scavenger' and its 'mission'."
She pulled up a structure chart, the core of which was a node marked as 'Watchers Civilization (Extinct)'.
"According to the self-narration in the broadcast and the log fragments, the 'Watchers' were a super-civilization that existed in the extremely distant past.
They reached heights unimaginable to us and had likely already touched the mysteries of the multi-dimensional universe.
Their core philosophy or management concept seemed to revolve around 'order' and 'symbiosis'." Dr. Chen pointed to the branches extending from the structure chart, "They viewed themselves as the maintainers of a vast system—metaphorically referred to as an 'orchard' in the broadcast.
This 'orchard' likely refers to the Local Group, or even a larger-scale cosmic structure."
"And the 'Scavenger' sequence," her finger pointed to another cluster marked in red, connected to the 'Watchers' node by a one-way command arrow, "are automated armed units manufactured by the 'Watchers'.
The models from 1 to 9 likely represent different functional focuses, capability levels, or manufacturing batches.
'Scavenger-Type 7' is one of them, characterized by high mobility and space cloaking capabilities, specializing in 'targeted purification'."
A cosmic sociologist continued, his tone heavy: "Their 'mission' is by no means simple destruction.
Analyzing terms like 'purification', 'leaf-fall program', and 'potential disorder factor', this is a screening mechanism based on a specific 'gardening logic'.
The 'Watchers' civilization seemed to believe that the development of a civilization, especially the mastery of certain fundamental cosmic forces (such as gravity or dimensions), must be accompanied by corresponding 'understanding of order' and 'symbiotic ethics'.
Otherwise, this power could lead the civilization itself toward extreme plunder, internal collapse, or even cause unpredictable 'pollution' or 'destruction' to the 'orchard' as a whole."
"Therefore," Lin Mo spoke slowly, finishing the conclusion for him, "the 'Scavenger' mission is to detect civilizations whose tech trees have reached the 'essence of gravity manipulation' or the 'dimensional cognition threshold'.
Once detected, an evaluation program is initiated.
The core standard of the evaluation is to see whether this civilization exhibits 'non-predatory civilization symbiotic potential'.
If judged as 'no', it is marked as a 'potential disorder factor', and then... 'purification' is executed—that is, complete physical removal, to prevent any 'harm' it might cause in the future."
"Exactly." Dr. Chen nodded, her face wearing an absurd bitterness, "Humanity, because we had initially mastered nuclear fusion, quantum technology, and began reverse-engineering gravity-related technology when 'the piercer' arrived, triggered their detection threshold.
And our long history of civil war, resource plundering, and ecological destruction before we united... likely manifests as 'predatory' and 'disordered' in their evaluation model.
Even though we are united now, the 'evaluation period' likely began as early as when 'the piercer' sent its signal, and we... may have already been labeled as 'unqualified'."
"Cold, efficient, and unquestionable." Another scientist sighed, "It's like a farmer seeing weeds or pests in a field that might affect the harvest; they won't ask if the weeds want to become crops, they will just eradicate them or spray pesticide.
In the logic of the 'Watchers', we might just be that crooked, potentially diseased 'plant'."
This metaphor caused the temperature in the command hall to drop a few more degrees.
The realization that the object they were fighting to the death against might just be a set of 'weeding robots' with no malice, only executing a preset program, was more suffocating than facing an evil enemy with subjective will.
"Then, what about the 'test'?" Long Zhantian's holographic image asked in a deep voice, "The broadcast mentioned 'the test is not set by us, but is the filter of the universe itself', and the only path to exemption is to prove 'non-predatory civilization symbiotic potential'.
What exactly is this 'filter'? How do we prove it?"
"This is the biggest mystery, and also the biggest bottleneck in our current analysis." Dr. Chen shook her head, "The 'Watchers' civilization itself seemed unable to fully understand or control this 'universal filter'.
They only observed its existence and used it as a final adjudication reference for the 'Scavenger' operations.
'Prove symbiotic potential'... this sounds like an extremely abstract, even idealistic standard.
It might involve the civilization's overall moral choices, attitudes toward other life forms, methods of resource utilization, or even a sense of awe for the mysteries of the universe... we have no way of knowing the specific evaluation algorithm of 'Scavenger-Type 7'."
She pulled up a piece of edge data from a log that had just been deciphered and was even more fragmented: "However, there is a clue.
When mentioning 'Scavenger-Type 7' executing 'purification', there is a vague description that seems to imply its action mode is not completely blind destruction.
The log mentions '...contact phase data collection... behavior pattern analysis... civilization stress response included in final evaluation weight...'.
This might mean that in the process of direct contact or even combat with the 'Scavenger', the overall reaction of our civilization—whether we fall into crazy self-destruction or show unity, sacrifice, protection of the weak, attempts at understanding, or even communication—might be collected by them and used as a 'last-minute correction parameter' for the final verdict."
Last-minute correction parameter!
This phrase was like a faint ray of light, piercing through the despairing darkness.
"In other words," Lin Mo's gaze suddenly sharpened, "even if we have been initially marked as 'unqualified', and even now that the 'purification protocol' has been activated, our every move is still being observed and evaluated?
If our resistance itself shows enough... 'civilization resilience' and 'non-predatory traits', could it be possible to reverse the verdict?"
"Theoretically, there is such a possibility, but the probability is extremely low." Dr. Chen said cautiously, "The broadcast explicitly mentioned 'orchard out of control', 'gardener sleeping'.
This means the 'Watchers' civilization has already perished, and this system they set up has likely lost the ability for supreme oversight and dynamic adjustment.
The 'Scavenger' units are now more likely to be rigidly executing the final instructions, like broken-line killing puppets.
They might still be collecting data, but whether this data can still be correctly interpreted or trigger program corrections... there is no guarantee.
It is more likely that they will simply complete the 'purification' according to the established procedure."
A rigid program is more terrifying than an intelligent enemy, because you cannot negotiate or deter it; you can only face the cold logic chain it has set.
Lin Mo was silent for a moment, his gaze once again cast upon the four dark red light points on the star map.
They were no longer vague threats, but four cold executioners of death carrying the twisted 'gardening ideals' of a vanished civilization.
"So, their mission is clear: find us, evaluate us (perhaps), and then execute the removal according to an ancient verdict that might already be wrong." Lin Mo's voice was as cold as ice, "And we, whether we want to fight for that slim 'correction parameter' or simply to survive, only have one choice—destroy them before they execute the removal program, or make their removal program... completely fail."
He turned around to face all the high-ranking generals and officials in the command hall:
"Pass down the order to inform the entire army of the 'Scavenger' mission analysis with appropriate security clearance.
Tell our soldiers that we are not facing gods or demons, but an ancient machine that has gone wrong and wants to issue us a 'death certificate'.
What we need to do is use our actions to tell this machine—we do not accept its verdict! We will not allow its purification!"
"Yes!" The response carried an angry heat.
The unknown brings fear, while clear understanding often brings more firm fighting spirit.
"At the same time," Lin Mo added, "order "Fuxi" to fully analyze all details of the 'Scavenger' action patterns, especially the possible methods and nodes of 'contact phase data collection'.
If the resistance itself is truly part of the evaluation, then we must fight this resistance in a way that any cold program can 'understand'—human civilization possesses the most resilient and unyielding 'symbiotic' will, which is: to protect our home and each other, we can erupt with a brilliance that makes the stars dim!"
The order was quickly conveyed.
After thoroughly understanding the cold mission of the 'executioner', human civilization did not collapse; instead, it condensed a more tragic and determined will.
Just as Lin Mo was preparing to deploy further, the alarm of "Fuxi" sounded again, this time with unprecedented urgency:
"Warning! In the direction of the Kuiper Belt, the signals of the four 'Scavenger-Type 7' units have undergone coordinated changes!
High-intensity, multi-band scanning beams detected, with extremely strong penetration, currently conducting... deep perspective scanning on the interior of the Solar System!
Scanning mode analysis: suspected 'Purification Protocol' Phase 1—'Target system Comprehensive Diagnosis and Vulnerability Assessment'!"
"They... have started 'reading medical records' and 'finding weaknesses'." A technical officer's voice was dry.
The real 'contact' had begun early, in this cold and efficient manner.