226: Chapter 226 The Final Standoff: Lin Mo VS Craig
The shrill wail of an alarm echoed between the metal walls of the special detention room in the Ark, like a funeral dirge.
Lin Mo stood before the one-way alloy glass window, watching the figure inside who had once been so arrogant, now slumped on the medical chair like a broken doll, devoid of any signs of life.
Craig's final words, filled with curses and madness, still lingered in his ears:
"What do you think the fourth one is waiting for? It is waiting for a response from the 'gardener'! But the 'gardener'... died long ago!"
"You are nothing! You are just a puppet chosen by that alien system!"
"All that awaits you is endless 'purification'!"
Su Xiaowan and Elder Chen walked up to him, looking at the cooling corpse inside the glass window, silent.
After a long while, Elder Chen spoke softly: "He is dead. Don't take those crazy words to heart."
Lin Mo did not answer.
He just watched Craig's corpse quietly, his eyes as deep as a bottomless ancient well.
He suddenly turned around and said to the officer in charge of detention: "Open the door, I want to go in."
"Consultant Lin, this..." the officer hesitated.
"Open it."
The alloy door slid open silently.
Lin Mo walked into the detention room alone and approached Craig's medical chair.
The lines on the monitoring equipment had completely flattened, emitting a continuous long wail.
He reached out and pressed the mute button.
The room instantly fell into a deathly silence.
Lin Mo lowered his head, looking at the face twisted by pain and madness.
Even in death, Craig's brows remained tightly furrowed, and in his one eye that was still open, there solidified a final reluctance, a curse, and a trace of... deep fear that Lin Mo had not noticed before.
That was not a fear of death. It was a deeper fear of some kind of "truth."
"What are you afraid of?" Lin Mo whispered, as if asking the corpse, and as if asking himself.
Just then, the interface of the [civilization leap system] inside his body, which had been silent for a long time, suddenly lit up on its own.
It was not a mission prompt or a warning, but a line of text that had never appeared before, glowing with a faint golden light:
[Detected close contact between the host and a critical causal node target (James Craig). In the final moment before the target's consciousness faded, its mental fluctuation frequency briefly resonated with the system's underlying protocols. Residual consciousness fragments captured. Read them?]
Lin Mo's pupils constricted slightly.
Read the consciousness fragments of the deceased? This...
He barely hesitated and silently chanted in his heart: "Read."
In an instant, the world changed.
Everything around him—the metal walls of the detention room, the glaring lights, Craig's corpse—all faded and dissipated like melting wax figures.
Lin Mo found himself standing in a void, a gray space.
There was no up or down, no left or right, only endless mist flowing slowly.
And in the center of this mist stood a hunched figure.
Craig.
It was not the dying, broken Craig, but his younger self—wearing a CIA uniform, eyes sharp, full of ambition and confidence.
But at this moment, that young Craig had an indescribable terror on his face, staring fixedly ahead.
Lin Mo followed his gaze.
Deep in the mist, some vague, huge outlines vaguely emerged.
These were not any known ships or buildings, but some... geometric shapes that transcended the scope of human understanding.
They were slowly rotating and changing forms, as if alive, and yet as if they had long been dead.
Each outline radiated a suffocating coldness and desolation from the depths of the universe.
"Do you see it?" young Craig suddenly spoke, his voice trembling, "Those... those are existences older than the 'Watchers'. They once covered the galaxy, managing countless civilizations. But now, they are all dead. Dead! Only a pile of cold, unresponsive ruins remain!"
He turned around abruptly, staring fixedly at Lin Mo, his eyes burning with flames of madness: "Do you think your system is a savior? Do you think the 'gardener' will respond to you? No! They are all dead! Died in an era older than the 'Watchers'! Our universe is just a huge, abandoned 'orchard'! The gardener is dead, the Watchers are dead, and only those 'Scavengers' that run according to their final instructions and can never be shut down remain!"
He approached Lin Mo step by step, his voice getting louder and more maniacal: "Your so-called 'trials', your so-called 'symbiotic potential', have no meaning at all! Because there is no one to judge! The response that the fourth 'Scavenger' is waiting for will never come! Never! Human civilization is destined to be wiped out one by one in endless 'purification', until the last cell, the last atom, is erased from this universe!"
His face was almost pressed against Lin Mo's, and in those eyes burned a madness to destroy everything: "This is what I saw! This is what I am afraid of! I am crazy, I destroy, I try to destroy everything, because I saw it clearly long ago—this universe has no hope! No future! Only eternal, cold, meaningless destruction!"
"Instead of waiting for death in despair, I might as well light this fire myself! At least, I can choose how to die!"
Craig's roar echoed in the gray void, like a funeral bell for the end of the world.
Lin Mo stood there quietly, looking at the soul in front of him who was mad to the extreme, looking at the deep, unhealable fear and despair in his eyes.
He did not retreat, did not refute, just watched quietly.
After a long while, he spoke. His voice was calm, yet it was like a beam of light piercing through the mist:
"You are right, this universe might really have no savior."
Craig froze, and the madness in his eyes slightly solidified.
"The gardener might really be dead. The Watchers might really have perished. The response the fourth 'Scavenger' is waiting for might never come." Lin Mo said, word by word, "But is this the reason for your madness? Is it the excuse for you to slaughter your compatriots, betray civilization, and try to drag everyone down to destruction with you?"
He took a step forward, approaching Craig: "You saw ruins and concluded that the universe is only ruins. You felt despair and decided to spread that despair to everyone. You were afraid to die alone, so you wanted the whole civilization to be buried with you. Craig, you are not a prophet who saw through the truth; you are just a... coward."
"Coward?" Craig's eyes widened abruptly, rage and madness surging again, "You say I am a coward?!"
"Yes, a coward." Lin Mo's voice was like a cold knife, dissecting the deepest part of the other's soul, "True bravery is not about not seeing despair. True bravery is choosing to move forward after seeing despair clearly. It is knowing the gardener might never return, but still guarding your own little orchard well. It is understanding that the universe might have no meaning, but still creating meaning for yourself, for your compatriots, and for future generations."
He looked directly into Craig's burning eyes: "You chose destruction because you dared not face a future that might have no answers. You would rather end everything with your own hands than struggle to survive in uncertainty. You were afraid of failure, afraid of waiting, afraid of the disappointment after hope falls through. So you used madness to cover up your cowardice."
Craig's body was trembling.
He opened his mouth, wanting to refute, but could not make a sound.
Lin Mo took one last look at him, turned around, and walked into the depths of the mist.
His voice came for the last time:
"Craig, watch carefully. Watch how we 'cowards' carve out a path to survival for ourselves and for future generations in a universe without a savior."
The gray mist surged violently, and Craig's figure twisted and shattered within it, finally turning into countless tiny specks of light, dissipating into the void.
Lin Mo opened his eyes abruptly.
He was still standing in the detention room, standing in front of Craig's corpse.
Everything around him—the metal walls, the glaring lights, the muted monitor—had not changed at all.
It was as if everything that had just happened was just an illusion.
But Lin Mo knew that it was not an illusion.
He lowered his head, looking at Craig's face, which had finally calmed down.
The tightly furrowed brows from before death had somehow smoothed out.
The one eye that had been open finally closed slowly.
As if at the very last moment, he had finally... let go of something.
Lin Mo was silent for a long time, then reached out and gently closed Craig's other eyelid.
"May you in your next life," he whispered, "learn to be brave."
He turned around and walked out of the detention room.
The alloy door closed silently behind him.
Su Xiaowan and Elder Chen approached him, looking at him with eyes full of concern.
Lin Mo shook his head gently: "It's nothing. He just... said some crazy things. But in those crazy words, there are some... things we need to remember."
He looked up at the boundless starry sky outside the viewing window.
The fourth "Scavenger" was still hovering there quietly, like an eternal, silent monument.
The gardener might really be dead. The Watchers might really have perished. The response being waited for might never come.
But in Lin Mo's eyes, there was no fear, no despair. Only a kind of unprecedented, tempered firmness.
"Let's go," he said, "there is still a lot to do."