243: Chapter 243 The System's Top Alert: Dimensional Strike Warning!
Two minutes and thirty seconds.
Lin Mo stood in the center of the command hall. Everything around him—Su Xiaowan's crying, Elder Chen's shouts, the frantically flashing alarm lights—seemed to be isolated by an invisible barrier.
His entire attention was focused on the system interface that was flashing frantically.
Blood-red text was branded onto his retinas like a hot iron:
【Warning! Causal tracing wave has crossed data node No. 2376! Distance to host consciousness core: 1.47 × 10^13 information levels! Estimated time of arrival: two minutes and seventeen seconds!】
【Warning! Tracing wave intensity exceeds initial estimates! Target 'Scavenger' is mobilizing the combined computing power of three combat units to conduct collaborative tracing! Locking precision is increasing—99.9998%... 99.9999%...】
【Warning! Multi-dimensional lock detected! The attack is no longer limited to a single causal chain! It is covering all information dimensions where the host has existed—biological level, digital level, memory level, emotional level, and even the quantum consciousness entanglement level!】
【Warning! This is—a dimensional strike! It is not erasing existence! It is erasing 'all possibilities of having existed'!】
Lin Mo's pupils constricted slightly.
"Erasing all possibilities of having existed"...
What did this mean?
It meant that not only would he be erased. It meant that every choice he had ever made, every person he had influenced, and every event he had changed would be simultaneously "corrected" into another possibility.
Long Zhantian might never have awakened. Su Xiaowan might never have met him. The "soaring heavens" might have completely sunk in the first battle. Even—human civilization might never have had the chance to reach this point today.
Because all of this stemmed from the fact that he had existed, he had chosen, and he had acted.
And that attack intended to cut all of this off at the root.
As if it had never happened.
"Lin Mo!" Su Xiaowan's crying pierced through the invisible barrier. She frantically pounded against the unseen protective shield. "Come out! You cannot face this alone! Let me in! Let me—"
Lin Mo turned his head and looked at her.
Those eyes were still as calm as an unfathomably deep ancient well. But beneath that calm, there was reluctance, guilt, and a farewell that a thousand words could not express.
"Xiao Wan," his voice was very soft, yet it clearly reached her ears, "If I am erased, you will forget me. Forget those nights we spent together, forget those moments when I made you angry, forget... that I love you."
Su Xiaowan's body shuddered violently.
"But it doesn't matter." The corners of Lin Mo's mouth lifted slightly; it was the gentlest smile she had ever seen. "As long as you are alive. As long as civilization still exists. That is enough."
He turned around and stopped looking at her.
Because he was afraid that if he looked one more time, he would not be able to bear to leave.
Two minutes.
The countdown on the system interface was frantically ticking down in milliseconds.
【Warning! Causal tracing wave has crossed data node No. 4891! Distance to host consciousness core: 12 information levels!】
【Emergency protocol initiating... Initiation failed! The opponent's attack level exceeds the protocol's defense limit!】
【Attempting to initiate the second emergency plan... Failed! Third... Failed! Fourth... Failed!】
【All conventional defense measures have failed!】
【host—】
That line of blood-red text suddenly paused for a second.
On the system interface, a line of golden text that had never appeared before surfaced:
【Initiating final protocol—'Dimensional Shift'.】
【This protocol will consume 99.97% of the system's stored energy, forcibly elevating the host's 'information existence' to a higher dimension for a short time to evade the causal tracing of the current attack.】
【Cost one: The system will enter a long-term dormant upgrade state and will be unable to provide any further support.】
【Cost two: While the host is in the higher-dimensional state, you will be unable to interact with any lower-dimensional entities. You in the real world will be in an 'unconscious' state. Your body will be temporarily taken over by the system AI to execute basic survival maintenance commands.】
【Cost three: Upon returning, the host may experience 'dimensional adaptation aftereffects'. This includes but is not limited to: spatial-temporal perception disorders, memory fragmentation, unstable quantum consciousness, etc.】
【Initiate?】
Lin Mo stared at that line of golden text, silent for a full two seconds.
Two seconds.
He smiled.
In that smile, there was no fear, no hesitation, only a deep, relieved calmness.
"Initiate," he said.
【Command confirmed. Final protocol 'Dimensional Shift' initiated.】
【Countdown: Three... Two... One...】
Just at the moment that line of golden text disappeared—
Lin Mo felt the entire world suddenly change.
The lights of the command hall turned into infinitely extending rays of light. Su Xiaowan's crying turned into strings of fluctuating frequencies. Those frantically flashing alarm lights turned into energy flowers that bloomed and withered.
His perspective was rising.
It was not a physical rise, but a dimensional one.
He "saw" himself—that body standing in the center of the command hall, slowly closing its eyes. He "saw" Su Xiaowan rushing toward that body, only to be blocked by an invisible energy barrier. He "saw" Elder Chen shouting frantically, his voice turning into visible ripples of sound waves.
He continued to rise.
He "saw" the entire Ark. That massive steel fortress floating in synchronous orbit was now like an exquisite, slowly rotating metal heart. Countless data streams surged from within it, extending like blood vessels toward Earth, the Moon, Mars, and the fleet that was engaged in a fierce battle in Jupiter's orbit.
He continued to rise.
He "saw" the entire Solar System. That azure Earth, that silvery-white Moon, that red Mars, that massive, ringed Saturn—in his "eyes," they were like a string of delicate pearls connected by invisible threads.
He continued to rise.
He "saw" the attack.
That invisible, lethal causal tracing wave shot from the core of target a. It was no longer invisible. In this higher dimension, it was a huge, living, python-like thing woven from countless tiny, frantically twisting "causal threads."
That python was frantically tracing, searching, and locking on at an unimaginable speed, following the dense causal network woven from the information accumulated by human civilization over hundreds of years.
Its target was him.
Or rather, it was the "information coordinate" where he had once existed.
But at this moment, that coordinate was moving frantically at a speed that exceeded its computational limits—not a physical movement, but a dimensional leap.
The python paused for a second.
In that second, Lin Mo seemed to "hear" its internal "thinking"—countless logic gates opening and closing frantically, countless algorithms running in parallel, countless possibilities being deduced and instantly eliminated in an instant.
It moved.
It did not give up. It began to frantically pursue, following the last remaining traces of information Lin Mo had left behind.
But it could not catch up.
Because on a dimensional level, for every dimension elevated, the distance would be magnified countless times. The dimension Lin Mo was currently in was higher than the highest dimension the python could reach—by at least three levels.
He was safe.
At least, temporarily safe.
Lin Mo's consciousness continued to rise.
Everything around him—the Solar System, the Milky Way, and even the cosmic web composed of countless galaxies—continued to shrink, contract, and condense in his "eyes."
Eventually, everything returned to nothingness.
He floated in a pure "void" that could not be described in any language, transcending color and form.
There was no up or down, no left or right, no time, no space.
Only him, and that system interface that was still flickering slightly.
【Dimensional Shift complete. Current dimensional level: 7.3. host consciousness safe.】
【System energy remaining: 0.03%. About to enter dormant upgrade state. Estimated upgrade cycle: Unknown.】
【host, from here on, you must rely on yourself.】
【Take care.】
That line of golden text slowly dissipated.
The system interface went completely dark.
Lin Mo floated in that "void," feeling an absolute, thorough—loneliness he had never experienced before.
No sound. No light. Nothing that could be perceived.
Only himself.
And in his mind, that last piece of information from the system:
【High-dimensional information level lock detected! Warning: host has become a target for "causal erasure"!】
【host is feeling fear originating from life's instinct for the first time.】
Fear?
Lin Mo lowered his head (if there was even a "down" here), looking at his own "hands" that could not be described by any language, existing somewhere between existence and non-existence.
He was trembling.
Not because of the cold. Not because he was afraid of death.
It was because he finally understood what that attack meant.
It was not to kill him. It was to erase all possibilities of his having existed.
Those who had survived because of him, those events that had changed because of him, those hopes that existed because of him—
All would be erased.
As if they had never happened.
His family, his friends, his lover—
Would forget him.
Completely forget.
He would rather die ten thousand times than face such an ending.
But at this moment, he could do nothing.
He could only float in this void of "nothingness," waiting for that unknown—and perhaps never-to-come—return.
Ark, command hall.
Su Xiaowan threw herself against that invisible energy barrier, pounding and crying frantically.
On the other side of the barrier, Lin Mo's body stood quietly.
His eyes were closed. His expression was as calm as if he were asleep.
But his chest was still rising and falling slightly.
He was still alive.
It was just that his consciousness was no longer here.
"Lin Mo..." Su Xiaowan's voice was as hoarse as broken glass, "Come back... please come back..."
Elder Chen stood behind her, his aged hand resting gently on her shoulder. His eyes were red-rimmed, but his voice remained steady:
"He will come back. He promised he would come back."
Su Xiaowan did not turn around. She just stared fixedly at that sleeping face, tears sliding down silently.
Lin Mo never lied.
But this time, she was truly terrified.
So afraid that he would not return.
So afraid that the person who said he would love her would just—disappear forever.
Jupiter orbit, battlefield.
Those three "Scavenger" combat units stopped functioning simultaneously.
Their cores were flashing frantically. In that flashing, there was confusion, bewilderment, and—surprise that exceeded their computational limits.
The target—had disappeared.
Not death, not hiding, but a complete disappearance from the information level.
The "causal anchor point" they had locked onto had now turned into a void. There was no remaining information, no data traces, as if that anchor point had never existed.
【Target lost. Tracing failed.】
【Rescanning... Failed.】
【Expanding scan range... Failed.】
【Attempting to backtrack time dimension... Failed. Target information has been protected by a higher dimension.】
【Assessment conclusion: Target 'Lin Mo' has temporarily escaped the traceable range. But the attack has not completely failed. His consciousness will eventually return to the lower dimension. At that time, we can lock on again.】
【Entering standby mode. Waiting for the target to return.】
The cores of the three combat units simultaneously returned to calm.
They floated quietly in the void, like three silent tombstones waiting for their prey to return.
Waiting.
Waiting for that soul who had temporarily escaped to return to his body.
Waiting for that final, thorough, causal-level—erasure.