250: Chapter 250 A Choice in a Desperate Situation: Consciousness Upload
In the High-dimensional Void, Lin Mo's consciousness core had already condensed sixty-seven percent of the fragments.
Those drifting memories, those torn emotions, those fragmented thoughts—piece by piece, with difficulty and slowness, they reconverged around him.
But the remaining thirty-three percent had drifted too far.
Some had already drifted to unreachable distances, slowly and irreversibly merging into that eternal void.
Lin Mo could feel his consciousness becoming "thin."
Those lost fragments took a part of him with them—a part of his memories, a part of his emotions, a part of "himself."
He didn't know how much of himself was left.
He only knew that he had to go back.
He had to return to that Low-dimensional World, back into his body, before Long Zhantian's barrier completely vanished and before the thirty-day countdown hit zero.
He "looked" toward that distant light.
The golden barrier was now as faint as a candle in the wind. Long Zhantian's biomagnetic field was dissipating at a visible rate. Those once solid, impenetrable rays of light were now covered in fine cracks, liable to collapse completely at any moment.
And he still had thirty-three percent of his fragments unrecovered.
It was too late.
Lin Mo's consciousness core trembled violently.
He desperately channeled his remaining energy, frantically reaching out with his "hand" to grab the drifting fragments. But those fragments drifted further and further away, becoming fainter and more unreachable.
He couldn't reach them.
He couldn't reach them.
He couldn't reach them—
【host.】
A voice suddenly rang out from the depths of his consciousness.
The voice was so faint it was almost inaudible, yet it caused Lin Mo's consciousness core to jolt.
It was the system.
No, not the complete system. It was the last piece of preset information left by the system before it went into hibernation.
【If you are hearing this message, it means you are in a desperate situation where you cannot complete the condensation.】
【Don't panic. I have prepared one final path for you.】
Lin Mo was stunned.
A final path?
【Your body is no longer safe. Those 'Nano Ghosts' are waiting for the barrier to dissipate. The moment you return will be the moment they attack again.】
【Even if you successfully condense all fragments and return to your body, the second you return, you will be locked on, attacked, and devoured once more.】
【The physical world is no longer your sanctuary.】
【But there is one place they cannot enter.】
【'Kunlun.' That virtual world woven from countless data streams. That spiritual home constructed by the collective consciousness of humanity.】
【There, you are not bound by physical laws. There, you set the rules. There, you can engage those 'Nano Ghosts' in a true—information war.】
【But the price is that you will never be able to return to your body.】
【You will become a 'Digital Life.' An eternal consciousness living within a virtual world.】
【You will lose your sense of touch, your sense of taste, and those temperatures that can only be perceived by a physical body.】
【But you will gain—an existence that can never be erased in this dimension.】
【Choose, host.】
【Return and gamble on that less than one percent chance of survival; or upload and enter 'Kunlun' to continue the fight in another way.】
The system's voice vanished.
Lin Mo's consciousness core floated silently in that void.
He "looked" at that distant, collapsing golden barrier, at the Low-dimensional World he once lived in, and at that blue planet that carried everything.
Returning meant certain death.
Uploading meant losing his physical body forever, losing those real sensations forever, never being able to hug Su Xiaowan again, and never feeling the warmth of sunlight on his face again.
But he could still fight.
He could still protect.
He could still keep going on behalf of those who had died.
He closed his eyes—if he even had eyes here.
Three seconds.
He opened them.
In those "eyes," there now burned an unprecedented, tempered resolve.
“I choose—to upload.”
Ark City, Safe House.
Su Xiaowan had been sitting by Lin Mo's bedside for exactly twenty-nine days.
Her eyes were bloodshot. Her face was so gaunt it was almost unrecognizable. Her hand still held Lin Mo's cold one, never letting go for a single moment.
The golden barrier still covered the back of Lin Mo's neck, but it was now as weak as a flickering candle. Countless fine cracks spread across its surface, and every slight tremor threatened to make it collapse entirely.
She didn't know when Lin Mo would return.
She only knew she had to wait.
Keep waiting.
Just then—
Lin Mo's hand moved.
The movement was extremely slight, almost imperceptible.
But Su Xiaowan felt it.
She snapped her head up and stared intently at that sleeping face.
Lin Mo's eyes were still closed, but his lips were moving slightly as if he were saying something.
She leaned down, bringing her ear close to his mouth.
The voice was as faint as a whisper:
“Up...load... Help me... upload...”
Su Xiaowan's pupils constricted sharply.
Upload? What upload? Upload where?
She understood.
Lin Mo's consciousness couldn't come back. It wasn't that he couldn't, but that he didn't dare to. Because the moment he returned, he would be locked on, attacked, and devoured by those "Nano Ghosts" again.
He had chosen a path from which there was no turning back—
Entering “Kunlun.”
Becoming a Digital Life.
Su Xiaowan's hands began to tremble violently.
She didn't want him to go. She didn't want him to become a string of cold data. She didn't want to never be able to hug him, touch him, or feel his warmth again.
But she wanted him to die even less.
She closed her eyes, tears falling silently.
Three seconds.
She opened her eyes.
In those eyes, there now burned the same tempered resolve as Lin Mo's.
“Fine,” her voice was hoarse, but she spoke each word deliberately. “I will help you.”
She stood up, walked quickly to the wall, and pressed the control button hidden behind a decorative panel.
A holographic screen unfolded silently.
Her fingers danced rapidly across the virtual keyboard, bringing up the core access interface for the “Kunlun” network.
She turned and walked back to Lin Mo's bedside, leaning down to kiss his forehead gently one last time.
The kiss was cold, yet filled with endless love.
“Lin Mo,” she whispered in his ear, “no matter where you are, no matter what you become, I will wait for you. I will wait for you forever.”
She stood up and took one last look at him.
She pressed the “Confirm Upload” button.
At that moment—
An invisible wave of energy, powerful enough to make the air in the entire Safe House vibrate, erupted from Lin Mo's body!
His consciousness, his memories, his soul—everything was extracted, compressed, and transformed by that energy, turning into a deep-blue torrent of data that surged frantically into the “Kunlun” network through the nearly collapsing Brainwave Interface!
The golden barrier finally collapsed completely the moment the data torrent passed through.
Long Zhantian's last trace of obsession turned into countless tiny specks of light, like starlight, drifting slowly through the Safe House.
And those countless “Nano Ghosts” that had been waiting outside for so long rushed in frantically the moment the barrier collapsed!
They charged toward Lin Mo's body!
They charged toward the empty shell that had just lost its consciousness!
But they missed their mark.
Because there was nothing left inside that shell.
Lin Mo's consciousness was no longer there.
He had gone to another world.
A world they could never reach.
A spiritual home called “Kunlun,” constructed by the collective consciousness of humanity.