256: Chapter 256 The Return of Consciousness: A Bountiful Harvest
In the deepest part of the "Kunlun" world, that brilliant light formed by the convergence of countless human collective consciousnesses was slowly rotating before Lin Mo's eyes.
He stood there, tightly gripping that cluster of Core Data, which was now as pure as a newborn star. Within it lay all the secrets of the Scavenger main fleet—their scale, technology, tactics, and that extremely tiny logic flaw hidden in the deepest part of all the data, one that was sufficient to turn the tide of the war.
Less than six hours remained on the thirty-day countdown.
The golden barrier that Long Zhantian had built with his life had completely dissipated.
Having lost the barrier's obstruction, those Nano Ghosts were frantically flooding into his body—that empty shell with nothing left but basic life support.
He had no time left.
Lin Mo looked up at that rotating light, peering into its depths at the faintly visible, sole passage connecting to the real world.
That was his road home.
It was also a road from which he could never turn back.
"Are you ready?" he whispered to himself.
No one answered.
Only that cluster of Core Data pulsed slightly in the depths of his consciousness, as if urging him, as if in anticipation.
He took a deep breath—if he still had breath here—and stepped forward, walking toward that light.
Ark City, Special Isolation Safe House.
A piercing alarm echoed frantically through the air.
Those invisible Nano Ghosts were flooding in like a tide from ventilation ducts, from energy gaps, and from every possible corner, rushing madly toward the sleeping body on the bed.
Lin Mo's body.
That empty shell with nothing left but a beating heart.
Su Xiaowan stood resolutely in front of the bed, having already emptied three energy magazines from her Energy Pistol. Her eyes were bloodshot, her arms were trembling, and her lips had been bitten until they were a bloody mess.
But she did not retreat a single step.
"Come on!" she screamed hoarsely at the invisible enemies. "Come on! You damned machines! Come on!"
The Nano Ghosts ignored her attacks. They had no physical form, and the pulses from the Energy Pistol couldn't touch them at all. They just surged frantically through the air, trying to bypass her and burrow into Lin Mo's orifices, into his brain, into—
They all stopped.
Su Xiaowan was stunned.
Those invisible, lethal, and frantically surging Nano Ghosts all froze in place at the exact same moment.
As if a pause button had been pressed.
An extremely faint hum—one that nonetheless made the entire Safe House tremble—echoed through the air.
It was the sound of the Kunlun network's core processor running at full power.
It was the roar of countless data streams surging simultaneously.
It was—
Lin Mo, back.
Su Xiaowan's body jolted violently.
She slowly turned her head toward the bed, toward the person she had guarded for thirty days and nights.
Lin Mo's eyes were still closed.
But the corners of his mouth were curling up slightly.
She was all too familiar with that smile.
It was the smile he only wore when he found hope in the midst of a desperate situation.
"Lin Mo..." Her voice was as raspy as broken glass. "You... are you back?"
No one answered.
But the Nano Ghosts frozen in place suddenly began to tremble, twist, and disintegrate frantically!
An invisible wave of energy, powerful enough to make the air in the Safe House boil, suddenly erupted from Lin Mo's body!
That wave carried a massive amount of data fragments compressed to the extreme—the core intelligence he had snatched from the Correction Protocol, the countless human memories and emotions he had condensed in Kunlun, and the hope he carried with his own consciousness core, sufficient to change everything.
Under the impact of this energy wave, the Nano Ghosts were like ice and snow under a scorching sun, instantly evaporating, dissipating, and turning into nothingness.
Not a single one remained.
A deathly silence returned to the Safe House.
Only the medical equipment continued to emit its monotonous beeping.
Only Long Zhantian's body, lying on another bed and still unconscious, rose and fell slightly.
Su Xiaowan stood there in a daze, the Energy Pistol slowly slipping from her hand.
Her tears flowed silently.
"Lin Mo..." she called out again, her voice trembling.
This time, someone answered.
A weak, raspy, but incredibly familiar voice came from the bed:
"I'm... back."
Su Xiaowan's body shuddered.
She lunged to the bedside, staring intently at his face.
Lin Mo's eyes slowly opened.
Those eyes were still as black as ink, still as deep as the starry sky. But now, there was something in those eyes that had never been there before—
Exhaustion. Vicissitude. And a light that had become even more determined after experiencing countless instances of life and death.
"You... you..." Su Xiaowan's tears poured out like a flood from a broken dam. She wanted to say something, but found she couldn't say anything at all.
Lin Mo looked at her, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly.
The smile was weak but gentle.
"Don't cry," his voice remained raspy, "I'm fine. I'm back. And—"
He raised his hand and gently pressed it against his chest.
"I brought back a gift."
Deep within his consciousness core, that cluster of light as pure as a newborn star was pulsing slightly.
Hidden within it was the last hope of human civilization.
Three days later.
Ark City, Medical Center.
Lin Mo sat in a wheelchair, being pushed by Su Xiaowan as they slowly traversed the white corridor filled with the scent of disinfectant.
His new body was still in its adaptation period.
That spare body, urgently cultivated through biotechnology, was essentially just a blank shell without any memories or personality. After Lin Mo's consciousness was downloaded into it, he needed time to re-establish neural connections and re-adapt to basic physiological functions.
He couldn't walk yet, couldn't eat by himself, and couldn't even go to the bathroom on his own.
But his consciousness was intact.
The Core Data he had brought back was also intact.
The wheelchair stopped at the door of a special intensive care unit.
Su Xiaowan gently took Lin Mo's hand and said in a low voice, "We're here."
Lin Mo looked up at the transparent alloy glass door.
Behind the door was a white bed.
On the bed lay someone he was incredibly familiar with.
Long Zhantian.
The tough guy who had used the last of his life to build that barrier for him.
He was still alive.
But his consciousness had completely dissipated.
His heart was still beating, his lungs were still breathing, and his body was still maintaining its most basic vital signs. But his cerebral cortex—those neurons responsible for consciousness, memory, and emotion—had died in large numbers under the frantic devouring of the Nano Ghosts.
He wouldn't wake up.
The doctors said he might continue sleeping like this until his bodily functions completely failed.
No one knew how long that would take.
It could be a year, it could be ten years, it could be a hundred years.
Or, he might never wake up.
Through the glass door, Lin Mo quietly looked at that pale, thin, yet still iron-willed face.
His eyes reddened slightly.
But he didn't cry.
Because Long Zhantian didn't like seeing him cry.
"Old Long," his voice was raspy but clearly reached the silent intensive care unit, "I'm back."
"I found it. I found their weakness."
"Can you hear me?"
The person on the bed showed no reaction.
Only the green, regular waveform on the ECG Monitor pulsed silently.
Lin Mo was silent for a long time.
He looked down at the slightly glowing, miniature storage device in his hand, condensed from Core Data.
"Wait for me," he whispered, "Wait for me to win this battle."
"I'll come for you."
"You must wait for me."
He gripped that cluster of light, looked up, and gazed toward the massive observation window at the end of the corridor.