100: Chapter 99 Countdown: Light and Shadow in the Conference Room Late at Night

The digits of the holographic clock ticked in the silence: 23:17:42.

In the main meeting room seven hundred meters underground in the "Bedrock" base, the air seemed to have solidified into a sort of transparent gel. Lin Shen sat at the head of the long table, his fingertips lightly touching the cold metal surface. To his left floated the holographic images of the seventeen major member states of the Earth Federation—the faces of those representatives appearing blurred and anxious in the blue light; to his right were the physical members of the Dragon Country's core team: General Zhao Yan sat as straight as a pine, Professor Chen Qiming's eyes were bloodshot behind his glasses, three constantly refreshing data panels floated in front of Zhou Zhe, and Chu Yunshen closed his eyes to rest, though his fingertips unconsciously tapped the armrest of his chair.

"Less than twenty-four hours remain." The speaker was one of the federation representatives, Martha Richter, a diplomat from the United States of Europa. Her holographic image leaned forward, her tone carrying an unquestionable urgency, "We must provide an explanation that can convince the Galactic Council. My suggestion is: full disclosure. The entire contents of the successor protocol, the location of every anchor in the Gaia Watcher Network, and even the principles behind the existence of that 'technology tree system' in your mind, Dr. Lin Shen."

A few suppressed gasps echoed in the meeting room.

"That is equivalent to dissecting our internal organs for the universe to see." Chu Yunshen opened his eyes, his voice terrifyingly steady. "Ms. Martha, have you considered which civilization the Galactic Council would deem a 'responsible manager'—one that exposes all its trump cards without reservation, or one that understands strategic reserve and demonstrates restraint and wisdom?"

"But concealment means risk!" another federation image interjected; it was James Cole, the defense consultant for the New Continent Federation. "If we hide any information now and it is later discovered by the council itself, that will lead to a devastating collapse of trust. Don't forget, that 'Stargazer 742' can scan the entire Solar System in an instant—do you think it won't find the 'ice abyss' anchor? Or Sarah Chen's consciousness crystal?"

Lin Shen raised his hand. This simple gesture brought all the arguments to a sudden halt.

The costly victory from six hours ago, where they repelled the Pruning Faction vanguard, was still fresh in their minds, and the wreckage of enemy mechs floating on the surface of the East Sea was still being salvaged. At this moment, they had to transition from warriors to diplomats, from survivors to respondents for their civilization's qualification.

"Consultant Cole is right," Lin Shen's voice carried clearly through the soundproof meeting room. "Stargazer 742, and even the entire Galactic Council, has the ability to know most of what happens within the Solar System. Therefore, the word 'concealment' is not accurate." He pulled up a holographic interface in front of him, and three overlapping transparent layers appeared on it. "What we need is 'strategic presentation.' Much like submitting an academic paper or a court statement—it's not about dumping all your experimental notes, but about constructing a complete narrative with logic, evidence, and demands."

The three layers rotated and expanded in his hands.

"The first layer: Facts." Lin Shen zoomed in on the first layer, which showed high-speed edited footage—from the initial discovery of the remains on the far side of the Moon to the energy spectrum of the East Sea Peak Crisis, and then the full combat records of the enemy attack six hours ago. "This part requires no embellishment. The data chains are complete, the timestamps are clear, and the evidence is solid. What we need to prove is: humanity is the victim; we suffered an unprovoked attack from a high-level civilization."

"The second layer: Legal Basis." The second layer expanded, presenting a complex tree diagram. The roots were ancient archives from the Moon's "Cradle" database; the branches were the research results of the history of the "sower" and the "Order Reconstruction Faction" led by Elena Costa's archaeological team; and at the top was the recently activated authorization code for the "successor protocol." "This part must answer one question: Why do we have the right to use these legacies for self-defense? The answer is not 'because we happened to find it,' but 'because we met the inheritance conditions set by the Sower Civilization and have actively assumed management responsibilities.' Professor Elena?"

Elena Costa, sitting diagonally across from Lin Shen, nodded. The decoding expert's face showed fatigue, but her eyes were strikingly bright. She pulled up her terminal and projected a set of recently decrypted text fragments into the public view:

【Sower Civilization · Heritage Management Protocol (Fragment)】

Article 3.7: Inheritor Qualification Certification

Temporary management permissions may be activated by indigenous civilization individuals or groups when the following conditions are met:

Independently discover at least one major heritage facility (such as the "Cradle" or the "anchor network");

Successfully decode the basic access protocols;

Demonstrate the will and ability to utilize the legacy for restrained defense when encountering external threats;

The heritage network core consciousness (such as "Gaia") generates a preliminary recognition response for the Inheritor.

Note: Full inheritance requires passing the "Civilization Maturity Assessment," which will be completed jointly by the heritage network and external observers.

"Restrained defense," Professor Chen Qiming repeated the term. "We repelled the enemy, but we did not pursue them, nor did we attempt to reverse-engineer their jump coordinates for retaliation. All records of the East Sea battle show that we ceased our attack immediately after the enemy units lost their combat effectiveness. This is our evidence."

"The third layer: Demands." Lin Shen zoomed in on the final layer, which listed concise items. "Based on the first two layers, we submit reasonable requests to the Galactic Council: first, formal recognition of humanity's temporary management rights over the sowers legacy within the Solar System; second, a request for the council to provide more detailed intelligence and defensive suggestions regarding the Pruning Faction main fleet; third, an application for limited access to the Galactic Civilization Technology Exchange Network; fourth... this point remains to be discussed: should we proactively mention the 'Silent Outpost'?"

The words "Silent Outpost" made the meeting room fall silent again.

Those were the coordinates discovered by Elena's team after cross-referencing the star map fragments transmitted by Sarah with the ancient database—a builder facility located at the edge of the Kuiper Belt, marked as an "observatory" in the archives, which had mysteriously gone silent five hundred thousand years ago. Even more unsettling was a damaged note suggesting it might have been infiltrated by the Order Reconstruction Faction (the predecessor of the Pruning Faction).

"Mentioning it is equivalent to admitting we know too much, which might draw unnecessary attention," General Zhao Yan said in a deep voice. "But hiding it—if the council already knows of this place's existence or is even monitoring it—would cause our credibility to take a major hit."

Just as Lin Shen was about to speak, a data panel in front of Zhou Zhe suddenly emitted a sharp alert sound.

"Dr. Lin," Zhou Zhe's voice carried a rare tension, "the Moon's 'Cradle' just transmitted a real-time data stream. The 'ice abyss' anchor—that cryogenic preservation facility in Antarctica—is experiencing abnormal internal temperature changes."

The holographic screen switched. The massive cavern beneath the Antarctic ice sheet was revealed, and on the surface of the crystallized builder facility at its center, the faint blue cryogenic field pulsed between light and dark like breathing. Data showed that the core area temperature was slowly rising at a rate of 0.001 Kelvin per minute. This change was so minute it could almost be ignored, but in a cryogenic preservation system of this level, any unplanned fluctuation meant a serious problem.

Even more bizarre was the correlation analysis curve below the chart.

"This is..." Martha Richter's holographic image leaned in closer.

"The bioelectric pulse waveform of Sarah Chen's consciousness crystal." Zhou Zhe pulled up another set of data, and the two curves were displayed almost in parallel. "Look at the time delay. The temperature fluctuations in the ice abyss always lag behind Sarah's consciousness pulses by 0.3 seconds, with a correlation as high as 97.8%. This isn't environmental interference; this is resonance."

There was a dead silence in the meeting room.

Sarah Chen, another Inheritor and the holder of the "key," had her consciousness currently sealed for stability within a specialized "heart crystal." How could there be such precise resonance between her and that cryogenic facility holding over a hundred endangered alien species?

"After the successor protocol was activated, the Gaia Network began re-identifying us." Lin Shen stared at those two curves, his mind racing. "Sarah, as the 'key,' might be one of the mediums the network uses for identity verification. And the ice abyss... perhaps it is more than just a freezer."

"We need an on-site assessment." Zhao Yan stood up. "If that anchor really starts to become unstable, the consequences of those 'samples' inside thawing and spiraling out of control would be unthinkable. I suggest organizing a Quick Reaction Force immediately to head to Antarctica via the Qingtian Passage."

"Agreed." Lin Shen nodded. "General Zhao, you lead the team personally, carrying the successor protocol level 2 authorization key. Dr. Zhou will provide remote technical support. The operation must be kept absolutely confidential, disguised externally as routine geological exploration."

Orders were quickly issued. Zhao Yan left his seat to assemble his personnel, while the holographic images in the meeting room began to exchange opinions in low voices.

Just as the meeting was about to conclude, Lin Shen's private terminal vibrated. It wasn't a regular communication channel, but a message sent by the "Nuwa" AI through an independent encrypted link—this behavior itself was unusual. As a strong AI, Nuwa usually only initiated this highest-priority direct communication when she detected a major threat or anomaly.

Lin Shen opened the message without changing his expression. There were only two short lines:

【Nuwa Log Excerpt】

Detected traces of deep protocol activity within the "Gaia Watcher Network."

The "Consciousness Preservation" anchor (No. 03, coordinates: deep in the Puerto Rico Trench of the North Atlantic) sent a one-way query command to the "ice abyss" anchor (No. 07) 12 minutes ago.

Command content: Status confirmation.

Command signature: ...partially damaged, keyword remains—"Hibernators."

Hibernators.

Lin Shen closed the screen and looked up. In the meeting room, people were still arguing over the wording of the report, while the holographic clock displayed 22:58:11. Outside—if there were windows here—it would be the deepest part of the night at 3:00 AM.

He remembered the meaningful words Stargazer 742 said before leaving: "What you inherit is not just tools, but history. And history... never truly sleeps."

"Professor Elena," Lin Shen suddenly spoke, interrupting the ongoing debate, "regarding the legal basis section of the report, please add a sub-chapter. Title it: 'Signs of Heritage Network Activation and the Boundaries of Inheritor Responsibility.' We need to let the council know that we have not only inherited facilities but are also establishing contact with a... system that is awakening."

"Does that include the 'Hibernators'?" Elena asked keenly.

"Not for now." Lin Shen looked at the real-time footage of the Antarctic ice abyss, where the temperature curve jumped once more. "There are some questions for which we need to find the answers ourselves first."

The countdown continued to tick.

Meanwhile, in the deep sea where data streams could not reach, in the absolute darkness eight thousand meters beneath the Puerto Rico Trench, a faint light flickered once like a heartbeat on the surface of Anchor No. 03. The query it sent received no reply, so it turned and sent a second message to another node in the network—the path of this message was even more hidden, its destination pointing to the deepest part of the Moon's "Cradle" database, where the final complete logs from before the builder civilization split were sealed.

The title of the message consisted of only three words, written in the ancient sower language:

【Awakening Protocol: Phase One】