111: Chapter 110 The Weight of a Shared Future

10 days after the verdict was issued, Bedrock Base, deep laboratory.

Elena stared at the withered stem of the memory fern in the isolation box.

The physical structure of green soil had dissipated, but this part of the information stored in the "letter" from Talos via biochemical means seemed to still have residual activity.

Under scanning with a specific spectrum, extremely fine energy veins were vaguely visible inside the stem, like the ganglia of a hibernating insect.

"Chen Yu," she spoke, her eyes not leaving the screen, "stimulate it with the reverse waveform of the 'ecological resonance frequency', and adjust the intensity to one-thousandth of the last excitation."

"What about the risk? It is already very fragile and might be completely destroyed."

"Talos said that information needs to be stimulated using the ecological resonance frequency. We previously stimulated memory scenes. But perhaps... that is not all."

Elena recalled the few sentences left by Alpha, about "premonitions coming true" and "proper use."

"If it were you, leaving a letter that might only be discovered after five hundred thousand years, would you put all your eggs in one basket? Could there be... a hidden layer?"

Chen Yu looked thoughtful and began to adjust the equipment. A faint energy field, imitating the ecological frequency of green soil, enveloped the isolation box. The withered stem showed no reaction.

"Increase to one percent."

The energy field strengthened. Extremely subtle, almost invisible pulsations appeared on the surface of the stem.

"Continue, to five percent."

The pulsations became obvious, and those fine energy veins inside the stem began to emit a dim, green glow. But no information was released.

"Ten percent."

The green light brightened a little, but it was still just physical luminescence, with no data stream.

Elena bit her lip. Her intuition told her the direction was correct, but the method might be wrong. Talos was a cultivator, an ecologist. How would his "hidden layer" be encrypted? Could the password be...

"Chen Yu, stop the frequency stimulation. Switch to multi-spectral biological scanning, highest precision, focusing on the nodes of the energy veins."

The scanned image appeared. Those energy veins were not evenly distributed but formed seven relatively dense "nodes" inside the stem. The way the nodes were connected exhibited a... fractal geometric rhythm.

Fractal. Self-similar. A common growth pattern in biological systems.

"Seven nodes..." Elena pulled up the original environmental parameter data of the green soil ecosystem—that was the basic environment created by Talos.

She mapped the seven nodes to seven key environmental parameters (peak illumination wavelength, base humidity, specific mineral concentration, etc.) one by one and discovered that the energy activity intensity of each node matched perfectly with the importance weight of the corresponding parameter in the green soil ecosystem.

"It's not intensity," she realized, "it's the ratio! The password is not a fixed frequency intensity, but the ratio of energy injection for the seven parameters! We need to simulate a 'perfect green soil micro-environment', even if it is only symbolic!"

They quickly adjusted the equipment, breaking the energy field down into seven independently adjustable bands, each corresponding to an environmental parameter, and set the energy ratio according to the importance weight of the green soil ecosystem. When the seven bands illuminated the stem simultaneously at precise ratios—

The stem did not release an immersive memory scene.

The biological material on its surface began to slowly... grow.

It was not restoring itself into the original plant, but rather, on the existing foundation, it was extremely slowly "weaving" a new structure. Hair-thin green fibers extended from the nodes, outlining and intersecting in the air, gradually forming a palm-sized, extremely complex three-dimensional network model.

After the model formed, it stabilized and began to glow on its own.

Elena watched, holding her breath. She had never seen the structure of that model in any sower materials. It didn't look like a building or a machine; it looked more like... some kind of abstract, multi-layered neural network topology map. The map had three core nodes in a triangular support structure, connected by thick main links. Surrounding the core were hundreds of secondary nodes and finer links, spreading out in layers.

"What is this?" Chen Yu asked in a low voice.

Elena scanned the model and compared it with all known Gaia Network anchor point distribution maps, human neural connection atlases, and even some consciousness science models provided by the Blade - Seventh Execution Court civilization. There was no perfect match.

But when she rotated the model to a specific angle and overlaid it with the data fragments previously transmitted by green soil regarding the possible distribution of Hibernators, a vague correspondence emerged.

About one-third of the secondary nodes on the periphery of the model had spatial distribution similarities with known or inferred Hibernator coordinate points. And the three core nodes...

One of them vaguely corresponded to the location of the Cradle (Moon Base).

Another pointed to an unknown point on Earth, preliminarily calculated to be in the deep Pacific Ocean.

The third... pointed to deep space, but the orientation had an angle with the coordinates of the Silent Outpost (Silent Watch), not pointing directly at it.

"Could this be..." Elena's heart raced, "a consciousness association network drawn by Talos... within the Solar System, between the sowers legacy and 'special existences'? The three cores might be key hubs or control nodes of the network. Other nodes, including the Hibernators, are 'sub-modules' or 'parasites' attached to this network?"

If this conjecture held true, then the key to countering cold fang might not just be pacifying social emotions, but also... influencing or controlling this deep consciousness network itself!

But how to influence it? Humanity struggled even to safely read Sarah's consciousness, let alone touch this planetary-scale, ancient, and fragmented consciousness architecture.

Just then, the model suddenly flickered. One of the three core nodes—the one corresponding to the unknown point in the deep Pacific—brightened slightly for a moment, then recovered.

Almost simultaneously, Elena and all personnel in the base with neural interfaces felt an extremely brief, indescribable "pulling sensation," as if their consciousness had been gently "tugged" by something, and the direction was exactly the Pacific Ocean.

The feeling was fleeting, but clear and unmistakable.

"It... is responding?" Chen Yu said, unable to believe it.

Elena immediately checked the global monitoring network. In that instant, multiple submarine seismic monitoring stations and geomagnetic monitoring points in the Pacific Ocean simultaneously recorded an inexplicable, synchronized faint disturbance. The source of the disturbance pointed roughly to a deep-sea plain south of the Mariana Trench—which was not a known Gaia Network anchor point.

"Tell Dr. Lin and Consultant Chu," Elena's voice trembled slightly with excitement, "Talos's letter may not just be a historical record or warning... it might be a key, or at least... a map."

At the same time, top floor of Bedrock Base, Strategic Deduction Center.

On the screen in front of Chu Yunshen, the architecture diagram of the "Shared Future" simulation project was being urgently modified. The test scenarios that were originally planned to be pushed forward in stages and gently were now being compressed, superimposed, and added with the "external consciousness entity interference" variable suggested by the Blade - Seventh Execution Court civilization.

This variable was concretized into a simulated existence called "dark tide", whose behavioral patterns were derived based on the known characteristics of cold fang: growing by absorbing negative emotions, capable of releasing mental pollution to induce fear and chaos, having no obvious physical form, and possessing a certain resistance to positive collective consciousness fields but not being immune.

"We cannot directly tell the participants that this is an 'alien consciousness monster'," Chu Yunshen said to the design team. "That would introduce preconceived panic, and the data would be distorted. The initial manifestation of 'dark tide' in the simulation should be subtle influence—accelerated spread of online rumors, causeless group apathy, increased unexpected failure rates in cooperative projects, more negative themes in art works... Let the participants gradually discover that 'something is wrong' themselves, and spontaneously search for causes and solutions."

"But the simulation process will be very long this way," a designer questioned. "We don't have months to let the participants explore slowly."

"So we need to add a catalyst," Chu Yunshen pulled up the social sentiment heat map. "In the real world, according to Liaison Coordinator's observations and model predictions, there is a more than 65% probability of moderate social unrest erupting in a certain region of the Southern Continent due to resource allocation disputes within the next two weeks. We will introduce a simulated version of this real-world event as a key conflict point. We will observe the reactions, decisions, and the resulting 'social solutions' of participants in different regions when facing the dual pressure of 'internal turmoil' and 'external dark tide influence'."

"This is equivalent to bringing real-world stress testing into a virtual laboratory," another designer said. "But the participants know this is a simulation, so their behavior might not fully reflect real choices."

"So we are introducing a 'high-immersion reward and punishment mechanism'," Chu Yunshen presented the plan. "The 'civilization survival probability' in the simulation will be used as a core indicator, linked to the participants' personal simulation account 'influence points'. Individuals with high points will have more decision-making weight in the simulation and can also redeem opportunities for some non-critical real-world technical experiences or priority access to information after the simulation ends. At the same time, the simulation will use the latest neural interface technology to strengthen the authenticity of emotional and sensory feedback—although not one hundred percent, we want them to 'feel' the weight of their choices."

The plan was massive and complex, involving the first batch of participation from at least one million volunteers globally, requiring nearly 30% of the computing power of the Cradle base, as well as vast neural interface hardware support. The risks were obvious: if the simulation went out of control, or if the "dark tide" variable was designed incorrectly, it could lead to large-scale psychological trauma for participants; if the point incentive mechanism was perceived as unfair, it could trigger new real-world conflicts; if data was leaked or tampered with, the consequences would be unimaginable.

But the intelligence advance payment provided by the Blade - Seventh Execution Court civilization regarding the weakness of the Gardener Chief's flagship arrived on time when the 24-hour deadline was reached.

The intelligence was not a text description, but a highly compressed consciousness experience package that required a specific decoder (provided by the Blade - Seventh Execution Court) to decompress.

Lin Shen, Chu Yunshen, Zhao Yan, Zhou Zhe, and other core members simultaneously accessed the decoded experience in a strictly isolated environment.

What they "saw" was not design blueprints or technical parameters, but a memory fragment from an infiltrator of the Blade - Seventh Execution Court:

In the fragment, the owner of the perspective seemed to be in a maintenance corridor inside the pruning ship flagship. The surroundings were cold, angular metal walls, flashing with dark red warning lights. The owner of the perspective was carefully bypassing patrolling automatic sentry machines, moving toward the engine core area.

At the end of the corridor was a huge gate engraved with rotating hexagonal patterns. A low energy hum came from behind the door. The owner of the perspective did not have permission to open the main gate, but he knew of an ancient emergency maintenance corridor that most crew members had forgotten—that was a standard redundancy in the early ship designs of the Blade - Seventh Execution Court civilization, which might have been overlooked when the Pruning Faction modified the flagship.

The memory fragment became blurry and fragmented after the owner of the perspective crawled into the narrow maintenance corridor, filled with intense tension and a sense of danger. Finally, deep in the corridor, he saw the core of the pruning ship's faster-than-light engine—a massive, pulsating crystal structure wrapped in dark purple energy.

On the surface of the crystal structure, there was a tiny, inconspicuous flaw. It looked like an old scar or a bubble residue from manufacturing. But the owner of the perspective's memory came with a strong cognition: "Weakness. Logical conflict point. The 'mercy loophole' in the original Alpha engine design—an energy pressure relief channel interface reserved to prevent the engine from completely annihilating the crew when overloaded. The Pruning Faction strengthened the engine output but never truly understood Alpha's underlying design philosophy. They blocked all the obvious pressure relief valves, but did not know that this hidden interface, reserved based on the concept of 'irrational safety redundancy'... still existed."

The fragment ended abruptly here; the subsequent thrilling process of the perspective owner being discovered or evacuating was obviously not included.

But the core of the intelligence had been given: in the core of the pruning ship's faster-than-light engine, there existed a "mercy loophole" physical interface based on early Alpha design philosophy. If one could approach and activate it from the outside or inside, theoretically, it could force the engine into an unstable pressure relief state, at best causing the flagship to lose maneuverability, and at worst triggering a core overload.

"The problem is," Zhao Yan pointed out immediately after exiting the experience, "how do we approach it? Let alone activate it. That is the enemy flagship core; the defense must be the tightest."

"The intelligence mentioned an 'emergency maintenance corridor'," Zhou Zhe mused. "If the design of this corridor is standardized in the ships of the Blade - Seventh Execution Court civilization, then perhaps we can look for similar design blueprints in the Cradle database and deduce the possible location and entry method of the corridor. Even... if the Silent Outpost is truly an early observation station of the sowers/Blade - Seventh Execution Court, could there be relevant interface equipment or access keys inside?"

A clue began to connect: Talos's network map, green soil's dying information, the Blade - Seventh Execution Court's intelligence, and the Silent Outpost.

"But the premise of all this is," Chu Yunshen rubbed his temples, "we must first ensure that our own civilization does not collapse first under the hunger of cold fang and internal pressure. The 'Shared Future' simulation must be started as soon as possible. We need data, we need to understand the resilience of our society under extreme pressure, and we also need to find possible methods at the 'consciousness network' level to counter cold fang."

Lin Shen looked at everyone. Time was like a taut bowstring.

"Elena, continue researching Talos's map, try to locate the core node in the deep Pacific, and assess the possibility of contact. Zhao Yan, strengthen monitoring of the cold fang in Siberia and the unknown node in the Pacific, and formulate emergency containment plans. Zhou Zhe, analyze the intelligence from the Blade - Seventh Execution Court, and start researching potential strike plans against the weaknesses of the pruning ship, even if it's just theoretical deduction. Chu Yunshen..."

He looked at the "Shared Future" simulation architecture that had already been modified on the screen.

"Start the simulation in 72 hours. We are not just testing our society; we are also using this simulation as an experimental field to understand the operating mechanism of cold fang, and even to attempt 'consciousness network confrontation'."

He paused, his voice heavy and clear:

"Tell all participants that this is not a game. This is a rehearsal. A rehearsal of the shared future we might face, which is the darkest but may also nurture light."

The order was issued, machines began to roar, and data began to flow.

And in the deep Pacific, on that unknown dark seabed, some existence that had been silent for even longer seemed to have, because of the slight activation of Talos's map, blinked its "eye" extremely slowly in its eternal slumber.

The cold current of the deep sea quietly changed its flow slightly.