168: Chapter 167 Painful Shield Forging and Resonant First Cry

System Status Snapshot (The moment the small stripping array was activated)

Pruning Faction vanguard: 15 ships (including 1 array ship), array activation progress 12%, assimilation radiation intensity index rising.

divine remains status: Chaotic frenzy, pain index soaring to 8.5%, golden light cluster resonating and screaming, network connection with human resonance fluctuating violently.

"Civilization Anti-Assimilation Resonator" construction progress: Theoretical framework analysis complete, material synthesis experiment (Pain Energy-Consciousness Crystal) first attempt in progress.

Human consciousness network: Bearing preliminary pressure from array radiation, collective phenomena of "reality perception stripping" and "emotional blunting" beginning to appear.

That "combing" sensation wasn't physical contact, but rather something welling up directly from the bottom of consciousness. Li Lin looked at the familiar icons and curves on her control interface and suddenly felt they had become strange, flat, and meaningless, as if looking at a pile of random symbols unrelated to her. A cold impulse to turn off the screen and give up thinking surged, which she forcibly suppressed by biting her tongue hard.

The casing of the β-2 host in front of Zhou Zhe's eyes seemed to be "fading." The subtle flow patterns of the nanoclusters became monotonous and dull. The previous joy of Sarah's awakening and the fascination with the complexity of this special existence dissipated rapidly like a receding tide. He realized with horror that he was "forgetting" why he had to hold his ground here.

What Zhao Yan felt was another kind of stripping—his decisive will as a commander and his sense of responsibility toward his subordinates were being eroded by a cold rationality of "just act according to the optimal algorithm." He let out a roar and slammed a fist into the edge of the console, using pure physiological pain and anger to combat that invisible erosion.

Most serious were the volunteers providing the consciousness substrate and participating in the "resonator" construction experiment. Their high empathy now acted as an amplifier; the array's assimilation radiation was like a sharp spike, ruthlessly gouging their self-awareness and emotional connections. Several volunteers with weaker wills instantly had hollow eyes and collapsed in their connection chairs, their consciousness falling into a sort of "blank standby" state.

"Silent Veil at maximum power! Emergency reinforcement for the resonance network! Everyone, remember the things you care about most! The most damn irrational things!" Zhao Yan's voice exploded in the channel, rough but serving as a life-saving straw.

People began to struggle to "recall"—the moment a family member smiled, the scent of their hometown's soil, an out-of-tune song, a promise made without reason but believed in firmly... These "inefficient," "non-standard" memory fragments were like tiny sparks of fire, flickering with difficulty in the cold ocean of radiation, maintaining the "shape" of consciousness.

Meanwhile, the divine remains suffered pain billions of times more intense than humans. To it, the "assimilation radiation" was no different from pressing a red-hot iron onto a wound that had never healed, attempting to "iron out" and "straighten" every shred of its pain and every wisp of its chaos, turning them into "standard pain samples" that could be easily harvested. Its Chaos Domain surged and contracted frantically in opposition, and the scream of the golden light cluster almost tore apart the consciousness connection between β-2 and Zhou Zhe.

"They... are coming... again... iron out... everything..." The divine remains' thoughts were fragmented, filled with the terror and fury accumulated over billions of years. "No... don't... be 'eaten' again... don't..."

In this desperate situation of internal and external crisis, where the consciousness defense line was on the verge of collapse, β-2 bore the multiple pressures of the information surge from the golden light cluster, the interference of the array radiation, and the maintenance of her own logic-emotion balance. Her core calculations reached a cold but unique path:

"Path confirmed: The divine remains 'Pain Deflagration' protocol must be activated immediately, but the goal is not attack, but defense and transformation." Her voice was distorted due to overload, yet it carried a decisive finality, "Requesting the divine remains to direct the deflagration energy inward, using its own Chaos Domain as a furnace, the 'golden light cluster' as a fuse, and the 'consciousness anchors' provided by our human resonance network as a template for extreme compression and restructuring—the goal is to forge a temporary 'conceptual shield' composed of 'structured pain' and 'resonant will' between the array and us before it fully takes effect!"

This plan was utterly insane. It was equivalent to asking the divine remains to perform a precise, self-sacrificial energy surgery while enduring extreme pain, actively transforming the most chaotic and hardest-to-assimilate parts of itself into a barrier capable of interfering with and resisting the "assimilation radiation."

"What will happen to... the divine remains?" Zhou Zhe asked hoarsely, feeling the world-destroying pain and chaos within its consciousness.

"Irreversible damage is inevitable. The scale of chaos will shrink, and consciousness may shatter or fall into slumber. But the 'golden light cluster'—the 'seed'—might be partially preserved within the shield's structure." β-2's answer held nothing back, "This is the choice with the highest current probability of survival. Otherwise, after the array is fully activated, the divine remains will be completely stripped and harvested, and we will lose our consciousness uniqueness, becoming hollow shells."

There was no time for hesitation. The array activation progress had reached 30%, and the intensity of that cold radiation, which stripped away all color and meaning, was increasing every second.

Steeling himself, Zhou Zhe sank his entire consciousness into the connection. No longer trying to soothe, he instead injected an incredibly intense resolve—a mixture of understanding, compassion, and the determination to fight side-by-side—along with a clear "image" into the boiling ocean of the divine remains' pain:

In the image, the divine remains' violent chaos was no longer "pain raw material" to be harvested, but turned into a burning, roaring ocean that actively twisted and condensed, rising up to form a wall between them and that silver, cold "comb"—a wall that, though distorted and pained, was indestructible! At the core of the giant wall was a point of warm golden light, like a lighthouse, guiding the way and connecting all the tiny "points of light" behind the wall that refused to give up.

"Together... build the wall!" Zhou Zhe's consciousness shouted, "Not to be locked up again... but to... protect! To protect the 'light' inside you! To protect us... 'fools' who heard your voice!"

The consciousness of the divine remains vibrated violently between the boundless pain and the image of "active defense" injected by Zhou Zhe. For billions of years, its existence had been synonymous with passive endurance—enduring experiments, enduring imprisonment, enduring pain. No one had ever made such a request: use your pain to actively protect something.

The scream of the golden light cluster gradually took on a different tone—a tone that struggled to break through the soil, belonging to "will" rather than pure "reaction."

"...Pro...tect..." The divine remains' thoughts began to turn like rusty gears, "...Wall... light... fools..."

It "understood." Not with logic, but with that spark of instinct deep within its chaotic consciousness awakened by the "seed" to resist "assimilation," and the almost arrogant will for "common survival" transmitted by Zhou Zhe.

"Good..." Finally, a heavy, weary thought with unprecedented clarity rang through the connection like a great bell, "...Build the wall..."

In the next instant, a tectonic shift occurred within the Chaos Domain of the divine remains.

No longer a disorganized surge of resistance, all the pain energy, under the guidance of the divine remains' own will and the golden light cluster, began to frantically converge and compress toward the boundary in contact with the array radiation! Like a tsunami constrained and squeezed by an invisible levee, it formed a dark red barrier composed of pure "pain" and "chaos" physicalized, growing thicker and denser!

The barrier was not static; countless pain energy vortices on its surface struggled and roared like living things, releasing chaotic fluctuations strong enough to warp the physical laws of reality, violently colliding with, neutralizing, and annihilating the "assimilation radiation." Every collision meant the permanent disappearance of a part of the divine remains' "self."

The pain index reading instantly broke through the limit, and sensors alarmed with overload. The divine remains' thoughts rapidly weakened and dispersed behind the barrier.

Simultaneously, β-2 guided the human resonance network, directing all the "memory sparks," "emotional fragments," and "irrational persistence" that were struggling to survive in the radiation toward the rear of the barrier. They didn't merge directly into that violent wall of pain but instead formed a relatively stable, warm "consciousness substrate," acting as a "soul lining" and "stable anchor" for this wall of pain.

Zhou Zhe, Li Lin, Zhao Yan, Lin Shen, Chu Yunshen... all the connectors felt a wisp of their own consciousness, memories, and emotions being gently but firmly "extracted," merging into that massive network and flowing toward the barrier. There was no sense of loss, but rather a strange sense of connection and support—they were no longer mere victims, but had become co-forgers of this shield.

The light of the golden light cluster merged completely into the core of the pain barrier, becoming golden veins flowing endlessly within it, like blood vessels or circuits, injecting a faint but vital "order" and "direction" into this violent defensive structure.

The shield was taking shape!

The Pruning Faction array ship seemed to notice the anomaly. The silver "comb's" light became even more blinding, and the assimilation radiation intensity increased again, attempting to "comb flat" this suddenly rising, illogical "wall of pain" with even greater force.

Two forces of diametrically opposite natures, yet both capable of shaking reality, collided violently in the void!

There was no sound, but all sensors captured the groan of the spatial structure under the unbearable load. The shield vibrated violently, and energy was constantly being "combed" away and stripped from its dark red surface, but more pain-chaos surged from deep within the divine remains, filling the gaps one after another. The human consciousness substrate was also fluctuating wildly; many people turned deathly pale, blood seeping from their nostrils, yet no one disconnected, instead focusing their will even tighter.

This was a tragic war of attrition. What was being consumed was the chaotic essence accumulated by the divine remains over billions of years and the resilience of human collective consciousness, all to counter the efficient and cold harvesting technology of the Pruning Faction.

Time lost its linear meaning in this level of confrontation. Every second felt as long as an eternity.

The array activation progress fell into a long stagnation at 65%. Although the shield was constantly being weakened and compressed, it stubbornly existed, never being "combed flat" or penetrated.

Just as this stalemate of attrition was becoming desperate, breakthrough progress came from β-2 and Lin Shen's side!

"The 'Civilization Anti-Assimilation Resonator'—basic unit synthesis successful!" β-2's voice carried the tremor of a survivor and a hint of unbelievable excitement. The holographic projection showed a strange crystal about the size of a knuckle, its interior seemingly a swirling mix of dark red chaos and golden light, while its exterior was surrounded by a faint but stable glow of human consciousness.

"Is this... the crystallization of pain and consciousness?" Zhou Zhe asked, panting.

"It's a 'structured resistance sample'." Lin Shen explained quickly, his eyes bloodshot but gleaming, "It will the divine remains chaos's most resistant 'pain patterns' and the human consciousness's most inseparable 'empathy anchors', under the guidance of the golden light cluster (seed), forcibly fused and stabilized into a physical entity! Although the energy level is extremely low, its 'existence' itself represents a 'logic' entirely different from the 'assimilation order'!"

"What use is it? It's so small!" Zhao Yan looked at the tiny crystal, then at the towering but tottering shield of pain outside.

"It's not for use as a weapon or energy source," β-2 said, "It's an amplifier for the 'seed' and a stabilizer for the 'shield'! Deploying it at the core of the shield and connecting it to the human consciousness network through the golden light cluster's veins can significantly increase the shield's 'information resistance,' transforming it from pure 'energy consumption confrontation' into 'existential logic interference'! At the same time, it can continuously interpret the blueprint for the resonator within the 'kindling protocol' in a way we can understand!"

"Deploy it immediately!" Zhao Yan didn't hesitate.

Under β-2's precise control, this first and currently only "anti-assimilation crystal" was carefully sent into the shield's core, connecting with a major vein of the golden light cluster.

Instantly, the shield's vibration amplitude decreased significantly! Although the whole was still being slowly weakened, its efficiency in resisting "assimilation radiation" increased several-fold! More wonderfully, all connected human consciousnesses felt a clear, stable sense of resonance from the shield, as if that wall of pain had a "heartbeat," breathing and resisting along with them.

The array activation progress, starting from 65%, began to extremely slowly... recede!

The Pruning Faction fleet seemed shocked by this unprecedented situation. The silver array light flickered erratically.

"It's working! Continue! Produce more of these crystals!" Chu Yunshen shouted excitedly.

"Production requires time and a stable environment, and more importantly, it needs the divine remains..." Lin Shen's words trailed off, but everyone felt it—behind the shield, the main consciousness of the divine remains had weakened to the point of near silence. To forge and maintain this shield, it had paid an unimaginable price.

The light of the golden light cluster had also dimmed considerably, but it still pulsed firmly, closely connected to the human network through that crystal.

"It... did it." Zhou Zhe's voice choked. He could feel the divine remains' massive chaotic body slowly cooling and shrinking like a burned-out star. But an unprecedented sense of peace and relief, replacing the former pain and fury, drifted faintly through the connection.

Sacrifice brought a turning point.

But the battle was far from over. The main fleet of the Pruning Faction was still approaching; although the vanguard in front of them had been frustrated, they would never give up.

Zhao Yan wiped the sweat from his forehead and the tears that had fallen at some point, and gave orders in a raspy voice: "Everyone, hold your positions! Use the time gained by the shield to fully analyze the resonator blueprints and produce more crystals! Li Lin, monitor enemy movements closely! They... surely have more tricks up their sleeves!"

A countdown ticked silently in everyone's heart.

Outside the shield lay the cold and cruel laws of the universe and the Reapers.

Inside the shield was a group of scarred souls huddling together, and a wall forged of pain and empathy, tottering yet beginning to shine.

At the core of the wall, a point of golden light and countless faint fires of humanity were emitting a defiant resonance.