203: Chapter 202 The Gardener's Whispers, Demonstration of the Strings and the Countdown to Detonation

Within the subjective consciousness time layer, perhaps a long time had passed. But in the outside world, only three minutes and twenty-seven seconds had elapsed since Zhou Zhe's finger left the moonlight orchid mark.

He took a staggering step and was supported by Lin Shen. When he opened his eyes, the light of the Poem Markings had already restrained itself, transforming into a gentle luster that seemed full of life's dew, no longer flickering uncontrollably. However, his face remained pale, even more so than before, as if he had just undergone an exhausting long-distance journey.

"How is it?" Lin Shen asked, while signaling for the medical staff to stand by.

"I met... a wisp of the 'Gardener's' intent." Zhou Zhe's voice was somewhat raspy, but his eyes were exceptionally bright, carrying the lingering fear and enlightenment after a great shock. "It's not humanoid; it's more like a... gentle and massive collective consciousness composed of countless plant growth trajectories, floral scents, and photosynthetic rhythms. It helped me organize that 'proliferating' knowledge and... 'grafted' it onto the appropriate 'branches' of my own cognitive system. Now I feel... stable, like I've gained a 'Dictionary of Life Poetics' that I can flip through at any time without it crushing me."

"The price?" Lin Shen keenly caught the key point.

Zhou Zhe gave a bitter smile. "It said that accepting the 'knowledge grafting' of the Tranquil Garden means my consciousness spectrum will forever carry a wisp of their 'mark.' The benefit is that my perception and affinity for plant consciousness, emotions, and life energy will be greatly enhanced; in the future, I might even be able to preliminarily mobilize some... well... 'gardening-level' ancient life energy. The downside is..." He paused. "I might more easily attract certain entities that feed on or are hostile to 'pure life consciousness,' such as certain variants of the 'Dream-Devouring Shadow,' or chaotic predators in the universe that loathe 'ordered growth.' Moreover, when facing conceptual pollution like 'withering,' 'decay,' or 'ultimate despair,' my 'mark' will be as conspicuous as a firefly in the night, and I might... be more easily eroded."

Risk and power coexist. A typical law of the universe.

"Did it say anything else?" Lin Shen pressed further, looking at the demonstration device about to be transported to the seventh platform.

"It mentioned two things." Zhou Zhe's expression turned serious. "First, regarding 'ember.' It said that the ultimate form of 'despair' is often a total vacuum of 'meaning.' To counter it, the most powerful weapon isn't stronger energy or logic, but... 'meaningless meaning,' or rather, those 'trivial anchors' that are insignificant from a grand narrative perspective but are real and support life in moving forward. For example... a potato's obsession with photosynthetic efficiency, a chef's exploration of the flavor spectrum, an AI's curiosity about 'meaningless experiences.' The river formed by these 'tiny meanings' is enough to dilute or even block the diffusion channels of the 'meaning vacuum.'"

Lin Shen's heart stirred; this seemed to form a subtle adversarial relationship with GW-002's hint about the "fuse needing common emotions" and the base emotion of "vigilant expectation" analyzed by β-2.

"Second," Zhou Zhe looked at the moonlight orchid emitting a silver glow, "it left behind a secondary authority for this mark. In times of necessity, I can attempt to apply to the Tranquil Garden for 'limited protection' or 'knowledge consultation' through it, but there's only one chance, and it will incur a deeper 'favor debt.' It emphasized... 'use with caution; the Gardener does not intervene in civilizational disputes, but cherishes unique Poem Pattern Gardeners.'"

"Poem Pattern Gardener?" Lin Shen raised an eyebrow.

"The... new title it gave me." Zhou Zhe looked a bit embarrassed. "Probably because I can 'see' emotions as poetry and can accept their plant consciousness knowledge."

There was no more time to digest this. The transport of the device had to begin immediately.

"Take this," Zhou Zhe carefully placed the now-stabilized moonlight orchid pot (the carrier of the mark) into a portable ecological maintenance box. "It said this flower now has a faint resonance with me. Carrying it can slightly stabilize my state and perhaps... also bring a bit of unexpected 'natural affinity bonus' to the demonstration device."

"Let's go!"

The Seventh Observation Platform was located on a protruding neutral space structure on the outer edge of the Cradle. No factions were permanently stationed there; it only had basic life support and observation equipment. An area in the center of the platform had been cleared, and the abacus's audit sensor arrays were distributed around it like silent metal flowers.

The technical team led by Lin Shen, Zhou Zhe, and Great Strength was racing against time to reassemble the demonstration device. β-2 was performing final global optimizations and simulations via a remote link.

The abacus's main body did not appear, but its voice rang out through the platform's broadcast system:

【Observation Group (Sole Representative: abacus) is in position. Demonstration countdown: 43 minutes. Please ensure the device reaches operational status before the countdown ends. Note: Platform environmental parameters (temperature, pressure, basic radiation background) have been recorded as the baseline; any environmental adjustments exceeding standard life-support ranges must be reported in advance.】

While connecting the lines, Great Strength whispered to Zhou Zhe, "I've tuned the 'Atmosphere' module. I'm using the 'Restrained Joy' spectrum, paired with 450-500 nanometer cyan-blue light. It should trigger the... uh... 'logical appreciation' tendency of most carbon-based observers (if the abacus has any)? Anyway, the data says this band makes people calm yet slightly positive."

Zhou Zhe nodded and placed the moonlight orchid pot next to the emotion resonance chamber at the core of the device. The faint silver glow and life fluctuations emitted by the plant seemed to quietly merge into the startup preheating atmosphere of the device.

Just as the reassembly work entered the final ten-minute sprint, Lin Shen received a top-priority, multi-encrypted message from Zhao Yan:

"Deciphered part of the transmission logs! The purified 'ember' was shipped in batches to three coordinates. One points to an abandoned small observation station ruin of a previous generation civilization on the outskirts of the Cradle; another points to the web weaver protocol node GW-019 (a civilization whose recent emotional fluctuation reports show a 'collective burnout' in society); the third... the coordinates are dynamically encrypted, but the decryption clues point to a concept—'Celebration' or 'Major Collective Activity Convergence Point'!"

Ashes' voice cut in, raspy and urgent: "Combined with the unfinished device structures found in the workshop and the 'fuse' theory... they might be planning a multi-target simultaneous detonation! The Cradle ruin coordinates might be a physical backup detonation point; GW-019 is a direct psychological strike target; and the third... 'Celebration Convergence Point' very likely refers to... the Seventh Observation Platform inside the Cradle, where intense 'common emotions' have gathered due to the 'technical demonstration' and recent series of events! Your demonstration site might be one of the primary targets!"

Lin Shen felt a chill run through his body. The demonstration site... common emotions... convergence point! It turned out that tying up the reconnaissance forces was not only to protect the processing workshop but also to make them lower their guard here, allowing the "Celebration" (demonstration) to proceed as scheduled and gather enough intense emotion to serve as a "fuse"!

"Can you track the real-time location of the 'ember' transport units? Especially the ones heading toward the Cradle ruins and the platform!" Lin Shen asked immediately.

"Attempting to track them now, but the opponent is using high-level spatial cloaking technology; it will take time! I suggest you immediately abort the demonstration and evacuate the platform!" Zhao Yan said anxiously.

Abort? The abacus's audit countdown was still ongoing. Aborting without a reason might be seen as technical incompetence or a violation, which would be a major blow to the newly established credibility and might also alert the enemy.

Lin Shen's mind raced. The abacus... did it know? As an observer, had it monitored the potential threat? Would its protocols allow it to warn or intervene in advance?

He immediately sent a notification to the abacus through the official channel in a calm tone: "Audit Representative, the Cradle security department has monitored unidentified faint spatial disturbances in the star sector surrounding the Cradle. Out of a principle of precaution, we apply to extend the demonstration countdown by 30 minutes and conduct an additional platform security scan. This is a standard security procedure report."

A few seconds of silence followed.

【Application received.】 The abacus responded, 【According to Article 334 of the "The Council Observer Security Regulations," a one-time, non-intrusive platform security scan is approved, to be executed by observer equipment. During the scan, the demonstration countdown is paused. Estimated scan duration: 8 minutes.】

Around the platform, several of the abacus's audit sensor arrays changed their orientation and began emitting low-power broad-spectrum scanning waves.

This gave Lin Shen precious time. He immediately ordered on the internal channel: "Zhao Yan, Ashes, do your best to locate the transport unit for the Cradle ruin coordinates! Zhou Zhe, Great Strength, β-2, adjust the demonstration device! We're not just going to complete the demonstration; we're going to... beat them at their own game!"

"Beat them at their own game?" Zhou Zhe was puzzled.

"Since they need 'intense common emotions' as a fuse," a look of determination flashed in Lin Shen's eyes, "then we'll give them emotions! But not the despair or chaos they want. Instead... emotions that have been guided, strengthened, and even 'processed' by us! Using our device, using Great Strength's 'Atmosphere,' using your new insights from the Tranquil Garden, and using the will of all of us, we will create an... 'Emotional Trap'!"

"Turn the demonstration itself into a reverse 'bomb disposal' and 'decontamination' operation against the 'ember bomb'?" β-2 quickly understood. "Theoretically feasible. But it requires extremely precise emotional guidance, convergence, and 'meaning endowment' operations; the risk is extremely high."

"There's no time to hesitate." Lin Shen looked at Zhou Zhe and the moonlight orchid pot. "Zhou Zhe, you are the key. Use your Poem Markings, use the knowledge you gained from the Gardener about 'tiny meanings' countering the 'meaning vacuum,' and guide all the emotions on the platform—our tension, focus, determination, and even the abacus's cold 'desire to observe'—weave them into a... 'Web of Meaning' to cover the 'ember' that might be detonated!"

Zhou Zhe took a deep breath, the patterns in his eyes lighting up again, this time with a firm glow. "I'll try... no, I must do it."

Great Strength gripped the spectral regulator in his hand. "On my end, I'll tune all the 'Atmosphere' spectrums to the bands that maximally support 'firmness,' 'hope,' and 'solidarity'! I'll also add some... ancestral 'culinary comfort' psychological suggestion frequencies!"

β-2: "Computing power has been reallocated to prioritize building a real-time emotional flow monitoring and guidance model, linking Zhou Zhe's Poem Markings visual data, Great Strength's atmosphere output parameters, and... the abacus's real-time security scan data (if it shares it). Calculating the optimal emotional convergence curve."

The abacus's scanning beams silently swept across every corner of the platform. Its logs were updated:

【Security scan in progress... No physical threats found... Detected high concentration, multi-band composite emotional energy converging in the platform area, originating from the demonstration team and device. Energy nature: Complex, biased towards positive/firm spectrums. Consistent with expected emotional characteristics of a 'Major Activity.' Recording.】

【Potted plant (brought from the Cradle) life fluctuations and emotional energy field showing signs of resonance, with an amplification of approximately 2.3%. Phenomenon recorded.】

During the eight minutes the countdown was paused, every second felt like a blade scraping by.

And in the distant sea of stars, Zhao Yan and Ashes were chasing that hidden trajectory of death pointing toward the Seventh Observation Platform.

The game had reached its endgame.