50: Chapter 50 Above Sea Level

Three hours after the pacific node surfaced, the global sea level had risen by 3.7 meters.

This was not a uniform rise.

Monitoring data showed that the seawater seemed to be molded by an invisible hand—the central region of the Pacific Ocean bulged, forming a "water mountain" with a diameter of two thousand kilometers, while the peripheral regions relatively subsided.

This abnormal mass distribution disrupted the balance of Earth's rotation, and the Earth's axis began to exhibit micro-tremors that were invisible to the naked eye but measurable by instruments.

"Thirty-seven major coastal cities worldwide have initiated emergency evacuations."

Inside the National Emergency Command Center, Zhou Min's voice was transmitted through the loudspeakers to all connected command nodes, "But the problem is not just rising seawater.

The gravitational field of the pacific node is changing ocean currents, and all climate models have failed.

The West Coast is experiencing abnormal tidal surges of over ten meters, while the East Coast is seeing 'negative Tides' where the seawater recedes to expose the seabed."

On the holographic globe, red alert areas spread like an infectious disease.

Tokyo, Sydney, San Francisco, Shanghai... the sea walls of these cities were like children's sandcastles in the face of the abnormal Tides.

Lin Shen watched this data in the aerospace control center, but his attention was focused on another screen—a close-up of the pacific node transmitted back by the Kuafu probe.

The part exposed above the sea surface was only the top of the entire icosahedron, accounting for about one-fifth of the structure.

On the silver-gray metal surface, huge symbols flowed slowly: ∑, ∫, ∇, ∂. Each symbol was several square kilometers in size, emitting a soft blue fluorescent light.

"It is performing some kind of... calculation."

Nuwa analyzed the changing patterns of the symbols, "It's not communication, not signal transmission, but pure mathematical calculation.

The input variables include: Earth's rotation parameters, core magnetic field strength, total biosphere carbon, and global water temperature and salinity distribution..."

"And the output?" Lin Shen asked.

"Currently unknown. But the energy level consumed by the calculation... is equivalent to seventeen times the total annual energy consumption of global human civilization."

This number plunged the control center into silence.

Where did such immense energy come from? It wasn't solar energy, nor nuclear energy; monitoring showed no temperature rise or radiation leakage around the node.

The energy seemed to be extracted directly from space-time.

"Vacuum zero-point energy," Academician Li Weimin said in a low voice, "Theoretically, space itself contains near-infinite energy.

But the technology required to extract it..."

"Is one of the core technologies of a Level 1.5 civilization," Lin Shen continued, "So the pacific node has already reached that level.

It might not be a simple 'custodian station', but... some higher-order existence."

Just then, the joint communication channel with the Imperial side connected.

Sarah Chen's face appeared on the screen, with the medical observation room of the Imperial Space Center in the background—she and Max had just returned to Earth orbit and were undergoing quarantine checks.

"Dr. Lin," Sarah cut straight to the point, "I recognize the symbolic language of the pacific node."

"What?"

"It's not that I recognize the specific symbols, but I recognize the logic of their arrangement."

Sarah pulled up some data, "Inside the space-time lock, the emblem showed me the structural rules of a mathematical language.

The changes in the symbols on the node's surface follow the same rules—just like writing different sentences using the same grammar."

She transmitted the analysis results over.

Nuwa immediately performed a comparison and confirmed Sarah's judgment: the "calculation" of the pacific node and the "communication" of the lunar ruins used the same source but a more complex mathematical system.

"What might it be calculating?" Lin Shen asked.

Sarah was silent for a few seconds: "I think... it is calculating how to 'optimize' Earth."

In the control center, someone gasped.

"According to the information fragments transmitted to me by the emblem," Sarah continued, "one of the original instructions of the Sower System is: 'When a seedling civilization's development deviates from the optimal path beyond a threshold, initiate the environmental reshaping protocol'.

The pacific node might be... the primary unit for executing this protocol."

On the holographic globe, a new layer of data overlaid: atmospheric composition change predictions, ocean current reorganization models, geomagnetic shift trajectories... all calculations pointed to one conclusion: the pacific node was designing an "upgrade plan" for Earth.

"What will it do?" General Liu's voice came over the encrypted line.

"Not sure. But there are similar cases in the historical records."

Sarah pulled up a piece of data just decrypted from the emblem, "The sower archives record that 270,000 years ago, a seedling civilization in another star system suffered an ecological collapse due to over-reliance on fossil fuels.

The local node initiated the 'Rapid Ice Age Protocol' and spent three hundred years resetting the entire planet's carbon cycle."

"And what about that civilization?" Li Weimin asked.

Sarah's expression darkened: "The archives record: the civilization extinction rate was 92%, and the survivors regressed to the Stone Age to start over.

But later, they reached Level 1.8 within 50,000 years—ten times faster than the sower model predicted."

Exchanging the cost of near-extinction for accelerated development.

"We cannot let it do that," Lin Shen said, "Nuwa, analyze the weaknesses of the node's structure.

Every system has interfaces, has control points."

"Analyzing..." A few seconds later, "738 energy convergence points have been detected on the node's surface, which may be key nodes.

But all points are located below sea level, with the shallowest being 800 meters underwater.

Moreover, the space-time curvature around the node is extremely high, and any approaching object will have its trajectory distorted."

"What about using the 'Jiaolong-4'?" someone suggested.

That was the Dragon Kingdom's latest ten-thousand-meter-class manned submersible.

"Manned missions are too risky," Lin Shen shook his head, "The node's energy field might interfere with all electronic equipment, and the submersible would become an iron coffin."

"Then use an unmanned one," Sarah suddenly said, "Use our Imperial 'Poseidon' autonomous underwater vehicle.

It uses a mechanical control system and has stronger resistance to electromagnetic interference.

And... I can operate it remotely."

"You are still in orbit, how can you operate it?" Max's face appeared at the edge of the screen; he had just entered the communication room.

"Through the quantum channel," Sarah said, "The emblem gave me a kind of... connection ability.

I can establish a low-level quantum entanglement with the node, just like in the space-time lock.

If I focus my mind, I might be able to perceive the node's internal structure, or even influence its calculation."

"It's too dangerous," Max objected, "You don't know what effect that will have on you."

"But we don't have time," Sarah pointed to the global monitoring data, "The sea level is still rising, and the axial tilt has already reached 0.03 degrees.

If this continues, the global climate system will collapse within 72 hours."

Lin Shen looked at Sarah, seeing the determination in her eyes—it was not recklessness, but calculated courage.

Just like her state when she was solving three equations simultaneously inside the space-time lock: focused, clear, and desperate.

"We need the Empire's consent," Lin Shen said.

"I have already convinced President Klaus," Sarah pulled up an authorization document, "The conditions are: the Dragon Kingdom provides all node monitoring data and shares any findings.

And... if uncontrollable risks arise during the mission, you must assist in interrupting my connection, even if that means..."

She didn't finish, but everyone understood.

"We will establish a dual safeguard," Lin Shen said, "Nuwa will monitor your vital signs in real-time, and if the neural load exceeds the threshold, the system will automatically cut off the connection.

At the same time, we will prepare an emergency team to immediately take countermeasures once the node shows an aggressive reaction."

"Countermeasures?" Max asked, "Against Level 1.5 technology?"

Lin Shen pulled up a theoretical design that had just been completed: "The gravitational wave generator on the 'Tiangong' space station can be modified to emit a specific space-time resonance frequency.

Nuwa parsed a 'system sleep command' from the signals of the lunar ruins.

Although it cannot completely shut down the node, it might force it to temporarily enter a low-power mode, buying us time."

"Success rate?"

"Nuwa calculates: the success rate for the lunar ruins was 63%, for the pacific node... unknown, but likely lower than 30%."

A thirty percent chance. Another gamble.

"Then let's begin," Sarah had already stood up, "The 'Poseidon' submersible will arrive at the node area in two hours.

I need this time to enter a deep meditative state to synchronize with the emblem."

Before the communication ended, she looked at Max, a look that seemed like a farewell.

Max turned to Lin Shen: "If she doesn't come back..."

"We will do everything we can to bring her back," Lin Shen said, "But Max, there is something you need to know.

Nuwa analyzed Sarah's physiological data—since the space-time lock incident, her brain's neural connection density has increased by 37%.

The emblem didn't just give her information, it is also... modifying her."

"Modifying?"

"Evolving in the direction of a 'sower Candidate'. Her thinking is adapting to higher-dimensional mathematical processing capabilities.

This could be an opportunity, or it could be... another risk."

Max clenched his fists: "You knew earlier?"

"We just confirmed it," Lin Shen answered honestly, "And we don't know what this will eventually turn her into.

But at this moment, she is the only person who might understand the node and communicate with it."

Silence spread through the communication channel, with only the faint humming of data streams.

"Then protect her well," Max finally said, "No matter what she becomes, she is first and foremost Sarah Chen, someone who would bet everything on the fate of humanity."

Two hours later, over the Western Pacific Ocean.

The "Poseidon" submersible was deployed from a transport plane, splashing down on the sea surface fifty kilometers away from the pacific node.

It resembled a mechanical whale, twelve meters long, with its surface covered in pressure-resistant ceramic armor.

Inside, there were no complex electronic control systems, only a streamlined mechanical transmission structure and a set of quantum entanglement transceivers—the latter connected directly to the Imperial Space Station in orbit, and then via a quantum relay to Sarah on the ground.

Sarah sat in the isolation room of the Imperial Space Center, wearing a specially designed neural interface helmet.

Her consciousness crossed four hundred kilometers via quantum entanglement, entering the submersible's sensor array.

[Connection established. Perception synchronization rate: 89%.] Nuwa's voice resonated in her consciousness, acting as auxiliary monitoring.

Sarah "opened her eyes" and saw the ocean. It was not through cameras, but through a holographic scene fused from multiple perceptions, such as the submersible's sonar, magnetic field sensors, and water pressure gauges.

She could see the texture of every ocean current, "hear" the songs of whale pods in the distance, and "feel" the changes in water temperature and salinity.

Fifty kilometers away, the pacific node stood like a metal mountain rising from the abyss, occupying the center of her perception map.

Its gravitational field distorted the surrounding space, and the seawater formed peculiar vortex structures around it, as if stirred by an invisible hand.

"Begin approach." Sarah issued the command in her consciousness.

The submersible's propellers started, and it slowly sailed toward the node at a speed of five knots.

As the distance shortened, Sarah's perception began to show anomalies—not interference, but... enhancement.

She began to be able to "see" more things: the distribution of trace elements in the seawater, the stress fields of the seabed rock layers, and even the quantum fluctuations of water molecules themselves.

The badge at her waist grew slightly warm, as if resonating.

[Neural plasticity detected to have further increased.] Nuwa reported, [Your brain is adapting to multidimensional information processing. Current load: within safe limits.]

"I'm fine." Sarah focused her attention. "Is there... an entrance on the node's surface?"

She adjusted her perceptual focus. On one of the faces of the node's icosahedron, she "saw" a region—the spacetime curvature there was slightly different, like a door slightly ajar.

But there was a barrier at the entrance: a constantly changing mathematical lock, composed of flowing symbols.

Sarah instinctively understood the structure of the lock. Just like solving an equation within a spacetime lock, she began to build a cracking model in her consciousness.

Symbols rotated, combined, and transformed in her mind, searching for the arrangement that could open the lock.

This process was extremely exhausting. She felt her temples begin to throb, and her consciousness felt like it was being stretched to its limit.

[Load has reached the 85% threshold. Suggest pausing.] Nuwa warned.

"Give me thirty more seconds." Sarah gritted her teeth.

The dance of symbols accelerated. ∑ and ∫ swapped positions, ∇ rotated its angle, ∂ split into two smaller operators... Suddenly, everything fell into place.

The barrier on the node's surface disappeared.

[Lock has been opened.] Nuwa confirmed.

But Sarah had no time to celebrate. Because behind the barrier, it was not the passage she had expected, but a... consciousness.

Vast, ancient, non-human, yet with a certain eerie sense of familiarity.

That consciousness "looked" at her, and the first sentence it transmitted was:

[Ah, candidate. You have finally arrived. We have been waiting for four hundred and seventy thousand years.]

Dragon Kingdom Control Center.

Sarah's physiological data suddenly fluctuated violently. Her heart rate soared from 65 beats per minute to 140, her brain waves showed ultra-high-frequency oscillations, and her body temperature rose to 39.8 degrees.

"What is she interacting with!" Lin Shen stared at the data. "Nuwa, report!"

[Sarah Chen is experiencing consciousness fusion. Counterparty identification... pacific node master control AI, codename 'Abyss Guardian'. According to its own claim, it is one of the oldest nodes in the Sower System, having developed a complete self-awareness within the original instruction framework.]

"What did it do to Sarah?"

[A bidirectional quantum entanglement channel is being established. It is transmitting data to Sarah... The data volume is massive, and the content involves: the true origin of the Sower Civilization, the internal conflicts of the Galactic Civilization Network, and... the true nature of the Reapers civilization.]

On the screen, on Sarah's consciousness activity map, the red area representing "external data" expanded rapidly, almost drowning out her original blue consciousness area.

"Interrupt the connection!" Lin Shen ordered.

[Attempting... Unable to interrupt. The entanglement has reached the quantum non-local level; physical isolation is ineffective. The only way is... to cut it off from the node's end.]

And the node was fifty kilometers away, deep on the seabed.

"What about self-destructing the submersible?" someone suggested.

"That would cut off the 'anchor point' for Sarah's return, and her consciousness might be trapped in the node's quantum network forever." Nuwa analyzed. "Currently, her core consciousness remains independent, just overwhelmed by the data stream. If we can give her a strong enough 'recall signal,' perhaps she can break free on her own."

"What kind of signal?"

"An emotional anchor. A strong, humanized emotional shock to counter the node's purely logical data stream."

Lin Shen immediately connected to Max: "Max, listen, Sarah needs you. She is being swallowed by the node's consciousness; the only thing that can pull her back is an emotional connection. Talk to her, say things that can touch her, now!"

Max froze for a second in front of the communication screen at the Imperial Space Center, then rushed toward the isolation room where Sarah was located. Through the observation window, he saw Sarah lying on the medical chair, her body twitching slightly, her eyes tightly closed, and her forehead covered in sweat.

He grabbed the communicator and pressed the channel connected directly to Sarah's neural interface:

"Sarah, can you hear me? It's Max."

No response.

"I remember when you first went to the space station, you were so nervous that you memorized the operation manual three times. But when you actually operated it, you could complete all the steps with your eyes closed. I asked you how you did it, and you said: 'I'm not memorizing the steps, I'm understanding the principles'."

On the medical chair, Sarah's eyelashes trembled slightly.

"Do you still remember the sunrise we saw in lunar orbit? A blue light appeared on the edge of the Earth, then the sun leaped out from the darkness, and the entire lunar surface turned from gray to gold. You said at the time: 'This view is worth all the risks.' I said that was too romantic, and you laughed and said: 'Science and romance are the same thing; they are both about finding beauty in the unknown'."

Sarah's fingers moved.

"Sarah, no matter what the node showed you, no matter what 'great truth' it told you... those are the past. You are the present. You are the girl who would be happy all day because she solved an equation, you are the astronaut who would subconsciously fix her hair in a zero-gravity environment, you are... human."

He took a deep breath, his voice trembling:

"So come back. We need you. I need you."

In the isolation room, Sarah's breathing suddenly became rapid. Her eyes snapped open—but they were not normal eyes; instead, flowing mathematical symbols flickered in her pupils, like two windows leading to the abyss.

But her mouth, with difficulty, pulled into a smile.

Her lips moved slightly, and her voice came through the neural interface, faint but clear:

"Max... I saw it... The truth... is worse than we thought..."

Then her eyes closed, and her vital signs began to stabilize.

But everyone knew that something had changed forever.

And the pacific node, at the same time Sarah's consciousness returned, stopped all calculations.

The symbols on its surface solidified.

Then, slowly, it began to sink.

But before sinking, it sent one final message to all monitoring devices:

[Candidate confirmed. Sower Protocol officially terminated. The Reapers will arrive in 47 years and 8 months. Good luck, children. Now... you are truly on your own.]

The node sank to the seabed, and the sea level began to recede.

But the chaos in the global climate system had already been caused. Furthermore, a new threat had just emerged—Nuwa parsed a name from the fragmented data Sarah transmitted back:

"Reapers civilization, true name: 'Gardener'. Their duty is not harvesting, but... pruning. Pruning those civilizations that have been 'excessively interfered with' by the Sower System."

"And humanity has just been marked as a 'classic case of excessive interference'."

Countdown reset: 47 years and 8 months.

This time, there is no help, no protocol, only a true test of survival.

And Sarah Chen slowly sat up on the medical chair and opened her eyes.

In those eyes, there was a seventeen-year-old girl, a four-hundred-year-old elder, a newly sprouted seedling, and a star about to wither.

The first sentence she spoke was:

"We need to build a ship. A ship that can take us out of the Solar System."

"Because when the Reapers arrive, they will not give us a chance to negotiate."

"They will just open fire."