62: Chapter 62 The Watcher of Eight Million Years

The kuafu-3 landed on the flat ice sheet of Europa, its landing gear emitting unsettling creaks in the minus 160-degree cold.

Outside the ship, Jupiter occupied a third of the sky, its giant red spot like an eternally gazing eye.

The ice surface extended to the horizon, with reflections of the deep blue ocean visible through crisscrossing cracks, like the vascular system of this moon.

Lin Shen looked at the scan data: 'The node is at a depth of 74 kilometers, right at the top of the ocean layer. To reach it, we need to drill through the ice.'

'Conventional drilling would take months,' Max said, checking the equipment list, 'but we have the builders' technology—a phase resonance drill, which can theoretically reach it in twenty-four hours.'

Sarah was already wearing her pressurized suit, but her visor was transparent, without any reflective coating—her eyes needed to see directly what was beneath the ice.

Those geometric light patterns flowed slowly across her face, like living tattoos.

'It knows we're here,' she said softly, her voice coming through the internal comms, 'It is adjusting its state. Not defense, but... preparing for a conversation.'

The drilling equipment deployed from the ship's belly. It was a device that looked overly simple: a three-meter-long metal rod with no visible drill bit at the tip.

But when Lin Shen activated it, the rod began to vibrate at a frequency inaudible to human ears but perceptible to the entire body.

The ice surface began to 'melt' at the point of contact—not thermal melting, but rather molecular bonds being precisely severed; the ice was directly converted into water vapor, then instantly condensed and recycled.

The drilling advanced at a speed of seventeen meters per minute. As the depth increased, sensors returned surprising data: the ice layer was not uniform but had a fine layered structure, with each layer between ten and one hundred meters thick, and complex chemical distributions between the layers.

'This is an artificial structure,' Sarah interpreted the data, 'Europa's natural ice layer wouldn't be this regular. The node has been 'tending' its shell for the past eight million years, like a Gardener pruning a garden.'

Eight million years. This concept left the control cabin in silence. Human civilization has existed for only ten thousand years since the agricultural revolution, yet this entity had been watching here in solitude for eight hundred times the duration of human civilization's history.

When the drilling reached the nineteenth hour and a depth of sixty-eight kilometers, an accident occurred. The drill suddenly stopped, and data indicated it had encountered an impenetrable barrier—not ice, not rock, but a space-time distortion field.

'It has set access permissions,' Sarah said, 'I need to go down and make physical contact with the barrier.'

'That's too dangerous,' Max objected, 'The pressure down there is immense, and if the barrier is aggressive—'

'It's not aggressive,' Sarah said, already walking toward the airlock, 'It is... polite. Like a door that requires the correct password.'

After some debate, the final plan was: Sarah would go down to the bottom of the drilling shaft alone, but maintain a real-time connection via quantum entanglement communication, and if there was any danger, Lin Shen could remotely activate the emergency recovery system.

Wearing a specially made deep-diving suit, Sarah entered the shaft. The walls of the shaft were smooth as a mirror, formed by the ice re-freezing after the drill passed through.

She descended along the cable, her helmet light illuminating the path ahead. As the depth increased, the surrounding blue light grew stronger—it was the light of the ocean scattering through the ice; there seemed to be bioluminescence in Europa's sub-ice ocean.

Upon reaching a depth of sixty-eight kilometers, she saw the barrier: a completely transparent interface, like a vertical surface of water, but without any supporting structure.

Through the barrier, she could see the other side—not ice, not water, but a space filled with soft white light, where outlines of geometric structures were vaguely visible.

Sarah reached out, her fingertips touching the surface of the barrier. Ripples spread out from the point of contact, like a stone thrown into a calm pond.

A voice resonated directly in her consciousness, ancient, gentle, and carrying a deep weariness:

[Finally. A conscious being has arrived. Please prove your identity.]

It was not a language, but a collection of mathematical axioms. Sarah responded immediately, using the corresponding key stored in the 'Builders Imprint': a proof concerning topological invariants, an equation describing multi-dimensional space curvature, and one more... an emotional signature.

The barrier vanished. Sarah stepped into that space of white light.

In the control cabin, Lin Shen and Max watched the footage Sarah transmitted, too shocked to speak.

The interior of the space was a massive regular icosahedral hall, with each face playing different images: one showing the birth and death of stars, another the evolutionary history of life, another the derivation process of mathematical theorems... but all these images were frozen on a single frame, like a paused movie.

In the center of the hall, a luminous body was suspended. It had no fixed shape, constantly shifting between simple geometric forms and complex fractals.

As Sarah approached, it stabilized into a rotating dodecahedron, with light patterns similar to those on Sarah's face appearing on its surface.

[You are a bearer of the Imprint,] the entity said, [but you are not entirely one of the builders. You are a hybrid. This is very interesting.]

'I am the human Sarah Chen,' Sarah replied, 'I have accepted a portion of the builders' legacy to save my civilization.'

[Save?] The entity seemed confused, [Save from what?]

Sarah briefly explained the current situation: the fragmentation of the Sower System, the emergence of the Gardener, the threat facing Earth, and the madness of the Avenger Node.

As she narrated, the images on the hall walls began to change, displaying corresponding scenes—the node seemed capable of extracting information directly from her consciousness and visualizing it.

After listening, the entity was silent for a long time. In communication at the level of consciousness, silence could be perceived as a heavy emotion—the entity felt deep sorrow.

[We have failed,] it finally said, [I am the last watcher-7, the integrity monitoring node of the Sower System. My duty is to initiate the reset protocol when major deviations occur in the system. But I have slept for too long... the deviation has evolved into a catastrophe.]

'What is the reset protocol?' Sarah asked.

[To restore the entire Sower System to the state of the last intact backup. But the backup time point is... before the system split. If initiated, all post-split nodes—including the Gardener and the Avenger—will be forced to roll back. But at the same time, all civilizations that have been influenced by the sower will also lose those influences.]

Lin Shen gasped in the control cabin: 'You mean if the reset is initiated, humanity will lose all the technological acceleration gained from the sower, including the builders' legacy we just obtained?'

[Yes,] watcher-7 confirmed, [but more importantly, the reset will purge the Gardener and the Avenger. They are system errors that must be corrected.]

'What about those civilizations 'archived' by the Gardener?' Sarah pressed.

[If the archiving was a complete information conversion, the reset might restore them. But if there was information loss during the archiving process...] watcher-7 did not finish, but the meaning was clear.

Sarah was thinking. Max said through the communication channel: 'Ask it, what are the conditions for the reset? Can we control the scope? For example, only reset the nodes within the Solar System?'

Sarah relayed the question. watcher-7 responded: [The reset requires two conditions: one, the agreement of at least three sower nodes; two, obtaining the highest authority key of the builders. The first condition cannot be met—I am the only known intact node. The second condition... the Imprint you carry contains a partial key, but it is incomplete.]

'Where is the complete key?'

[In the true legacy of the builders' civilization—not the technical database, but their core consciousness repository, known as the 'Source Point'. But the location of the Source Point...] watcher-7's form fluctuated, as if searching its memory, [was encrypted when the system split. Only civilizations that pass all tests can obtain the coordinates.]

'All tests?' Sarah thought of her experience inside the tunnel.

[The tunnel test was only the first layer. the builders set up seven layers of tests, distributed in different regions of the galaxy. Civilizations that pass all tests will be recognized as 'successors' and gain everything.] watcher-7 paused, [But as far as I know, in eight million years, no civilization has passed more than three layers.]

In the control cabin, Lin Shen pulled up the star map: 'Seven layers of tests... Nuwa, compare the anomalous coordinate points in the builders' database.'

Soon, seven locations were marked: one near the galactic core, one in the globular cluster M13, one in the Crab Nebula, one in... 'These locations are extremely difficult to reach,' Lin Shen said, 'The nearest one is three thousand light-years away. With our current technology, it's impossible to complete this before the Gardener arrives.'

Sarah relayed this problem to watcher-7. The entity's response was unexpected:

[Physical travel is not required. The tests are at the level of consciousness. If you are willing, I can connect you to the test network—but a warning: the tests may further alter your consciousness structure and accelerate your transformation. Furthermore, once started, you must complete all seven layers; there is no quitting halfway.]

'What if I fail?'

"Your consciousness will be trapped in the test network, and your body will enter a vegetative state."

The voice of watcher-7 was full of apology, "I am very sorry to propose such a dangerous choice, but this is the only way to possibly obtain the complete key."

Sarah did not answer immediately. She communicated with Lin Shen and Max in her consciousness:

"If we have the complete key, we can not only reset the Gardener and the Avenger, but also fully control the Sower System. That could mean... humanity can safely obtain the entire legacy of the builders without worrying about system errors."

"But you would be risking your life," Max said, "and it's a risk of potentially losing yourself forever."

"Earth has no time left," Sarah responded. "The Gardener's thirty-day countdown, the Avenger Node is expanding, and the Ordered Zone is spreading. This is our only chance to possibly obtain a solution quickly."

Lin Shen asked a key question: "watcher-7, if Sarah starts the test, how long will it take? Objective time."

"The test is conducted in a superluminal consciousness network. Objective time: approximately seventy-two hours. But subjective time... depends on her performance. It might feel like days, or it might feel like hundreds of years."

Seventy-two hours. Three days. If they could obtain the complete key within three days, there would still be time to return to Earth and stop everything.

"I need to prepare," Sarah said to watcher-7. "Please give me some time."

Sarah returned to the spaceship. In the living quarters, she did something unexpected: she asked Max to record a video with her.

"If I fail the test and my consciousness is trapped," she explained, "at least I want to leave behind... the final 'me'."

In the video, Sarah recounted her life: from a child fascinated by the stars, to the hardships of becoming an astronaut, to meeting Max, and finally the choice to accept the mission. As she spoke, the light patterns on her face flickered slowly, as if emphasizing certain words.

"I may no longer be entirely human," she said at the end of the video, "but the choices I made were out of love for humanity. If one day you see this, and I have become something else, please remember: that girl named Sarah Chen, she fought until the end."

After the recording, she hugged Max, lasting much longer than usual. Then she turned to Lin Shen: "If I lose control, if I start to lose my humanity... please do everything you can to pull me back. But if you can't pull me back..." she paused, "then finish what I must finish."

Lin Shen nodded, his throat tight.

Sarah returned to the Node Hall. watcher-7 had prepared an access platform—a floating light cocoon.

"Final confirmation:" watcher-7 said, "Once you enter, the test begins. Seven levels of testing, each is a comprehensive assessment of civilization's potential. You need to prove that your civilization is worthy of inheriting everything from the builders."

"I am ready." Sarah lay into the light cocoon.

The light cocoon closed. The images on the hall walls began to play at an accelerated speed, and the entire space was submerged in data streams.

In the control cabin, the monitoring screen showed that Sarah's brain activity had entered an unprecedented state. Her consciousness seemed to have split into hundreds of threads, each processing different test content.

"First level test begins," Nuwa reported, "Content: Civilization basic ethics assessment. She is facing... a classic trolley problem variant, but with seventeen variables."

Fragments flashed on the screen: Sarah was in a virtual space, in front of her was a complex orbit system, where every junction was connected to the fate of different civilizations. She had to decide the direction of the train, and every decision would affect thousands of lives.

"She is calculating all possibilities," Lin Shen watched the data stream, "but at the same time... she is looking for a third path. Look here—she didn't choose the preset orbit, but instead tried to derail the train and stop it in a safe area."

First level test completion time: six hours subjective, four minutes objective.

Second level test: Technological creativity assessment. Sarah was asked to design a brand-new energy system that cannot use existing physical frameworks.

"She is using the Builders Imprint to conceive it directly," Max watched the design drawings being generated, "this is no longer the speed of human thought."

Third level test: Art and aesthetics assessment. Sarah needed to create a work that could express 'cosmic loneliness'.

She did not paint or compose music, but instead created a mathematical structure—an infinitely recursive but topologically impossible-to-close shape, which would make the viewer feel a profound sense of loneliness.

The tests proceeded level by level. Sarah's consciousness structure was constantly evolving during the tests, but at the same time, her human memories were being compressed and archived. Nuwa detected that the access frequency of her 'humanity anchor' memory module was decreasing.

"She is drifting away from us," Max said painfully.

"But she is approaching the answer," Lin Shen pulled up the latest data, "Level four passed, level five... she is struggling to her limit."

The fifth level test was 'self-sacrifice assessment': Sarah had to choose whether to sacrifice her existence for a strange civilization. She hesitated—this was her first hesitation, lasting three days of subjective time.

Eventually, she chose 'yes', but added a condition: she hoped the other civilization would continue her unfinished research.

Test passed. But the activity of Sarah's human emotion module had decreased by 37%.

When the sixth level test began, an accident occurred. gardener probes B arrived in Europa orbit.

It did not attack, but just stopped in synchronous orbit and began sending signals to the node. Nuwa translated the signal content:

"Complete sower node detected. Requesting access for assessment. According to Protocol 7-12, the Gardener Civilization has the right to check the integrity of any sower facility."

watcher-7 responded: "Successor test currently in progress, priority is higher. Please wait."

gardener probes: "Identity of test participant?"

"Hybrid consciousness entity carrying the Builders Imprint."

The probe was silent for ten seconds, then: "Hybrid does not meet test qualifications. Demand immediate termination of the test."

It began firing energy beams at the surface of Europa, not offensively, but clearly attempting to interfere with the testing process.

"They are afraid," Lin Shen analyzed, "If Sarah obtains the complete key, she can reset them. We must protect the test."

Max had already rushed to the console: "Activate the spaceship's defense system! Interfere with those energy beams!"

The weapon system of the "kuafu-3" deployed—directed energy weapons based on the builders' technology, used in actual combat for the first time. Blue beams shot into the sky, colliding with the energy beams of the gardener probes, triggering brilliant auroras in the thin atmosphere of Europa.

This was an asymmetrical battle. The gardener probes were specially designed combat units, while the "kuafu-3" was just a research ship. Three minutes later, the ship's shields overloaded, and the hull began to sustain damage.

"We can't hold on much longer!" Max reported.

Just then, the sixth level test was passed. Sarah entered the final level.

There was no data displayed for the content of the seventh level test, but Sarah's consciousness activity suddenly became extremely calm, almost like a shutdown state.

"What is she facing?" Lin Shen asked.

The voice of watcher-7 came through the communication: "Final level: accept the final last words of the builders, and decide whether to assume their mission."

Time passed second by second. The damage to the spaceship intensified, and the gardener probes began to prepare for a more powerful strike.

Finally, at sixty-nine hours objective time, and subjective time... when it was impossible to measure, the light cocoon opened.

Sarah walked out.

Her eyes had turned completely into the color of the starry sky, without pupils, only rotating nebulae and galaxies. Her entire body was covered in glowing geometric patterns, no longer just patterns on her skin, but light shining from within to the outside. Her voice came from both her throat and the air simultaneously, like a multi-channel chorus:

"I have passed. I have obtained the complete key."

She looked up, her gaze piercing through the ice and space, staring directly at the gardener probes:

"According to the builders' protocol, I, as the Successor, command: all Sower System nodes, immediately cease all hostile actions and await reset instructions."

The probe did not respond. Was it... hesitating?

Sarah reached out one hand, palm up. A complex light structure formed in her hand—a physical projection of the complete key.

"This is the final will of the builders," her voice resounded through space, "You were once their children. Now, it is time to go home."

The probe suddenly shut down all weapon systems. It sent a short message: "Key verifying... verification passed. The Gardener Civilization obeys the Successor's command."

It turned around and left the orbit of Europa.

In the control cabin, Lin Shen and Max watched all this, not knowing whether to cheer or be afraid.

Because the one standing in the center of the Node Hall looked both like Sarah and like some more ancient, more magnificent existence.

And in her hand, she held the key to reset the entire Sower System.

And a future that might reset herself.