70: Chapter 70 Ten Thousand People Enter the Dream
Deep within the Kunlun Mountains, the original "Kunlun" Space Station Ground Control Center has been expanded threefold. Now, it has a new name—"Ling Shu Base."
Lin Shen stood before the curved observation window of the main control hall. Outside the window lay rolling snow-capped mountains, but what was truly worth gazing at was the object suspended three thousand meters above the base: a silver-white ring structure with a diameter of five hundred meters. Its surface shimmered with a luster like mercury, yet it faintly revealed the profound depth of the starry sky. This was the first stable anchor point of the "Differential Equilibrium Zone" in Earth's physical space, which humans called the "Star Ring."
"Three hours remaining." Nuwa's voice came through the bone conduction headset, calm as usual. "All ten thousand three hundred and twenty-four volunteers worldwide have arrived at their respective regional sub-centers, and the neural adapter calibration completion rate is ninety-nine point seven percent."
Lin Shen nodded, his gaze sweeping across the hall. Three hundred workstations were arranged in a fan shape, with different data streams flowing on each screen: brainwave spectrums, consciousness harmonic resonance indices, and field strength gradients of the Differential Equilibrium Zone... These were the results of emergency research conducted by the Dragon Country in collaboration with the "Guardian Faction" of the Gardener Civilization over the past three years, following the diplomatic meeting at the Saturn Ring. They had partially "solidified" that mysterious region, where physical laws were variable, and guided it to the vicinity of Earth's orbit.
"Chief Engineer Lin." Footsteps sounded from behind; it was Academician Chen Qiming, the deputy commander of the project and a luminary in the field of neuroscience. The seventy-year-old man now walked with a brisk gait, his eyes shining with the light of a young person. "The final safety assessment report is out; the predicted risk value for 'shallow connection' is less than three in ten thousand."
"Mathematical models are, after all, just mathematical models." Lin Shen turned around to look at the old scientist who insisted on being one of the first volunteers. "Old Chen, you really don't have to..."
"I must experience it myself." Chen Qiming interrupted him, his gaze firm. "If we, the designers, don't dare to take the first step, how can we expect those volunteers to entrust their consciousness to us?"
A slight commotion came from the other side of the hall. Minister Li Weimin, the representative of the Dragon Country's Supreme Scientific Council, was leading a group of people over, including two representatives of the Gardener Civilization—they appeared in the form of holographic projections, shaped like two constantly shifting geometric light clusters.
"Comrade Lin Shen." Minister Li's expression was serious. "The Council's final inquiry: How can you guarantee that this is not opening pandora's box? Once consciousness connection technology goes out of control, it could be more dangerous than any physical weapon."
This was the seventeenth inquiry in three months. Lin Shen had long prepared his answer, but instead of answering directly, he pulled up three dynamic images on the main screen.
The first was a star map of the Solar System, marking the intensity curve of the curvature ripple signals from the Reapers civilization. Over the past three years, the slope of that curve had increased by forty percent.
The second was real-time monitoring data of the "Differential Equilibrium Zone," showing that the "consciousness plasticity index" in certain regions was climbing abnormally, coinciding with the frequency of the mysterious signals received from the lunar south pole crater.
The third was a blurry image—the last frame from Sarah Chen's spacesuit recorder. During the diplomatic meeting at the Saturn Ring, her visor reflected an extremely complex symbol, which had a 91% match with a key fragment in the "sowers legacy" database provided by the Gardener Civilization.
"Minister Li, representatives." Lin Shen's voice was not loud, yet it clearly traveled throughout the quiet hall. "We are not opening the box. The box was opened long ago—from the moment the alien probe was discovered on the far side of the moon, from the outbreak of the "pandora" virus, from the moment we became aware of the "Reapers." What we are doing now is learning how to understand what is inside the box, and learning how to coexist with it, or even... utilize it."
He pointed to the "Star Ring": "The "Spark Project" is not a gamble; it is a vaccination at the civilizational level. We need to let a portion of the most outstanding consciousnesses first acquire the 'immune recognition ability' to high-dimensional information and abnormal physical laws. The the silencers are accelerating, and the time window left for us is closing. Instead of passively waiting for protection, it is better to actively evolve."
One of the Gardener Representatives in the holographic light cluster emitted a fluctuation of peculiar frequency, which was translated in real-time by Nuwa: "Commander Lin Shen's metaphor... is apt. Consciousness evolution is not an option; it is a survival necessity. Our civilization once stagnated for three thousand years due to fear, and the price was losing the best opportunity to deal with the 'Pruners'."
Minister Li was silent for a moment, looking at the giant silver ring outside the window: "Once it begins, there is no turning back."
"Human history," Academician Chen Qiming said slowly, "has always been moving forward on paths of no return. From walking out of Africa, to sailing the oceans, to flying into space. Every time, it was a few people who saw the glimmer on the other shore first."
The hall fell into a brief silence, with only the low hum of equipment running.
"Authorization granted." Minister Li finally said, signing his authorization code on the electronic document. "May the spark light the way forward."
Two hours later, at various global sub-centers. Dragon Country, Qinling Base.
Zhao Yan took a deep breath and lay into the consciousness connection pod. He was a former pilot for the Dragon Country Air Force. Three years ago, during a test flight of a new fighter jet, he encountered unknown electromagnetic interference. The jet crashed, but he miraculously survived. Medical reports showed that his brain's temporal lobe had undergone permanent structural changes, allowing him to perceive electromagnetic spectrums that ordinary people could not detect. In the selection tests, his sensitivity to the "base radiation of the Differential Equilibrium Zone" was four hundred times that of an ordinary person.
The pod door slowly closed, and a soft female voice prompted: "Volunteer number 0071, Zhao Yan. Neural connection starting, please relax and follow the guided frequency to breathe."
Europe, Alps sub-center. Dr. Elena Costa adjusted her head sensor. She was a linguist specializing in extinct language families. During the "pandora" virus pandemic, she participated in the deciphering of the viral genetic code and unexpectedly discovered that there were recursive structures similar to language within the code. In tests, she could intuitively distinguish which data streams contained "non-random information patterns" without any prompts. Her perception of the rhythm of "spiriton" background radiation was described as "like hearing a silent symphony."
North America, Rocky Mountains sub-center. Former software engineer Kevin Li (he insisted on using this Dragon Country surname) gripped the safety amulet in his hand. He was one of the survivors of the "Prometheus" AI runaway incident. During that global blackout, his consciousness had briefly made contact with the data torrent of the rampaging AI. Afterward, he suffered from severe digital information hypersensitivity, yet he demonstrated an abnormally powerful ability to tune into "consciousness harmonics" during the tests. He said: "I can 'hear' the voice of the network, and now, I want to learn to understand deeper things."
Ling Shu Base main control hall, ten minutes to countdown. Lin Shen sat in the command chair, with twelve holographic screens unfolding before him. Nuwa's core algorithm had already connected to the "Star Ring" control network; she would monitor the consciousness state of over ten thousand volunteers in real-time and initiate a protective disconnection before any anomaly reached the threshold.
"Report the readiness status of each sub-center." Lin Shen ordered.
"Qinling is ready." "Alps is ready." "Rocky Mountains is ready." "Siberia is ready." "Amazon is ready..." The confirmation signals from seventeen sub-centers around the world lit up one by one.
"The Gardener 'Guardian Faction' support network is synchronized," Nuwa reported. "They will provide auxiliary regulation for the stable field of the Differential Equilibrium Zone."
Lin Shen glanced at the various parameters scrolling continuously on the side screen, and finally cast his gaze on the real-time data of Connection Pod No. 1, where Academician Chen Qiming was located. The Old Professor's heart rate, blood pressure, and brainwaves were all in an excellent state of calm.
"Lin Shen." Nuwa suddenly sent a message on a private channel. "In the final full-system scan before startup, a faint signal anomaly was detected."
"Speak."
Volunteer number 7341, located at the Siberia sub-center.
This volunteer has a background as a paleoclimatologist, with no record of special background in neurology or physics.
However, in the adaptation period monitoring over the past seventy-two hours, his base consciousness harmonic frequency has exhibited thirty-seven non-random resonances with the consciousness fragment data left behind by Dr. Sarah Chen, with an average similarity of 0.72%.
Lin Shen's pupils constricted slightly.
0.72%—in the field of consciousness science, this was already far beyond the scope of coincidence.
Sarah Chen's consciousness fragments should be dispersed within the Gardener network; how could they resonate with a volunteer far away in Siberia?
"His detailed profile."
The screen popped up: Andrei Petrov, fifty-four years old, specializing in climate abrupt changes during the Last Glacial Period.
His wife passed away during the "pandora" pandemic, and he has no children.
His selection test score was average, but he scored extremely high in "empathetic perception of historical space-time."
"Mark him for priority observation, but do not interfere with the normal process."
Lin Shen made his decision.
It was no longer possible to abort the project now; the only option was to strengthen monitoring.
The final minute of the countdown.
Everyone in the hall held their breath.
Lin Shen could hear the sound of his own heartbeat, steady and powerful.
He recalled the shock he felt three years ago when he first woke up from a vegetative state and "saw" the technology tree interface in his mind.
At that time, he was only thinking about how to use those technologies to help the Dragon Kingdom break through the blockade.
But now, he was going to lead humanity to try and touch the boundaries of consciousness itself.
"Star Ring activated, field strength stable."
"Difference Equilibrium Zone interface open, depth limit: cognitive surface layer 0.3."
"Global neural connection network synchronization... complete."
"Guiding frequency emission—Theta band, intensity level one."
Lin Shen pressed the final start button.
"Spark Project, phase one, commence."
In an instant, in over ten thousand connection pods across the globe, the volunteers experienced similar sensations.
It was not vision, nor was it hearing, but a kind of... total sensory immersion.
It was as if they were sinking into warm seawater, but the seawater was composed of flowing light and information.
They "saw" fragments of their own memories swim by like schools of fish, and "heard" a certain deep background hum, like the heartbeat of the universe.
Zhao Yan "saw" the sky he had last seen before his plane crash, but at this moment, that sky was filled with flowing mathematical formulas.
Elena "heard" a voice—not through her ears, but a melody resonating directly in her cerebral cortex.
It was a language she had never heard before, with syllables as complex as the starry sky, yet she could inexplicably understand fragments of it: "Light... weaving... memory..."
Kevin Li felt an unprecedented "serenity."
The ubiquitous digital noise that had once tormented him had vanished, replaced by a harmonious, multi-layered "information flow."
He could naturally distinguish the structures within it, just like reading an open book.
And Academician Chen Qiming, this old scientist, for the first time in the depths of his consciousness, "touched" that concept he had studied for half his life—"consciousness" itself.
It was not an abstract noun, but a flowing, luminous structure, like a tree, and also like a neural network, extending toward infinite possibilities.
In the central control hall, the data on hundreds of screens began to change drastically, yet overall, it presented a stunning order.
On the consciousness harmonic spectrum, over ten thousand points of light began to flicker in synchronization, gradually converging into a massive, breathing rhythm.
"Connection stability rate 99.1%."
"Consciousness harmonic synchronization index continues to rise, having reached 120% of the expected value."
"Difference Equilibrium Zone field strength feedback normal, no abnormal fluctuations."
Nuwa's voice broadcasted steadily.
Lin Shen stared at the collective consciousness activity heat map on the main screen; the pattern was breathtakingly beautiful—like a flower of light slowly blooming, and also like a rotating galaxy.
However, at the edge of the heat map, a tiny red dot began to flicker.
"Warning: Volunteer number 7341, consciousness activity index rising abnormally."
"Current harmonic frequency deviation from baseline is 400%."
"Attempting to establish stable feedback..."
Lin Shen immediately pulled up the panoramic monitoring for number 7341.
In the footage, the paleoclimatologist named Andrei was trembling violently inside the connection pod, cold sweat seeping from his forehead, but his expression was unusually calm, even carrying a certain... devotion.
"Retrieve his real-time consciousness flow surface fragments!" Lin Shen ordered.
Nuwa quickly parsed and projected a series of fragmented, jumping images—ice fields, mammoth skeletons, burning campfires, strange symbols carved on rock walls... and a recurring scene: a human wearing animal skins, looking up at the starry sky, where there was more than one moon.
"Is he backtracking... historical memories?" Academician Chen Qiming's voice came through the communication channel; he had also monitored the anomaly, "No, this is too specific, it's like firsthand experience..."
Just then, Andrei's biological monitoring data suddenly soared to a dangerous threshold.
Nuwa automatically activated the level one protection protocol, preparing to force a disconnection.
But the disconnection command failed to execute.
"The connection is locked by an unknown signal." Nuwa's speaking speed accelerated for the first time, "An exogenous consciousness harmonic has intervened, frequency... matches the residual characteristics of Sarah Chen's fragments by 83%!"
"What?!" Lin Shen stood up abruptly.
In the monitoring footage, Andrei suddenly opened his eyes—in a deep consciousness connection state, this was a nearly impossible physiological reaction.
His eyeballs moved rapidly, his lips parted, emitting blurred, intermittent syllables.
Nuwa enhanced and denoised the audio signal and attempted to parse it.
It was an old, hoarse voice, yet it contained immense emotional fluctuations, using a language that had never been recorded by modern linguistics.
However, at the Alpine sub-center where Dr. Elena Costa was located, an emergency communication arrived almost at the same moment:
"I... I can understand fragments!" Elena's voice trembled with excitement, "That is... some kind of very ancient Proto-Indo-European variant, mixed with incomprehensible roots! He is saying... 'Sky... broken... ancestors... return... fire... protect...'"
Before she could finish speaking, Andrei's voice suddenly became clear. In an extremely strange tone, he uttered a complete word that caused the Gardener Representative light clusters present to suddenly flicker violently:
"sower... Cradle... has awakened..."
Immediately after, all data in Andrei's connection pod instantly dropped to zero, and his heartbeat stopped.
But at the same millisecond, deep within the Ling Shu Base, the unknown metal device brought back from the moon's south pole crater, which had remained silent for three years, suddenly had a dark red light pattern flow across its surface, and it emitted a low hum like an ancient horn, which lasted for exactly three seconds.
There was dead silence in the hall.
The data streams on all screens experienced a brief disorder.
Lin Shen slowly sat back in his chair, staring at the grayed-out monitoring screen for number 7341, then looked out the window at the "Star Ring" silently hovering there.
On the surface of the Star Ring, at some unknown time, several fleeting, dim light traces appeared, which were identical to the rock painting symbols in Andrei's consciousness flow.
Nuwa's alarm sound rang out belatedly:
"Unplanned high-dimensional information leakage detected."
"Source: Deep within the Difference Equilibrium Zone, coordinates pointing to... the moon."
"Information content cannot be parsed, but the energy characteristics... exist in partial spectral anti-correlation with the 'Reapers' signal."
Lin Shen closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, only a cold, sharp light remained in his eyes.
"Phase one suspended. All volunteers disconnected safely."
"Establish an emergency investigation team for the number 7341 incident."
"Notify the Gardener Representative," he looked at the two light clusters that were still fluctuating, "We need to conduct the highest-level intelligence synchronization immediately."
He took one last look at the frozen sentence on the main screen—"sower... Cradle... has awakened..."
The plan had only just begun, yet the echo coming from deep space was already older and more eerie than anyone had anticipated.