84: Chapter 83 Awakening the Abyss
The "heart crystal" became scorching hot in Lin Shen's hands.
It was no longer a gentle resonance, but an urgency bordering on searing, as if the consciousness of Sarah sealed within was boiling violently.
"Dr. Sarah, can you hear me? We need you to guide the awakening protocol!" Lin Shen transmitted the message to the heart crystal core through the consciousness link.
The nebula inside the crystal rotated at an unprecedented speed, and Sarah's voice, intermittent yet clearer than ever, sounded directly in his mind, carrying an indescribable emotion mixed with pain and determination:
"I... heard you. Deep within the 'Chamber of Inheritance'... there is a 'conduit' connected to the core. But I... am incomplete. The guidance requires a stable and continuous 'consciousness stream' and high-precision 'permission verification'... I cannot do it alone..."
"What do you need?"
"...and also need..." Sarah's voice paused, as if fighting against some resistance, "also need a fragment of the 'initial protocol key' of the 'Cradle' itself... that fragment... might be recorded in the temporary logs of the 'Basic Law Anchoring Field' you just activated... I can feel its 'echo'..."
The conditions were extremely harsh.
"External consciousness energy injection"—this meant requiring remote support from the lunar orbit or Earth's consciousness network, but under the interference and attacks of the "Pruning Faction", maintaining a high-intensity, stable connection was extremely difficult.
"'Inheritor candidate' permission fluctuation"—this clearly pointed to Lin Shen himself, especially the technology tree system in his mind that was homologous to the "Cradle". But this required him to commit his consciousness to the guidance process without reservation, leaving himself in a defenseless state.
"'Initial protocol key' fragment"—needed to be extracted from the activation data of the "Basic Law Anchoring Field" that was glimpsed just moments ago. There was only 1.7 seconds, and the data was bound to be incomplete and profound.
And they had at most 40 minutes, from which 47 minutes (estimated by the "Cradle") needed to be reserved for the core system awakening. In reality, they had to secure even just a few minutes of lead time for the awakening before the enemy's all-out attack began.
"Elena, analyze the complete background logs of the 'Basic Law Anchoring Field' immediately, look for any regular, non-random coding fragments, especially parts that might match the known basic protocol structure of the 'Cradle'!" Lin Shen spoke rapidly, "Zhao Yan, you take over the micro-management of all defense systems, delay as much as possible, use the temporary deep permissions granted by the 'Cradle', mobilize all available resources, create chaos and false targets! Medical Officer Lu Yunshan, prepare neuro-stabilizers and consciousness connection enhancement devices, I need to increase my consciousness output power to the safe limit!"
"Earth's spiritual pivot, this is inside the 'Cradle'! We need the 'Star Ring' and the global consciousness network to provide the highest intensity, continuous and stable consciousness energy flow, with coordinates pointed to the lunar 'Cradle', frequency following Dr. Sarah's guidance fluctuations, time... need at least fifteen minutes!" Lin Shen simultaneously sent a highest-priority request to Earth.
Orders were issued like a storm. The atmosphere in the spherical hall was extremely heavy, and everyone was like a bowstring stretched to the limit.
Earth, Ling Shu Base.
"Received! Initiating 'Star Ring' overload mode! Connect to all global volunteer networks, focus energy on the Moon! Regardless of the cost!" Academician Chen Qiming roared with red eyes.
Massive energy converged from all over the globe, was converted by the "Star Ring" into a majestic consciousness energy beam, and shot toward the Moon.
The defense warships in Earth's orbit also adjusted their stance, providing escort for this energy beam along the way to resist possible long-range interceptions by the "Pruning Faction".
In lunar orbit, the "Kunlun" station was crumbling, but still under the command of Chief Geologist, coordinating with Zhao Yan's micro-management, using remaining defensive firepower, drone swarms, and even deliberately detonated fuel tanks to create a death zone full of debris and energy turbulence on the periphery of the "Cradle" void, interfering with the approach and targeting of the infiltration units.
Inside the "Cradle", Elena stared intently at the screen, her fingers turning into phantoms on the virtual keyboard, complex decoding algorithms and pattern recognition programs running at full capacity, stripping, filtering, and reorganizing from the massive, chaotic background data...
"Found it! A 127-unit long abnormal harmonic sequence, with 72% structural similarity to the header features of other known basic protocols of the 'Cradle'! But the content is completely encrypted and incomprehensible!" Elena shouted.
"Send the sequence as it is to Dr. Sarah! She wants the 'fragment', not the interpretation!" Lin Shen said immediately.
The sequence was transmitted to Sarah's consciousness through the "heart crystal".
"It's it! It's the 'fingerprint' afterimage of the key! It's enough!" Sarah's voice carried a hint of excitement, "Now, Commander Lin Shen, please synchronize your consciousness with me, imagine your technology tree roots... connecting with the 'control core' in the deepest part of the 'Cradle'... I will use this 'fingerprint' to 'knock on the door'... Earth's energy flow will push the 'door'..."
Lin Shen immediately lay down on the consciousness connection chair prepared by Medical Officer Lu Yunshan.
The enhancement device activated, and a cold touch attached to his temples and the back of his neck.
He closed his eyes, excluded all distracting thoughts, submerged his consciousness completely into the technology tree system, and actively extended its "sensory tentacles" towards the inside of the "Cradle", to that heaviest, oldest, and darkest "depths".
He "saw" it.
Below countless knowledge cubes and energy corridors, deeper in the lunar rock layers, there was a "thing" so unimaginably massive, composed of pure energy and complex geometric structures.
It was like a sleeping heart, and also like a closed cocoon.
That was the core defense system of the "Cradle", or rather, a part of its true entity.
At the same time, Sarah's consciousness guided that vast consciousness energy flow from Earth, wrapping the 127-unit "key fingerprint", like the finest scalpel and the most surging Tide, "touching" the surface of that "cocoon" together.
The "cocoon" vibrated slightly.
The geometric structure on the surface began to flow and reorganize, as if identifying this sudden "access".
Lin Shen's technology tree roots also, at this moment, following Sarah's guidance, gently "rested" on those flowing structures.
An indescribable, cold, and vast "sense of presence" surged back along the roots, impacting his consciousness.
Countless fragmented, ancient, and inhumanly rational information fragments tried to surge in.
He felt as if his consciousness was about to be frozen, assimilated, and devoured by the "memory" of this behemoth.
"Hold on! Lin Shen! Maintain self-awareness! You are the guide, not the one being fused!" Sarah's urgent voice sounded like a warm current on the edge of him about to get lost.
Medical Officer Lu Yunshan, watching Lin Shen's rapidly fluctuating physiological data, injected the second neuro-stabilizer without hesitation.
Externally, the infiltration units seemed to have detected the abnormal energy upheaval happening deep within the "Cradle".
They no longer hesitated, all six units erupted simultaneously!
Speeding to the limit, in a subtle coordinated formation, ignoring the chaos zone created by Zhao Yan, from six different angles, toward the core area of the "Cradle" void, they fired the six strongest and most concentrated "Order Cutting Beam"s to date!
The target of the beams was aimed directly at several key energy convergence points on the "Cradle" shell, as well as... the approximate projection position of the spherical hall where Lin Shen and the others were located on the lunar surface!
This was an all-out attack! Aimed at paralyzing the external functions of the "Cradle" and directly destroying the guide inside!
"Intercept! Intercept with everything!" Zhao Yan roared, concentrating all the defensive energy he temporarily controlled and all the spiritual particle light spot firepower available on the periphery of the "Cradle" toward those six destructive beams.
However, they were outnumbered, and there was a gap in energy levels.
Three beams were successfully deflected or weakened, but the other three, with an unstoppable momentum, penetrated the layers of interception and slammed into the "Cradle" shell!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Even separated by thick lunar rocks and the internal structure of the "Cradle", Lin Shen and the others felt violent vibrations!
Tiny cracks appeared on the milky white walls of the spherical hall, and some energy projections flickered.
Communication between the hall and the "Kunlun" station and Earth was instantly cut off by violent energy turbulence!
"Shell damaged! External defense energy output dropped by 40%! Over 60% of spiritual particle sensing array nodes offline!" Elena's voice trembled as she watched the data plummeting like an avalanche.
Even more fatal was that the aftermath of one of the beams seemed to have penetrated a weak point in the shell, a subtle but destructive ripple of spatial distortion, like a venomous snake, crawled into the internal passage of the "Cradle" and was winding its way toward the spherical hall!
"Something has come in!" Medical Officer Lu Yunshan looked at the rapidly approaching abnormal readings on the environmental monitor, horrified.
At a critical moment!
Just at the moment when the spatial distortion ripple was about to surge into the hall, and at the moment when the three external cutting beams were about to launch a second round of salvo—
The "awakening protocol" jointly guided by Lin Shen and Sarah reached a critical point.
That huge "energy heart" buried deep underground suddenly beat once!
It was not a sound, but a "spatial pulsation" that swept across the entire lunar South Pole region and could even be detected by instruments on the distant Earth!
Centered on the "Cradle" void, a "light" that could not be accurately described by any color erupted.
It did not spread outward, but converged inward, instantly sweeping across the entire void, inside and out, sweeping over all structures associated with the "Cradle", and also sweeping over the six "Order Cutting Beam"s and the distortion ripples that had intruded inside.
The beams, like snowflakes thrown into boiling water, instantly melted and annihilated, leaving no trace.
The distortion ripples, like wrinkles smoothed out by an invisible hand, quietly dissipated.
Even the six "Pruning Faction" infiltration units that were preparing for the second round of attacks were swept by this "light".
Their bodies flashed madly with defensive overload light, emitting an extremely sharp energy scream (conducted through spatial vibration), and then, like a kite with a broken string, they tumbled and bounced away out of control, disappearing into the dark wilderness of the Moon, their fate unknown.
Inside the spherical hall, the milky white light became incomparably pure and soft, and the cracks on the walls instantly healed.
An unprecedented "sense of stability" and "sense of weight" filled every corner.
That cold, neutral voice, this time, with an indescribable "depth" and "grandeur" as if it had just awakened after sleeping for hundreds of millions of years, rumbled deep in everyone's consciousness:
[Core Defense System—"Planetary Sanctuary Protocol"—Partially Awakened.]
[Current Status: Minimum Operation (1.7%).]
[Energy Source: Lunar Tidal Energy, Geothermal Gradient, Stellar Radiation (Auxiliary).]
[Main Functions: Local Spatial Law Stable Anchoring, Planetary-level Spiritual Particle Background Field Regulation, Absolute Defense against 'Order Destructive Protocol Attacks'.]
[External Threat Units Detected... Threat Level: Medium-Low.]
[Executing Standard Protocol: Expulsion.]
With this declarative voice, outside the void, those nodes that were originally just "light spots" now lit up as brilliantly as stars, connecting with each other to form an extremely complex three-dimensional energy network that tightly enveloped the entire void.
The light of the network was not dazzling, but gave a sense of absolute invincibility and impenetrability.
[Expulsion Execution Completed.]
[No Further Intrusion Intent Detected.]
[System Entering Basic Alert Mode.]
[Welcome back, 'Key Holder' and 'High-level Candidate'. The 'Sanctuary Protocol' will provide you with basic security guarantees. Further function unlocking requires meeting higher protocol conditions.]
The voice gradually faded.
But that "sense of sanctuary" that enveloped everything did not disappear.
Inside the hall, it was deathly silent.
After several seconds, Zhao Yan slowly released his hand that was almost crushing the joystick, and let out a long, trembling breath.
Elena slumped in her chair, her forehead resting against the cold console.
Medical Officer Lu Yunshan hurriedly checked Lin Shen's condition.
With the help of Medical Officer Lu Yunshan, Lin Shen slowly sat up.
His face was pale as paper, his head splitting with pain, his consciousness felt as if it had just been fished out of an icy sea, but his eyes were shockingly bright.
He looked down at the "heart crystal" in his hand.
The light of the crystal had become stable and gentle, and the rotation of the nebula inside had also returned to a moderate rhythm.
Sarah's weak but relieved consciousness came: "Success... we... did it. It woke up... although only a small part..."
"We... held it?" Elena looked up, still somewhat incredulous.
"Temporarily." Lin Shen looked toward the center of the hall, where a brand-new, more complex control interface was slowly emerging, labeled next to it "Planetary Sanctuary Protocol (Basic Console)".
"The 'Pruning Faction's' infiltration attack has been dismantled. But as the 'Cradle'... or rather the 'Sanctuary Protocol' said, this is only the minimum operation. Moreover, we are completely exposed."
He pulled up the extremely weak external communication signal that had just been restored, which contained anxious and inquiring messages from Earth's Ling Shu Base, as well as a short report from the "Kunlun" station about their survival after the disaster.
"More importantly," Lin Shen's voice carried a hint of heaviness, "We have awakened the true defense core of the 'Cradle', which also means we have officially taken up the banner of 'Inheritor candidate'. The main fleet of the 'Pruning Faction' will no longer have any hesitation or probing. The next arrival will be the true destructive force aimed at 'pruning'."
He gripped the "heart crystal" tightly and looked at the new console that represented vast power and responsibility.
The abyss has been awakened.
The sanctuary has descended.
And the real storm has only just begun to gather in the distant sea of stars.