269: Chapter 269 Fifteen Minutes of Life-or-Death Race, Risking the Abyss of Knowledge!

Su Che opened his eyes.

"What does the door panel say?"

"Unlock failed. Executing 'Knowledge Annihilation.' The loser will be precisely stripped of all knowledge and related memories within their professional field. This is irreversible."

The movement of Su Che rising from his chair paused for a fleeting moment.

It had been several months. The door with a penalty had appeared again. The sense of helplessness when Li Guang sacrificed himself on the Consciousness Arena was still etched into everyone's bones.

"I'll go take a look."

Su Che stepped out of the office module and walked quickly toward the fifty-second door.

In the corridor, Patrick and the people from Group Four were already waiting there. The expression on everyone's face was very grim.

The panel of the fifty-second door was pitch black, like a piece of polished obsidian.

As Su Che approached, a line of blood-red text lit up on the door panel—the very penalty rule that Kayla had just recited.

"Knowledge Anni... hilation?"

A young researcher from Patrick's Group Four repeated, their voice trembling.

"What does this mean?"

Kayla's blue skin appeared somewhat gloomy under the reflection of the red light.

"To put it simply, if a physicist gets it wrong, they will forget all knowledge from '1+1' to relativity. In their mind, the word 'physics' will become incomprehensible garbled code."

"They will revert to an ordinary person who possesses all daily life common sense but has lost everything they learned in their lifetime."

The air in the corridor seemed to have been sucked dry.

For this group of scientists who viewed knowledge as their life, this punishment was more terrifying than death itself.

The red text on the door panel faded away, replaced by a dynamic interface.

A 3D model of a starship with an unfamiliar design emerged, with dozens of red warning points flashing on the hull.

Beside it, a bright red countdown timer began to tick. [15:00]

"Simulated crisis: A 'Stardust'-class research ship has encountered a super-strong gamma-ray burst, triggering a chain of failures."

Kayla's voice rang out in the silent corridor.

"The requirement is to complete three tasks within fifteen minutes using this unfamiliar operating system."

"One: Stabilize the fusion reactor that is about to overload."

"Two: Restart the life support system that is on the verge of collapse."

"Three: Eject the damaged fuel core before the hull explodes."

"Failure in any task, or exceeding the time limit, will be considered an unlock failure."

"The operator will suffer the punishment."

Su Che stared at the completely unfamiliar operating system interface; the text and symbols on it were something humanity had never seen before.

He pulled out his communicator.

"Notify Energy Expert Xiao Zhenbang, Automation Expert Jiang Yi, Zhou Xubai, and Yu Bozhou to come to the fifty-second door immediately."

Thirteen minutes later, four top experts from different fields arrived at the scene.

Energy Expert Xiao Zhenbang, Automation Expert Jiang Yi, Zhou Xubai, and Yu Bozhou.

They could be considered the people on Genesis who understood "ships" the best.

"That's the situation." Su Che pointed to the door panel.

"Fifteen minutes, an alien operating system, and saving a ship that's about to blow up."

Energy Expert Xiao Zhenbang pushed up his glasses and walked straight to the door.

"I'll handle the energy system; the reactor is mine."

Automation Expert Jiang Yi followed closely behind. "I'll try to crack the underlying logic of this operating system."

Zhou Xubai and Yu Bozhou also found their own entry points.

"I'll be responsible for life support and radiation parameters."

"I'll build a failure evolution model to predict the next collapse point."

Su Che clapped his hands. "Let's begin. Who will be the primary operator?"

The four experts looked at each other, but no one moved.

The primary operator was the one who would be subject to "Knowledge Annihilation" if they failed.

"I'll do it." Su Che stood directly in front of the door panel and placed his hands on the virtual control console.

"I am the captain; if anything goes wrong, I will bear the responsibility."

Countdown [14:12].

"The pressure in Reactor Zone A is rising exponentially!" Energy Expert Xiao Zhenbang's voice was urgent.

"We must open the pressure relief valve immediately, but the control interface is locked!"

"It's a chain safety protocol." Automation Expert Jiang Yi operated rapidly on another sub-screen.

"I've found the bypass command for the protocol, but it requires administrator privileges. Chief Engineer Su, give me your operating privileges."

Su Che did not hesitate and immediately granted the privileges.

Countdown [11:45].

A green notification indicating successful pressure relief flashed by.

But immediately after, over a dozen new red alarms lit up simultaneously.

"Oh no!" Yu Bozhou's expression changed.

"The pressure relief impacted the backup power lines. The life support system is experiencing widespread power failure. The crew will die from oxygen deprivation within five minutes!"

Zhou Xubai shouted, "Switch to internal oxygen circulation, quickly!"

Su Che pulled up rows of unfamiliar command code on the main control console.

His fingers tapped on the keyboard so fast they appeared as a blur.

Relying on the understanding of Level 3 Civilization technology granted to him by the system, he forcibly deciphered the meaning of these alien codes.

Countdown [05:30].

The life support system turned green. The reactor was stable. The first two tasks were complete.

Only the last task remained: ejecting the fuel core.

Su Che pulled up the control interface for the fuel bay. A huge red padlock icon occupied the center of the screen.

"Damn it!" Automation Expert Jiang Yi cursed under his breath.

"The ejection program for the fuel core has been corrupted by the gamma-ray burst data stream. It's completely damaged and cannot be executed!"

"Is there a manual mode?" Su Che asked.

"Yes." Yu Bozhou pointed to a tiny icon in the corner of the screen.

"But the system indicates that forced manual ejection is an over-limit operation and will trigger a violent energy backlash."

"The person who executes this operation will be judged by the system as the primary party responsible for this crisis and will bear all the consequences of the unlock failure alone."

The corridor fell into dead silence once again.

In other words, as long as Su Che pressed that button, regardless of whether it was ultimately successful, if the system determined there was any flaw, the sword named "Knowledge Annihilation" would fall upon him.

Energy Expert Xiao Zhenbang stepped forward. "Chief Engineer Su, let me do it. The energy system is my specialty, I..."

"Shut up." Su Che stood still.

"My specialty is making decisions and bearing responsibility."

He looked at the small manual ejection icon on the screen.

"The knowledge of any one of you is invaluable to human civilization. Without you, who would operate the mothership's systems? Who would unlock the doors ahead?"

"As for my amateur scientific knowledge, if it's gone, it's gone. At worst, I'll just have to make Kayla do more work later."

Su Che was confident. He had the peak-level system of a Level 3 Civilization in his hands; if his knowledge really was gone, it wouldn't be impossible to have the system perform an information infusion.

He turned his head and smiled at Kayla. Kayla's expression was a bit nervous, but she didn't speak.

Su Che withdrew his gaze, his finger hovering over the icon.

Countdown— [00:03] [00:02] [00:01]

He pressed it.

On the screen, the fuel core was violently ejected from the hull by a massive force, turning into a silent fireball in the distance.

The countdown hit zero. The entire door panel interface instantly cleared and plunged into darkness.

The next second, an amber light pattern lit up in the center of the door panel, like an eye staring into the abyss.

The light pattern did not turn green, nor did it turn red. It just hung there in the middle, motionless.

Patrick stared at the light, his voice dry as he blurted out, "Oh my god!"

Su Che maintained the posture of having pressed the button, his finger still hovering over the virtual control console.

Behind him, the four—Energy Expert Xiao Zhenbang, Automation Expert Jiang Yi, Zhou Xubai, and Yu Bozhou—froze, forgetting even to breathe.

Everyone's face appeared pale and grave under the reflection of the amber light.

Patrick leaned against the wall, his blue eyes fixed intently on the door panel, his legs already beginning to tremble slightly and uncontrollably.

One second. Two seconds. Five seconds.