'Zzzz—'
On the screen, the avatar representing Lei Zhen's life signal, which had long since ceased, suddenly flickered! A data stream imbued with the spirit of bravery, sacrifice, and the most primal protective instinct surged into the core logic chain like a flood breaking through a dam! This torrent of data, brimming with the 'irrational' brilliance of humanity, resonated astonishingly with the life pulses transmitted from the surface by Chen Yan—pulsations of pain, struggle, and the desire for symbiosis—and the rational ecological data represented by the 'Lighthouse.'
The red barrier representing Gaia's cold logic, which had stood before the 'Evaluation-Correction' subprogram, shattered like fragile glass under the triple impact—the sacrificial guardian will (Lei Zhen), the coexistence practice data (Lighthouse), and the soul's desperate cry for survival (Chen Yan)!
[Warning: Eval-Override subprogram activation port unlocked!]
[Warning: Detected data stream matching the defined 'behavioural pattern key'!]
[Warning: Detected high concentration of 'will to survive' spiritual resonance!]
[Proceed with final evaluation? Y/N]
Lin Lu's eyes flashed with a final burst of light! Without a moment's hesitation, she mustered all her strength and fiercely pressed the 'Y' on the virtual screen!
At the same time, she violently tore open the sleeve of her left arm, pressing the arm—covered in green veins and radiating intense light—firmly onto an energy interface at the core of the control panel, which flickered with a blue glow!
"In the name of humanity... I request a re-evaluation!! !"
Her voice transmitted through the interface, transforming into a pure mental screech, blending her lifetime of medical knowledge, her understanding of the essence of life, and her complex, profound love and pain for this planet beneath her feet, into a final data torrent that surged into the activation port!
Her body convulsed violently upon contact, the green veins beneath her skin erupting with light, like burning fuse! Her consciousness seemed to be instantly torn away, swept into a cold, vast stream of consciousness composed of countless plant nerves and ecological data! Her form began to blur and become transparent in the blue light, countless tiny green light points emanating from her body, merging into the control panel, into the cold metal and pipes deep within the bunker.
Data person... upload... complete.
Jade Valley, one second before destruction.
Three annihilating emerald green light columns had already reached the top of the 'lighthouse' at the centre of the valley! The intense heat instantly vaporised the upper layers of vines and crops!
At that very moment of absolute destruction!
Time seemed to have been paused.
The three beams of destruction suddenly halted! Suspended several metres above the ground, their energy violently twisted and fluctuated, as if choked by an invisible giant hand!
The entire Emerald Valley, the entire planet, seemed to have fallen into an eerie stasis.
The deep green mist ceased its churning.
The writhing, mutated forest edges froze in motion.
The expressions of despair on the faces of all the survivors in the valley froze.
Even the wind ceased to breathe.
Chen Yan knelt on one knee, his mutated leg deeply rooted in the soil, emitting a blinding green light like a root connecting heaven and earth. He raised his head, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the three frozen beams of death in the sky.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
'Hum...'
A low hum, as if emanating from the depths of the earth, swept across the entire planet.
The three massive Purifier spindles in the sky saw the destructive energy gathered at their tips dissipate as swiftly as receding tides. The vine-like energy patterns covering their surfaces dimmed. Their colossal forms shifted slightly, no longer pointing toward the valley, but instead retreated silently and slowly, re-merging into the churning deep green mist and vanishing without a trace.
Immediately afterward, it was as if ice and snow were melting.
At the edge of the valley, the twisted, semi-lignified 'tree-people' had swaying in their hollow eye sockets, which withered and fell at a visible speed. The wooden vines and proliferating structures binding their limbs peeled off and disintegrated like glue that had lost its adhesive properties. One by one, the lifeless, shriveled human corpses, reduced to empty shells, fell heavily to the ground like felled rotten logs, raising a cloud of dust.
The deep green vines covering the mountain walls, which had once writhed like living creatures, quickly lost their unsettling oily sheen, becoming dry, grey, and lifeless, ceasing all movement. The entire mutated forest seemed to have been instantly drained of all 'vitality,' reverting to a vast, silent, lifeless graveyard of dead trees.
Though the deep green mist had not completely dissipated, the nauseatingly sweet, putrid stench and intense corrosive sensation within it were weakening and diluting at an astonishing rate, becoming like ordinary, plant-scented mist.
Silence.
Absolute silence enveloped the Emerald Valley, enveloped the entire world.
Only the breeze began to flow again, carrying the coolness of survival after the catastrophe, brushing past Chen Yan's sweat- and blood-stained cheeks, past the stiff, disbelieving expressions of the survivors, and past the few clusters of surviving emerald-green saplings swaying gently in the breeze within the 'lighthouse.'
Chen Yan's consciousness slowly rose from the depths of an abyss. He looked down at his right leg. The dark brown, bark-like skin remained, and the green light flowing from the cracks had not disappeared, but that cold, overwhelming force of the earth's pull, which had tried to devour his will... had vanished. In its place was an odd... sense of connection? As if his leg had become an extension of the land, able to faintly perceive the moisture of the soil, the flow of water beneath the ground, and even the subtle pulsations of plant seeds sprouting in the distance.
Just then, the crude communicator on his wrist—which maintained a fragile one-way connection with the Ark Base—suddenly flickered. There was no sound, only a line of cold, icy text that seemed to come from the depths of hell, automatically popping up:
[Source: Ark Core Database - Highest Authority]
[Information Status: Final Log / Automatic Transmission]
[Main Text]
> GAIA PROTOCOL STATUS UPDATE
> ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION: 85.0%
> HUMAN PURIFICATION: TERMINATED (Eval-Override Activated)
> EXECUTION STATE: [STANDBY]
> NEXT ASSESSMENT CYCLE: [PENDING]
> TERMINAL SIGNATURE: Lin Lu (Data Pattern Integrated)
'Lin... Lu...' Chen Yan's cracked lips moved, uttering that name. There was no sorrowful scream, only a deep, hollow ache, as if a piece of his soul had been torn away. He understood. He understood the price of activating the final key. She had become data, merging into Gaia's cold sea of consciousness, becoming an eternal, lonely bridge between humanity and the planet, in exchange for this brief "standby" state.
He struggled to lift his head. In the east, atop the mountain peaks, thick clouds were torn apart by an invisible force, revealing a crack. A sliver of golden-red, long-awaited, genuine sunlight pierced the leaden grey sky like a sword, precisely casting its rays upon the humble 'lighthouse' at the centre of the Emerald Valley!
Sunlight! True, warm, untainted sunlight!
Golden spots of light danced on the emerald-green leaves of young shoots, shimmered on the surface of the circulating water, and flowed across the stunned yet gradually illuminated faces of the survivors.
'Light...' A woman holding a child murmured, tears silently streaming down her cheeks.
'The sun... it's the sun!' A young team member points to the sky, his voice trembling, filled with both tears and disbelieving joy.
'We're alive... we've survived...' An elderly man leaning on a spear gazes up at the golden light, his eyes filled with tears.
Chen Yan basks in this long-awaited sunlight, feeling the warmth dispel the chill of the underground. He looked down at his mutated leg, which still looked eerie in the sunlight but seemed to resonate with the earth. He looked up again, towards the blood-red sunrise struggling to break through the gaps in the clouds and slowly rising in the east.
That sun was red like blood, yet also like the hope reborn after being tempered by fire.
The price had been paid, blood soaking the soil. The future remained uncertain, the 'standby' mode with no end in sight. Lin Lu had turned into cold data, Lei Zhen's remains were gone, and he himself had become a half-human, half-plant outcast.
But at that moment, the sunlight shone genuinely on his face, on that 'lighthouse' oasis barely held together by the principle of symbiosis, struggling to survive on the brink of destruction. Fragile saplings stretch in the breeze, and the tears of survivors, having narrowly escaped disaster, glisten in the sunlight.
They have survived.
In the most brutal manner, at the heaviest cost, in the most imperfect form.
They have survived.
Chen Yan leans on his crutch (that mutated leg still deeply rooted in the soil), straightens his spine, and faces the rising sun. His shadow stretched long behind him, as if connecting to the silent, barren forest behind him and to the blood-stained land of hope beneath his feet, newly reclaimed from death.
A new era dawned in this morning of ruins and sunlight, unfolding its blood-stained first page in a manner that was incredibly heavy, incredibly fragile, yet incredibly real.
end---