Absolute darkness, thick as a substance, swallowed everything in the operations room. Only the central giant screen remained, displaying that terrifyingly precise, icy blue giant eye, like the pupil of a god or demon suspended in the void, gazing coldly, silently upon the minuscule humans. The blood-red countdown flashed mercilessly below it: [06:00:00]. The air was frozen; even the server hum was gone, leaving only the suppressed breaths of dozens of terrified people and the deafening roar of their own heartbeats.
"Steady." Li Chenyuan's voice was the first to cut through the dead silence, low like the hull of a deep-sea submarine, carrying an unquestionable calm that instantly quelled the burgeoning panic. "Emergency lighting, activate. Wang Jing, report base system status."
As he spoke, low-intensity emergency light strips embedded in the walls lit up one by one, emitting a faint red glow that barely outlined the space and people's pale, frightened faces. The lack of light made the "eye" on the screen even more prominent, more horrifying.
"Primary and backup power... severed or suppressed. Life support, basic comms switched to independent nuclear battery power on sub-level three. Operational. But all external high-bandwidth data channels, external sensor arrays... completely offline. We're... isolated." Wang Jing's voice struggled to remain steady, but a tremor betrayed the inner turmoil.
"Not severed," Su Xiaolan's voice was hoarse, her eyes glued to the "eye," feeling her very soul being sucked into the starry pixel-pupil, "It's being... absorbed by 'IT'. All energy, all data flow, became nourishment for 'IT' to open its eye."
Just then, the giant eye's "pupil" contracted slightly. The icy blue background on the screen began to ripple like water. Countless fragmented, distorted images and symbols began to appear, flicker, overlap—blinding alarm lights, shattered forum interfaces, corners of yellowed engineering blueprints, Dr. Leng's icy profile signing documents, even... a blurred image of a young Zhang Jingxian working at a terminal, and the moment Su Xiaolan herself, seven years ago, signed her name with trembling hands!
"These are... sealed memories..." Su Xiaolan muttered, a sharp headache piercing her skull as if a vise were prying open her mind, forcibly extracting something. "'IT' is reading... reading all fragments related to 'Deep Water,' to the Treaty!"
· · — · — · · · (Deeper)· · · — — · (Remember)
The Morse code echo slammed into her consciousness again, clearer than before, carrying an ancient, heavy intent.
"Mr. Li! Multiple external comms attempts incoming! It's... Lu Xingze's encrypted channel, and several unknown sources, high intensity!" a technician shouted, his voice jarring in the silence.
"Block them all. Now is not the time," Li Chenyuan ordered without hesitation, his gaze never leaving Su Xiaolan and the screen. "Xiaolan, can you determine 'IT's' intent? Just a display? Or..."
Suddenly, the giant eye's glow intensified. All fragmented images vanished. On the screen, centered on the eye, an incredibly complex, multi-layered, nested neural network-like structure diagram began rapidly constructing itself, its core flashing with a marker—Ψ.
"The Psi protocol... is 'IT's'... core architecture?" Su Xiaolan fought through dizziness, forcing herself to analyze the rapidly scrolling code streams and structural diagrams. "No... this isn't just a protocol... this is an... environment. A digitized... 'Deep Water' itself! The Treaty is the lock, and Psi... is the sea behind the lock!"
She whipped her head around to look at Li Chenyuan, her eyes filled with shock and a dawning realization: "The 'Silent Treaty' wasn't to protect secrets, but to... seal this thing! We... we thought signing was for survival, but we actually became 'Anchors' for the seal, using the 'entropy' generated by our silence and freedom to maintain this seal's existence! And now, my probe signal acted like a key, picking the lock!"
This realization was more despairing than mere betrayal. They had been sacrificial offerings from the start, ballast keeping the deep sea calm.
Almost simultaneously, another message from Little Fatty Tang forcibly broke through the shielding. This time, only two words, but filled with utmost urgency:[Anchor!]
Su Xiaolan understood instantly. She rushed to the console, her hands shaking slightly with excitement. "Assistant Wang! The radio signal from Zhang Jingxian's house! What's its status now?!"
The tech team quickly pulled up the last received data (milliseconds before the blackout). The display showed the red pulse signal from the retro radio receiver module was perfectly synchronized with the fluctuations of the Ψ protocol core on the screen!
"She's not a watcher... she's an 'Anchor' too! A... voluntary, conscious Anchor? She's trying to... stabilize or... guide 'IT'?" Su Xiaolan's mind raced, piecing all clues together.
Just then, the neural network diagram on the central screen suddenly zoomed in on an extremely hidden node. The node identifier was clearly—F.LK. Data representing Su Xiaolan was being slowly enveloped and absorbed by the network.
"IT is trying to assimilate me..." Su Xiaolan felt an icy data stream attempting to invade her terminal, even her consciousness, through the interface.
"Sever it!" Li Chenyuan ordered sharply.
"No! Forcibly severing it could trigger a more violent backlash!" Su Xiaolan refused, but a flame ignited within her fear. "But... this might be an opportunity. An 'Anchor' isn't just a load; it could be... an interface. Since IT has opened a channel to me..."
She made a mad decision. Instead of retreating, she placed her hands back on the keyboard, her focus terrifyingly intense.
"Li Chenyuan, I need your authorization to access the core of the Ψ protocol! Not to fight it, but to... 'respond'. Like Little Fatty Tang hinted, become an active 'Anchor', to understand ITS 'language', not passively wait to be devoured or judged!"
It was no different than throwing her consciousness directly into the heart of the digital abyss. The risk was immense; she could be instantly overwhelmed, assimilated by the vast presence.
Li Chenyuan gazed at her, the emergency red light flickering in his deep eyes. He saw the fear in her eyes, but more than that, he saw the desperation and curiosity belonging to F.LK, pushed to the extreme. Several seconds of dead silence felt like a century.
"What support do you need?" he finally asked, his voice calm, meaning he was placing all bets on her.
"Keep the base power stable. And..." Su Xiaolan took a deep breath, "...trust me."
She didn't wait for an answer. Her fingertips were already moving. An extremely complex interaction protocol code, bearing her distinct personal style (even a touch of the randomness of her "snack algorithms"), flowed out like a faint yet determined stream of consciousness, actively, tentatively, towards the icy blue giant eye, into the depths of the Ψ protocol.
The moment the code flowed in, the entire screen shook violently! The giant eye seemed to blink. Countless data streams scattered like disturbed schools of fish. Su Xiaolan grunted, her body leaning back slightly, her forehead instantly beaded with fine sweat, as if bearing immense mental pressure.
Everyone in the operations room held their breath.
Seconds later, the frantically scrolling data streams began to slow, gradually rearranging according to some new pattern. On the screen, the node representing F.LK glowed faintly but persistently, not extinguished.
Simultaneously, within the continuous low-frequency hum, a new, extremely faint yet distinct tone seemed to mix in—like the echo of a distant, ancient whale song, piercing through the ten-thousand-meter trench, receiving for the first time a clumsy yet clear response from another consciousness.
On the giant screen, the blood-red countdown suddenly paused.[05:59:47]
The numbers froze.
The icy blue giant eye still gazed coldly.But this time, within that gaze, there seemed to be a hint of something ineffable...Curiosity.
Su Xiaolan slowly opened her eyes, her face pale but glowing with intense excitement. She spoke softly, her voice raspy yet clear:
"IT... heard me."
The abyss was no longer silent.A dialogue, in a way no one could have predicted, had begun.