Time seemed to freeze within the control room.
The blood-red countdown on the central screen flashed maniacally, each changing digit a hammer blow to every heart.
[00:44:59]
[00:44:58]
The air reeked of overheated electronics and cold metal. Servers emitted a fitful hum, like the dying breaths of a great beast. Su Xiaolan felt her nerves being pulled taut by invisible hands. The Ψ Protocol was eroding her consciousness directly through the interface, icy data streams flooding her mind.
"Su Xiaolan!" Li Chenyuan's low roar cut through the silence. His hand clamped down on her shoulder like a vise. "Steady. This is Li territory." His gaze was deep as the sea, carrying an undeniable authority, like a submarine diving at full speed, resisting the abyssal pressure.
Lu Xingze took a sharp step forward, his voice urgent and grim. "Her brainwaves are already past the safety threshold! If this continues, Ψ will consume her consciousness! StarShield's isolation chamber can save her life!"
"Save her?" Li Chenyuan sneered. "By locking her up as a lab specimen?"
"At least she'll be alive!" Lu Xingze's voice was tight with suppressed anger.
"Alive?" Gu Yu's projection flickered into view, data streams making his features waver, his eyes gleaming with fanaticism. "No. She is only truly alive now. Ψ has chosen F.LK. This isn't imprisonment. It's evolution. Only she can converse with the Deep Water."
The three men's gazes clashed mid-air, cold and sharp, like three blades colliding under the pressure of the deep.
And at the center of the debate, the person in question was hunched over the console, sweating profusely, clutching a crumpled chip bag she'd somehow produced again.
"Ahem... esteemed gentlemen?" she spoke up, her voice trembling yet laced with exasperation. "I'm about to be pressed into salted fish jerky by Ψ, and you're putting on a 'Three Kingdoms' show here? Could you maybe show some respect for the victim?"
Nobody acknowledged her complaint. The standoff continued.
"Hey!" She slapped the console sharply, the chip bag emitting a loud CRUNCH. "If you're going to argue, at least form a queue! Or draw lots to decide the speaking order?"
A few technicians stifled giggles, but under the dual oppression of the blood-red countdown and the abyssal blue eye, the laughter quickly turned into nervous coughs.
Just then, the giant "data-eye" on the screen contracted violently. Starbursts of abyssal blue light erupted from the depths of its pupil.
A low, synthetic voice resonated, like ancient whale song torn and reassembled:
[Anchor required.]
[Choose.]
The blood-red countdown abruptly accelerated!
[00:44:10]
[00:44:09]
Everyone held their breath.
"No…" Su Xiaolan felt her consciousness dragged into the data abyss. Countless lines of code transformed into icy tendrils, coiling around her, whispering the same command: "Choose the Anchor."
Before her, three figures of light materialized—Li Chenyuan, Lu Xingze, Gu Yu. Their images had hollow eyes, like statues on a judgment seat, awaiting her verdict.
"No… I can't…" Her chest heaved. Her fingers clenched the chip bag desperately. "Are you three… all insane?! Choosing any one of you is pushing them into the abyss!"
In the illusion, Ψ's voice boomed:
[Choose.]
"NO!" She jerked her head up, tears welling in eyes that burned with resolve. "You want an Anchor? IS THAT IT? FINE! I'LL DO IT MYSELF! F.LK'S CONSEQUENCES… I'LL BEAR THEM MYSELF!"
Her voice echoed through the data illusion, torn with finality. Instantly, the entire illusion shook violently. The data sea surged into monstrous waves, morphing into countless icy blades of code, lunging for her frenziedly.
"Her vitals are crashing!" Wang Jing cried out, sweat dripping onto the control panel. "Neural activity is overloaded! She can't hold on much longer!"
"Sever the connection!" Engineers scrambled to operate the controls.
"DON'T YOU DARE MOVE!" Li Chenyuan's furious shout froze everyone in place. His gaze was sharp as a deep-sea shark's, locked onto the wildly scrolling gibberish on the screen.
Lu Xingze gritted his teeth, his hand on his weapon. "Chenyuan! You can't gamble with her life!"
"Gamble?" Li Chenyuan's voice was glacial. "This isn't a gamble. It's trust."
"You're insane!"
"No," Gu Yu's projection interjected mockingly, "he simply understands her better than you do."
The two men glared at each other, sparks flying in the air, the situation explosive.
At this precise moment of extreme tension, Su Xiaolan's stomach chose to emit a highly inappropriate, loud, and sudden "GRROOWWL" …that echoed starkly in the dead silence.
The room fell utterly silent.
"..."
"???"
Her face flushed crimson. She pressed hard on her abdomen, muttering under her breath, "...Nervous reaction, can't a person get hungry?"
Wang Jing's eye twitched. He held it in for three seconds before finally, resignedly, pulling an energy bar from behind him and handing it over. "...Field rations, your highness."
Dead silence filled the control room. Several technicians lowered their heads, shoulders shaking unnaturally. The atmosphere, stretched to its breaking point, was ripped open by this absurd interlude.
However, the respite lasted only a moment.
New text flashed onto the screen:
[Anchor confirmed.]
[F.LK = Primary Anchor.]
The blood-red countdown went wild!
[00:30:00]
[00:29:59]
"What?! The time's been shortened!" Wang Jing yelled, aghast. "Only thirty minutes left!"
The pupil of the abyssal blue eye dilated abruptly. Its icy gaze pressed down like a physical weight.
Then, a new, chilling message appeared:
[The Fifth Witness has awakened.]
Su Xiaolan jolted violently. The chip bag in her hand crumbled to pieces.
The Fifth Witness…
She snapped her head up, meeting the gaze of the abyssal blue eye on the screen. A chill shot straight up her spine.
The abyss's true judgment was only just beginning.