'Boom—clang!'
The deafening drilling sound abruptly ceased, replaced by a deeper, more unsettling metallic tearing noise. The entire 'Ark' underground base shook violently, as if being shaken by a giant's fist! Piercing alarms blared instantly, red lights flashing wildly, illuminating the falling dust and twisted pipes in the corridor.
'The isolation wall in Sector B7 has been breached! It's the Purifier! It's inside!' Captain Zhao's hoarse, desperate shout echoed through the communication channel, only to be drowned out by a piercing energy screech and explosions!
On the screen, the red dot representing the Purifier had already breached the final physical defence line and invaded the edge of the living quarters! Its three-dimensional outline flashed across the surveillance feed—the streamlined spindle-shaped main body tore through the heavy alloy gates, while the vine-like energy patterns covering its surface wriggled and extended like living creatures, leaving behind sizzling deep green holes where the metal had been corroded. The massive plant-like suction cup at its front opened, spraying a viscous, emerald-green glowing energy slurry that instantly dissolved and assimilated several combatants attempting to block its path, along with their weapons, into bubbling deep green gel!
Repair rate: [84.9%]! The cold numbers continued to tick mercilessly.
'Dr. Lin! Hurry up and leave!' Assistant Xiaoli, pale-faced, tried to pull Lin Lu, who was still frantically pounding the control panel.
'Go?' Lin Lu suddenly looked up. The pale green veins on her left arm now glowed with an unprecedented brilliance, as if infused with energy, almost illuminating half of her pale, resolute face. Her eyes burned with a flame that seemed to consume her very life. 'Where should I go?! The key! Just a little more!' Her fingers blurred across the virtual keyboard. On the screen, the progress bar representing the core logic chain of the 'evaluation-correction' subprogram struggled upward, but a stubborn red barrier still stood between them and the complete unlocking of the activation port!
The Ark was wailing. The last embers of humanity were about to be consumed by the deep green purifying flames.
On the surface, Emerald Valley.
Once a paradise on earth, it now stands as a stubborn anomaly amidst the hellish landscape. Deep green vines cover most of the mountain walls, with twisted, semi-lignified 'human trees' dotted among them, their hollow eye sockets swaying with tender green buds. The air is thick with the scent of decaying plants and a sweet, fishy odour. Yet at the centre of this eroded valley, in a relatively flat area, a miracle is unfolding.
A crude yet vibrant 'lighthouse' stands tall.
Its base is made of fertile soil cleared from the area, mixed with collected humus. Above it, instead of cold concrete, there is a grid framework woven from vines and flexible branches. Within the framework, various plants grow in an orderly manner: fast-growing, cold-resistant vegetables cultivated from seeds preserved in deep bunkers; miniature rice seedlings nourished by a small-scale water circulation system formed by collecting rainwater and purifying streams; soil-less cultivation racks driven by discarded solar panels and wind turbines, covered in lush green vines; and even a few boxes of buzzing bees, busy among a few clumps of resilient wild chrysanthemums in bloom.
A few wisps of smoke rise gently from a makeshift stone-built stove nearby. A dozen or so survivors—Chen Yan's squad and the last few refugees they rescued in the valley—are working diligently and efficiently. Some tend to the crops, others maintain the equipment, and still others reinforce the makeshift defences—composed of sharpened wooden stakes and thorny vines—using collected materials.
There is no looting, no pollution. Only careful symbiosis, minimal extraction from the land, and maximum cultivation and integration.
Chen Yan stood beneath the makeshift signal tower at the centre of the 'lighthouse.' At the top of the signal tower, an energy core from the deep bunker operated steadily, continuously converting ecological data from the 'lighthouse' area—air composition, water quality, soil vitality, biodiversity indicators, energy cycle efficiency—into encrypted signals, transmitting them into the sky and deep into the earth.
He could barely stand. The skin around the injection site on his left arm had turned a necrotic purple, with excruciating pain and numbness spreading throughout his body like maggots gnawing at his bones. His right leg, the mutated one, had its bandages torn to shreds. Below the knee, the skin had completely transformed into deep brown, tree-bark-like texture, with cracks emitting a blinding green light, like lava flowing beneath rocks. Countless tiny, deep-green plant roots emerged from the cracks in his ankles and calves, deeply embedded in the moist soil beneath his feet. With each breath, he felt his consciousness being painfully pulled by the restless earth beneath him. A part of him was being assimilated and absorbed by this land.
'Yan Ge! The sensors are reacting! The valley entrance! High-energy reactions! It's... it's the Purifiers! Not just one!' The voice of the lookout team member carried a desperate cry.
Chen Yan suddenly looked up toward the valley entrance.
The deep green mist churned violently, like a boiling emerald sea. Three massive, streamlined metallic spindle-shaped silhouettes tore through the thick fog, like the sharp arrows of death, hovering above the valley entrance! Their massive plant-like suction cup mouths at the front lit up simultaneously,condensing a heart-stopping emerald green energy vortex within! Their target was the tiny 'ecological lighthouse' at the centre of the valley!
Repair rate: [84.99%]!
Chen Yan's pupils contracted to their limit! It was too late! Lin Lu's side... the Ark...
He looked down at his leg, deeply rooted in the soil and emitting an ominous green glow. A Crazy and decisive thoughts, like a bolt of lightning, split through his chaotic consciousness!
'Turn... turn the signal power... to maximum! Aim... at them!' Chen Yan's voice was hoarse and broken, almost using his last ounce of strength to roar. At the same time, he no longer resisted the cold, colossal will pulling him from the earth, but instead opened his tormented, struggling soul willingly and without reservation!
"Gaia—!!!" He summoned every ounce of his life force, roaring silently toward the sky, toward the earth, toward the three purifiers about to bring destruction. "Look! This is… the path… we have chosen!"
He used himself as a conduit, channeling the faint yet resilient symbiotic signal of the 'Lighthouse,' along with the last remnants of his soul's refusal to be destroyed and its quest for coexistence, through that mutated leg deeply rooted in the earth. He poured it back into the restless earth veins beneath his feet, into the cold planetary consciousness network, like a torrent, without reservation!
'Hum——!'
The energy vortexes at the tips of the three Purifiers reached their peak in an instant! Three destructive, steel-evaporating emerald green light columns, like divine punishment spears, tore through the air, carrying the aura of annihilation, and crashed down towards the centre of the valley!
Ark Core Laboratory.
The entire space shook violently, the ceiling cracked, and pipes spewed scalding steam and eerie deep green liquid. The piercing sound of metal twisting echoed like the death throes of a dying beast. The red dots indicating the Purifiers' positions had breached the final defence line, with only a thin alloy partition remaining between them and the laboratory's airtight door!
Lin Lu's fingertips left bloodstained marks on the control panel. On the screen, the stubborn red barrier finally showed a crack under the final ! But it was still one step away from being completely unlocked! She watched as Chen Yan's vital signs on the screen erupted with an unprecedented, chaotic, and powerful bioelectric peak, and then looked at the three Purifier light beams representing destruction...
Despair washed over her like a cold tide, overwhelming her in an instant. It was too late… everything was too late…
Just as the situation reached its climax!
"Dr. Lin! Connect… connect this!" A figure covered in blood, dragging a half-charred body, crawled in—it was technician Xiao Wang! With his last ounce of strength, he shoved a cracked yet still faintly glowing black data panel—the final fragment salvaged from the security database core by Lei Zhen's suicide squad moments before detonating their energy weapons—into Lin Lu's hands!
Lin Lu instinctively pressed the scorching-hot, blood-stained data panel into the main interface with all her might!