Her fingertips slid quickly across the screen, bringing up a detailed analysis of the data packets uploaded by Anvil City. Within the colorful, complex chart, two key curves representing "Effective Information Density" and "Coordinate Accuracy Confidence Interval" drooped helplessly below the red warning line like two dying fish, their tails twitching slightly.
Lin Mo's Adam's apple rolled, and a rusty, fishy smell filled his mouth. Rage burned like a red-hot iron, causing his internal organs to twitch. He knew better than anyone that Su Mu was telling the truth. The signing of the Convention had only temporarily silenced the fray with a piece of paper, but it had never truly eradicated the deep-seated suspicion and greed of the ruined world. Each faction viewed the data they held as their last trump card and bargaining chip, unwilling to share the real "gold" unless absolutely necessary. Like stingy misers, they desperately plundered the nutrients in the shared pool, only willing to throw away some tasteless, discarded scraps in exchange.
The platform, the "pillar of creation" that held the hopes of countless people and symbolized the rebirth of the ruins, is being hollowed out bit by bit by this distorted, mutually distrustful "sharing." It's like a patient suffering from severe anemia, receiving increasingly scarce and dilute blood, yet still having to support the operation of the entire ruined world. Every heartbeat feels labored, every breath carries the whistle of death.
"What about the resource dispatch team?" Lin Mo forced himself to calm down, his voice as low as if it had been polished on sandpaper. "How much margin can be squeezed out of the emergency plan?"
Su Mu shook her head, a slight movement that carried with it a sense of despair. "Our own reserve nodes... have been stretched to their limits. Any further, and the base's energy cycle, basic life support systems, and even the early warning response of the outer defense array will be directly affected." She pointed to several rapidly flashing red warning symbols in the corner of the light screen. "Look, the temperature control data stream from the 'Deep Well' underground farm has been below the safety threshold for three consecutive days, and the crop growth rate has dropped by 8%. The active detection beam of the outer sentry tower No. 3 has reduced its scanning frequency and accuracy by 30%, which means our monitoring blind spot is expanding. Lin Mo, this is already overdrawing the lifeline of the 'Ark' itself."
Overdrawing the lifeline. These words pierced Lin Mo's heart like an icy awl. The platform they had painstakingly built, the only link of hope in this ruined world, now resembled a greedy parasite, sucking the blood of its host, the Ark. A cold feeling of powerlessness, mixed with anger at the current predicament and anxiety about the unknown future, weighed heavily on his shoulders, almost suffocating him.
At this moment, a shrill alarm, like the last wail of a dying beast, tore through the oppressive atmosphere of the main control hall without any warning!
Woo-woo-woo!
Shrill! Sharp! With a sense of absolute terror, a sense of impending destruction!
The massive circular energy tank in the center of the console, which had been slowly eroding the grayish-white area, suddenly erupted with a glaring blood-red, a symbol of the system's imminent collapse! Like gushing magma, the crimson instantly devoured the pitiful, bright blue that remained! The entire energy ring flickered and trembled violently, as if it were about to explode completely in the next second!
Lin Mo and Su Mu's hearts felt as if they were being gripped by a giant, cold hand, their throats suddenly rising to their throats! Their pupils suddenly constricted, and their bodies instantly tensed, as if they had encountered the most deadly attack!
"Warning! Warning! The core data pool has reached critical mass! The shared platform is overloaded! Forced diversion has failed!" A cold, electronic voice announced the disaster without any emotion. "Data flow blockage rate is 97%! The basic communication link... is fusing!"
All the lights in the hall, including the tiny, previously steadily flickering dots representing countless access nodes, were suddenly snuffed out as if by an invisible hand! The room was plunged into a despairing, utter darkness! Only the blood-red alarm light on the main console, representing collapse, continued to flicker frantically and futilely, illuminating the instantly bleeding faces of Lin Mo and Su Mu like ghosts.
The darkness lasted less than half a second. The emergency light source emitted a low hum, its pale light struggling to brighten like the gasps of a dying man, barely illuminating the devastation. But even more terrifying than the darkness was the dead silence. The data stream, composed of countless tiny points of light, which had just flowed like a rushing river above the main control room, had now completely vanished. On the vast screen, the global network topology diagram representing the platform's connectivity—the once densely packed, fragile connections—was now pitch black! Only the solitary, faint light of the "Ark" node remained, flickering hopelessly in the boundless, dead blackness.
The sharing platform is paralyzed!
The bond that held together the last bit of hope for cooperation and reconstruction in the ruined world was completely broken amidst the piercing alarm!
"No!" Su Mu's voice trembled with disbelief. She rushed to the main console, her fingers white from exertion, and frantically tapped on the virtual keyboard, trying to activate any dormant link. "Impossible! Backup channel! Activate the backup channel! Quick!"
Lin Mo's reaction was even faster. Almost as soon as the alarm sounded, his vein-riddled hand had already slammed down on the emergency communication button. "All technical teams! Highest combat readiness response! Locate the source of the collapse! Immediately!" His roar, carried through the PA system, blasted through the deadly silence of the hall, which had just regained a glimmer of light, with a furious force that threatened to shatter all despair.
However, what responded to him was not the technical team's quick response report.
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