"The price?" Shen Qingli seemed to find the question amusing. The corners of her icy lips curved up once again, a barely perceptible arc. Her gaze grew sharper, fixed even more intently on Lin Mo, as if admiring an experimental subject that had suddenly revealed its intricate texture. "Survival always comes at a price. A slow death under gentle rules, or..." She paused slightly, a tiny, fiery light flashing in the depths of her silver-gray pupils, so fast it could have been an illusion. "Drawing strength from the very marrow of the ruins, crushing all obstacles, and establishing a new order that truly belongs to the strong. As for the target of public criticism?"
Her voice suddenly turned cold, with a kind of indifference that looked down on everything.
"When your power is enough to crush all arrows, who cares about the hostility of ants?"
Arrogant! Absolutely arrogant!
The conference room was deathly silent. Everyone was stunned by Shen Qingli's naked logic of power and the terrifying skills she displayed. Suddenly, an extremely powerful vine stretched out from the edge of the quagmire of despair, but it was covered with poisonous thorns!
Su Mu's expression shifted wildly. Clues to the Mother Project, the powerful "Siphon" technology, the hope of a platform reboot... all clashed fiercely with the immense danger posed by this mysterious woman, whose vision of radically overturning the existing order. She looked at Shen Qingli, then at the deep blue, almost living "Siphon" core model on the main screen, then at Lin Mo, whose face was ashen and eyes were filled with intense struggle... Finally, her gaze fixed on the shrunken but still visible image of the burning ruins of Hawkeye Outpost No. 3 in the corner of the main screen.
Mother...Hawkeye Three...a brand new mechanical beast...
A chill mixed with a strong determination surged in her heart. She had to know the truth! No matter what the cost!
"What do you need?" Su Mu suddenly spoke, her voice soft but remarkably clear, with a desperate calmness that instantly broke the suffocating silence. Her gaze passed Shen Qingli and went straight to Lin Mo, her eyes filled with unprecedented determination, even a hint of pleading. "Lin Mo, the platform must be restarted! We're running out of time! 'Siphon' is the only solution currently with the potential for quick results! Whatever the cost, we must try it! For the 'Ark', and for..." Her voice choked, and she stopped talking, but the way she clenched her brooch and the look she gave the outpost's screen said it all.
To find the truth behind my mother's disappearance! To avenge Hawkeye III's blood debt!
Lin Mo's body trembled violently. The resoluteness and deep-seated pain in Su Mu's eyes pierced his heart like a red-hot dagger. He saw her desperate resolve, but also the wound she had buried deep within, ripped open by this disaster. The platform collapsed, the outpost destroyed, clues to Su Mu's mother... The "siphon" protocol brought by Shen Qingli was a deadly poison, and at this moment, the only antidote!
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them again, all the struggle and anger in them was replaced by a cold, almost cruel determination. At this moment, the laws of survival in the ruined world were revealed to him in the most bloody way possible.
"Doctor Shen," Lin Mo's voice had returned to its usual calm, yet possessed a metallic, hard quality. His gaze met Shen Qingli's scrutinizing silver-gray eyes. "'Ark' needs to restart its platform. We are accepting...test access to the 'Data Siphon' protocol." He deliberately emphasized the word "test," leaving a glimmer of wiggle room. "Technical team, fully cooperate with Dr. Shen. The access point..." He paused, his gaze sweeping over Su Mu before finally making a decision. "It's located in the 'Deep Dive' laboratory in Area B7 on the bottom floor of the 'Pillar of Creation. Director Su, you will be responsible for the entire connection and coordination."
Su Mu's tense body relaxed slightly, a trace of gratitude and a more determined light flashed in his eyes, and he nodded vigorously: "I understand!"
Shen Qingli's face remained expressionless, as if she had anticipated Lin Mo's decision. She simply nodded slightly, her silver-gray gaze resting on Lin Mo's face for a moment, the scrutiny imbued in it deepening, as if assessing a precious specimen that had just passed its initial stress test.
"A wise choice, Commander." Her tone remained calm. "Time is precious. Now, to the lab."
Without looking at anyone, she turned around and walked straight towards the exit of the conference room with precise and rhythmic steps. Under the pale light, her back in the dark gray uniform looked like a cold and ruthless blade drawn from its sheath.
The "Deep Dive" laboratory is located at the bottom of the Pillar of Creation's hub, Area B7. The air here carries a chilly, sunless scent, a mixture of metallic coolant and ozone. Vast pipes, like the veins of a prehistoric beast, crisscross beneath the dome, rising over ten meters in height, emitting a low, ceaseless hum of energy. Pale shadowless lights illuminate a relatively empty area in the center, where several massive, hideous-looking server arrays, clad in thick armor, stand. This is part of the Pillar of Creation's physical core and the lifeblood of the Ark's own data network.
At this moment, the atmosphere in the core area of the laboratory was so solemn that water seemed to drip out.
Lin Mo, Su Mu, the senior professor from the technical team, and several core members formed a semicircle, all eyes fixed on the central control panel. Shen Qingli stood alone at the console, her back to the group. Her movements were so swift that they left afterimages, her fingers rapidly tapping, dialing, and connecting across the control panel, which was covered in complex interfaces and physical switches. She had brought a black metal box, the size of a suitcase, with faint blue energy patterns flowing across its surface. It had been opened, revealing a dazzlingly sophisticated structure within. Several thick cables, gleaming with data streams, extended from the box, automatically searching for interfaces like living things, and precisely piercing the physical ports of the core array of the "Pillar of Creation."
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