Chapter 162

Seventeen gray-white light pillars burned beneath the pallid sky, like reverse-flowing waterfalls. The source of the pillars was the offshore drilling platform—the steel island being devoured by rust and fading, now emitting its final, blinding light.

"They are accelerating the fading process." On Kaiwen's terminal, the vital-sign curve representing the drilling platform survivors was dropping vertically, but beside it appeared a new curve: "Memory purity concentration—soaring." Good heavens……They are actively stripping away the remaining human perception, compressing all memories into……

"Memory crystal core." Lin Shouzhuo closed his eyes, as if unable to bear looking at those data: "Aeo has recorded this technology: the early Selan civilization used it to preserve the consciousness of dying individuals. But the side effect is……the process is irreversible; after completion, only a pure information packet remains, with no 'self'."

The underground pipe organ suddenly sounded on its own—not played by Su Yu, but the organ's Resonance with the offshore light pillars. Seventeen light points appeared on the keys, each corresponding to a burning life.

Su Yu's chest-mounted seven-colored seed throbbed violently, and she 'heard' the final frequencies of the fading ones:

"I am Zhao Haisheng, lieutenant of the East Sea Fleet. Final memory: when my daughter was born, her little hand gripped my finger. Temperature: 37.2 degrees. Preserve."

"I am Wang Mei, engineer on the drilling platform. Final memory: during the stormy night, my husband repaired the antenna for me; the flashlight's light was like a lighthouse. Color: warm yellow. Preserve."

"I am Chen Shi, the platform cook. Final memory: cooking the last meal for the coworkers, their smiles when they said 'delicious'. Flavor: salty with a hint of sweet. Preserve."

…

Every voice was fading, but each 'preserve' was like a nail, driving the soon-to-dissipate memory into the crystal core.

Han Qing sat leaning against the rock wall, silvery white already covering his forehead. His breathing became extremely regular—18 times per minute, Selan standard. But he could still speak, his speech very slow, like rusted gears turning:

"Su Yu……they……are gathering materials for you……"

Su Yu knelt beside him, her hand pressing on his shoulder—touch icy cold, like touching a metal sculpture: 'I know.'

"Selan……cannot create……" Han Qing's eyes were still human eyes, only his pupils beginning to diffuse, "it is……'imperfect beauty'. They can only……create……the optimal solution."

He laboriously lifted his silvery right hand, tracing with his index finger on the gray-white ground—not writing, but drawing—a lopsided, asymmetrical star.

"Chen Mo……taught me……to draw this." Han Qing's voice grew flatter, "he said……a perfect star……five-fold symmetry. But children……draw stars……always crooked. That is……the living star."

After finishing the final stroke, his hand dropped.

The silvery spread reached his hairline.

The offshore light pillars began to extinguish.

One, two, three……like burnt-out candles. Each time a pillar extinguished, the corresponding light point on the organ flew into the pipe, turning into a tiny, seven-colored crystal core. The crystal cores arranged inside the pipes, like notes waiting to be played.

When the seventeenth light pillar went out, the drilling platform sank completely into gray-white—not a physical sinking, but an existential one: all traces of color, temperature, and sound reduced to zero. There now lay only a pallid geometric expanse, like a drawing erased by a rubber.

But the seventeen memory crystal cores had already been inlaid in the organ's core pipe.

Lin Shouzhuo walked to the organ, fingers trembling: 'These crystal cores……each contains a complete human memory bank, and they are unfiltered, raw memories with emotional warmth. Selan's database holds only 'effective information,' lacking……'

"No 'useless details.'" Su Yu continued. She stood up, the seven-colored seed on her chest beginning to take root—not downward, but upward, the roots growing along her blood vessels into her brain, linking with the frequencies of those crystal cores.

She saw: the feel of Zhao Haisheng's daughter's little hand, the halo of Wang Mei's flashlight beam, the extra spoonful of sugar Chen Shi added to that meal—these are deemed 'redundant data' in Selan's assessment, yet precisely this redundancy constitutes the thickness of memory.

"I want to use these crystal cores……" Su Yu's fingers hovered above the keys, "……to compose an Error Signal Symphony."

Suddenly, the underground space shook violently.

It was not from the sea, but from the direction of the Pure Land—Xiao Yu's communication cut in, the child's sobbing mixed with terror:

"Su Yu sister! That huge geometric shape in the sky……it, it is copying us! Copying the Pure Land!"

Kaiwen pulled up the image sent back from the synchronous orbit, and everyone gasped.

The massive geometric body beneath the assessment ship was projecting a holographic Pure Land model: every building, every path, every greenhouse was precisely replicated. Even the people inside—Xiao Yu, Zhou Yuanshan, other children—were scanned, modeled, and projected as moving points of light.

But the model was 'optimized': defensive works were adjusted to the best angle, greenhouses arranged in the most space-saving hexagons, people's movement routes planned as the shortest paths. The children's 'Seeder Game' was deleted, replaced by a more efficient 'Resource Classification Training'.

"Observation log: Earth civilization individual 'Xiao Yu' wastes an average of 23 minutes per day in the 'Seeder Game.' After optimization, that time could be used to study basic Selan math, with estimated efficiency increase of 19%."

A cold voice came from the orbit.

The 'Xiao Yu' point of light in the model began moving along the optimized path, like a pre-programmed electronic pet.

The real Xiao Yu screamed in front of the camera: 'That's not Xiao Yu! Xiao Yu climbs trees! Xiao Yu trips! Xiao Yu gets clothes dirty! That thing……that thing only walks in straight lines!'

Su Yu's finger pressed the first key.

Corresponding to Zhao Haisheng's crystal core.

The organ sounded—not a beautiful melody, but a chaotic, dissonant, even grating noise: an infant's wail, the roar of waves, metal friction, the hiss of a flashlight battery draining, and a muffled 'Daddy hold.'

The projection of the Selan geometric body suddenly stuttered.

The 'Zhao Haisheng light point' in the optimized model (it even assigned an ID to each virtual person in the model) stopped moving and began to tremble in place—not a program error, but a deeper conflict: this chaotic, inefficient, redundancy-filled sound was striking its logic core.

Because in the Selan database, concerning 'father' there are only the biological Definition and nurturing efficiency data, lacking 'heart-rate variation when an infant cries,' lacking 'longing mixed in the wave sound,' lacking 'love hidden in the flashlight's glow.'

They deleted the 'redundancy,' and also deleted the 'meaning.'

Su Yu pressed the second key.

Wang Mei's crystal core: the rainstorm night's rain sound, the antenna's static noise, her husband humming an off-key tune, plus the phrase 'Don't be afraid, I'm here.'

The third key.

The fourth.

…

Seventeen crystal cores, seventeen segments of chaotic, imperfect, filled with Error Signal human memory, resonating in the pipe organ, coalesced into a symphony the Selan civilization had never heard——

It is dissonant, yet true;

It is inefficient, yet vibrant;

It is full of redundancy, yet precisely this redundancy gives each note its warmth.

The assessment ship fell silent.

The projection of the massive geometric body began to flicker unstably, the optimized model like a screen with poor contact, showing lots of noise. Those light points with planned routes started to 'go the wrong way,' some spinning in place, some hitting walls, some motionless—they were simulating 'confusion,' a state that does not exist in Selan programming.

From the orbit came that cold voice, but this time its timbre revealed a clearly identifiable……anomalous fluctuation:

"Detected……abnormal information structure. Redundancy exceeds the threshold Selan civilization can tolerate……but……"

"The redundant part……is producing……unexpected Resonance with the core information."

"Under reevaluation."

Underground, Han Qing's silvery hue had already covered his crown.

Only the eyes remained.

He used his last human eyesight, looking at Su Yu, forcing a smile at the corner of his mouth: 'That piece of music... I heard it. Inside there was... the sound of Chen Mo repairing a motorcycle... a wrench falling to the ground... a clank.'

Su Yu knelt before him, tears falling onto his silver skin, yet they did not slide off—instead they were absorbed, turning into extremely fine, multicolored patterns on the silver surface.

'Han Qing...'

'Don't stop.' Han Qing's eyes began to turn silver, but he kept saying, 'Play on. Let those... cold stars... listen... to what... an out-of-tune song is.'

His eyes turned completely silver.

But in that final instant, within that silver eyeball, the multicolored seed on Su Yu's chest was reflected—and then, on the surface of the eyeball, a hairline crack, rainbow-colored and barely perceptible, split open.

It was not damage.

It was growth.