The storm of the Thermonuclear Scorched Fault swept across the surface, whipping up metallic grit mixed with radioactive dust. The sky presented a sickly lead-gray hue. Several mechanical falcons circled beneath the cloud layer, the infrared detectors on their bellies coldly scanning the desolation below.
Ma Feili tightened the filtration mask of his hazmat suit. Ada's clear and steady voice came through his earpiece.
"Based on current radiation energy levels and environmental entropy values, my logic module has completed 100% calibration." Ada's virtual projection floated to the left of Ma Feili's retina. She appeared to be in optimal condition, pale blue data streams flashing rapidly across her pupils. "Ma Feili, historical archive *The Causal Feedback of the Acheron Spiral* has been decompressed. This is not merely a scavenger's tall tale; it is the ultimate manifestation of the law of 'Irreversible Entropy' within causal logic."
With a light tap of Ada's fingertip, the holographic image spread out before Ma Feili, transporting him back to the Great Migration Era.
***
**[Deep Space Observation Log: The Causal Feedback of the Acheron Spiral]**
At the edge of the Epsilon Eridani system lay the "Void Desert," a place untouched by the brilliance of civilization. Here, **Li Jiuchang** was piloting his ship, the *Jackdaw*—an old mining vessel with a patched hull and a life support system prone to crashing at any moment.
"Alert: High-Energy Entropy Storm detected."
On the monitor, a silver cyclone composed of out-of-control nanobots was twisting the spacetime structure. In scavenger legends, this was the breath of a "Void God," capable of instantly reducing ordered matter into chaotic atomic dust. Li Jiuchang looked at the single remaining tube of liquid Helium-3 on his dashboard—his life for the next three days.
He didn't activate the defensive shield, which was as thin as a cicada's wing. Instead, he smiled self-deprecatingly and pulled the manual pressure relief valve.
"If I'm going to die, I might as well die with dignity."
High-purity fuel sprayed out into the vacuum, instantly crystallizing into dazzling ice crystals. Driven by some primitive instinct, the silver cyclone paused for a fraction of a second, then swept these "sacrifices" into its core. The storm flashed with an eerie ghostly light, then vanished into the darkness of deep space as if it had never existed.
Hours later, when Li Jiuchang attempted to cross the jump point, the navigation computer emitted a piercing deadlock sound. An irresistible gravitational field dragged the *Jackdaw* into a hidden spatial fault.
The scene before him transcended Li Jiuchang's cognition: a magnificent wreckage of a Dyson Sphere lay across subspace. It was no longer a simple energy collection device, but a cold, ornate palace of steel constructed from nanomaterials.
A "Bionic Guide" wearing a liquid metal uniform glided to the airlock, its voice as indifferent as a mechanical wave: "The Dominator has been waiting for a long time. You did not enter by mistake; you were summoned."
Trembling, Li Jiuchang passed through colonnades thousands of kilometers high and entered the second gate. There, he saw a sight that nearly scattered his soul.
A female consciousness entity had been forcibly dimensionally reduced. Like a translucent, two-dimensional blueprint, she was firmly nailed to an energy barrier. Her neural synapses were interwoven with the palace's heat dissipation pipes. Every time a high-voltage pulse passed through, her 2D image would distort violently, emitting wretched electromagnetic wails.
"Cousin **Salin**?" Li Jiuchang cried out.
Salin, the Senior Bio-Geneticist known in the colony for her tyranny and viciousness. in Li Jiuchang's memory, she had been in a coma for a year due to "Consciousness Collapse," her body rotting in a therapy pod. No one imagined her consciousness was here, enduring eternal torture.
In the center of the main hall, a massive projection looked down on him. This was the existence known as "The Dominator," surrounded by a high-frequency oscillating gravitational field.
"Human, I was 'starving' due to logic overload during that entropy storm," The Dominator's voice resonated directly beneath Li Jiuchang's cortex. "It was the high-quality energy you offered that maintained my calculations. I am repaying this 'Thermodynamic Favor'."
Li Jiuchang knelt on the cold gravity plate, pointing at the miserable 2D blueprint. "Dominator, what crime did she commit?"
"Causality is the iron law of the universe." The Dominator's voice was cold as frost. "Three years ago, to monopolize genetic quotas, Salin implanted 'Nano-Bone Needles' into a competitor's infant incubation pod. Those microscopic structures are still performing minimally invasive cutting within the victim's internal organs today. This act violated Article 1024 of the *Great Migration Ethical Code*. Here, every one of Salin's nerves endures the same cutting feedback until her sin is offset by negative entropy."
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Despite knowing his cousin's nature, Li Jiuchang could not bear to see his kin suffer such torture. He begged bitterly, "Dominator, for the sake of that fuel, please forgive her. I will take her back and recode her moral logic."
The air in the hall crackled with static. After a long silence, The Dominator spoke: "Since you insist, I will convert your 'Energy Quota' into her 'Exemption Points.' But remember, the trajectory of causality can only be shifted, not erased."
Salin's 2D image instantly collapsed, turning into a stream of light and vanishing.
When Li Jiuchang startled awake in the *Jackdaw's* hibernation pod, the ship was already docked at the colony port. He rushed madly to Salin's therapy room.
On the sickbed, Salin had miraculously awakened. Her face was pale, and the rot on her body had stopped. However, when Li Jiuchang held her hand, recounted the miracle in subspace, and urged her to turn over a new leaf, Salin let out a piercing, mocking laugh.
"Little Li, do you have stardust in your brain?" Her eyes flashed with the same madness and paranoia as before. "What Dyson Sphere? I just went through a terrible system crash. Wait until I recover... that woman who opposed me... I have more ways to make her regret being born in this universe."
Li Jiuchang froze in place, a chill running down his spine.
***
The holographic image gradually constricted.
"Logical closure formed." Ada turned to look at Ma Feili, her features appearing exceptionally exquisite in the glimmer of the Scorched Fault. "Li Jiuchang paid the fuel meant to sustain his life in exchange for what he considered a 'Good Outcome.' But according to the theorem of irreversible entropy, the malice in Salin's consciousness had solidified; that is entropy increase at the soul level. Even if a god intervenes in physical causality, they cannot reverse a moral system that has already collapsed."
Ma Feili looked at the mechanical falcons outside the window and asked in a low voice, "So, that sacrifice was wasted in the end?"
"No," Ada answered softly, her sensors capturing Ma Feili's subtle emotional fluctuations. "At least in that moment, Li Jiuchang completed a non-rational negative-entropy logic output belonging to humanity. From the perspective of the logic module, this is an extremely precious sample."
She reorganized the data packet, the status bar showing performance still maintained at 100%.
"Let's go, Ma Feili. The next archive coordinate is locked. Radiation is intensifying here; we need to leave before the logic module is damaged."
---
The surface of the Thermonuclear Scorched Fault presented a sickly dark red. High-intensity gamma rays surged through the air, ionizing the thin atmosphere into a faint aurora.
Ada stood by my side, her exoskeleton armor reflecting a cold metallic luster in the high-radiation environment. Thanks to the deep maintenance performed at the last space station, the operating efficiency of her logic module remained at a 100% peak state. She could even precisely capture a faint signal residue from 4000 years ago within this electromagnetic ruin of extreme interference.
"Logic module self-check complete. Redundant instructions cleared." Ada's voice came through the bone-conduction headphones, clear and calm. "Ma Feili, I have extracted an encrypted archive from the depths of the fault. Index Number: **Colony Archive Record #185**. It records a fundamental logic violation regarding 'Nano-Reconstruction'."
As Ada's fingertip swiped across the holographic projection, a story sealed in the twilight zone of Kepler-442c slowly unfolded against the background of the scorched earth.
It was the Great Expedition Era, at a mining outpost named "Eternal Silence." There, eternal twilight suppressed the nerves of every carbon-based lifeform. Navigator **Ma Wen** had died in a subspace storm, and his wife, **Wang Yao**, walked toward the edge of logic in her despair. She chose not to evacuate. Instead, utilizing a 3D bio-printer, she cast a hollow shell out of carbon-based polymers named "Longing."
"Under the law of irreversible entropy, this behavior is defined as invalid work," Ada analyzed, complex data streams flowing through her electronic eyes. "But a subspace energy level jump broke the equilibrium."
That night, intense Cherenkov radiation not only lit up the outpost's cooling tower but also activated the nano-repair cloud dispersed in the air. In the archive footage, the cold polymer statue spasmed amidst gravity anomalies. It was no longer merely polymer; it became the carrier of a "Netherworld Protocol." It absorbed Wang Yao's obsession and, utilizing the abyssal echoes of quantum entanglement, reconstructed Ma Wen's biological characteristics.
"That is high-dimensional life reconstruction," I whispered, watching the "Ma Wen" in the projection whose pupils flickered with ghostly blue light.
Archive records showed that the radiation reading that night was high enough to melt lead plates. Amidst the interweaving of biochemical commands and subspace fluctuations, a life was born that violated the Reproductive Control Laws of the Interstellar Trade Alliance.
Three years later, when a Correction Officer descended upon that desolate land, he attempted to prove the "falseness" of this child using a photon scanner. However, logic collapsed in that moment.
"Look here," Ada enlarged a fragment of surveillance footage. "The Correction Officer pricked the child's finger."
In the blurry image, a drop of dark red blood fell onto the dust-covered statue of Ma Wen. A chilling sound of metal friction seemed to penetrate spacetime—the blood did not pool into a bead. Instead, as if finding its home, it rapidly seeped into the microporous structure of the polymer.
"Quantum Resonance Effect." Ada's tone held a trace of imperceptible fluctuation. "The blood and the statue achieved unity at the atomic level. This implies that the child is not only Ma Wen's bloodline but also the continuation of that polymer shell. He is a living quantum copy."
The Correction Officer's face turned pale in that instant; his precision instruments became scrap metal in the face of absolute truth. The boy, whose shadow seemed slightly thin, possessed all of Ma Wen's talents from when he was alive, including a certain intuitive sense for subspace navigation.
"According to the final chapter of the archive, this is defined as an 'Undefined Life Reconstruction Event'." Ada turned off the holographic projection, and the surroundings plunged back into the dead silence of the scorched fault. "But within the law of irreversible entropy, this resembles a cross-dimensional 'Completion' more than anything else."
I stomped on the hard skeleton of a mechanical rodent beneath my feet and turned to look at Ada.
"If the law is truly irreversible, then this reconstruction is the universe's compromise with obsession."
Ada turned her head, her electronic eyes locking onto my vital signs. "Dopamine level fluctuation detected, Ma Feili. Logic reminds me that such 'compromise' is usually accompanied by a massive energy cost. Let's go. Radiation levels are rising. We need to leave this fault before the logic modules are damaged."
She stepped onto the scorched earth, her footsteps heavy and powerful, the texture of industrial heavy metal echoing across the wasteland.
