Thermonuclear · Scorched Fault.

  The air was permeated with the ozone scent of ionization, the dark red sky obscured by heavy radioactive dust. Only the occasional thermonuclear afterglow on the distant horizon proved that the planet's core was still desperately pulsing.

  Ada hovered silently beside Ma Feili. Her phase-shield dome was maintained at the lowest power consumption in transparent mode, like a watery thin film blocking lethal high-energy particles just centimeters away. Her evolved logic core was scanning the surrounding dry riverbed at a rate of trillions of times per second. There, only a few mechanized rodents were gnawing on rock layers containing metallic components.

  "Energy reserves 92%, environmental radiation level: Extremely high." Ada's voice sounded directly in Ma Feili's neural link, calm and steady. "Logic core has locked onto anomalous kinetic fluctuations at the three o'clock direction ahead. That is not a natural phenomenon; it is the characteristic frequency of a 'Death Resonance'."

  Ma Feili lowered the center of gravity on his exoskeleton and pushed open a rusted gravity tower hatch.

  On the edge of the Scorched Fault, the abandoned gravity tower resembled the broken fingers of a giant. This was a temporary refuge for scavengers. When Ma Feili and Ada pushed the door open, a man was sitting in the corner.

  He was Xing De, the most notorious kinetics expert on this scorched earth. His illegally modified six-barrel electromagnetic railgun rested on his knees, with residual arcs between the rails indicating it had just undergone high-frequency excitation. Xing De's eyes revealed the ruthless ferocity unique to lone wolves who had long survived in the "high-tech, low-life" underbelly, but at this moment, his fingers were trembling slightly.

  "Don't come any closer, unless you want to taste sub-second burst fire." Xing De warned hoarsely.

  Ada's compound eyes flickered once, instantly taking over the remaining monitoring circuits in the gravity tower. A holographic image was projected onto the cracked wall—it was the record of the battle Xing De had just experienced, one that could shatter his worldview.

  In the footage, on the northern circulation vent of this thermonuclear wasteland, Xing De had attempted to rob an old man who seemed frail and vulnerable. The old man wore an outdated anti-radiation suit, accompanied by an orderly with a neutron-state black ring on his fingertip.

  "That's the 'Glutton'." Ma Feili stared at the image, whispering.

  In the video, Xing De pulled the trigger. The kinetic rounds at five times the speed of sound pierced the dullness of the scorched earth, heading straight for the old man's forehead. However, the laws of physics underwent a bizarre deflection at that moment. The old man had no shield activated; he simply leaned back, his withered right foot's toes acting like two precise hydraulic clamps, precisely pinching in the void.

  *Clang!*

  The ammunition capable of piercing heavy armor was clamped tightly between his toes.

  "Logical analysis: Target's bio-energy level anomalous, skeletal density exceeds known carbon-based limits, suspected entropy-increase reversal entity." Ada rapidly parsed in Ma Feili's ear. "He is not defending; he is 'devouring' the kinetic energy."

  The subsequent footage was even more absurd. Xing De's desperate "Death Resonance" triple burst was casually deflected by the old man for two shots, and the last one was caught raw between his teeth. When the old man spat out the deformed round onto the ground, it emitted not a metallic clink, but a heavy, muffled sound as if matter itself was collapsing.

  Xing De broke down. He seized supplies from an official mining team and attempted to flee, but in the depths of the Scorched Fault, the orderly chased him down on a lame mechanical motorcycle.

  "What you've hunted, you must leave a bit to buy your life." The orderly's voice in the holographic record sounded hollow and terrifying.

  Xing De fired again. But the orderly merely removed the black ring from his finger root. Those black rings generated minute distortions in the gravity field, like micro black holes. He caught the rounds, jammed them into the ring's center, and with raw physical strength, hurled them back.

  It was a strike that defied the kinetic paradox. The projectiles, carrying gravitational howls, instantly shattered Xing De's railgun, turning his exoskeleton drive shaft into molecular-level ash along with it.

  "Reckless." In the final moments of the footage, the orderly performed an ancient void salute and vanished into the radiation fog.

  The holographic image extinguished.

  The gravity tower returned to dead silence. Xing De huddled in the shadows; his high-precision armament was now just a pile of scrap. On this wasteland adhering to the "entropy increase is irreversible" law, he had encountered true monsters—entities that treated entropy increase as sustenance and physical constants as playthings.

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  Ada retracted the monitoring access, her logic core completing a closure analysis.

  "Ma Feili, 'Glutton's' gravitational aftershock detected. They are moving toward the core zone of the fault." Ada turned her head, a blue light unique to high-energy monitoring mode flowing in her electronic eyes. "Recommendation: Maintain high-strength phase shielding. Our energy reserves are sufficient to support one close-range observation. In this collapsing world, such a 'paradox' may be the only key to higher dimensions."

  Ma Feili stood up, glanced at the devastated Xing De, and said nothing.

  They walked out of the gravity tower, greeted by the eternal, metallic-scented cold wind of the Scorched Fault. Ada's phase-shield dome expanded slightly, enveloping Ma Feili. Their figures gradually vanished into the distorted air refraction.

  -----

  Thermonuclear · Scorched Fault.

  The dark red glimmer cast a shadow on the side of Ada's face. She maintained high-energy monitoring standby mode, the ghostly blue halo emitted by her logic core oscillating slightly in the radiation-filled dust.

  "Ma Feili, energy reserves 92%, 'Kinetic Paradox' sample analysis has been offline backed up." Ada's voice was steady, carrying the cold sensation of an industrial precision instrument. "Damaged archive segment Story-104 logical reconstruction complete. Loading now."

  As her ocular sensors flickered, a memory from the Acheron Nebula slowly unfolded in the holographic projection, temporarily shrouding this barren scorched earth.

  ***

  **[Star Calendar Year 4022 · Acheron Nebula]**

  On the scale of deep space, resources are life, and the "Titan's Fist" minefield is the heaviest shackle on life.

  Weng-104 stood on a 2G gravity deck, his genetically enhanced skeleton emitting faint clicks under the pressure. It was an industrial imprint forcibly etched into biological evolution by humanity to adapt to the Great Migration era. His arms were twice as thick as an ordinary person's, capable of calibrating hydraulic pistons twisted by high temperatures with bare hands.

  His family had once been legends of the "Orbital Resonance Sphere," but that glory had long sunk into the bottomless abyss of the singularity with the collapse of the "Qiantang Gravity Gate" ten years ago.

  "The outdated 'Scavenger' shouldn't have entered Acheron." Ada's logical voice interjected in the archive narration. "That is the disorderly testing ground of the entropy increase law."

  Weng-104 piloted the spaceship through the purple electromagnetic storm. At night, the periodic light of the pulsar swept across the nebula's dust layer like searchlights in a slaughterhouse. It was then that he witnessed a scene defying physical common sense.

  Outside the ship's porthole, in the dead vacuum: no protective suits, no life-support systems. Several blurred figures were tumbling, leaping, stepping on condensed high-density electromagnetic waves as if treading invisible stairs in the void.

  They were playing soccer.

  The object called the "ball" emitted a chilling green light. Every collision triggered violent discharges within the nebula, as if tearing wounds in the void.

  Weng-104's pupils contracted sharply. From that group of figures, he captured a movement—micro-adjusting the center of gravity during impact to offset the reaction force. It was his father, missing for years.

  "Alert: Non-carbon-based life features detected, logical consistency deviation." Ada marked a red dot in the archive record.

  Weng-104 ignored the alarms from his exoskeleton and forcibly leaped into the void through the decompression chamber.

  "Father!" He roared in the comm channel, but the response was only the eternal silence of the cosmic background radiation.

  The old man's figure slowly turned his head. His skin had crystallized, presenting an eerie translucency, with glowing liquid xenon flowing in his veins instead of blood. He extended an invitation to Weng-104—a precise pass motion.

  The next few hours were a hyper-dimensional dynamics game. Weng-104 discovered that the "green ball" was some kind of floating bladder from a massive organism, filled with high-purity helium-3. And those competitors moved stiffly like mechanical arms, with blurred faces—like clumsy mimics from some advanced civilization.

  Until a dark matter stream swept in like a colossal wave, forcing the game to halt.

  His father grabbed Weng-104's mechanical arm. In that instant, the exoskeleton's sensors returned despairing data: the other's body temperature approached absolute zero.

  *"I did not die,"* his father's voice resonated directly in Weng-104's cerebral cortex—a low-frequency quantum resonance. *"We merely became collectibles of the 'Void Predators.' They feed on information and rhythm, and the aesthetic dynamics in this sport are the low-entropy snacks they rely on to survive."*

  His father pointed to the depths of the nebula. There, a "arm" several hundred kilometers long, composed of high-energy ion beams, was extending. It was the predator's hunting tentacle, attempting to reclaim its "pets."

  "Must sever the logical circuit." Ada analyzed. "Otherwise, both will be swallowed by entropy increase."

  Weng-104 activated all thrusters on his exoskeleton. The engines' roar could not propagate in vacuum, but the blue light of the high-frequency vibration cutter was sufficient to slice through the darkness. He swung the blade, severing that ion beam tentacle. In the final moment before the nebula was torn apart by gravity, he dragged his father into the "Scavenger."

  The jump drive overloaded, and the tearing sensation of spatial distortion ended everything.

  ***

  The holographic projection gradually dissipated, and the heat waves of the Scorched Fault assaulted once more.

  Ada turned her head, looking downward. In the fissures of the fault, several mechanized high-density rodents were attempting to gnaw on a discarded power conduit.

  "Archive ended." Ada summarized. "Weng-104 brought back a five-meter-long crystallized tissue during that escape—it was a remnant of the predator. And his father, due to the solidification of liquid xenon in his body, became a permanent ice sculpture after three standard hours."

  She lowered her head to look at her own hand armor, where complex energy circuits flowed similarly.

  "Completing the most perfect pass between the stars comes at the cost of completely deviating from carbon-based life forms. Ma Feili, is this logical closure... what humans call 'the price'?"

  Ada stood up, her 92% energy reserves keeping her at peak combat readiness, but her logic core seemed to still be repeatedly replaying that pass motion completed at absolute zero.