**Thermonuclear Scorched Fault.**

  High-energy radiation ionized the atmosphere into an eerie pale purple, and the air was filled with the bitter taste of metal corroded by high heat. Ada stood on an exposed ridge of silicon-based rock, her shell refracting cold silver light under the intense ultraviolet rays.

  "Ma Feili, due to the 'Theorem of Irreversible Entropy,' this scorched earth, along with these mechanical rodents, will eventually collapse into meaningless particles." Ada turned her head, data streams pulsing steadily in her pupils. "But the fun part of logic is that variables always try to find an exit outside the closed loop. Just like the 'Han' recorded in **[Archive COLONY-ARCHIVE-226]**."

  Her voice pierced through the roar of the radiation storm, clearly spreading a picture of deep space within Ma Feili's neural link.

  ***

  **[Star Calendar 4195, Acheron Belt]**

  It was a mass grave on the edge of the Imperial map. Shattered asteroids, torn by subspace rifts, presented a twisted, dynamic desolation. Former Interstellar Surveyor **Old Liu** guarded the pressurized dome of Mining Station #77. He was like an obsolete processor forgotten by the era; his daily task was to stare at the discontinued synthetic liquor machine as it spat out cloudy isotope distillate.

  Until the man named **Han** appeared.

  That night, an ion storm was attempting to peel off the dome's lead shielding. The radar screen was dead silent, yet the airlock alarm screamed without warning. Old Liu opened the hatch and saw a man in a retro nano-hazmat suit walking in against the vacuum flow strong enough to tear metal.

  Han claimed to come from the "Shadow Rift," a gravitational dead zone from which not even light could escape.

  "In this dead starry sky, only you and I are sober souls." Han raised the isotope distillate he brought, his voice carrying an elegance that did not belong to this era.

  For the next few stellar months, the two drank together in the low-gravity environment. The liquor, emitting a strange fragrance, suspended into crystalline beads like miniature galaxies. Old Liu was shocked by Han's erudition—he could casually recite star map coordinates annihilated thousands of years ago and parse the most complex civilizational laws. In an era where resources were life, Han squandered the most expensive wealth: Information and Logic.

  "Brother Han, who exactly are you?" Old Liu asked while slightly tipsy. He couldn't find Han's ship code, and even the thermal imager couldn't capture Han's body temperature.

  Han put down his glass. His figure flickered slightly under the dome lights, like a projection with a bad signal. "I am not an entity of this dimension. I am a self-aware quantum waveband remaining in this asteroid belt. Old Liu, to use your old saying, I am a 'Subspace Spirit'."

  He smiled bitterly and pointed to his chest. "I have an old karmic link with you. I cannot bring you the Empire's energy blocks, but I will never harm you."

  Old Liu felt no fear. Having seen countless anomalies during the "Great Expedition," he read an ancient and sincere warmth in Han's eyes. It was a kind of "humanity" tightly wrapped in physical laws yet eager to break out of its cocoon.

  At the time, Old Liu was on the verge of genetic failure. Long-term cosmic radiation had completely locked his reproductive sequence. In this cruel era where "Genetic Continuation is Immortality," he was a logical chain destined to be broken.

  One night, Han's figure became nearly transparent, with severe digital tearing appearing at the edges.

  "My quantum entanglement state is about to disintegrate," Han's voice became ethereal, as if echoing from a deep well thousands of miles away. "Rather than scattering in the cold subspace, it is better to reincarnate into your bloodline. This is the final logical closed loop I can give you."

  "What are you doing?" Old Liu started up in shock.

  "Dimensional collapse is incomprehensible to non-linear organisms. Remember, after tonight, you will get what you want."

  Han walked toward the decompression chamber. His body disintegrated rapidly before Old Liu's eyes, turning into countless tiny specks of blue fluorescence. Ignoring the lead shielding, those points of light crashed madly into the dormant embryo monitor in the laboratory like a flock of homing migratory birds.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  That night, Old Liu dreamed of a massive light-sail ship crashing into his mind, with Han's voice exploding like thunder: *"I am here!"*

  Alarms blared. The originally necrotic fertilized egg, catalyzed by the quantum collapse effect, began a super-speed division that violated biology.

  The child was born. Old Liu named him **"Liu Liangcai"** (Bright Talent).

  When Liangcai grew up, he was a biological replica of Han. His stature was small to adapt to high gravity, and his thinking logic was as rigorous as an AI. Most strangely, he was born with the ability to sense the pulse of subspace. At twenty, he became the Empire's greatest interstellar navigator, yet the massive credit points he accumulated were never used for personal luxury.

  In the Acheron Belt, Liangcai established a space station named "**Foxshade**."

  There was no racial discrimination, no class exploitation. Any scavenger lost in deep space or bankrupt miner could receive a free portion of synthetic rations there. That space station became an unextinguished lighthouse in the dark universe.

  People said that Navigator Liu Liangcai had a human shell, but inside hid an ancient and zealous void soul.

  Within the cold law of "Entropy Increase," he forcibly carved out a private plot named "Chivalry."

  ***

  Ada finished the last word, and the storm of the scorched fault seemed to weaken slightly. She looked at Ma Feili, tapping her mechanical finger lightly on her core chassis.

  "Han chose to fall from the quantum state, resisting nothingness through biological continuation. This was his 'Nirvana'." Ada's logic link shimmered. "Ma Feili, the Law dictates death, but Logic allows us to reshape life through 'Transmission.' Do you understand?"

  ---

  The purple dust rolled up by the thermonuclear storm knocked against the battered porthole of the *Jackdaw*, making a dense rustling sound like raindrops.

  Ada stood beside Ma Feili. High-frequency pale blue data streams flowed through her pupils—the sign of system performance running at a 100% full load. Her logic link was flawless, injecting encrypted data titled **[The Gluttonous Feast of the Void Rift]** into the depths of Ma Feili's consciousness via neural interface in a full-sensory simulation.

  "Observe carefully, Ma Feili," Ada's voice was clear and cold in the consciousness space, without a trace of impurity. "Under the law of 'Irreversible Entropy,' perception is often the universe's most merciful deception to fragile carbon-based organisms."

  The simulation immediately spread out before Ma Feili's eyes.

  It was the Silent Abyss of the 4th Millennium, Planet K-186f. The surface here was shrouded in highly radioactive liquid ammonia fog. There was no trace of carbon-based green, only mechanical rodents gnawing on residual isotope batteries in rock crevices.

  **Li Haiduo**—an experienced Void Archeologist—was dragging his heavy power exoskeleton, stumbling through the purple gravel. Ma Feili could feel Li Haiduo's rapid breathing and the waves of dizziness in his brain caused by oxygen concentration fluctuations.

  "This is a sensory override," Ada commented.

  Ahead, a spire made of flowing bio-metal rose from the ground in the twilight, emitting a ghostly blue glow. Li Haiduo pushed open the door, and the originally lethal high-pressure environment miraculously transformed into a breathable nitrogen-oxygen mix.

  In the center of the hall, an absurd banquet was in progress.

  Several "humans" dressed in old-era clothing sat around a crystal round table. The leader, an old man, had semi-translucent skin, and nano-fluid shimmered in his eyeballs. He waved to Li Haiduo, the signal bypassing the cochlea and exploding directly in the neural center: *"Navigator from afar, drink this cup with us."*

  Li Haiduo sat down. Induced by both hypoxia and neurotoxins, he accepted the cup of "Vintage Brew."

  "Ma Feili, increase your taste filtration. The incoming data will be very rough," Ada warned.

  As the liquor went down his throat, Li Haiduo felt richness and sweetness. But Ma Feili, through Ada's filtration layer, smelled the pungent stench of coolant and excrement.

  "This wine... tastes a bit strange," Li Haiduo murmured.

  "This is the Essence of Supernova." The old man smiled stiffly, the arc of his mouth stretching beyond the physical limits of human facial muscles.

  Just as the revelry reached its peak, the gravitational field suddenly deflected violently.

  The gravel on the ground floated upward, violating physical laws. A massive shadow crossed the spatial rift—it was a head stretched to the limit, its face covered with dense sensor arrays, and a cooling tower standing on its head like a high-frequency antenna.

  *"The 'Gatekeeper' is back!"* The diners screamed, their bodies disintegrating like startled electron streams and drilling into the wall cracks.

  Terrified, Li Haiduo rolled into an energy pit and forcibly shut down all electronic signals.

  Time passed. The gravitational fluctuations subsided. When he crawled out again, the "Miracle" before him had turned to ash.

  The scene made Ma Feili feel a spasm in his stomach: The magnificent spire was merely a collapsed, rusted mine pump station; the ornate crystal round table was a waste barrel covered in toxic fungi; and those delicious dishes were the desiccated, rotting corpses of mutated reptiles with extra limbs.

  Li Haiduo rushed madly toward his ship. A line of glaring red text pulsed on his oxygen mask:

  **[WARNING: Neurotoxin concentration exceeded. Current sensory state: Severe Hallucination.]**

  The simulation ended.

  Ada turned her head to look at Ma Feili. On the ruins of this scorched fault, her figure appeared exceptionally solid and real.

  "This is the truth of entropy increase, Ma Feili." Ada extended a slender finger, pointing at the mechanical creatures wandering in the thermonuclear radiation. "Order is collapsing, and to maintain the logical closed loop, the system will not hesitate to fabricate the most magnificent lies. If one day I also smile at you and hand you fine wine, please be sure to check your sensor readings."

  Ma Feili looked at her, silent for a long time. On this scorched earth where even time seemed viscous, only Ada's perfect logic link was the anchor he could hold onto.