In the core zone of the Thermonuclear Scorched Fault, the air was twisted into translucent ripples by polarized radiation.

  Ada's indicator lights flashed rhythmically amidst the dark red dust. Her slender yet sturdy mechanical hand gently pressed against the edge of Ma Feili's goggles, synchronizing a maximum-level anti-interference horizon for him.

  "Abnormal magnetic permeability detected, Ma Feili." Ada's voice was calm to the point of coldness, echoing clearly in the comms channel. "The energy node ahead is not vacant. It is maintaining a state of '**Ordered Entanglement**' under low entropy. According to the theorem of irreversible entropy, this order can only be achieved by exploiting other forms of energy... or consciousness."

  Guided by Ada, Ma Feili saw a solitary figure standing beneath the charred titanium alloy skeleton.

  It was **Yang**, the "Neurosurgeon" of this dead star sector. He wore no heavy anti-radiation suit, but a silver robe woven from nanofibers. Hanging at his waist was a row of "**Soul-Anchor Needles**" flashing with a cold, ghostly blue light.

  "Welcome to the Ruins of Olibus." Yang did not turn back; his fingers plucked at the void as if playing an invisible harp. "Miss Ada is correct. There is no life here, only 'Resources' polarized by the magnetic field."

  As Yang's voice fell, two massive, twisted shadows slowly rose from the darkness of the ruins.

  Ma Feili instinctively raised his plasma rifle, but Ada quickly reached out, pressing down on his barrel. "Do not fire, Ma Feili. They have no biological signatures, only the residue of electronic pain."

  The monster on the left stood four meters tall—a model of the long-extinct "**Long-Legs**" High-Altitude Operation Mech. At this moment, its four hydraulic legs twitched neurotically like an arthropod. Inside the cockpit rolled a cloud of ghostly green plasma. That was "**King Long-Legs**"—a mine foreman who died in a reactor leak three years ago.

  On the right was a bloated, spherical probe head connected to the wreckage of a heavy shield machine, emitting heavy mechanical gasps like bellows. that was "**Big-Head Li**."

  "They were once the finest workers on this scorched earth." Yang turned around, pinching a Soul-Anchor Needle between his fingertips, his eyes revealing a indifference bordering on divinity. "Now, they are my vanguard. In the torrent of entropy, I forcibly captured their fragmented neural signature codes using high-frequency pulses, locking them inside these scrapped industrial skeletons."

  "You imprisoned their deaths," Ma Feili said in a low voice, feeling a chill from the depths of the universe more piercing than the radiation.

  "No, I am utilizing '**Abandoned Resources**'." Yang scoffed coldly and casually threw a Soul-Anchor Needle.

  The needle pierced the air with a sharp hum. "King Long-Legs," who had been twitching madly due to program crashes, suddenly shuddered. Its modified laser scanners instantly locked onto the collapsed gate ahead. It emitted a trembling electronic synthesized sound, like an echo from a deep, dry well: "...Complying... with... directive..."

  "Big-Head Li" also lowered its massive crane arm, using its heavy body to smash through the radioactive debris blocking the way.

  "Clear the path for our guests." Yang issued the command, his tone leaving no room for doubt.

  Ada analyzed quickly in Ma Feili's ear: "According to the logic closed-loop deduction, Yang's behavior is the optimal solution in this extreme environment. Through artificial intervention, he has forcibly reversed the entropy increase process of these consciousness fragments. Although cruel, on this scorched earth, this is the only way to navigate."

  The group of three humans (and android) and two machines walked along the rusted conveyor pipes. King Long-Legs precisely sliced open twisted gates with high-energy cutting lasers, while Big-Head Li used high-frequency sonar to search for hidden automated sentry guns in the dark. Whenever the movements of these two Quantum Undead hesitated slightly, Yang would send a correction code via brainwaves. In those moments, Ma Feili could see the plasma spilling from the mechs' gaps fluctuating violently, as if the spirits were suffering invisible lashings.

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  When they finally arrived at Berthing Bay 3 and saw the shuttle blinking under the purple nebula, King Long-Legs and Big-Head Li stood quietly on the launch platform, like two silent, dilapidated tombstones.

  "Stand by. Until my signal covers this area again." Yang walked up the ramp, coldly dropping a final sentence.

  The shuttle sprayed a stream of bright blue ions, rushing into the deep vacuum. Ma Feili looked back through the porthole; those two tiny points of light still stood amidst the desolate ruins, waiting for the next painful cycle of enslavement and awakening.

  Ada stood beside Ma Feili, her core reactor running smoothly, her eyes reflecting the cold light of the starry sky.

  "Ma Feili, remember Yang's words," Ada said softly. "At the end of interstellar navigation, resources are the only morality. And consciousness... is merely the cheapest kind."

  ---

  The sky of the Thermonuclear Scorched Fault presented a sickly lead-gray hue. Ionized sparks excited by high-intensity radiation flashed silently at low altitude. Ma Feili stepped on the charred metallic rock strata, his boot soles making a dry friction sound.

  By his side, Ada's chassis reflected cold arcs of light. Her condition was excellent, logic core running at full power, her ghostly blue electronic eyes constantly scanning the movement trajectories of the mechanical rodents around them.

  "Non-directional broadcast remnant detected, Ma Feili." Ada's voice rang in the comms channel, steady and precise. "The signal source is the Cobalt Blue Wasteland of the **Kepler-186f System**. Due to abnormal fluctuations in local entropy laws, this underlying data named '**The Ghost Vector**' has been pushed to our receiving frequency."

  As Ada's fingertips lightly touched the void, a holographic image unfolded on the scorched earth—a story about a scavenger and a "Docked-Tail Black Horse."

  ***

  **[Archive File 299: The Living Blueprint]**

  Under the suffocating oxygen rationing of the Cobalt Blue Wasteland, the life of scavenger **Cui-7** was like his leaking thruster cabin—filled with the despair of imminent collapse. However, in that dust repeatedly ravaged by ionizing storms, a creation that defied logic appeared.

  It was a bio-mechanical vehicle, model "**Pulse Raider**." It resembled a silent beast, pitch-black throughout, its back covered in streamlined silver-white armor. Only its charred, twisted tail wing (spoiler) seemed out of place. It stood silent in the radiation dust. Whenever Cui-7 tried to approach, it would instantly collapse into the void like a quantum-state ghost.

  "It is 'blinking'." Ada analyzed the data stream. "This is not simple invisibility, but high-frequency spatial jumping. It is utilizing high-energy particles in the environment for self-reconstruction."

  When Cui-7, driven by despair, finally made a desperate bet and leaped into the vehicle's driver's seat, the connection sensation of the neural interface was not a cold mechanical coupling, but more like a biological pulsation. That "Horse" carried him across millions of kilometers of vacuum. It consumed no fuel, feeding directly on cosmic background radiation, like a trapped beast swimming upstream in the wasteland of entropy.

  Cui-7 arrived at the "**Sky Dome Hub**" and sold this mysterious vehicle to a greedy Governor for the high price of eight hundred energy crystal cores. He thought he had escaped poverty and danger, unaware that he had sold a segment of reality that could not be defined.

  A year later, when the vehicle lost control and crashed during a mission, and an Interstellar Colonel saw an ancient "**4D Particle Mapping**" on the wall of an abandoned research station, the truth finally seeped out from the cracks of logic.

  It was the posthumous work of the Digital Architect **Z-Ang**. The black and white mechanical creature in the blueprint, due to data corruption from age, had a cluster of charred pixel black holes at its tail—this was the exact source of the vehicle's charred tail wing in reality.

  "This was never a real physical entity." Ada turned off the holographic projection, and the sand of the scorched fault passed through the space where the image had been. "It is a '**Living Data**' algorithm left by Z-Ang. In a specific high-radiation environment, by capturing nano-particles, it forcibly '**Materialized**' a damaged segment of code."

  Ma Feili looked into the distance. In the depths of that desolate fault, a stream of black light seemed to flash by. "So, what Cui-7 sold was actually a logic loophole?"

  "You could understand it that way." Ada turned her head, complex calculation matrices flowing through her electronic eyes. "Under the law of irreversible entropy, any loss of information is permanent. But this 'Docked-Tail Horse' proves that even incomplete, burned-out code, as long as an observer grants it the logic of survival, can run eternally within the loopholes of the universe."

  She paused, her logic link showing a high degree of consistency. "Just like our current mission, Ma Feili. We utilize quantum undead as resources; essentially, we are also patching the increasingly collapsing blueprint of this universe."

  The mechanical rodents on the scorched earth let out sharp chirps. Ada put away her detector and walked ahead of Ma Feili once again, her steps as precise and determined as that Ghost Vector.