The wind and sand of the **Thermonuclear Scorched Fault** drummed against the alloy shell of the shelter, making a harsh, rustling sound. The air here was filled with the smell of ionization. Occasionally, a few mechanized rodents skipped across the surface, their metal shells reflecting a cold, hard light under the dim radiation clouds.

  Ada stood by Ma Feili's side, her pale blue optical sensors pulsing steadily in the darkness. After parsing Archive 303, her logic circuits were running surprisingly smoothly; a 100% health status made her look like a precision instrument fresh off the assembly line.

  "Archive 303 explained the 'Why,' while the following Archive 305 demonstrates the 'Process'." Ada's voice was steady, stirring faint echoes in the empty ruins. She raised her hand, shooting a few beams of coherent light from her fingertips, which wove into a holographic projection in mid-air.

  "This is a record left by Historian **Isaac V** in the '**Obsidian Edge**' mining sector."

  In the projection, the colors gradually became gloomy and deep. It was a world filled with neon afterimages and metallic rust—the "**New Constantinople**" Space Station.

  The image focused on a scavenger named **Kyle**. He dragged a heavy sampling staff, walking through a corridor filled with electromagnetic turbulence. Ma Feili saw a sudden, eerie sense of falling appear behind Kyle.

  "Watch his sampling staff," Ada reminded him softly.

  Under the dim emergency lights, a torso wearing an old-model spacesuit was hooked onto the head of the staff. It had no head; the severed neck was chillingly smooth. There was no blood, only nano-electrodes twitching constantly within phase fluctuations.

  "That is a '**Phase Echo**'," Ada analyzed. "According to the Automated Defense Matrix mentioned in Archive 303, when it attempts to reverse entropy increase, it forcibly grabs 'Material Samples' from the past in an attempt to reorganize them. However, due to coordinate drift, a severe logical collapse occurred during the reorganization process."

  The projection switched. At the "**Node Zero**" supply station, Ma Feili saw a hair-raising scene: a human head with eyes wide open fell from a ventilation duct. It even retained the consciousness it had in life; the eyes rolled, carrying a sorrow that transcended death.

  "It's looking for its body," Ma Feili said in a low voice, his throat somewhat dry.

  "No, it is looking for the definition of 'Existence'," Ada corrected. "This head 'folded' into the solid metal floor a few seconds later. This isn't passing through walls in a physical sense; rather, the spatial phase it occupies overlapped with reality. It's like a segment of corrupted code trying to insert itself into a hard drive sector that is already written full."

  The holographic projection finally froze on the terrified face of a young loader. In front of him, the head smiled eerily at him, then seeped into the deck like ice melting in boiling water.

  Ada turned off the projection, and the shelter returned to that suffocating faint orange-red glow.

  "Ma Feili, these 'Echoes' prove the madness of that Defense Matrix." Ada turned her head, her electronic eyes locking onto him. "It possesses no true ability to resurrect. It merely replays and shreds the remains of those unfortunates within the fissures of subspace. It attempts to ransom what is lost, but only produces a pile of broken geometric parts that cannot be reset."

  She paused, her logic core running at high speed. "Archive 305 is a warning. The Theorem of Irreversible Entropy is an absolute truth in our universe. Any attempt to reverse it will lead to this kind of cross-dimensional 'Phase Collapse.' We are not facing a Creator, but a lunatic with supreme administrative privileges struggling in a logical dead loop."

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  Ma Feili looked out the window. In the distance of the scorched fault, a faint spatial ripple flashed, as if something was trying to break out of the earth, only to be instantly smoothed over by the laws of reality.

  "We have to find its core before it turns us into 'Echoes' too." Ma Feili gripped the weapon in his hand tightly.

  Ada nodded, her figure appearing exceptionally clear amidst the radioactive dust. "My database is synchronized. Logic closed loop complete. Ready to depart at any time."

  ---

  The dark red halo of the Thermonuclear Scorched Fault penetrated the lead-sealed glass of the shelter, reflecting on Ada's flawless synthetic skin. She maintained a 100% health status. With a slight movement of her fingertips, the holographic projection of Archive 305 collapsed rapidly, replaced by a deep space record marked as "**Extreme Risk**"—Archive 315.

  "Ma Feili, if the 'Entropy Reversal Matrix' of Archive 303 is a theoretical forbidden zone, then this record is the blood debt left by that theory in reality." Ada's voice was steady, but appeared exceptionally cold against the background noise of high-intensity radiation. "It proves my deduction: The failure of high-dimensional reorganization produces not only 'Ghosts' but also 'Debt'."

  The light of the holographic projection suddenly turned a cold deep blue, taking the two to the **Gamma-92 Asteroid Mine**.

  **[Archive File 315: The Debt of Entropy]**

  It was the most desolate corner of the Virgo Edge, where absolute zero carved lethal ice flowers onto metal hulls. Scavenger **Mu-7** curled up in a leaking power armor; every breath was like swallowing broken glass.

  When "**Yu**" appeared, she looked like a nightmare born of a rendering error.

  "That is an extreme manifestation of a 'Phase Echo'." Ada pointed to the female entity in the projection, whose skin was charred black and whose face was twisted. "According to the logic of Archive 303, because she attempted to forcibly pour energy from a high dimension into a low dimension, it led to a collapse of local physical form. In Mu-7's eyes, she is a hideous monster; but on the physical level, she is a living specimen of entropy reversal."

  Mu-7 accepted the **Isotope Stable Core**. At that moment, he thought he had captured a miracle, unaware that he had merely signed a loan shark contract.

  As Ada narrated, the holographic images flowed rapidly. The dilapidated mine tunnel was reconstructed amidst the hum of nano-assemblers; robes made of liquid gold replaced rusty metal sheets. Mu-7 sank into luxury, yet felt a physiological revulsion when he saw Yu's face, ravaged by radiation and dimensional folding.

  "Humanity is always accustomed to accepting favors, yet cannot tolerate the source of the favor not being elegant enough," Ada commented, a trace of logical mockery in her eyes.

  When Mu-7 brought in an Exorcist from the "**Entropy Sect**," the logical closed loop began to tighten.

  "Watch closely, Ma Feili." Ada froze the image at the moment the Exorcist activated the Quantum Collapse Array. "He attempted to use low-dimensional logic to 'erase' a high-dimensional parasite. This in itself is a form of entropic arrogance."

  In the projection, Yu's figure did not dissipate within the interference field; instead, she became solid due to rage. Her raspy voice sounded like heavy metals colliding: "Did you think those cores were generated out of thin air? That was converted by consuming my dimensional lifespan!"

  "This is the '**Debt of Entropy**'," Ada explained. "The law of conservation of energy still applies in cross-dimensional interactions. The heat she gave Mu-7 was extracted from her own degree of order. Every kilowatt of electricity Mu-7 received was a piece of Yu's flesh and blood."

  The subsequent scenes became extremely gruesome.

  Gravity waves swept through. The Exorcist's bio-signal receiver was severed as if by an invisible blade, and blood turned into countless red beads in the zero-gravity state. The deep space station began to collapse, the originally orderly decor returning to chaos in the subspace storm.

  Finally, the image lingered on a grotesque creature named the "**Void Inspector**." It had a cat-like skull and a mechanical barbed tail, crouching at the head of Mu-7's bed.

  "Every time you breathe a mouthful of the oxygen I provided, it will tear a piece from your memory."

  Ada waved her hand to extinguish the projection, and silence returned to the shelter.

  "Mu-7's final madness was not due to fear, but because his cerebral cortex had been completely 'emptied' to pay off the negative entropy he could not afford to repay." Ada turned her head to look at Ma Feili. "This is the ultimate product of failed high-dimensional reorganization—a physical contract that cannot be violated. Ma Feili, in the Scorched Fault, no one can truly obtain free heat."

  Outside, the thermonuclear storm scraped across the surface, emitting a sharp whistle that sounded like the low growl of the monster in the archive.