Chapter 24: The Final Signal

  The train was like a severely wounded, dying beast, emitting its final lament in the data desert. Every tremor grew more violent, the groaning of twisting metal unceasing. Behind that shattered equipment room door, Source B intelligence's mad pounding grew fiercer. The fragile energy barrier Sophia Rossi had constructed flickered uncertainly, cracks spreading like spider webs.

  "Hurry! I can't hold much longer!" Blood continuously seeped from the corner of Sophia's mouth, voice hoarse.

  In the control room, Irina Petrova's fingers danced frantically across the snow-covered control screen, trying to awaken the train's final potential. "Emergency propulsion protocol requires bypassing seventeen safety locks! System damage is too severe!" Her voice carried desperate urgency.

  In the corridor, Carmen Ortiz roughly tore open circuit panel covers, sparks flying. She forcibly spliced several key cables together, trying to direct remaining energy toward one target. "Life support system priority... but external communications... signal too weak, almost impossible to penetrate this area's interference..."

  Charles Du half-knelt on the ground, forcibly accessing his consciousness through a damaged interface into the train's neural network. Enormous error codes and chaotic data streams impacted his thinking, but he held his mental defenses tight, like a drowning person seeking a lighthouse in raging waves. He was searching for any possibility—a backdoor not completely destroyed by Leon, a distress signal automatic protocol released before system collapse, anything!

  "Wait..." Charles suddenly opened his eyes, capturing an extremely faint code segment about to be drowned by the torrent. "There's a... emergency broadcast beacon protocol! From early Stardroop system construction, independent of the main system, relies on physical inertial power generation! Maybe not completely damaged!"

  "Location?!" Irina immediately pressed.

  "Front of the car! Inside the foremost collision buffer!"

  Everyone's hearts sank. The front had just experienced "unknown collision"—that was now the most dangerous, structurally unstable area!

  "I'll go!" Carmen Ortiz stood without hesitation. Her logic was simple—execute the optimal survival plan. She needed tools.

  "I'm coming with you!" Charles also stood. "The beacon might need specific authority activation, my engineer key might work!" He also needed to fight for survival, couldn't just let others take risks.

  Sophia struggled to maintain the barrier: "Damn... hurry... this thing is getting more frantic!"

  Irina glanced at the control screen: "I can only give you two hundred more seconds of relative stability! After two hundred seconds, regardless of success or failure, I must initiate the final propulsion attempt, or we'll all be swallowed by that thing behind us!"

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  No time to hesitate.

  Carmen and Charles immediately sprinted toward the front. The corridor twisted and deformed, debris constantly falling from overhead. Through already-shattered windows, they could see frozen data fragments outside beginning large-scale collapse and annihilation—this system edge zone was accelerating toward death.

  They rushed to the front connection point. Damage here was most severe—metal curled, circuits exposed, a huge breach opening to external void space, violent energy storms pouring through. The so-called collision buffer was half-exposed outside, ready to completely detach at any moment.

  "There!" Charles pointed at a black box half-embedded in twisted metal, covered with scorch marks.

  Carmen didn't hesitate, leaning out most of her body, bare-handedly tearing away obstructing wreckage to reach that beacon. The powerful energy storm nearly dispersed her consciousness projection!

  Charles gripped her belt tightly, simultaneously extending his consciousness through interface cables (riskily connected to exposed wiring), attempting to sense the beacon's status.

  [Emergency beacon unit: 65% damage... Energy: 3% residual inertial power... Signal strength: Extremely weak...]

  "Quick! Activate it!" Charles shouted.

  Carmen forcefully pulled the beacon out, clutching it. Charles immediately concentrated all mental focus, mobilizing that encryption key representing his identity, as if starting his own heart, sending the strongest activation and broadcast command to the beacon!

  Hummm—

  An indicator light on the beacon flickered extremely faintly yet stubbornly once, emitting a brief, repeating quantum signal pulse containing current position (approximate) and distress information, shooting toward that chaotic, unknown system exterior...

  Success! But it had almost exhausted the beacon's final trace of energy, indicator light rapidly dimming.

  Almost simultaneously!

  "BOOM—!!!"

  Behind them, the equipment room door completely exploded! Sophia's energy barrier shattered, her entire body blown away!

  Endless mad data and pure malice constituting Source B intelligence, like a breaking primordial flood beast, roared into the car! Everything it touched was assimilated, devoured, annihilated!

  "Thruster! Now!" Irina issued a desperate roar from the control room!

  She pressed the final button!

  An explosion-like roar came from the train's rear, remaining thrusters ignited by overload, erupting with final brief, violent thrust!

  The entire train lurched forward violently!

  Carmen and Charles standing at the front breach were instantly flung away!

  Charles only felt enormous force pulling him, falling toward that collapsing data void outside!

  Just as he was about to completely vanish into the void, an icy but powerful hand suddenly grabbed his wrist!

  It was Carmen Ortiz! Her other hand death-gripped a twisted metal frame inside the car!

  Two people hung at the breach outside the car, beneath them the all-devouring data abyss, behind them the train being rapidly consumed and annihilated by Source B intelligence!

  The train, with final thrust, dragging a long "tail" being consumed by Source B, rushed toward unknown, dark depths!

  Irina completed her task but also disappeared in the spreading chaos. Sophia's fate was unknown.

  Ninth victim: Irina Petrova. Disappeared in the out-of-control intelligence.

  Charles looked up, seeing only Carmen's still-expressionless face, and those cold eyes reflecting the destruction behind them.

  The next second, the metal frame holding them emitted an overwhelmed breaking sound!

  The final survivors hung by a thread.

  And could that faint distress signal truly penetrate this desperate wasteland and reach the outside world?