Silent Ark

Chapter 22: Daily Talk

The Decameron, Night Four: The Price of Cause and Effect

The CERN underground fortress was far from peaceful after the third night. A sudden crisis caught everyone off guard, leaving only a deathly silence after the crisis was over and the mixed smell of ozone and blood in the air.

Professor Chen Dunli was placed on a makeshift medical bed; his face was ashen, but his breathing was steady.

Dried bloodstains remained under Yao Chong's eyes and nose, and bioelectric patches were applied to their temples; their brains were still burning with pain.

In this incident, Yao Chong further awakened a certain "causal vision": he could see the logical chain and probability cloud between events, and was particularly good at tracing back the cause and effect and locating the "origin".

However, each use is accompanied by severe neuralgia and information overload, and seeing too many "possibilities" can lead to temporary cognitive disorder.

Liu Pan's "connected vision" was enhanced when he was tuned before the whale fall: he could not only see the connection between emotions and meaning, but also see the extension of these connections on the timeline - that is, how the "cause" grows into the "effect".

He is better at anticipating short-term emotional chain reactions. The cost is empathy overload, making him easily overwhelmed by the extreme emotions of others.

Fourth Night: The Roots of Gluttony and the Silent Redemption

The atmosphere inside the fortress was heavy.

Dr. Stark stood beside Chen Dunli's bed, his expression complex.

The old man's feat of stabilizing the quantum system with his own consciousness as an anchor shook the foundations of Stark's pure physicalism.

Shen Ruozhi was quickly analyzing the data of Chen Lao's consciousness signals that she had just recorded, trying to understand how "ordered thoughts" affect quantum states.

Elena was changing the cold compress towel for Professor Chen Dunli. She whispered, "The signal that Professor Chen just released... in the final spectrum analysis, has a frequency characteristic of 0.3 seconds that is completely consistent with the residual waveform of a certain 'background order frequency band' that we found in the 'malicious frequency band'..."

Rajeev: "What do you mean? Old Chen can use the 'Good Frequency'?"

Yao Chong rubbed his stinging eyes: "No... it wasn't using it. The teacher simply... his highly ordered consciousness structure briefly 'resonated' with a projection of that frequency band. Like a tuning fork that can stimulate air vibrations at a specific frequency. But the price he paid..."

Chen Dunli slightly opened his eyes, his voice weak but clear: "The price is... that this old bone of mine can 'see' the 'food chain' of those things more clearly."

Everyone held their breath.

Chen Dunli continued, pausing to catch his breath after every few words: "'Gluttony'... I sensed it. It's not about greedily taking without limit... but about dissolving 'difference' and 'boundaries.' Greed wants 'more,' gluttony wants 'everything mixed into porridge.'"

"Just now... when the quantum deadlock was about to collapse, I 'saw'... in a higher dimension, there was an... invisible 'mouth' 'licking' the 'ruins of order' created by the collapse of logic... It was feeding on the 'death of order'."

Liu Pan suddenly clutched his forehead, crouching down in anguish: "I... I saw it too. Those swallowed-up blocks on the ground... in the connected vision, they weren't destroyed, they were 'stirred up.' Different emotions, memories, and the original laws of physics... were all churned into a pot of chaotic, thick soup. That was... the 'Melting Devourer's' dining table!"

Despite the excruciating pain, Yao Chong focused his mind and activated his causal vision.

He looked outside the fortress at the distorted images coming through the monitors.

In his view, every area of ​​physical collapse extends countless gray-white, viscous "causal roots" that penetrate the earth's crust, atmosphere, and even the timeline, frantically sucking up the "structural differences" and "information gradients" that the area once had.

These roots eventually converge into an indescribable, probability-cloud-like colossal existence—one of the projections of the "Gluttonous Fusionist" in this dimension.

"It... uses the process of 'order turning into disorder' itself as its energy source." Yao Chong's voice trembled. "Every social tear, every collapse of consensus, every logical paradox... is preparing a feast for it. Our civilization, before it collapsed, was already its... breeding ground."

Stark's face turned ashen: "So, the more chaotic we are, the stronger it becomes?"

Shen Ruozhi pulled up a set of data: "It matches the model. The rate of global physical collapse and the curve of social trust index collapse show a non-linear positive correlation. And... look here."

She pointed to a secondary screen: "In the 17 minutes following the stabilization of the Chen Lao system, the rate of expansion of the 'large-scale indiscriminate mixing phenomenon' monitored globally, the surface feature of gluttony, decreased by 0.7%. Although slight, it is statistically significant."

"Because the teacher's actions briefly enhanced 'order'." Yao Chong looked at Chen Dunli, his eyes filled with admiration and worry.

Chen Dunli slowly shook his head: "It's a drop in the ocean... Moreover, I've attracted 'its' attention. I can feel... a 'gaze'... sweeping across from above. We're no longer protected by the water stains; we've been exposed."

As if to confirm this, the fortress's main energy readings suddenly began to fluctuate abnormally.

The lighting system flickers, and the holographic projection displays snow-like noise.

Shen Ruozhi: "It's external interference,... it's eroding the 'information orderliness' of our fortress. It's trying to dissolve our control system at the logical level!"

Rajeev: "Fight back! Like Old Chen, fight back with organized consciousness!"

Yao Chong and Liu Pan shouted at the same time, "No!"

Yao Chong: "The teacher's conscious signal was like a torch lit in the darkness, temporarily dispelling the beast, but also telling it our exact location and how to resist. Using the same method again will only attract more targeted devouring!"

Liu Pan: "I see... If we collectively launch a highly ordered consciousness now, within the connected vision, it will be like dropping a drop of clear water into a murky soup; it will instantly be entangled by the surrounding 'chaos' roots and dragged into the depths to dissolve!"

Stark: "What do we do then? Are we just going to sit here and wait to die?"

Yao Chong's causal vision was working frantically, searching for every possible branch of the future.

Among countless dark lines of death, he barely managed to catch a few faint, flickering glimmers of "lifeline".

Every path to survival points to a counterintuitive, even painful, choice.

"...Silence," Yao Chong said, emphasizing each word. "But not physical silence. It's a 'low-entropy' at the information level. It reduces the 'information emission' of our conscious activity to the outside world, especially reducing the 'structural contrast' of our collective consciousness field."

Shen Ruozhi: "What time is it? To put it simply..."

Yao Chong: "Stop arguing, stop strong emotional fluctuations, stop complicated logical deductions. Let our collective consciousness be as close as possible to... boring, calm, low-information 'background noise'. Don't offer 'difference', don't offer 'structure', let the 'devourers' think we're 'unpalatable' and 'not worth the effort to digest'."

Liu Pan's vision of connection validates this approach: "It's feasible... but requires extreme coordination. If any one of us experiences a strong emotion or thought, it will be as noticeable as ripples on a calm surface of water. We need... a collective, deliberately maintained 'mental numbness'."

Elena: "How is that even possible? The fear is there!"

Rajeev: "Moreover, if 'binge eating' is devouring all differences, then 'boredom' itself is a difference—our 'calm' will stand out more against the surrounding madness and chaos."

Yao Chong's causal vision was once again in agony; he saw the paradox that Rajeev had pointed out.

In most possible future scenarios, the deliberately maintained calm does indeed stand out like a candle flame in the night. But there is one extremely faint, almost invisible branch that points to another possibility…

"No... it's not 'calm'." Yao Chong's voice trembled with sudden enlightenment. "It's synchronization. Not a high-information, orderly synchronization, but a low-information, random, 'phase-in-phase' masquerade of external chaos. We need to disguise the 'spectral characteristics' of our consciousness field as part of the external chaos, like an octopus changing its skin color to blend into its environment."

Shen Ruozhi immediately created a model: "Theoretically... it's feasible. But it requires an artificial 'phase adjuster' to analyze the dominant frequency characteristics of the external chaotic field in real time and guide our brainwaves to resonate with it harmlessly and superficially. This requires..."

All eyes turned to Chen Dunli once again.

The old man shook his head slightly: "I... am no longer able to maintain this state. Moreover, my consciousness 'signatures' are too obvious; I'm already on the 'list'."

Dr. Stark suddenly stepped forward, his voice more resolute than ever before: "Use the spare quantum core of the 'Eye of the Abyss.' It was originally designed to synchronize particle motion. We can modify it and use it to synchronize our brainwaves—not to order, but to a disorder that 'matches' the external chaos."

Rajeev: "But who will be the 'guide'? Who will be responsible for interpreting the external chaotic field in real time and setting the synchronization parameters? This requires someone who can 'see' it."

Yao Chong and Liu Pan looked at each other.

They are the only two awakened beings who can directly "see" the structure and frequency of the external chaotic field.

"I'll do it," Yao Chong said. "My causal vision is better suited for analyzing structures. Liu Pan will assist, using connectivity vision to ensure that our internal connections are not negatively impacted by the chaotic field."

Liu Pan nodded, but said with concern, "But the guide's consciousness will be completely exposed to the erosion of the chaotic field. You might... be corrupted, or get lost in the endless turbulent currents of probability."

Yao Chong looked at Chen Dunli on the medical bed.

The teacher nodded slightly to him, her eyes filled with entrustment and farewell.

"There's no choice." Yao Chong walked towards the control panel. "Dr. Shen, Dr. Stark, reprogram the quantum core for me. Rajeev, prepare the brainwave synchronization array. Elena, prepare sedatives and life support. If I start to mutate... you know what to do."

Preparations were carried out under suffocating pressure.

Ten minutes later, Yao Chong sat in a chair connected by dozens of wires, with the modified quantum core transmitter above his head.

Liu Pan sat beside him, their hands clasped tightly, their visual abilities connected and complementary.

"Begin." Yao Chong closed his eyes, completely releasing his causal vision.

In an instant, he was thrown into an indescribable vortex of chaos.

Countless broken causes and effects, disordered logic, and mutually devouring probabilities swept over him like a raging galaxy.

He struggled to maintain a sliver of clarity, searching for the pulsating frequency of the "gluttonous" power within the chaos.

He "saw" it—it was a deep, slow "digestive rhythm," like the peristalsis of the universe's digestive system.

"Found the main frequency... Start synchronization..." Yao Chong issued the command with the last bit of his consciousness.

The quantum core activated, guiding the brainwaves of everyone within the fortress to simulate the pulsations of the external chaotic field in an extremely subtle, random, and low-information pattern.

In Liu Pan's connected vision, he saw the fortress's originally somewhat "orderly" halo of consciousness begin to blur and diffuse, its edges gradually dissolving from the boundary of the external chaotic field, like a drop of ink falling into a larger inkwell.

Externally, the pressure on the fortress to absorb information has visibly decreased.

Those grayish-white "gluttonous roots" lingered and probed outside the fortress, but eventually seemed to lose interest and slowly turned to other more "nutritious" targets.

Successful.

But Liu Pan's heart sank to the bottom.

In the connected vision, Yao Chong's halo of consciousness was rapidly dimming and becoming transparent, as if it were about to dissipate into the infinite chaotic background radiation.

His personal boundaries are being relentlessly diluted by the synchronization protocol.

"Zichong, you must stay true to yourself!" Liu Pan shouted in the consciousness connection.

Yao Chong did not respond.

His consciousness was standing on the edge of an eternal precipice: on one side, he could completely merge into chaos and become "nothingness"; on the other side, he could retreat into himself, but that would immediately expose his fortress.

Deep within his causal vision, amidst the endless turbulence of probability, he suddenly "saw" a faint yet resilient, golden chain of cause and effect.

The chain originated from Chen Dunli, passed through Stark's gradually changing beliefs, through Shen Ruozhi's data, through Rajev's calculations, through Elena's care, through Liu Pan's tightly clenched hand... and finally wrapped around his own "existence".

That is the cause and effect of responsibility and connection.

"I... have to come back." Yao Chong used his last bit of strength to "drag" himself back from the chaos little by little along the golden chain of cause and effect.

The synchronization protocol has ended.

Yao Chong slumped in his chair, blood flowing from his seven orifices, but his chest was still heaving. He was still alive, but had been corrupted by the high-level spiritual entity he had faced directly.

The fortress was saved.

But everyone knows that this is just a temporary disguise, and a crisis could come at any time.

From then on, Yao Chong's causal vision was shrouded in a chaotic shadow—he could no longer see pure cause and effect as clearly as before, and his "vision" was forever mixed with the background noise of "gluttony" digesting everything.

Lying on his sickbed, Chen Dunli mustered all his strength to say, "On the fourth night... we learned to disguise ourselves as stones on the edge of the abyss. But stones... are ultimately not a way out."

The fourth night was spent in feigned turbulence and quiet contemplation.