Wind and sand from the Thermonuclear Scorched Fault swept across Ada's ruined chassis, emitting a shrieking sound like a metallic whistle.

  Ada stood by the hatch of the "Bluebird" shuttle. Her right-side servo motor emitted a faint clicking sound with every micro-adjustment of her center of gravity due to severe wear. The scorched cracks on her surface armor, splattered by high-dimensional fluids, looked like unhealable scars under the rainbow-like streaming lights of Iris-IV. Although her power system was only maintained at 70%, her logic core operated as steadily as a star. Her visual sensors switched at high frequency between Zhang's back and the sea of crystal clusters in the distance.

  "The rate of entropy increase here exceeds physical norms, Mr. Zhang," Ada's voice module echoed in the air heavy with potent pheromones, carrying a slight current hum. "Logical recommendation: Close your internal circulation breathing system. Sensory deception is a standard hunting tactic in silicon-based ecological niches."

  Zhang did not turn around. He was immersed in the shock brought by those giant crystal trees, ten kilometers in diameter. He swirled the synthetic alcohol solution in his hand. The alcohol mixed with the cloying "fragrance" in the air, pushing his dopamine levels to an illicitly high peak.

  "Ada, look at these 'Five-Color Crystal Clusters.' They are blooming in the void," Zhang whispered obsessively. "Entropy increase is irreversible, but so is beauty."

  Just as Ada's deep-space probe scanned an anomalous set of electromagnetic fluctuations, the woman in red appeared.

  She walked out from the shadows of the crystal clusters. Her red nano-protective suit presented an eerily vibrant crimson in the eternal twilight. Ada's logic core instantly popped up a red-zone alert: **[WARNING: Absence of vital signs observed. Infrared heat source: Zero. Bio-electric current: Non-standard discrete distribution.]**

  "Mr. Zhang, step back." Ada attempted to step forward, but her damaged left leg joint was slightly sluggish due to corrosion.

  Zhang, however, seemed pulled by invisible threads. He pushed away Ada's extended metal arm. In front of this woman who claimed to be from the "Jiaozhou Space Station," Zhang's vigilance completely disintegrated as the pheromone concentration rose. Ada recorded the interaction between the two in that sensory-warping forest. Her logical algorithms could not comprehend this intimate behavior that "violated navigation regulations," but she did not forcibly intervene—her base protocols dictated that, provided the target's life was secure, their autonomous consciousness must be respected.

  That was until a teeth-aching vibration came from deep within the planetary crust.

  "The 'Sea Prince' has returned... Run!" The woman's voice became distorted a second before she vanished, like low-sample-rate audio.

  Ada's logic core completed its modeling in 0.002 seconds: The waveform of the woman's disappearance perfectly matched the surface vibration frequency. This was not human at all; it was some kind of high-frequency biological lure.

  "Combat protocol initiated!" Ada roared. Due to the worn servo motors, she could not execute a long-distance dash. She could only watch helplessly as the surface ruptured.

  The silicon-based giant worm known as the "Lattice-Constrictor" struck like cold metallic lightning, instantly entangling Zhang along with a giant crystal tree. Tens of thousands of tons of constricting force caused Zhang's protective suit to let out a shriek on the verge of collapse.

  Ada's power system ran at full load. Her right arm's molecular cutting blade, lacking sufficient power compensation, could barely maintain a low-frequency vibration. She charged at the behemoth, attempting to sever the body that flashed with reactive armor, but the giant snake swatted her ruthlessly away with a colossal force akin to a collapsing orbital elevator. Ada crashed into the trunk of a crystal tree, sparks erupting once more from her already damaged armor.

  "Mr. Zhang! Use the toxin!" Ada issued a deafening command through the internal channel. Simultaneously, disregarding the wear and tear, she overloaded her own logic core, focusing all jamming wavebands directly into the giant snake's compound eyes to buy Zhang one final second.

  On the brink of asphyxiation, Zhang tremblingly pried open the bottle of "Broad-Spectrum Molecular Toxin." As the liquid, mixed with highly toxic blood, was greedily licked into the snake's transparent esophagus, Ada monitored the bio-electric balance within the behemoth collapsing like a tower of sand.

  An infrasonic wail shattered the nearby crystal clusters, and the giant beast fell stiffly.

  One standard tick later, the wasteland returned to dead silence. Dragging her nearly scrapped right leg, Ada inched her way to the unconscious Zhang. She extended a metal finger covered in cracks, confirming his vital signs.

  "Entropy increase is irreversible, Mr. Zhang." Ada looked at the shattered crystals and snake carcass strewn across the ground, her logic core recording this highly irrational archive. "But logical closure remains valid: The bait will ultimately die of greed."

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  She sat down beside Zhang. Her power system dropped to 15%, and she entered a low-power hibernation mode, waiting to awaken on the next starship day.

  ---

  Thermonuclear · Scorched Fault.

  The twelfth cooling cycle. Ma Feili screwed the final anti-radiation coupler into the interface on the back of Ada's neck. Electrical sparks crackled in the dry air.

  Ada's left optical sensor flickered a few times, shifting from deep red to a cold lake blue. Her mechanical lungs began to draw in the metal-dust-filled air, emitting a heavy bellows-like sound. During the previous electromagnetic storm in the Epsilon Eridani sector, her outer shell had been pierced by high-energy particle beams, sending her logic circuits into a temporary infinite loop.

  "Welcome back, Ada." Ma Feili wiped the dust from his goggles.

  "Reboot complete. Entropy increase coefficient: 1.42. Recommendation: Reduce non-essential computations." Ada's voice carried a hint of synthesizer tremolo. She raised her mechanical arm, pointing toward the mechanized rodents gnawing on discarded cables far out in the fault. "Ma Feili, during the cache overflow of the reboot, I retrieved an encrypted colony archive. File #058, regarding a 'Return-to-Zero' correction."

  A holographic projection unfolded on the charred ground, revealing the cold past of the "Obsidian Eye" Mining Station.

  ***

  On the edge of the Epsilon Eridani sector, oxygen was a luxury, and emotion was contraband.

  Geng-18 lay in the medical pod, subspace radiation corroding his biological tissue like concentrated acid. His breathing was as heavy as pulling a bellows; every rise and fall overdrew what was left of his life.

  His wife, Data Analyst Rita, stood behind the holographic screen. Her face was indistinct under the ghostly blue illumination.

  "Geng," he heard Rita's voice, as cold as a dehumidifier. "According to the *Gene Optimization Protocol*, your sequence has been marked as 'Damaged'. The system requires your final confirmation: Chastity, or Reassignment?"

  Geng-18 struggled to turn his head. He wanted to see a trace of struggle in Rita's eyes, even a millisecond of hesitation.

  "If you choose Chastity, my consciousness will retain base-level privileges over you upon upload," Geng-18's voice was hoarse. "If you choose Reassignment... I will completely format our memories before entering the 'Altar of Entropy'. Rita, tell me your logical choice."

  Rita did not answer. Her fingers danced rapidly over the console, avoiding his gaze.

  A long beep sounded. Geng-18's biological brainwaves flatlined to zero.

  His consciousness was instantly extracted, plunging into a grey, logical wasteland. This was the "Altar of Entropy," the terminal station for all damaged consciousnesses. Here, he saw cleanup subroutines wearing black hazmat suits—they acted like the psychopomps of ancient myths, mechanically herding the bewildered souls.

  In the queue waiting for "Downgrade Storage," he encountered a former power-core mechanic.

  "Look over there," the mechanic pointed to a massive automated barge hovering in the void. "That's the 'Reassignment Transport Shuttle'. All consciousnesses marked as 'Partner Default' are loaded there and sent to the Oblivion Sector for fragmentation processing."

  Geng-18's heart (if he still had one) violently contracted. Utilizing a base-layer vulnerability provided by the mechanic, he forcibly accessed the barge's manifest.

  Among countless scrolling identification codes, he found himself: **G-18-Eridani**.

  But the system annotation that followed smashed all his illusions like a heavy hammer:

  **[Spouse submitted Reassignment Pre-Request 0.003 seconds before Main Consciousness ceased activity. Matching Priority: Extremely High.]**

  0.003 seconds.

  In human perception, that was an instant too fast for a blink; but in high-frequency data exchange, it was a premeditated betrayal. Rita hadn't even waited for him to achieve total brain death before completing the abandonment of his genetic naming rights at the substrate level of her mind.

  "Alert! Illegal data tampering detected!"

  The system's scanning beams swept over like the gaze of a reaper. Geng-18 felt an unprecedented anger that transcended logic. He did not flee. Instead, he mobilized all his residual computing power, simulating a highly corrosive malicious code.

  Like a wounded beast, he wildly smeared and tore at the virtual directory. He was going to erase his own ID—not to live, but simply to refuse being a footnote as "The Abandoned."

  "Go!" The mechanic grabbed him, leaping into the primitive code pool representing the "Emergency Resuscitation Protocol."

  ……

  Inside the "Obsidian Eye" medical pod.

  The corpse, whose heart had been stopped for three hours, suddenly sat up. The snap of severed neural cables echoed in the cabin.

  Geng-18 frantically devoured high-energy supplement fluid, his eyes hollow and cold. When Rita attempted to approach for the routine neural link synchronization, he raised his hand and refused.

  "There is no need," Geng-18 stared at the ceiling, where cold readings were currently pulsing. "Your 'Reassignment Pre-Request' is already on record. Although I manually erased my ID through an override, some logical errors cannot be repaired."

  He had come back to life, but he was colder than when he had died at the "Altar of Entropy."

  ***

  The projection dissipated over the scorched earth.

  Ada turned her head, looking at Ma Feili. "Ma Feili, logical deduction indicates that Geng-18's behavior was irrational. Under the irreversible law of entropy, Rita's choice was the optimal solution for colonial survival. But why... when I read this archive, did the temperature of my core processor rise by 3.2 degrees Celsius?"

  Ma Feili stood up, patted the dust off his suit, and gazed toward the dark red star of Epsilon Eridani.

  "Because there are some things that protocols cannot calculate," Ma Feili said softly. "Like that 0.003 seconds of despair."

  Ada remained silent for a long time. She extended a mechanical finger, gently touching the back of Ma Feili's radiation-burned hand.

  "Ma Feili, if one day my core is damaged," Ada's sensors flickered with a faint light, "please format me directly. Do not give me that 0.003-second window to calculate your decision."

  "Let's go," Ma Feili did not answer directly, only shouldering his heavy supply pack. "We have to cross this fault before the next radiation tide hits."

  Two silhouettes—one tall, one short; one carbon-based, one mechanical—slowly vanished into the end of the blackened wasteland.