The system is four years ahead of schedule, but Weird is still a cub.

Ellie became the camp's exclusive "pharmacist," and her cabin was filled with bottles and jars containing ointments and liquids of various colors and scents.

Mo Ya became Shen Ge's little shadow, full of curiosity about the various exquisite gadgets Shen Ge made. She always followed behind him, trying to learn how to make sewing needles and fishhooks from tiny animal bones.

Looking at the thriving scene before him, Shen Ge felt a long-lost sense of satisfaction, different from his solitary battles.

He was not only accumulating strength for his own recovery, but also personally igniting a tiny spark of civilization in this unfamiliar world.

He knew that when he had to embark on the journey to the heart of the island again someday, what he would leave behind would no longer be a fragile family that needed his constant protection, but a resilient tribe with the ability to survive independently.

They will be his most reliable support and his warmest refuge on this strange land.

When life at the camp was completely on track and Kyle and Roca were able to skillfully deal with most of the threats in the outer jungle, Shen Ge knew that the time was ripe for him to go deep into the underground experimental base again.

The strange energy within his body, after continuous absorption and accumulation, had reached a bottleneck. The strange energy provided by low-level strange entities was now like a drop in the ocean for him.

He could sense that the system's repair progress was stuck at this bottleneck, and it was just one step away from unlocking more advanced functions. This step, however, had to be kicked open by higher-quality demonic energy.

Shen Ge told Alai her thoughts. Alai has now grown from a sister who needed to be protected into a calm and capable tribal leader.

She didn't say much, but simply helped Shen Ge assemble the lightweight armor made from the shell of the "stone beetle" and some simple magical equipment, and then stuffed a bag of smoked jerky and a can of fresh water into his backpack.

“We…we’re waiting for you,” she said, her voice now fluent but indistinct.

Shen Ge nodded and once again dived into the enormous abyss located beneath the heart of the island.

This time, he didn't linger too long in the abandoned production lines and sample storage areas on the periphery. Relying on his "Strange Eye's" keen perception of energy flow, he headed straight deeper into the underground base, towards the core of the "World Tree" mentioned in the logbook.

Passing through layers of labyrinthine metal tunnels, the stench of decay in the air grew increasingly heavy. This was clearly the core research area of ​​the base, its walls covered with even more complex pipes and cybernetic circuits. Although long since extinguished, their former precision and grandeur were still evident.

He pushed open a heavy, blast-proof door made of an unknown alloy, behind which was a huge, circular observation hall.

In the center of the hall was a massive, bottomless vertical shaft. Above the shaft was a completely dark circular array of countless holographic projection screens.

Shen Ge could imagine that thousands of years ago, this place was the "brain" of the entire base, with countless researchers standing here, looking down at the "miracle" deep in the shaft, while massive amounts of data scrolled across the screens.

Shen Ge walked to the edge of the shaft and looked down.

In the deep darkness, countless enormous, tree-root-like luminous structures could be vaguely seen, intertwined and stretching to the horizon. They seemed to be alive, their surfaces flowing with a faint, breathing energy.

Is this the core of the so-called "World Tree"?
It looked more like a huge, twisted energy parasite forcibly grafted onto the Earth. Just as Shen Ge was shocked by the scene before him, he caught a glimpse of something out of place in the corner of the observation hall.

It was a small, stand-alone ecological life support capsule.

Unlike the surrounding equipment, which was covered in dust and rust, the glass enclosure of this life support capsule remained remarkably clean, as if time had stood still. The indicator lights on the capsule were flashing a faint red light, signifying a "dormant" state.

Are there living creatures inside?
Shen Ge's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately became alert. He slowly approached and, through the glass cover, saw the scene inside.

Inside the life support pod lay a human dressed in a white lab coat. She had a thin face and her eyes were closed, as if she were simply asleep.

Her body was connected to various conduits and sensors, and the energy source for the life support capsule was an extremely fine energy root drawn from the depths of the shaft.

Shen Ge activated his "Strange Eyes" at full power. He could see that there was no strange energy reaction in the sleeping human body, but her vital signs were unusually "stable," so stable that she didn't seem like an "ancient person" who had lived for thousands of years. She looked like a researcher who had just entered the cabin to cooperate with some kind of research.

What made his scalp tingle even more was that he seemed to have seen this "face" somewhere before—the freak "Feather" from the Twelve Organizations?
No.

"Yu" is just a stand-in for "Ya", or rather, this person is... "Ya"?
On the person's chest was a badge. The badge depicted an open eye entwined by three twisted tentacles.

Shen Ge was somewhat unfamiliar with this pattern.

He might have seen it in some eccentric organization, or he might not, but this time, he remembered the mark perfectly.

Based on the information currently available, this "organization" created this so-called World Tree, and actually brought a dying world back to life.

A strange organization, Project Ark, man-made anomalies, and this researcher who has been asleep for thousands of years... they are all intricately connected.

Perhaps the two strange organizations of "Heavenly Stems" and "Twelve Earthly Branches" in this world did not fall apart, but instead created a new organization with this bizarre emblem, successfully achieving the future they had dreamed of in "reality"—"rebooting" the Earth and becoming the "gods" of the new world!
However, why there is only one "god" in front of us, and what the rest of the world is like, still needs time to explore.

Shen Ge did not rashly touch the life support pod. This person seemed to be the source of maintaining this "balance". Before his strength was restored, or before he found a way to leave this world, breaking this "balance" might not be a good idea.

Shen Ge began a thorough search of the hall, trying to find more clues about this person and the base. Finally, in a hidden compartment beneath the main control panel, he found a data logger, similar to a "black box," stored in a special metal box.

He tried for a long time but couldn't open the device. Finally, he found something that looked like a ghostly receiver on the base of the device.

Shen Ge carefully tried to inject the strange energy he had painstakingly accumulated into the interface of the recorder.

[Authentication failed for accessing the device, initiating emergency information disclosure protocol...] ​​A line of cold text lit up on a small screen on the recorder's surface. Immediately afterwards, fragmented images and sounds, accompanied by a highly distorted, static-filled screen, began to play:
The footage showed the same observation hall, but it was in complete chaos. Alarms blared, and countless researchers frantically operated the control panels.

An aged and desperate voice rang out: "...It has failed! The 'World Tree' cannot complete the 'coverage' of Earth's core. The energy backlash is underway, and the 'withering' is irreversible!"

The scene shifts to the perspective of the shaft, where the massive energy roots are trembling and collapsing violently, releasing terrifying energy storms.

Another calm but equally weary voice rang out: "...'The plan' has failed completely, and the fusion bodies are experiencing a large-scale rejection reaction... They cannot become qualified 'seeds'."

"Activate the final 'Ark' protocol, seal off the base, enter an extended hibernation period, deploy the last batch of 'Ecological Cyclists' to maintain the basic ecological environment of the surface, and preserve the last spark for 'Return'!"

“But Doctor, without the guidance of the ‘World Tree,’ the coordinates for ‘return’ will be lost, and we… may not be able to come back.”

“This is the only way…” The voice known as the Doctor carried endless sorrow and a hint of madness, “Believe in ‘He’…believe in our ‘God’…when the new ‘coordinates’ appear, ‘He’ will guide us…awaken us…”

In the scene, the researchers in the control room, led by the doctor, quickly retreated towards the core of the "World Tree," as if the "Ark" they mentioned was located there.

However, these people underestimated the terror of the energy storm. Before they could even get close to the World Tree, they were all swept into the energy storm.

The video ends abruptly here.

Seeing this, Shen Ge had a general understanding and guess about the situation of this underground research base.

The "reboot" of this world is not a true recovery. At least judging from the situation in this data core, the monster organization failed and died at the hands of the "World Tree" they were researching.

The so-called "World Tree" was actually a huge energy entity that attempted to replace the core of the Earth, but it failed.

The missing information about the "...plan" was that the monster organization was trying to create "new humans" who could adapt to the post-apocalyptic environment, or "batteries" to provide energy to the World Tree. This was the key to the failure of the entire plan.

It was precisely because the "battery" failed to achieve the expected results that the "World Tree" was unable to maintain its function, leading to the rampage of the energy storm.

However, due to the limited information available, Shen Ge could not make a complete deduction about the specific situation. But what he was certain of was that this group of people had failed to activate the final "Ark"!
They are all dead.

This means that Shen Ge might be able to leave the island, or even leave this world, and return to "reality" through this "ark"!
Shen Ge went down the passage from the control room to the lower level, arriving at the edge of the huge vertical shaft, his gaze fixed on the bottomless darkness.

Without the Crimson Mist Armor, he could only rely on the most primitive methods to get down there.

Shen Ge cut several strong alloy cables stripped from the control panel, securing one end firmly to the metal support in the observation hall, and tossing the other end straight into the deep well. Having done this, he gripped the cold cables with both hands and slowly descended.

The further it descended, the thicker the energy structures around it, which resembled tree roots, became, and the brighter the light flowing from their surfaces. Fortunately, these "roots" did not seem to have any intention to attack; they were simply mechanically maintaining their operation.

Shen Ge activated his "Strange Eyes," and under the faint, strange energy vision, the entire structure of the shaft was laid bare. He could clearly see the weak points of the energy roots and the gaps in the energy flow, which allowed him to accurately find footholds and safe descent routes within the complex structure.

After descending several hundred meters, he finally reached the bottom of the shaft.

This is a circular space several times larger than the observation hall above, more like an... underground harbor.

At the center of the space, wrapped in countless energy roots like layers of vines, is a quietly floating spaceship, full of sci-fi aesthetics!
It has a matte black color throughout, and its material is neither gold nor stone. Its surface is covered with smooth and powerful lines.

The ship's wings, resembling folded blades, extend from both sides, and its bow is sharp. Although covered by dust and dried biological tissue, it cannot conceal its former glory.

However, this "ark" was much smaller than he had imagined, only about a hundred meters long. It was more like a large interstellar warship, far smaller than Shen Ge's ark that was lost in the fragmented world.

Shen Ge walked around the base of the spaceship, raising his hand to touch the cold metal shell, feeling its material and craftsmanship, and observing how the hull was connected to the surrounding energy roots.

Initial surveys revealed no obvious main cabin door or gangway. The entire ship was a single, seamless piece, resembling a giant, polished obsidian stone, with all its seams fitting perfectly.

The ship is marked with the number "Zero", and it is in Chinese.

Shen Ge began to approach the hull, brushing away the thick dust with his hands, carefully searching for any possible entrances or external control panels.

Based on his past experience of destroying countless experimental bases of freak organizations, he knew that a creation of this caliber would inevitably have ports for emergency repairs or external intervention.

Sure enough, in a relatively hidden spot beneath the hull, he found an emergency repair hatch partially covered by several thick energy roots.

Next to the hatch is a built-in control panel, but it has long been completely darkened, and its surface is covered with a layer of calcification and corrosion left by thousands of years.

Shen Ge tried to clean off the corrosion and look for a manual opening device, but to no avail; the system seemed to have completely lost power. Having determined that it couldn't be opened by conventional means, Shen Ge took two steps back and re-examined the entire hatch structure.

His gaze eventually settled on a slightly raised structure in the center of the hatch, distinct from the surrounding smooth surface.

Based on his understanding of the organization's technical style, that was most likely the core of the energy lock, and also the most solid yet most crucial node in the entire structure.

Shen Ge judged that conventional brute force would not destroy the door; instead, it might trigger an unknown defense mechanism. (End of Chapter)