"Administrator Li Mei," Xiao Bo's voice crackled through the comm, cutting through the low hum of the command center. "The readings from Hanyu's team… they're deteriorating. The Key of Connection is pulsing, generating a massive energy signature. We're losing coherent data, but Hanyu just sent a burst." Li Mei gripped the edge of her console, her knuckles white. Vance stood beside her, his face a grim mask, watching the holographic display of the ruins, now a swirling vortex of blue energy. "What did she say, Xiao Bo? Get me everything." "It was fragmented," Xiao Bo replied, his voice strained, a cacophony of frantic keyboard clicks in the background. "But she was clear about one thing: the artifact, the Key of Connection, it's designed to open a portal. She said... 'It's a gateway to the void, Li Mei. They're going to open it.'" A chill snaked down Li Mei’s spine, colder than the sterile air of the command center. A portal. Not just an e

"CLEANSING?" Li Mei’s voice, amplified by the command center’s systems, echoed through the ruins, a stark contrast to the Overseer’s chilling calm. Her knuckles were white against the console, her gaze locked on the holographic feed of Hanyu, suspended by pulsing blue energy chains, a prisoner of light. "You call genocide 'cleansing'? You call wiping out an entire species 'resetting parameters'?"The Overseer’s geometric form shimmered, absorbing the ambient light. "Such emotional responses are indicative of the anomaly. Humanity's defining characteristic is its inability to adhere to design. It corrupts. It decays. This world was an experiment. The experiment has failed.""Failed?" Vance’s voice boomed from beside Li Mei, a raw, furious edge to it. "We survived a planet-wide cataclysm. We rebuilt. We adapted. We’ve forged a new path, not just surviving, but thriving.""Survival without purpose is stagnation," the Overseer countered, its voice a deep, reso