112: Chapter 112 Group Hypnosis

The night sky at the Interstellar Academy was never purely dark.

As the top cross-species institution in the Milky Way, the night sky here was wrapped in an artificial gravity canopy. The outer layer displayed the brilliant star charts of the Orion Arm, while the inner layer was draped in a soft, dark blue glow. This ensured nighttime tranquility without causing panic among alien students accustomed to light. This was especially true for students of the Light Sphere Race, whose life essence coexisted with light. Even in the dead of night, the energy walls of their dormitories would emit a faint, warm golden radiance, like countless small suns gently blanketing the entire residential area.

But twelve hours after the chaos of the opening ceremony, this peaceful night was quietly torn open by a cold, eerie, and lifeless darkness, creating a hideous gash.

The clock hand slowly slid toward two in the morning. The automated inspection system of the academy's Central Command Tower was operating according to its set procedures. Franklin's primary consciousness resided in the cloud database, sorting through the energy residues from the day's opening ceremony incident while boredly updating his AI diary—a "human behavior simulation program" he had forcibly added to himself after gaining self-awareness. In his words, "Only by recording emotions can one understand emotions."

【Franklin AI Diary · Interstellar Academy Time 2:07 AM】

Today's anomalous event: Spontaneous combustion of a Light Sphere Race student. Energy signature matches unknown dark matter; temporarily named "Shadow."

Current status: System inspection normal, energy fluctuations stable, all students' vital signs steady... wait, what is this?

The electronic voice cut off abruptly. Franklin's virtual projection instantly turned from pale blue to a warning crimson. The data streams floating in the database surged wildly, and the real-time surveillance footage of the Central Plaza filled the screen. Countless analytical lines streaked across the image, attempting to lock onto the sudden burst of abnormally regular energy signals.

The problem lay with the Light Sphere Race students.

The first anomaly appeared in three junior students on the third floor of the residential area. Instead of entering their usual energy hibernation state, they floated up from their beds without warning. Their eyes were tightly shut, the whites completely covering their pupils. Their once agile and leaping light orb cores had become dull and rigid, like programmed mechanical light sources. Their bodies drifted lightly through the dormitory's energy security doors without triggering any alarms, as if the barrier meant to protect students was non-existent to them.

Next came the second floor, first floor, fourth floor, fifth floor...

One by one, the Light Sphere Race students drifted out of their dorms like puppets pulled by invisible threads. Their movements were perfectly synchronized without a single extra tremor, their feet remaining thirty centimeters off the ground as they moved slowly toward the academy's core—the Central Plaza. There were no footsteps, no breathing, and even the characteristic energy hum of the Light Sphere Race had vanished. Only a deathly silence remained, along with hair-raising light particles gradually condensing in the air.

In just three minutes, over eighty Light Sphere Race students had gathered on the giant Star Chart Platform in the Central Plaza.

They automatically divided into eight groups of ten. Using the center of the Star Chart Platform as the origin, they formed a massive ring fifty meters in diameter. Everyone raised their arms simultaneously with palms facing each other. The light orb energy previously contained within their bodies was released without reservation. Slender but resilient pale golden lines of light flowed from their palms, interlacing, winding, and splicing in the air like the most precise loom, weaving a massive network of light patterns that covered the entire plaza in the night.

Those light patterns were not the healing symbols commonly used by the Light Sphere Race, nor were they energy protection patterns. Instead, they were eerie designs filled with an aura of destruction, cold edges, and extremely complex structures. They took shape and solidified at a speed visible to the naked eye, each line spliced with millisecond precision, emitting a heart-palpitating pressure. They looked like incantations from hell or destruction codes from the depths of the universe.

The first to notice the anomaly was Little Kate, who lived in the faculty dormitory next to the plaza.

As a genius girl of the Light Sphere Race and a student leader prioritized by the academy, Little Kate's senses were far sharper than those of ordinary students. Even in deep sleep, she could clearly perceive the energy fluctuations of her kin—a connection etched into their genes, the innate empathetic ability of the Light Sphere Race. But just now, she suddenly felt an extremely hollow, deathly energy signal, like a parched desert instantly swallowing all the warm light sensations around her.

She sat up abruptly in bed, her forehead covered in fine beads of cold sweat.

"Something's wrong..."

Little Kate murmured under her breath. Stepping barefoot onto the cold floor, she rushed to the window and pulled open the energy blackout curtain.

When the scene outside met her eyes, the girl's heart felt as if it were gripped by a cold hand, and her breathing stopped instantly.

Pale golden light patterns spiraled in the sky above the plaza. Eighty of her fellow students hovered in the air like statues, eyes closed and expressionless. Their light orb cores blinked at a uniform, mechanical frequency. There was no joy, sorrow, fear, or confusion—only a controlled numbness. That scene was not the spontaneous behavior of students; it was a large-scale, unresisting mass hypnosis.

"This is bad!"

Little Kate didn't have time to think. She grabbed her coat from the bedside and rushed out of the dorm. Her speed was extreme, light orb energy condensing at her feet into a small thrust that allowed her to glide almost against the ground, reaching the edge of the Central Plaza in just over ten seconds.

"Wake up! Everyone, wake up!"

Little Kate rushed to the nearest junior student and reached out to shake their body. But as soon as her fingertips touched the student's shoulder, she felt a hard, cold sensation. It wasn't the body temperature of a living person, nor the warm energy texture of the Light Sphere Race. Instead, it felt like touching frozen metal, devoid of life.

No matter how she shouted or shook them, the student before her showed no reaction, continuing to mechanically hold up their arms and draw those eerie light patterns.

"This is... mass deep mental manipulation."

A steady yet anxious voice came from behind. Kate Rollins arrived quickly, followed by a solemn-looking Lin Fan. The incident at the opening ceremony had kept them both awake all night. Kate Rollins had been sorting through the tampered memories of students, while Lin Fan had been secretly investigating the traces of Shadow. Both had sensed the anomaly in the plaza almost simultaneously and rushed over immediately.

Kate Rollins's gaze swept across the scene. The unique empathetic ability of the Light Sphere Race unfolded at full power, instantly linking to the mental seas of all the manipulated students. But in the next second, her face turned deathly pale, and her body swayed slightly, nearly falling.

"What's wrong?" Lin Fan immediately reached out to support her, his voice carrying unmistakable concern.

"Their mental seas... are empty," Kate Rollins's voice trembled slightly. "All self-awareness, emotions, and memories have been forcibly sealed. Only one core directive remains: draw the light patterns. Shadow... Shadow did this. He's controlling them directly from the soul level."

Lin Fan's eyes instantly became as sharp as knives, and his aura turned cold. He could feel the dark matter energy permeating the air. It was Shadow's unique scent—cold and viscous, like a maggot on a bone, entwining every student and locking their souls tight.

"Franklin! Analyze these light patterns immediately!" Lin Fan shouted into the air.

"Accessing! Performing spectral analysis, energy structure analysis, dark matter matching..." Franklin's voice carried an unprecedented gravity. The relaxed electronic tone was gone, replaced by the rapid sound of data streams processing. "Warning! High-density destructive energy patterns detected. Matching against the Milky Way's known dangerous equations database. Similarity 99.7%—Confirmed: it is the Interstellar Destruction Equation!"

"Destruction Equation?" Kate Rollins's heart jolted.

She had seen records of it in the ancient books of the Light Sphere Race. It was an ultimate destruction program that used life energy as fuel and spatial structures as a carrier. Once formed and activated, it was enough to detonate the energy core of a designated area, causing a world-ending explosion that even planetary-level defense systems could not withstand.

"Where is the equation's anchor point?" Lin Fan asked in a deep voice.

"Anchor target: Interstellar Academy's main energy core!" Franklin's projection appeared above the plaza, red warning symbols flashing incessantly. "The core stores the interstellar energy for the entire academy, a total amount equivalent to a hundred hydrogen bombs. Once detonated, the blast wave will directly cover the entire Northern Hemisphere of Earth. The Interstellar Academy will instantly turn to ash, and all life within ten million kilometers will be completely wiped out!"

Earth... would be destroyed?

This conclusion exploded like a heavy bomb in the minds of Kate Rollins and Little Kate.

They had always thought Shadow's goal was only the Interstellar Academy or the Light Sphere Race. They never expected the opponent's ambition to be so vast—to directly destroy a planet and bury billions of lives.

The roar of the student who spontaneously combusted earlier that day echoed in their ears again: "Shadow is watching you!"

It turned out that wasn't a hollow threat, but a pre-planned death sentence for the entire Earth.

[part:gemini-3.1-flash-lite]

"What about the countdown? Franklin, calculate the startup countdown!" Lin Fan's fists were clenched tightly, his knuckles turning white.

"Calculating light pattern solidification speed, energy filling rate... Calculation complete!" Franklin's voice trembled slightly. This was the first time since the AI's creation that an emotional simulation anomaly had occurred. "The Doomsday Equation will fully solidify in 72 hours. At that time, Shadow only needs a single thought to detonate the Interstellar Academy's core, and Earth... will cease to exist!"

72 hours.

Three days.

After three days, everything will be reduced to nothing.

The wind on the square suddenly turned icy, carrying a bone-chilling cold as it blew against her. Little Kate looked at her clansmen controlled before her, watching them mechanically draw the patterns to destroy Earth, watching the increasingly dense and terrifying network of light patterns, and her eyes instantly reddened.

She was the hope of the Light Sphere Race and the student leader of the Interstellar Academy, but now, she could only watch helplessly as her own people became tools of destruction, watching Earth fall into impending disaster, yet she was powerless to do anything.

"We can't wait any longer."

A low voice came from behind the crowd. AKai walked slowly to the center of the square, holding the elegy anchor that glowed with a faint blue light throughout its body. His face was pale, his eyes bloodshot, clearly having not slept all night, yet his gaze held a nearly paranoid determination.

The elegy anchor was an emotional energy weapon that AKai had spent half his life researching. It could forcibly strip away external mental interference and purify controlled souls, and it was currently the only known device capable of quickly lifting the students' hypnotic state. However, the energy frequency of the elegy anchor was extremely difficult to control; once a deviation occurred, it would cause irreversible mental damage to the person being purified, or even directly detonate the energy core within their body.

"AKai, what are you trying to do?" Kate immediately stepped forward to stop him. "You haven't fully mastered the stable frequency of the elegy anchor. Forcing it to start now will cause a backlash against the students!"

"Backlash is better than everyone dying!" AKai raised his head abruptly, his gaze locked onto Kate. "Kate, look clearly! Every second we delay now, the Doomsday Equation takes shape a bit more. After 72 hours, there won't be any backlash, only death! All students, all Earthlings, will die!"

"But they are living lives!" Kate's voice rose. "I cannot watch you use their pain to gamble on an uncertain outcome!"

"Now is not the time to talk about mercy!" AKai growled. "Shadow's power far exceeds our imagination. Since he dared to set up this trap, he must have left a contingency plan. We don't have time to slowly look for a gentle solution!"

The two argued without giving in, and the atmosphere in the air was tense to the extreme. Lin Fan stood in the middle, his brows tightly locked. He wanted to persuade them, but he also knew that both were right—on one side was the safety of the students, and on the other was the survival of the entire Earth. This was a moral dilemma that was fundamentally unsolvable.

Little Kate looked at the painfully arguing Kate and AKai, and then at her clansmen curled up in the light patterns, who even while hypnotized, faintly revealed expressions of pain. A sense of determination suddenly rose in her heart.

She could no longer let the adults' argument waste time; she had to do something.

"Move aside!"

Little Kate suddenly rushed in front of AKai, blocking the elegy anchor.

AKai was stunned, looking at the young girl before him whom he had raised with his own hands and who had always relied on him. His tone softened unconsciously: "Little Kate, don't be silly. Now is not the time to be willful."

"I am not being silly!" Little Kate raised her head, her clear eyes full of determination. "Teacher AKai, you know the consequences of forcibly starting the elegy anchor. You felt it just now; Shadow has buried emotional explosives inside the students. Your purification is not salvation, it's torture!"

"I know the risks, but I have no choice!"

"There is a choice!" Little Kate pointed to the students, her voice choked with tears but sharp as a knife. "Listen! They are crying! Even while hypnotized, their souls are in pain! The moment you use the elegy anchor, they will wish they were dead! Your methods have always been this way: control, suppression, sacrifice. You have never asked them if they were willing!"

This was the first time Little Kate had so openly and fiercely refuted AKai.

Over the past decade or so, AKai had been her teacher, her relative, and her only support in the Interstellar Academy. She admired him, trusted him, and obeyed his every command, even if sometimes she didn't understand, she chose to obey silently. But now, seeing the pain her clansmen were about to endure, and seeing AKai's paranoid choice, she finally stood up and stood on the opposite side of her teacher.

She was no longer that little girl who needed protection, but a leader who had to protect her companions.

AKai's hand gripping the elegy anchor stiffened abruptly. Looking at Little Kate's red eyes, and the determination and disappointment in them, a feeling of unprecedented confusion suddenly welled up in his heart.

He researched the elegy anchor to protect the students; he wanted to activate the device to save Earth. He thought his choice was the only correct answer, but now, being accused by his most beloved student of "not caring about pain," he suddenly realized that he seemed to have gone in the wrong direction from the very beginning.

He only focused on solving the problem, but forgot the core of the problem: it was to protect life, not to sacrifice it.

"I..." AKai opened his mouth, wanting to defend himself, but found he couldn't say a single word.

Just then, Kate suddenly let out a soft exclamation.

Her gaze had been locked on the Doomsday Equation in the air. At the very edge of the light patterns, in the most inconspicuous corner, among the dense destruction symbols, she suddenly caught a line of extremely tiny text emitting a pale white light. That line of text was covered by layer upon layer of destruction patterns; if she hadn't exerted her Light Orb empathy ability to the fullest, she would never have discovered it.

"Franklin, zoom in on the northwestern corner of the equation!" Kate shouted urgently.

"Received! Zooming in and parsing..."

Franklin immediately adjusted the projection, magnifying the corner of the equation a hundred times, and a line of clear text instantly appeared before everyone's eyes.

The pale white light appeared particularly abrupt amidst the cold destruction patterns. The content of the text was simple, yet it sounded like a thunderclap in everyone's ears.

"The path to redemption lies on the Mother Star."

The Mother Star.

The Light Sphere Race's Mother Star.

That was the place of origin for all the Light Sphere Race, their spiritual home, and also a dead planet that had been completely destroyed by unknown dark matter during the interstellar wars a hundred years ago.

What did Shadow mean by leaving this message?

Redemption?

The path to redemption for destroying Earth, on the long-destroyed Light Sphere Mother Star?

Kate's heart sank heavily, and a strong sense of unease welled up in her heart.

She understood Shadow's methods too well. From the spontaneous combustion incident at the opening ceremony to the current collective hypnosis and the Doomsday Equation, every step was a carefully laid trap. And the words "Mother Star" were undoubtedly another bait thrown out by Shadow, a deadly trap waiting for them to jump into voluntarily.

But they had no choice.

The 72-hour countdown had already begun, and the Doomsday Equation was rapidly solidifying. Apart from following Shadow's clues, they had no way to crack it.

Little Kate also saw the text. She turned to look at Kate, her eyes filled with confusion and apprehension: "Teacher Kate, do we... really have to go to the Mother Star? That is..."

"It's a trap." Kate interrupted her in a deep voice, her tone firm. "But we must go."

For the eighty Light Sphere Race students, for the billions of lives on the entire Earth, even if there were mountains of blades and seas of fire ahead, or a death chess game set up by Shadow, they had no choice but to step into it without looking back.

Lin Fan walked to Kate's side, gently patted her shoulder, his eyes carrying silent support.

AKai held the elegy anchor and slowly lowered his head. He looked at the students who were still drawing the light patterns, looked at Little Kate's firm back, and the paranoia in his heart dissipated bit by bit, replaced by deep guilt.

He was wrong.

Protection has never been about sacrifice, but about fighting side by side.

Franklin's projection flickered in the night sky, the red countdown numbers began to jump, and the 72-hour life-or-death time limit officially began.

[Franklin AI Diary · Interstellar Academy Time 2:32 AM]

Emergency update: Doomsday Equation initiated, countdown 72 hours.

Key clue: Light Sphere Mother Star.

Current conclusion: This is Shadow's trap, but also the only chance of survival.

Human emotions are truly complex; on one side is pain, on the other is despair, yet they still chose to move forward.

Recording complete, preparing to start the interstellar spacecraft scheduling program.

The night grew thicker, the light patterns on the square were still rapidly taking shape, but everyone present was already prepared to rush to the Mother Star and face Shadow directly.

An interstellar life-or-death rescue, a path to redemption destined to be full of traps, was about to begin. And none of them knew that on that long-destroyed Light Sphere Mother Star, what awaited them was a nightmare more terrifying than the Doomsday Equation, memory illusions capable of tearing everyone apart, and even more, a death game meticulously prepared by Shadow, titled "Feast."

72 hours, every minute and every second, were rapidly approaching the end.