The boat shuddered slightly and came to a stop.

Chen Hao unbuckled his seatbelt and stretched his stiff shoulders. "Are we at the shore?"

“Anchor secured.” Nana stood at the hatch, a flash of blue light in her pupils. “External environment detection complete. Surface stable. No immediate threat.”

"Then I'd better go down and check it carefully." Chen Hao stood up, leaning against the wall, his legs a little numb. He patted his stomach and said to the others, "Who wants to go first? I'm afraid this island is an illusion, and I'll step into the sea."

“You’re too heavy to sink.” Carl leaned against the control panel, his hand still throbbing. “If you really fall, you’ll drag us all down with you.”

"Thanks for the compliment on my physique," Chen Hao grinned. "Susan, is there enough oxygen?"

“That’s enough for three hours.” She checked her backpack. “But we can’t delay any longer. If we don’t turn on the external air circulation soon, breathing will become increasingly difficult.”

"Then let's not talk about it anymore." Chen Hao opened the cabin door. "Everyone, disembark and get on land safely."

The wind was light outside, and the air was damp and chilly. The island was small; you could see its end at a glance. The ground was made of grayish-white rocks, devoid of vegetation and animal tracks. In the distance, the sea remained shrouded in fog, like a veil that hadn't been lifted.

Carl jumped down with his tool bag on his back, slipped and almost fell. "This ground is fucking slippery, like ice."

"Did you go crazy from pulling the iron plate just now?" Chen Hao reached out and steadied him. "It's nothing serious."

“You try pulling it out.” Carl rubbed his wrist. “That thing is stuck in the mud, and the suction is tighter than a first love.”

"Enough with the nonsense." Susan got down from the back and looked around. "Let's set up a shelter first. We need to get the equipment in place before the sun comes up."

Nana was the last to step onto the ground. The machine vibrated slightly, as if it were adapting to the new environment. She walked to a slightly higher rock, closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them again, the blue light was dimmer. "Low power monitoring activated. No life signals within 200 meters, heat source normal, electromagnetic fluctuations weak."

"Are you alright?" Chen Hao asked her. "You've been calculating the whole time, don't let it suddenly crash."

“It can run,” she said, “but I recommend putting it into hibernation every four hours, otherwise the system may crash.”

"Okay, I'll listen to you." Chen Hao looked up at the sky. "We can't even see the sun in this godforsaken place. We can only rely on you to tell us the time."

They unloaded the insulation panels they had salvaged from the ship, secured them with ropes between several rocks, and built a makeshift shelter. Though rudimentary, it provided some shelter from the wind. Carl sat inside, opened his toolbox, and took out the metal plate they had hauled back from the seabed.

“Come on, let’s see whose lost child you are.” He used pliers to peel away the surface deposits little by little.

Susan handed him a small knife. "Be careful, don't cut yourself."

“This isn’t the first time I’ve taken things apart,” Carl said, busy with his work. “I even came back alive after taking apart a reactor last time.”

“We almost exploded like fireworks that time.” Chen Hao squatted down next to him. “Do you remember? You said ‘just turn it once,’ and the whole alarm went off.”

“That’s because the instruction manual is in Russian,” Karl muttered.

"There are no words on it now," Chen Hao said, pointing to the black surface. "It's all covered up."

A few minutes later, a nameplate appeared on the edge. Karl wiped it with his sleeve and read aloud: "Deep-sea scientific expedition... Type 3 sensor array... Number... Can't see clearly."

“Scientific research equipment?” Susan leaned closer. “That means someone has been here before.”

“They’ve not only been here.” Chen Hao touched the metal piece. “They also set up a monitoring network in this area. This isn’t just some random piece of trash; it’s something used in a legitimate project.”

“And it won’t be long.” Carl flipped it over. “It’s severely corroded, but the structure isn’t completely rotten. At most, it’ll be a decade or so.”

Nana walked over and lightly touched the chip interface with her finger. "I can try to read the remaining data, but I need a stable power supply and interference shielding."

“There are spare batteries on board,” Chen Hao said. “I’ll take them down for you to use.”

“No need,” she said. “We can use the existing resources. I will reduce the computing frequency to save energy.”

She flicked a thin thread from her wrist and inserted it into an interface on the side of the metal plate. She closed her eyes, and blue light swirled rapidly beneath her eyelids.

"Recovery has begun," she said. "It is expected to take three hours."

"So long?" Karl leaned back against the wall. "I thought robots could be cracked in seconds."

"Insufficient power," she opened her eyes. "It's like running on an empty stomach; you can't run fast."

"You're making me hungry." Chen Hao reached into his pocket and pulled out half a pack of compressed biscuits. "Anyone want some?"

No one answered.

“I don’t eat alone,” he said. “If you don’t eat, I’ll eat it all.”

"Eat up," Susan said, sitting in the corner. "You won't be short of a few bites anyway."

"That's hurtful," Chen Hao said, taking a bite of his food. "This is my reserve of supplies to withstand pressure."

For the next few hours, no one spoke much. Susan checked everyone's physical condition, applied medicine to Karl's hand, and inventoried the remaining supplies. Chen Hao lay on the floor dozing, waking once to drink some water before closing his eyes again. Nana stood the whole time, her eyes flashing occasionally, as if she were handling something backstage.

Three hours later, she suddenly moved.

“Data extraction complete,” she said. “The fragmentation rate is 61%. Critical logs have been restored.”

Everyone crowded around.

"Get to the point," Chen Hao sat up straight, "Is it related to the volcano?"

“Yes,” she said. “The last effective recording time of the device was 72 hours ago, located 300 meters outside the deep-sea relic we previously explored. At that time, it detected an abnormal increase in crustal stress and captured high-intensity energy radiation, the frequency of which does not belong to any known natural geological activity.”

"Artificial?" Susan asked.

“Very likely.” Nana nodded. “Further analysis shows that the radiation source is inside the ruins and is in a state of continuous leakage. This energy disturbance will disrupt the mantle heat flow balance and induce magma upwelling.”

"So the volcano didn't erupt naturally?" Karl frowned.

“No,” she said. “It was ‘ignited.’ Like a water pipe with a hole, the pressure kept increasing, and eventually it burst.”

“And we…” Chen Hao began slowly, “we just happened to be passing by when the pipe exploded.”

“Accurate,” Nana said.

"So," Susan looked at him, "we weren't just unlucky enough to run into disaster, but disaster happened because of us?"

“Not entirely,” Nana added. “The energy leak in the ruins had already begun before we arrived. But when we entered the core area, it triggered a chain reaction that accelerated the process of imbalance.”

"Damn it!" Karl slammed his fist on the ground. "We've become the ignition switch?"

“The analogy is valid,” she said.

Chen Hao didn't speak, staring at the ground for a long time.

"So the question now is," he finally said, "whether this thing will explode a second time."

“Yes.” Nana pulled up a simulation image. “The leak is still ongoing. Without intervention, a second eruption, larger in scale and affecting an area of ​​300 kilometers around the sea, could occur within the next 72 hours.”

"Including this?" Susan asked.

“Including,” she said.

"So we've come all this way to the shelter, only to find it's right in the bullseye?" Chen Hao said with a wry smile.

“That makes sense,” Nana said.

“Is there any way to turn it off?” Carl looked up. “I mean, go back and fix it? Plug it?”

“It’s theoretically feasible,” she said, “but it requires locating the master control node and entering the corresponding permission commands. Currently, there is insufficient information to determine the specific operation method.”

"In other words," Chen Hao stood up, "we know where the problem is, but we don't know how to solve it, right?"

"yes."

“And we can’t stay here.” Susan looked around the island. “If there’s a second eruption, this place will be swallowed up by the tsunami.”

“That’s right.” Chen Hao walked to the edge and looked at the sea outside. “We’ve been running all this way, only to find out that we brought this danger upon ourselves.”

“It’s not entirely your fault,” Carl said. “Who knew that broken rock was a time bomb?”

“But we touched it.” Chen Hao turned to look at him. “It’s like going into someone’s house and rummaging through drawers, and ending up opening the safe.”

“There’s no point in talking about this now,” Susan said, standing up. “The key is the next step. Go back to fix it? Or find another way out?”

“Going back is suicide.” Karl shook his head. “We just escaped, and now we’re going to go into a volcano?”

“Not going back would be even worse,” Chen Hao said. “Wait for it to explode on its own? We’d be nothing but ashes.”

Nana suddenly raised her hand.

“Wait a minute,” she said. “I’ve discovered something.”

Everyone stopped.

Her eyes flickered rapidly. "In the recovered data, there's an encrypted log entry marked 'Emergency Plan.' It mentions... that this relic once had a remote shutdown protocol, activated by two-factor authentication—a biometric key plus acoustic resonance."

“What is a biometric key?” Susan asked.

“It wasn’t specified,” she said, “but the sound frequency has been recorded. If we can find the transmitting device, we might be able to remotely trigger the shutdown procedure.”

"So," Chen Hao chuckled, "we don't have to go in ourselves?"

“Not necessarily,” she said, “but at least we can try external intervention.”

"That's good news, isn't it?" Karl breathed a sigh of relief. "At least we don't have to jump into the lava."

"The prerequisite is finding the transmitter," Susan reminded her. "Where is it?"

“The log doesn’t record anything,” Nana said. “It only mentions ‘deployed at the main observation station.’”

"Where is the observation station?" Chen Hao asked.

“Unknown,” she said. “Map data is missing.”

"Damn it," Carl cursed again.

“But now we know which way to go.” Chen Hao slowly sat down. “We’re not just running around blindly. We know where the problem is, and we know it’s possible to solve it. That’s much better than before.”

“But we only have 23 percent of the power left,” Susan said. “The boat isn’t repaired yet, and the cooling system is still alarming.”

“Then let’s fix it,” Chen Hao said. “Let’s get the boat moving first, then figure out how to find that broken station.”

"Are you really planning to go back?" Carl asked, looking at him.

“I didn’t say we’d go now,” Chen Hao said, leaning against a rock. “But we have to be prepared. Otherwise, when the next earthquake comes, we’ll just have to wait to die.”

No one spoke anymore.

The sea remained calm in the distance, with mist drifting slowly. Nana stood still, her eyes flickering as if she were calculating something.

Susan began compiling a list of repair tools.

Carl looked down and fiddled with the metal plate, tapping its surface lightly with his fingers.

Chen Hao gazed at the sea and muttered something to himself.

"I should have known better than to touch that door."