The vibrations of the insulated box felt like they were crawling along the ground. As soon as Chen Hao's fingers touched the edge, he felt a tingling sensation shoot up his fingertips. He didn't let go; instead, he gripped it even tighter.

"It hasn't exploded yet," he said. "That means we haven't run out of luck."

Carl was squatting on the ground inspecting the seams when his finger was cut by a shard of molten slag. The blood that had just surfaced was evaporated by the heat before he could wipe it away. "This box is like a pressure cooker now; whoever touches it is doomed."

Susan leaned against the rock wall, the cloth strip on her wrist still connected to Nana. She moved her hand to make sure the connection wasn't broken. "Stop talking nonsense, stabilize it first."

Nana stood in the center of the platform. The screen of the right arm detector flickered a few times and then went completely black. She glanced down at the interface and manually switched to basic sensing mode. The indicator light came on again, its faint green glow illuminating her face.

“The energy field has strengthened,” she said. “That pulse just now came eleven seconds earlier than predicted.”

Chen Hao looked up into the depths of the passage. The walls were no longer dark red, but glowed with an orange-white light, almost like scorching hot iron, and the air seemed distorted, like looking at the sky from underwater. He blinked; his vision was a little blurry.

"Are we moving too fast?" he asked.

“It’s not that we’re fast,” Carl said, touching the outside of the insulated box. “It’s that it’s become too fast.”

The moment the words left his mouth, the platform shuddered violently. The three of them slipped, and Chen Hao fell to his knees, only managing to stay upright by bracing himself with his hands. The insulated box bounced up two inches high before being smashed back down by the molten slag fragments that had been pinned down.

The metal tools began to wobble. Carl's pliers slid halfway out of the bag, and Susan swiftly wedged them into the groove. Just as her glove touched them, there was a "snap," and a screw flew out, spun halfway through the air, hovered for two seconds, and then fell vertically.

"Five centimeters off the ground." Chen Hao stared at the screw. "A little higher and it could be used as a levitating slipper."

No one responded.

Nana closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them again, the gyroscope calibration interface had appeared. She drew a circle in the air with her left hand, and the system re-acquired the coordinates. A voice prompt sounded: "Local navigation reconstruction complete, error range ±0.3 meters."

"As long as it works." Chen Hao patted his knees and stood up. "Everyone, stand against the wall, squat down, and don't move around."

The three did as instructed.

Carl tucked the insulated box between his legs and held the lid down with both hands. Susan stuffed all the tools into the belt buckle and wrapped it twice with strips of cloth. Nana shut down the non-essential modules, leaving only communication and basic detection enabled.

The platform was silent for a few seconds.

Then the buzzing started.

It wasn't something he heard with his ears; it vibrated deep within his bones. Chen Hao felt a sharp pain in his teeth, and the back of his head felt like it was being hit with a ruler. He bit his lip and counted his heartbeats.

Ninety-seven, ninety-eight, ninety-nine...

The sound lasted for about twenty seconds before fading away.

“Ninety-second intervals,” Nana said, “but the intensity has increased by twenty-two percent.”

"Does that mean the next wave will be even more ruthless?" Susan asked.

"right."

Chen Hao took out a timer, which showed in red: 7:18. "There are still seven minutes left in the window, enough time to get some work done."

“On the premise that the equipment can hold up.” Karl touched the detector’s casing. “I’m afraid this thing will start smoking at any moment.”

Nana didn't speak, but opened the signal reconstruction algorithm in the knowledge base. The interface loaded slowly, and the progress bar was stuck at forty percent. She waited for three seconds, then forced the switch to manual input mode.

“Import the terrain data,” she said softly. “Based on the rift valley orientation from the last scan, fit a stable path.”

Chen Hao squatted down beside her, holding a pen and a piece of charred paper. "You tell me, I'll write it down."

“Starting point coordinates x-307, Y+152, height decrease of eight meters... Pass through the bottom scree area, avoid the high temperature zone on the left... There is a hidden passage ahead, about 1.5 meters wide, passable.”

After finishing writing, Chen Hao looked up and said, "Why does this road look like a hole dug by rats?"

“But it shields 80 percent of the energy interference,” Nana said. “It’s the safest option.”

“Safe?” Carl sneered. “We’re standing right here where screws are floating everywhere. You’re telling me which road is safe?”

“There is a difference,” Nana insisted. “One will die, the other might not.”

Susan suddenly reached out and pressed down on the insulated container. "It's hot again."

Carl immediately lifted the outer layer to inspect it. The cooling fins were attached to one side of the box, and their surface had begun to turn gray. He tore off a usable piece of metal, moved it to the other side, and then pressed on the newly found block of molten slag.

"It won't last much longer," he said. "At most, one more pulse."

"Then let's get the first node sorted out before the next one." Chen Hao stood up. "Increase the shielding power, extend the guidance time, and then charge."

“Are you sure you want to play this game?” Susan looked at him. “If we fail, we won’t be able to back down.”

"Retreat what?" Chen Hao grinned. "We've been risking our lives since the day we came in. Now we're just throwing the dice a little louder."

Nana completed the path marking. The projection briefly lit up, displaying a winding red line that pointed towards the outer edge of the core. The image flickered twice and then went dark again.

“The map is lost,” she said. “We can only rely on memory to move forward.”

"Got it." Chen Hao pointed to his head, "Wrap the high temperature around the left side, stick to the rock wall on the right, and don't stop in the middle."

The platform shook again.

This time it came even faster.

Everyone lurched to the side, and Chen Hao managed to stay upright by grabbing the rock wall. The insulated box shook violently, and Karl had to lean on it to steady himself. Nana's detector emitted a short alarm, and the screen flashed a red waveform.

“The pulse was brought forward by four seconds,” she said. “The cycle was shortened to eighty-six seconds.”

“So that means—” Susan frowned, “it’s accelerating?”

“Yes.” Nana nodded. “The energy compression speed exceeded expectations.”

Chen Hao wiped his face; the sweat that had just appeared was quickly dried by the heat. "How many minutes left?"

"Five minutes and thirty-four seconds," Nana reported. "Currently in the pullback phase, interference is low."

“Let’s get started.” Chen Hao turned around. “Karl, reinforce the shielding; Susan, prepare the tools; Nana, keep an eye on the detector, and call a halt immediately if there’s any abnormality.”

The three acted together.

Carl removed the last cooling fin from the toolkit and attached it to the back of the insulated box. He used a stone to weigh down the seam and then wrapped a piece of broken wire around it. Susan inserted the pliers into the mounting slot to check if the trigger switch was working properly. Nana knelt on one knee, her right hand resting on the detector, her eyes fixed on the frequency fluctuations.

Chen Hao stood at the edge of the platform, holding a timer.

"Raise the shielding power to the critical value." Carl turned around. "Any higher and it'll burn out."

"Propose it," Chen Hao said. "Propose it now."

The button is pressed.

With a soft hum, the outer shell of the insulated box slightly deformed, and then a ring of blue light spread out from the bottom, sweeping across the ground in a circular pattern. The light lasted for less than ten seconds before fading.

“The setup process is being guided,” Nana said. “The estimated duration is twelve minutes.”

"That's enough." Chen Hao put away the timer. "Next is the issue of walking."

“The premise is that you can walk steadily.” Susan looked at the pebbles that were still floating slightly. “Right now, I can’t even stand steadily.”

“Then just crawl,” Chen Hao said. “It’s not shameful anyway; fat people have long given up on managing their appearance.”

No one laughed.

Nana suddenly raised her hand: "Wait."

Everyone stopped what they were doing.

“The detector has detected a set of unusual feedback.” She stared at the screen. “It’s not coming from the front, it’s coming from below.”

"Down there?" Carl looked at the ground. "You mean there's something under this platform?"

“Uncertain.” Nana adjusted the frequency. “The signal is being interfered with too much. We can only identify some kind of resonance source, which is no more than ten meters away.”

"Could it be that the crystal is making a sound on its own?" Susan asked.

“No,” Nana shook her head. “The frequency is different, and… it’s responding to us.”

Chen Hao squatted down and placed his palms on the ground. Three seconds later, a rhythmic vibration came from his palms, as if someone was typing Morse code underneath.

“It’s not a natural phenomenon,” he said. “This thing understands rhythm.”

"Perhaps it's a self-organizing reaction of the energy field," Nana speculated. "High-density energy can produce life-like behaviors under certain conditions."

"Translate it," Chen Hao said.

"It might... be conscious."

The air went still for a moment.

Carl slowly put down the tools in his hand. "You mean, this energy field is alive?"

Nana did not answer.

The waveform on the detector screen suddenly stretched and became a straight line, and then the light on the entire platform dimmed for a moment.

The blue light on the insulated box went out.

The cooling fin cracked open with a "crack".

Chen Hao remained lying on the ground, his palms still pressed against the rock surface. The vibrations became clearer, no longer chaotic, but rhythmic tapping—three short taps, two long taps, a pause, and then repeating.