The coffee had just been brewed, and before Karl's hand even touched the cup handle, Nana suddenly spoke.

"The system has begun a deep scan."

Chen Hao was leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed, resting. Upon hearing this, he immediately opened them. "So fast?"

"Best Carl had just reached the door with his coffee when his phone vibrated again. He glanced down, then looked up and called out, 'They really are going to connect at five? Forty minutes to go.'"

Chen Hao was leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed, resting, when he heard this he sat up straight. "Wasn't it supposed to be six o'clock? Why is it earlier?"

“It’s a notification from Li Zhenhua.” Carl handed his phone to Susan. “He said the headquarters review panel temporarily adjusted the schedule and required the entire experimental data stream to be broadcast live.”

Susan glanced at the message and quickly swiped the screen. "We haven't even done the final deep scan."

Nana stood in front of the control panel, her eyes slightly brightening. "The system is ready and can begin full-band scanning immediately."

“Let’s do it.” Chen Hao picked up a pen from the table and drew a box on a blank sheet of paper. “First, pull out the data from the eighteen seconds after last night and see if we’ve missed anything.”

Susan pulled up the waveform graph, showing three sets of resonance curves side by side. She slowed down the playback speed, and a thin line slowly advanced.

“Wait a minute.” She paused the game. “There’s a loose end here.”

"What tail?" Chen Hao leaned closer.

“After each energy peak, before the system returns to stability, there will be a very short secondary oscillation.” She zoomed in on a specific area, “lasting less than half a second, and decaying very slowly.”

Carl joined in. "It doesn't sound like noise; it's too regular."

“But the frequency isn’t fixed,” Chen Hao frowned. “It’s not periodic either.”

Nana immediately retrieved the backend records. "The same pattern was captured three times in the past 72 hours, with irregular intervals and a stable amplitude of around 0.7 microvolts."

“Why didn’t we detect such a small signal before?” Susan asked.

“When the seismic isolation system wasn’t installed properly, the background interference was too great,” Nana replied. “Now that the ambient noise has been reduced by 92%, we can separate out the weak signal.”

Chen Hao stared at the small ripple for a few seconds, then suddenly said, "Let's work backwards. Assuming it's the result of some kind of energy reaction, let's trace its generation path."

“I’ll do the modeling.” Carl opened a new window and entered the planet’s geological parameters and the field strength inside the simulation chamber. “How much precision do you need?”

"The higher the better," Chen Hao said. "Don't worry about the calculation being slow. What we lack most right now is time, not computing power."

Nana was simultaneously connected to the research institute's main computing array; the green light for permissions flashed, and the resource channel was opened.

“Model is running.” Carl stared at the progress bar. “Results should be available in about eight minutes.”

Susan didn't stop there; she superimposed the waveforms of the three oscillations for comparison. "The shapes are almost identical, like echoes from the same source."

“It’s not an echo,” Nana suddenly said. “It’s a residual field.”

"Huh?" Chen Hao turned his head.

“There are similar records in the knowledge base.” Nana spoke steadily. “After the non-steady-state quantum field is excited, it will leave a short-term negative energy density region in the local space, which can theoretically be maintained for a period of time.”

"Does this thing have a name?" Chen Hao asked.

“The zero-point energy transition phenomenon,” Nana said. “It is marked as an ‘unverified hypothesis’ in the literature, with only seven related papers worldwide, and the most recent experiment failed in 2031.”

"So, no one has ever seen the real thing?" Karl turned to look at her.

“Now we see it.” Susan pointed to the screen. “This secondary shock is the field residue after the jump.”

The model finally finished running. In the 3D projection, a spiral energy path rose from the Earth's core, passed through the magma zone, and suddenly broke at a certain depth, releasing a blurry spot of light.

“The breakpoint is at the same depth as our sampling chamber,” Carl said, pointing to the coordinates. “The error is less than two meters.”

"What does that mean?" Chen Hao asked.

“That means we didn’t make it,” Susan said in a lower voice. “We ran into it.”

The room was silent for a few seconds.

"So it was always there?" Chen Hao asked. "And it kept jumping by itself?"

“The possibility is extremely high,” Nana added, “and it does not require external power supply; it is a spontaneous energy release.”

Chen Hao suddenly stood up and walked around to the other side of the main control panel. "Can we grab a little bit out?"

“We can try directional capture,” Nana said, bringing up the sampling program. “But we need to adjust the magnetic field focusing angle.”

"Adjust it!" Chen Hao slammed his fist on the table. "Try it now!"

Carl quickly adjusted the parameters, and Susan checked the energy storage unit status. Nana activated the isolation chamber, and the cooling system hummed.

“Ready,” she said.

"Start." Chen Hao stared at the countdown.

The screen flickered, indicating the start of the capture process. The energy curve fluctuated slightly, then dipped, as if something had sucked a piece away.

Ten seconds later, the system displayed: [Target signal captured, encapsulation complete.]

"It's done?" Karl didn't dare to move.

“Look here.” Susan pointed to the monitoring window on the right. A miniature sphere floated in the virtual container, its surface glowing with a faint blue light. Around it were constantly fluctuating values—temperature, pressure, and radiation were all normal, but the energy output was showing a negative value.

"Negative energy density?" Chen Hao read it aloud.

“But it continues to release usable electricity,” Nana said. “It has currently stored 0.4 joules and is still growing.”

“That’s impossible,” Karl shook his head. “How can a negative value generate electricity?”

“Because it borrowed energy from the vacuum,” Susan said softly, “and when it returned it, it gave back a little more than it needed.”

"Like a bank loan that earns interest?" Chen Hao grinned.

"It's more like getting paid for nothing and not having to clock in," Carl laughed.

Nana didn't smile, but her eye indicator light flashed three times in a row, which was her way of expressing excitement.

"Can this thing be magnified?" Chen Hao asked.

“Theoretically, superposition activation is possible.” Nana pulled up a simulation diagram. “As long as a stable triggering condition is found, a chain reaction can be formed.”

“That’s unlimited energy.” Susan looked at the small ball of light. “It doesn’t need fuel, it doesn’t produce pollution, and it generates its own electricity.”

"The Earth's blackout problem is solved?" Karl's eyes widened.

“More than that.” Chen Hao plopped down. “If it could be miniaturized, spaceships, cities, and even personal devices could all run on it.”

“The premise is that we can control it,” Susan reminded us. “Right now, we only know that it exists, but we don’t know how to turn it on or off.”

"First, we need to figure out why it only appears at a specific depth," Chen Hao said, pointing to the breakpoint in the model. "Is it a problem with the geological structure?"

Nana immediately compared the data with the regional rock strata. "There is a rare titanium crystal vein below this location, which is distributed in a network and may play a role in resonance amplification."

"So it's a natural circuit board?" Carl said.

"That's one way to understand it," Nana nodded.

“Then let’s make a copy.” Chen Hao picked up a pen and drew a simple diagram on the paper. “An artificial crystal lattice array to simulate underground structures, let’s see if we can artificially induce a transition.”

“The material costs are very high,” Susan said.

“But it’s worth investing in now,” Chen Hao laughed. “We hold the key to the future of power.”

As soon as the words were spoken, the communication screen on the wall lit up automatically. A countdown timer displayed: **00:05:00**, followed by the message: [Headquarters remote access is about to begin. Please confirm data stream access permissions.]

"They're here." Karl swallowed.

"Open it," Chen Hao nodded. "Let them see what we found."

Nana tapped the control panel, and the permission switch was complete. The real-time data stream began uploading, including the newly encapsulated energy envelope diagram, the capture process recording, and the preliminary analysis report.

Susan suddenly exclaimed "Huh?"

"What's wrong?" Chen Hao asked.

“Someone is already looking at our data.” She pointed to the internal network monitoring chart. “At least eight terminals are online, all of them are senior researcher accounts.”

“Normal.” Chen Hao shrugged. “Who wouldn’t want to see a freshly made miracle?”

“But they’re not just looking.” Susan zoomed in on the access logs. “Three accounts are downloading the complete log package, and they’re doing it very quickly.”

"Internal transmission within the research institute?" Karl leaned closer.

“No.” Nana glanced at the source, “Two of the IPs redirected to overseas nodes.”

"They're still spreading this now?" Chen Hao frowned. "Who gave them that permission?"

“It’s currently impossible to trace,” Nana said, “but the uploading behavior has been recorded, which violates the confidentiality agreement.”

"Never mind that for now," Chen Hao waved his hand. "We'll investigate after the review is over. The most important thing now is to let headquarters see the results."

He turned to the main screen, where the energy sphere labeled "E-Source Ω" floated silently, surrounded by scrolling verification parameters. Outside the window, the sky was just beginning to lighten, and a wisp of steam still rose from his coffee cup.

“We… seem to have touched the door to the future,” he said.

No one responded.

Nana quietly updated her log: "979th experiment, historic breakthrough confirmed. It is recommended to submit a Level 1 discovery report immediately."

Just as Chen Hao was about to say something, the alarm on the main control panel suddenly went off.

It wasn't a red warning light, but a flashing gold indicator.

[Abnormal reading: Enhanced signal from deep underground layers, resonant frequency shift of +0.8 Hz.]

"What's going on?" Karl jumped up.

Nana quickly pulled up the geological monitoring map. A new wave was emanating from deep underground, heading straight down to the laboratory.

“It wasn’t man-made,” she said.

"Is that a natural change?" Susan asked.

“No.” Nana stared at the data stream. “It’s a response.”

"Respond to what?"

“It responded to our capture attempt.” She looked up. “It… sensed it.”