Chapter 226 Breakout and Chase

As soon as everyone rushed out of the mall, a loud noise like a landslide was heard behind them.

The wail of reinforced concrete and the shattering of glass walls merged into a symphony of destruction as the entire building collapsed inward, stirring up a cloud of dust.

A huge cloud of energy mixed with purple and blue rose into the sky from the ruins.

The figure of "Ye" shot out from the energy cloud at such a speed that only a residual image was left.

The biomechanical armor on his body had been damaged in many places, revealing the flowing energy body underneath, but the core belonging to the subway in his chest was more active than before.

"Hand over the core and the anchor!" His angry roar echoed in the empty streets. "You cannot understand the consequences of stopping me!"

Following his order, the plants on both sides of the street that had long been transformed by radiation suddenly came to life, and the twisted vines broke through the ground and whipped towards everyone.

In the shadows, dozens of mutants that had been lurking for a long time also rushed forward with roars.

"Divide into two groups!" Xiao Ran decisively ordered through the radio, "The main force, follow me to lead him away! Lu Zhao, take Su Wanqing and Lin Che through the underground passage!"

Lu Zhao did not reply. He just pulled Su Wanqing and used his other hand to hold up the unconscious Lin Che, and rushed straight to an abandoned subway entrance not far away.

The dark tunnel was filled with the smell of mold and rust. The footsteps of the three people echoed in the empty corridor, and they were particularly clear.

Su Wanqing hugged Lin Che and could clearly feel his abnormal body temperature, which felt burning hot even through his clothes.

With the help of the tactical flashlight, she saw the blue lines on Lin Che's skin appearing and disappearing with his rapid breathing, like some unstable circuit.

"hiss--"

A spider-like mutant lurking on the ceiling suddenly pounced down. Lu Zhao didn't even raise his head. He pushed Su Wanqing behind him and fired a short burst of shots from the rifle in his hand. The mutant screamed and fell onto the railroad track.

Before he could catch his breath, more rustling sounds came from deeper in the tunnel.

"Damn, there's not much ammunition left." Lu Zhao cursed under his breath as he changed the magazine.

During the breakout just now, his arm was cut by the vines and was bleeding.

After repelling another wave of mutants pouring out of the side vents, Xiao Ran's anxious voice suddenly came from the communicator, mixed with fierce gunfire and explosions: "Lu Zhao! He knows your route! There are a large number of mutants in the subway system gathering towards your location! Modify the retreat plan and go to point B immediately!"

The chase became more chaotic. They abandoned the subway tunnel and climbed into an abandoned office building through a maintenance ladder, and then passed through a flooded underground garage.

No matter how they changed their routes, the pursuers of "Night" seemed to have a navigation system and could always block them accurately in front of them.

At an intersection, a huge mutant broke through the wall and blocked their way.

Lu Zhao just raised his gun, but found that he had used up the last bullet.

At the critical moment when the mutant was about to pounce, Lin Che in Su Wanqing's arms suddenly moved. He opened his eyes with difficulty, his pupils were out of focus, but he squeezed out a few words weakly, and at the same time, he used all his strength to point to the back of a row of inconspicuous lockers on the right.

"There... the safe house..."

Following the direction he pointed, Lu Zhao pushed open the dusty locker, revealing a metal door that almost blended in with the color of the wall.

He smashed the electronic lock with the butt of his gun, and the three of them immediately slipped in.

The room was not big, and looked like a small laboratory. Lu Zhao quickly closed the door, pulled out a device from a control panel on the wall, and pressed the switch.

After a slight buzzing sound, he breathed a sigh of relief.

“This can temporarily isolate the core’s energy signals, but it will only last for a few hours at most.

We need to plan our next steps.”

Su Wanqing gently placed Lin Che on a camp bed and then looked around the room.

This place is filled with various research materials and equipment. There is a group photo hanging on the wall. In the photo, several young people in research clothes are surrounding an elegant man wearing gold-rimmed glasses.

The man's appearance was exactly the same as the face that Night constructed with energy.

She picked up an open digital diary on the table. On it was Lin Che's handwriting. The last entry read: "The director's theory is too radical. Activating three cores at the same time may cause unpredictable distortion of time and space, but no one listened to my warning.

I secretly backed up some of the data. If the experiment really gets out of control, there might still be a chance to fix it..."

After confirming the authenticity of the core memory, she was silent for a while. She turned to look at her system interface and called up the analysis data of the second core.

On the screen, a complex flow of energy was overflowing from the core, passing through her jade bracelet, and then slowly flowing into Lin Che's body.

[Warning: It has been detected that the target Lin Che's nervous system is being disorderly reconstructed by core information fragments.

"He's not feeling right." Lu Zhao bandaged his wound, walked over, and pointed to the dramatically fluctuating waveform on a monitoring device next to him, frowning slightly. "This is not the treatment process we are familiar with... His brain activity pattern is being reconstructed, as if... as if he is receiving some kind of external command or memory.

We need to figure out what this means before he fully wakes up."

"He's not in a good condition." Lu Zhao bandaged his wound, walked over, and pointed at the violently fluctuating waveform on a monitoring device next to him, frowning slightly. "This is not the treatment process we are familiar with... His brain activity pattern is being reconstructed, as if... as if he is receiving some kind of external command or memory. We need to figure out what this means before he fully wakes up."

Su Wanqing squatted beside the camp bed and looked at Lin Che. The blue lines on his body appeared and disappeared with his rapid breathing, and his hot body temperature passed through his clothes to her palm.

He closed his eyes tightly, his brows were furrowed, and his lips opened and closed silently, as if he was having a silent nightmare.

Suddenly, Lin Che's body trembled violently and he opened his eyes. There was a blank look in his eyes, without any focus at all.

He grabbed Su Wanqing's arm with amazing strength.

"Alan, look at the data," his voice was hoarse and urgent, as if he didn't recognize the person in front of him at all, "The director's theory is wrong... The three cores cannot be activated synchronously... It will break the isolation layer..."

"Lin Che? Wake up! Look at me!" Su Wanqing shook his shoulders vigorously, trying to pull him back from his confused consciousness.

Lu Zhao also took a step forward and remained on guard.

"Alan?" Lin Che finally focused his eyes slowly on Su Wanqing's face, and his confused expression was gradually replaced by shock and fear. He let go of his hands, raised his hands in disbelief, and looked at the faint blue lines on them, "I... I am not just the experimental subject S-7, I was once a member of the project team... But why am I...?"

Fragments of memory flooded in like a tide, causing him to curl up in pain, his body shaking violently.

Su Wanqing fed him some water and waited for him to calm down a little.

During this period, Lu Zhao used the equipment in the safe house to successfully hack into the military's encrypted communication channel.

The crackling sound of electricity and intermittent reports came out of the loudspeaker.

"The original purpose was to resist the Weaver civilization." Lin Che leaned against the wall, his voice weak but clear, his eyes looking into the void, as if recalling something extremely distant. "They are the oldest intelligent life in the universe, controlling countless galaxies... The Orion civilization fled to Earth, bringing us technology and seeking shelter."

He raised his hand with trembling hands and pointed to a filing cabinet in the corner of the studio: "The Director...now Night...he discovered that the core can not only create a defense shield, but also...can rewrite the timeline. He betrayed his original intention. He wanted to use the core to transform himself into a time manager, an eternal being."

Lin Che closed his eyes, his face full of pain: "On the day of the experiment, I discovered his plan and tried to stop him, but it was too late... After the explosion, he captured me and transformed me... into what I am now, a container that provides a host for his digital consciousness."

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At this moment, a clear emergency report came from Lu Zhao's loudspeaker: "The subject and the core show an unprecedented symbiotic relationship, and can directly contact the core and convey information without paying attention to radiation... She claims that she can now 'hear' the voice of the core, and has repeatedly mentioned that 'the Weaver has locked the coordinates'... It is recommended to immediately transfer the subject and the core to the Alpha base..."

In the background of the report, an unusually calm child's voice was heard. It was Xiao Ling's voice: "Time is running out. They will arrive within 72 hours. Your weapons cannot stop them..."

Lu Zhao cut off the communication and looked at Su Wanqing and Lin Che with a serious expression. "Xiao Ling may have been affected by the core energy and became some kind of medium or mouthpiece. If what she said is true, then the 'Weaver' civilization is indeed approaching the earth, and the situation is more urgent than we thought."

Hearing this, Lin Che gave a bitter laugh and nodded: "This is the best excuse for Night to advance his plan. He will claim that only by gathering three cores can we resist the invasion, but in fact his plan will only lead to a greater disaster... We must find Xiaoling and the core before the military transfers them."

While he was speaking, Lu Zhao had already completed a scan of Lin Che's body, and a complex energy structure diagram was projected onto the screen on the wall.

"The Orion sequence has been deeply integrated with your DNA," Lu Zhao analyzed, "which is why the separation process is so dangerous."

“Yes, I’m not completely human anymore…” Lin Che looked at the data chart with a complicated expression, “But this is also our advantage.”

He stood up with the help of the wall and walked to the experimental table in the middle of the room. "'Ye' needs three cores, but he needs a stable anchor point more - Su Wanqing," he looked at her, "You are the best candidate he has selected.

Without an anchor point, even if all the cores are gathered, the system cannot be started stably; if he forcibly starts it, the result will only be another catastrophic explosion and a new round of virus spread..."

Lin Che's fingers moved quickly on the dusty lab equipment, and a complex energy model appeared on the screen.

"But we can use this to fight him, because the sequence in my body can interfere with the synchronization of the core."

Just as he was about to explain further, a shrill alarm suddenly rang throughout the safe house, and red warning lights kept flashing.

On a small radar screen on the wall, red dots representing hostility were approaching rapidly from all directions.

"Less than 500 meters!" Lu Zhao growled. Outside the window, the footsteps of the search team and the roars of the mutants were getting closer and closer.

Lin Che turned to Su Wanqing abruptly, his face showing unprecedented anxiety and seriousness.

"Listen, we don't have much time, you must know the most important thing--" He grabbed Su Wanqing's hand wearing the jade bracelet, "This jade bracelet is not just a trading system, it is a small core controller!

Night gave you this to brand you as an anchor, but it is also our only hope!"

He spoke very quickly: "You must find the third core before he collects all three, and then use the jade bracelet to create a seal instead of activating them! This may be our only chance..."

Before he could finish his words, a violent explosion was heard from the outer wall of the safe house.

The whole room shook violently, the light bulbs above my head exploded, and rubble and dust fell down.

Gravel and dust fell from the hole in the ceiling, and the shrill alarm mixed with the increasingly clear roars and footsteps outside.

The entire safe house was shaking slightly.

“It’s too late.” Lin Che swept away the messy instruments on the experimental table and took out a palm-sized metal disc covered with complex circuits from the secret compartment under the table. “We must act separately to buy time.”

He handed the disc to Lu Zhao and said, "This is the core energy replicator I designed back then. It can temporarily simulate the core's signal. Lu Zhao, you and Su Wanqing take the second core and retreat to the north of the city. Activate this device along the way to create energy fluctuations and attract 'Ye' and his troops to chase you."

"What about you?" Su Wanqing immediately objected, "Your injury hasn't healed yet. It's too dangerous to go alone."

Lin Che shook his head and pointed at the faint blue lines on his body: "And I will use the remaining Orion sequence in my body to cover up the signal, sneak into the military base, and rescue Xiao Ling and the third core. Because I have the Orion sequence in my body, the military's core detection equipment will regard me as a 'friendly party' and will not trigger the highest level of alarm. This is our only chance."

Lu Zhao took the replicator without hesitation, turned around and began to rummage through the supply box in the safe house, quickly integrating all available resources.

Several simple electromagnetic pulse devices and signal jammers quickly took shape in his hands.

At the same time, on another device at hand, he had cracked the military's communications and the encrypted intelligence stream was intercepted.

"Found it," Lu Zhao said without looking up, "Xiaoling and the core are placed in the temporary outpost in the east of the city. It is planned to be transferred to the Alpha base deep in the mountains in six hours. Our time window is extremely limited."

He projected a city map onto the wall and used his finger to draw several red highlighted routes: "Su Wanqing and I will retreat along this abandoned industrial pipeline, moving north and creating interference along the way. It is estimated that we can buy Lin Che three to four hours. Lin Che, you must complete the rescue within this time."

He pointed to another spot on the map. "Then we'll meet under the abandoned viaduct."

After the plan was formulated, the three of them quickly prepared separately.

(End of this chapter)