Chapter 236: Clock Countdown

The relieved calmness that belonged to Dr. Morris did not stay on Night's face for too long.

The fragile balance that had just been achieved on the viaduct was completely shattered by a sudden, deep bell sound that echoed throughout the city.

A huge clock projection made of light appeared in the sky above the city. The minute hand and the hour hand were motionless, and only the slender second hand was moving forward one step at a time with a cold and precise rhythm.

Every time the second hand ticked, an area in the city was shrouded in dazzling white light. Then, that area, along with the buildings, streets and life in it, completely disappeared, turning into a blank space representing nothingness.

Inside the military's deepest backup bunker, the air was as heavy as lead.

Hundreds of civilians who had just been evacuated here were huddled together. Some were trembling silently while holding their children, while others had already collapsed and were crying in suppressed voices.

Lieutenant Cui stood in front of the main monitoring screen, his face pale.

On the screen, the city map was divided into countless grids, some of which were turning into a glaring red at a speed visible to the naked eye, indicating "erased".

"The East District... is completely gone. Only 30% of the Southwest District remains." His voice was dry, and every word seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth. "At the current rate, the entire city will only have 24 hours at most."

In a corner of the shelter, five people who had just materialized from a semi-energized state were sitting against the wall, and everyone had a very ugly look on their faces.

Constructing that semi-permeable space-time membrane consumed a huge amount of their energy, and they were all in an extremely weak state at the moment.

Su Wanqing looked down at her hands. The golden energy lines flowing under her skin had become dim and sparse.

She thought for a moment and said to Lu Zhao beside her: "The semi-permeable barrier is collapsing... The Weaver has changed its strategy."

Lu Zhao was staring at a small detection device on his wrist. A red data line on the screen was rising rapidly.

"It's more than just a strategy," he shook his head and turned the device screen to face everyone, "They sent a higher-level collector. The energy fluctuations detected in the city center are more than ten times that of the previous pioneer."

At this moment, Xiao Ling, who had been standing in front of the surveillance screen, suddenly stiffened, and the closed purple mark on her forehead suddenly burst into dazzling light.

Her voice rang out, but it was no longer that of a little girl. It became unusually mature and emotionless: "I saw... the form of the main brain... It is not a single entity, but a cluster intelligence formed by the fusion of thousands of consciousnesses, hovering in the center of the city, like a nebula made up of crystals and light..."

She stretched out her little hand and drew a complex and twisted shape in the air.

Lu Zhao immediately took out a pen and paper from his pocket and quickly wrote down the image she described.

"It is... evaluating us, not just collecting..." Xiao Ling's voice continued, "It wants to know if we are worth saving..."

Before she finished speaking, the light on her forehead suddenly dimmed, her body swayed, and she was supported by Lin Che beside her.

She blinked and returned to her childish tone, with a hint of fear: "It thinks we are special because we made five attempts... Most civilizations only make it once or twice..."

"Five attempts?" Su Wanqing frowned slightly, "But I only remember three reincarnations..."

In the corner, the "Night" with Morris's face looked down at his translucent hands and said in a low voice: "Because the first two times failed so thoroughly that we couldn't even establish a memory connection."

Su Wanqing stood up and walked straight towards him, her face a mixture of anger and despair after the last glimmer of hope was shattered.

"What cards do you have left to reveal?" She pointed at the expanding blank area on the monitor screen. "Our balance plan has failed! The Weaver does not accept coexistence at all!"

Morris, or "Night", slowly opened his eyes. A trace of barely perceptible pain flashed in his eyes, and then was covered by cold rationality.

"They didn't send ordinary collectors, but the mastermind of the Weaver Council. It will not accept any result less than 100% collection."

As soon as he finished speaking, an even more terrifying scene appeared on the surveillance screen—the huge clock second hand suddenly began to move faster, almost jumping one tick every second!

Large areas of urban areas disappeared instantly in the white light.

"The countdown is speeding up!" Lieutenant Cui exclaimed, and he had to put his hands on the control console to steady himself. "The whole city only has... Oh my God, less than twelve hours left!"

A greater panic broke out in the bunker. Everyone's eyes turned to the five weak people. They were their last hope.

The guardian's icon automatically popped up in the air in front of Su Wanqing, issuing the highest level red warning.

"Warning: Semi-permeable barriers cannot protect against Mastermind-level collection. Ultimate defense protocols must be activated."

Su Wanqing leaned against the cold wall, feeling dizzy. She struggled to support herself and asked, "What... the Ultimate Defense Protocol?"

The guardian did not answer, but projected an extremely complex three-dimensional image in the air: three cores were suspended in the center, surrounded by five light spots, and countless energy lines connected them into a perfect closed loop structure.

"Rebuild the complete core and build an absolute barrier... but the price is," its voice was calm, "the complete sacrifice of three cores and five key figures."

The guardian's calm verdict made the stagnant air in the bunker even heavier.

The four words "total sacrifice" are like four huge mountains pressing on everyone's heart.

The refugees' sobbing faded away, leaving only a desperate silence.

At this moment, the "Night" with Morris's face in the corner slowly stood up.

His translucent body began to solidify rapidly, and the red energy lines under his skin, representing anger and instability, faded away one by one and turned into a deep and cold blue.

"I should have confessed long ago." He looked around at the weak crowd, his eyes finally fell on Su Wanqing's face, his voice was flat without any emotion, "I am not just a fragmented consciousness replica created by Dr. Morris to continue the plan.

I am a monitor sent by the Weaver, and I participate in each reincarnation in a different capacity."

He stretched out his hand and waved it gently in the air, and blurry scenes unfolded before everyone.

In the video, his face keeps changing: he was a doctor who saved lives in the early days of the apocalypse and preserved important medical data at critical moments; he was a senior military officer who made a wrong decision that led to the premature destruction of the resistance; he was also an inconspicuous wanderer who observed the collapse and flashes of human nature in an unnoticed corner.

Each time, he exerted a small but fatal influence at a turning point in history.

“Have you been deceiving us?” Lin Che’s teeth were chattering as he rushed forward, his fist gleaming with the faint light of the Orion Sequence.

However, before he could get close, he was violently bounced back by an invisible blue energy barrier and fell to the ground.

"All the cooperation and sacrifices were just a hypocritical script arranged by you?"

Night didn't even look at him, and continued expressionlessly: "My mission is to evaluate the creativity and adaptability of the human race under extreme pressure. To be honest, I was extremely disappointed with you in the first four reincarnations."

He turned his head to look at Xiao Ling who was protected in Xiao Ran's arms, "But the kid is right, you are indeed more tenacious than most civilizations recorded in my database. Five reincarnations, most races can't even last two."

He turned to the surveillance screen that was trembling and showing the map of the city’s demise: “I thought this would be a complete failure like the previous ones.

But the 'semi-permeable barrier' you created did surprise the main brain. Unfortunately, it was just a surprise, not enough."

Su Wanqing leaned against the wall, biting her lip, her nails almost digging into her palms: "What now? Are you going to personally eliminate the experimental subject you have observed five reincarnations? Come up with your final evaluation report?"

Suddenly, a very subtle, almost human hesitation appeared on Ye’s face. The corners of his mouth twitched, then returned to normal.

"I can offer you a deal."

While everyone's attention was focused on "Ye", Lu Zhao quietly lowered his head and activated the deep scanning mode of the small detection device on his wrist.

His fingers slid quickly across the screen, and lines of data flowed across like waterfalls.

"You already have a relatively complete core," Ye's voice broke Lu Zhao's concentration, "as long as you hand over the other two cores to me. I can guarantee your safety and the safety of the other person. You can choose who to take away."

This sentence was like a stone thrown into a deep pool. The dead silence of the entire bunker instantly turned into an uproar, which was then suppressed by even greater fear, so loud that you could hear a pin drop.

Su Wanqing stared at him in disbelief: "You want me to... sacrifice everyone here, just to save one person?"

Her eyes swept across Lin Che, across Lu Zhao, and finally landed on Xiao Ling's pale face, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Don't even think about it!" Xiao Ran stood out from the crowd and protected his sister even tighter, "No one would make such a choice!"

At the other end of the bunker, Lieutenant Cui's face turned pale. He quietly made a gesture to several special forces soldiers around him to prepare for action.

The soldiers understood and dispersed without a trace, with their guns seemingly unintentionally pointed at the location where "Night" was.

At this tense moment, the device on Lu Zhao's wrist made an inaudible beep.

On the screen, an energy fluctuation analysis chart finally took shape. The data showed that although the main body of the "night" energy characteristics was completely consistent with the weaver, about 15% of the fluctuation frequency showed a completely different pattern, closer to... the human biological energy field.

A pure Weaver agent should not have this pattern of energy mixing.

Lu Zhao frowned. Unless... he wasn't completely loyal to the Weaver.

Lu Zhao raised his head and took advantage of the chaos to quickly project a miniature analysis chart on his palm, then made an extremely secretive gesture to Xiao Ling not far away.

The closed purple mark on Xiao Ling's forehead flashed very quickly, as if she immediately understood the meaning of the chart.

She leaned in her brother's arms, and whispered to Lu Zhao with her lips barely moving: "You saw... he was wavering between the two masters."

Lu Zhao nodded imperceptibly and put away the projection on his palm.

He thought, yes, he was lying, but not completely. We need to know his real purpose.

Xiao Ling raised her lips into a mysterious smile that didn't belong to her age, and added in a low voice: "Maybe, he himself doesn't know."

"Ye" seemed to have anticipated everyone's reaction. He curled his lips and revealed a hint of sneer: "Noble refusal... What a familiar scene. Last time in reincarnation, you answered me the same way. What was the result?"

He took two steps forward, approaching Su Wanqing, and his voice became extremely soft, like the whisper of a devil: "But at the last moment, you still chose Lin Che alone. You wanted to use your own life energy to send him into the last escape route... Unfortunately, it's too late."

These words were like a poisoned blade, piercing Su Wanqing's heart.

She took a step back in shock, her face turning pale instantly.

“Don’t listen to his instigation!” Lin Che immediately stepped forward and supported her as she was about to fall. “He is dividing us and wants us to be suspicious of each other!”

"boom--!!"

An extremely heavy crash suddenly came from right above the bunker. The entire underground fortification shook violently, and concrete fragments and dust from the ceiling fell down, hitting people's heads and shoulders.

Lieutenant Cui rushed to the sensor and shouted nervously: "It's the Weaver's heavy detectors! They have penetrated the upper defense and found our exact location!"

Panic broke out among the crowd.

At this critical moment, the voice of “Ye” sounded again, cold and urgent: “Time is running out, Wanqing.

This time, make your choice in advance. At least two people can be saved... Otherwise, everyone will disappear completely in these few minutes."