Lu Qingyi lay in a relatively isolated cell at the deepest end. Her face remained pale, but with a faint hint of life. Complex life-support equipment surrounded her, and the curves dancing on the screen showed that her vital signs were barely maintaining safe thresholds. However, her brow was furrowed, her eyes were moving rapidly beneath her lids, and a fine layer of cold sweat oozed from her forehead, as if she were trapped in an inescapable nightmare.

The depths of her consciousness were not filled with darkness, but a storm of broken, twisted, and bizarre fragments.

The icy cold operating table and shadowless lamp... the crisp sound of metal instruments colliding... the excruciating pain of skin being cut and bones being sawed off... and... her father Lu Qiming's cold face looking down at her, with no human warmth in his eyes, only the scrutiny and fanaticism as if he were looking at a precision instrument!

"Qingyi, your theory is perfect... 'Resonance' is the key to controlling the power of the 'Ark'... But the key needs the most suitable carrier..." Lu Qiming's cold voice echoed in the fragments of memory.

"No...Father...stop...this is not...evolution..." The young Lu Qingyi cried weakly and full of fear.

"Evolution? No, my daughter. This is... control. Control is enough to create a new world and destroy the old world." Lu Qiming's face distorted and enlarged in the memory, and finally turned into the dazzling cold light of a scalpel!

"Ugh!" Lu Qingyi, lying on the bed, suddenly arched her body and let out a short, painful scream. Her eyes suddenly opened! Her pupils were dilated with extreme fear and pain, and she was gasping for breath.

"Qingyi! Qingyi, are you awake?!" Xiaolin, who had been guarding the bed and also looked haggard, rushed to the bedside in surprise and held her cold hand tightly.

Lu Qingyi's eyes were blank for a few seconds before slowly focusing on Xiaolin's worried face. A pounding headache and a tingling, itchy pain deep within her body, like countless ants gnawing at a chip interface, made her tremble all over. "Xiaolin... How... How long have I been asleep? Brother... Where's Sister Shi Fei?" Her voice was weak and hoarse.

"Not long, not long! Brother Lu and Sister Wen just came back not long ago, they..." Xiaolin's voice suddenly stopped, and a trace of panic flashed across her face.

"What happened to them?" Lu Qingyi's heart sank suddenly. She struggled to sit up, but the severe pain and weakness in her body pinned her to the hospital bed.

At that moment, the entire deep shelter shook violently! Dust rustled overhead! Without warning, a shrill alarm wailed! A red rotating light instantly replaced the pale emergency lights, stained the entire space with an ominous blood-red hue!

"Warning! An ultra-high energy 'Ark' attack has been detected! Target: Old Town coordinates XXX, XXX! Energy level: World-destroying level! The shock wave is expected to reach the fortress in thirty seconds!" The "beacon" broadcasting system inside the shelter could not conceal its urgency and solemnity even with the cold metallic sound!

"Old town?! That's where Brother Lu and the others went!" Xiaolin's face turned pale as paper in an instant!

Lu Qingyi's heart felt like it was being gripped by an icy hand! Brother! Sister Shi Fei! Those coordinates... are the abandoned factory! Father... he deployed the Ark's direct attack! To destroy my brother and the others... or rather, to destroy the key left by Wen Yuan?

"No... I can't..." Her utter fear was instantly overcome by an even more powerful force! The fragments of memories that had tormented her repeatedly in nightmares—the cold laboratory, her father's whispers, the excruciating pain of the chip implant, and the sealed, icy data streams pertaining to the true core of Project Zero—burst through the final barrier like a flood, pouring clearly into her consciousness!

"Number Zero... isn't genetically optimized..." Lu Qingyi's voice trembled, yet it carried a determination to risk everything. She grasped Xiaolin's hand tightly, her nails almost digging into her flesh. "It's... a biological weapon! Father... used the signal band of the 'Ark'... combined with the 'Reaper' biological weapon gene template excavated from ancient ruins... and through the 'Number Zero' protocol... created a fully controlled... killing machine!"

Xiao Lin was completely stunned, as if struck by lightning: "Biochemical weapons?!"

"Everyone who has a 'Zero' chip implanted... is a potential weapon! As long as my father... uses the main control chip... which is the one in my body..." Lu Qingyi pointed painfully at the chip interface on the back of her neck, her eyes filled with fear and hatred, "...sends a specific 'harvest' command... they... will become monsters that only know how to kill! Eliminate all... life forms that are not part of the chaebol sequence! This is... the truth of the 'New Era Trial'!"

"And I..." Lu Qingyi's voice was filled with endless sorrow. "I am not only the key to activating all the 'weapons'... My genetic sequence... is also the key to stabilizing and amplifying the 'Reaper' template... Father needs me alive... as the core hub for him to control this world-destroying army!"

The World-Destroying Army! Harvest Order! The Core Hub!

Xiaolin's mind went blank after being shocked by the bloody truth, and the immense fear made her body cold!

"Quick! Take me to the main console! Take me to the 'beacon'!" Lu Qingyi burst out with strength from nowhere, struggling to remove the IV tube and monitoring probe from her body. "The fortress's defense system... has a backdoor protocol for the 'resonance virus' left behind by Sister Wen Shifei! Maybe... maybe it can interfere with the 'Ark's' attack! Even if... it can only buy a few seconds!"

"But your body..." Xiaolin looked at Lu Qingyi's pale face and shaky body, feeling extremely anxious.

"There's no time! Go!" Lu Qingyi screamed, her eyes burning with desperate fire, "Brother and the others... are still there!"

Lighthouse Command Center.

My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!