The cold probe pierced my spinal cord, bringing soul-wrenching pain.

And at this moment, a deeper, older cold is spreading outward from deep in my bones.

It is like billions of awakened ice worms, gnawing at my flesh and reshaping my nerves.

"High-dimensional logic intrusion detected...Carrier compatibility 97.8%...Entropy...Awakening Protocol...Start..." The voice did not come from the outside world, but the resonance of my own skull.

Jiang Li's bloodshot eyes were fixed on the strange golden lines spreading on the back of my neck, and the muzzle of the gun in his hand was shaking.

"You're not Lin Xi... What are you?!"

Outside the window, a hundred-meter-high black wall was crushing the wreckage of the cross-sea bridge, carrying tens of thousands of tons of steel and countless screams, and slamming down on this burning intelligent cemetery!

Darkness is not the end.

When the dying beast-like wailing of the air raid alarm penetrated the thick alloy walls of the control room, and when the backup emergency lights struggled to light up in the thick smoke like a candle in the wind, casting a pale green, swaying, ghostly light spot, I truly understood the meaning of the dome collapse.

This darkness is the grave of the old order and the placenta of the new hell.

"Ugh… cough cough…" A searing pain shot through the back of my neck, where the neural interface had been forcibly removed. Every heartbeat tugged at the bloody wound, a reminder of the horror of my consciousness being torn apart by a torrent of data and crushed by an icy will. I huddled in the corner of the cold, scratched metal wall, each gasp carrying the rusty, bloody taste of iron, my throat on fire. My body felt like it was being torn apart and reassembled, every bone groaning, every muscle twitching in uncontrollable, tiny spasms. The world before me spun and blurred. The pale green halo of the emergency lights, like will-o'-the-wisp, twisted and danced in the thick smoke and dust, illuminating Jiang Li, the remaining team member, and the remains of the "Scavenger-III" robot, temporarily disabled by the pulse weapon, its joints sparking with electricity, like silhouettes in a hellish scene.

"Lin Xi! Lin Xi! Look at me!" Jiang Li's voice, with an unprecedented hoarseness and anxiety, pierced the tinnitus in my ears. He half-knelt before me, his face stained with blood and sweat. His eyes, always sharp as an eagle's, were now bloodshot like spiderwebs, swirling with the exhaustion of surviving a catastrophe, a deep-seated vigilance, and a hint of...incredible terror. One hand pressed firmly against the artery on the side of my neck, the force nearly shattering my bones. The other gripped his high-energy pulse pistol. Though the muzzle was down, the knuckles on his finger on the trigger were white from the pressure. The veins on the back of his hand were knotted like a coiled venomous snake.

His eyes were fixed on the back of my neck.

Without warning, a bone-chilling chill crept up my spine, instantly drowning out the burning pain of the wound. It wasn't a physical chill; it was a profound sense of rejection and fear, a feeling of being invaded by a foreign entity, emanating from the very core of my being. I raised my hand, my trembling fingers groping for the hot, sticky skin at the back of my neck.

The touch... feels wrong!

No longer smooth human skin! A strange, subtle graininess emanated from beneath my fingertips, as if countless tiny, cold metal grains were buried beneath my skin! Even more terrifying, an extremely faint, yet remarkably clear, humming sound, like the sound of precision machinery, was passing through my finger bones and directly "beating" on my auditory nerves! No, not hearing it, but feeling it! The sound was coming from within me!

"Detected...high-dimensional logic intrusion..." A cold, flat electronic synthesized sound, like the friction of the purest ice crystals, echoed without warning within my skull! It wasn't transmitted through my ears, but resonated and roared directly through my cerebral cortex! Each syllable carried an inhuman, absolute precision, slicing through my consciousness like a scalpel. "Carrier...physiological parameter scan...synaptic activity...compatibility...97.8%...meets the expected threshold..."

My blood instantly froze! My pupils dilated with extreme fear!

"Entropy... Awakening Protocol... Activate..." That cold voice pronounced the verdict again.

Buzz——!!!

An indescribable, icy, liquid-metal-like "consciousness" instantly surged from the very depths of my consciousness, from the depths of every cell! With an unimaginable sense of antiquity and immensity, it coldly washed over, covered, and even... attempted to erase my existence as "Lin Xi"! Countless incomprehensible symbols, geometric structures, and icy logical chains, like fragments from the Big Bang, forcibly poured into the core of my consciousness!

"No! Get out!" I let out a hysterical, inhuman scream! My hands frantically scratched at my neck, my nails digging into the strangely cold skin, trying to dig out the intruding thing! My body twitched and struggled violently like a fish out of water!

"Lin Xi!!" Jiang Li was horrified and tried to hold me down.

"Don't touch her!!" A surviving team member nearby screamed in fear, subconsciously raising the muzzle of his gun and pointing it at me! He saw it! Everyone saw it!

As I struggled and twisted violently, beneath the pale green light of the emergency light behind my neck, a complex, precise, and living golden pattern emerged from the wound at the neural interface. Like a frantic, cold vine, it spread along the skin of my cervical spine, upward to my hairline, and down into the depths of my collar! The pattern wasn't a static tattoo. Within it flowed extremely faint, yet clearly visible streams of golden light, like data racing on a circuit board! Each movement of the light was accompanied by a violent spasm in my body and the cold electronic sound within my skull!

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