"Little bell! Data cable! Hurry!" Wen Shifei's voice was rapid and hoarse.

Xiao Lingling quickly dug out a universal data cable from the nearby pile of supplies and handed it over. Wen Shifei's fingers trembled violently from the blood loss and excitement. She took a deep breath, forced herself to calm down, and quickly connected one end of the data cable to the terminal and the other end to the backup port on the portable communication terminal in the safe house.

The screen flashes and data begins to transfer.

The room was completely silent, save for Lu Chen's faint, painful breathing and the subtle hum of the terminal reading data. Old Li, Xiao Lingling, and the man with glasses all held their breath, nervously watching Wen Shifei's operation.

The progress bar crawled across the screen.

5%…10%…30%…70%…

finally!

"drop!"

A crisp prompt sound! The folder is successfully unlocked!

Wen Shifei's heart was in her throat! She used all her strength to click on the most recent data packet of Wen Yuan's consciousness just before he blew himself up!

A flood of complex dynamic neural mapping diagrams, stream-of-consciousness waveforms, and encrypted log files instantly popped up on the screen. Wen Shifei's gaze, like the most sophisticated scanner, swiftly scanned the incomprehensible data streams. Suddenly, her gaze fixed on a line at the end of the log file, specially marked, a line as cold as a will:

[Consciousness core anchoring program activated... Target locked: Pandora's main server array...]

[Core data uploading... Upload progress: 97.8%... Physical interruption encountered...]

[Warning: The consciousness core has been locked in the physical storage unit of the main server! Forced stripping will cause permanent damage to the core data!]

Buzz!

Wen Shifei felt his mind went blank!

Wen Yuan's core consciousness... hadn't been fully backed up! At the last moment, he detonated himself to disrupt "Zero" while attempting to upload and transfer his core consciousness, but it was physically interrupted! His final core consciousness... was forever locked away in the physical storage unit of Pandora Labs' main server! And that storage unit... was now buried hundreds of meters below, along with the remains of "Zero"'s mother body, in the bottom floor of the collapsing laboratory!

Hope… had barely ignited when it was completely extinguished by these cold words! A huge despair, like an icy tide, instantly overwhelmed her! She could even sense her brother's regret and unwillingness in his final moments, conveyed through these cold words.

"No... no..." Wen Shifei murmured absentmindedly, his fingers sliding weakly from the terminal, his body falling backwards as if all the strength had been drained away.

Just then—

“Uh…ah!”

A suppressed groan of great pain suddenly came from the bed next to him!

Wen Shifei turned his head suddenly!

Lu Cheneng, who had been unconscious, was seen convulsing violently! His uninjured hand clutched his head tightly, his knuckles turning bluish-white from the excessive force! His brows were tightly knit together, and his facial muscles were twisted, as if he was enduring unimaginable pain! His forehead was instantly covered with cold sweat!

What made Wen Shifei's heart stop was his eyes!

Those eyes, previously blank and vacant, suddenly snapped open! The pupils contracted and then expanded violently! Deep within his eyes, there was no longer a blankness, but a turbulent storm of chaotic, shattered images! It was as if something had been forcibly awakened and torn apart from the ruins of his formatted consciousness!

His unfocused gaze swept across the room, finally, fixed on the flickering screen of the portable terminal in Wen Shifei's hand! The cold text that announced that Wen Yuan's consciousness was locked was emitting a faint light.

Lu Chen's bloodstained face was twisted in agony. He stared intently at the light, a hoarse sound emanating from his throat, like the creaking of an old bellows. His cracked lips trembled violently, as if he were desperately trying to grasp at some fragment that was about to dissipate completely.

Finally, a few broken, hoarse syllables were squeezed out from between his clenched teeth:

"...Wen...Yuan...?"

The moment the name uttered, the chaotic storm in his eyes seemed to reach its peak! He suddenly raised his uninjured hand and pressed it firmly and forcefully against his aching temple. His body curled up into a ball, and he let out an even more painful roar, as if the name itself was the key to unlock the gates of hell!

There was deathly silence in the room.

Everyone was stunned by this sudden change. Old Li and Little Bell stared at Lu Chenhang, who was struggling in pain, and then at Wen Shifei, who was also shocked and speechless.

Wen Shifei looked at Lu Chensheng's face which was twisted by severe pain, looked at the chaotic storm churning in his eyes, looked at the name he uttered with difficulty... an idea exploded in her heart like thunder!

Formatting erased his memory, but... it couldn't erase the mark etched deep within his soul! Wen Yuan! This name, this shared experience of unforgettable pain and sacrifice, was like a giant anchor sunk beneath the depths of his consciousness. Under the stimulation of the keyword "Wen Yuan" and the cold data, it was violently stirring his blank sea of ​​consciousness!

This pain... is the fragments of memory trying to break free from the shackles of formatting!

"Lu Cheneng..." Wen Shifei's voice trembled with disbelief. She struggled to the bedside and tightly grasped his cold and trembling hand that was pressed on her head. "You...you remember? Wen Yuan...Wen Yuan..."

Lu Chensheng suddenly raised his head!

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