Lu Chen's breath suddenly stopped, and he clenched his fists tightly, his knuckles crackling. He shook his head vigorously, trying to dispel the sound that had penetrated his bones.

"Shut up!" he roared in his heart.

"Resistance... is useless..." The voice carried a hint of inorganic sarcasm. "I am you... you are suppressed... the optimal solution... efficiency... power... eliminate interference... target: the Matrix..."

Interference? Lu Chen's mind instantly flashed with Wen Shifei's image: her bright eyes, her stubborn mouth, her back as she recklessly rushed towards danger... A sharp sting, accompanied by intense anger, suddenly rushed to his head.

"You—dare!" He practically uttered the words through gritted teeth, his body trembling slightly from the intense emotional turmoil. A cold, brutal, murderous intent, not his own, surged uncontrollably, instantly drowning out his anger, leaving only the urge for destruction. He wanted to smash everything in sight!

He suddenly jumped up from the bed, rushed to the simple metal washbasin in the corner, and turned on the rusty faucet. The icy cold water with the smell of rust rushed down. Without hesitation, he buried his head in it!

A piercing chill, like countless needles, instantly pierced his scalp and pierced into his chaotic, burning mind! He shuddered, his body's instinctive reaction temporarily overpowering the frantic murderous intent and icy whispers. Water flowed freely down his hair and cheeks, dripping onto his chest and the ground.

He leaned against the edge of the pool, breathing heavily, his chest heaving violently. The mirror reflected a wet face, pale, with bloodshot eyes. Deep within his eyes was a fierce struggle and a kind of exhaustion on the verge of collapse.

The cold voice fell silent, but Lu Cheneng knew it hadn't vanished. It simply lurked, like a venomous snake in the shadows, waiting for the moment his will weakened. The remnants of the chip were far more than just physical fragments. Like a living, corrosive virus, it was taking root and sprouting in the soil of his consciousness, attempting to distort, engulf, and ultimately replace him completely.

"Split personality..." Dr. Qin's solemn warning from earlier was still ringing in his ears. This wasn't just a medical description; it was the hell he was experiencing firsthand. A soul belonging to "Lu Chenentropy" was being torn apart and devoured by another, coldly efficient "weapon" born from chip logic.

He raised his head, water dripping down his jawline. The bloodshot eyes in the mirror stared back at him, as if trying to penetrate his skin and see who was truly in control. He needed an anchor. Something to pull him back from this icy abyss into which he was falling.

Shi Fei.

The name pierced the darkness of his consciousness like a faint but warm light. He had to find her. Now.

The torrent of information in the Firefly Community Center had calmed slightly, but the atmosphere remained tense. Lu Chensheng made his way through the crowd. His unusually pale face and the cold, oppressive aura he unconsciously emanated made the surrounding clamor subconsciously subside. People subconsciously made way for him, their gazes filled with awe and a subtle hint of worry. The condition of this "ghost" was visibly dire.

He ignored the stares and walked straight to the corner of the information processing area. Wen Shifei sat at a terminal, the screen's dim blue light illuminating her equally exhausted yet focused profile. Her slender fingers tapped rapidly on the virtual keyboard, accessing various encrypted data streams. Li Shuo and Dr. Qin stood behind her, expressions solemn.

"...We still can't establish a stable connection," Wen Shifei's voice cracked with frustration. "The physical isolation and electronic barriers in Pandora's core area are more complex than expected, like a nested iron tortoise shell. The 'key' authority fragments we currently have can only open the outermost layer, and they seem to have activated some kind of dynamic self-destruct protocol. Forcible cracking will trigger a chain reaction."

On the screen, a massive virtual structure composed of countless geometric modules slowly rotated, representing the core area of ​​Pandora Labs. Most of the area was shrouded in a glaring red warning shadow, with only a few narrow passages on the outermost edge flashing an unstable green.

"Time is not on our side," Li Shuo said in a low voice. "The remaining forces of the chaebol alliance are regrouping in the underground world. They will never sit idly by and watch us completely destroy Pandora. Every second of delay increases the risk exponentially."

Dr. Qin pushed his glasses up on his nose, his gaze piercing through the complex neural signal firewall modules. "The core area's defense mechanism is largely based on biological neural signal recognition and dynamic consciousness locks. Conventional electronic intrusions are unlikely to be effective. We need a... 'consciousness beacon.'"

"Consciousness beacon?" Wen Shifei frowned.

"Yes," Dr. Qin nodded. "An individual with sufficient authority, whose deep consciousness fluctuations can match certain preset locks in the core area, will serve as a living 'key' to guide our invasion path. This is usually a biometric backup of the person with the highest authority." He turned his gaze to Wen Shifei with inquiry, "Dr. Wen Yuan... As the chief researcher of the 'Zero' matrix, his level of authority..."

Wen Shifei's body stiffened imperceptibly. "Brother Wen Yuan..." This name was like a rusty key, bringing a dull pain with every turn. Her fingers curled up on the keyboard.

At that moment, Lu Cheneng approached her. He didn't speak, merely standing silently by her side, like a repressed statue. The cold, chaotic aura he exuded immediately caught Wen Shifei's attention. She looked up sharply, meeting his bloodshot eyes, their depths churning with painful struggle.

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