When Mou Xuan kicked open the iron door of the technical room, Chen Yao was applying hemostatic gel on the seams of Engineer Yin's protective clothing that was bleeding.

The entire electronic sandbox was flashing red light. The red dots in the shape of DNA chains that penetrated the permafrost were multiplying at a speed of three kilometers per second. The beeping sound of particles coming from the medical area made the ceiling rustle.

"Thirteen minutes ago, the slime creatures broke through the second buffer layer." Expert Xing tore off the mechanical prosthetic eye and threw it on the operating table. The energy core glowing blue was humming in the glass cover. "The resonator overclocked and caused the prosthetic eye's neural docking system to overheat. Mr. Yin, is the defense matrix you designed a sieve?"

Engineer Yin's knuckles turned white as he clutched the blueprint. The cracks on his protective mask made him look like a fallen piece of porcelain. "Who insisted on superimposing high-frequency shock waves? Now the energy overload has burned through..."

"Enough." Mou Xuan opened his collar to breathe, and the metallic luster of the ice pattern flowing behind his ears cast five shadows in the reflection of the glass.

He grabbed Expert Xing's energy core and pressed it into the defense matrix console. Amid the flying sparks, a muffled groan from Chen Yao was heard - the girl had climbed up the ventilation duct at some point and was using the handle of her dagger to grab a squirming gelatinous mass.

A holographic projection suddenly popped up on the operating table, and seven rotating DNA chains condensed into a giant helix in the nitrogen mist in the medical area.

Mou Xuan glanced at the blueprint that Yin Gong was tremblingly unfolding, and his blood-stained fingertips suddenly stopped at a certain energy node: "Old Xing, use your particle acceleration module to replace the energy storage tank in the third buffer zone."

"Are you crazy?" Expert Xing tore off two pieces of burnt wire. "That thing is used to..."

"Now it is a space-time rift stabilizer." Mou Xuan kicked open the smoking distribution box, and the bright red hole marks on Yin Gong's drawings suddenly reorganized on his retina.

When the gelatinous mass cut off by Chen Yao fell on the sand table, he grabbed the rhodium magnetic thunder treasured by Expert Xing and stuffed it into Engineer Yin's hand: "The detonation equivalent should be controlled within..."

The entire building suddenly shook violently, and the emergency lights exploded into blue ice crystals above everyone's heads.

Engineer Yin rushed to the observation window and gasped - those DNA chain-like objects were extending countless hairs from the nitrogen mist in the medical area, and the tip of each hair was flashing purple light with the same frequency as the space-time rift.

"They are analyzing the defense wavelength!" Chen Yao swung out the dagger and pierced the second group of slime creatures. The blood seeping from the gauze on the back of the waist spread on the protective suit. "Mou Xuan, the permafrost pressure value!"

A blinding electric arc suddenly burst out from the operating table, and black smoke began to billow from the three particle accelerators collected by expert Xing at the same time.

Engineer Yin watched the defense nodes he designed go out one by one, and suddenly grabbed the rhodium magnetic thunder and rushed to the main switch: "Old Xing! Call up all the..."

A deafening explosion sounded from underground, and all screens went black instantly.

Chen Yao crashed into the pile of supply boxes during the violent shaking. When she looked up, she saw the ice pattern behind Mou Xuan's ear spreading to his collarbone - the flowing metallic luster was swallowing up the flying sparks.

"The space-time rift has shrunk by 0.7%, and the growth rate of slime organisms has dropped by 15%." Expert Xing suddenly lifted up half of the screen from the ruins, and the energy core of the mechanical prosthetic eye made a buzzing sound in his palm, indicating that it was on the verge of collapse. "But the defense matrix..."

A series of blue sparks suddenly burst out from the remaining circuits on the operating table, and a scream beyond the range of human hearing penetrated the wall.

The rhodium magnetic thunder counter in Yin Gong's hand began to count down frantically, and Chen Yao suddenly found that the handle of her dagger was melting - the corpses of those slime creatures were oozing fluorescent green liquid and crawling along the metal bracket towards the core processor of the main control console.

"Old Xing's energy core is overloaded!" Just as Yin Gong was about to pounce, the entire row of defense nodes suddenly vaporized in a dazzling blue light.

The wreckage of the particle accelerator treasured by Expert Xing was suspended in the strong magnetic field, like seven sharp swords pointing to the increasingly bright energy ball in the center of the operating table.

Mou Xuan suddenly pressed the ice pattern behind his ear, and a translucent scale that only time-sensitive people could see appeared on his retina.

When the first particle accelerator fragment flew past his temple, he saw the slow motion of Chen Yao rushing towards Yin Gong, saw the data stream bursting out of Expert Xing's mechanical prosthetic eye, and saw the fluorescent liquid secreted by the slime creatures seeping into the sixth-layer encryption circuit of the main control console -

(Continued from the main text)

The ice pattern behind Mou Xuan's ear suddenly exploded with silver light, and the translucent scales that were beating on his retina suddenly solidified into a spider web shape.

The flying metal fragments hovered in front of Expert Xing's bloodshot eyes, and Chen Yao's ponytail, which was lifted by the air wave, still maintained its wavy curve.

The fluorescent green liquid exuded by the slime creatures hung in the air like a string of poisonous jade beads.

He tore open his burnt collar, and the metallic luster flowing under his skin became even more dazzling in the static time and space.

The sixth-layer encrypted circuit of the main control console was oozing lavender mist—the fluorescent liquid secreted by those slimy creatures was actually corroding the space-time rift stabilizer.

His fingertips brushed over the suspended debris of the particle accelerator, and the surface of the titanium alloy melted by the high temperature reflected the ice-blue code stream jumping in his pupils.

"Seventeen breakpoints, and three sets of energy circuits are reversed." Mou Xuan tore off the sparking transmission pipeline and used the fragments of the rhodium magnetic thunder shell collected by expert Xing as a temporary welding gun.

When he stuffed the dropped blueprint by Yin Gong back into the engineer's trembling palm, he caught a glimpse of the blood seeping from the gauze on Chen Yao's lower back, which had frozen into ice crystals - cryogenic spores from the permafrost had mixed into the girl's wound.

The moment time resumed flowing, Expert Xing stumbled to the main control console and asked, "Has the defense matrix been restarted?

Engineer Yin, when did you repair it... " His mechanical prosthetic eye suddenly burst out with a stream of data, and the rotating DNA chain in the holographic projection of the operating table was folding at a strange angle.

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