The wall is shaking.
It wasn't an illusion. The vibration crept up from her feet, like something churning deep within the mountain. The main unit's screen flickered, and a red light swept across Nana's face.
She didn't look up, her fingers still sliding across the interface. A thin wire connected her wrist to the dilapidated mainframe, and data was flowing through her body faster than her heartbeat.
The words "Don't touch the Earth's core" are still on the wall, carved so deeply that when a torch shines on them, they look like a crack.
Chen Hao stared at the words for three seconds, then turned and walked behind Nana. "How is it?"
“The system has restarted,” she said, “but not locally. The signal is coming from three thousand meters underground.”
Who posted this?
“I don’t know.” She paused for a moment, “but it activated the log recovery program.”
Susan walked over from the corner, holding a yellowed piece of paper in her hand. "This place has indeed been visited. I found a handwritten record, dated three years ago. It says, 'Last patrol, energy network fluctuations abnormal, recommended to be reported.'"
Carl leaned against the doorframe, his breathing heavier than before. "They discovered it three years ago, and then what? Nobody did anything?"
“They’ve taken care of it,” Nana said. “They shut down the main control module. But the backup power supply wasn’t cut off, and the underlying protocols continued to run.”
"So it woke up on its own now?" Chen Hao grinned. "Pretty dedicated, actually."
“I didn’t wake up,” Nana shook her head. “I was woken up by someone.”
The air went still for a moment.
"Who?" Susan asked.
“Uncertain.” Nana pulled up a waveform graph. “This frequency… doesn’t belong to any known communication method. But it closely matches the time we entered the cave.”
Chen Hao chuckled. "You mean, it received the message the moment we came in?"
“It’s possible,” she said. “Our movements triggered some kind of sensory mechanism.”
Carl slammed his fist against the wall. "Damn. So, are we marked now?"
“Most likely,” Nana said, looking at the screen. “And…it’s started transmitting data.”
"To whom should it be sent?"
"I don't know." She tapped her fingers quickly a few times, "but I can intercept a part of it."
Chen Hao squatted down, hands on his knees. "Then hurry up and see what's going to happen."
Nana closed her eyes. Blue light flickered beneath her eyelids, like internal parts spinning at high speed.
A few seconds later, she opened her eyes.
“A tsunami,” she said.
"What?"
“The continued amplification of the Earth’s core resonance will trigger a regional tsunami within 72 hours.” She pulled up a map. “The affected area exceeds 100 kilometers. The base is located within the first impact zone.”
Chen Hao didn't speak. He looked down at his hands, then looked up at Nana.
Are you sure?
“The data comes from raw logs,” she said. “It’s not a simulation, it’s an early warning record. The original text was—'Expected to trigger within 72 hours, evacuation window only 48 hours left.'”
Susan suddenly stood up straight. "Then what are we still doing here?"
“Wait.” Karl raised his hand. “Those beasts outside haven’t dispersed yet, and the sea is quite rough. If we leave now, it’s hard to say whether the ship will even make it halfway.”
“If we don’t leave, we’ll be doomed.” Chen Hao stood up. “When the tsunami comes, we won’t even need to repair the boat; we can just use it as driftwood.”
“The problem is,” Susan pointed to the main unit, “that since this machine can send signals, isn’t there another way to notify the base? Like remote transmission?”
“No,” Nana said. “All external channels have been cut off. The only way to output is through physical transmission.”
"Then the only option is for them to go back." Chen Hao slammed his hand on the table. "Who disagrees?"
No one said a word.
Carl took a breath. "It's not that I don't want to leave. It's that I'm afraid I won't be able to. My wound was just re-bandaged, and I can't hold on for much longer."
“You don’t need to pole,” Chen Hao said. “You can sit at the stern. I’ll take the helm.”
"Do we have enough fuel?"
"We have to keep going even if it's not enough," he said. "At worst, we can catch fish and drink their blood to keep ourselves alive."
Susan rolled her eyes. "Can't you say something more reasonable?"
“I’m serious.” Chen Hao grinned. “If I’m hungry, I’ll eat fish; if I’m thirsty, I’ll drink rainwater. Anyway, dying on the road is better than being slapped into a meat patty by the waves.”
Nana suddenly raised her hand. "Wait."
She stared at the screen, the blue light flashing faster.
“I’ve discovered another problem,” she said. “This site…is not operating independently.”
"What's the meaning?"
“I found traces of relays in the signal.” She pulled up a topology map. “There are three similar sites in different locations. Their energy patterns are exactly the same.”
“In other words,” Susan said slowly, “this is not an observation post.”
“They are network nodes,” Nana nodded. “And they form a triangle. The center point is this island.”
Chen Hao snorted. "So we didn't step on a switch, we stepped on the bullseye?"
“Accurate,” she said.
Carl, supporting himself against the wall, slowly slid down to sit on the floor. "Have you ever wondered... why aren't all these stations broken? They've been abandoned for ages."
“Because someone is maintaining them,” Nana said. “Or, someone needs them to keep working.”
"who?"
"I don't know." She shook her head. "But their purpose might be different from that of the people who originally built the website."
Chen Hao let out a breath. "Who cares who he is. The problem now is that we need to get back to base before the tsunami hits and tell everyone to run."
“The premise is,” Susan said, looking at the mainframe, “that this data can be taken out of the country.”
“I’m backing up,” Nana said, “but the system interference is too strong. I can only extract fragments.”
How much of it is useful?
“We have obtained two key pieces of information.” She pulled them up: “One is a tsunami prediction model, and the other is the operational instructions for the Earth’s core balance mechanism. Although incomplete, they are sufficient to determine the risk level.”
"Is there anything else?"
Susan bent down and picked up a metal box. "This cabinet wasn't locked. Inside were some chip cards and paper documents. The label said 'Emergency Technical Files'."
She opened the top document and frowned. "This manual explains how to synthesize high-density fuels from common minerals. Although it's only the first half, the principles are explained very clearly."
"Then there's hope!" Chen Hao leaned over to take a look. "If we can find some temporary fuel along the way, we can increase our speed significantly."
"The prerequisite is that you can find the materials," she said, "and you have to know how to operate them."
"Aren't you a robot?" Chen Hao looked at Nana. "Is there a relevant entry in the database?"
"Yes," she said, "but practical operation requires experimental conditions. Under the current circumstances, the success rate is less than 40%."
"Forty percent is not bad," Chen Hao laughed. "It's better than slacking off."
Carl struggled to his feet. "Then hurry up and pack your things. Take more useful things and less of the burdens."
“I’ll handle the data transfer,” Nana said. “You guys are in charge of packaging.”
She unplugged the connector, took out a palm-sized scanner, and began scanning the documents page by page. After scanning each page, she imported it into her internal storage.
Susan stuffed the remaining documents into a waterproof box. The box was metal, had a sealing ring, and looked quite sturdy.
“Here, you can carry this,” she said, handing the suitcase to Carl.
"I'm injured," he muttered.
“You can still walk,” Chen Hao said. “It’s not like I’m asking you to carry stones.”
“I’m afraid it will break.” Carl took the box. “If it explodes inside, we’ll all be killed.”
“It won’t explode.” Nana said without looking up. “All the media have been stabilized. It won’t be damaged unless struck by lightning.”
"That's good." Carl tightened his backpack strap. "I don't want to die at the last hurdle."
Chen Hao walked to the host computer and took one last look at the screen.
The red light was still flashing, and the frequency was getting faster and faster.
"Is it going to explode?" Susan asked.
“It’s not an explosion,” Nana said. “It’s entering an irreversible activation phase. The system is about to completely break free from human control.”
"Then what?"
“Continue sending signals,” she said. “The target is unknown. But the intensity will continue to increase.”
"Will this cause more trouble?"
“The possibility is very high.” She nodded. “So we must leave as soon as possible.”
Chen Hao picked up the torch and walked towards the door.
The others followed.
Nana was the last to get up. She unplugged the scanner and tucked it into her sleeve. Her blue-light eyes resumed their normal flickering.
"Data backup complete," she said. "All usable information has been transferred."
"Then let's go." Chen Hao stood at the cave entrance and glanced back at the main unit.
The screen suddenly went black for a moment, then a line of text appeared:
[WARNING: Earth's core intervention process is being restarted]
The next second, the entire wall began to shake.
Dust fell from the top, making a soft thud as it hit the casing of the main unit.
Susan tugged at her backpack. "If we don't leave now, the door will collapse."
Chen Hao stepped out of the cave.
The others followed closely behind.
Just as Carl stepped across the threshold, a muffled thud came from behind him.
It sounded like some kind of mechanical lock-up.
They turned around.
The half-open metal door slowly closed.
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