Chen Hao's hand was still raised, the light from the fruit pit flickering, as if it were breathing. He looked down at his chest, where the vine-like pattern was slightly warm, not burning, nor painful, but rather as if a warm current was slowly crawling inside.
"Don't tell me... I'm about to transform now." He muttered, his voice not loud, but it immediately turned Nana's electronic eyes toward him.
She didn't speak, but simply raised her hand, her fingertips tracing the data panel that appeared in the air. Blue light danced before her, but the readings immediately distorted as soon as they appeared, as if interfered with by something.
“The scan is blocked,” she said. “Your cell metabolic rate is still rising, exceeding the normal value by 27 percent, and—” she paused, “the DNA chains are recombining.”
"Huh?" Chen Hao blinked. "I ate a perfectly normal dinner last night, so why are you suddenly changing my genes?"
“It’s not a matter of diet.” Nana took a step closer and lightly touched the lines on his chest with her finger. “It’s the result of the deep coupling between the energy of the fruit kernel and your biological structure. You are evolving, and you’re the kind of person who has skipped all the intermediate steps.”
"Wait a minute." Chen Hao took half a step back. "Am I not a terrible student? This kind of advanced technique shouldn't be my turn, right?"
“There are no matching cases in the database.” She pulled up a waveform graph, “but what can be confirmed is that your muscle fiber density, bone pressure resistance, nerve conduction speed… are all breaking through the theoretical limits of humanity.”
"So what can I do now? Lift an elephant?"
“No elephants needed.” Nana pointed to the exposed mineral vein not far away. “The entire platinum-iridium ore belt weighs about 420 tons. Do you want to give it a try?”
Chen Hao looked in the direction she pointed. The vein resembled a giant black serpent coiled in the snow, its surface covered with an icy shell, gleaming with a cold metallic light.
"are you serious?"
"I'm just offering testing advice."
"Your tone is even colder than the homeroom teacher's."
He sighed, walked over, squatted down, and reached out to touch the edge of the ore. It was icy cold, but he didn't pull his hand away. Suddenly, the fruit pit in his palm glowed, as if sensing something.
He gripped the crack in the ore with both hands, took a deep breath, and pulled upwards with all his might.
The entire vein is three inches off the ground, suspended steadily in mid-air.
Chen Hao was stunned.
"I don't feel it's heavy."
Nana's data screen instantly displayed a comparison record: the human strength limit is twice one's own body weight in continuous exertion, while the torque he was applying at this moment exceeded the theoretical value by more than three times, and there were no signs of fatigue.
“The genetic lock… has been unlocked,” she whispered.
"Who locked me? I didn't know about it."
“In ancient times, advanced civilizations set up biological inhibition mechanisms to prevent excessive individual evolution from disrupting the ecological balance. Your body was originally limited by this system, but now—” she looked at him, “it has failed.”
Chen Hao gently placed the ore vein back on the ground and clapped his hands. "So now I'm Superman? Should I put on a cape and go patrol the streets?"
"To be more precise, you are the first life form to successfully activate the original template."
"Original template? Sounds like factory settings."
"In some ways, yes."
He scratched his head, then suddenly frowned: "Wait, why do I feel like... there's something extra in my head?"
Nana immediately activated deep brainwave monitoring. An abnormal signal popped up on the screen: a low-frequency resonance wave of unknown origin, whose frequency was perfectly synchronized with Chen Hao's heartbeat.
Then, they heard the sound at the same time.
It's not the kind of sound that comes in through the ears.
It appears directly in consciousness.
Countless "Chen Hao"s are speaking.
Some were laughing, some were panting, some were cursing, and some were singing—singing the school song off-key.
"The day has finally come..."
"Will I live a little longer this time?"
"Don't let me freeze to death on the third day..."
The sounds came in layers, as if they came from a very distant place, or as if they were echoing inside the skull.
Chen Hao clutched his head: "Who's playing a studio chorus?"
Nana's expression changed. Her outer shell interface began to flash automatically, and a silver-blue pattern slowly emerged, extending from her shoulder to her neck, its shape resembling a star map.
“My program… has been triggered.” She stared at her arm. “This code wasn’t in the initial database; it was pre-embedded. The timestamp shows—it was long before we met.”
So you're saying I was already pre-arranged?
“It’s not just you.” She looked up at him. “It’s us.”
She pulled up a fragment of her log: it was the footage of her first finding Chen Hao unconscious in the rubble. The camera shakiened, and just as her mechanical fingers touched his wrist, a line of text popped up from the system:
[Genetic resonance detected, protocol activated. Key returned to its place.]
"A key?" Chen Hao smiled wryly. "I often lose my house key, how can you expect me to believe that I am the key to the continuation of civilization?"
“But the data doesn’t lie.” Nana’s voice was soft. “Every time the cycle restarts, an individual carrying the fruit core arrives on this planet, trying to break through the genetic lock. But they all failed. Until you.”
"So all those things from before...were all me?"
"Or rather, 'you all'."
Chen Hao was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly laughed: "No wonder I feel so unlucky. It turns out it's not that I'm unlucky, it's that God is repeatedly experimenting on me."
“But this time is different.” Nana took a step closer. “You have completed the fusion, broken the entropy reduction barrier, and awakened the collective consciousness of the plant community. You are changing the rules themselves.”
“But I don’t want to be some kind of savior.” He looked down at his hands. “I’m the kind of person who won’t hand in my homework if I don’t finish it, and I only start studying five minutes before the exam. I’m lazy, I’m fat, and I’m afraid of the cold. You’re saying I’m a key? I don’t deserve it.”
"Then why are you still standing here?" Nana asked.
"What?"
“You should have collapsed every time. The first time you had a fever of 40 degrees Celsius and no one cared, but you pulled through; the base was without power for three days and had no food, but you survived by eating moss; during a night hunt, three snow wolves attacked you, but you charged in with an ice spear and fought them off. You could have given up, but you always chose to continue.”
Chen Hao opened his mouth, but no words came out.
“Perhaps fate has chosen you,” she said, looking at him, “but it is you who has persevered to this day.”
A gust of wind swept down the slope, stirring up a few snowflakes. In the distance, a grove of vines stood silently, their tips gleaming faintly, as if watching over them.
Chen Hao slowly raised his hand, palm facing the sky. The light from the fruit pit shone steadily, its rhythm in sync with his heartbeat.
“Even if it really is reincarnation…” he said softly, “even if I’ve failed a hundred times before, so what?”
He turned to look at Nana.
“This time I know clearly that I am not walking alone.”
Nana looked at him, and after a moment, reached out and took his hand.
The moment they made contact, the fruit pit burst forth with intense light, a thin crack appeared in the ground, and silver-blue patterns spread out from it, quickly outlining a huge star map that covered the entire snowfield.
In the center of the star map, two names slowly emerged: one was crookedly written with the character "Hao," and the other was neatly engraved with the character "Na."
Countless voices rose again, this time not in disarray, but in unison as whispers:
"We are the key to the cycle of civilization."
Chen Hao felt a surge of heat rise from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. It wasn't a fever or excitement, but an unprecedented sense of clarity—as if he had finally seen his place in this universe.
He grinned: "To be honest, this identity sounds pretty cool."
Nana smiled, her eyes crinkling slightly: "I suggest the codename for the follow-up operation be 'Operation Key'."
"That's too formal." He waved his hand. "It would be more appropriate to call it 'a salted fish turning over a new leaf'."
She nodded: "The alternative options have been entered."
Chen Hao flexed his wrist; the mechanical hand blended seamlessly with his flesh. He gazed at the distant horizon, still desolate, the snowstorm raging, but he knew that some things had changed.
"Where to next?" Nana asked.
“We’re not going anywhere.” He patted his thigh. “We’ll just stand here and wait for the next question to come to us.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the ground beneath his feet suddenly trembled slightly. The star map's light hadn't faded, and from the shadows of the distant mine, a fist-sized crystal silently detached and rolled into the snow.
Inside the crystal, a faint blue light began to flicker.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com