Chapter 273 Sound Wave Controller "Melody"
The woman in the white dress took another step forward. Her singing voice was like a fine needle, piercing Su Wanqing's temple.
The sound did not ring in my ears, but in my brain, and every note brought a dull pain.
"The Time Observer has already foreseen your arrival. What a futile resistance."
The woman opened her mouth, her lips stretched wide, and there was no light in her dark eyes.
Just as Su Wanqing's fingers touched the earphone wire, the woman shook her head gently: "It's useless. My voice doesn't need to pass through your ears, but directly affects your brain."
Lin Che suddenly let out a muffled roar. His scales had already crawled up to his chin, and his Adam's apple rolled beneath them. "You're not a weaver."
"Of course not." The woman smiled. "The Time Observer and the Weaver are only temporary partners. We each have our own goals."
She turned to Lin Che, her white dress sweeping across the metal railings at the edge of the pool. "Especially you, who have begun to transform, yet are still resisting. You are truly a fascinating specimen—a blend of the Weaver's abilities while retaining human consciousness."
Lin Che dug her nails deep into her palms, blood seeping from the gaps between the blue scales. "What do you want to open?"
"It's not an opening, it's a closure." The woman tilted her head. "Some possibilities that shouldn't exist."
Xiao Ran's forehead was covered in sweat. His right hand was on the switch of the electric shock glove, and his fingers were shaking like a cramp.
This was the third time he tried to press the switch - the first two times he had been so overwhelmed by the singing that he could not lift his arms.
"Impressive willpower, but that's all." The woman glanced at him and her singing suddenly rose.
Xiao Ran felt like there was a millstone pressing on his head, and his knees were bending down.
He bit his back teeth and tasted the taste of blood and rust. His military instinct shouted in his mind: Don't fall, don't expose your teammates.
Su Wanqing reached for the noise-isolating earplugs in her tactical bag. She quietly pushed them toward Xiao Ran, and as her fingertips brushed the back of his hand, she felt a fine layer of cold sweat.
Xiao Ran's finger finally touched the switch. With a slight "click", a light blue arc appeared on the surface of the glove.
"Lu Zhao, Xiaoling, where are you?" Su Wanqing asked softly into the headset.
"Twenty meters to go." Lu Zhao's voice was breathless. "We carried jammers. She used ultrasound to directly stimulate the temporal lobe of the brain."
Xiaoling's voice interrupted: "Brother Lu, my blood is useful for the Weaver's technique, maybe it will be useful for her too."
The door of the processing center was thrown open. Lu Zhao rushed in carrying a silver jammer, and Xiao Ling followed behind him, holding a blood collection needle in her hand.
"Frequency 21700 Hz!" Lu Zhao shouted and pressed the jammer switch.
The sharp beeping sound mixed into the woman's singing, like two strings entangled together.
Su Wanqing's temples suddenly felt relieved, and she quickly distributed the earplugs to Xiao Ran and Lin Che.
"Interesting equipment." The woman's dark eyes narrowed. Her voice suddenly changed pitch, like nails scraping across a blackboard, and the beeping of the jammer faded.
"She's adapting to the frequency!" Sweat broke out on Lu Zhao's forehead. "The parameters are changing, hurry up—"
Xiaoling put the blood collection needle into her fingertip. As soon as the blood drop appeared, she pressed it against the amplifier port of the jammer.
Silver liquid oozed out of her wound and crawled into the machine along the metal lines.
The jammer made a "buzzing" sound, and the sound waves it emitted turned silver-white, like a thin blade of light slashing straight towards the woman.
"Impossible!" The woman covered her ears and staggered back, the hem of her white skirt knocking over the equipment next to her.
Lin Che took the opportunity to rush over to the pool and plunged his hands into the blue liquid.
Blue ripples spread from his palm. The water in the pool began to clear, as if the color had been drained away.
Lin Che's scales crawled up his neck like crazy, and the blue veins on his forehead bulged like earthworms.
"The pollution source has been neutralized." Lin Che stood up shakily, but fell to the ground before he finished speaking.
The woman's silhouette began to fade. She leaned against the wall and sneered, "You think this will stop evolution? Naive! The Weaver's seeds have been sown, and the Time Observer foresees a future where extinction and rebirth are the only paths."
There was a flicker of light and shadow, and she disappeared.
"Xiao Ling!" Xiao Ran suddenly yelled.
A blade of light shot out from where the woman disappeared, heading straight for Xiaoling's heart.
A red light flashed in Xiao Ran's pupils, and he pounced forward like an enraged leopard, knocking Xiao Ling into the pile of instruments next to him.
The light blade brushed across his back, tearing the cloth and causing blood to seep out immediately.
"Are you okay?" Xiaoling crawled out from the pile of instruments, her voice trembling.
Xiao Ran stood up by holding onto the wall, the wound on his back still bleeding: "I'm fine."
His voice was very hoarse.
Lu Zhao took out the medical kit: "Let me see." He lifted up Xiao Ran's tactical uniform. The edge of the wound was glowing with a faint red light, and it was healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"You never mentioned that you have this ability before." Lu Zhao paused with his hand holding the cotton swab.
Xiao Ran looked down at his wound and was silent for a long moment. "During the military experiment, they injected something into my body. This happens sometimes, especially...especially when I'm nervous."
Su Wanqing squatted down to check Lin Che's pulse. His scales were still there, but his breathing had become more stable.
She looked up at Xiao Ran: "The system may not have chosen us just because of our combat power."
Xiao Ran remained silent, staring at the back of his hand, which was bleeding. Drops of blood fell to the ground, emitting a faint red glow under the light.
When the water plant's alarm sounded, Su Wanqing's earplugs were still hanging on her earlobes.
She unzipped her tactical bag and stuffed the last two tubes of samples into Lu Zhao's arms: "Let's go."
Xiao Ran had already bent down and carried Lin Che on his back. Lin Che's blue scales rubbed against the shoulder straps of his tactical uniform, making a slight scraping sound.
Su Wanqing glanced at the vent in the corner of the wall - that was the route they came from, now illuminated by the searchlight.
"The helicopter has circled the wall three times." Xiao Ling whispered against the glass, her fingertips pressing against the earphone. "Lu Zhao checked, and the military sealed off the perimeter of the water plant half an hour ago."
"Return to the parking spot along the same route." Su Wanqing flipped the switch of the electric shock gloves to the constant on position. "Quick."
The five of them crouched as they made their way through the maintenance passage. The metal staircase clanged beneath their feet. Su Wanqing counted the steps, and just as she had landed firmly on the seventh step, Xiao Ran suddenly stopped.
"The tires." His voice was muffled in Lin Che's hair. "They're all scratched."
The four tires of the off-road vehicle lay on the ground, and the rubber cuts were as neat as if they had been cut with a laser.
Su Wanqing pulled up the city map and tapped the marker for the abandoned subway station in the South District with her thumb. "Let's walk instead, using the underground passage."
Xiao Ran adjusted Lin Che's posture. Lin Che's forehead was incredibly hot.
"The temperature is 39.7," he said. "The scales have reached the collarbone."
Lu Zhao pulled out the vital signs monitor. The brain waves on the screen looked like lines tangled in the wind. "The mutation is accelerating, but the peak of the consciousness wave hasn't dropped."
He stuffed the instrument back into his bag and said, "Let's go."
As they left the water plant wall, the white light from the searchlight brushed against the back of Xiaoling's neck.
Su Wanqing counted her breaths and waited for the beam to turn before lowering her voice: "Follow closely."
The residential streets resembled a ransacked warehouse, abandoned suitcases lay open, and children's backpacks rolled under streetlights, with half a fairy tale book falling out.
A flickering light came through the window on the second floor, and someone was shouting, "Put the passbook at the bottom of the box."
The loudspeaker in the square shouted: "Uninfected people will board the bus in order. Those who refuse to be tested will be transferred to the observation area!"
Su Wanqing squatted behind the trash can, and the soldier in the telescope was scanning the wrists of the people in the queue with a scanner.
"The guy in the plaid shirt." Xiao Ling pointed. "His wife is wiping her tears."
The man in the plaid shirt was dragged out of the line by the soldiers. There was a black spot the size of a coin on his left arm.
His wife rushed forward to grab the soldier's holster, but was pushed against the guardrail by another soldier.
The two children hugged her legs and cried, their voices drowning out the loudspeaker.
"The observation area is in the north." Xiao Ran whispered, "I was there on patrol last week. There's a wasteland behind the iron gate."
Su Wanqing put the binoculars into her bag and said, "Go around the back alley."
Smelly garbage bags were piled against the wall of the alley. Xiao Ran's tactical boots hit an empty beer bottle, making a clanging sound.
Everyone stopped and waited until they were sure there were no footsteps following before continuing forward.
Lin Che suddenly twitched. Xiao Ran almost couldn't hold him back as Lin Che's blue scales brushed against the back of his hand, leaving a red mark.
"There's something." Lin Che's eyes shone blue. "Infected. Nearby."
Before he could finish his words, three dark figures crawled out from behind the garbage heap. Their skin was covered in black lines, their nails were like eagle claws, and their throats made sounds like rusty gears.
"Don't confront her head-on." Su Wanqing dragged Xiao Ling towards the alley entrance, "Go around to the next street!"
When they turned the corner, they saw three military vehicles parked in the middle of the road. Three soldiers were escorting a handcuffed infected man, whose black lines had spread across his face and whose mouth was bleeding.
"Hide." Lu Zhao pointed to the abandoned restaurant on the side of the road.
There was a loose plank on the kitchen floor. Lu Zhao squatted down and lifted it, revealing a musty drainage channel underneath. "It leads to the subway."
The water in the pipes was ankle-deep, mixed with rotten vegetable leaves and broken glass.
Xiao Ran walked in front with his back hunched. Lin Che's head rested on his shoulder. Occasionally, he would raise his arm, his fingertips vaguely pointing in a certain direction.
"Turn left." Xiao Ran said, "Lin Che's hand is pointing to the left."
Xiao Ling leaned over to take a look, and sure enough, Lin Che's arm was slightly raised, like an unconscious pointer.
"He's leading the way," she said, her voice bouncing off the damp pipe wall.
After walking for nearly an hour, a rusty iron ladder appeared at the end of the pipe.
Xiao Ran climbed up first and reached out to help Lin Che up. Large chunks of the wall of the maintenance passage had peeled off, revealing the steel bars underneath.
Lu Zhao put down the sample bag and took out the medical kit. Lin Che's scales had already covered her neck, a dark blue.
"The DNA recombination rate is 47%," he said, "but the consciousness wave is still in the human pattern."
Xiao Ling sat down beside Lin Che. The silver liquid on her wrist suddenly began to flow, flowing along her veins to her fingertips.
She pressed it tentatively on Lin Che's forehead, and the silver liquid seemed to come alive as it penetrated his skin.
Lin Che's frown relaxed. The monitor's readings began to drop, and the blue light from the scales became less glaring.
"Your blood is neutralizing the mutation factor." Lu Zhao stared at the screen. "It's the same as the situation at the water plant before."
Xiao Ling didn't say anything, staring at her wrist. Lin Che suddenly opened his eyes and grabbed Su Wanqing's hand: "Weaver. Time Observer. They want to open a time portal."
Before he could finish his words, he fainted again. Su Wanqing's jade bracelet burned on her wrist, and the alarm sounded as thin as a mosquito's buzz.
"The fortress is still two hours away." Lu Zhao helped Lin Che up. "The subway tunnel is relatively safe, but..."
"Let's go." Su Wanqing interrupted him, took out a tactical flashlight and shone it deep into the tunnel. "We must get back before the jade bracelet alarm ends."
The iron stairs at the subway station were badly rusted. When Xiao Ran climbed up with Lin Che on his back, metal fragments fell down.
Su Wanqing walked at the end, and the flashlight beam swept across the back of Lin Che's neck - the blue scales had spread to the roots of his hair, shining coldly in the darkness.
"We're here." Xiao Ran gently placed Lin Che on the soft cushion in the medical cabin. The back of his tactical uniform was soaked with sweat.
Doctor Zhang, wearing rubber gloves, moved the handheld scanner over Lin Che's body, and the numbers on the screen jumped rapidly.
"The physiological structure has changed by 52%." Doctor Zhang lowered his voice, "But the brain waves are still human. This..." He paused, "I've been doing virus research for ten years, and this is the first time I've seen this."
Lu Zhao rushed into the medical area holding the sample box he brought back from the water plant. The metal buckle hit the door frame with a dull sound.
He pulled out a test tube of blue liquid and held it up to the overhead light. "A nanoscale biomechanical hybrid designed to rewrite DNA."
He clicked on the tablet, and a microscopic image was projected onto the wall. "It can survive in water for 72 hours. It enters the human body through drinking water and slowly changes the cell structure."
Su Wanqing stared at Lin Che in the monitoring room. His eyelashes occasionally trembled, like blades of grass blown by the wind.
"What about systems analysis?" she asked.
Lu Zhao swiped the tablet and brought up a city heat map: "1.7% of the population has been exposed to pollutants, approximately 170,000 people."
His Adam's apple moved, "Even if we cut off the water supply now, these people will..."
"We need to find a complete solution." Su Wanqing interrupted him, pressing her fingertips against her temples. "Light pressure symptoms are useless."
Doctor Zhang removed his gloves and tapped the monitoring chamber with his knuckles. "Using Lin Che's mutation to study defense mechanisms? His body is actively retaining consciousness; this is a living specimen." Lu Zhao put the test tube back into the ice box. "It'll take time."
At dusk, the surveillance screens at the command center flashed red. Someone had lifted the barrier at the eastern vegetable market, and soldiers in camouflage uniforms were pushing it in with shields. At the entrance to the south supermarket, half-burned cardboard boxes were piled up, and a few children huddled in a corner, munching on cold steamed buns.
"The military is moving quickly." Lu Zhao pulled up new data. "They may have discovered the water plant incident. I think the timetable for the scorched earth policy will be brought forward."
The system suddenly beeped. Su Wanqing pressed the control panel, and the energy reading popped up—a red columnar image that stung her eyes.
"This isn't ordinary activity." She swiped the screen. "It looks like a large device is charging."
Lu Zhao leaned in to look at the curve: "At this rate, we'll reach the critical point in 36 hours."
Su Wanqing pulled up the underground structure map and pointed the laser pointer at the bottom of the old industrial area: "The energy source is here, 300 meters deep.
Abandoned mines and old air-raid shelters are perfect for hiding things." She remembered the woman in the white dress at the water plant talking about "sowing seeds," and her throat tightened.
At two o'clock in the morning, the alarm in the medical area blared. When Su Wanqing rushed into the ward, Lin Che was trembling, clutching the bedsheets. The edges of his blue scales were purple, as if they were about to burn.
"Weaver. Time Observer." Lin Che's voice was like sandpaper grinding metal. "There is an agreement."
His eyeballs rolled upwards, blue spots floating in the whites of his eyes. "The weavers change the creatures, the time observers control the time nodes. They are working underground."
"What are you opening?" Su Wanqing grabbed his wrist, the jade bracelet was burning.
"Gate." Lin Che's fingers suddenly clenched her hand, his strength astonishing. "To the future. Through the past. Water pollution is the first step. Then... time is the next step."
He slumped back against the pillows before he finished speaking. The brainwave lines on the monitor twisted into a tangled mess.
Lu Zhao rushed in, pushing the instrument and placing the electrodes on Lin Che's temple. "His brain is receiving information, like it's connected to a huge network."
Xiaoling squatted beside the bed, and the silver liquid on her fingertips climbed up through her blood vessels.
She pressed her palm against Lin Che's forehead, the silver liquid seeping into his skin, and the light of the blue scales slowly dimmed.
"I can give him regular blood transfusions," she said softly. "I tried it at the water plant before. It stabilized him."
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