Chapter 210 Core Laboratory
The sound of metal friction behind the door did not stop. Su Wanqing stared at the crack in the door, holding her breath, and clenched the jade bracelet in her hand.
She turned her feet slightly, signaling Lu Zhao to go around to the other side. The two of them quietly changed their angles based on the blue light.
Su Wanqing whispered, "Be prepared. If it rushes out, get on the right side and I'll go to the access control desk."
There was more movement behind the door, and suddenly a "lurker" with a cracked face half popped out, breathing in the rotten and cold air in big gulps.
Su Wanqing put on a mask and controlled her breathing rate. Lu Zhao leaned close to the wall and held the pistol tightly.
The second "lurker" moved slowly and blocked the end of the passage. There were two mutants that could barely move in the corner.
The passage is narrow and it is not convenient to turn around.
"We have no choice but to break in." Lu Zhao gritted his teeth and held the iron rod soaked in blood in his hand.
Su Wanqing raised her hand and made a countdown gesture. She waved her hand and the two of them pounced to the side almost at the same time. One of the "lurkers" was a beat slow to react and was pushed to the ground by them.
They quickly ran through the gap along the wall, avoiding the remains on the ground.
At the last three meters, an extremely strong "lurker" approached Lu Zhao. He swung his stick to hit it, but was grabbed by the arm instead.
Su Wanqing pressed close to the door and pressed the jade bracelet on her wrist. The jade bracelet dial flashed blue, and red identification lights suddenly lit up along the security door.
The access control system crackled, and a row of red letters appeared: "S-7 Administrator Authority Confirmed. Welcome in."
The door edge opened inward inch by inch with a creaking sound and bursts of air.
Su Wanqing pushed Lu Zhaoxian in, then she turned around, closed the door and pressed the safety latch.
There were intensive scratching and slapping sounds coming from outside, but after a few pushes and pulls, the door was at least temporarily stabilized.
As soon as the two entered the laboratory, a gust of cold wind blew in their faces, as if they had walked into a cold storage.
The screen showed the temperature: minus 5 degrees Celsius. The lighting in the lab was stable, the ground was frost-free, but the air was filled with the smell of disinfectant and metal.
Lu Zhao's steps were heavy, his wound was wrapped in gauze, and his movements were slow. He coughed twice and pulled his hand out of his pocket.
The central device is obvious. It is like a mercury halo, surrounded by arc-shaped brackets and layers of glass covering the core.
A lavender diamond-shaped crystal is suspended on the top, with electric current flowing through it.
The crystal slowly rotated, emitting a steady glow. Below it was a deep blue energy tube that went straight into the core cabin.
The monitoring screen next to the console kept jumping numbers. Su Wanqing read a few lines and whispered, "The power supply is intact, the life support and cryogenic maintenance systems are all normal. The energy core output is at maximum."
The cabin is about one and a half people tall and is wrapped in layers of glass and metal shells.
The interior is filled with light blue preservation fluid, and the overall transparency is very poor, so only a vague human outline can be seen.
Lu Zhao pointed to the thin electrodes connected to the cabin and said, "This is similar to cold preservation. The biological tissue should be in a physiological state where it cannot be awakened."
Lu Zhao pulled the terminal over, clicked on the device label and maintenance record, and frowned: "The program has been going on for eight years. Judging from the server data, it was much earlier than the virus outbreak."
Su Wanqing looked around. Apart from the main device and the monitoring screen, the rest were information terminals, stabilizer tanks, and heavy backup power supplies.
She moved closer to the sealed cabin and saw only an extremely faint pulse line on the screen, simulating brain waves and heartbeats.
She thought for a moment and asked, "Do you think that if we remove the core, will the people inside die?"
Lu Zhao didn't respond in a hurry. He glanced at the words "core replacement" on the terminal and started the search.
Soon, a window popped up on the host with a line of bright red characters: "Warning: Core removal will result in the termination of the sample preservation protocol. After losing the energy to maintain life, life activity will be irreversibly lost within 28 minutes."
He gritted his teeth and said, "The energy core and the life support system are integrated, and the energy provided by the crystals far exceeds that of ordinary energy. Violent demolition is equivalent to directly killing the people in the cabin."
From time to time, there were sounds of "lurkers" knocking on the door outside, making the space seem even more depressing.
Su Wanqing stared at the crystal and felt a chill in her throat even when she swallowed her saliva.
The sealed cabin was connected to more than a dozen energy lines from bottom to top. No matter how you looked at it, it was impossible to take it out intact.
Lu Zhao checked his backup power supply and put his hand on the host. "Do you have a backup plan?"
Su Wanqing moved the jade bracelet close to the console, trying to find a way to crack it from the auxiliary program.
The jade bracelet screen suddenly lit up, and blue light formed a translucent data connection interface on the console, and a string of encrypted files that did not belong to the base system appeared.
At the top it pops up: "Nicholas Wayne's Personal Journal".
She clicked on it, and a video appeared on the screen. In it, a researcher with messy hair and beard stuck in front of the camera and spoke in a self-recorded manner: "If you can see this record, it means that the core preservation plan has been activated.
The final test of consciousness transfer was successful, but the stability of the carrier is still a problem, so I have to use the backup plan... I have integrated the core prototype into the N-7 test subject. If all goes well, my consciousness will coexist with him... until S-7 is found and the final procedure is completed..."
At the end of the video, the researcher looked exhausted and ended in a low voice: "Time is running out. Only they can complete the finale."
After the log is loaded, the jade bracelet automatically pops up a blurry experimental photo.
In the photo, "Subject N-7" was lying quietly on the bed in the medical cabin, with immature facial features and a facial contour that was extremely similar to Lin Che.
Lu Zhao blinked slightly and compared the text information on the screen. "N-7 is Lin Che?
So 'Ye' is not a mutant personality, but another person who was forcibly implanted?"
He looked up, his voice filled with disbelief.
Su Wanqing didn't say anything. She called up the voiceprint comparison of "Nicholas Wayne" again.
The terminal compared and gave a cold result: "Voiceprint match: 95%."
This was exactly the tone Lin Che used when he had talked to her in the past.
The iron sheet outside the door was deformed even more severely, and there were scraping sounds and humming sounds.
Su Wanqing frowned and whispered, "Do you want to take the core?"
Lu Zhao quickly slid the terminal and called up the full map of the life support system from the secondary console. He gestured and analyzed: "If the core is pulled out violently, nothing here will be saved within 28 minutes. That person will die here directly. But if we don't take it out, the upper floor will explode. We don't have extra time."
Su Wanqing looked at the blue light of the jade bracelet and thought for a moment. She turned back to look at the figure in the cabin.
"Wayne is using himself as an experiment, is he trying to find the 'final procedure' you mentioned?"
Lu Zhao moved his wound and said in a low voice, "The experiment has nothing to do with the doomsday virus. Long before the disaster, these people had already thought of the path of 'consciousness transfer'.
Hiding myself in Lin Che's mind and waiting for all conditions to mature before synthesizing, this is the real purpose."
The mainline index menu popped up in the lower half of the console, each item involving "Core Compatibility Test" and S-7 and N-7 biological sample fusion logs.
They fell silent, and could only hear the hum of the air-conditioning in the unit and the ECG monitoring screen slowly lighting up in the cabin.
Su Wanqing stood up and put the jade bracelet back on the terminal contact port. "Can we simulate the transfer first, or assume the core alternative route to deceive the system first?"
Lu Zhao stared at the warning line and shook his head, "The energy level is not enough.
The entire cryogenic maintenance must be a core-level output. Any other power supply or external power supply will be immediately terminated by the host as an abnormality. The system cannot be bypassed directly. "
He sighed softly, the gauze on his shoulders was already soaked with sweat.
Su Wanqing used the jade bracelet to scan the console again, trying to see if there was any more hidden information.
Several fragmented voices popped up on the jade bracelet screen again, "N-7 experimental subject joint compatibility... backup plan... S-7 authority priority..."
Lu Zhao looked at the string of small words at the bottom of the sealed cabin and read: "Life carrier number, S-7 project, backup sample storage."
Su Wanqing pressed her hand on the coded nameplate, and her fingertips felt a little cold.
The jade bracelet suddenly vibrated, and the blue interface became holographic. A temporary key starting point emerged: temporary access for administrators is supported.
She turned her head and said slowly: "The one in the life support system is my backup body? The experimental plan has a backup plan." Her knuckles paused on the nameplate, and Su Wanqing looked at the energy core again.
The knocking sounds outside the door were much more rapid this time, and the air was so oppressive that it was difficult to breathe.
The end of the log video repeats: "Only S-7 can decide the final procedure. The final procedure requires the activation of all cores. N-7 will be involved in all experiments..."
Su Wanqing took back the energy interface of the jade bracelet and said in a light voice: "Perhaps I can only sacrifice this 'me' inside, otherwise all my efforts will be in vain."
Lu Zhao was silent for a few seconds, then zoomed in on the terminal and memorized the distribution map of the dark blue energy flow in his mind.
The banging outside the door didn't stop, and the data alarm kept jumping on the main screen.
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