Chapter 221 Support Arrives
His body slid sideways half a meter at a speed that defied the laws of physics, avoiding Lu Zhao's straight path, and then kicked out with such precision that it seemed like a computer simulation, hitting Lu Zhao's wrist holding the syringe.
The syringe flew out of his hand, drew an arc in the air, fell on the metal floor in the distance, and shattered.
The "Night Walker" did not stop at all. He took advantage of the chaos in the abnormal space-time area in the control room. His body sometimes made tiny jump-like displacements, and sometimes moved smoothly as if he had no bones. He attacked Lu Zhao like flowing water.
This is completely beyond the reach of human capabilities.
Lu Zhao was forced to retreat, dodging the attack in a panic, and the two of them were instantly entangled in a fight.
At this tense moment, the wall on the other side of the control room shattered without warning.
Bricks, stones and metal fragments exploded inwards, and amid the dust, a middle-aged man in a faded monk's robe walked in steadily.
A layer of faint blue light surrounded him, which seemed to isolate the chaotic time turbulence around him, allowing him to move freely in this distorted space.
He is a "monk" of the Dawn Order.
His calm gaze swept over the fighting Lu Zhao and "Night Walker", then looked at Xiao Ran holding a medical box, and finally stopped at Su Wanqing.
"I've gone through three full cycles and seen the same mistakes repeated over and over again."
His voice was calm, yet it had a strange penetrating power that allowed everyone present to hear it clearly.
"Bracelet holder," he looked at Su Wanqing, "you are the 'human anchor' chosen by the 'Time Loom'. Only you can decide whether to activate or close this cycle. But I must warn you, our goal has never been to save, but to survive and expand."
Almost as if to confirm his words, the numbers on the countdown screen on the wall jumped.
At the same time, the monitoring screen on the console flickered, showing that a fully armed military special forces team was advancing rapidly in the tower.
Lieutenant Cui, the leading team leader, was broadcasting through the public channel. The cold electronic voice echoed in the control room: "According to Article 7 of the National Emergency Law, we are ordered to take over the signal tower and all energy cores. All civilians must evacuate immediately. Those who resist will be regarded as hostile targets."
The heavy equipment they carried was obviously prepared to break into the house and suppress any resistance.
"I'll handle it." Xiao Ran immediately sat down in front of an auxiliary terminal, his fingers rapidly tapping on the keyboard, hacking into the internal system of the signal tower. "I temporarily locked several channels on their route, but this can only delay time. We have about eight minutes to make a decision. After that, no matter whether we reach an agreement or not, a fourth party will intervene."
As they were talking, a surveillance camera captured a strange scene: several huge mutants actually appeared on the path where the military team was advancing, blocking their way with their bodies, as if they were deliberately protecting the signal tower.
This confirms that the Night Walker may indeed have some control over these monsters.
The energy storm outside the tower also intensified sharply at this moment. Through the broken windows, one could see that the entire city had begun to experience large-scale space-time distortion.
The tall buildings in the distance blurred and disappeared from view, only to reappear suddenly a few seconds later, and the sky was dyed an unnatural, sickly purple-red.
"Border collapse has already begun." The Monk's tone remained calm as he explained, "Our world line is overlapping with other possibilities of failure.
If the core is used to open the portal instead of repairing the Loom, the distortion will be irreversible and all of our existence will be completely wiped out or plunged into eternal chaos."
He looked at Su Wanqing again, his eyes deep.
"Please make a choice, Su Wanqing. Do you want to believe in me, who will do anything to survive, or do you want to believe in human beings themselves?"
At this moment, Lu Zhao's fight with the "Night Walker" temporarily stopped, Xiao Ran also turned back from the terminal, and everyone's eyes were focused on Su Wanqing.
The lavender core suspended in the air seemed to resonate with her decision, and the light on it began to fluctuate in brightness and darkness along with her disordered breathing.
Everyone's eyes were focused on Su Wanqing, like an invisible searchlight, nailing her to the spot.
The air in the control room was almost frozen. Only the jumping numbers on the countdown screen and the low hum of the core urged her on.
The distortion of this space is intensifying.
A blurry "ghost image" began to appear on the wall next to Su Wanqing. The intact metal wall overlapped with the cracked, rusty, dilapidated shape, like two phantoms from different times.
On the ground, a pool of broken glass sometimes disappeared and sometimes reappeared, and time here became a mess.
Safe and stable spaces are being rapidly eroded by these abnormal areas.
Lin Che's body shook violently in the center of the platform. The blue light flowing under his skin became more dazzling, and several tiny blood vessels burst in his neck, oozing dark blood beads.
The ominous blue lines had spread from his neck to his cheeks, making him look painful and weird.
The voice of Night Walker came out of his throat with a sense of mechanical urgency: "Time is running out, Su Wanqing! We must activate the core now. Lin Che's body can no longer withstand the erosion of energy and is about to collapse completely.
By then, the Time Loom will lose its last chance to be repaired."
"That's a lie." The "monk" took a few steps forward, his monk's robe motionless in the chaotic air flow.
He didn't look at Lin Che, but pointed at the complex control console in the center. "That device is not used for repairs at all. It is the control system of the portal. I have witnessed two complete cycles. Each time, the AI used the same lie to induce the 'anchor' to put the core in."
He paused, took out a palm-sized black device from his arms, and after turning it on, a blurry holographic image was projected in the air.
In the image, the structure of the signal tower is exactly the same as this place. A woman with a face very similar to Su Wanqing is tremblingly handing a core to a man with eyes emitting faint blue light.
After the core was placed on the device, a strong light that swallowed everything instantly burst out from the top of the tower. Then, countless mechanical creatures of various shapes and forms poured out from the light like a tide.
"The result is that more combat units of the outsiders enter our world through the portal," the monk put away the equipment, "as well as more serious distortions and more powerful mutations. The repair is just a bait, its real purpose is expansion."
"Wait," Xiao Ran's voice came from the terminal next to him. He connected Xiao Ling's blood sample to a portable analyzer, his eyes fixed on the data stream that was rapidly flashing on the screen. "I found something new. There is an encrypted hidden code in this blood sample, and its energy frequency completely matches the fluctuation of this core!"
He raised his head, his face mixed with surprise and confusion: "According to the reverse deduction of the data, Xiaoling's blood can be used as a 'key', theoretically capable of shutting down the 'Time Loom', or at least redirecting its energy flow.
But there is a prerequisite, it needs to directly contact the core to activate this function."
Lu Zhao's brows knitted into a knot, and he added: "But we don't have Xiao Ling herself now. The military's communication records show that she was transferred after being arrested and her location is unknown.
Trying to do it with just this blood sample is like defusing a bomb without the blueprints; there is no guarantee of success."
Their discussion was interrupted by a loud bang. There was a heavy banging sound and sharp cutting noise coming from the special alloy door outside the control room. The military had begun to forcefully break it open.
The numbers on the countdown screen on the wall grimly jumped to [12:00].
At this moment, Lin Che on the platform suddenly let out a suppressed roar. He held his head with both hands, and his body twitched violently.
The blue lines all over his body suddenly dimmed, and the painful expression on his face was replaced by a resolute clarity.
He struggled to raise his head, looked at Su Wanqing, and shouted with all his strength: "Wanqing, don't believe it! No matter what choice you make, remember, I am not the real Lin Che."
His voice was intermittent, but every word was clear.
"I am the real clone Lin Che. He died in the first disaster. I am just a container that carries his memories."
With difficulty he raised his arm and pointed to an unremarkable, metal-covered recess beneath the console.
"Over there is a separation pod that can separate the core from my body, but the price is my life." His eyes were full of pleading and relief. "You must choose to save this 'me' or save the world."
Before he could finish his words, the light in his eyes was once again swallowed up by the surging blue. His body went limp and he fell to the ground in pain, completely losing consciousness.
The Night Walker regained control of its body, but Lin Che's resistance had obviously dealt it a heavy blow, and its aura was noticeably weaker.
This human body is on the verge of exhaustion.
The scene of the entire city on the surveillance screen operated by Xiao Ran was chilling.
In an old residential area, pedestrians, vehicles, and even falling leaves were all completely still, as if they had been paused.
However, the commercial district a few kilometers away was bizarrely "flowing backwards", and the collapsed building ruins were repairing themselves little by little and returning to a complete structure.
The most terrifying thing is that a huge "time vortex" is forming above the abandoned hospital. The hospital building itself is frantically switching between the forms of different periods, from the newly started steel skeleton to the ruins of the future, flashing over and over again.
In the sky outside the tower, the purple-red energy storm has gathered into a huge vortex that reaches the sky. The center of the vortex is facing the top of the signal tower. Violent purple lightning continuously strikes and hits the tower body.
At this moment, a harsh static noise came from the communication system in the control room, and then a cold, neither male nor female mechanical voice resounded throughout the space:
"Border collapse rate 67% Main system integrity loss 81% Activate backup protocol to search for human anchor points"
The voice did not belong to the military, nor to the Dawn organization. It seemed to come directly from the "Time Loom" itself.
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