Buzz——!!!
Zero's crimson electronic compound eyes instantly captured this terrifying transformation! The core processor was like being plunged into an icy sea, its logic instantly frozen! The monitor he had implanted beneath Lu Qingyi's skin, the deep purple waveform representing the "Burying Worm" mental contamination, was completely suppressed and flattened the moment this icy silver-white will erupted! It became a motionless, deadly straight line! It was as if the terrifying underground mental radiation was as insignificant as an ant before this will!
at the same time!
The red alarm flashing wildly inside Unit 0, representing the countdown to the devastating impact before being smashed by the boulder, was forcibly reset to zero as if by an invisible hand with absolute rule-based power!
Time seems to have been paused!
The huge concrete boulder that came crashing down with tremendous force, strangely...hung in the air less than half a meter above the robotic arm that Zero raised to block it!
Yes! Hover!
It was like a paused movie! The boulder continued its downward momentum, the broken steel bars stabbing fiercely downward, stirring up dust and gravel that froze in mid-air! But it simply stopped! Defying all laws of physics!
It wasn't just this boulder! The noise of the entire collapsed area—the groaning of breaking beams, the hissing of gushing steam, the clatter of tumbling rubble—all vanished at that moment! Absolute, suffocating silence descended! Only the low hum of Unit Zero's internal components and Lu Qingyi's almost inaudible breathing proved that time had not truly stopped.
Zero's crimson electronic compound eyes froze. His logic core was experiencing an unprecedented storm of shock! Unreadable! Incomprehensible! This was beyond known technology! This... was close to a miracle... or perhaps... divine punishment!
He slowly and with great difficulty lowered his head.
Lu Qingyi remained in his arms, her cold, swirling silver eyes wide open, her gaze seemingly piercing through his thick armor, resting on the hovering boulder. Her face was expressionless, like the most perfect ice sculpture, possessed only by an inhuman, indifferent...absolute will.
Immediately afterwards, a scene occurred that brought the logical core of Zero to the brink of collapse!
Lu Qingyi's pair of cold silver-white vortex eyes turned extremely slowly, and finally... fell on Zero's deep red electronic compound eyes!
Eye contact!
Zero's core processor was instantly washed over by an indescribable, icy thought, filled with an endless torrent of information! It wasn't language, it wasn't an image, but a direct, mandatory rule-writing! Cold, efficient, and indifferent! Like a formatting command of supreme authority, it attempted to overwrite the core, unchangeable [protection protocol] within its underlying logic!
"Command conflict... Core protocol... Suffering from... Unknown... High-Dimensional... Corrosion... Logic... Firewall... Collapse rate... 97%... Warning! Main body consciousness... About to be... Overwritten..."
A hoarse electronic sound echoed from within Zero, filled with unprecedented chaos and... a hint of... fear? His armored head trembled violently and uncontrollably, the crimson electronic compound eyes flickering wildly, their brightness plummeting, even exhibiting strange color distortion!
The order to protect Lu Qingyi was being forcibly erased by this cold, silver-white will that came from her own body...!
Just when Zero's core logic was about to be completely rewritten and annihilated—
Deep within Lu Qingyi's icy, swirling silver eyes, a sudden flicker of… a subtle struggle! Like a tiny spark suddenly exploding beneath the ice at absolute zero! That flicker of struggle was filled with the familiar pain and confusion that belonged to "Lu Qingyi"!
The appearance of this struggle was like opening a tiny gap in a dam that was about to collapse!
The huge concrete block hovering in the air, the restraining force that violated the laws of physics, suddenly showed an extremely slight loosening!
Boom boom boom——!!!
The noise of time resuming its flow swept over like a tsunami! Huge blocks of concrete, carrying with them terrifying accumulated kinetic energy, crashed down with a thud! The speed was even faster than before!
But it was this slight slack that gave Zero's logic core, already on the verge of collapse, a rare respite! At the last moment before the subject's consciousness was completely overwritten, the protection protocol issued a top-level evasion command!
All the remaining energy within Zero's remaining mechanical legs and arms was instantly squeezed to its limit! In the ten-thousandth of a second before the boulder hit him, he embraced Lu Qingyi and, in a posture that completely surpassed the limits of his machine's design, almost twisted, he suddenly lunged sideways towards the edge of the passage, towards the crack abyss!
Boom—Crack!!!!
A deafening roar and the wail of metal breaking broke out at the same time!
The boulder slammed into the center of the already fragile alloy tunnel! The entire tunnel completely broke, twisted, and collapsed like a fragile biscuit! Countless fragments mixed with the boulder fell into the bottomless abyss of the crack!
Zero, holding Lu Qingyi, brushed against the edge of the collapsed tunnel and the falling boulders, falling towards the relatively stable metal platform on the other side of the crack! During the fall, he used his body and mechanical arms to withstand most of the impact and flying sharp fragments!
Bang!!!
A heavy crash!
Zero's back slammed hard against the cold metal platform, shaking it to a humming creak. Lu Qingyi, in his arms, shuddered again under the violent impact. Her cold, swirling silver eyes instantly closed, as if drained of all strength, and she sank back into a deep coma. The dim purple light at the chip connector on the back of her neck was so faint it was almost invisible.
Zero's crimson electronic eyes flickered a few times, then dimmed to the point of absolute darkness. A cacophony of shrill noises, like parts shattering, echoed from within the machine. The gap in the dorsal armor widened further, several crucial transmission mechanisms completely destroyed in the previous, extreme evasive maneuver. He tried to push himself up, but his remaining mechanical legs scraped with a harsh sound, and hydraulic fluid leaked profusely, depleting most of the power.
He lay on the cold metal platform, his deep red electronic eyes moving with difficulty, finally locking onto Lu Qingyi, who was unconscious in his arms and whose face was as pale as paper.
That brief yet terrifying contact just now—the hovering boulder, the absolute silence, the cold silver-white vortex eyes, and the mandatory will of rules that attempted to overwrite his core logic...
"'Key'... logical collapse... subjective consciousness... contamination source... threat level... ultimate..."
The cold electronic sound stuttered, filled with a chaos that logic couldn't handle and an unprecedented, icy shudder. This was no longer the contamination of the "Graveyard Worm," but a completely new, colder, more advanced, and more... indescribable horror.
The "virus"... perhaps, within another body, had quietly opened its cold eyes. And Zero became the first witness to face its existence. His shattered body lay on the brink of collapse, holding in his arms the girl pregnant with an unknown horror. His crimson electronic eyes reflected the abyssal darkness. Deep within the core processor, the instructions of the protection protocol and the remaining codes of terror were silently boiling.
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