And Shen Qingli... is she the antidote, or... the poison itself? What does she mean by "same origin"?
At that moment, the heavy alloy door of the ICU slid open silently. A figure walked in. Their footsteps were light, yet their presence was undeniable.
It’s Shen Qingli.
She had changed into a dark grey uniform of the same material, but clearly not the same one she'd worn before. Her face still held a hint of an unnatural golden hue, but that inhuman coldness and sharpness had once again taken over. Her silver-grey eyes swept across Su Mu lying on the hospital bed, their gaze steady, as if looking at an insignificant object, before finally settling on Lin Mo's tense back.
"She won't die for now," Shen Qingli said, her voice returning to its previous clarity and calmness, as if the embarrassment of being bombarded by the high-dimensional beam and overloaded in the lab had never happened. "Emotional collapse triggers physiological shock. If she has enough willpower, she'll wake up quickly. If she doesn't have enough willpower..." She paused, her tone as flat as if she were describing the weather. "Sinking into a state of vegetative state, or going completely insane, are all reasonable outcomes."
"Shut up!" Lin Mo turned around abruptly, his red eyes like burning charcoal, fixed on Shen Qingli's face, his voice hoarse from suppressed anger, "You are not qualified to judge her!"
Shen Qingli tilted her head slightly, her silver-gray eyes clearly reflecting Lin Mo's fury, as if analyzing an intriguing stream of emotional data. "Anger. It stems from a desire to protect and a sense of powerlessness against unknown threats. It's a biological instinct," she commented, her tone remaining calm. "But emotions don't solve problems. They only interfere with judgment and hasten destruction."
She ignored Lin Mo's glare, took two steps forward, and stopped less than a meter away from him. Her deep eyes focused on him again, with an extremely uncomfortable scrutiny, as if she wanted to scan him thoroughly from the inside out.
"The device in the ruins of Hawkeye III is a 'beacon.'" Shen Qingli cut straight to the point, her voice icy. "The data annihilation pulse it releases is a directional weapon targeting the core algorithm of the 'Siphon' protocol. The purpose is clear: to destroy or severely injure me. And the high-dimensional interference beam it finally activated..." A very subtle, fearful glint flashed in the depths of her silver-gray eyes. "It's a higher-level 'locking' and 'marking'. Its target is not only the 'Siphon,' but also... me."
"Beacon? Mark you?" Lin Mo forced himself to calm down and grasp the key information. "Who did it? What's the purpose? And..." He pointed at Su Mu, who was unconscious on the hospital bed. "What's going on with that chip?"
"Unknown." Shen Qingli's answer was crisp and clear. "There is no matching record in my database of any existence in the ruins that is capable of manufacturing and using this level of 'beacon' and interference technology. Purpose?" She looked at Lin Mo, her silver-gray pupils without any emotion. "Destroy the threat? Capture samples? Or... recycle the 'failed products'?" She said the last three words very lightly, with a hint of self-mockery, so quickly that people thought it was an illusion.
"As for that chip..." She finally cast her gaze towards Su Mu lying on the hospital bed for the first time. Her eyes were still cold, but with a hint of... extremely complex inquiry. "'Tree of Life' neural connection auxiliary unit. It has advanced design concepts and extremely high integration. It has powerful biological signal amplification and mental force field stabilization functions. It is a cutting-edge product in the field of neuromechanics from the old era. It appeared in the wreckage of the mechanical beast..." She paused slightly, as if searching and analyzing quickly. "There are two most likely explanations: one, the mechanical beast captured and integrated the original holder of the chip, using it as a reinforcement node for its own neural center; two, the original holder of the chip... actively participated in the construction of the neural core of this model of mechanical beast."
Take the initiative to participate!
These four words were like a cold dagger, stabbing Lin Mo's heart again! They also stabbed Su Mu, who was unconscious on the hospital bed! He clenched his fists tightly, and his knuckles made a crackling sound.
"Impossible! Professor Su would never..."
"There's no such thing as 'absolute' in the ruins." Shen Qingli interrupted him, her tone filled with a cold, almost cruel rationality. "The pressure of survival, the temptation of technology, or... forced transformation can all change a person. The truth requires evidence, not useless emotional assumptions." Her gaze returned to Lin Mo's face, her scrutiny stronger. "Just like you. Commander Lin Mo."
Her gaze, like a physical probe, fell on Lin Mo's heart. "The core algorithm of the 'Siphon' protocol originates from a completely obliterated, forbidden project from an ancient era—'Prometheus's Fire.' Its underlying data encoding is unique and cannot be replicated. But just now..." Her voice dropped, carrying an undeniable penetrating force. "At the moment your emotions were volatile and your body's potential was unleashed, I sensed it. From your heart, there was an extremely weak, yet essentially identical, 'homologous' information entropy radiation!"
Shen Qingli took a step forward, so close that Lin Mo could clearly see his own reflection of shock and anger in her silver-gray pupils. "Tell me," her voice was like an icy cone, with a force that was almost commanding. "Your past. Your genetic sequence. What is hidden within you?"
A tremendous pressure, like a literal mountain, crashed down upon Lin Mo's shoulders! Shen Qingli's questioning pointed directly to the very core of his being, a secret unknown even to himself! That momentary throbbing... that inexplicable resonance... Could it be that he and this inhuman being... truly shared a common origin?!
Cold sweat instantly soaked Lin Mo's back. He stared intently at Shen Qingli's silver-gray eyes, devoid of any human emotion. A profound sense of absurdity and an even deeper fear gripped him. What was he? Where did he come from? Who were his parents? These questions, like ghosts, had haunted him since he was an orphan, struggling to survive in the ruins, but he had forced them into the deepest recesses of his heart. Now, in such a cold and bloody way, this mysterious and dangerous woman before him was tearing them open!
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