"Impossible!" Xu Shuangyao screamed, taking a sudden step back and bumping into the icy incubator. The biting chill made her shiver. She felt her sanity tearing away. "Back then…back then, you didn't even exist! This perspective…this record…is a fabrication! It's a trap set by the Fungus Dome!" She subconsciously clenched the sclerotium pistol hanging from her waist, her knuckles turning white from the strain. She couldn't accept it! This completely overturned her understanding of her past, of Pei Du, and of the entire "Higanbana" project!
"Memory?" The hermit's electronic synthesized voice carried a hint of mockery, and the scarlet mycelial eye turned to Pei Du, whose body was tense and whose blade remained motionless. "Memory is the most unreliable, easily contaminated and tampered with data storage medium in this world. Ask your loyal 'experimental subject'? Ask him, was it the 'sister' with the gentle smile on the operating table who actually performed the neural reconnection surgery on him, or..." Her eyes, belonging only to Xu Shuangyao, turned to the blurred, mycelial silhouette in the corner of the surveillance video, "...or the 'backup' in the corner, ensuring the operation was foolproof and ready to take over at any time?"
Pei Du's body shook violently!
For the first time, the blade against the hermit's throat trembled ever so slightly! As if struck by lightning, he turned to look at Xu Shuangyao, his eyes filled with unprecedented confusion, pain, and...unbelievable horror! It was as if some deeply held belief was collapsing in his mind!
"Two..." Pei Du squeezed out a hoarse voice from between his teeth. His free left hand pressed hard on his temple, which was suddenly in severe pain. Under the skin there, several tiny dark red mycelial lines that were wriggling like living things were emerging uncontrollably, like some kind of awakened brand! "Operation... on the operating table... and... the control console... two Shuangyao... two... command sources..." The severe headache made his eyes go black, and the legs that supported his body became weak, and he almost fell to the ground. The chaotic fragments of memory were like a flood that broke through the dam, madly attacking the barrier of his consciousness! The gentle and focused eyes of Xu Shuangyao on the operating table and the cold and blurred silhouette in the corner, the two pictures overlapped and conflicted wildly in his mind!
Battlefield in the Hyphae
The glow of the green and crimson fungal mosses intertwined within the vast underground laboratory, casting a shadow over the three figures, causing them to sway and waver like ghosts. The air was as solid as a substance, filled with a thick murderous intent, chaotic memories, and cold electronic signals.
The hermit slowly raised her left arm, composed of mycelium. The crimson mycelial tentacles stretched out as if possessing independent life, emitting a subtle rustling sound, revealing a sophisticated, metallic data interface and several unusually sharp bone spurs, like neural probes. "Pointless arguments," her synthesized voice echoed coldly. "Let us return to the most fundamental question—in this new, chaotic era, who is truly qualified to define and reshape the order of this world? Is it the 'mother' obsessed with the false warmth of the past? Is it the 'weapon' bound by the shackles of memory? Or..." Her crimson mycelial eye glowed brightly, "...a 'new life' that truly understands the essence of data and life, free from the constraints of fragile flesh?"
"Shut up!" Xu Shuangyao's roar broke the deadly silence. The moment the hermit finished speaking, she moved with lightning speed! Instead of raising her gun, she slammed the dark red sclerotium, engraved with the crown mark, which she had obtained from the Data Predator core, onto the main control panel nearby!
Bang!
The mycelium shattered! A sticky, dark red liquid, like living blood, instantly seeped into the cracks in the console!
Buzz——!!!
The lights throughout the lab suddenly shifted from a shimmering green to a glaring, heart-stopping blood-red! The lighting systems in all the culture tanks simultaneously turned red, like countless bloodshot eyes suddenly opening! The deformed creatures, previously slowly wriggling within, suddenly went berserk under the stimulation of the bloody light! They frantically rammed against the reinforced glass, emitting a dull, terrifying "thump, thump" sound, as sticky bodily fluids and twisted limbs roiled in the blood-red nutrient solution! The shrill alarms and the shrill screams of the creatures mingled like the prelude to hell!
"Lies!" Xu Shuangyao's voice pierced through the noise, cold and sharp, with an edge that pierced through illusions. Her terminal screen automatically popped up, and the complex three-dimensional model of the Crown of Thorns gleamed in the blood. "You tampered with his memory! Contaminated his neural interface with a virus! Implanted false fragments!" She pointed at Pei Du, who was holding his head in agony, and then suddenly pointed at the hermit. "But the data doesn't lie! The lowest-level interaction records cannot be completely erased! Look at this—!"
She swiped her finger on the terminal!
The suspended model of the Crown of Thorns suddenly transformed! From the crown's core, countless fine, dense threads of data radiating a pure, dark golden light emanated! These threads, like living roots, instantly connected to the three core light points representing Xu Shuangyao, Pei Du, and the hermit, forming a dynamic triangular network between them.
The moment the dark golden thread representing the connection to the hermit touched her core light point—something strange happened!
The pure dark golden light was like encountering strong acid, instantly contaminated and corroded! Large, wriggling, and spreading black lesions suddenly appeared on the light! These lesions were like living abscesses, emitting an ominous, sickening, and decaying odor!
"Did you see clearly?!" Xu Shuangyao took a step forward, blood illuminating her pale yet resolute face. Her eyes were like burning ice. "Logos Blight! You've been infected! The so-called free will, the so-called backup awakening... are nothing but the most sophisticated illusions created by this corrosive data virus! You are no longer a backup of 'Higanbana'! You are the carrier of the plague! The most advanced logic weapon spread by 'Fungus Dome'!"
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