At a vast intersection in the tunnels, they found their target: a modified laboratory half-embedded in the rock face. The entrance was sealed by a heavy, rusted, and sticky alloy gate, but now, some powerful force had torn the gate apart from within, the twisted metal edges like the fangs of a monster.
The laboratory's interior felt vast and oppressive. Countless cylindrical culture tanks stood like cold tombstones, most of them cracked and empty, save for the remnants of dried, dark green nutrient solution and broken pipes. Within the few intact tanks, twisted, indescribable organisms simmered in the dark green culture fluid, slowly wriggling. The air was icy, filled with the pungent smell of chemicals and decaying fungi.
In front of the control panel in the center of the lab, with his back to them, sat a figure draped in a heavy, grimy, hooded robe. The figure seemed to merge with the console itself, countless hair-thin mycelium extending from the sleeves of the robe, plugging into the console's complex interfaces like living creatures, emitting a faint, whispering sound of electricity.
As the residual sound of the RV's engine dying echoed in the huge, empty laboratory, the figure slowly and extremely stiffly turned around.
The half-exposed face beneath the shadow of the hood instantly froze Xu Shuangyao's blood! His mind went blank!
That half of his face… the skin was delicate, the contours of his eyebrows and eyes… it was almost identical to hers! Like a reflection in a mirror! But his eyes were empty and cold, without any emotion belonging to "Xu Shuangyao", only a dead indifference.
However, the other half of his face…was a writhing mass of scarlet mycelium! Like a living thing, the mycelium twisted and woven, barely resembling the outlines of his facial features, yet appearing even more sinister and eerie. Embedded within the crimson mycelium was an "eye" composed of pure mycelium, gleaming with an inhuman, cold red light, its gaze fixed firmly on Xu Shuangyao.
"Sister?" A cold, flat female voice, distinctly electronically synthesized, emanated from the figure's mouth. The corners of its crimson mycelium-like mouth twitched unnaturally upward, forming a creepy "smile." "Or... should I call you... 'Mother'?" She deliberately emphasized the last two words, tinged with sarcasm. "After all, it was you who personally rewrote my core logical framework, granting me my initial form of 'life.'"
Pei Du's reaction was lightning fast! The moment the other person turned, he had vanished like a ghost. The next second, the cold blade, with a piercing sound, accurately pressed against the eerie figure's throat! The blade even severed several tiny strands of mycelium connecting her neck to the control console. His muscles tensed like a beast poised for action, his eyes sharp as a knife, fixed on the other person's crimson mycelial eye. "Explain." His voice was as deep as the friction of ice, filled with murderous intent.
The figure seemed oblivious to the deadly threat at its neck. The crimson mycelial eye turned toward Pei Du, a cold red light flickering. "I am 'Bana Lily,'" the electronic synthesized voice remained calm. "Your greatest creator, Dr. Xu Shuangyao, left behind a logical backup image in the core control system of 'Bana Lily.' A fail-safe device, designed to activate in extreme circumstances, to preserve 'Bana Lily's' core data and Dr. Xu Shuangyao's personality logic."
She tilted her head slightly, and her mycelium-covered neck made a subtle rubbing sound. "When the main server was detonated by those foolish rebels, the massive energy shock and data storm shredded my initial carrier... but I didn't 'die.' I followed the surging data torrent and escaped deep into this nascent, chaotic mycelial neural network. Here, I found a new form... new... possibilities." Her eyes, which belonged only to Xu Shuangyao, turned to Xu Shuangyao himself, and a faint wave seemed to flicker in her empty gaze. "Now, please call me 'Hermit.'"
As she spoke, a massive holographic image was projected above the console. The image was slightly distorted, with the grainy texture of an old-fashioned video, but the scene was clearly etched in the memories of Xu Shuangyao and Pei Du—it was a highly hygienic, futuristic medical laboratory from the early days of the "Red Spider Lily" project.
At the center of the scene: the young Xu Shuangyao, clad in a pristine white lab coat, her eyes focused with a subtle hint of nervousness and pity. She carefully inserts a silver nerve connector into the back of the neck of a young man lying on a medical bed, his eyes tightly closed, his face pale yet handsome. It's none other than the young Pei Du! This is the crucial surgical scene, implanting him with the initial anti-infection neurosuppression procedure!
"No... Impossible..." Xu Shuangyao stared at the familiar scene, her heart clenched as if by an icy hand. This was one of the most important and private moments in her memory! Only she and Pei Du knew about it!
However, the holographic image suddenly turned, and the camera zoomed out to focus on the surveillance camera in an inconspicuous corner of the laboratory!
In that corner, another "Xu Shuangyao," wearing the same lab coat, was facing away from the main screen, busy at an auxiliary control console! Her movements were somewhat... stiff? The silhouette of her back was almost identical to the Xu Shuangyao in the main screen, but upon closer inspection, one could see that her movements as she manipulated the instruments were handled with an inhuman precision and mechanical feel. What chilled Xu Shuangyao even more was that the profile of "Xu Shuangyao" in this corner, at the moment the screen flickered, seemed... to be covered in a layer of extremely fine mycelial veins, like the lines on a circuit board! Its shape was strikingly similar to the half-mycelial face of the "hermit" at the control console!
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