The "Tree of Life" chip flickered in the wreckage of the mechanical beast.
Su Mu's world collapsed in an instant: "Mom... has become a monster?"
Shen Qingli pressed her metal fingers against Lin Mo's chest: "Why does your data... come from the same source as mine?"
Deep within the ruins of Hawkeye III, a purple energy device suddenly lit up—
"Warning! High-dimensional interference beam locked!"
"That's...that's...Mom's...'Tree of Life'...neural connection chip!!"
Su Mu's voice was weak and fragmented, carrying with it the excruciating pain and unbelievable terror of a soul being completely torn apart, plummeting from a thousand-foot height into the abyss. Every word was like shards of ice-cold glass, scraping fiercely across the eardrums of everyone in the deadly laboratory.
She stared intently at the magnified fragment of a chip on the main screen, embedded in the crevices of the charred mechanical beast, stubbornly flickering a faint emerald green light. That familiar shape, that unique "Tree of Life" energy code pattern, had been so many times tenderly caressed and adjusted by her mother under the soft light of her workbench... It was her mother's masterpiece, the continuation of her life, the one and only thing she had carried with her before her disappearance, the final bridge connecting her life's research efforts!
Now, it appeared here, in the chest of a hideous, twisted mechanical monster that had just torn apart Hawkeye Outpost No. 3 and slaughtered the Ark soldiers!
Mother... and these killing machines... are connected?
This thought, like the most vicious curse, carried destructive force, instantly shattering all the pillars of faith that Su Mu had so painstakingly supported! His mother was a pioneer in the peaceful use of neural connection technology, benefiting the survivors of the ruins! How could she... how could she... be the source of these steel beasts? Or... an even more terrifying thought surged uncontrollably - did her disappearance mean... that she herself had become part of these monsters?
"No... Impossible..." Su Mu's body shook violently, as if struck by an invisible hammer, all his strength instantly drained away. The huge screen before him, the flashing red alarm light, the blurry figures around him... everything was spinning, twisting, and fading wildly. The world was silent, leaving only the frantic pounding of his heart in his chest, the thumping sound on the verge of exploding, and the emerald green chip fragment magnified infinitely in his vision, emitting a faint glow of cold death.
The mother's gentle smile was brutally covered and torn apart by the mechanical beast's scarlet compound eyes and cold steel claws...
"puff--"
Without warning, a mouthful of boiling blood gushed out of Su Mu's mouth! The crimson liquid splattered onto the cold, smooth operating panel, like a startling speck of winter plum blossoms. Her body lost all support and slumped backward. Her eyes, once clear and calm, now filled with endless darkness and shattered pain, stared blankly open, reflecting the emerald green dot on the screen, a symbol of the entanglement between loved ones and destruction.
"Su Mu!" Lin Mo's roar, like a wounded beast, exploded amid the piercing hum of the lab's alarms. He was closest, and he pounced on Su Mu the instant she staggered. Before she collapsed, he used all his strength to hold her cold, trembling, seemingly weightless body tightly.
The place where he touched her was ice-cold, and her body was convulsing violently. Every twitch caused Lin Mo's heart to ache. The blood stained her pale lips and chin red, and also stained the collar of Lin Mo's shirt red, with a heartbreaking warmth.
"Medic! Quick! Call for medics!" Lin Mo screamed into the communicator, his voice completely distorted by extreme fear and anger. He knelt on one knee, hugged Su Mu tightly, trying to warm her with the warmth of his body. His fingers trembled as he brushed away the sweat-soaked hair on her forehead. Looking into her unfocused, deathly gray eyes, a wave of overwhelming panic seized him. He had never seen Su Mu like this, never! The Su Mu who was always calm, resilient, as if nothing could truly break her, now felt as fragile as a shattered glass doll in his arms.
The lab was in chaos. The technicians were stunned and bewildered by the sudden turn of events. The old professor watched Su Mu vomit blood and faint, then glanced at the glaring chip on the screen. His face paled, his lips trembling, unable to speak. The piercing alarm continued. The threat represented by the purple-black pulse on the screen, though diminished, remained. The deep blue ice barrier was covered with cracks, and the vortex symbolizing the "siphon" dimmed. Everything was on the verge of collapse.
And Shen Qingli, the source of all this chaos, seemed unusually... calm at this moment.
She remained at the console, her hands removed from the black metal box with madly flashing energy patterns. Forcibly activating the "Deep Cold Barrier" to counter the devastating data annihilation pulse had clearly taken a toll on her. Her face was paler than the lab walls, and a trace of a pale blue fluorescent liquid oozed from the corner of her tightly pursed mouth, running down her jawline and dripping onto her dark gray uniform, instantly leaving a strange, small, and smeared mark. She panted slightly, her chest rising and falling slightly more than usual. On the backs of her hands, covered in special gloves, the tiny metal joints, seemingly fused to her skin, emitted an unstable, extremely faint blue light, like an overloaded circuit.
However, her gaze did not fall on the "Siphon" agreement that was in danger, nor did she look at the emerald green chip on the screen that caused Su Mu's collapse, and she did not even pay the slightest attention to the chaotic scene.
Those deep, metallic silver-gray eyes were like the most sophisticated locking radar, penetrating the chaotic space and harsh noise, and locked firmly on one person - Lin Mo.
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