The incubator of the "virus" has been lit. The firewood in the furnace is emitting a final, desperate wail.
Deep in the fortress, on the verge of collapse.
Once a vast energy hub connecting Areas B and C, this place has now become a wound torn apart the earth. The massive alloy support structure, like the ribs of a giant dragon, twisted and broken, piercing the dome, which was covered in cracks and flaking debris and dust. The ground was riddled with bottomless cracks, and scorching, high-pressure steam, like the gasping breath of a wounded beast, gushed out with a hissing death cry. A dark purple, viscous liquid, emitting a strong radioactive substance, like the pus and blood of the earth, flowed and pooled freely among the broken ground and collapsed ruins, emitting a sickening stench. The air was thick with dust, metal dust, and deadly radiation, and visibility was extremely low.
Zero's crimson electronic eyes, like twin beacons piercing the fog, laboriously scanned the surroundings amidst the thick smoke and radiation. His black armored body was covered in fresh scratches, dents, and burn marks, and wisps of smoke still rose from the edges of the large gaping hole in the back armor. The hydraulic system of his remaining mechanical legs whined under the strain, and every step was accompanied by a harsh grinding and dripping sound of leaking hydraulic fluid. Inside the machine, warnings of various overloaded components and short circuits continued like a constant background noise.
Like a loyal guard, he held the unconscious Lu Qingyi tightly in his arms. He used his relatively intact robotic arm and body to shield her from most of the falling debris, deadly steam jets, and the gushing radioactive pus. Lu Qingyi's face was pale, almost transparent, her long eyelashes covering her eyelids, trembling slightly in the violent turbulence. The dim purple light at the chip interface on the back of her neck was as faint as a candle in the wind, as if it would be completely extinguished in the next second. However, Zero's core processor clearly recorded that when crossing the most dangerous areas, encountering sudden landslides or deadly steam jets, she would always erupt with extremely weak, yet extremely precise, strange fluctuations within her body, forcibly weakening the peak external pressure and buying him those few tenths of a second, which could make the difference between life and death.
This inexplicable coincidence kept Zero's logic core constantly under high-load, conflicting computations. Threat assessment models were constantly being updated and overturned. Protection protocols and unknown variable analysis clashed fiercely within the underlying code.
"'Key'... illogical behavior pattern... source of interference unknown... threat level... dynamically assessed..." A cold electronic sound echoed within the machine, carrying an unprecedented uncertainty.
Suddenly, Zero came to a screeching halt! Its crimson electronic eyes fixed sharply on a relatively open, yet structurally unstable area ahead. A massive concrete beam hung overhead like the sword of Damocles. Below lay a bottomless chasm, swirling with dark purple steam. The only access was a severely warped, cracked alloy maintenance tunnel spanning the chasm, like a broken suspension bridge in the wind.
Calculated safe passing probability: less than 18.3%.
Zero's core processor instantly displayed a cold value. He looked down at Lu Qingyi, still unconscious in his arms, his crimson electronic eyes resting on her pale, fragile face for a moment. Protection protocols mandated avoiding high-risk routes. But detouring... would take even longer, and Lu Qingyi's vital signs and chip contamination index were slowly but steadily sliding towards the abyss.
“Logical conflict…optimal path…risk…accept…”
The electronic voice made the decision.
Zero protected Lu Qingyi even tighter, and his only remaining mechanical leg burst out with the last stabilizing force. The armor-covered mechanical arm stepped onto the shaky alloy passage like a precise balance.
Squeak——!!!
The groaning sound of twisted metal instantly intensified! The entire passageway shook violently under his weight! Tiny concrete fragments and rusted metal pieces fell from the beams hanging overhead like raindrops! The cracked alloy plates under his feet groaned under the weight, as if they would break completely in the next second!
Zero walked as if on a knife's edge, each step calculated to the millimeter, maintaining a precarious balance through subtle adjustments of his center of gravity and the instantaneous support of his robotic arms. His crimson electronic compound eyes rapidly scanned every inch of metal beneath his feet for changes in stress and the stability of the beams overhead.
Just as he was about to reach the middle of the passage, the most vulnerable area where the cracks below were the widest and deepest—
boom!!!
A dull thud echoed from overhead! It wasn't an explosion, but rather the massive concrete beam's internal structure finally couldn't withstand the constant vibration and its own weight, and a fatal fracture occurred!
A massive concrete block, the size of a small car, mixed with broken steel bars, crashed down towards the center of the narrow passage where Zero and Lu Qingyi were, carrying a destructive aura! A massive shadow instantly enveloped them! The resulting wind pressure blew away the surrounding smoke and dust!
There's no escape! Below lies a cracked abyss that swallows everything!
Zero's core processor instantly gave a cold conclusion: the body damage rate is expected to be 97.8%, and the target survival rate is less than 0.01%.
A critical moment!
This is the one-thousandth of a second that decides life or death!
In Zero's arms, Lu Qingyi, who had been unconscious, suddenly trembled violently without any warning!
This time, her tightly closed eyes suddenly opened!
But those once clear eyes now held no trace of the confusion, pain, or vulnerability that belonged to "Lu Qingyi"! Deep within them lay a cold, hollow, inhuman silver-white light! Like polar ice frozen for eons! Even more bizarre, the silver-white light didn't diffuse evenly, but instead swirled and condensed slowly within the depths of her pupils like a vortex! An invisible, more clear, colder, and more... compulsive, terrifying will, like an invisible storm, erupted instantly with her at its center!
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