On the day when the Chaebol Alliance building collapsed, the chip in Lu Cheneng's brain suddenly backfired.
Wen Shifei found the backup data of Wen Yuan's consciousness deep in the ruins, but was surrounded by alarms.
"Format me." Lu Cheneng grabbed Wen Shifei's hand in the excruciating pain of his personality being torn apart. "Otherwise, the next time you wake up... I will kill you with my own hands."
At the bottom of Pandora Laboratory, the liquid metal tentacles of Mother Zero pierced the protective shield.
The moment the gun was pointed at his temple, he saw the light of fireflies in Wen Shifei's eyes.
The Alliance Headquarters, the giant building that once overlooked the entire city like a cold god and symbolized endless power and oppression, finally met its end.
It wasn't a groaning collapse, but rather the piercing metallic groan of a skeleton completely destroyed, its weight unbearable, layer by layer, slowly and ponderously crumbling. Massive steel beams twisted and snapped, and the high-strength synthetic glass curtain wall shattered into a million razor-sharp fragments, carrying with it dust, fragments of documents, and the remains of ornamental symbols of bygone luxury. A gray-black torrent of water descended with a thunderous cascade, obscuring the sky and the sun. The earth trembled, and the dull crashing sounds, like the dying gasps of an ancient beast, pounded the air, assaulting the eardrums and nerves of every witness. Acrid smoke and dust swirled and spread like a thick fog, instantly swallowing all light and color.
At the edge of the ruins, Lu Cheneng stood like a weathered stone statue amidst the swirling dust storm. His tactical uniform had been torn in many places, and the dark red blood that seeped out spread across the dust like an ominous mark. The wind whipped his messy black hair from his forehead, revealing his deep, unfathomable eyes, which now reflected the behemoth's dying struggle.
The chaotic energy field had yet to subside, and the air was filled with the pungent smell of burning metal and decomposing chemicals. Lu Chen's gaze pierced through the swirling smoke and dust, landing on the area below, once completely shrouded by the shadow of the Alliance—the lower city. Even as the dust had yet to settle, a faint but remarkably persistent light, like a newborn star in the darkness, stubbornly lit up in the cracks of the ruins.
Then came the second point, the third point... a spark that suddenly set the whole field on fire.
Countless tiny lights lit up one after another in the rubble of the downtown area, along the narrow streets and alleys, even behind broken windows. They were not the cold, glaring searchlights of the Alliance, but warm, pulsing, lifelike fireflies! Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet... the myriad colors intertwined and flickered, forming a vast, vibrant web of light, a self-governing "firefly" network woven together by millions of tiny wills, a symbol of hope and rebirth!
This light penetrated the diffused ashes of death, carrying an almost sacred declaration: the shackles of the alliance have been broken, and the downtown area has begun to breathe its own life.
A faint, almost imperceptible arc quietly emerged at the corner of Lu Chen's tightly pursed lips. Before this faint smile could take shape, a sharp pain originating from deep within his head erupted without warning!
The sensation wasn't a physical impact, but more like an invisible, red-hot ice spike, piercing the back of his neck where the chip was implanted, then exploding violently in all directions! The icy burning sensation instantly spread wildly along his nerves, as if every nerve fiber was being forcibly torn, twisted, and reassembled wherever it passed. His vision suddenly went black, and countless shattered and chaotic fragments of images assaulted his consciousness like a bursting dam. The cold white light of the laboratory, Wen Shifei's bloodstained face, Wen Yuan's final look of despair, and the inhuman, indifferent pupils of "Zero"... All the fragments of memory he had deliberately buried or forcibly suppressed were stirred out by a brutal force at this moment, stirring into a boiling pot of poisonous soup that was enough to destroy his mind.
“Ugh—!”
A suppressed roar of pain erupted from the depths of his throat. Lu Chenheng's body instantly lost balance, his knees slamming heavily onto the metal wreckage beneath his feet with a dull thud. He clutched his head tightly with both hands, his knuckles turning bluish-white from the excessive force, his nails digging deep into the skin near his temples, leaving streaks of blood. Veins on his forehead and neck bulged and twisted like dying earthworms, and cold sweat poured out like a waterfall, instantly soaking his back and the front of his clothes, and a faint white vapor rose in the cold air.
Chaos. Indescribable chaos churned in his mind. The consciousness belonging to "Lu Chenent" was like a small boat thrown into a raging whirlpool, each attempt to gather was broken apart by the more violent waves. Another cold, indifferent voice, with absolute calculation and logic, like a maggot on the tarsal bone, echoed coldly in the cracks of his mind:
[Detecting a sharp fluctuation in subject's consciousness... Threat level increased...]
[Eliminate unstable factors...Eliminate sources of emotional interference...]
[Target locked... Wen Shifei... Executing clearance procedures...]
The icy command was like a poisoned needle, each blast bringing a deeper sense of pain and loss of control. Lu Chen's teeth chattered, nearly shattering. He jerked his head up, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the network of fireflies flickering tenaciously in the downtown area. That light, a symbol of new life and hope, now felt like countless red-hot needles, piercing his eyeballs with excruciating pain.
No! You can't go through there!
He slammed his fist into the cold metal plate beneath him! The harsh sound of the impact and the sharp pain from his fist bones brought a brief, precious moment of clarity.
"Get out!" Lu Cheneng roared hoarsely through his teeth, each word tinged with the scent of blood, a resolute declaration of war against the icy will within his mind. He forced himself to turn his gaze away, no longer looking at the warm light, no longer thinking about that name. His gaze reached beyond, to the abandoned industrial area left over from the Alliance era, a vast scar on the city—there lay the most likely location for Pandora Labs. Only there could he find the source of all this.
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