Victor's pale face twitched slightly, and his eyes behind his glasses were filled with frustration and a deeper desire to explore.
They were so close to the core secrets, yet they were destroyed in an instant!
While he was focused on analyzing the scene and issuing instructions, he did not notice, or rather, subconsciously did not regard the "Crimson Barrier" as an individual whose "state" required extra attention—it was merely a powerful tool, a tool that had just dutifully protected him.
He didn't even notice that the crimson monocular sensor of the "Crimson Bulwark-7" kneeling beside him, though still steadily lit, seemed to have an extremely subtle, almost imperceptible ripple deep within its light.
It was as if a tiny pebble had been thrown into a calm, deep pool.
In the moment of the devastating explosion that just occurred, and as the "Crimson Barrier" defense system was violently impacted, the cold barrier that imprisoned Vika's core consciousness, composed of alchemical runes and neuroprotective inhibitors, seemed to have been pried open with a barely perceptible crack!
An immense, indescribable, and chilling spiritual will, like the boundless universe itself, briefly descended upon this place.
It brushed past Vika's remaining consciousness, carrying an all-knowing indifference and... a hint of cold mockery directed at Orcs and Sass.
This will did not stop, but instead, like a heavy hammer, slammed into that crack!
"boom--!"
It wasn't a physical sound, but a roar at the level of consciousness!
Vikana's core consciousness, curled up deep within the ruins of the dream, slumbering and extremely weak, trembled violently, like an ice crystal thrown into boiling water!
"Well……"
A faint, almost completely drowned out by the external alarm, muffled groan escaped from the speaker beneath the Scarlet Bulwark helmet.
The voice was extremely faint, carrying a sense of bewilderment and pain, as if it had just emerged from deep water and belonged to a non-combat unit.
Victor Horn crouched down, examining the fragments of the furnace control panel on the ground, trying to piece together the data stream from before the explosion.
He heard the muffled groan, paused slightly, and his brows furrowed as usual.
"Crimson Barrier, self-test report. Did the impact just now damage the speaker unit or logic module?"
Victor didn't even look up, and asked in a cold, hard voice.
He naturally attributed the anomaly to a system error caused by physical damage.
[...Self-checking in progress...]
[Sound unit: Physical connection normal, functioning normally.]
[Logic module: No physical damage, operating efficiency 99.7%, fluctuations within acceptable range.]
[Warning: An abnormal fluctuation of 0.003% has been detected in the core consciousness suppression layer. The cause is unknown and is under analysis...]
A cold, synthesized electronic voice echoed inside the "Crimson Barrier," reporting the self-test results.
But this time, Vika (or rather, the combat weapon numbered 7) did not relay the result to Victor via an external loudspeaker as usual without delay.
It...paused.
The crimson, single-eyed sensor seemed to rotate unconsciously, sweeping across Victor's profile as he intently examined the fragments, across the clerk on the ground with his charred arm, his fate unknown, and across the panicked researchers around him, their faces covered in soot...
A cold, viscous fragment of memory, carrying a strong smell of blood and the metallic rust, burst through the crack without warning, like a flood breaking through a dam!
It's not the warm fishing village and military camp of Vika, but... Anvil Canyon!
It's the blue smoke that rises when a beam of incandescent white light passes through a human body!
It was a bloody scene of a giant mechanical claw tearing soldiers and their shields to shreds!
It was the purple magical energy that erupted when the cold armor-piercing cone tore through the "Earthbreaker's" armor!
It was the crisp sound of bones shattering as Count Soren crushed the arm of that gold-level general inside his tent!
And... just now! The terrifying impact and scorching heat that my back armor endured when I shielded Victor with my body!
These images, these sounds, these sensations... were like countless cold steel needles, piercing deeply into Vika's consciousness core, which had just been pried open a crack!
These are not combat records from "Crimson Fortress," but rather... the massacres that Vika, imprisoned in a steel cage, "witnessed" and personally experienced! The cold execution of these acts as "weapons"!
"No……"
A faint fragment of consciousness, writhing in extreme pain and chaos, struggled and tumbled within Vika's remaining core.
"It wasn't me...it wasn't me...stop...stop..."
The massive steel body of "Crimson Bulwark-7" swayed very slightly.
The fingers, covered in armor, unconsciously curled and opened, the metal joints emitting a faint grinding sound.
Victor finally realized something was wrong. He abruptly raised his head, his sharp gaze piercing the "Crimson Bulwark" beside him like a scalpel.
“Crimson Bulwark? Answer! Self-inspection report!” His voice rose, carrying an unquestionable commanding tone.
The crimson, single-eyed sensor suddenly focused on Victor's face! The red light seemed even more dazzling than usual, carrying a kind of... cold... scrutiny that Victor had never felt on this war machine before?
Victor's heart skipped a beat! An indescribable chill instantly crept up his spine!
Just then, the cold, synthesized voice finally sounded, completely flat, as if the pause and the strangeness had never happened:
[Report complete. No functional damage. The fluctuations in the core consciousness suppression layer have stabilized, determined to be redundant data interference under high-intensity impact. No threat.]
Victor stared intently at the sensors of the "Crimson Bulwark," his eyes behind the lenses filled with doubt and apprehension.
Was that chilling scrutiny just now...an illusion? Was it distortion of the sensor's optical path caused by the explosion? Or...?
“Researcher Horn! The medical team has arrived! Jason (the clerk whose arm was charred) is in critical condition! He needs to be taken to the nearest base immediately!” A researcher ran over in a panic to report.
Victor took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing his doubts. The most important thing now was to treat the wounded and preserve any remaining data.
As for this "Crimson Bulwark"... it must undergo a top-level deep scan and consciousness reset upon returning!
"Immediately evacuate the wounded! Clean up the scene! Find every piece of data, even the smallest storage chip!"
Victor quickly gave the order to stop looking at the "Crimson Wall" around him and turn towards the wounded.
He didn't see that, in the instant he turned around, the deep red single eye of "Crimson Fortress" turned slightly again, silently "watching" his hurried back and the shocking, charred marks on the ground belonging to its kind.
The microphone under the helmet seemed to vibrate very slightly again, emitting a faint, non-electronically synthesized breathy sound that was even lighter than a sigh and almost completely swallowed up by the ambient noise.
Vikana's fragmented consciousness, forcibly pushed back into the abyss, silently curled up and trembled in the cold steel cage, no longer a lifeless void.
That crack that belonged to Vika's memory already existed.
A chilling rage, mixed with the awakened pain and confusion belonging to "Vika," began to gestate like magma quietly surging underground, under absolute confinement.
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