The emergency lights cast spider-web-like shadows on the glass curtain wall of Yin Gong's laboratory. When Mou Xuan kicked open the frozen fire door, the crisp sound of a test tube exploding suddenly came from the corner.
The engineer, whose white coat was stained with fluorescent green solution, hurriedly crushed the glass shards with the sole of his shoe, and the mechanical prosthesis exposed from his sleeve was twitching uncontrollably.
"Stress cracks appeared in the load-bearing wall of the No. 4 defense section." Chen Yao's military boots rolled over the circuit board debris on the ground, and the moisture on the cuffs of the combat uniform condensed into ice flowers on the surface of the thermostat. "Director Shao said that you are most familiar with the ultra-low temperature concrete mix ratio."
Engineer Yin's mechanical fingers suddenly spasmed and poked at the drawings on the wall. The densely packed formulas were dotted with traces of blood from his nails: "Three sets of modulus correction coefficients are needed, but the observation data from last winter..." His lips covered with chilblains trembled violently, sparks suddenly burst out from the joints of his prosthetic limbs, and he slumped down on the hydraulic lift chair as if his spine had been pulled out.
A pale golden gear shadow appeared on the surface of Mou Xuan's watch, and Chen Yao turned around tacitly to block the surveillance camera.
When time froze, he grabbed Engineer Yin by the back of his neck and pressed him against the operating table covered with calculation papers. His fingertips slid across the external data interface on his temple: "On December 17, 2037, you submitted Chapter 6 of the "Analysis of Permafrost Creep Parameters" to the weather station."
Engineer Yin's cloudy eyeballs suddenly bulged, and his mechanical prosthesis strangely operated on its own in the static space and time, carving a series of formulas on the blank spaces of the drawings.
When time started to flow again, Chen Yao just happened to support the staggering engineer, who was completely unaware that the ink marks just drawn on the back of his hand had already formed a complete equation.
"Use the basalt aggregate from Warehouse No. 4 to replace the regular gravel." Mou Xuan tore off the still smoking mechanical prosthesis and threw it into the liquid nitrogen tank. "Chen Yao will take you to get the antifreeze sample."
As they passed through the supply passage filled with blue mist, the groaning of twisted steel bars suddenly came from above their heads.
Duan Gong and six construction workers covered in ice were squatting in front of the crack. The steel picks being heated by a blowtorch were being covered with white frost at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The old worker pressed his cracked palms against the wall: "This damn thing is eating cement, like... like a living thing."
Engineer Yin suddenly went crazy and peeled away the ice at the edge of the crack, revealing the blue crystal veins spreading like blood vessels inside.
The stump of his robotic arm spurts out neural connection fluid: "It's self-reproducing antifreeze!
The seventh generation experiment that was rejected three months ago! "
"Boiled water sent by the kitchen staff." Chen Yao kicked the frozen cart away. The water in the plastic bucket had already frozen into lumps of ice.
Duan Gong lit the last half of the spray gun with trembling hands, but the flame bent strangely thirty centimeters away from the wall, as if there was an invisible barrier.
The phantom of the gears in Mou Xuan's pupils suddenly accelerated. He tore off his combat uniform to reveal an old, hideous wound on his chest - that was the scar left by the ice crystal parasite in his previous life.
The moment his palm touched the wall, arcs burst from the emergency lights in the entire corridor at the same time, and the blue light wandering in the cracks suddenly gathered into a beam of light and shot towards the ceiling.
"This is not a crack." Chen Yao's bayonet pierced into the bulging wall, and light blue liquid spurted along the blood groove onto the gas mask. "It's the blood vessel of some creature."
Engineer Yin suddenly let out an inhuman howl, and the nerve wires connected to the stump of the robotic arm automatically inserted into the crack.
When the blue crystals rushed into his body along the wires, Duan Gong swung the steel chisel and smashed the oil tank of his blowtorch.
In the exploding flames, Mou Xuan saw the old worker's red pupils reflecting the terrifying heart-beating rhythm of the entire wall.
"Go ask Fatty Shao for the liquid nitrogen truck!" Mou Xuan's palm left a burnt black mark on the wall, and the golden gear shadow began to crack. "Let all non-combatants retreat..."
His command was interrupted by a sound like a baby crying coming from deep inside the wall.
Chen Yao suddenly threw out a hook and wrapped it around Engineer Yin's neck, pulling him away from the wall at the moment when the engineer's entire right shoulder was about to crystallize.
Duan Gong picked up a fire axe and chopped open the ventilation duct. His cry was drowned out by the roar of the wall: "This is not concrete at all!"
When the last ray of emergency light was swallowed up by the wildly growing blue crystals, the countdown on Mou Xuan's watch suddenly began to retreat wildly.
At the moment when he was about to activate the second time pause, Chen Yao's dagger suddenly pierced his armpit and nailed a crystal tentacle that was about to penetrate his protective suit to the wall.
In the dim blue light, their backs were pressed against each other, and they could hear the entire fortification making a greedy swallowing sound.
(Continuation)
The incubator in the laboratory made a dying humming sound, and the shadow of the gears on Mou Xuan's watch projected a distorted scale on the wall.
The moment he grabbed Yin Gong by the back of his neck, the friction between the combat uniform fabric and the mechanical prosthesis produced blue-purple electric sparks.
"Don't let the surveillance camera capture the data interface." Chen Yao threw out a military spike with her backhand and pierced the ventilation duct. The falling ice chips condensed into diamond-like prisms in the static space and time.
Mou Xuan's fingertips had already been inserted into the external neural port on the engineer's temple. The memories of his past life and the permafrost observation data of 2037 were overlapping wildly on his retina. The image of the ice crystal parasites splitting and multiplying in the cracks of the concrete perfectly coincided with the blue light pulsating like blood vessels in the wall at this moment.
In the six hours and forty-seven minutes of time and space stagnation, he chewed up the stimulant hidden in his wisdom teeth.
The calculation paper stained with blood foam spread out on the operating table like a snowy field, until a certain equation suddenly bit a tooth mark in the memory - three years ago, on the eve of the fall of the Northeast Fortress, the traitor who was executed by himself had muttered "basalt aggregate mixing rate".
When the gear phantom started to turn again, the stump of Yin Gong's mechanical arm suddenly spurted out nerve repair fluid.
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