Chapter 266: Undercurrents

When Xia Xue shoved the dagger into the ventilation duct’s seam, the military wristwatch on her wrist suddenly emitted a shrill beep.

The red dots flickering on the watch face showed three heat sources approaching from three directions—23 meters away, moving at 1.7 meters per second.

“They’re wearing infrared-shielded suits.” She tore off her tactical vest, revealing a copper mesh wrapped around her waist— an electromagnetic barrier she’d dismantled from a microwave emitter two hours earlier, capable of temporarily disrupting biological signal tracking.

A faint vibration came from the ceiling; dust fell in straight lines. The instant Xia Xue rolled behind the sofa, silenced bullets pierced through three layers of drywall, leaving smoking bullet holes where she’d just stood. The micro-camera embedded in each bullet head still rotated, transmitting footage to an unknown terminal.

“Boom!”

The moment the stun grenade exploded outside the window, Xia Xue smashed open the hidden door and sprinted into the underground passage. Ankle-deep in foul sewage, she wrapped her phone in a waterproof bag—seventeen minutes earlier, an encrypted message had revealed that Luo Fei had found her name in the experimental accident files.

A sudden glow appeared ahead; three figures in night-vision goggles advanced in tactical formation. Xia Xue skidded to a stop, pressing her back against the cold cement wall. The copper mesh around her waist erupted in high-frequency tremors—the hallmark of an approaching electromagnetic pulse. She decisively yanked the mesh free and hurled it into the sewage; sparks crackled as the tracker emitted a final, overloaded shriek.

Seizing the window of equipment failure, Xia Xue kicked off the wall, leaped up, and grabbed a rusted iron ladder. The moment the manhole cover above was ripped open, salty sea air flooded her nostrils. She barely poked her head out when she saw three short, one long flash of headlights on the container terminal a hundred meters away.

“This way!” A scarred hand reached out from a modified cargo truck—it was Chen Feng, the Interpol undercover agent!

As Xia Xue leapt into the cargo hold, a wall of seventeen monitors displayed live traffic footage across the city; three screens suddenly flickered with static—the pursuers had arrived.

Chen Feng tossed her a bloodstained file bag: “2006 Qingyan Mountain Medical Center fire accident report.” Xia Xue pulled out the charred documents and saw her childhood photo in the “Experimental Subject List” column—Project Code X-17.

“They started with you at seven...” Chen Feng’s words were cut off by an explosion.

In the truck’s rearview mirror, two black SUVs smashed through roadblocks, their rooftop laser sights burning scorch marks onto the containers.

Xia Xue tore open the bandage on her left arm; embedded in the unhealed wound were rice-sized metal fragments—the nanocrystal she’d had surgically removed last night, now wriggling inside a glass petri dish. She plugged the crystal into the vehicle’s decoder; seventeen flashing red dots instantly appeared on the city’s electronic map.

“All of them are old medical center sites.” Chen Feng yanked the steering wheel hard, slamming the truck into the abandoned hospital parking lot. “Luo’s team went to Qingyan Mountain. I’ve got this.”

———

The subterranean morgue’s chill intensified the pain in her wounds. Following the navigation signal, Xia Xue reached the third autopsy room; charred marks still clung to the broken metal door. As she used a laser pen to cut through the rusted lock, a voice echoed from the cold storage unit: “Iris verification passed. Welcome back, X-17.”

Rows of frozen drawers slid open automatically; each contained a girl who bore her exact likeness. The girl in Drawer 7 had frost on her eyelashes; a tag on her chest read: Seventh-Generation Vessel · Neural Synapse Synchronization Rate 91.7%.

“So I’m a mass-produced model.” Xia Xue touched the frost patterns on the glass; her wristwatch blared an alarm. Three heat sources appeared in the corridor, footsteps precisely timed at 0.79 seconds per step—the rhythm of military tactical boots.

She ducked into a surveillance blind spot and saw the leader lift his protective mask—revealing a face identical to Chen Feng’s. The real Chen Feng’s corpse should still be in the truck’s driver’s seat. Then this one...

The impostor’s pupils flickered with mechanical red light; as he raised his arm, metallic joints glinted at his sleeve. Xia Xue recalled the “Biomimetic Vessel Program” mentioned in the files—the 2006 fire hadn’t just destroyed experimental records.

“Cognitive interference deactivated.” The android suddenly turned toward her hiding spot. “Recommend B-Class elimination protocol.”

Before the android could raise his weapon, Xia Xue hurled her scalpel; the blade lodged precisely into the biomimetic’s neck energy interface. Seizing the moment of circuit overload, she smashed through the air vent window and dove into the ventilation duct. Behind her, the electromagnetic pulse rifle charged with a whine; the duct walls glowed red-hot in an instant.

———

At 5:17 a.m., the ruins of Qingyan Mountain Medical Center. Luo Fei crushed a dry branch; his flashlight beam revealed a half-buried infant wristband stamped with faded “X-17.” The accompanying forensic officer dug through damp soil, uncovering a solid metal wall—its electronic screen suddenly lit up:

【Brain-Machine Synchronization Rate Exceeds Critical Threshold. Initiating Final Purification Protocol.】

The ground trembled. As Luo Fei dragged the forensic officer backward, seventeen beams of blue light erupted from fissures in the earth. The police drones circling overhead suddenly went haywire; the operator reported in panic: “All devices exhibiting abnormal β-wave frequencies!”

As Xia Xue sprinted from the opposite cliffside, her electromagnetic jammer smoked and overheated. She saw the vintage film camera in Luo Fei’s hands and suddenly remembered—it was the only device unaffected.

“Shoot the wall!” She screamed, tackling Luo Fei. A bullet grazed her ear; the mechanical pursuers had breached the line. At the instant the camera shutter clicked, an invisible laser matrix surfaced on the metal wall, etching a bizarre seventeen-sided pattern onto the film.

The pursuers’ heads exploded in sparks; all froze and collapsed. Xia Xue tore open her collar; beneath her collarbone, skin revealed the same pattern as the laser matrix—the biological key buried for seventeen years.

"The fire wasn't an accident," she shoved the film into the evidence pouch. "Someone covered up the truth about the vessel losing control." From the morning mist came the roar of a speedboat; the horizon blushed crimson with dawn.