Chapter 268: Endgame

When Xia Xue pushed open the lead door of the nuclear contamination isolation room, the radiation counter in her protective suit sounded a frantic alarm. In the center of the seventeen dirty bombs arranged in a ring, the gene editing chamber was automatically injecting pale golden liquid, and the operation screen displayed 【Carrier Activation Final Stage】.

"The password is July 17, 1997." Luo Fei's hoarse voice came from the headset, "That's the date you were adopted."

When she entered the last digit, a mechanical arm suddenly stretched out from the chamber. The moment Xia Xue rolled to dodge, she saw the position where she had just stood burned by a laser. Outside the explosion-proof glass, the SWAT team's breaking saw suddenly stopped—all electronic equipment had been paralyzed by EMP.

"Don't you understand yet?" The synthetic voice sounded on the broadcast, "These bombs are just fireworks; the real weapon is you."

Xia Xue tore open the protective suit, and the scar under her collarbone was oozing blue fluorescence. The gene chamber's scanner suddenly locked onto her, and the display screen jumped out a 3D DNA model: the telomere length at the end of the 17th chromosome was seven times that of an ordinary person.

"Immortal code..." She thought of the clones in the freezer and suddenly understood that those were all failed backups. The true immortality program had long been written into her genes, just waiting for specific radiation to activate.

The explosion-proof door collapsed with a boom, and "Director Wangs" wearing chemical protective suits filed in. They tore open their protective suits in unison, revealing fluorescent scars beating under their collarbones, like a group of marionettes.

"The miracle your father created." The leader took off his gas mask; it was Xia Mingyuan, the founder of Noah Biology who had long since "died," "In the fire seventeen years ago, only you inherited the perfect gene."

Xia Xue touched the ceramic dagger at her back—this was the only weapon at the scene not affected by EMP. When she saw the other party revealing the same dimples as in the childhood photo, the blade trembled in her palm.

"Mom didn't die of dystocia back then, right?"

Xia Mingyuan's expression froze briefly. This genius scientist, who had been written into textbooks, suddenly had a mechanical red light flash in his right eye. Xia Xue seized this fleeting flaw. The moment the dagger pierced his carotid artery, what spurted out was not blood but coolant.

"You are the first bionic man..." She looked at the fallen "father," whose metal skull was embedded with an old-fashioned chip, with the production date marked as 2002.

———

Qingyanshan underground base, Luo Fei found the real control center. When he inserted Xia Xue's gene key into the main console, the holographic projection revealed a horrifying truth: there were 1700 "Xia Mingyuans" acting in synchronization around the world, and their ultimate command was to activate seventeen geothermic bombs buried at the plate boundaries.

"It's not a terrorist attack," the Geological Bureau's alarm suddenly sounded, "They are inducing a 9.17-magnitude artificial earthquake!"

Xia Xue's voice came from the encrypted channel: "My mitochondria are stabilizers, need to..." The violent explosion interrupted the communication. Luo Fei looked at the geothermic controller that was counting down and suddenly understood why those clones wanted to capture her alive—the perfect carrier was both the activation and termination key.

———

Above the Pacific Ocean, Xia Xue stood by the transport plane's cabin door. Below her was the rolling sea of clouds, and seventeen positioning red dots were flashing on the sea chart. She gripped the syringe found in the gene chamber, where nanobots floated in the pale golden liquid.

"Living parachute is in position." The pilot's voice carried sorrow, "After reaching the predetermined altitude, your biological magnetic field can neutralize..."

"Tell Luo Team," she interrupted, "The dandelions behind the orphanage were actually planted by my mother."

When the airflow at ten thousand meters altitude poured into the cabin, Xia Xue remembered the fire when she was seven. In fact, she had known for a long time that the female researcher who pushed her out of the fire also had a circular scar on her left shoulder—that was the mark of the first-generation carrier.

The moment the syringe pierced her carotid artery, she saw the clouds crack open. The morning sun cast her shadow on the sea surface, just covering the nearest geothermic bomb. When her body began to decompose quantumly, seventeen blue lights rose from the major oceans, weaving into a huge DNA chain in the stratosphere...

———

Final Chapter

Three months later, the evidence room of the Qinghe Branch Bureau. Luo Fei opened the encrypted safe, inside which lay half a tube of dried golden blood. A pot of dandelions was placed on the windowsill, and when the morning breeze blew, the fluff turned into a blurred human figure in the sunlight.

When he opened the case report, a satellite photo was clipped to the last page: on a nameless island reef somewhere in the Pacific, seventeen blood-red roses would never wither in the quantum dust.

(End) ===== CHAPTER 269 =====