Chapter 233: Source Code

The silver bell vibrated at a high frequency, and Xuanyuan Qing barely caught the pocket watch that slipped from Qin Tianluo's pocket. The glass dial was shattered into a spiderweb, the hour hand stuck at 3:33, and the inside of the watch cover had "Xu's Pawnshop" written in twisted blood.

"Donkey meat burger... double portion..." Qin Tianluo spat out half a sentence, blue light surging beneath his eyelids. Xuanyuan Qing dragged him by the collar toward the ruins, the broken steel bars scraping a screeching sound against his trouser legs.

When they rounded the seventh street corner, the copper bells on the old gatehouse rang in unison. Xuanyuan Qing held the pocket watch up to the moonlight, and the blood characters in the crack projected "Source Code" in small seal script onto the dial. A muffled sound of bricks and tiles collapsing came from the ruins behind her; she gripped the silver bell, which had begun to heat up, suddenly remembering Lin Yu's words before he went berserk: "Donkey meat burgers must be paired with mung bean milk."

"Thinking about food at a time like this..." She kicked open the pawnshop door, and the old computer on the top shelf of the shelf automatically turned on, the garbled characters on the screen gradually piecing together into Lin Yu's face.

The smell of scorched fabric drifted in the darkness. Qin Tianluo's eyelids twitched twice, his left hand subconsciously reaching for his waist—the position where his energy gun had originally been now only had half a melted metal buckle.

"If you're awake, give me a hand." Xuanyuan Qing crouched before a crack in the blue bricks, the silver bell moving back and forth against the ground. The bell core emitted an intermittent buzzing, vibrating her tiger's mouth until it went numb.

Qin Tianluo pulled himself up, tugging at the burn on his back, and gasped in pain. Moonlight passed through the collapsed eaves, illuminating the group of white-coated researchers ten meters away. The lead researcher was adjusting his watch, and the blue light sweeping across the area revealed golden grids.

"Run to the southeast corner in three seconds." Xuanyuan Qing suddenly gripped the bell. Silver light points seeped from the cracked brick seams, condensing into an arrow shape pointing toward a dark door in the ruins.

The white-coated researchers looked up simultaneously. Seven elliptical instruments floated into the air, the bursting purple light stinging their retinas. Qin Tianluo dragged Xuanyuan Qing toward the dark door, the skin on the back of his neck burning painfully. The silver bell suddenly flew out of her hand, exploding into an umbrella-shaped light curtain in the air, swallowing the purple light of the pursuit.

"Xu's Pawnshop!" Xuanyuan Qing stared at the phantom of the sign appearing in the light curtain, her nails digging into the wooden splinters of the door. "Did Old Xu carve the dark door password on the donkey meat burger wrapper?"

"He improved the Void positioning algorithm." Qin Tianluo touched the dents on the inside of the door frame. "The coordinates were written in sweet and sour sauce back then..."

The dark door suddenly vibrated violently. The mechanical arm of the white-coated leader pierced through the wall, and the data cable popping out of his fingertips coiled toward Xuanyuan Qing's ankle like a living snake. Qin Tianluo grabbed a piece of steel bar and inserted it into the data cable interface, the exploding electric sparks illuminating the corners of his mouth as he sneered: "Kill a virus before formatting?"

The silver bell light curtain suddenly contracted, wrapping the two and falling into an underground passage. The sensation of weightlessness lasted for three seconds before they fell heavily into a warehouse filled with electronic components. The rusty exhaust fan creaked as it turned, and in the light and shadow it cast, stood a back figure wearing an oil-stained apron.

"Two buns for three questions." When Xu Jianhua turned around, his right hand, missing its ring finger, was holding a steaming donkey meat burger. "Save the first question for Lin-kid—the mess he made is enough to form a hornet's nest."

Xuanyuan Qing was just about to speak when an explosion came from overhead. Xu Jianhua stomped his feet, and the entire shelf flipped over to reveal a weapon wall: "Pick what's handy; those bookworms hate it when people touch their servers."

"You... know too much." The mechanical arm of the white-coated leader suddenly popped out a laser pointer, projecting a scarlet countdown on the wall.

Fifteen elliptical machines rose from the ground, golden patterns appearing on their surfaces. Xuanyuan Qing suddenly discovered that every researcher's chest badge was printed with Lin Yu's ID photo, only the age parameters were different—a thirty-year-old one, a fifty-year-old one, and even an infant version chewing on a pacifier in swaddling clothes.

Qin Tianluo suddenly grabbed the donkey meat burger from Xu Jianhua's hand and took a big bite: "The backup server is hidden in the donkey meat?" The mustard choked him until tears streamed down his face. "Old Xu, you improved the recipe and added double mustard?"

Xu Jianhua pulled a glowing data cable from the oil paper package and plugged it into the exhaust fan: "Lin-kid hid the Void key in the steamer layer of the bun shop back then, and these idiots have been checking cold chain logistics for thirty years."

A buzzing sound exploded. Seven researchers suddenly began to dance mechanically, and the blue light projected by their watches spelled out "404NOTFOUND" in the air. The infant version of Lin Yu's chest badge suddenly shot out a holographic projection:

【Warning! Illegal access detected】

【Executing final clearance protocol】

Xuanyuan Qing grabbed the transistor radio from the shelf and smashed it toward the projector: "Your code is messed up! Where would an infant get administrator permissions?"

The ground suddenly collapsed. Xu Jianhua grabbed the collars of the two and leaped into the data torrent, his right hand with the missing finger tapping rapidly in the void: "Wrote a backdoor program for Lin-kid's bun shop firewall back then—"

"You call a Void rift a backdoor?" Qin Tianluo was thrown against the glowing keyboard by the data stream, his nosebleed dripping onto the Enter key. The entire space suddenly froze, and all the researchers turned into pixel blocks and fell with a rustle.

A dialog box popped out of the white-coated leader's mechanical eye: 【Format? Y/N】

Xu Jianhua shoved the bun toward Qin Tianluo's mouth: "Input the code as I say—sweet and sour sauce mixed with Erguotou, three units of weight each of green onion, ginger, and garlic!"

"Are you serious?" Xuanyuan Qing watched Qin Tianluo input "Beijing shredded pork" on the virtual keyboard, and the entire wall of code suddenly exploded with firework effects. The infant projection of Lin Yu began to play "Two Tigers," and the researchers collectively began to dance square dances.

"Basic anti-hacker algorithm from the eighties." Xu Jianhua wiped his greasy apron. "The first lesson I taught Lin-kid—the more complex the encryption, the more it fears a mismatch."

Qin Tianluo suddenly grabbed the two and lunged toward the glowing vortex: "Stop admiring your masterpiece! They've activated the backup—"

The moment the data torrent swallowed his voice, Xuanyuan Qing saw Xu Jianhua make a "put the bun money on the tab" gesture. The bun shop sign from thirty years ago flickered in the void, and what surged out when the steamer was opened wasn't steam, but a sky full of stars.

Qin Tianluo's fingers twitched twice in the blue light remaining on the virtual keyboard, and the garbled characters jumping on the projection screen suddenly formed a mocking smiley face symbol. Xuanyuan Qing stared at the tissue fluid seeping from the burn on his neck, leaving a dark trace on the collar of his tactical suit.

"The loophole patch will hold for at most half an hour." He tore off the clothing stuck to the wound, his mouth twitching in pain. "The database retrieved seventeen suspected source code coordinates, fourteen of which are traps."

Lin Yu kicked away the half-melted mechanical arm debris at his feet, the metal parts clattering into the drain: "Give me the reliable ones directly."

"The bun shop's cold chain logistics data link." Qin Tianluo brought up the holographic projection, the logistics list from thirty years ago flickering between mold spots. "The ashes of Old Xu's left ring finger are buried under the third stone lion at Xisi Pailou." ===== CHAPTER 234 =====