Chapter 238: Zero's Call

The fragments of the silver bell exploded onto the wall, and Lin Yu instantly had over a dozen blood holes in his arm.

"Uncle!" Xuanyuan Qing's throat was hoarse from shouting, clutching the half-broken bell rod and trembling.

Lin Yu suddenly knelt on the ground, black smoke rising from his back. Xu Xiaochuan jumped up and hid behind the filing cabinet, two buttons popping off his school uniform: "This broken USB drive is hotter than spicy hot pot!"

"Don't touch the interface!" Xuanyuan Qing kicked the host over, sparks flying as the plug sizzled in the socket.

Lin Yu's throat emitted the static noise of an old radio tape: "Zero... must find Zero..."

"What Zero? Alipay balance?" Xu Xiaochuan crawled on the ground, feeling for the adapter, his finger poking into a cockroach nest, and five or six black dots scurried out from between his fingers.

Suddenly the whole floor shook, and the ceiling dropped dust. Three shadows wearing night-vision goggles kicked open the fire door, their gun barrels glowing purple-blue.

Xuanyuan Qing grabbed the keyboard and smashed it over: "Run!"

Lin Yu suddenly grabbed her wrist, his whites completely black: "Tell Old Xu... the third layer of the steamer..." Before he could finish, his whole body deflated like a leaking balloon, his tactical suit lying empty on the ground.

The men in black stepped over the host debris, the leader bending down to pick up the USB drive. Xu Xiaochuan scrambled to the ventilation duct, looking back to see the man with a QR code tattooed on his neck.

"Research Institute! My dad's laboratory!" Xuanyuan Qing dragged Xu Xiaochuan by his waistband, the emergency light in the corridor flickering.

Xu Xiaochuan felt for a hot water bag in his pocket while running: "Is this the adapter?"

A mechanical synthesized voice suddenly came from behind: "Coordinates locked, executing cleaning program."

Xuanyuan Qing crashed into the safety passage door, cold wind mixed with diesel smell pouring in. Thirty meters away, a broken van leaned in a trash pile, "Xu's Bun Shop Delivery Special" painted on the door.

"I've known how to hotwire this car since I was eight!" Xu Xiaochuan scrambled up and pried the rearview mirror, a rusty key falling out of the frame gap.

When the engine sputtered black smoke, a blue firework suddenly exploded in the direction of the Research Institute. Xuanyuan Qing bit her molars hard, flooring the accelerator.

In the rearview mirror, three blue dots were chasing them like hopping on a grid on the roof.

Xu Xiaochuan suddenly fished half a bag of sugar-fried chestnuts from under the passenger seat: "My dad hid these!"

A yellowed group photo fell out of the chestnut bag—a twenty-year-old Lin Yu and Xu Jianhua squatting in the server room, with the red indicator light of a certain server labeled "Zero Machine" in the background.

The sound of tires crushing broken glass suddenly stuttered, and Xu Xiaochuan's school uniform collar was choked by Xuanyuan Qing. The area illuminated by the van's headlights appeared distorted, and the site of the Research Institute was jumping with mosaics on his retina.

"There were thirteen floors three days ago." Xu Xiaochuan's canvas shoes kicked away half a brick, and the rubble suddenly shattered into pixels when passing through the ruins. His school uniform back was stained with instant noodle soup, gleaming with oil in the moonlight.

The silver bell in Xuanyuan Qing's palm vibrated at a high frequency, numbing her tiger's mouth. Gold and black energy surged from Lin Yu's neck, outlining the silhouette of the Research Institute from thirty years ago in the void—glass curtain walls reflecting thirty-seven inverted crosses.

"Don't touch the boundary!" Qin Tianluo's mechanical arm suddenly extended three meters, clamping Xu Xiaochuan, who was about to crash into the barrier. The boy's school uniform trouser leg was torn by an invisible force, revealing the scabbed scrape on his knee.

Lin Yu's white hair danced in the energy turbulence, and blue mucus seeped from where his tactical boots crushed the ground. The moment he touched the barrier ripples, thirty-fold laughter suddenly rang out across the ruins.

Another "Lin Yu" walked out of the distorted air, wearing a dark red emblem on his tactical suit collar. Gold and black energy condensed into identical boxing gloves in his palm, down to the bulging veins on the back of his hand.

Xu Xiaochuan's canvas shoes retreated two steps, fishing out the burning USB drive from his pocket: "Northeast corner stone tablet! Those cracks and key breakpoints match!"

The moment Xuanyuan Qing threw the silver bell, the fist winds of the two Lin Yus collided, exploding air waves. In the rain of flying rubble, Qin Tianluo's electronic eye suddenly flashed with blood: "Experimental subject... serial number..."

Xu Xiaochuan lunged at the stone tablet covered in moss, his fingernails digging into the mold in the cracks. In the light circle of the waterproof flashlight, dark red symbols were flickering at a frequency of three times per second, vibrating in sync with the blue light of the USB interface.

"Old Qin isn't right!" Xuanyuan Qing dodged the energy residue, finding metal spikes bulging from Qin Tianluo's spine. Blue liquid leaked from his mechanical arm, corroding honeycomb-shaped pits in the ground.

The two Lin Yus landed simultaneously after backflips, their tactical boots leaving perfectly symmetrical scorch marks on the ground. The real Lin Yu's mouth oozed blood, while the phantom's wounds oozed data streams.

"You can't kill me." The phantom wiped the blue energy liquid from his chin, "Guess why I can predict your moves?"

Lin Yu's pupils contracted violently, his fist freezing in mid-air.

"Because your combat data..." the phantom's fingertips lit up with thirty-seven light points, "were all training materials fed to the AI by us."

Lin Yu suddenly erupted, his fist wind rolling with rubble and slamming into the phantom's chest. Cracks spread like spiderwebs, but the phantom laughed even more wildly: "Smash this body, there are thousands more..."

The entire building suddenly rang with a harsh nursery rhyme, and the phantom's movements instantly stuttered. Lin Yu seized the opportunity with a knee strike, and the phantom's mechanical spine emitted a teeth-aching snapping sound.

"Impossible..." Blue light seeped from the cracked body, "How could the core frequency..."

Lin Yu pressed the phantom's neck into the wall, bricks falling with a rustle: "Pass a message to your boss for me—" he whispered into the phantom's ear, "Remember to age the fakes next time; your machine oil smell is too new."

The phantom disintegrated into data streams in the exploding blue light, still laughing. Xu Xiaochuan poked his head out from behind the broken wall, holding a smoking tape recorder: "This broken thing still works! My dad recorded 'Little Swallow' ten times on the tape..."

Xu Xiaochuan suddenly jumped up and kicked away half a brick: "Qing-sister! Quick! Play that deadly song!"

Xuanyuan Qing fumbled for her phone, the screen shattered like a spiderweb. Xu Xiaochuan stomped his feet anxiously: "The one my dad hums every day!"

"Found it! 'Swallow Returns to the Nest'!" Xuanyuan Qing nearly couldn't hold the phone. The ringtone mixed with the hoarse folk song exploded in the ruins, and the silver bell suddenly buzzed and vibrated like it was having a seizure.

The ghost symbols on the stone tablet suddenly moved as if alive, Xu Xiaochuan leaned in to look: "Damn, these symbols are jumping more energetically than the square dance aunties!"

Clang!

Twenty meters away, Lin Yu was kicked into the wall by the phantom, brick debris falling like rain. He spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva: "You pirates are quite professional, huh?"

The phantom shook his blue-glowing fist, the wounds made of code automatically repairing: "Guess who wrote the algorithm for this punch?"