Chapter 240

Xu Xiaochuan's school uniform brushed against the wreckage of the mainframe, and the moment the display screen lit up, it reflected his twisted, distorted face. The instant the hard drive connected, surveillance footage from thirty years ago flashed by like snowflakes—Xu Jianhua in a white lab coat was injecting blue liquid into a culture pod, inside which floated a miniature version of Qin Tianluo.

"49th cloning experiment..." a mechanical synthesized voice sounded, mixed with electrical noise, "Memory implantation failure rate 97.3%..."

Lin Yu's palm pressed onto the smoking hard drive casing, and gold-black energy uncontrollably poured into the interface. The surveillance footage suddenly jumped to a dark room, where a man identical to him was soaking in a culture pod, with a "Zero" label stuck to his chest.

Xuanyuan Qing's silver bell split completely into two halves, and the bell core rolled to Xu Xiaochuan's feet. When the boy picked it up, he was burned so badly he shook his hand, only to suddenly discover a line of small text engraved on the inside of the bell core: "Don't trust Xu Jianhua's buns."

A crisp sound of steel bars snapping came from deep within the ruins, and Qin Tianluo's mechanical eye suddenly projected a hologram: "Safety coordinates—Donkey Meat Burger Shop cold storage, third level." His metal skin was carbonizing, and fluorescent blue mucus seeped from the cracks.

Lin Yu hoisted the unconscious Qin Tianluo onto his shoulder, his tactical boots stepping over blood-stained experimental records scattered on the ground. A page stuck to the sole of his shoe, with yellowed handwriting that read: "Subject Zero energy threshold has exceeded the critical value—recommend immediate destruction."

As the three of them tumbled into the delivery vehicle, a black shadow suddenly appeared in the rearview mirror. Xu Xiaochuan's school uniform was caught in the car door gap, and when he looked back, he saw the black shadow crouching at the highest point of the ruins, gnawing on some glowing object; the chewing sound was clearly audible even from thirty meters away.

"Drive!" Lin Yu punched the steering wheel, and the car radio automatically began playing "Return to the Nest." The toolbox under the passenger seat suddenly popped open, and an energy gun engraved with the character "Zero" rolled out.

Xuanyuan Qing shook open the passenger storage box, and yellowed coupons fell out like rain. On the back of one coupon, written in sweet and sour sauce, were the words: "Little Lin, your favorite fennel-filled buns are in the seventh freezer to the right in the cold storage."

The moment the delivery vehicle smashed through the stone slab blocking the road, spiderweb-like cracks suddenly covered the rear window. The black shadow's face was pressed against the crack, its mouth grinning to its ears, its full set of sharp teeth biting down on half a mechanical finger.

Xu Xiaochuan's canvas shoes kicked the console hard, and the moment the car refrigerator popped open, cold air plastered the black shadow's face. Lin Yu jerked the steering wheel, and in the rearview mirror, the black shadow was tearing open its own chest, pulling out a mass of pulsing data stream and stuffing it into the crack in the car window.

"He's trying to tamper with the navigation!" Xuanyuan Qing grabbed the silver bell fragment and slashed at the data stream; the exploding arc scorched half of Xu Xiaochuan's bangs. The boy suddenly felt the old-fashioned tape recorder under the back seat, and the moment he pressed the play button, Xu Jianhua's drunken voice sounded, mixed with the sound of finger-guessing games: "Donkey meat burgers must be paired with... paired with Erguotou..."

The black shadow suddenly let out a high-pitched scream, and the data stream shrank into a point of light and escaped out the window. The ruins in the rearview mirror were collapsing into pixels, and Qin Tianluo's mechanical arm hung over the edge of the seat, the blue liquid dripping from his fingertips etching a route map onto the floor mat.

Veins bulged on the back of Lin Yu's hand, and gold-black energy branded scorch marks onto the steering wheel. He glanced at the unconscious Qin Tianluo and suddenly turned the car into an abandoned air-raid shelter. The emergency lights at the top of the tunnel flickered on and off, illuminating graffiti on the wall—three blood-red arrows pointing in different directions, with Lin Yu's face drawn at the end of each arrow.

The ceiling lights of the air-raid shelter hissed and exploded, and Lin Yu's tactical boots crunched over the broken glass covering the floor. Xuanyuan Qing held up her cracked-screen phone for light, the blue glow sweeping over a bloody handprint on the wall—the palm print was identical to his own. Xu Xiaochuan suddenly squatted down to dig through the broken bricks: "Here's my dad's cigarette case!" On the inside of the tin foil, a maze was drawn in grease, with the exit labeled "Zero Cold Storage."

The black shadow's chewing sound echoed deep in the tunnel. Qin Tianluo's mechanical arm suddenly twitched, and his electronic eye projected surgical records from thirty years ago: "Subject Zero awakening probability... 0.0003%..." Lin Yu grabbed him by the collar: "How much has the old thing been hiding from me?"

The iron door of the cold storage was sealed shut by frost, and Xuanyuan Qing puffed out white breath as she kicked the door. Xu Xiaochuan felt for the door lock recess, his school uniform rubbing off a layer of ice: "Need a fingerprint!" Lin Yu pressed his palm onto it, and the alarm light suddenly turned green.

In the cold air spilling from the door gap, hundreds of culture pods were soaking. Xu Xiaochuan's canvas shoes slipped and hit a glass cover, inside which floated Xu Jianhua in a white lab coat—with a "Researcher 003" label stuck to his chest.

"Clones?" Xuanyuan Qing's fingernails dug into the frost, "Your dad might have already..."

The black shadow suddenly hung upside down from the ceiling, and data tentacles extended from its torn-open chest. Lin Yu's gold-black energy exploded the ice mist, but his fist passed through the black shadow's chest, grabbing only empty air. Xu Xiaochuan was knocked over onto the console, his lower back hitting a red button.

All the culture pods depressurized simultaneously, and the moment the clones opened their eyes, thirty-seven Lin Yu voices overlapped: "Welcome home."

Xuanyuan Qing threw the silver bell fragment to shatter the surveillance camera, and coolant liquid flowed down the cracks to their ankles. Xu Xiaochuan crawled into the ventilation duct and shouted: "Find the console! My dad left..."

The black shadow's sharp claws brushed past Lin Yu's earlobe, and a line of blood seeped from the collar of his tactical suit. He suddenly caught a glimpse of himself in one of the culture pods—that clone was melting, revealing a metal skeleton.

"You are all defective products." The black shadow's voice changed into that of Xiao Chengzhou, "Only I can complete the Zero Return Project..."

Xu Xiaochuan suddenly dropped an iron box from the ventilation duct, and the front page of a yellowed experimental log read: "The Zero Key is memory." Lin Yu's temples throbbed, and the sound of crying from thirty years ago exploded inside his skull—the cold sensation of a scalpel slicing through his spine, and Xu Jianhua's right hand, missing a knuckle, was adjusting the electrodes.

The floor of the cold storage suddenly collapsed, and everyone fell into a circular chamber filled with blue liquid. Corrosive holes appeared in Lin Yu's tactical suit, and fluorescent patterns emerged on his skin the moment it touched the liquid.

At the bottom of a two-hundred-meter-deep shaft, a giant computer cluster was running. Xu Xiaochuan's school uniform was entangled by data cables, and a holographic projection suddenly popped up with Xu Jianhua's video message: "Xiaochuan, if you're seeing this, it means I failed..."

The black shadow tore open a spatial rift and descended, its mechanical compound eyes locking onto Lin Yu: "Time to reclaim the experimental material."

Lin Yu's white hair stood on end, and the gold-black energy condensed into tangible chains. All the clones inside the circular chamber suddenly opened their eyes in unison, and thirty-seven beams of energy converged toward the center.

Xuanyuan Qing dragged Xu Xiaochuan into the blind spot of the console, her frozen fingers tapping wildly on the keyboard. The interface suddenly popped up Xu Jianhua's smiling emoji: "Please enter the password—what is your favorite bun filling?"

The black shadow's sharp claws pierced through Lin Yu's shoulder blade, and blue blood sprayed onto the keyboard. Xu Xiaochuan suddenly roared: "Fennel! It's fennel filling!"

A nursery rhyme suddenly rang out through the entire laboratory, and the circular chamber began to fall toward the center of the earth. Lin Yu gripped the black shadow's throat and slammed it into the main control screen, and countless data tentacles extended from the cracks, dragging him into the depths of the light source...