Chapter 248: Relic Runaway

"Seventh Turn!" Xuanyuan Qing kicked over the steaming Steamer, and three hundred layers of bamboo trays suddenly hovered and reorganized. The Silver Bell Fragment traced the trajectory of the Big Dipper in the Void; the memory data of a certain clone was invading the ordering system.

A line of blood seeped from the collar of Lin Yu's Tactical Suit. He stared at the neon sign that had suddenly lit up at the reconstruction site; the four characters for "Xu Ji Bun Shop" were being devoured by the dark red mark of the "Observer." Thirty-seven delivery riders looked up simultaneously, their helmet visors reflecting Xiao Chengzhou's mechanical compound eyes.

Xu Xiaochuan's school uniform brushed against the Data Torrent, his canvas shoe soles dragging scorch marks across the surface of the Cold Storage cabinet. As he pried open the eighteenth frozen bun, his father's voice suddenly exploded from the meat filling's Chip: "Xiaochuan, the Steamer must turn counter-clockwise..."

The manhole covers across the entire street blew off simultaneously, and the metal wreckage of the Zero Machine rose from underground. Qin Tianluo's Electronic Eye suddenly projected above the oil wok, his body, composed of Data Stream, absorbing the boiling grease.

"Old Qin?" Xu Xiaochuan's spectacle lenses reflected the Barcode on the other's chest—the production date was yesterday. Xuanyuan Qing suddenly whipped out the Silver Bell Chain to entangle the projection; the moment the bronze touched the data, it burst with the charred fragrance of Sugar-Fried Chestnuts.

Lin Yu's Void Energy tore open the delivery rider's helmet, revealing a miniature cloning pod curled up inside the metal skull. When he crushed the third mechanical body, the neon signs across all of Si Jiu City suddenly shifted direction, the light beams converging into a holographic image of Xu Jianhua falling from a building.

"Dad!" Xu Xiaochuan's school uniform pocket suddenly sprayed rainbow code; the Temperature Gauge he had stolen three days ago was overloading. The Silver Bell Fragment suddenly melted into the shape of a key, and as he inserted it into the crack in the Barrier at the reconstruction site, the roar of the Zero Machine restarting came from fifty meters underground.

The music box gears suddenly reversed, the lullaby warping into a shrill air-raid siren. Xu Xiaochuan's school uniform brushed the edge of the console, his cuff sizzling and smoking where it touched blue mucus. Xuanyuan Qing whipped the Silver Bell Chain to entangle the ceiling chandelier, the bronze fragments reflecting thirty-seven overlapping silhouettes in the red alarm light.

"This melody..." Lin Yu's white hair moved without wind, his Tactical Boots crushing the glass Culture Pods covering the floor, "It's the disinfection bell from the laboratory back then!"

Xu Xiaochuan's canvas shoes kicked open a deformed filing cabinet, and moldy paper pages drifted down like snowflakes. A yellowed experimental record stuck to his pant leg, the greasy handwriting suddenly twisting—the words "Seventh batch of test subjects implanted with 'Little Swallow' brainwave frequency" were seeping beads of blood.

Xuanyuan Qing suddenly grabbed him by the back of his collar and dragged him backward. Fragments from the exploded music box grazed the boy's earlobe, burning a QR code-shaped scorch mark onto the wall. The Liquid Nitrogen Tank twenty meters away suddenly depressurized, and three corpses wearing gas masks emerged from the white mist, Old Tape Recorders hanging from their spinal bone spurs.

"My dad's ashtray!" Xu Xiaochuan suddenly lunged toward the corner. The rusty metal container held brown ash, and the crooked words "Saving New Year's money for Xiaochuan" were carved into the bottom. The moment his fingers touched the rim, the emergency lights across the entire wall suddenly shifted direction, the light beams piecing together a holographic image of Xu Jianhua smoking in the Void.

The corpse's Mechanical Dog smashed through the blast-proof glass, its fangs tearing open Xu Xiaochuan's pant leg. Lin Yu's gold-and-black energy condensed into a steamer-shaped shield, leek-filling virtual pixel blocks gumming up the mechanical compound eyes. Xuanyuan Qing took the opportunity to press the ashtray into the console slot, and a metal needle with a blood groove suddenly popped out from the bottom of the container.

"Don't!" Qin Tianluo's Mechanical Arm suddenly spasmed, "That is for the Consciousness Uploading..."

The moment the needle tip pierced Xu Xiaochuan's fingertip, the sound of an infant crying echoed throughout the Research Institute. A Micro Projector rose from the music box wreckage, and in the blue light, an image of Xu Jianhua being swallowed by a Data Stream appeared. His right hand, missing a knuckle, was inserting a Chip into his temple; the operating table nameplate read "Voluntary Test Subject 003."

The corpses suddenly turned in unison, their spinal bone spurs stabbing into each other's eye sockets. The Silver Bell Chain on Xuanyuan Qing's wrist vibrated at a high frequency, and mucus smelling of Sugar-Fried Chestnuts seeped from the bronze surface. She suddenly tore open Xu Xiaochuan's school uniform; the cloning Barcode on his back was absorbing the projection data.

"The old guy turned himself into a USB drive!" Lin Yu's white hair entangled the Mechanical Dog lunging at them, his Void Energy invading backward along the fangs. The console suddenly displayed surveillance footage from thirty-seven years ago—a twenty-year-old Xiao Chengzhou was debugging Xu Jianhua's Neural Interface, his gold-rimmed glasses reflecting cold light.

The music box gears suddenly expanded threefold, the lullaby mixing with an electromagnetic pulse and exploding in the laboratory. Xu Xiaochuan crashed into a smoking Server, and blood beads from the ashtray were corroding the metal casing. His father's holographic image suddenly spoke, the voice carrying the static of an Old Tape Recorder: "Xiaochuan... the Steamer must turn counter-clockwise..."

The Culture Pods across the entire wall burst simultaneously, drenching the three of them in blue nutrient solution. Xuanyuan Qing wiped her face, discovering that the Silver Bell Chain was absorbing the nanobots in the liquid. The corpses' remains suddenly reorganized, assembling into a five-meter-tall mechanical giant with Xu Jianhua's work ID embedded in its chest.

"The code is in the second verse of the nursery rhyme!" Qin Tianluo suddenly snapped his own mechanical finger, the parts assembling into a tuning fork that he stabbed into the console. When "Little Swallow" warped into Morse code, the floor suddenly split open, revealing a shaft reaching to the center of the earth. Lin Yu's white hair entangled the falling Xu Xiaochuan, his gold-and-black energy scorching the shaft walls.

The sound of a Steamer's pressure-release whistle came from the bottom of the shaft. Xu Xiaochuan's school uniform brushed against glowing cables, and his father's handwritten diary suddenly popped out from the Void: "The Zero Machine is alive..." Where the handwriting was blurred by bloodstains, Xiao Chengzhou's electronic signature seeped through.

Three hundred clones suddenly emerged from the shaft walls, all wearing Xu Jianhua's cigarette case pinned to their Tactical Suits. Xuanyuan Qing whipped the Silver Bell Chain to shatter the nearest clone's skull, the splashing blue blood burning the dark red mark of the "Observer" onto the shaft wall. Lin Yu's Void Energy suddenly spiraled out of control, his white hair wrapping around Xu Xiaochuan's neck.

"The password... is the ash..." Xu Xiaochuan's fingernails dug into the clone's eye socket, pulling out a pulsing mass of Data Stream. When he stuffed the data into the ashtray, the entire shaft suddenly shifted direction, and they rolled into the Circular Laboratory like buns dumped into a steamer.

Twenty old-fashioned televisions suddenly lit up. In the surveillance footage of Xu Jianhua eating a bun, his right hand, missing a knuckle, suddenly pierced through the screen, clutching a pair of scissors stained with blue blood and stabbing toward the center of Xu Xiaochuan's forehead.

The white mist from the Steamer's pressure-release valve carried the scent of leeks, and Xu Xiaochuan's school uniform brushed against a condensation pipe, the fabric freezing stiff instantly. Three hundred cylindrical Culture Pods rose and fell in the blue light of the Cold Storage, the lids stamped with the logo of the Donkey Meat Burger Shop.

"Is this a damn bun tray?" Xu Xiaochuan's sneakers crushed ice crystals, and human faces suddenly emerged on the surface of the pods—Old Wang from the barbecue stall, Que Tui Zhang from the courier station, Li Shen who repaired shoes at the alley entrance; all the neighbors who had been missing for half a year were soaking in blue mucus.

Xuanyuan Qing's Silver Bell Fragment suddenly adhered to the pod seam, code smelling of Sugar-Fried Chestnuts seeping from the bronze cracks: "They are extracting memories to make AI feed!"

Lin Yu's white hair entangled the mechanical guard lunging at them, his gold-and-black energy drilling inward along the alloy shell. The guard's chest plate suddenly popped open, revealing a clone of Xiao Chengzhou soaking in nutrient solution, his electronic vocal cords emitting a synthesized sound: "Old Xu's bun filling..."

The sound of a Steamer's axle friction came from the depths of the Cold Storage. In the center of the twenty-meter-tall Circular Device, three hundred layers of bamboo trays were rotating clockwise, each layer embedded with the neighbors' Neural Interfaces. Xu Xiaochuan knocked open a deformed pod lid, and the freezing liquid splashed onto the console, instantly activating a holographic projection—Xu Jianhua was smoking while debugging the Steamer's parameters, his right hand, missing a knuckle, inserting a Sugar-Fried Chestnut into a Neural Interface.