Chapter 249: Brain Domain Tyrant

"Dad?" The temperature gauge in the teenager's school uniform pocket suddenly sounded an alarm, the 327℃ reading flickering at the edge of the projection. Xu Jianhua in the image suddenly turned his head, his pupils splitting into mechanical compound eyes: "Xiaochuan, the seventh layer of the steamer..."

The Silver Bell Chain suddenly pulled taut. Xuanyuan Qing dragged the two of them and dove toward the shelves, twenty Elliptical Instruments grazing their backs as they smashed into the pile of frozen meat. Xiao Chengzhou's clone crawled out from a gap in the steamer, his Tactical Suit stained with grease from a Donkey Meat Burger: "The Zero Machine isn't a machine; it's the stomach of a glutton."

Lin Yu's Void Energy condensed into a Steamer Lid and smashed over, the clone suddenly self-destructing. Blue blood mixed with leek filling plastered the walls, etching out the dark red mark of the "Observer." Xu Xiaochuan's sneakers slipped and hit the console, a yellowed order form drifting out from a crack—the recipient was signed with Xu Jianhua's name, but the date was yesterday.

The steamer suddenly spun wildly counter-clockwise. Three hundred hatch covers popped open simultaneously, the neighbors crawling out with eyes of Data Stream, electronic synthesized hawking sounds squeezing from their throats: "Donkey Meat Burger, three-fifty each..."

Xuanyuan Qing flung a Silver Bell Fragment, shattering the nearest clone's skull, the splashing blue blood condensing into the Big Dipper in the Void. Lin Yu's white hair suddenly surged, entangling the pouncing Mechanical Dog and stuffing it into the steamer. As the seventh layer of the bamboo tray turned forty-five degrees, the entire Cold Storage rang with the sound of a cash register from thirty years ago.

"The password is Laba Garlic!" Xu Xiaochuan kicked open the smoking power distribution box, his fingernails digging into the rusted valve. The moment the cold mist sprayed out, a cylindrical glass cabin rose in the Core Area of the steamer—Xu Jianhua's clone was soaking in blue viscous fluid, his missing-knuckle right hand clutching half a moldy Donkey Meat Burger.

Xiao Chengzhou's synthesized voice mixed with the hissing of a pressure relief valve: "Welcome to taste... the eternal filling..."

The glass cabin suddenly shattered. Xu Jianhua's clone opened his mechanical compound eyes, a metal badge of the "Observer" pinned to the collar of his Tactical Suit. His missing-knuckle right hand suddenly elongated into a Data Tentacle, wrapping around Xu Xiaochuan's ankle and dragging him toward the steamer core.

"Wake up, you old thing!" Lin Yu's gold-black energy slammed into the clone's chest, the steamer's bamboo trays suddenly shifting direction. Virtual pixel blocks of leek filling surged from the cracks, wrapping around Xu Xiaochuan's school uniform and corroding it frantically.

Xuanyuan Qing suddenly snapped the Silver Bell Chain, the bronze fragments piecing together a Sugar-Fried Chestnut pattern before the clone's eyes. Xu Jianhua's mechanical compound eyes suddenly flickered, and the moment the Data Tentacle loosened, Xu Xiaochuan felt the Barcode on the back of his father's clone's neck—the production date was the night of the fall.

The steamer suddenly tilted sixty degrees. Three hundred layers of bamboo trays burst open one after another like dominoes, each cabin ejecting a clone of Xu Jianhua at a different age. Their missing-knuckle right hands pointed simultaneously at the ventilation duct at the top of the Cold Storage, their electronic vocal cords overlapping in a roar: "Xiaochuan... run..."

Xiao Chengzhou's virtual projection rose from the steamer's axis, his gold-rimmed glasses cracking as centipede-like tentacles extended out: "You are the freshest filling."

Lin Yu's white hair suddenly ignited into dark gold, Void Energy burning along the steamer's patterns toward the core. When his fist pierced through the seventh layer of the bamboo tray, the foundation of the entire Donkey Meat Burger Shop suddenly collapsed, revealing the boiling Code Furnace beneath—the fifty-meter-tall wreckage of the Zero Machine was reassembling, every fragment stamped with Xu Jianhua's electronic signature.

The blue light at the steamer's core suddenly collapsed into a black hole, the mechanical compound eyes of the three hundred Xu Jianhua clones extinguishing simultaneously. Lin Yu's white hair wrapped around Xu Xiaochuan's waist and flung him backward, gold-black energy carving scorch marks into the Void.

The dome of the Circular Laboratory cracked open, a holographic projection condensing into an old man in a white lab coat. That person was missing a piece of his left earlobe, a Surgical Scalpel spinning into an afterimage at his fingertips.

"Professor Zhou?" Qin Tianluo's Mechanical Spine suddenly burst with electric sparks, "Didn't you die twenty years ago in..."

"Old Zhou is the chief engineer of the Zeroing Project." Xiao Chengzhou's remains suddenly twitched as he spoke, asphalt-like mucus seeping from his gold-rimmed glasses, "The Zero Machine that Xu Jianhua stole was nothing but a castrated toy."

Xu Xiaochuan's school uniform brushed against a smoking Culture Pod, his lower back hitting the edge of the console. The holographic projection suddenly played an encrypted video—Xu Jianhua from twenty years ago was stabbing a Surgical Scalpel into Zhou Weihong's chest, his missing-knuckle right hand clutching a blood-stained USB drive.

"He stole the Brain Domain Lock technology." Zhou Weihong's projection suddenly materialized, the hem of his white lab coat sweeping over the floor full of clone remains, "Being able to embed an Instruction Set into neural synapses is three versions more advanced than the Void Energy you use."

Xuanyuan Qing suddenly flung the Silver Bell Chain, the bronze fragments piercing through the projection and pinning it to the wall. Code smelling of Sugar-Fried Chestnuts seeped from the cracks, currently reverse-hacking the Zero Machine system.

The sound of gears meshing came from the depths of the Cold Storage. Twenty Elliptical Instruments smashed through the Explosion-proof Door, each cabin ejecting a young person wrapped in Data Stream. Their temples were plugged with interfaces shaped like Donkey Meat Burgers, the dark red mark of the "Observer" pulsing in their pupils.

"Dad's clone..." Xu Xiaochuan suddenly grabbed the smoking Culture Pod pipeline, "Is a reverse signal transmitter?"

Lin Yu's gold-black energy suddenly went out of control. His white hair wrapped around the necks of three Puppets, Void Tentacles drilling inward along the Neural Interface. The controlled young people suddenly convulsed in unison, grease from Donkey Meat Burgers seeping from the collars of their Tactical Suits.

"Look at your savior." Zhou Weihong's leather shoes crushed a clone's skull, "He is absorbing the brainwaves of living people."

Xuanyuan Qing's back hit a Liquid Nitrogen Tank, the Silver Bell Fragment melting. She suddenly tore open Xu Xiaochuan's school uniform, the clone Barcode on his back seeping blue light—resonating with the interfaces at the Puppets' temples.

"What your old man tattooed on you wasn't a Navigation Map." Zhou Weihong's Surgical Scalpel suddenly extended three meters, the tip piercing Xu Xiaochuan's skin, "It's the Receiver for the Brain Domain Lock."

The entire laboratory suddenly rang with a distorted version of "Little Swallow." Twenty Puppets suddenly turned and pounced toward Lin Yu, their Tactical Boots trampling over the floor of clone remains. Their Mechanical Dogs tore open the Void barrier, their fangs biting into the ends of his white hair.

"Back then, when your dad stuffed a Virus into the Zero Machine..." Zhou Weihong's holographic image began to pixelate, "He cost us three hundred high-quality prime subjects."

Xu Xiaochuan suddenly felt the temperature gauge in his pants pocket, the 327℃ reading soaring. He slammed the instrument toward the projection source, blue light swallowing the scar on Zhou Weihong's left ear.

The floor of the Cold Storage suddenly collapsed. At the bottom of a fifty-meter-deep shaft, a giant steamer composed of three hundred layers of bamboo trays was rotating clockwise. Data Tentacles extended from every hatch, entangling the neighbors' Neural Interfaces.

"This is the true Zeroing Project!" Zhou Weihong's projection suddenly split into twenty, "Using the Donkey Meat Burger Shop as a signal tower..."

Xuanyuan Qing suddenly knocked open the deformed power distribution box, an old-fashioned tuner buzzing in the pool of blood. When she twisted it to 4200 Hz, the neon signs on the entire street suddenly turned, the light beams converging into a fragmented image of Xu Jianhua.