Chapter 252

"Hold on!" Xuanyuan Qing's voice trembled, the dislocated wrist hurting sharply, "We have to find a way out..."

Just then, a clear fragment flashed in Xu Chen's brain, as if it had been forcibly stuffed in.

A young Xu Jianhua was pointing at Zhou Weihong's nose and cursing.

"Zhou Weihong, are you fucking crazy? This isn't evolution at all! This is anti-human! Look at what those experimental subjects have become!"

Zhou Weihong looked indifferent, pushing his glasses: "Humanity should have eliminated redundant emotions long ago; they only become a burden."

"Bullshit!" Xu Jianhua smashed a fist against the nearby culture pod, the glass humming, "And that bullshit 'emotional amplification circuit' of yours has a fatal flaw! You'll play yourself to death sooner or later!"

The scene cut off abruptly here.

Xu Chen gasped for breath and raised his head: "Wait! I just... saw something..."

Lin Yu was struggling to resist the impact of the echoes, when suddenly, a certain mutation seemed to occur in the gold-black energy within his body.

The black energy polluted by negative emotions, instead of collapsing, produced a twisted resonance with the despair permeating the surroundings.

He tried to guide this power.

A memory echo that lunged to his side, upon contacting the energy field he was barely maintaining, actually shattered with a "pop" like a soap bubble.

"Heh..." Lin Yu's mouth pulled into a cold, hard arc, "Old Xu... you buried this backup plan deep enough."

Xuanyuan Qing immediately understood: "You mean, Uncle Xu anticipated this step long ago?"

The three of them braved the mental impact and began to search for clues in the chaotic laboratory.

Memory echoes were still emerging from the shadows, but Lin Yu seemed to have found a certain pattern, using that twisted resonance to barely protect a small area.

Finally, on a dust-covered, almost forgotten experimental record board, they found their target.

It was a complex formula written in a flamboyant hand, with a crooked donkey meat burger drawn next to it, marked with arrows—"327 kcal" and "Anti-phase resonance point."

The handwriting was definitely Xu Jianhua's.

"This is..." Xu Chen's eyes widened, "A counter-program?"

Lin Yu leaned in to look closely at the complex formula: "That's right. Looking at the structure, it's an instruction to activate a hidden sub-program. Theoretically, it can produce 'anti-phase resonance,' neutralizing the negative emotional field here."

Xuanyuan Qing endured the pain: "What are the activation conditions?"

Lin Yu pointed to the eye-catching "327 kcal": "I'm afraid it requires a sufficiently strong 'positive emotion' as a key... 327 kcal, the calories of a donkey meat burger..."

What kind of bullshit key is this!

Before the words were finished, the negative energy in the center of the laboratory fluctuated violently.

All the memory echoes seemed to be attracted by a magnet, converging and merging toward the center.

A shadow, far more solid and powerful than all the previous echoes, was taking shape.

That face twisted and deformed, finally settling—it was actually the appearance of one of Xu Jianhua's clones!

"Interesting." Zhou Weihong's voice carried a hint of appreciation, but more mockery, "Old Xu did leave something behind. Unfortunately... you will never find that so-called 'positive emotion'."

"What exactly is the key?" Xu Chen stared fixedly at that increasingly clear "father" echo, his fists clenched until his knuckles turned white.

He turned to look at Lin Yu, his voice trembling: "Uncle Lin, what do we do?"

Lin Yu didn't answer, just staring at that clone echo, then looking at the donkey meat burger graffiti on the blackboard.

"There is only one chance." His voice was terrifyingly low.

The patterns on the back of Xu Chen's school uniform began to burn again, this time with scorching blue light, as if countless tiny needles were pricking him.

The receiver was greedily devouring the negative emotions permeating the surroundings—cold, viscous, carrying the strange smell of rust and decay.

In the very center of the laboratory, the memory echo with Xu Jianhua's face became more and more solid, its mouth splitting open, hooking into a chilling arc.

"Dad..." Xu Chen's throat felt dry, his voice shaking uncontrollably.

The echo opened its arms in a hugging posture, but what it spread was thick, inseparable sadness and resentment. It moved forward one step, and a circle of sickly blue ripples oscillated in the air, like dirty water dripping into clear water.

"Don't look!" Lin Yu grabbed Xu Chen's arm, the force almost crushing his bones, "That's not your dad! It's Zhou Weihong's toy, aimed at you!"

Xuanyuan Qing held the silver bell fragments in front of her, the surface of the fragments already covered in cracks, the warm light they emitted crumbling and precarious. She was covered in cold sweat, her hand holding the fragments shaking violently. "Can't hold on much longer..."

But Xu Chen's eyes were as if nailed, staring fixedly at that "father." The echo's face changed constantly—sometimes a gentle smile from memory, sometimes a ferocious, twisted hatred, sometimes endless pain and numbness. Every change was like a dull knife dragging back and forth across his heart.

"Why didn't you come to save me?" A voice exploded directly in his brain, carrying tears and questioning, "Why did you leave me alone?"

Lin Yu roared, trying to mobilize Void energy. But the gold-black energy, once it left his body, became sluggish and heavy, as if trapped in a swamp, unable to condense into form at all, let alone attack. The energy was swallowed clean the moment it touched the blue ripples emitted by the echo.

His tactical boots stomped heavily on the ground, gravel flying, his full head of white hair dancing wildly, yet he couldn't squeeze out a trace of effective power.

"Fuck!" Lin Yu's teeth critted, veins bulging on his forehead, "The negative emotions in this ghost place are too thick! The energy is being suppressed to death!"

Xuanyuan Qing flipped her wrist, and the silver bell chain lashed out a phantom, the bronze surface bursting with sporadic blue electric sparks. The chain whipped the echo, but only produced a dull thud, not even making the other party sway. The warm light barrier was compressed to only a thin layer, on the verge of shattering.

"Must find a way to trigger the anti-phase resonance!" Xuanyuan Qing was so anxious her voice changed pitch, her gaze sweeping rapidly across the record board on the wall, "Need a sufficiently strong 'positive emotion' as a key!"

Xu Chen was forced into a corner by the sound, his knees softening, and he knelt on the ground. The back of his school uniform was scalding, the patterns shining blindingly bright. That "father" had finally walked up to him, cold fingers almost touching his forehead.

"You will never understand me..." The echo's voice was like an ice pick, chiseling at his brain.

Countless images flashed before Xu Chen's eyes: the back of his old man tinkering with parts under a lamp late at night, the steamers in the bun shop that were always steaming hot, the snacks and game coins that would appear in his school uniform pocket from time to time, and that sentence he never had the chance to finish, "Dad, I'm back"...

"What kind of positive emotion is needed exactly?" Lin Yu roared, his voice sounding blurry and distant in the viscous air.

Xuanyuan Qing pressed the last few silver bell fragments against her forehead and closed her eyes. The scene of her father teaching her to tie her shoelaces when she was a child surfaced, those rough hands clumsy yet patient. A long-lost warmth and sense of security instantly diluted the coldness and despair all around.