Chapter 253: Observer's Eye: The Emotional Vacuum in the Data Labyrinth

"It's familial love!" Xuanyuan Qing suddenly opened her eyes, her voice carrying a trace of uncertainty, yet also a trace of conviction, "The purest kind, unadulterated!"

Xu Xiaochuan had already been forced into a corner. The Echo's cold fingers finally touched his forehead. Bone-chilling despair poured in instantly, like a catastrophic disaster, about to swallow him whole.

Just at this moment, a long-forgotten scene jumped out without any warning—

The winter when he was six years old, he ate a Sugar-Fried Chestnut for the first time. Dad was clumsily peeling the scalding chestnut, his fingers burned bright red, grimacing but still smiling. "Be careful, don't get burned." He carefully placed the peeled, steaming chestnut kernel into Xu Xiaochuan's small, frozen-red hand, "Eat quickly, it's only fragrant when it's hot."

The glutinous and sweet aroma of the chestnut, the rough yet warm touch of his father's palm, that winter afternoon bathed in sunlight...

A clean, pure warm current surged up from the deepest part of his heart without warning, as if someone had suddenly lit a candle in the boundless darkness.

"Dad..." Xu Xiaochuan subconsciously whispered, his voice very soft, without fear, without resentment, only a longing that was about to overflow.

The pattern of the Receiver on his back suddenly stalled, then actually began to operate in reverse. The blue circuit that had been crazily absorbing negative emotions was now, at this moment, uncontrollably spreading that warmth originating from the bottom of his heart, carrying the sweet fragrance of Sugar-Fried Chestnuts, outward.

"327 calories..." A buzzing sound went off in Xuanyuan Qing's brain, "It's not heat! It's... it's the intensity of emotion!"

The string of scribbled formulas on the recording board on the wall suddenly lit up with a faint blue light. The sub-program that Xu Jianhua had buried back then was activated!

An invisible, warm fluctuation spread out from Xu Xiaochuan as the center, like ripples, and slammed fiercely into the negative emotion field in the laboratory that was so thick it could not be dissolved.

"Anti-Phase Resonance Point! It's triggered!" Lin Yu only felt his whole body lighten; the Void Energy that had been suppressed to the point of death instantly regained its fluidity, and his white hair rose without wind.

The expression on the face of that Xu Jianhua clone's Echo froze. The twisted visage looked as if it had been erased by a rubber, beginning to peel off and disintegrate in pieces. The entire negative emotion field of the laboratory, like snow under the sun, rapidly melted and evaporated.

"You did it..." The Echo's voice was no longer twisted and venomous, becoming gentle and familiar, even carrying a trace of gratification, "This is my son."

Xu Xiaochuan subconsciously reached out his hand wanting to grab something, but the Echo had already begun to dissipate. Before it completely vanished into nothingness, it directed a relieved, warm smile toward Xu Xiaochuan, then scattered into blue light dots dancing all over the sky. In the air, only a small piece of pure Memory Fragment, faintly carrying the sweet fragrance of Sugar-Fried Chestnuts, remained.

"No!!!" Zhou Weihong's exasperated roar came from the Void, shaking the entire space, "You destroyed my Emotional Greenhouse!"

The laboratory shook violently, and the Data Stream on the walls began to collapse and peel off like a waterfall, revealing the cold metal structure behind it. Large chunks of the ceiling fell down, smashing onto the ground, dust filling the air.

"Go!" Lin Yu grabbed the back of Xu Xiaochuan's collar, and with his other hand, dragged the swaying Xuanyuan Qing, rushing toward a crack that had just burst open on the wall.

Xuanyuan Qing reacted extremely quickly, fiercely thrusting the last bit of Silver Bell fragments in her hand into the edge of the crack. The bronze made contact with the unstable Data Stream, exploding with blinding electric arcs, forcibly widening the crack by a few more inches. The three of them scrambled inside, and the laboratory behind them completely collapsed amidst a roar.

"Wait!" Just after passing through the crack, Xu Xiaochuan slammed on the brakes.

In the chaotic, tumbling data turbulence ahead, several tattered data fragments belonging to Qin Tianluo flashed by. That sole remaining mechanical eye intermittently projected some blurry images.

"Observer... Data Hub... is a disguise..." Qin Tianluo's intermittent voice sounded, carrying intense electrical interference, "Zero Machine... the true core... is not here..."

"What do you mean?" Xuanyuan Qing leaned against the wall, trying to use her remaining spiritual power to stabilize those data fragments that were about to dissipate.

"They... lied to everyone..." Qin Tianluo's data image began to flicker violently, on the verge of collapse, "The real... Zero Machine..."

Before the words were finished, the data fragments were completely annihilated in the violent turbulence.

There was no time to hesitate; the three of them could only bite the bullet and continue to travel through the collapsing data tunnel.

When they finally rushed out of the turbulence and fell onto the solid ground, the scene before them left all three of them stunned.

This was no longer a dark and damp ruin, nor was it an Underground Laboratory filled with blue slime.

What came into view was a huge, empty, futuristic pure-white space. The surrounding walls were constructed of some kind of smooth, seamless white material, embedded with dense, flickering, ghostly-blue Server arrays, like stars. Hanging from the high, distant dome were dozens of huge holographic projection screens, displaying real-time surveillance footage from every corner of Si Jiu City, from the bustling commercial districts to the depths of remote alleys, without a single omission.

In the air, there was only the low hum of Servers and cold circulating wind.

"Where... where is this?" Xu Xiaochuan held his knees, panting heavily, too shocked by the scene before him to speak.

Lin Yu's Tactical Boots stepped on the mirror-like metal floor, emitting a crisp echo. He looked around, his white hair fluttering slightly in the circulating wind: "If I'm not mistaken... this is the true control center of the Zero Machine."

Xuanyuan Qing walked to the nearest wall, her fingertips gently touching the cold white material. She could feel the massive energy flow surging inside the wall. "Everything we saw before... was all fake? A smokescreen?"

Just at this moment, all the Server arrays suddenly flickered simultaneously, the blue light gathering like a tide toward the center of the space, condensing into a massive, towering holographic projection—Zhou Weihong's withered face occupied the entire wall, and from the missing notch in his left ear, data code flowed like a waterfall.

"Very clever, children." Zhou Weihong's voice sounded from all directions, carrying a condescending appreciation, "Since you have broken into the Core Area yourselves, then watch carefully. The moment to witness history has arrived."

The projection screen switched abruptly, showing the sky above Si Jiu City, where a visible, massive energy vortex was slowly taking shape, like an invisible giant eye opening. The camera zoomed in; on the streets, thousands of citizens, regardless of gender or age, no matter what they were doing, all seemed to have been pressed on a pause button, stopping their steps at the same time. On their temples, without exception, ghostly blue lights lit up, echoing the massive vortex in the sky.

"See that? This is the true meaning of the Zeroing Project." Zhou Weihong's voice was filled with irrepressible fanaticism, "Thirty years of layout, thirty years of waiting... it is finally time to close the net."