Chapter 257: Data Cage

The moment the three of them stepped into the room, the metal door slammed shut behind them. The pursuing robots were blocked outside, the sound of metal clashing fading into the distance.

In the center of the room stood an old-fashioned computer...

An old desk lamp cast an orange glow onto the decrepit computer sitting on the desk.

This deliberately cultivated sense of warmth felt completely out of place with the cold data hub outside, making one's hair stand on end instead.

"Something's not right about this place." Lin Yu's tactical boots creaked slightly against the wooden floor. "It's like someone forcibly shoved a home into a server room."

The silver bell chain in Xuanyuan Qing's palm vibrated gently, a faint blue light flowing over the bronze surface. She closed her eyes, her fingertips sensing the invisible ripples in the air.

"The data flow here... it's hidden deeper, and it's more dangerous." She opened her eyes, fine beads of sweat seeping from her temples. "It's been compressed; it could explode at any moment."

Xu Xiaochuan walked over to the yellowed family portrait on the wall.

In the photo, a young Zhou Weihong wore a serious expression, yet the corners of his mouth held a hint of gentleness. The woman beside him had an elegant air, holding a little girl of about six or seven who was laughing heartlessly.

"Zhou Lin, and his daughter." Xu Xiaochuan touched the edge of the photo with his finger.

The old computer screen lit up with a "pop," the startup sound sharp and piercing.

The three of them turned around instantly, Lin Yu's white hair lifting slightly as Void energy gathered at his fingertips.

Zhou Weihong did not appear on the screen; there was only a blurry video. In the footage was the very same Zhou Lin from the photo, looking very nervous, with a dimly lit laboratory in the background.

"Seventh recording," Zhou Lin's voice was laced with exhaustion and worry. "Weihong is becoming increasingly extreme. There's a backdoor in the Zero Machine's emotional module, and I think Xu Jianhua has noticed. He's been running to the core area a lot lately and even copied some of the data."

She paused, darting a quick glance around, her voice dropping even lower: "The Zero Return Project isn't for immortality at all; it's for emotional control. Weihong believes human chaos stems from emotional instability, and he wants to use the 'Observer' network to unify and regulate it. But this isn't what we originally intended..."

The video froze abruptly, the image distorting into a tangled mess.

The computer screen flickered a few times, and a line of red text popped up: "Emotional sample verification failed. Stronger emotional resonance required to unlock the complete log."

At the same time, the air in the room grew thick and viscous.

An invisible stream of data began to bore into the three of them's minds.

Lin Yu was the first to notice, the Void energy within him beginning to churn. "It's a trap! It's hooking into the ghosts in our hearts!"

The silver bell fragment in Xuanyuan Qing's hand became searingly hot, almost impossible to hold. She gritted her teeth, resisting the erosion: "It's not that there are no emotions here; it's that it's stuffed full of extreme 'sadness' and 'obsession,' turning it into a defense!"

The receiver on Xu Xiaochuan's back grew hot again, the blue light flashing through his school uniform.

This time, it wasn't passive absorption; it was connecting with the lingering thoughts of Zhou Weihong in the room.

A completely foreign emotion surged into his brain—longing for family, the anger of being betrayed, and a kind of near-paranoid persistence.

"I can feel him... Zhou Weihong's emotions," Xu Xiaochuan said, his temples covered in cold sweat. "His love for his family, and... endless regret."

The trap began to exert its power, precisely poking at everyone's pain points.

Lin Yu saw nothing but the fire of the laboratory explosion before his eyes, those experimental subjects from his batch struggling in the flames while he himself had escaped. His white hair fluttered, and blood seeped from the collar of his tactical suit.

Xuanyuan Qing's silver bell chain shook violently, the cracks on the bronze surface deepening. Her consciousness was dragged into a data labyrinth filled with the screams and cries of strangers—emotional trash collected by the "Observer."

Xu Xiaochuan fell back into the loop of his father falling from the building.

He watched Xu Jianhua fall over and over again, mangled and bloody, yet he could do nothing.

The receiver on the back of his school uniform was so hot it was about to burn, the blue light stinging his eyes.

"Must... stop it..." Xu Xiaochuan struggled to move toward the family portrait, his fingers trembling as he took down the frame.

On the back of the photo, there was a line of tiny characters carved with a needle tip, impossible to notice without a close look: "Lin, seven years old, loves sugar-fried chestnuts the most."

"Sugar-fried chestnuts!" Xuanyuan Qing opened her eyes abruptly, the silver bell fragment in her palm erupting with a brilliance never seen before. "It's related to my ability! The trap Zhou Weihong set might be countered by using emotional energy of the same origin!"

She struggled to stand up and reached out to Xu Xiaochuan: "Your previous 'warm' memory, combined with my 'sugar-fried chestnut' imprint, might just simulate his daughter's emotional frequency!"

Lin Yu endured the stabbing pain in his brain, his white hair wrapping around their wrists to form an energy circuit: "I'll stabilize the fluctuations; you two focus your spirits and resonate!"

Xu Xiaochuan closed his eyes, refusing to think about those terrifying images.

He thought of his old man's donkey meat burger shop.

The steam rising from the steamer, the sound of meat being chopped on the cutting board, his father's clumsy but constant care.

Those memories were no longer torture; they became his support.

Xuanyuan Qing gritted her teeth and pressed the nearly shattered silver bell fragment hard against the scorching pattern on Xu Xiaochuan's back.

The cold bronze collided with the scorching blue light, sparking a flurry of fine electric sparks.

A sweet, cloying warmth, mixed with the charred aroma of sugar-fried chestnuts fresh out of the pan, suddenly bored into his nasal cavity and seemed to sear directly onto his heart.

The waveform on the old computer screen shook violently, the red lines originally representing rejection being forcibly twisted and covered by a warm yellow glow.

The numbers on the edge of the screen jumped frantically, finally settling on a green "PASS."

The chaotic static on the screen receded, and Zhou Lin's face became clear again, her eyes red.

"If anyone sees this..." her voice trembled, laced with sobs. "Stop him... stop the Zero Return Project..."

"The Zero Machine... it's not a machine... it's my daughter... it's Xiao Ya..."

"That accident... Weihong went mad... he turned Xiao Ya's consciousness... into the core..."

"He thought collecting the emotions of the whole city could feed her, let her grow up in the data... but that's not living!"

"Xu Jianhua... he found out... he hid something in the core... a virus... that can wake Xiao Ya up..."

The image flashed, turning into a little girl with pigtails sitting in front of a street stall, holding piping hot sugar-fried chestnuts in her small hands, her cheeks puffed out as she ate, her eyes smiling into crescents.

Zhou Lin's voice carried her final strength: "The shutdown key... 'Chestnut flowers bloom'... is Xiao Ya's favorite nursery rhyme..."

The screen suddenly went black.

Dead silence.

A few seconds later, the light came on again. On the screen was a much younger Zhou Weihong, his expression complex behind his lenses, no longer the cold madman from before.

"To have made it here, you simulated Xiao Ya's emotional frequency..." his voice was low, carrying a exhaustion that came after burning out.

"Xu Jianhua... he won... that virus... forced me to see myself..."

He raised a finger and pointed to the inconspicuous safe in the corner of the room. ===== CHAPTER 258 =====