Chapter 277

Xu Xiaochuan crouched to the side, watching Lin Yu cut open the makeshift bandage.

The wound was terrifyingly rotten, the flesh rolled back, and dark red mucus oozed from the broken bone.

Xuanyuan Qing bit her lip hard, the veins on her forehead throbbing.

"Can you do it?" Xu Xiaochuan's throat went dry.

Lin Yu ignored him, taking a thin, oddly shaped blade from the medical kit, its silver cold light flickering in the darkness.

"Coming out of special forces, no one likes waiting to die in the wild."

He handed Xu Xiaochuan a pair of gloves: "Hold her shoulders, she'll move around."

Xuanyuan Qing curled the corners of her mouth, as if smiling or perhaps twitching: "The training I received when I was young was more painful than this."

"Back then it was a finger, this time it's your life." Lin Yu's tone was unquestionable. "Listen, no matter how she screams, don't let go."

Xu Xiaochuan nodded forcefully, pressing down hard on Xuanyuan Qing's uninjured shoulder.

Lin Yu fished a small, transparent bottle from the bottom of the medical kit, containing a thick, dark brown liquid.

"This is…"

"Strong medicine," Lin Yu said concisely. "It's potent, addictive, but it'll make her feel better for the next twenty minutes."

He bit the stopper off with his teeth and spread the medicine evenly around Xuanyuan Qing's wound.

Xuanyuan Qing's muscles instantly tightened, and after a few seconds, they slowly relaxed, her pupils dilated slightly, and her breathing slowed.

"Hold tight."

The blade sliced open the necrotic flesh, revealing the bone beneath. Lin Yu's movements were terrifyingly fast, his hands steadier than a living person's, tweezers and forceps flying in his hands, emitting faint metallic clinking sounds.

Xu Xiaochuan felt his stomach churning, but he forced himself to stare, unable to vomit.

"Third longitudinal artery…" Lin Yu seemed to be talking to himself, tweezers clamping a nearly invisible blood vessel. "Clamp, cut, suture…"

Twelve minutes.

Xuanyuan Qing didn't make a sound, but her right hand was clenched tight, her nails digging into her palm, leaving four deep blood marks.

Lin Yu re-bandaged the wound and injected her with a transparent agent before exhaling a long breath.

"Should hold for three days."

Xu Xiaochuan let go, rummaged through a crate, and found a military blanket to cover Xuanyuan Qing.

Her eyes were closed, as if asleep or perhaps awake.

The medicine left her in a chaotic state.

"I still don't understand," Xu Xiaochuan said, wiping the blood off his hands with a wet cloth he'd found. "It's been thirty years, why are these things happening now?"

"Because the Zero Machine blew up." Lin Yu began rummaging through the wooden crates, looking for useful items. "That madman Zhou Weihong tore Xiao Ya into two halves. Her memory data was stuffed into the Zero Machine core, responsible for processing emotional data; her basic consciousness was intercepted by the military and made into the core of the Ouroboros system, used to monitor the Zero Machine."

"Those animals…" Xu Xiaochuan squeezed a few words through his teeth. "They tore a little girl apart alive."

Lin Yu paused in his movements: "Back then, Zhou Weihong took the concept of the Zero Machine to the military to ask for resources. The military didn't believe him, so they left themselves a backup plan in the project—the Ouroboros. Like the snake in the myth biting its own tail, a dead loop."

"Xiao Ya is that connection point?"

"Yes." Lin Yu's voice was low. "The quantum communication device in her body is the only interface that can connect both systems simultaneously. Once the Zero Machine blew up, without suppression, the Ouroboros came alive, instinctively wanting to find its 'other half' and regain control."

Xu Xiaochuan touched the shielding box in his pocket; the chip was still inside, faintly burning: "So this damn thing… is a key that works on both sides?"

Lin Yu nodded: "The fact that the thing on your back is reacting is the same principle. The system is looking for all usable parts, wanting to piece itself back together."

Deep in the station, a 'clatter' sound of something metallic falling suddenly echoed.

Both of them tensed up. Xu Xiaochuan gripped his dagger, and Lin Yu raised his gun.

The deathly silence lasted for a few seconds, and a fat rat scurried across the tracks in a panic, disappearing into the darkness.

Lin Yu lowered his arm and continued to count the items found: two medical first-aid kits, a few bags of expired compressed biscuits, half a crate of canned water, and a military communicator with a broken shell.

"Maybe it still works." Lin Yu unscrewed the back cover of the communicator, checking the circuit board inside. "Need to find a battery."

Xu Xiaochuan suddenly stood up: "Give it to me."

Lin Yu handed him the communicator.

Xu Xiaochuan dismantled the back cover, fiddled with it for a few moments, and then carefully connected the chip from the shielding box to the motherboard interface of the communicator.

"Take it easy, don't blow it up." Lin Yu raised an eyebrow.

Xu Xiaochuan ignored him, focusing entirely on turning the frequency knob.

Once the shielding box was opened, the chip's energy channel was activated. The small, scratched screen of the communicator lit up, and strings of digital code began to scroll rapidly.

"This is…"

"Coordinates!" Xu Xiaochuan's voice was uncontrollably excited. "Precise coordinates of the observatory! And… wait!"

He slammed the volume to the maximum.

A burst of intermittent electronic noise came from the communicator's speaker, and mixed in the noise was a faint female voice, barely audible:

"…help…anyone…hear…"

Lin Yu leaned in: "This is a direct data stream! Not a broadcast signal! She used some method to stuff the distress signal directly into the chip…"

"It must be Zhou Lin." Xuanyuan Qing had woken up at some point, her voice weak but exceptionally clear. "She left a backdoor in the program, to be used as a last resort to save her daughter."

"…trapped…thirty years…please…"

A few blurred syllables pierced through the noise.

Xu Xiaochuan felt the skin on his back start to burn again, that familiar feeling of being pulled hard by something reappearing, as if an invisible thread, crossing a vast distance, had wrapped around his spine.

"She's alive!" Xu Xiaochuan's fist was clenched tight. "Not theoretically alive, but truly! Can hear, can speak!"

Lin Yu stared at the jumping waveforms on the communicator screen: "The situation has changed. Can't just think about running anymore."

Xuanyuan Qing propped up her body with her uninjured right hand: "The military must have received the signal too; they'll reach the observatory before us."

Lin Yu's gaze swept over the mountain of abandoned supplies: "Need to give them something to do."

He turned to Xu Xiaochuan: "Give me the communicator."

Xu Xiaochuan handed it over.

Lin Yu's fingers moved rapidly, dismantling a few small parts from the communicator's motherboard: "Signal transmission unit, can directionally send electromagnetic pulses of a specific frequency."

He looked up and finally fixed his gaze on a rusted circuit control box on the station ceiling.

He climbed up in a few movements, tore open the creaking metal cover, shoved the parts inside, and skillfully connected a few unknown cables.

"What are you trying to do?" Xu Xiaochuan asked, looking up.

"Leave a little gift for the pursuers."