Chapter 299

The exploding images flooded his brain—the shield shattering, the countdown hitting zero, Xiao Ya's last fluctuation of consciousness...

"No..."

Xu Xiaochuan staggered forward, his right leg hurting bone-piercingly.

He leaned against the broken wall, moving toward the core area.

Xiao Ya's container was there, and Lin Yu and Xuanyuan Qing were there last.

"Xuanyuan! Lin Shu!" he shouted, only the creaking of the tottering metal shelves responding.

Nothing could be seen clearly in the ruins.

The servers were blown to pieces, wires and iron sheets mixed together.

Xu Xiaochuan knelt on the ground, clawing at the rubble and iron plates, the scorching edges cutting his palms, blood dripping with ash, but he couldn't feel the pain.

Right at the edge of the core area, beneath a huge piece of ceiling that had collapsed, he saw a different color.

"Xuanyuan!"

He lunged over, his hands hooking onto the metal plate pressing down on the person, roaring as he used all his strength to lift it!

Xuanyuan Qing lay there, her face frighteningly white, her lips blue.

Where her arm was broken, the cloth wrapped around it was long since soaked in blood, a terrifying black-purple circle around the wound.

Blood poisoning!

Xu Xiaochuan's fingers shook violently as he touched her neck.

There was a pulse, very weak, but it was there.

She was still alive! Just barely.

"Hold on..." he said in a hoarse voice, hurriedly looking around for medical supplies.

Under a pile of cables not far away, half a medical kit was pressed.

Xu Xiaochuan crawled over, pulled out the deformed white box, and opened it in a panic.

Half the things were scattered, but at least there were a few rolls of bandages, a bottle of disinfectant, and a few antibiotics.

He crawled back to Xuanyuan Qing's side, carefully unwrapping the cloth on her arm.

The wound was exposed, and Xu Xiaochuan's heart tightened—the flesh was turned outward, the edges already black, severely infected.

"Damn it..."

He rinsed it with disinfectant, trying to be as gentle as possible, but Xuanyuan Qing still groaned in pain while unconscious.

Xu Xiaochuan gritted his teeth, took out an antibiotic, and injected it into the blood vessel on her neck.

After re-wrapping the wound, Xu Xiaochuan finally caught his breath.

Where was Lin Shu? Where was Xiao Ya?

He stood up again and walked deeper into the core area.

Not far away, amidst a pile of twisted metal debris, he saw a few broken mechanical warriors.

All destroyed, limbs twisted into twists, circuit boards burnt black.

Right in the middle of this pile of scrap iron, a broken black pistol lay quietly.

Xu Xiaochuan recognized it; it was Lin Yu's gun.

He bent down to pick it up; the barrel was bent, the magazine had fallen out, and it was empty inside.

On the ground were large patches of dark brown marks.

Dried blood.

Too much, losing so much blood...

Xu Xiaochuan didn't dare to think anymore.

He gripped the broken gun tightly and continued to search forward.

In the center of the core area, where Xiao Ya's huge container used to be, now only a pile of broken glass and metal shelves remained.

The blue culture fluid had long since drained away, leaving dried marks on the ground.

Fragments of the container were everywhere, reflecting the pale light of the emergency lights above.

Xiao Ya was gone.

Xu Xiaochuan froze in place.

Disappeared? Blown away? Or...

His fingers accidentally touched the chip in his pocket.

Taking it out to look, that biological chip that used to glow blue was now gray and dull, without a trace of luster, and the patterns on its surface were dead, no different from an ordinary piece of iron.

"Xiao Ya..."

Xu Xiaochuan knelt in the fragments, his heart feeling terrifyingly empty.

Was it all over?

Was it all in vain? So many sacrifices, just to end up with this?

Hiss——

A very faint electronic noise suddenly drilled into his ears.

It was too light; if it weren't for this dead-silent environment, he wouldn't have heard it at all.

Xu Xiaochuan looked up suddenly, holding his breath.

The noise sounded again, like a signal from an old-fashioned communicator, intermittent.

He stood up, closed his eyes, and listened carefully.

The sound seemed to be coming from deeper in the ruins, the northwest corner.

What was there before? Backup control room? Warehouse?

Xu Xiaochuan hesitated for a moment.

Xuanyuan Qing was still lying there, ready to stop breathing at any moment.

But this signal... perhaps it was the only clue, the only hope.

He ran back to Xuanyuan Qing's side, checked her condition, breathing weak, but relatively stable.

He found a few relatively clean cloths to cover her and placed the remaining medicine by her hand.

"I'll be back soon," he said in a low voice, "Hold on."

Then, dragging his injured leg, he followed that faint electronic sound, limping toward the depths of the ruins.

Every step was like stepping on the tip of a knife.

His right leg hurt like it was about to break, his whole body was covered in burns and gashes, and his muscles were aching terribly.

But that signal became clearer and clearer, guiding him through twisted corridors and over half-collapsed walls.

Finally, he arrived at the door of a small room in the northwest corner of the B3 level.

The door had been blown away, but the inside was relatively intact.

This room seemed to have been specially reinforced, the walls thick, the structure sturdy, blocking most of the impact.

Xu Xiaochuan staggered in.

It was an emergency communication room.

In the center was an old-fashioned communication terminal, looking like it had seen better days.

The power light was actually still on, flashing with a faint green glow.

The signal was coming from this.

A line of text flashed on the screen:

【Encrypted transmission complete. Waiting for reception confirmation.】

Xu Xiaochuan dragged his body to the console, his hands supporting the cold surface.

This thing could still work? The entire base was blown up like this?

He tried pressing Enter.

The screen jumped to a password input box.

Xu Xiaochuan was stunned for a moment, then entered Xiao Ya's number: YA-001.

【Password incorrect】

He gritted his teeth and entered Xu Jianhua's birthday.

【Password incorrect】

His fingertips hovered over the keyboard, Xu Xiaochuan's brain turning rapidly.

What could the password be? A password that could still be used thirty years later?

Suddenly, he remembered the code name of the project Xu Jianhua and Zhou Weihong worked on in their early years, the word that appeared repeatedly.

"Ouroboros"

He typed it in letter by letter.

【Password correct】

The screen flashed a few times, showing a piece of garbled ciphertext.

Xu Xiaochuan noticed a small snake-shaped mark below the ciphertext—exactly the same as the one on the biological chip.

He hurriedly took out the gray chip from his pocket and placed it near the sensor area below the screen.

With a soft hum, the surface of the chip flashed a trace of blue light that was almost invisible, then went dark again.

The ciphertext on the screen began to decode automatically.

Letters and numbers scrolled rapidly, finally stopping at a short line of information:

"YA-001 consciousness backup upload successful, 'Ark' project activated. Coordinates: N39°51'42", E116°18'27"."

Sender: Xu Jianhua.

Xu Xiaochuan's heart felt like it had been gripped, almost stopping.

He gripped the edge of the console tightly with both hands, his knuckles turning white.

This... how was it possible?

The message was just sent, definitely not left thirty years ago.

Unless...

He looked at the message date: May 12, 2057.

Today......