177: A corpse rising from the dead? That depends on whose corpse it is.

Chapter 177: A Corpse Reanimates? That Depends on Whose Corpse It Is. "This is impossible."

Old Ghost's hands were shaking.

Those hands —capable of performing cataract surgery on a hamster or embroidering on a blood vessel —couldn't even hold onto that tiny shard of broken glass.

"I've been a forensic doctor for thirty years; I've touched more dead people than you've seen living ones."

He pointed at the man on the screen, who was wearing a custom suit and holding a glass of red wine, spraying spittle all over Li Ke's face.

"I personally examined that charred corpse! The dental comparison matched, the DNA comparison matched, and even the titanium alloy steel pin in the thigh bone was in the exact same position!"

"The body was completely carbonized; I wouldn't mistake a lump of charcoal for a person!"

The more Old Ghost spoke, the more agitated he became, his fleshy face turning the color of pig liver.

This was an insult to his professionalism.

It felt worse than being killed.

"What if..."

Su Qingxue leaned against the operating table, her left arm in a sling, her voice very soft.

"What if that dead person was truly 'Wang Daoming'?"

Old Ghost froze. "What do you mean?"

"If the one who died was the real Wang Daoming, and the one who is alive..." Su Qingxue stared at the emotionless eyes on the screen, "is 'it'?"

The air immediately fell silent.

Only the golden retriever, still drowsy from the anesthetic, let out faint whimpers in its cage.

"Are you suggesting..." Li Ke swallowed hard, his fingers rapidly typing on the keyboard, pulling up another file, "cloning?"

The screen flickered.

A top-secret file named [ship of theseus] popped up.

It was a branch project of Prometheus.

"It's not entirely cloning."

Chen Mo suddenly spoke.

He hadn't spoken until now, merely staring at the broken chinese liquor bottle, watching the alcohol spread into the floor cracks.

"Clones have no memory."

Chen Mo pointed to his own head. "Just Li Ke that Zero, no matter how strong the body is, the mind is empty, driven only by programming."

"But this Wang Daoming on the screen..."

Chen Mo looked up, his gaze sharp as a knife. "His heartbeat has noise."

"Noise?" Old Ghost frowned.

"Not physiological noise."

Chen Mo walked to the computer, his fingertip lightly tracing the sound wave pattern on the screen. "It's emotion."

"When he watched the Financial Center explode, his heart rate didn't change, but his blood flow accelerated by thirty percent."

"That is excitement."

Chen Mo sneered. "The excitement of admiring one's own masterpiece. This kind of twisted aesthetic cannot be written by a program; only a living person possesses it."

"Then who was the dead one?" Ninth Master asked.

"A stand-in."

Chen Mo turned around, looking at Old Ghost. "Old Ghost, you just said the corpse's teeth and steel pin matched?"

"Nonsense!" Old Ghost retorted stubbornly.

"What about the model of the steel pin?" Chen Mo asked. "Was it domestically made or imported?"

Old Ghost recalled, "Swiss Synthes, top-of-the-line at the time. Each one has a unique serial number."

"Was the number checked?"

"Yes, it was checked! It was the exact pin implanted in Wang Daoming five years ago after his car accident!"

"That settles it."

Chen Mo pulled a cigarette from his pocket, placing it between his lips without lighting it.

"The steel pin can be removed and attached to another bone."

"Teeth can also be pulled out and implanted into another mouth."

"As for the DNA..."

Chen Mo looked at Su Qingxue. "Who is responsible for maintaining the police department's DNA database?"

Su Qingxue's face instantly turned ashen.

"The Director of Forensic Medicine... Wang Daoming."

"That makes sense."

Ninth Master slapped his thigh. "That bastard pulled off a perfect trick of the Golden Cicada Shedding Its Shell! He faked his own death, went underground, and is now treating the entire Jiang City as his petri dish?"

"Not only that."

Li Ke suddenly shouted, his voice trembling. "Look at this! I found a log entry in the corner of that hidden partition!"

Lines of green code appeared on the screen, eventually resolving into a block of text.

[Subject 001 (Wang Daoming): Consciousness upload completion 98%. Carrier rejection reaction: None.]

[Note: Successfully transferred the primary consciousness to the "Immortal" body.]

"Immortal..."

Old Ghost slumped onto the ground, looking utterly drained. "So what I stitched up was a goddamn empty shell stripped of its identity?"

"I issued a death certificate for a perfectly prepared scapegoat..."

"Allowing him to legitimately become a ghost?"

Old Ghost held his head. In that instant, the cynical old veteran seemed to age ten years.

"Don't blame yourself."

Chen Mo tossed the unlit cigarette into the trash can.

"The fact that it fooled you means the stand-in itself was a perfect work of art."

"What Prometheus is best at is forgery."

Suddenly.

Chen Mo's ears twitched.

Thump.

An extremely faint vibration traveled up from the concrete floor beneath their feet.

It was very soft.

Soft enough to sound Li Ke an ant turning over deep underground.

But Chen Mo's expression changed.

"Lights out!"

He shouted, simultaneously kicking over the nearby IV stand and shoving Li Ke under the table.

Snap!

Ninth Master reacted instantly, pulling down the main power switch.

The clinic was instantly plunged into darkness.

"What's wrong?" Su Qingxue lowered her voice, her hand already reaching for the gun at her waist.

"Something is coming."

Chen Mo lay on the ground, pressing his ear against the cold floor tile.

Thump... thump... thump... The sound became increasingly clear.

It wasn't footsteps.

Nor was it the sound of tires rolling over the ground.

Instead, it was a high-frequency pulsed vibration, Li Ke countless tiny mechanical insects crawling through underground pipes.

"Fatty, check the surveillance!" Chen Mo yelled.

Li Ke fumbled in the darkness, switching lines. The faint light from the computer screen illuminated his sweat-soaked face.

"Th-there's no one!"

Li Ke pointed at the four split screens. "There isn't even a stray cat in the alley!"

"It's not on the ground."

Chen Mo suddenly stood up and yanked Old Ghost off the floor. "It's underground!"

Zzzzz —

The instant he finished speaking.

A puff of white smoke suddenly emerged from the sewer drain in the corner of the clinic.

Immediately following that.

A silver mechanical beetle, only the size of a fingernail, crawled out from the drain's crack.

Its compound eyes flashed red, and the metallic wings on its back vibrated rapidly, emitting a grating buzz.

One.

Two.

Ten.

In the blink of an eye, countless mechanical beetles surged out Li Ke a black tide from the sewer, the sink, and even the toilet.

"What in the hell are these things?!" Ninth Master smashed a beetle crawling onto the table with his rifle butt.

When the beetle was crushed, it didn't leak oil; instead, a glob of green acid burst out.

Sizzle!

The solid wood table was instantly corroded, leaving a large hole.

"They're 'Scavenger'!"

Li Ke shrieked. "These are Prometheus's search robots! They carry strong acid and signal emitters, and they self-destruct to mark the target once they find it!"

"We've been discovered!"

"Go!"

Chen Mo gave them no time to hesitate, grabbing the nearby medical alcohol canister and throwing the contents toward the drain opening.

"Ninth Master, light it up!"

Ninth Master pulled out his windproof lighter and tossed it into the alcohol.

Whoosh!

Blue flames instantly erupted, temporarily sealing off the surging swarm of insects.

"The back door!"

Old Ghost roared, crashing through the door leading to the backyard. "My car is back there!"

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