323: Chapter 323 Only the Dead Have No Heartbeats

Chapter 323: Only Dead People Have No Heartbeat. Chen Mo leaned against the wall.

He panted heavily, using his only remaining right hand to wipe the blood from his face.

Lost?

A life-risking strike, and I didn't even scratch the opponent's skin?

[Warning: Left arm module lost.]

[Warning: Core energy leaking.]

[Remaining energy: 12%.]

[Suggestion: Play dead.]

The red characters on his retina became intermittent, like a neon sign with a loose connection.

"Now."

The old man's voice suddenly turned cold, "The farce is over."

Buzz—!

The floor around the glass pillar suddenly split open.

Four thick mechanical tentacles burrowed out like venomous snakes.

Their tips flickered with blue electric arcs; those were Neural Probes specifically designed to burn out the frontal lobes of the brain.

"I originally wanted you to join us intact."

The old man said indifferently, "Since you won't cooperate, I can only format your consciousness first."

Swoosh!

A tentacle shot out like lightning.

It pinned directly into the wall beside Chen Mo, only two centimeters away from his carotid artery.

Sparks flew in all directions.

Chen Mo didn't dodge.

He couldn't move.

Having lost the support of his mechanical arm, combined with the weakness brought by the core's overload, he now struggled to even lift a finger.

"You will like Eden."

The old man manipulated the remaining three tentacles, slowly closing in. "Here, you can be with your sister forever. No pain, no death, only an eternal stream of data."

Together forever?

Chen Mo looked at the broken screens.

In the glass shards on the floor, the distorted faces of those victims were reflected.

This is worthy of being called "together"?

This is worthy of being called "eternal"?

Thump.

Chen Mo heard a sound.

Very faint.

It wasn't the old man's voice.

Nor was it the system's notification sound.

It was a heartbeat.

Thump, thump, thump.

Right here in this hall.

Chen Mo closed his eyes.

He was listening.

This was his talent, and also his curse.

As long as it's a living creature, it's impossible not to have a heartbeat.

The giant heartbeat from before was played through the speakers; it was fake.

That old man was lying.

What eternal life.

What god.

All bullshit.

As long as one is still alive, there will definitely be a weakness.

The sound pierced through the noisy alarms, the sizzling of the electric current, and the flow of the coolant.

He was looking for that true rhythm.

[Detected host is actively closing the visual module.]

[Auditory gain enabled.]

[Filtering noise...]

The world became quiet.

In the darkness, only countless points of light from sounds remained.

Above him was the terrified gasping of the Old Blind Man.

Beneath his feet was the sound of underground water flowing.

In front of him...

Chen Mo snapped his eyes open.

He found it.

Inside that glass pillar, there was no heartbeat at all!

Even though the old man's eyes were open, even though he could speak, even though his brain was still active.

But he had no heartbeat.

He had died long ago.

Or rather, this physical body had died long ago.

What maintained the illusion of him being "alive" were the tubes plugged into him.

And the source of those tubes...

Chen Mo's gaze followed the glass pillar downward.

Looking at the base buried deep underground.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

The sound was coming from there.

That wasn't a biological heartbeat.

It was the sound of a high-pressure pump forcing nutrient solution into the corpse's blood vessels.

It was the roar of a machine.

"So that's how it is."

Chen Mo smiled.

His smile was too wide, pulling at his wounds, and bloody froth sprayed from his mouth.

"What are you laughing at?"

The old man's voice carried a hint of annoyance.

Several mechanical tentacles had already hovered in front of Chen Mo's forehead.

"I'm laughing because you're a liar."

Chen Mo stared at the glass pillar, "You just said that only dead people have no heartbeat."

"You were right."

"You don't have one either."

The old man's expression changed.

Although it was hard to make expressions on that withered face, the liquid in the glass pillar suddenly fluctuated violently.

"Do it!"

The old man screamed, "Format him! Now!"

The tentacles stabbed down fiercely.

But Chen Mo was faster than them.

Although he couldn't move his body, he still had one thing he could move.

That was his final trump card.

That damn, uncontrollable Nuclear Heart.

"T-10."

Chen Mo roared in his mind, "Pour all the remaining energy into the Leg Hydraulic System!"

[Warning: That will result in comminuted fractures of the leg bones.]

[Execute!]

Crack!

A crisp sound.

Chen Mo's thigh muscles instantly swelled, his skin split open, and blood gushed out.

He shot out like a cannonball, skimming across the floor.

Not toward the glass pillar.

Nor toward those tentacles.

He was charging at the base!

"Stop him!"

The old man panicked.

The four tentacles waved frantically, trying to intercept Chen Mo in mid-air.

Too late.

Chen Mo, like a mad dog, slammed violently into the metal base beneath the glass pillar.

He didn't use his fists.

Nor his feet.

Using his only remaining right hand, he firmly gripped an inconspicuous black pipe on the side of the base.

That was the Return Pipe.

Responsible for pumping the waste blood from the corpse back into the underground circulation system.

The pipe was vibrating.

Vibrating in rhythm with that "fake heartbeat."

"Is this the thing you rely on to play god?"

Chen Mo's face was covered in blood, looking as hideous as a malevolent ghost.

"Stop!"

The old man's voice turned into a terrified scream, "That's the Cooling Cycle! If you pull it, you'll die!"

"What a coincidence."

Chen Mo grinned, revealing blood-red teeth, "I didn't plan on getting out alive anyway."

His fingers dug into the gaps of the pipe.

The red light of the t-10 system lit up on his right arm.

That was the limit of strength, snapping muscle fibers.

"Give..."

"Way!"

Snap—!

A tooth-aching sound of metal tearing.

The alloy pipe, thick as a wrist, was forcibly ripped from the base by Chen Mo.

Psh!

A stream of black, incredibly foul-smelling liquid instantly gushed out.

That was the old man's blood.

Or some kind of preservative used to keep the corpse from rotting.

The liquid splashed all over Chen Mo, its strong corrosiveness causing white smoke to rise from his skin.

But he didn't let go.

Not only did he not let go, but he also slammed the broken pipe into the circuit board next to the base.

Conductive.

The liquid was conductive.

Sizzle—!

Blue electric arcs instantly exploded.

The lights in the entire hall flickered wildly.

That indestructible glass pillar let out a groan of pain.

The energy field it relied on had short-circuited.

"No!!!"

The old man's scream came to an abrupt halt.

Because the speaker exploded.

Immediately following that.

The so-called "Phase Glass" lost its energy support and instantly reverted back to ordinary tempered glass.

No matter how hard a mundane object is, it cannot withstand the imbalance of internal pressure.

Crack.

A crack appeared on the glass surface.

Then a second, then a third.

Spreading like a spiderweb.

Boom!

The glass pillar shattered.

Hundreds of tons of blue nutrient solution poured out like a tsunami, instantly flooding the entire hall.

Chen Mo was swept away by the torrent.

He tumbled in the cold liquid, slamming into the wall, nearly passing out.

But he had to keep his eyes open.

He wanted to see.

See the monster on the altar fall into the mud.

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