169: Guarding in Chaos and the Loss of Control of "Resonance"

Excellence was flanked by Su Mu and Evelyn, who held him tightly between them like a piece of fragile treasure, forming a stable triangular formation. They moved rapidly down a corridor where lights flickered frantically, alternating between blinding brightness and dim shadows. Piercing alarms of varying frequencies echoed like a ghostly chorus, bouncing off the metal walls and stimulating the eardrums until hearts raced in panic. The sounds of distant explosions were no longer dull thuds but tearing roars; each blast sent clear vibrations through the alloy floor beneath their feet, like the heartbeat of a giant beast. Closer by, the dense crackle of gunfire—mostly non-lethal Sonic Rounds and Sedative Darts used by the Homeland guards, interspersed with the sharper, more piercing shrieks characteristic of the invaders' weapons—mingled with the rapid thud of tactical boots, short and powerful commands, the muffled groans of the wounded, and the impacts of physical combat. All of it wove together into a chaotic and cruel battlefield symphony that invaded Excellence's ears from every direction.

He had never experienced such a realistic and terrifying scene. His small face was as white as bleached paper, his lips trembled uncontrollably, and his heart hammered wildly in his chest, so fast it made breathing difficult. One hand gripped Su Mu’s warm and powerful hand with all his might, as if it were his only lifeline in a raging storm. His other hand was shoved unconsciously deep into his pocket, his nails nearly digging into his palm as he tightly clutched the "singing stones" he always carried. It seemed to be growing faintlly hot, yet he tried to draw a sense of illusory security from its familiar texture.

Their objective was the reinforced Safe House codenamed the "ark," located in the deepest part of the base. It was the final Fortress of Homeland, equipped with independent nuclear-grade shielding, air circulation, power, and life-support systems; theoretically, it could withstand the vast majority of known attacks. However, the path to the ark was by no means an easy one.

Dancing on the Blade's Edge and Cold Reality

Along the way, they inevitably encountered several small-scale skirmishes with enemies attempting to infiltrate the core area. Each encounter was like dancing on the edge of a blade, allowing Excellence to experience the cruelty of war and the strength of his protectors up close and with absolute clarity.

Su Mu, the "Class Monitor" who usually baked cookies for him and listened patiently to his wild ideas, seemed like a completely different person now. Her eyes were as sharp as a hawk's, calm without a hint of hesitation. Her lithe figure moved and rolled nimbly between the corridor's cover, her movements as fluid as a cheetah's. The compact weapon in her hand—primarily firing non-lethal ammunition—seemed to come alive. Every burst was extremely precise. Amidst the crisp "Bang! Bang!" of the shots, hot shell casings clattered onto the floor. She accurately suppressed enemies whose forms were blurred by Optical Camouflage as they tried to pounce from the shadows, forcing them back into cover and buying Evelyn precious seconds. Excellence could even see the sparks flying as bullets grazed the walls and smell the unique scent of gunpowder mixed with ozone in the air.

Meanwhile, Evelyn demonstrated another form of power. She was as familiar with the structure of this underground labyrinth as she was with the lines on her own palm, always finding the most hidden path of least resistance amidst the convoluted passages. She held a specialized tablet, with data flowing down the screen like a waterfall, her fingers dancing across it to forcibly crack one encrypted or damaged access control system after another. When they encountered well-equipped enemies, she would calmly activate a matchbox-sized Electronic Jammer. An invisible wave would sweep out, causing the enemies' Optical Camouflage to instantly flicker with chaotic static, their advanced sights to temporarily lose focus, and even their communication headsets to fill with piercing noise, creating the perfect opportunity for Su Mu to counterattack. Her composure, rationality, and absolute mastery of technology formed an invisible yet indestructible barrier.

Excellence was kept strictly in the very center of the combat vortex. He watched with terrified eyes as hot bullet marks blasted small pits into the wall just centimeters away from him; he heard the tooth-gritting, sharp clang of bullets hitting the alloy right by his ear; he felt the hair-raising flash of heat as laser tripwires were activated. The massive sense of dread, nearly swallowing him whole, mingled with an indescribable, complex stimulation—a mix of guilt and dependency from witnessing his guardians fight for him—clashing like ice and fire within his young soul.

The Brink of Collapse: "Holographic Sensing" Out of Control

Under this extreme physiological and psychological pressure, Excellence's "Holographic Sensing" ability—already in a highly sensitive state as he attempted to "merge"—was ruthlessly pushed to the breaking point of collapse! This was no longer an active exploration, but a passive, catastrophic overload!

His brain seemed to have become a super-server forcibly connected to countless high-voltage information streams without any fuses. A massive amount of unfiltered, malicious, and chaotic information surged like a broken dam, uncontrollably smashing through the levees of his consciousness and flooding into his every sensory neuron.

From the blurred figures of the invaders, he clearly "read" a bone-chilling, undisguised desire to capture and an intent to destroy.

Every distant explosion brought not just vibrations, but projected the "shape" of violent, tearing energy shockwaves into his consciousness.

The highly focused minds of Su Mu and Evelyn beside him emitted a strong yet tense "guardian field," which intertwined with the complex emotional fluctuations of tension, fear, and resolve from the surrounding guards, forming a massive, oppressive emotional turbulence.

The base's defense systems were running at overload; the fault alarms from various equipment, the hiss of energy dissipation, and the groans of structural stress reached his "ears" clearly, like the wails of a dying beast.

Most lethal of all were the ubiquitous sonic attacks targeting the nervous system. Although physically weakened by the base structure and protective suits, their malicious "informational signatures" acted like countless poisoned, high-frequency vibrating micro-files, directly impacting his unprotected mental plane and bringing unbearable, sharp "noise"!

"Agh—!" Excellence suddenly let out a shrill scream that didn't sound human, violently clutching his head with both hands, his nails digging deep into his scalp! He could no longer remain standing and curled up in pain like a shrimp thrown into boiling water, trembling violently as his small body convulsed from the extreme agony. The portable Emotion-Visualization Device he carried had already erupted in an indescribable, blindingly chaotic flash of rainbow light. The light flickered, distorted, and spun frantically without any pattern, serving as the most direct manifestation of the storm within him. He felt as if his head was about to explode; countless sharp, chaotic "information fragments" filled with negative emotions were like red-hot glass shards, frantically scraping, churning, and piercing his nerves!

To make matters worse, the "singing stones" he held tightly in his pocket entered into a deep, catastrophic resonance with his own violently out-of-control and rampaging energy field! The stone began to vibrate at high speed uncontrollably, its temperature rising sharply to the point of being scalding, and it emitted a sharp, piercing hum that seemed to come from the other side of the abyss, acting directly on the depths of the soul! This sound did not just travel through the air; it seemed to ring directly within the minds of all three people!

Emergency Intervention: Anchoring and Calming

"Excellence! Steady your breathing! Don't 'listen' to those things! Shut down your Perception!" Evelyn detected this lethal anomaly immediately. Her face turned extremely pale, and her voice rose an octave in anxiety. She knew clearly that this state would not only severely damage Excellence's own nervous system, leading to irreversible brain damage, but would also act like the brightest lighthouse in the dark, exposing his violent energy signature with total clarity to any enemies who might possess similar detection methods, putting the three of them in extreme danger. She immediately reached out, trying to take the troublesome resonating stone from his hand.

But at this moment, Excellence seemed to have completely fallen into the vortex of his own collapsing consciousness, losing almost all response to the calls from the outside world. His eyes were tightly shut, his teeth clenched, and his muscles tensed like iron as he was fully immersed in that tsunami of information. More terrifyingly, as his energy ran wild, the air around him began to exhibit subtle, visible ripples of distortion, like heat haze; the lights overhead flickered at a frantic, startling frequency; and some fragile decorations or fire extinguisher glass covers on the corridor walls even emitted faint, heart-stopping cracking sounds! This was a drastic amplification and total loss of control of his previous 'Resonance Overflow' phenomenon!

"His energy is going berserk! If this continues, it will damage his brain! And it will expose our position!" Evelyn Li shouted anxiously to Su Mu, who was changing magazines, her voice carrying a rare trace of panic.

Su Mu had just used a precise double-tap to force back an enemy trying to crawl out from a side pipe. Hearing Evelyn Li's shout, she whipped her head around. Seeing Excellence's painfully distorted little face and the abnormal phenomena around him, her heart felt as if it were being squeezed hard by an icy hand. But she did not hesitate for a moment; her combat instincts and maternal protective drive allowed her to make an instant decision. While continuing to scan for potential threats ahead with the corner of her eye, her weapon held at the ready, she suddenly crouched down to bring her gaze level with Excellence's. She used her hands to firmly yet gently cup his small, cold-sweat-covered face, forcing his eyes—unfocused from pain—to look at her.

"Excellence! Look at me!" Su Mu's voice rose sharply, carrying an unquestionable, powerful soothing force that cleaved through the Chaos in Excellence's consciousness like a sharp sword. "Listen to my voice! Listen only to my voice!" She stared intently into his eyes, guiding him with a rapid yet exceptionally clear pace: "Imagine! Close your eyes and imagine we are in the Greenhouse right now! The sunlight outside is wonderful! It's so warm, making your body feel lazy as it shines on you! Those tomatoes you planted are bright red, like little lanterns, and they're ripe! The Class Monitor is picking one for you... Mmm... smell it, doesn't it smell wonderful?"

Perhaps it was Su Mu's voice, so familiar it was etched into his soul, and her guidance filled with the breath of life and warm imagery that acted as a crucial 'anchor'; or perhaps it was Excellence's own powerful survival instinct and his absolute subconscious trust in Su Mu being triggered at the final moment. Within that boundless, chaotic vortex that threatened to tear his consciousness apart and drown him, he struggled—like a drowning man grasping at the last straw—to catch that sliver of unique, warm, and stable 'frequency.' He snapped open his eyes, which were filled with pain and blurred with tears, and struggled to focus his gaze on Su Mu's anxious yet incredibly firm face. He began to try, with extreme difficulty and intermittence, to follow Su Mu's guidance and construct that peaceful, warm Greenhouse scene in his mind... the warmth of the sun... the aroma of the tomatoes... the Class Monitor's warm smile... At the same time, Evelyn Li quickly pulled a spare potent sedative from a hidden layer of her medical kit (this was a final resort prepared for the worst-case scenario). Her fingers gripped the syringe tightly, the needle tip glinting coldly under the emergency lights, her heart full of struggle. While injecting the sedative would certainly force him to calm down the fastest, the potential impact of the drug on Excellence's developing nervous system, as well as the immense risk of losing consciousness in this environment, made her hesitate. Ultimately, her care for Excellence and her confidence in non-pharmacological methods won out. She temporarily put away the syringe and instead chose to risk attempting her specially trained mental stabilization techniques.

She immediately knelt down and pressed her slightly cool but steady palm gently and firmly against Excellence's cold-sweat-covered, burning forehead. Her other hand covered his small, trembling hand that was still clutching the stone. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and worked to make her mental frequency steady and soft. Then, in a low, stable tone with a special soothing rhythm, as if chanting an incantation, she guided Excellence: "Excellence, follow my rhythm... inhale... slowly... take a deep breath, imagine breathing in peace and coolness... yes... very good... exhale... slowly... take that chaotic, painful energy and imagine it as murky, scalding water, slowly... gently... breathe it out from your body, from your fingertips..." She repeated this over and over with great patience, attempting to synchronize her steady breathing rhythm with Excellence's chaotic physiological rhythm through the contact of her palm and the guidance of her voice.

Under the dual influence of Su Mu's vivid emotional anchoring and Evelyn Li's scientific and rational physiological guidance, Excellence's wild and out-of-control energy field began to calm down, like a tamed wild horse, with extreme difficulty and bit by bit. The humming of the stone in his hand gradually weakened and vanished, the vibrations stopped, and the temperature began to drop. His tensed muscles slowly relaxed, and his violently trembling body gradually steadied. As if exhausted, his body was soaked in cold sweat, his small face was as pale as paper, and he panted heavily, leaning softly and completely dependently into Su Mu's warm and solid embrace.

Reflections After the Storm and a Heavy seed

"I'm... I'm sorry... Class Monitor... Sister Evelyn..." Excellence leaned weakly against Su Mu's shoulder, his voice thick with a crying tone and deep exhaustion and lingering fear. He apologized intermittently, tears finally rolling down uncontrollably. "I... I couldn't control it... those voices... so many... so messy... so scary... I didn't want... I didn't want it to be like this..."

"It's okay! It's okay! Good boy, it's not your fault! It's absolutely not your fault!" Su Mu immediately hugged him tightly, her hand continuously and gently patting his back, her own voice carrying a faint, imperceptible sob and a sense of relief. "You've already done great! Very, very great! Even when you were in so much pain, you could still hear the Class Monitor's words and hold on! You are the bravest child!" She lowered her head and gently pressed her cheek against Excellence's damp forehead, conveying silent comfort and strength.

Evelyn Li also let out a long, deep breath she had been holding for a long time, feeling her own back soaked with cold sweat. She looked at Excellence's exhausted, pitiful, and deeply self-reproachful little face, her eyes filled with complex emotions—relief after the successful intervention, deep heartache, but more than that, a deeper and more severe concern. Excellence's ability was indeed a powerful yet extremely dangerous double-edged sword in a real crisis. Its sudden loss of control, its intensity, and the potential threat it posed to himself and the team were far more serious and terrifying than anything they had estimated in any previous simulated deduction in a laboratory environment. This sounded the most piercing alarm for future protection work.

Though the brief crisis had passed, a heavy and cold seed had been quietly planted in Excellence's shaken heart: so, uncontrollable power was this terrifying. Not only could it not protect the Class Monitor and Sister Evelyn, it couldn't protect this home; instead, it would become a terrible burden that harmed himself, dragged everyone down, and might even push everyone into a more dangerous situation.

A few minutes later, once Excellence's breathing had steadied slightly and his complexion was no longer so frightening, Su Mu carefully placed the weak but conscious boy on her back (securing him firmly with a pre-prepared special harness). Evelyn Li once again took point with her gun, her gaze sharper and more alert than before. The three-person team dared not delay a moment longer, continuing along their established route toward the final Safe House. In this steel labyrinth where gunfire was still sporadic and danger lurked everywhere, they carried out a more difficult yet more determined breakout. Every step was taken upon unknown dangers, and also upon heavy responsibility and hope.