10: Chapter 10 A Fragile Alliance

The cold metal walls seemed to absorb every bit of heat Lin Feng exhaled, as well as the almost stagnant air within the shelter. The woman—Ling Yue—still had her cold, shimmering mechanical prosthetic limb humming slightly, its fingertips pointed at Lin Feng. Her question was like a poisoned dagger pressed against his throat.

"The core logic of the algorithm?"

Lin Feng's heart hammered wildly in his chest, each beat pulling at the wound under his ribs and bringing waves of sharp pain. Where would he get a core logic? It was entirely an optimization completed by the "Source" System on its own under his extreme need and high focus; at best, he was just an ignorant guide, not the creator.

But he absolutely could not say that. Once the existence of the "Source" System was exposed, the consequences would be unimaginable. The Ling Yue before him was highly skilled with unclear motives, and that never-before-seen "Engineer" was even more inscrutable. Handing over his trump card to them would be no different from seeking his own death.

>> System Recovery: 78%. Cognitive Function Stabilizing. >> Analysis: Subject "Ling Yue" - High Technical Proficiency. Mechanical Augmentation Focus. Current Emotional State: Impatient, Calculating, Highly Alert. >> Suggestion: Provide Partial Technical Truth. Obfuscate Core Mechanism. Emphasize Practical Application over Theory.

The prompts from his ability were like a faint light in the darkness. Lying required skill, especially when lying to technical personnel; it had to contain enough real, verifiable technical details to be believable.

Lin Feng took a deep breath, forcing himself to meet Ling Yue's sharp amber eye, trying to make his voice sound merely weak rather than guilty: "The core logic... actually isn't that complicated. It's mainly targeted local entropy reduction and predictive cache preprocessing for the Data Stream."

He threw out two technical terms that sounded professional but could actually be interpreted in many different ways.

Ling Yue's eyebrow twitched almost imperceptibly, and the hum of the mechanical limb seemed to decrease by one percent. She didn't speak, only signaling with her eyes for him to continue.

"I found that although the data structure of those sensor logs is standard, there is a weak, predictable local correlation in the time series." Lin Feng braved it, packaging some data characteristics he had vaguely sensed earlier into technical language. "Conventional algorithms use global scanning, wasting a lot of computing power on irrelevant noise. I... I tried to dynamically identify these highly correlated data blocks and pre-load relevant parameters into the cache to reduce redundant calculations and I/O latency... It's equivalent to... opening several priority channels for the Data Stream."

What he said was half-true. "Local correlation" and "predictive caching" were indeed common optimization methods, but he omitted the most critical part—how he had instantly "found" and "dynamically identified" those optimization opportunities. That was the core of the "Source" ability.

Ling Yue remained silent for a few seconds, the Data Stream in her mechanical eye flickering slightly faster, as if she were verifying or deducing his explanation.

"Local entropy reduction... predictive caching..." she repeated in a low voice, as if chewing over the words. "Sounds like Old Campbell's school of theory, but they need at least three times the data preprocessing time and auxiliary computing units to achieve a preliminary application... How did you do it in such a short time using only basic computing power?"

Her follow-up question was still sharp, pointing directly at the most contradictory core—efficiency.

Cold sweat broke out on Lin Feng's back, knowing he had reached the most critical juncture. He couldn't reveal the existence of the "Source," so he had to attribute the reason to some kind of... unrepeatable accident or extreme condition.

"I don't know." Lin Feng showed a perfectly timed look of daze and exhaustion, even with a bit of a tremor from surviving a disaster. "At that time... I only thought that I had to finish it, or it would be over... All my mental energy was focused on the Data Stream, like a kind of... intuition? Or perhaps an extraordinary performance under pressure? I can't even fully reproduce the details of that moment now."

He pushed everything onto "pressure," "intuition," and "extraordinary performance"—factors that were difficult to quantify or verify yet definitely existed. At the same time, he hinted that his current state could not be replicated, reducing the other party's immediate greed.

Ling Yue stared at him, her gaze so sharp it felt like she was peeling him open. Only the faint hum of her mechanical limb and Lin Feng's own heavy breathing remained in the shelter.

>> ETA: 38M 12S... The countdown flickered in the unstable connection, reminding him that external threats had not moved away.

Suddenly, Ling Yue let out a light snort of ambiguous meaning.

"Intuition-based optimization under pressure? Hmph, consider yourself lucky, rookie." She seemed to temporarily accept this explanation, or at least felt she couldn't squeeze out any more under the current circumstances. The fingertips of the mechanical limb finally lowered, and the pressing tension eased slightly.

"However, Razor of The Cleaners won't care where your inspiration came from." She turned and walked toward a workbench in the corner of the room piled with discarded electronic components. "He suffered a loss and was flashed by an EMP; right now he's definitely like an enraged hyena, sniffing around wildly outside. Official agents are arriving soon, too."

She picked up a crude-looking device with an antenna that seemed self-made and began to quickly debug it.

"Then we..." Lin Feng's heart rose to his throat.

"We?" Ling Yue didn't look back, her tone mocking. "There is no 'we.' I only temporarily fished you out from under the gun barrel; it doesn't mean I'm going to be your nanny."

Her words were cold and heartless, but Lin Feng keenly noticed that she hadn't chosen to open the door and throw him out. She was still acting, still debugging the equipment.

>> Scanning Device: Low-Frequency Wide-Spectrum Jammer. Modified. Capable of Disrupting Short-Range Targeting and Comm Links.

His ability scanned the device's purpose—a jammer capable of disrupting short-range targeting and communication links.

"Take it." Ling Yue suddenly threw the crude jammer to Lin Feng. "This thing can temporarily make Razor's energy weapon sights lose focus for a dozen seconds, and it can also interfere with any miniature drone reconnaissance he might have. Whether you can survive with it depends on your own luck."

Lin Feng scrambled to catch the still-warm device, stunned for a moment. This seemed... like a form of help?

"Why help me?" he couldn't help but ask.

Ling Yue finally turned around, her mechanical hand on her hip, her face carrying a kind of impatient irritation: "I said, I owe The Engineer a favor. He/she marked you and told me to ensure you weren't eliminated by a third party first. As for whether official agents catch you, that's none of my business."

She paused, her tone becoming even more abrasive: "Besides, although that 'intuition optimization' of yours was stupid as hell, the result... was marginally interesting. It would be a bit of a waste if you died."

It was a very awkward reason, but Lin Feng felt as if he had grasped a straw. The other party seemed to have developed a technical interest in his "ability," which might be his only bargaining chip for survival in the short term.

>> ETA: 25M 41S... Time was getting tighter and tighter.

"Don't look at me with those eyes, rookie." Ling Yue seemed to see through his thoughts and let out a cold laugh. "If you want to live, just relying on this bit of cleverness and a piece of junk jammer won't be enough. Part of The Nest's underground pipe network is a relic of the old era and isn't fully connected to the Sky Curtain surveillance. The entrance is three hundred meters to the southeast, under a decommissioned step-down station marked '03-7B'."

She had actually given him a possible escape route!

"Remember," her voice became extremely serious, "the pipe network isn't safe either. There are risks of cave-ins, there are things... and a Cleaner of Razor's level likely knows about these passages too. Once you go down, your life is in your own hands."

Just then, the Data Stream in Ling Yue's mechanical eye suddenly flickered wildly! Her expression changed slightly.

"Tsk! Razor is using high-power penetrating radar to scan this area! He suspects there's a man-made bunker!" She quickly walked to the wall and operated a hidden panel a few times. "My shielding here won't hold for long. You need to go, rookie."

She pointed to the other side of the room, where a secret door disguised as a pipe maintenance hatch slid open silently, revealing a dark staircase extending downward that only allowed one person to pass. A gust of damp, moldy air surged out.

"Go down the ladder, turn left, and after about a hundred meters you'll see a fork. Take the pipe on the right that's more heavily rusted. How far you can get depends on how tough your luck is."

Lin Feng no longer hesitated, tightly clutching the crude jammer in his hand. He quickly whispered toward Ling Yue, "Thank you!"

Then, without looking back, he dove into the dark passage.

Behind him, the secret door closed quickly and silently, completely isolating Ling Yue and her instrument-filled shelter.

The stairs were steep and slippery; Lin Feng could only support himself against the cold, slimy walls as he carefully moved downward. Absolute darkness enveloped him, with only the faint, rhythmic heavy thumping (possibly some large old water pump operating) and the echoes of dripping water coming from the distance.

>> System Fully Restored. Activating Low-Light Vision Enhancement.

Blue characters surfaced, and his vision brightened slightly, turning into a hazy greenish-gray, barely allowing him to see the rusted metal stairs beneath his feet and the thick, constantly leaking pipes around him.

Following Ling Yue's instructions, he reached the bottom and turned left, and indeed saw a fork appearing ahead. Both pipes were enormous, leading into deeper darkness. The one on the right had its walls covered in thicker, darker rust, as if no one had set foot there for decades.

He gritted his teeth and crawled in.

The inside of the pipe was even harder to traverse than imagined. Beneath his feet was thick sludge of unknown composition, and the air was foul, carrying a heavy scent of iron rust and decaying organic matter.

He moved forward with difficulty, extremely careful with every step, alert for possible traps and... the vague "things" Ling Yue had mentioned.

>> ETA: 18M 03S... Agent 734 is constantly approaching The Nest area.

>> Warning: Detecting Faint Organic Residue Readings (Decomposing) Ahead. Source: Unknown.

His ability detected faint signals of decomposing organic matter ahead!

Lin Feng's heart instantly leaped into his throat. He slowed his pace, held his breath, and gripped the jammer even tighter.

After struggling forward for another fifty meters or so, the pipe made a slight turn.

Just as he rounded the bend, his low-light enhanced vision instantly captured the scene ahead—

A massive, twisted skeletal remains of what seemed to be some large canine creature lay in the sludge! Most of the bones had turned white, but some parts still had dark red flesh and tissue clinging to them, as if they had been torn apart and gnawed on by some terrifying force!

And on the pipe wall next to the skeleton were several deep gashes, several inches deep, shimmering with a faint metallic luster—huge claw marks!

Lin Feng's blood instantly ran cold.

The "things" in Ling Yue's warning... were definitely no lie!

This dark world beneath The Nest was far more dangerous than the one above ground!

He froze in place, caught in a dilemma. And just then, from the direction he had come, far in the distance, a piercing sound of metal scraping faintly echoed!

Someone... or something... had also entered the pipe!