19: Chapter 19 The Twin Mirrors of Site Seventeen

Ice crystals condensed on the metal surface of the isolation door on Level B3.

Minus forty degrees.

Behind the three-centimeter-thick tungsten alloy interlayer, hydraulic locks bit tightly into the mechanical structure.

On Lin Yuan's retinal projection, the Gene Lock countdown pulsed in blood-red: 00:19:47.

The auditory hallucinations were back.

This time it was a woman's voice, mixed with the metallic scent of laboratory disinfectant and coolant.

The low hum brought by the God-Emperors Gaze level of 1.2% resonated within his skull, like a rasp grinding against his nerves.

The voice clung to the outside of his power pack: "Turn left, Xiao Yuan. Turn left thirty degrees."

"Boss."

Rat Eye leaned against the corner of the corridor, his right leg split open, leaving a dark red arc of blood trailing across the alloy floor.

"That thing... is it calling your name?"

"It's the countdown."

Lin Yuan raised his left arm. The Biological Armor resonated with the identification port, and a faint blue scanning beam swept across his iris.

The turret's infrared aiming dot drifted across his chest.

The authority of the lin clan bloodline could only freeze the defense system for thirty seconds.

"Scarface, how much power can the Wanderer still output?"

The sound of metal clanking came through the communication channel.

A three-second delay.

Scarface's voice was wrapped in static: "Fifteen percent. If we force an overload on this door, the remaining power won't last fifteen kilometers."

"It's enough."

"Enough to last until the Scavengers reboot the scanning grid?"

Scarface sneered.

"In fifteen minutes, the orbital cannon will plow this place into glass shards. Level B3 has non-human life signals; heart rate three hundred and twenty beats per minute, body temperature forty-two degrees. That's not a person. That's..."

"That's my cure."

Lin Yuan pulled up the electromagnetic lock circuit diagram.

"District 7 Key."

Silence.

The Wanderer's engine coughed in the distance like it was dying.

"Here you go."

Scarface's voice softened.

"But I'm not going in. I'll monitor the Scavengers' frequency from the vehicle... in case you become part of whatever is in there, I need to know which way to run."

Data streams flooded the interface.

District 7 Key. The highest authority for ARK-series facilities. The trump card Scarface had been hiding for two weeks.

The Lin Clan authority and the Key overlapped.

The hydraulic pipes in the tungsten alloy door gap hissed as the pressure was released.

"Stay on guard."

Lin Yuan spoke into the communicator while looking at Rat Eye.

Rat Eye stood up, bracing himself against the wall.

His right leg was shattered, the knee joint buckling inward, and the hydraulic support structure groaned with twisting metal.

A flush rose to his thin face.

"I want to witness the moment the Saint faces the mirror, Boss. This is my sacrifice."

Lin Yuan looked at him for two seconds.

He tore off the power transmission line.

The capacitor docked with the emergency port.

An electric arc flashed. The corridor lights flickered three times. The electromagnetic lock shrieked with metal fatigue.

His palm pressed against the door handle.

The stinging pain of the Biological Armor linking with the facility's neural network shot up his spine.

The door opened.

The Level B3 corridor was narrower than the two floors above.

The walls were covered in translucent culture membranes. Pale gold liquid flowed within them, making a faint gurgling sound.

The tactical flashlight swept across. Light and shadow distorted behind the membranous structures, casting writhing shadows.

The auditory hallucinations became deafening.

The woman's voice was urgent: "Quick. Med-bay. Straight ahead. Don't look at the ones on either side..."

Footsteps echoed in the corridor.

Rat Eye limped along, the sound of his boot soles scraping the floor following closely behind.

They passed rows of Stasis Pods. The pod labels were faded: LY-000-12, LY-000-33, LY-000-46.

Lin Yuan's gaze lingered on the last label for half a second.

He was the 47th generation.

So where was Number 46?

The answer was at the end of the corridor.

The door to the med-bay was open.

The cryogenic storage box emitted a low hum.

The incubator display flashed a green indicator light: LY-000 Stem Cell Reserve, Stock: 3 doses.

Lin Yuan grabbed the injection gun.

The metal needle glinted coldly under the fluorescent light.

00:17:33.

The needle pierced the vein on the side of his neck.

The notification chime for the data terminal's startup came from a dark corner.

Someone, or something, had activated the terminal thirty seconds early.

The hand Rat Eye used to hold his gun trembled.

"Boss... behind that..."

The sound of liquid dripping came from the shadows.

Then came heavy breathing.

Inhalation lasted five seconds. Exhalation lasted eight seconds. It was like a deep-sea creature adapting to land pressure.

Lin Yuan stared at the injection gun's progress bar.

The pale gold stem cell suspension was slowly pushed into his blood vessels.

00:17:00.

The progress bar reached seventy percent.

The voice spoke.

"Lin... Yuan."

The pronunciation was jerky, like rusty gears being forced to mesh.

But the way of articulating was exactly the same as Lin Yuan's. The trailing tones were kept very low, with precise intervals between words.

Lin Yuan's right hand reached for his Chainsword.

His left hand steadily pushed the syringe.

"You know me?"

The thing in the shadows took a step forward, entering the range of the emergency lighting.

Lin Yuan's breath hitched.

It was a face identical to his own.

Not similar—identical. Even the scar on the left brow bone, scratched by experimental equipment in childhood, was replicated exactly.

But the other's skin showed a sickly pallor, and his veins emitted a pale gold glow.

He was naked, his body lines leaner, possessing an inhuman flexibility.

"I am... LY-001."

The thing tilted its head. Lin Yuan did the same when he was thinking.

"You are... the 47th. They made you... look very much like me."

The injection gun emitted a completion chime.

Lin Yuan slowly turned around.

The Gene Lock countdown froze at the edge of his vision: 72:00:00.

Stem cell injection successful.

A system prompt box flashed by.

But his entire attention was on the "person" in front of him.

"Progenitor."

Lin Yuan spoke the word flashing on the data terminal screen.

LY-001's eyes blinked.

The pupils were reptilian slits, but the irises were the same deep brown as Lin Yuan's.

He raised a hand and pointed to the data terminal in the corner of the med-bay.

There were translucent webbed structures between his fingertips.

"Mother... gave us names."

The voice was intermittent, like data being retrieved from a shattered memory drive.

"She said... you are the Anvil. I am... the Hammer."

Lin Yuan's temples throbbed with intense pain.

Auditory hallucinations overlapped with reality.

The woman's voice screamed in his skull: "Don't believe him! What he remembers are my memories, not his..."

"What mother?"

Lin Yuan took a step forward.

His muscles were tensed to the limit.

LY-001 showed a confused expression.

It was the same expression Lin Yuan had as a child when facing complex equations.

"Su Wanqing."

Lin Yuan's entire body stiffened.

That was his mother's name. A name that should have turned to ash when ARK-07 was incinerated.

It wasn't even recorded in Scarface's audit logs.

"She left... this for you."

LY-001 pulled a data chip from a gap in the med-bay, clumsily mimicking a human grip.

"In Sector C. In a very deep place. There is... our source."

Lin Yuan did not take it.

His gaze went past LY-001's shoulder to the closed door deep in the med-bay.

Labels for the Sector A Armory and Sector C Laboratory flashed on the door sign.

The red lock light looked like a bloodshot eye.

Scarface's shout suddenly erupted in the communication channel, his voice carrying a tremor it had never had before.

"Boss! The audit log just updated! LY-001's biological signatures... God, his genetic match with you is 99.9%, but his telomere length shows he's lived for at least... a hundred and twenty years!"

LY-001 tilted his head.

He seemed to be trying to understand the communication noise.

He raised a hand to touch Lin Yuan's carapace pauldrons.

His fingertips were ice-cold, unlike a living thing.

"You smell..."

The vertical pupils contracted to the size of pinpricks.

"...like something new. Like paper that hasn't been... burned yet."

The med-bay alarm shrieked.

Red warning lights rotated.

The retinal projection popped up a new countdown: Scavenger orbital scan rebooting, 00:14:59 remaining.

Heavy, rhythmic footsteps came from deep within the facility.

Something else was moving on Level B3.

LY-001 suddenly grabbed Lin Yuan's wrist.

His strength was astonishing. An inhuman body temperature came through the glove, like holding red-hot iron.

He leaned close to Lin Yuan's ear.

His voice was as light as a vibration of air: "They put... another STC in Sector C. Not the one for you. It's for... the Hammer."

Lin Yuan's pupils contracted.

The Biological Armor on his left arm suddenly resonated with a hidden port in the med-bay.

Encrypted surveillance footage was forcibly projected onto his retina.

Deeper in Level B3, a construction template identical in style to the Warhammer STC but labeled "Project: Anvil" was slowly operating behind a culture membrane.

"Choose."

LY-001 let go and took a step back.

A broken smile appeared on his pale face—a smile that did not belong to a human.

"The Anvil. Or the Hammer."

The red light of the countdown flashed alternately across both their faces.

Illuminating the two identical faces like devils in a mirror.