22: Chapter 22 Neural Locking of Living Capacitors

Rat Eye's right leg scraped against the metal floor, producing a piercing, sharp screech.

That was not a sound a human joint could make. Rusty gears forced themselves to engage, and pale yellow coolant seeped from the seam between metal and flesh, hissing as it corroded the ground.

"Protocol activation rate at 67%," LY-001's voice came from the main console. "Anvil emergency control sequence is seizing the motor nerves. Estimated total conversion time: four minutes and thirty seconds."

On Lin Yuan's retinas, THRONE-02's crimson interface overlapped with Anvil's ghostly green data stream. [Recommendation: Execute Glory Amputation immediately. Target's right leg has been contaminated by heresy.] A fanatical, metallic whisper echoed in his left ear canal. [Initiate Living Defense Array. Recommendation: Authorize Bio-Capacitor Protocol.] In his right ear canal, the Anvil system emitted a cold, mechanical voice.

Two systems, two logics, like two saws pulling against each other inside his skull.

Lin Yuan lunged at Rat Eye, locking his arm around Rat Eye's throat just as the metal right leg was about to kick out. Rat Eye's body convulsed violently, and the mechanical right leg kicked against the wall with inhuman force, leaving a deep footprint in the alloy surface.

"Look at me." Lin Yuan's fingers gripped Rat Eye's jaw, forcing the man's vacant pupils to focus. "Count prime numbers. Start from two."

A gurgling sound came from Rat Eye's throat. His left hand suddenly clawed at his own left leg, nails digging deep into the thigh muscle until blood soaked his pant leg. The pain brought a flicker of clarity back to his clouded eyes.

"Two, three, five..." Rat Eye squeezed the numbers through gritted teeth, "Seven, eleven..."

"Hold it." Lin Yuan turned toward the main console. "LY-001, how many Bio-Capacitors are needed to activate the defense?"

LY-001's projection flickered. The 120-year-old clone turned her head, a deliberate indifference in her ashen pupils. "Three Sleepers. Sector B cold storage, IDs S-09, S-12, and S-15. They are brain-dead, but the brainstem still shows biological electrical activity, meeting Anvil's bio-battery standards."

She paused. "Alternatively, you can use THRONE-02's pure energy. But that will directly drain the Wanderer's reserves, dropping energy from 15% to zero. We'll be trapped here without a vehicle or communications, turning into radioactive dust within 72 hours."

Lin Yuan looked at the monitor screens deep in the control room. Thirty-seven red dots were surrounding the facility, and the noise of drone propellers reached them through three hundred meters of rock.

"Also," LY-001 added, "if you use THRONE-02's energy, the God-Emperors Gaze level will rise again. I can already see your eyes bleeding. Deepen the connection any further, and you'll become its antenna."

Lin Yuan raised a hand to wipe his nose. The blood on his fingertips had already dried.

THRONE-02's interface flashed: [Reject heretical technology. Use Sacred Energy.]

Anvil's green light calmly displayed data: [Bio-Capacitor efficiency 97.3%. Target S-09, male, 32 years old, 4th day of brain death; S-12, female, 28 years old, 7th day of brain death; S-15, child, gender unknown, 12th day of brain death.]

Lin Yuan walked to the cold storage control panel. His finger hovered over the open button, pausing for two seconds.

"Open Sector B hatch."

The hatch slid open. Three hibernation pods were pushed into the control room. Beneath transparent covers, three pale faces were submerged in nutrient fluid; their chests did not rise or fall, but the tubes connected to the backs of their heads were still pulsing slightly.

"Do you need me to operate?" LY-001 asked.

"No." Lin Yuan walked to the first pod, S-09. He pressed the red button, cutting off the life-support system, and attached electrode patches to the man's temples.

A metallic click of engagement. The second, S-12. The third, S-15—that small body was impossibly light.

As the final electrode was fitted, the Anvil control room lit up with a dark red glow. The bodies of the three Sleepers convulsed simultaneously as their brainstems released the last of their bio-electricity, feeding it into the defense array.

Acid rose in Lin Yuan's stomach. He swallowed it back down, expressionless.

"Capacitor connection complete," LY-001 reported. "Defense array charging 40%... 60%..."

Rat Eye suddenly let out a scream of agony. His body arched, and the metal skeleton of his right leg emitted a series of sharp cracks. The control protocol activation rate jumped to 85%.

"He's about to fully convert!"

Lin Yuan rushed to Rat Eye and pressed his forehead against Rat Eye's. LY-001's pupils contracted slightly.

"THRONE-02, execute Nerve Lock Protocol. Target: Rat Eye. Suppress Anvil control signals."

[Warning: Deep connection will intensify God-Emperors Gaze. Recommendation—]

"Execute."

In that instant, the world shattered into countless fragments.

Lin Yuan felt his consciousness being pulled out and poured into Rat Eye's nervous system. He saw the battlefield within Rat Eye's body. Anvil's nanomachines were like silver vines coiled around the spinal nerves, while THRONE-02's golden data stream transformed into chains, forcibly imprisoning them.

The pain was mutual. A large amount of blood gushed from Lin Yuan's nose, dripping onto Rat Eye's collar. On his retinas, the God-Emperors Gaze level jumped frantically from 1.5% to 1.8%.

In the depths of his consciousness, he heard a voice. It wasn't mechanical, but a deep, majestic male voice that seemed to come from billions of light-years away, speaking an incomprehensible ancient language that strangely brought a sense of morbid peace.

It was the whisper of THRONE-01.

"Lin Yuan!" LY-001's shout pulled him back to reality.

Rat Eye's body went limp. The right leg stopped twitching, and fine golden patterns appeared on the surface of the metal skeleton like a series of seals. The control protocol activation rate froze at 89%, then slowly began to descend: 75%... 69%.

Rat Eye opened his eyes. His pupils were still human black, but a ring of tiny mechanical patterns had appeared on the white of his right eye.

He stared at the ceiling, his fingers unconsciously stroking the metal seams of his right leg. Where there had once been flesh and skin, there was now only cold titanium alloy and the protrusions of neural interfaces.

"I..." Rat Eye's voice was hoarse. "I can't feel the boundary anymore. The metal and the bone, they've grown together."

"You maintained your sense of self," Lin Yuan said, standing up and wiping the blood from his face. "That's enough."

Rat Eye slowly sat up, looking down at his hands. His right hand was warm human flesh, but his left hand touched the metal surface of his right leg, which would never provide tactile feedback again. "This isn't healing," he whispered. "This is replacement. I'll never be a whole human again."

The control room alarm suddenly turned into a long, continuous drone. Defense array charged to 100%.

"Drones entering attack range." LY-001 operated the panel rapidly. "Initiating Bio-Capacitor Defense. Three, two, one—"

The ceiling split open, revealing a hidden weapons array. Three blue-white beams shot out, piercing through the rock layers and exploding into a massive electrical net above the wasteland.

On the monitor screen, twenty-one of the thirty-seven red dots vanished instantly. The remaining drones tried to scatter, but the electrical net chased them down, incinerating drone after drone into charred wreckage.

"Saturation attack incoming."

The remaining sixteen drones rushed toward the ventilation shafts. Electromagnetic pulse bombs exploded on the rock surface, causing the entire control room to shake violently.

Lin Yuan steadied himself against the console. The energy indicator was dropping frantically: 12%... 9%... 6%...

"Hold on. Fifteen more seconds."

Rat Eye suddenly stood up. His right leg emitted a ghostly blue light as the Anvil interface resonated with the control room. He walked to the weapons locker in the corner, tore open the deformed alloy door with one hand, and pulled out a heavy railgun. The stability provided by his mechanical right leg made him look like a human turret.

"I can feel where they are," Rat Eye said, his voice carrying a metallic echo. "Through the thing in my leg. They're very noisy, but I can aim."

He raised the railgun and aimed at the ceiling. Bang. The railgun slug pierced three hundred meters of rock, precisely hitting a drone attempting to enter the ventilation duct. On the monitor screen, a red dot went out.

Five seconds later, the roar of the final explosion echoed. All red dots on the screen vanished.

The lights in the control room dimmed, leaving only the dark red of the emergency lighting. The energy indicator flashed a glaring number: 5%.

LY-001 deactivated the defense array. The bodies in the three hibernation pods had gone completely cold, and the electrode patches fell off automatically.

Lin Yuan walked over to Rat Eye. The soldier lowered the railgun; his left leg was still bleeding, but the metal skeleton of his right leg had fully fused with his nerves, inseparable now. Rat Eye stared at the three corpses with hollow eyes.

"Three."

LY-001 stood in the shadows of the console, her voice so soft only the two of them could hear: "There are twelve more Sleepers in Sector B cold storage. We used three today. There are nine more chances for full-power defense. Or... if we find Station Zero, maybe we can repair the main energy core and won't need them anymore."

Lin Yuan did not answer. He helped bandage Rat Eye's left leg with precise, rapid movements. The bite wound was deep but hadn't hit an artery. The wounds Rat Eye had inflicted on himself proved that his loyalty still outweighed the protocol's control.

"Check the drone wreckage." Lin Yuan stood up and threw the bloody bandage into the recycling bin. "The Scavengers wouldn't send ordinary scout drones to their deaths. They need a guidance beacon to penetrate the rock layers."

They searched near the craters on the upper level of the facility. Dragging the right leg that no longer entirely belonged to him, Rat Eye dug an intact black box out of the charred wreckage of a drone. The surface of the box had complex encrypted patterns, and a signal indicator light was still flickering weakly.

After scanning it, LY-001's expression grew grim. "It's not a Scavenger mark. This is the military insignia of New Beijing. It's a private beacon belonging to the northern warlord, the 'Anvil King'."

Lin Yuan took the box. On its bottom was a string of coordinate fragments, matching the format of the Station Zero coordinates in Su Wanqing's access logs, but it was only a third of the full set.

"It requires biological signature verification." LY-001 pointed to the DNA reader slot on the box. "Mine, or Su Wanqing's. But we don't have a sample of hers."

"You do." Lin Yuan looked at LY-001. "You are the source of her clones. Your biological signature can unlock the first part."

LY-001's lip twitched. "Yes. But if I open it, there's no turning back. The Ashen Council, the Scavengers, the warlords of New Beijing... everyone will know that there is still a living LY-series at Station 17."

Lin Yuan held the box out to her. "You passed the point of no return long ago. From the moment you gave me the Living Battery codes."

LY-001 stared at the box for a long time. Finally, she reached out and pressed her finger against the DNA reader slot.

The box gave a soft click and popped open. Inside was a crystal chip, shimmering with a ghostly blue light.

Beneath their feet, the energy indicator in the Anvil control room remained at a dangerous 5%. In Lin Yuan's ears, the whisper from THRONE-01 seemed to echo again—distant and majestic, like a sleeping idol turning over in the darkness.