23: Chapter 23 The Twin Shackles Infused with Divine Grace

The energy indicator in the Anvil control room hovered at the edge of his vision, like a red dwarf star about to burn out.

5%.

Lin Yuan stared at the number, his knuckles pressed against the metal console. On the surface lay a chip recovered from the wreckage of a Scavenger drone, its grey-white ceramic casing etched with an LY-series traceability code. A standard analysis required 15% energy, and the stc system flashed a red warning on his retina.

"They're here," Rat Eye said, leaning against the doorframe. The hydraulic joints of his mechanical right leg hissed, and the mechanical patterns in his right eye shimmered. "A scout squad. Four 'Tyrant' class armors, five kilometers out. No lights, but my new eyes can see their heat signatures."

Lin Yuan didn't look back. A whisper echoed from the depths of his consciousness—majestic, ancient, and metallic.

Accept. The cost is fuel. The gift is the path.

"Conventional methods won't work," Lin Yuan's voice was hoarse, the smell of rust lingering in his nostrils. "LY-001, is there any other way to unlock the chip's biological encryption layer besides your signature?"

LY-001 stood in the shadows, her white lab coat looking like a scrap of paper in a pool of blood under the emergency lights. She rubbed the barcode on her left arm—the mark of a 47th-generation clone.

"There is," she said flatly. "The THRONE-01 force-rewrite protocol. But you'll burn through the remaining 5%, and... you'll let it in."

Let it in.

Lin Yuan's finger hovered over the chip. "God-Emperor Gaze level: 1.8%. Actively raising it to 2.0% will trigger the preliminary link of the 'God-Chosen' phase."

"You're crazy," Rat Eye stepped forward, his mechanical right leg thudding against the floor. "That's not just a protocol; it's something older. Your genetic lock hasn't been released yet; your brain will be fried to mush."

"A standard analysis takes fifteen minutes, and we only have twelve," Lin Yuan grabbed the chip, its ceramic edges cutting into his palm. "The Anvil King's scout team is here to confirm the coordinates of Station Zero. If we don't get them, the plasma cannons will blast through the Sector C blast doors in twelve minutes."

He looked at LY-001. "What are the twin keys?"

LY-001's pupils contracted for a moment, calculating the remaining value.

"An encryption method that requires simultaneous verification from two systems," she avoided a direct answer. "THRONE-01 and Anvil. It's like two locksmiths who hate each other turning their keys at the same time."

Correct. The key is blood. Behind the door is the truth.

Lin Yuan pressed the chip into the control console's reader slot. The metal clicked into place with a sharp, decisive snap.

"Initiate THRONE-01 link protocol. Authorization code: Lin Yuan—Seventh Auditor. Requesting... Divine Infusion."

The screen was instantly flooded with gold.

A stream of golden light poured from the interface, crawling up Lin Yuan's arm like molten metal. The pain was more intense than expected, like red-hot wires weaving patterns through his nerves. Lin Yuan bit his inner cheek, the taste of blood exploding in his mouth, but he didn't let go.

Rat Eye recoiled, the blue light in his right eye surging. In his vision, Lin Yuan's vital signs distorted as his human bio-electric pattern was overwritten by massive energy. The system classification jumped from "Human" to "Unknown," turning into a rotating golden double-headed eagle emblem.

"He's assimilating..." Rat Eye muttered, his mechanical fingers scratching five deep grooves into the doorframe.

LY-001 stared at the synchronization rate. The numbers climbed frantically: 120%, 150%, 200%, finally stopping at 217%. The theoretical limit was 100%, an iron rule written into the Anvil basic protocols. Lin Yuan's brainwave frequency resonated with the THRONE-01 base code.

Good. Watch. Remember.

Lin Yuan's vision was torn apart.

He saw Station Zero, a massive underground facility ten times larger than Station 17. The walls were engraved with the "Progenitor-00" mark, an Anvil prototype far older than the Mark-IV. A timestamp flickered: Ten years before the Doomsday Calendar.

Then, he saw his mother.

Su Wanqing stood in the central hall wearing a white lab coat. Beside her was a figure emitting a faint golden glow, their face blurred but possessing a majesty that made Lin Yuan's knees weak. Su Wanqing was smiling, holding a datapad that displayed "project ark: Adapter Screening."

The Su Wanqing in the vision looked up, peering through time at Lin Yuan. "You're finally here, Little Seven. We've been waiting for you for a long time."

Lin Yuan's stomach cramped. That was his mother, but the smile was too strange, too divine. The golden figure placed a hand on Su Wanqing's shoulder with the scrutiny of an owner and creator inspecting a finished product.

She is my hammer. You are my anvil. Forge.

"Shut up!" Lin Yuan roared, golden energy overflowing from his eyes, nose, and ears, condensing into light particles in the air.

The intrusion had arrived.

Another force stabbed out from the deep encryption zone of the chip like a lurking viper. The THRONE-02 mark, a distorted mechanical red icon, flashed at the edge of his consciousness. It wasn't a whisper but a shriek—the noise of countless mechanical gears grinding together, trying to tear open his memories to retrieve coordinates.

"Found... you... memories... belong to... Council..."

Lin Yuan screamed instinctively, trying to cut the connection, but the golden energy flow was faster. The THRONE-01 whisper turned into a roar as a firewall made of pure will rose around his consciousness.

Shield of the Emperor.

Golden light and red data streams collided in his mind—a crushing defeat at the protocol level. The THRONE-01 code was ancient and tyrannical, like a wall forged of faith and fanaticism, grinding the shrieking THRONE-02 intrusion to dust.

At the moment of destruction, Lin Yuan captured the rebounding data stream—the reverse path of the THRONE-02 intrusion, revealing the coordinates on the other end.

"North... Sector 3... abandoned orbital elevator base..." Lin Yuan spat out the physical location of the THRONE-02 ground relay station through the intense pain.

Rat Eye looked up sharply, the mechanical patterns in his right eye flashing violently. In the data aftershocks of Lin Yuan blocking the intrusion, he saw a hidden marker—a backdoor program was quietly encrypting and sending out the real-time coordinates of the Anvil control room. It was a seed planted by THRONE-02, using the gap in mental defense to transmit targeting data for the 'Tyrant' class armors.

Rat Eye opened his mouth.

If he spoke, Lin Yuan would immediately cut the analysis. Without the coordinates, the armors five kilometers away would lock onto this location within three minutes; LY-001 would be captured, and Lin Yuan would be killed. But if he didn't speak...

The mechanical joint of his right leg groaned, and the Anvil Protocol hummed gently in the chip under his skin, a reminder that loyalty was the highest priority.

Rat Eye closed his mouth.

Golden light formed a vortex around Lin Yuan. The data on the chip's surface was brute-forced, and coordinates flooded his consciousness: Northern Radiation Exclusion Zone, beneath the ruins of Old Beijing, three thousand meters deep. But a lock appeared at the end of the data, requiring two distinct biological signatures for verification.

twin keys.

LY-001 watched Lin Yuan's back, which was shrouded in golden light, and stopped rubbing the barcode. She noticed that in the images of Station Zero, the version number of the Anvil logo on the wall was indeed "Progenitor-00," at least twenty years older than when she was born. The timeline didn't match, unless Su Wanqing really had come back from the future.

Lin Yuan suddenly opened his eyes.

The golden light retracted instantly, sucked into the depths of his pupils. The screen went dark, and the energy indicator fluctuated wildly before stopping at a glaring number: 2%.

Critical state.

But Lin Yuan felt different. A pale gold filter had appeared over the edge of his vision. When he looked at Rat Eye, he saw a scene from three seconds into the future: Rat Eye turned his head away, the blue light in his right eye dimmed, and he tapped his thigh three times.

The future, three seconds ahead.

"War Premonition..." Lin Yuan whispered, his voice carrying a metallic echo.

Rat Eye indeed turned his head away, the blue light in his right eye dimmed, and he tapped his thigh three times. It matched perfectly.

"I have the coordinates," Lin Yuan stood up, the golden light lingering on his retinas. "Northern Radiation Exclusion Zone, beneath the ruins of Old Beijing. Entering requires the twin keys—simultaneous verification of the THRONE-01 and Anvil biological signatures."

He looked at LY-001. "This means you must come with us to the entrance."

LY-001 nodded, her expression calm, but her fingertips trembled slightly. "I know."

"The THRONE-02 relay is in North Sector 3, at the abandoned orbital elevator base," Lin Yuan's voice returned to its calm state, though the metallic quality hadn't entirely faded. "We can counterattack, but not now. We have five minutes to evacuate Sector C and start the Wanderer's backup batteries before the power runs out."

He walked toward the door and stopped beside Rat Eye. "Your right eye is glowing. It's been pulsing rhythmically for a while now. It's as if... it's sending a signal."

Rat Eye's body stiffened for a moment. The three-second precognition allowed Lin Yuan to see that Rat Eye was about to deny it, explain it away, and change the subject.

But Rat Eye only remained silent for half a second before saying in a low voice, "The Anvil Protocol is synchronizing. The energy is too low, so it's trying to save power."

Lin Yuan turned his head and stared into Rat Eye's eyes. In the mechanical right eye, he saw his own reflection: a golden double-headed eagle rotating deep within his pupils.

"Is that so?" Lin Yuan said. It wasn't a question.

He didn't press further, but the air between them froze. The crack concerning trust, secrets, and the limits of human loyalty spread silently like a fissure under ice.

An alarm sounded in the control room, coming from the portable radar Rat Eye was carrying.

"They're moving," Rat Eye's voice returned to a soldierly crispness, but he avoided Lin Yuan's gaze. "The scout squad. Four kilometers. They're establishing a perimeter."

Lin Yuan took one last look at the console. A new attribute column in the THRONE-01 system interface shimmered: Faith Value 0.1%, and one unused "Divine Intervention" privilege, which could force-rewrite the STC production logic once.

He picked up the chip on the table; it was now just a blank piece of ceramic, its deep encryption zone still locked tight like an unexploded bomb.

"Let's go," Lin Yuan pushed open the door. "To Station Zero."

Behind him, the red light of the energy indicator stabilized like the final embers of a dying star. Five kilometers away in the ruins, the sensors of the 'Tyrant' class armors locked onto the Wanderer's heat signature, and their barrels slowly rose to aim at the Sector C blast doors.

Behind that door, the THRONE-02 data stream that had just been blocked was regrouping in a dark corner, waiting for the next infiltration.