28: Chapter 28 Observer Projection Deep Within Sector B

As the freezing mist dissipated at the end of the corridor, the roars of Hybrid Guardians surged from all directions.

Lin Yuan leaned against the rusted metal wall, the Wanderer's interface flashing red in the bottom right corner of his retina. Energy was at 2.1%; the number was like a taut string that could snap at any moment. He gripped a fragment of a power claw taken from a Guardian in his right hand and pressed his left hand on Rat Eye's shoulder. The boy was trembling, an abnormal red glow emanating from deep within his sightless right eye socket, and something was squirming under his skin like countless tiny earthworms tunneling through his veins.

"How much further?" Chen Duo's voice came from the left. This envoy of the Anvil King leaned his back against the wall, his mechanical prosthetic eye flickering with cold blue scanning light. His finger pressed behind his ear, where a tiny protrusion sat—a tracking beacon implanted by the Anvil King.

Rat Eye opened his mouth and coughed up a mouthful of black blood. The blood hissed as it hit the metal floor, corroding it. "Three hundred meters," the boy's voice was hoarse, as if squeezed out of a rusty pipe, "Down below, very deep. It's calling me."

Lin Yuan noticed the skin on Rat Eye's right arm was cracking. These weren't ordinary wounds, but regular fissures forming geometric branches, emitting a faint golden shimmer. They were the patterns of the stc system, originating from the same source as the light when the Wanderer activated, yet carrying a morbid distortion.

"Your vital signs are deteriorating," Lin Yuan stated flatly. "The countdown has shortened to forty-eight hours."

"I know." Rat Eye wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve, his movements possessing a numb precision. "My right eye sees more clearly now. Not with my eye, but with this." He tapped his temple. "Throne-02 is in the terminal; it's been watching. Every step we take, it's laughing."

Chen Duo's mechanical eye swiveled, locking onto the glowing patterns on Rat Eye's right arm. "The mark of ARK," he whispered, "just like the samples in the Anvil King's laboratory. What do you call this? Assimilation?"

"Transformation," Lin Yuan corrected as he activated War Premonition. A three-second glimpse of the future flashed in his mind: around the corner of the left passage, two Hybrid Guardians were lying in wait, their biological carapaces scraping against their metal skeletons with a screech like nails on a chalkboard.

Lin Yuan didn't hesitate, hurling the power claw fragment toward the corner. As the sound of metal clashing rang out, he grabbed Rat Eye and lunged forward. Chen Duo followed close behind, the trio's movements stirring a gust of wind in the narrow corridor.

A Guardian lunged from the shadows. This one was larger than the previous ones, with a twin-linked autocannon mounted on its right shoulder, biological tendons wrapped around the barrels, contracting and expanding with its breathing rhythm. It opened its mouth, but instead of a roar, it emitted a high-frequency electronic noise, like the dialing sound of an old modem.

Rat Eye suddenly froze. He covered his right eye and let out a stifled whimper. "It's talking," the boy's voice changed pitch, gaining a metallic echo. "It says... welcome home, brother."

Lin Yuan felt a sting from the Master-Slave Contract's neural link. Through the link, he perceived Rat Eye's vision splitting: his left eye saw the corridor and the monster in reality, but his right eye saw a different scene—a space composed of data streams, with a massive throne suspended in the center, upon which sat a blurry humanoid silhouette.

"Don't look at it," Lin Yuan commanded, drawing the STC Short Blade from his waist. With insufficient energy to launch long-range attacks, he could only engage in close combat. He calculated the distance and angle, rolling into the blind spot beneath the Guardian's belly just as it raised its autocannon.

The short blade pierced the gap in the biological carapace, and dark green blood gushed out, smelling of rotting meat and ozone. The Guardian thrashed wildly, its metallic spine slamming into the wall and leaving a dent. Lin Yuan didn't let go; instead, he used the momentum to leap up, slicing the short blade along the carapace's seam to reveal the pulsing artificial heart within.

Chen Duo's gun fired. A three-round burst accurately struck the heart. The Guardian collapsed in convulsions, and the electronic noise ceased abruptly.

"Two more on the left," Chen Duo said, his reload movement fluid and seamless. "Also, my boss just issued a new order."

Lin Yuan pulled out the short blade and wiped the blood on the Guardian's fur. "The sweep has been moved up?"

"By two hours." Chen Duo's mechanical eye turned to Lin Yuan. "The artillery coverage includes this area. The Anvil King doesn't care if I'm inside."

Rat Eye stood up against the wall, his small frame looking even more frail against the backdrop of the glowing patterns. "We're trapped. The terminal room is ahead, and the sweep fire is behind. Throne-02 is waiting for us to walk into its trap."

Lin Yuan looked toward the end of the corridor. There stood a heavy airtight door etched with a faded warning sign: Area B Core, Authorization Level Alpha. A faint blue light leaked through the gaps of the door, accompanied by a rhythmic pulse like the heartbeat of some massive creature.

"It's behind the door," Rat Eye's voice trembled. "I can feel it. It's calling me inside. If I don't go in, it will burn my brain through my eyes."

Chen Duo suddenly laughed. It was a dry, metallic-sounding laugh. "So, are we going to our deaths, or are we waiting for the shells here?"

Lin Yuan didn't answer. He walked to the airtight door and pressed his palm against the identification panel. The Wanderer emitted a faint energy fluctuation, resonating with the access control system. Energy dropped to 1.9%, but the door unlocked.

"You have a choice," Lin Yuan said to Chen Duo, his voice calm. "Stay, and you'll die in the artillery fire. Come in, and you'll be marked by Throne-02. The Anvil King will never again trust an envoy contaminated by an Observer."

Chen Duo's mechanical eye flickered a few times. He reached out to press the beacon behind his ear, applying pressure until a slight cracking sound was heard. He tossed the damaged beacon to the ground and crushed it with his boot. "I never work for the dead," he said. "Besides, I want to see what exactly this Throne-02 is—the thing that keeps the Anvil King awake at night."

The airtight door slowly opened.

The space behind the door was vast beyond imagination. It was a cylindrical vertical shaft, over fifty meters in diameter and of unmeasurable height. The surrounding walls were covered in a dense network of pipes and cables, like veins and nerves. In the center of the shaft hung a massive sphere composed of countless hexagonal metal plates, each etched with STC code.

Below the sphere stood twelve Hybrid Guardians. They were arranged in a circle, guarding the platform directly beneath the sphere. On the platform was a simple metal chair, and upon it sat a humanoid silhouette enveloped in a blue holographic projection, its face obscured.

But Lin Yuan noticed something on the chair's armrest. A dog tag, reflecting cold light in the blue glow. Serial number: SWQ-001.

"Welcome, LY-000." A voice echoed through the shaft. It wasn't transmitted through the air but rang directly in everyone's minds, with a tone similar to the Wanderer's system prompts, yet older and colder. "Or rather, welcome back, my successor."

Rat Eye collapsed to his knees, the patterns on his right arm spreading wildly and crawling up his neck. Blood began to seep from his left eye as well. "It's extracting my signal," the boy said with difficulty. "The countdown... is accelerating."

Lin Yuan raised his short blade, pointing it at the projection beneath the sphere. "Throne-02. You've observed enough."

"Observed?" The voice carried a flicker of something like humor. "I have been waiting. Waiting for you to make a choice, just as I once waited for Su Wanqing."

Chen Duo's body stiffened. His mechanical eye stared fixedly at the dog tag.

The humanoid figure in the projection moved. It raised its hand, and the twelve Guardians simultaneously lifted their heads, the red light in their eyes brightening. At the same time, hidden turrets flipped out from the walls of the shaft, their muzzles aiming at the intruders.

"You have two options," Throne-02's voice became mechanized, carrying the cadence of a Warhammer-style declaration of war. "Join the network and become part of the system. Or, physical purging. Lin Yuan, you have inherited the Gene Lock of the LY Series; you are qualified to interface. As for that defective product..."

It pointed at Rat Eye.

"He is an early experimental subject of mine; his signal receiver has matured. I can reclaim him, or you can watch him completely collapse. The countdown remains... forty-two hours, twenty-three seconds."

Lin Yuan felt the Wanderer's interface vibrate violently. System prompts flashed frantically: [Homologous signal detected] [Heterogeneous protocol detected] [Warning: High-level permission suppression].

"You are the first LY," Lin Yuan said; it wasn't a question. "Su Wanqing's previous experimental subject."

The projection let out a low laugh. "I once was. Now, I am the network itself. And you, Lin Yuan, the system in your hands is a derivative of mine—my echo. Every time you use the STC, you are drawing closer to me."

The Guardians stepped forward, the sound of metal feet hitting the floor echoing in the shaft like a countdown. The hum of the turrets charging resonated as blue light condensed at their muzzles.

Chen Duo raised his gun, but Lin Yuan pressed down on his wrist. Energy was at 1.8%, not enough to sustain a battle. Meanwhile, Rat Eye had slumped to the ground, the patterns under his skin beginning to emit a blinding red light, like a fuse about to burn out.

"Choose," Throne-02's voice pressed in from all sides. "Join, or die. And you, Chen Duo, the traitor to the Anvil King, you don't even have the right to choose."

The red warning lights at the top of the shaft suddenly all lit up, and a piercing alarm tore through the air. The defense system was activated. The airtight door slammed shut behind them, locking tight.

Lin Yuan stood at the edge of the platform. Below him was a bottomless darkness; before him were the suspended sphere and the sword-wielding projection; behind him was the locked door and the nearly fully charged turrets. He gripped the short blade, the energy readout flashing at the edge of his vision, and Rat Eye's breathing grew faint in the neural link.

Throne-02's projection stood up from the chair and reached out a hand.

"Tell me," the voice said with absolute informational advantage, like an oracle, "how do you plan to choose?"

Lin Yuan didn't answer. He looked at Rat Eye, then at Chen Duo, and finally at the SWQ-001 dog tag. The countdown was decreasing, the turrets were charging, and Throne-02's hand hung in the air, waiting for his response.