31: Chapter 31 Genetic Contract Deep Within the Terminal

Lin Yuan stared at the scarlet digits jumping on the terminal screen.

Thirty-two minutes.

The armored tracks of the Anvil King's vanguard were crushing the concrete on the upper levels of the shaft. The preheating signal of thermal melter bombs burst through the communication frequency every thirty seconds, like the pulse of some giant beast. The power indicator bar was stuck at the 1.5% mark, and a red warning box repeatedly flashed: [Core Cooling System Offline].

Chen Duo lay prone on the console, the spinal bomb interface at the back of his neck being scanned by a blue-white light beam. That was the terminal's purity detection protocol; ARK modified bodies were flagged as sources of contamination. Every time the beam flickered, Chen Duo's right leg would twitch, and the smell of scorched protein rose from his combat trousers.

"The lower limb nerves are carbonizing." Chen Duo's voice squeezed out from between his teeth as his fingers clawed white marks onto the surface of the console. "Three more minutes and this leg is done for."

Lin Yuan didn't look back. His left hand pressed against the stc fragment, while his right hand hovered over the terminal's biometric lock. The cold light of the iris scanner cast a grid-like shadow into his pupils as the system's voice mechanically repeated: [Genetic Match Detection in progress...].

The sound of metal grinding came from the shadows of the corridor.

THRONE-00 leaned against the doorframe, its arm covered in Biological Armor hanging at its side. It didn't enter the room, but Lin Yuan could feel its gaze—not a human stare, but the steady gaze of a predator assessing the position of its prey's neck. The thing tilted its head, and the ARK runes in its eyes transitioned from scarlet to amber.

Rat Eye suddenly covered his mouth and nose as dark red blood seeped through his fingers.

"He... He's rushing us." Rat Eye's voice carried an electronic reverb; THRONE-02 was speaking directly into his mind via the neural link. "He says to hand over control of the chip, or else..."

The boy's knees slammed into the floor, veins bulging at his temples. The overload punishment from THRONE-02 felt like a red-hot wire being poked into his temporal lobe. Lin Yuan caught a glimpse of Rat Eye's pupils dilating, a sign that the neural load had breached the threshold.

"Refuse," Lin Yuan said to the air, both as a response to THRONE-02 and for Chen Duo's benefit. "Exchanging chip control won't save our lives; it will only turn us into puppets."

The terminal emitted a piercing alarm. The purity detection entered its final stage, and the skin at Chen Duo's spine began to burn hot. The ark chip and bomb complex was identified as a high-risk contamination source. A countdown ticked on the screen: [Purification Program Initiated: 00:47].

Chen Duo suddenly laughed—the final cold sneer of a gambler before losing everything.

"Sever the link." He pulled open his collar, revealing the complex neural interface at the back of his neck. "Disconnect the physical link between the bomb and the nervous system, and I'll pass the detection. The price is..."

"The price is that you won't be able to detonate it anymore." Lin Yuan finished his sentence, his fingers rubbing the stc fragment. The surface temperature of the fragment was rising, responding to the energy field emitted by the terminal. "You'll lose your leverage for mutual destruction and be completely tied to my ship."

"Trading ten minutes of mobility for lifelong paralysis—I can do that math." Chen Duo's forehead pressed against the cold metal surface, sweat dripping into his eyes. "But I didn't expect you to choose the difficult path of salvation. The efficient way would be to throw me out as bait while you take the chance to start the terminal."

Lin Yuan's fingers stopped one centimeter above the stc fragment. The fiber optic network inside the fragment squirmed like a living thing, reflecting the skeletal outline of his palm.

"Efficient doesn't mean optimal." He pulled off his tactical glove, revealing the scar on his palm that shared the same origin as THRONE-00. "Especially when the bait can decode sixteen layers of quantum-encrypted data."

[Genetic Match: 23%]

A string of golden code suddenly burst onto the terminal screen. The cold light of the iris scanner turned a warm yellow, and the biometric lock emitted a soft click. A small line of text flashed across Lin Yuan's retina: [Twin Protocol Verification Passed. Authority Level: Prototype].

In the corridor, THRONE-00 stood up straight. It took a step forward, the sound of its metal boots on the floor causing Rat Eye's spasms to pause for a moment. The thing didn't look at Lin Yuan; instead, it stared at the genetic map pulsing on the terminal screen. Two helical structures intertwined in the void, one labeled THRONE-00 and the other labeled Lin Yuan, with their similarities connected by highlighted red lines.

THRONE-00 raised its hand and pressed it against the gap in the armor on its chest. A dull thumping sound came from there, like a second heart resonating.

Lin Yuan seized the opportunity to forcibly insert the stc fragment into the terminal's physical interface. The moment the fragment touched the metal, silver-white energy patterns spread along the console like vines entining the entire terminal system. The STC's isolation field expanded within 0.3 seconds, forming a translucent energy membrane that enveloped Chen Duo.

The beam of the purity detection hit the isolation field and shattered into blue sparks.

Chen Duo let out a muffled groan as blue smoke rose from the interface at the back of his neck. The indicator light on the spinal bomb changed from green to a dangerous orange-red, entering countdown mode. Lin Yuan caught sight of a small line of text appearing on the bomb's casing: [Self-Destruct Protocol Activated: 71:59:23].

Seventy-two hours.

Chen Duo slumped to the floor, his face deathly pale, but his right leg had stopped twitching. He touched the back of his neck and found that the neural link had been physically severed; the bomb had become a dud embedded in his spine.

"You've turned me into a time bomb," Chen Duo said with a bitter smile, his fingers trembling as he buttoned his collar. "And a counting-down one at that."

"It's better than being burned to ash immediately." Lin Yuan stared at the newly unlocked interface on the terminal screen; a deep map of Sector B was unfolding. A 3D model of the cooling pipes rotated, marking three flashing blue dots—unrecorded energy nodes. But deep within the pipes, there was another set of signals—biological signals—displaying brainwave characteristics of a dormant state.

THRONE-00 had already walked to the console by now. It remained silent, but its movements had changed; it was no longer in a predator's stance but possessed the precision of a technical executor. It extended its arm covered in Biological Armor and held it in front of Lin Yuan, palm upward.

A request for a genetic link.

Lin Yuan knew what this meant. THRONE-00 needed his complete genetic map to replace THRONE-02 as the system's stability anchor. The price was that all the data within the ark chip, including his mother Su Wanqing's experimental records, would be laid bare to this silent hunter.

"We have no choice," Lin Yuan whispered, as if convincing himself. He pressed his palm against the surface of THRONE-00's armor.

A cold sensation. Then, a sharp pain.

Genetic resonance erupted at the point of contact. Lin Yuan's vision was flooded with a golden stream of data. He saw memory fragments of THRONE-00—not complete images, but emotional residues: a white laboratory, frost on a cryo-chamber, the silhouette of a woman standing behind glass. Her hairstyle was very similar to Su Wanqing's, but her face was blurred. THRONE-00's body stiffened for a moment, the ARK runes flashing violently as hunting instincts and protocols clashed within it.

The energy indicator bar on the terminal screen jumped slightly, rising from 1.5% to 1.7%. The blueprint fragments for the energy supply protocol finished downloading, but Lin Yuan noticed that the biological signals in the cooling pipes fluctuated during the genetic resonance; something sleeping had blinked its eyes.

THRONE-00 suddenly withdrew its hand, its movement as fast as an electric shock. It turned and walked toward a corner of the room where a dust-covered surveillance camera was located. The Prototype raised its arm, and the Biological Armor deformed and expanded, wrapping around the camera like petals, completely blocking its field of view.

It was helping Lin Yuan evade THRONE-02's surveillance.

Rat Eye wiped the blood from his face, looking at the scene in a daze. Chen Duo used the console to pull himself up, staring at the biological signal deep in the cooling pipes on the screen, his Adam's apple bobbing.

"What is that?" Chen Duo asked.

Lin Yuan didn't answer. He looked at the countdown ticking again in the bottom right corner of the terminal: [Estimated Contact Time for Anvil King's vanguard: 00:29:17].

Twenty-nine minutes.

THRONE-00 stood next to the obscured camera, its amber eyes glowing in the shadows. It raised its hand, pointing toward the cooling pipes, then pointed at Lin Yuan, and finally made a throat-slitting gesture.

It wasn't a threat; it was a warning.

Something was sleeping in the pipes, and they needed to pass through there to obtain the energy.

Lin Yuan gripped the stc fragment, feeling the residual warmth of the genetic resonance on its surface. Chen Duo's spinal bomb emitted a faint ticking sound under his skin, like a second heartbeat. Rat Eye wiped his nosebleed, his eyes darting between Lin Yuan and THRONE-00, trying to understand this fragile understanding based on bloodline.

The terminal screen suddenly flickered, and a new message popped up: [Detected Authority Record for Chief Researcher of the Twin Project: Su Wanqing. Last Login Time: One hundred and twenty years ago].

Lin Yuan stared at that name until the screen automatically went into sleep mode and turned black. In the reflection of the black screen, he saw THRONE-00 standing behind him; their silhouettes overlapped in the darkness like a pair of blood relatives who had never known each other.

The metal groan of pipes expanding and contracting came from deep in the corridor. Something turned over in the coolant, stirring the stagnant water that had been silent for a hundred years.