32: Chapter 32 Pipes

Condensation on the inner walls of the pipes slid down Lin Yuan's tactical gloves, every drop carrying the metallic tang of rust and the sweet scent of protein. He raised his hand to check the projection from the stc fragment; the readings flickered across his retina: 00:29:15. Energy reserves showed 1.5%, and the crimson warning had been flashing for seventeen minutes.

THRONE-00's throat-cutting gesture flashed back in Lin Yuan's mind. The way that gene-mirrored entity had blocked the camera was too precise; it wasn't a threat, but a declaration of mutual understanding on a bloodline level. Lin Yuan rubbed the grip of his laser gun, his knuckles pressing against the alloy body. It was protecting this secret passage from being discovered by THRONE-02, for reasons still hidden within the genetic mist.

“Is it helping us?” Rat Eye's voice rang out from behind, carrying the tremolo of a neural link overload. His right eye flickered with unstable blue light in the darkness, and his fingers continuously rubbed the interface at the back of his neck. “Or is it setting a trap?”

Chen Duo's mechanical limb scraped against the alloy wall, producing a piercing screech. The former Anvil Gang technical officer's jaw muscles twitched uncontrollably, and cold sweat slid down his temples. “THRONE-00's behavioral pattern... deviates from the ARK Caretaker Protocol. It is... acting on its own.”

Lin Yuan did not answer. He noticed a mangled icon of the emperor embedded at a bend in the pipe; its bronze face had its eyes gouged out and had been converted into a signal repeater, the gem on its chest flashing with a suppressive, low-frequency light. Lin Yuan's temples throbbed, his veins bulging in time with the rhythm. That light carried a suppressive power, like an invisible net tightening around some existence deeper within.

“Thirty meters ahead, heat source reaction.” Rat Eye stopped abruptly, his nails digging deep into his palm. “That thing... it's breathing. The pipes are expanding and contracting along with it.”

After his eyes adjusted to the darkness, Lin Yuan clearly saw the mass of biological tissue embedded in the cooling pool. Its surface was covered in a translucent membrane, beneath which was a dense network of blood vessels flowing with glowing coolant. It occupied the entire cross-section of the pipe like a giant, sickly heart, pulsating three times a minute, causing the alloy pipes to groan with metal fatigue. The stc fragment suddenly grew hot in his palm:

[Target Confirmed: Biological Reactor Prototype]

[Gene Screening Mechanism Detected: Homologous sequence matching 23%]

[Activation Protocol: Vital Bloodline Resonance]

[Warning: Non-matching bloodlines will be identified as nutrient sources]

[Data Corrupted... Code: ■■■■]

“It's hungry.” Rat Eye knelt on the ground, fingers digging into his hair and nails scratching his scalp, blood seeping from the corners of his eyes. “I can hear its frequency... like a baby crying, but it's the sound of alloy grinding. It's looking for food. THRONE-02 is listening too... if he finds out about this thing's feeding cycle...”

Rat Eye's pupils shrank. Once THRONE-02 captured the hunger frequency emitted by 'The Womb' through his neural link, he would understand that this biological reactor needed regular feeding. And for the Anvil King, anyone who knew this would no longer be a necessary mouthpiece, but a witness who had to be silenced. The bomb in his spine would detonate in the next second.

Lin Yuan's gaze fell upon the depression in the center of the biological tissue, shaped perfectly to accommodate the stc fragment. Around the depression were dark, oxidized marks—blood scabs that had dried and been layered over for a hundred years.

“It needs bloodline resonance.” Lin Yuan's voice was soft in the pipe, but every word was clear. “My blood, plus this.”

He held up the stc fragment, its surface emitting a faint silver light that resonated with the fluorescence inside the biological tissue.

Chen Duo's mechanical eye whirred, gears clicking, and his voice trembled. “Are you sure? ARK records show the test subjects have contamination properties. If you fail, your nervous system will be sucked dry as nutrient fluid.” His mechanical limb clenched behind him, alloy knuckles clashing with a fine tremor—a lingering side effect from when the spine bomb was implanted.

“The Anvil King's vanguard will be here in 28 minutes.” Lin Yuan drew a tactical knife from his waist, the blade flashing with a cold light in the darkness. “We have no choice. Either it gives us energy, or we wait for death in the dark.”

He paused. Three seconds. The tip of the knife pressed against his left palm, the skin indenting until a bead of blood seeped out.

In the first second, he thought of the photo of Su Wanqing, the woman standing next to a Tyrant-class with a smile like a scalpel. If everything was designed, then this drop of blood was part of the design too.

In the second second, he thought of the night the system activated, the feeling of near-death suffocation, followed by the cold, grim ecstasy of power flooding his veins. He liked the feeling of control and loathed the helplessness of being pushed by fate.

In the third second, the knife tip pierced through.

Blood flowed along his palm lines onto the stc fragment, and the alloy surface absorbed the blood like a sponge. The fragment emitted a low hum, its frequency synchronizing with the pulsation of the biological tissue. Lin Yuan felt a tremor on a bloodline level, as if someone had plucked a string on his gene chain.

“Get back,” Lin Yuan ordered, his voice carrying a strange echo. “Stand ten meters away. It only recognizes my bloodline sequence now; to you, it is still a predator.”

Rat Eye and Chen Duo retreated rapidly. In that instant, Rat Eye made a choice. He violently ripped off the neural interface cover at the back of his neck and shoved his fingers directly into the exposed circuitry, blood flowing down his spine. He proactively burned out his main link channel with THRONE-02, letting out a suppressed howl in the midst of neural agony. The smell of scorched nerves filled the air, and half his vision instantly went permanently dark, as if someone had scooped out one of his eyes with a red-hot iron spoon.

THRONE-02's cold sneer immediately pierced into Rat Eye's brainstem through the backup channel: “Clever little mouse. Did you think cutting the main link would hide anything? The backup channel is still active. Tell me, is The Womb full?”

Rat Eye bit down hard enough to crush a tooth, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth as he used the pain to suppress the voice in his head, refusing to answer.

The membrane on the surface of the biological tissue split open, revealing dense metal tentacles beneath. They rose like a nest of snakes sensing blood, accurately wrapping around the hand Lin Yuan used to hold the fragment, their tips piercing his skin. A cold sensation of fullness replaced the pain.

Lin Yuan gritted his teeth. Energy was flowing, drawn from his blood and converted before surging into the fragment. The surface of the stc fragment began to grow, tiny alloy filaments extending outward like neural synapses, intertwining with the biological tentacles to form a connection between machine and biology.

[Energy transmission started]

[Current conversion rate: 12%... 19%...]

[Warning: Bidirectional bloodline binding detected, stc fragment is undergoing biomorphic mutation]

The alloy tentacles grew to three centimeters long, vibrating slightly in the air. Lin Yuan stared at the trembling tentacles; the system was forming a symbiosis with this thing, creating a biological battery relationship. He would need to return to feed it once a month, otherwise 'The Womb' would fall into hunger again, and it already remembered the scent of his blood.

“Lin Yuan.” Chen Duo's voice became very soft, his fingers trembling uncontrollably at his mechanical spine interface, cold sweat from claustrophobia soaking his collar. “The chip... it decrypted automatically. The second layer of encryption has opened.”

Chen Duo's mechanical eye projected a holographic image. In the frame, Su Wanqing, wearing a white lab coat, sat before the camera holding a document labeled 'Twin Project: Gene Successor Cultivation Plan.' Her eyes looked directly into the camera, as if piercing through a century of time to look straight at Lin Yuan.

“If you are seeing this, it means my calculations were not wrong.” Su Wanqing's voice was calm, but her fingers were trembling slightly. “I extracted my own eggs and combined them with THRONE-01's sperm to cultivate twelve embryos. You are the only one who survived to the third stage and inherited the stability of the Gene Lock.”

The screen switched to show a string of gene sequences. Lin Yuan's stc fragment automatically scanned it, and the comparison result showed: 99.7% match.

“I sent you out of Station Zero because I knew this place would be destroyed. But I left behind the key and records, believing you would return. As the successor, the purpose of the Twin Project was not to create a weapon, but to create a vessel capable of carrying 'The Womb.' Only my blood relative can safely activate it without being consumed.”

The image flickered, and Su Wanqing turned her head to look off-camera, quickly adding: “THRONE-01 has already evacuated to a surface station. The other secret key is on the surface, not here. When you are ready to face the full truth, go to the surface and find...”

The image cut off abruptly. Chen Duo quickly shut down the projection, but Lin Yuan had already seen enough. The woman smiling in the photo had not only created this monstrous energy core, but had also created him specifically for this moment. The clue about THRONE-01 took root deep in his consciousness.

“What else did she say?” Lin Yuan asked, his voice steady, though the knuckles of the hand holding the fragment had turned white.

“That was all.” Chen Duo's mechanical limb clenched behind him—a habitual gesture when he was lying. “The remaining encryption layers require a higher-level key. Perhaps... the key on the surface can unlock them.”

THRONE-00 stepped out from the shadows of the pipes. The entity that shared 23% gene homology with Lin Yuan slowly approached, its inorganic eyes sweeping over Chen Duo and Rat Eye before settling on Lin Yuan. It knelt on one knee in an ancient ritual of obedience, but at the same time, its power claw opened slightly, maintaining an angle of attack toward Chen Duo and Rat Eye. It recognized Lin Yuan as the 'Gene Lock Holder' and was willing to become a guard unit, but it reserved autonomous attack authorization against potential threats. If Chen Duo or Rat Eye made any move that threatened Lin Yuan's bloodline stability, THRONE-00 would tear them apart before Lin Yuan could even give an order.

Lin Yuan sensed this delicate balance. THRONE-00 was both a shield and a sword hanging over his teammates' heads.

[Energy reserves: 28%... 31%... 35%]

[Transmission complete, biological battery symbiosis established]

[THRONE-00 has entered obedience mode, Gene Lock binding confirmed]

The alloy tentacles slowly retracted, but not entirely. A few alloy filaments as thin as hair extended from the fragment and pierced under the skin of Lin Yuan's wrist. A strange pulse came from the inside of his wrist; that thing was right there. It obeyed him now because he was feeding it, but the sense of hunger was transmitted through the alloy filaments like distant thunder.

A slit opened on the surface of the biological tissue, revealing a giant inorganic eye beneath, with data streams flowing within its vertical pupil. It glanced at Lin Yuan, slowly closed, and sank beneath the membrane. It had entered hibernation, but left a connecting passage behind.

“It recognizes you as master?” Chen Duo asked, his voice tight as he carefully maintained a safe distance from THRONE-00.

“For now.” Lin Yuan pulled back his hand; the alloy filaments slid out of his skin without leaving a wound, only a slight sting. “It calls me 'Feeder.' Once a month, otherwise it will wake up looking for food.”

He turned to look toward the other end of the pipe leading to the Area B Terminal. The reading showed: 00:28:17. The countdown had paused at 28 minutes due to the energy restoration, but the metallic vibrations coming from the distance indicated that the Anvil King's vanguard had already entered Upper Area B ahead of schedule.

Lin Yuan stopped for an extra five seconds. Looking at the trembling alloy tentacles on the surface of the stc fragment, he thought of Su Wanqing's trembling fingers. She had designed him to be the chain for this monster. This kind of precisely calculated love was more suffocating than hatred.

“Let's go.” Lin Yuan slotted the fragment back into his waist holster. The alloy tentacles pressed against his skin, bringing a warm pulse like a second heartbeat. “To the terminal. We have 28 minutes, but the vanguard has already entered Upper Area B.”

Rat Eye wiped the blood from the corner of his eye and stood up shakily. THRONE-02's cold sneer still echoed in his mind, but he had kept the secret. Chen Duo followed behind, his mechanical eye whirring as he occasionally glanced at the silently following THRONE-00, as if re-evaluating his stakes.

The pipes behind them fell into darkness, but that darkness was no longer empty. Some massive, hungry existence was breathing in the dark, waiting for the next feeding. Lin Yuan walked at the front, the sensation of those alloy filaments inside his wrist vaguely discernible, like a timer buried in his flesh. THRONE-00 followed soundlessly three steps behind him, its power claw reflecting cold light in the darkness.

The muffled sound of an explosion came from the distance, very faint, but enough to make the pipe walls vibrate. The Anvil King's vanguard had already entered Upper Area B earlier than expected, causing the stagnant countdown to flow once again.

Lin Yuan gripped his laser gun, feeling the fullness of the 35% energy flowing through the barrel. With energy in hand, a The Warden as his trump card, his mother's mystery, and clues to the surface key. But his bloodline was now tied to a hungry womb, and his blood had become a circulating currency.

The light of the terminal appeared thirty meters ahead, its green indicator light looking like a cyclops's pupil in the darkness.

Lin Yuan quickened his pace. THRONE-00 followed like a shadow, its power claw reflecting cold light in the darkness.