36: Chapter 36 The Underground Sanctuary and the Memory Tax

The ozone scent from Chen Duo's body permeated the lead-lined tent.

He lay on a stretcher, blue-green fluorescence flowing beneath his skin like a flickering cold light. THRONE-00 knelt in the corner, its power claws drooping. The energy indicator sat at 1%, and its breathing light twitched once every thirty seconds, its glow dim.

Lin Yuan raised his right hand.

The alloy filaments had already crawled past his shoulder, weaving a fine mesh at his collarbone. A silver liquid seeped from the crack in his palm, crawling along the gaps between his fingers. Faint blue smoke rose from his tactical glove as it was etched with honeycomb-like holes. He stared at the liquid; a needle-like pulling sensation came from the skin of his palm, as if a gaze were looking out from within the liquid.

“Are you sure you want to go down?”

Rat Eye's voice came from behind, sounding like sandpaper rubbing against rusted metal.

“72 hours.” Lin Yuan fastened his glove, the silver liquid continuing to wriggle beneath the fabric. “THRONE-00 needs 15% to activate the EMP shield; only then will we have the chips to cross the Defense Line 08. The underground facility is the only energy node.”

“That thing is waiting for you.”

Rat Eye took two steps forward, his single eye reflecting the fluorescence from Chen Duo's body, his pupil shrinking to a pinprick.

“Your right hand, those filaments—they are at the same resonance frequency as the signals coming from underground. You are feeding yourself to an existence even more ancient than the Anvil King.”

Lin Yuan turned around.

Rat Eye's right hand was hidden behind his back, while his left was exposed to the light. His knuckles were white as he gripped a palm-sized notebook with a bio-leather cover and scorched edges.

That was a Recorder's item.

“What are you recording?”

“Recording when you started treating your teammates like batteries.” Rat Eye's single eye did not flinch. “Chen Duo is dying, and you're treating him like a power bank. THRONE-00 is dying, and you're turning yourself into a plug. Who's next? Me?”

The fluorescence on Chen Duo's body flashed violently.

The temperature monitor emitted a piercing beep as the numbers jumped to 40.2. His fingers twitched, his nails scraping against the edge of the stretcher with a tooth-aching sound, yet his eyes remained tightly shut.

Lin Yuan did not answer. He bent down and pulled out a tactical flashlight, its beam sweeping across the maintenance hatch half-covered by a lead plate on the floor.

Rat Eye stepped forward to block the hatch, his left hand grabbing Lin Yuan's right arm, his knuckles turning white from the force.

“Don't go down.” His voice was hoarse. “At least... at least cut those filaments first.”

Lin Yuan shrugged off his hand.

Rat Eye's fingers left several white marks on his arm, but he did not reach out again. He simply froze in place, his right hand drawing out from behind his back. A modified Electromagnetic Dagger trembled in his palm for three seconds before the tip drooped toward the ground.

Lin Yuan looked at him for three seconds, then nodded.

“Remember what you said.”

He moved the lead plate aside. A rusted ladder led downward, and darkness condensed at the opening, so heavy it was almost physical.

“Move.”

Rat Eye did not move. He suddenly looked up, his single eye staring intently at the alloy filaments spreading across Lin Yuan's right shoulder. He raised the dagger again, but the tip pointed toward the maintenance hatch instead of Lin Yuan.

“I'm coming with you.” Rat Eye's voice was very low. “If you sacrifice yourself to the thing underground, I will drag you back. Or, I will cut off your right hand before you are assimilated.”

Lin Yuan looked at him for another three seconds.

“Remember what you said.”

The ladder was slippery, covered in a layer of slimy fungal mat.

Descending to the third level, the air became damp and heavy, carrying the distinct sweet-metallic scent of cultivation fluid, like rotting honey mixed with rust. The flashlight beam cut through the darkness, illuminating glass pods on both sides of the corridor. Most were shattered, the residual liquid forming viscous streams on the floor. Pod labels remained; the etched metal plates were stamped with serial numbers: ARK-PROTO-00-A1 through A9.

Twisted silhouettes floated inside each pod. Human spines were riveted to metal supports, and infant skulls were embedded into circuit boards, looking like bio-mechanical wreckage crudely sewn together.

“This is a nursery.” Rat Eye's voice was low, his breath hitting the back of Lin Yuan's neck. “But those things in the pods... don't look like babies.”

At the end of the corridor was an intact airlock door.

The terminal beside the door was still running, its screen emitting a faint blue glow with a line of text jumping across it: Energy Reserve 0.3%, Biometric Lock Activated.

Lin Yuan stepped forward.

The crack in his right palm suddenly throbbed with sharp pain. Silver liquid gushed out uncontrollably, dripping onto the terminal's sensor area. The liquid did not slide off; it burrowed into the interface like a living thing.

The text on the screen distorted and reorganized into a blood-red prompt: STC-PRIME Interface Confirmed. Memory Tax Protocol Initiated. Force Intrusion?

“It's talking.” Rat Eye raised his Electromagnetic Dagger, the blade reflecting the red light. “Those words are drinking your blood.”

Lin Yuan had already pressed his palm against it.

Alloy filaments erupted from his sleeve, burrowing into the terminal's crevices like a swarm of silver centipedes.

A sharp pain burned up his nerves. It wasn't the pain of a wound, but the acute agony of something rummaging through his mind, tearing at his neurons. He saw Su Wanqing's face; it was blurring and fading. Her eyes, her nose, the curve of her lips—all melted into a gray mist.

The terminal screen burst with a blinding white light.

An audio clip played automatically, Su Wanqing's voice carrying static noise: “If you are hearing this message, it means you have triggered STC-PRIME's deep protocol. Do not trust Number 08, Lin Yuan. He is waiting for you in the Sanctuary. It's not a rescue, it's...”

The audio cut off abruptly.

Lin Yuan knelt on one knee, cold sweat soaking his back. He remembered the name Su Wanqing and their relationship, but when he tried to reconstruct her face in his mind, there was only a blank void. A silhouette, a label—no features, no expression, like a humanoid cutout with the photo torn away.

“What did you do?” Rat Eye grabbed his shoulder, his fingers sinking into the muscle. “You look like a dead man.”

Lin Yuan looked at the terminal screen.

The energy readings were climbing: 3%... 7%... 12%. The silver liquid in his right palm had dried up, leaving behind a burn-like scar.

The airlock door slowly opened.

Behind the door was a cultivation pod ten times larger than the previous ones. A faded label was stuck to the pod: ARK-PROTO-00 and STC-PRIME Fusion Experiment. Main Pod.

There was no liquid inside the pod, only a cocoon composed of alloy filaments. It suspended in the darkness, pulsating slowly like the heart of a sleeping behemoth.

Lin Yuan's right hand rose of its own accord, pointing toward the cocoon.

Resonance was established instantly. No language, only fragments of emotion flooded his mind: hunger, an endless hunger; loneliness, long years abandoned in the dark; and a warning, a deep fear of an entity marked as '08'.

“It's looking at you.” Rat Eye took a step back, his Electromagnetic Dagger emitting a charging hum. “It's looking at you through your hand!”

A crack opened on the surface of the cocoon. There were no eyes, but the hair on the back of Lin Yuan's neck stood up, and his skin broke into goosebumps. The thing was on the boundary between sleep and wakefulness, and the stc fragment on his right hand was the key to waking it, as well as the food to feed it.

The energy reading on the terminal screen stopped at 15%, but the numbers turned a dark red, like dried blood.

Lin Yuan forcibly cut the link, the alloy filaments retracting from his palm and leaving behind dense blood spots. He turned and ran out, with Rat Eye following close behind. The cultivation pod behind them emitted a low hum, sounding like a sigh, or perhaps a laugh.

When they returned to the tent, Chen Duo was no longer on the stretcher.

Chen Duo was crawling on the ground.

His joints were twisted at impossible angles, as if pulled by invisible threads, wriggling toward the maintenance hatch. His bio-fluorescence was brighter than ever, illuminating the brand on his back: 07.

It was an original serial number showing through his skin, using the same font as the labels on the underground cultivation pods.

“Sample 07 Homing Protocol Activated.” THRONE-00 suddenly emitted a mechanical voice. Its energy indicator flickered and restored to 15%, but the light was a dark red. “Detected ARK-PROTO-00 contamination signatures. Quarantine recommended.”

Lin Yuan rushed over to hold Chen Duo down.

The latter's body was burning hot, his muscles twitching irregularly beneath his skin, his eyes still tightly closed.

“You see now.”

Rat Eye stood at the tent entrance, his notebook already open and filled with dense writing.

“For 15% energy, you sold yourself to that thing. Now Chen Duo is on his way there too. You can't save him, just like you can't save yourself.”

Lin Yuan dragged Chen Duo back to the stretcher and secured him with restraint straps. His right hand was shaking—a tiny, uncontrollable tremor. He tried to recall his mother's appearance, but there was only a blank void. A name, a relationship, but no face.

“Show me your records.”

Rat Eye hesitated for two seconds before tossing the notebook over. The pages were full of observations: time, location, Lin Yuan's behavior, the degree of his right hand's mutation, and mental state assessments. The last page read: Hour 36, the leader is beginning to show self-destructive tendencies; activation of alternative plan recommended.

“What do you plan to do?” Lin Yuan closed the notebook. “Kill me?”

“I thought about it once.” Rat Eye's voice was very low. “Back during the Purification Protocol, when you killed 47 people to break through. I thought then that you'd eventually use us all as fuel. But now,” he pointed toward the ground, “that thing is more dangerous than all of us. I'm going to keep recording—until you completely become a part of it, or until you prove me wrong.”

Lin Yuan handed the notebook back to him. “Keep recording. But don't get in my way.”

He walked over to THRONE-00 and plugged the newly acquired energy interface into the mecha's charging slot.

The mecha's joints made a metallic grinding sound, its power claws slowly rising, and a dark red light lit up in its eyes. 15%—unstable and carrying underground contamination, but enough to initiate a short-range EMP, enough to tear through the Defense Line 08.

Chen Duo let out a groan on the stretcher, his body beginning to twist toward the maintenance hatch again.

Lin Yuan pressed down on his chest, feeling the battery-like metabolism beneath the skin accelerating like an overloaded engine.

He looked up at the lead plates on the tent ceiling.

There, in the blank space of his memory, he should have been able to see his mother's face. But he could only see a blurred halo, like a forgotten dream.

The scar in his right palm throbbed with pain. He knew that was only the first installment of the memory tax. That existence underground was still waiting, still hungry, and he had already opened the door leading to it.

THRONE-00 stood up, its power claws scraping deep gouges into the ground. The energy indicator flashed a dark red 15%, the light jumping unsteadily.

Lin Yuan picked up his gear bag without sparing another glance at the maintenance hatch.

But he knew that from now on, with every breath and every heartbeat, something in the darkness would be resonating with him.

And he could no longer remember what his mother looked like.