47: Chapter 47 The Birth of STC and the Cost of Corruption

The laser pistol's indicator light emitted a dying red glow.

Lin Yuan stared at the 12% reading. Thirty meters ahead in the corridor, three orange-yellow spots flickered on the thermal imager, their movement patterns carrying a predator's patience. The walls of Hive 08 were completely covered in flesh and blood tissue, with breath-like undulations coming from deep within the concrete, and the air was thick with the metallic sweetness of rust and fermented protein.

Chen Duo lay on the maintenance bed, an unnatural warmth emanating from the THRONE-01 core in his chest. Lin Yuan's right hand pressed against the biological processor, feeling the pulsations within; they were half a beat slower than Chen Duo's heartbeat, but more powerful.

"Corridor ahead, behind the drainage grate, heat signatures detected," Lin Yuan whispered.

THRONE-01 made no sound, but Chen Duo's left index finger suddenly twitched, his nail scraping harshly against the metal edge of the bed. Lin Yuan noticed the movement. A silver network had already spread to Chen Duo's jawline, looking like a fine spiderweb under the emergency lights, glowing faintly with an invisible rhythm.

The laser pistol's red light flickered more urgently. 11%.

Lin Yuan pulled a data chip from his waist pouch. A 72-hour cleansing deployment with three squads plus heavy mechs—there should be 66 hours remaining. But time was just an abstract number; what truly made the hair on the back of his neck stand up was the vibration coming from deep within the corridor—rhythmic, mechanical, and completely at odds with the biological pulse of the hive itself.

It was the sound of combat boots treading on metal grates, very light, but captured and amplified by the neural tissue of Hive 08, transmitted through the tremors in the walls.

The vanguard had reached the perimeter.

Lin Yuan crouched down, his right hand pressing onto the surface of the THRONE-01 core. Biological interfaces spread from the back of his hand to his wrist, silver threads making contact with the core's fleshy casing, sending a stinging yet tingling sensation through him. Without the auxiliary interface of THRONE-00, all interaction had to be completed through this primitive biological contact.

"Emergency STC protocol," Lin Yuan commanded in his consciousness. "Scan available resources."

The core's temperature rose, and Chen Duo's breathing quickened accordingly. Lin Yuan saw the silver network spread another inch from behind Chen Duo's ear toward his neck, like living roots searching for nutrients. The price had already begun to be paid, even before production was confirmed.

The scanning visuals were projected onto his retina as hallucinations: the biological tissue on the corridor walls was 23% calcium with sufficient organic polymers, which could be used to generate basic individual combat equipment. However, the energy deficit required bio-batteries to fill.

Lin Yuan looked at Chen Duo. On the young man's pale face, his eyeballs moved rapidly beneath his eyelids—a characteristic of deep REM sleep, yet also resembling a heavy load of data processing. Delta brainwaves, 07-08 frequency band—that was the proof of THRONE-01's symbiosis with Chen Duo, and currently their only energy reserve.

"Confirm the cost," Lin Yuan said, his voice raspy.

The core sent back a pulse of pleasure, like a starving person smelling food. Chen Duo's left hand suddenly lifted, suspended in mid-air, fingers splaying and clenching in spasms. Lin Yuan noticed this movement was directed toward the laser pistol, not himself.

A strange emotion was transmitted through the biological interface—not hunger or satisfaction, but a sharp, stinging possessiveness. When Lin Yuan focused on the weapon, Chen Duo's body reacted.

Jealousy.

"I know," Lin Yuan said to the empty air. "But he needs protection, and so do you."

Chen Duo's fingers slowly dropped, but the spread of the silver network accelerated, crawling from his neck toward his collarbone like silver snakes writhing under the skin. Lin Yuan felt the core begin to draw energy from Chen Duo's nervous system—subtle but continuous, like sucking marrow through a straw.

STC production began.

The heat sources suddenly accelerated; three spots became five, then seven. Hive 08 had sent out hounds—bio-engineered Mutants with exposed skeletons and reinforced muscle fibers, letting out wet wheezes in the darkness.

Lin Yuan stood up, aiming the laser pistol at the corridor's corner. Energy reading: 10%.

The first Mutant charged out. Lin Yuan fired. A red laser beam sliced through the darkness, burning a charred hole in the monster's chest cavity, but the creature only stumbled before continuing its pounce. These creatures had been modified by Hive 08; their pain nerves had been excised, leaving only killing commands.

A second shot hit its head, and the Mutant collapsed, but more dark shadows swarmed from behind the drainage grates. Lin Yuan took a step back, his back against the metal railing of the maintenance bed, feeling Chen Duo's body tremble slightly—a physiological reaction to the energy being drained.

"Two minutes left," Lin Yuan said.

A Mutant bypassed the firing angle and lunged at the side of the maintenance bed. Its target wasn't Lin Yuan, but Chen Duo's left leg. Its claws gleamed with a scalpel-like cold light—specially sharpened bone blades aimed precisely at the knee joint.

Chen Duo's left hand suddenly moved.

Lin Yuan hadn't issued a command, nor had the cerebral cortex sent out a motor signal. It was an instinct at the level of a spinal reflex, amplified a hundredfold by the THRONE-01 core. That hand rose with impossible speed, the silver network beneath the skin erupting in a brief flash of light, intercepting the Mutant's claws by brute force.

The bone blade cut into Chen Duo's palm, and blood surged out, but the silver network coiled around the Mutant's forelimb like a living thing, climbing backward along the bone blade. The Mutant let out a high-pitched shriek as Hive 08's control signals were disrupted; its body froze, and its muscles convulsed under the network's invasion.

Lin Yuan took the opportunity to blow its head apart with a single shot.

Blood dripped onto Chen Duo's face, mixing with the silver network to form an eerie pink hue. Chen Duo's eyes remained tightly shut, but there was an almost imperceptible twitch at the corner of his mouth—his facial muscles turned up slightly before quickly tightening. Lin Yuan stared at that expression, unable to determine if it represented pain or satisfaction.

The core's extraction continued. Chen Duo's breathing became shallow and fast, and the silver network had covered a large area of his chest, a full circle larger than it had been three minutes ago. Lin Yuan estimated it was about 5% of his body surface area; every use of the STC would accelerate this process.

The Mutants' attack strategy changed; they no longer tried to kill Lin Yuan directly, but specifically aimed for Chen Duo's limbs, avoiding his head. One Mutant took advantage of the gap while Lin Yuan was reloading and lunged from the side, its teeth snapping toward Chen Duo's right lower leg.

Lin Yuan smashed its jaw aside with the butt of his gun, but a second one immediately pounced from the ceiling, targeting Chen Duo's right arm. These creatures were ordered to take intact limbs but not the head; Hive 08 wanted THRONE-01's data, but it also wanted Chen Duo's body as a new Bio-battery.

"Get back!"

Lin Yuan pulled the trigger. The laser beam punched through the abdomen of the Mutant on the ceiling, spilling foul-smelling viscera. Energy reading: 7%.

The core temperature reached its peak. Lin Yuan's right hand was painfully hot, but he didn't let go. STC production entered its final stage; he could feel matter condensing inside the core, atoms reorganizing—the violent aesthetic of Warhammer 40K standard technology, compressing and fusing flesh and metal at the quantum level.

A memory flashback suddenly hit him.

Unlike the cognitive holes left by half-life forgetting, a foreign, frenzied image forced its way into his consciousness. Lin Yuan saw a fiery red sky, a massive cathedral burning, and giants in Power Armor slaughtering civilians, the roar of Bolters deafening. The fires of the Inquisition spread through the streets, heretics were nailed to crosses, and screams blended with hymns.

That was the violence of the Warhammer 40K Imperium, memories sealed within the STC template, flowing into his consciousness along with the production process.

Lin Yuan bit the tip of his tongue, the taste of blood bringing him back to reality. The last Mutant had half its head vaporized by a laser right in front of him, its fallen corpse still twitching.

The core emitted a low hum, like a sigh after a full meal.

STC production complete.

Lin Yuan looked at the maintenance bed. Beside Chen Duo's chest, a black metal cube was cooling, its surface marred by charred remains of vaporized biological tissue. It was a laser pistol Power Pack, standard-issue equipment for the pre-war Imperial Guard—an energy unit for a lascarbine, emitting a faint scent of ozone.

He picked up the Power Pack. A cold sensation met his fingers, forming a sharp contrast with the warmth of the core. The laser pistol's energy indicator jumped back to full the moment it touched the new battery—100%—the green light appearing blinding in the darkness.

Chen Duo's left hand slowly dropped. The wound on his palm was no longer bleeding, with the silver network forming a scab-like covering over it. His breathing stabilized somewhat, but the silver network had already spread to his shoulders, like a silver shroud being woven.

Lin Yuan swapped the Power Pack, and the laser pistol emitted a powerful charging hum.

The hive suddenly shook violently—not the writhing of biological tissue, but the shock of an external explosion. Dust cascaded from the corridor ceiling, dancing in the beam of the emergency light. The voice of Hive 08 came through the neural tissue in the walls, no longer mechanical and indifferent, but carrying an annoyed tremor.

"Drainage system... intruders... three units... light armaments..."

The vanguard of the Cleansing Force had breached the outer gates.

Lin Yuan looked at the THRONE-01 core. A line of data streamed across the silver surface—coordinates parsed from biological signals: North-Northwest, four hundred meters away, advancing toward the deeper layers of the hive. The 66 hours had now turned into three specific enemies and the main force behind them.

Chen Duo's eyes suddenly snapped open for a moment; his pupils were pure silver, with no whites and no focus. He looked at Lin Yuan, his lips moving without making a sound, but through the core link, Lin Yuan received a clear binary pulse:

hungry. protect. mine.

The relationship of energy symbiosis was established at this moment. The boundary between host and parasite blurred, and the relationship between Commander and tool collapsed, leaving only a mutually dependent symbiote. Lin Yuan needed the STC to produce equipment, THRONE-01 needed Chen Duo's body as a medium for existence, and Chen Duo's residual neural activity became the bridge connecting the two—as well as the currency for payment.

Lin Yuan tightened the straps on the maintenance bed. Chen Duo's body was frighteningly light, as if part of his mass had been drawn away along with the energy.

"Go," Lin Yuan said, pushing the maintenance bed toward the depths of the corridor, the laser pistol in his hand emitting a steady low hum.

The airlock door of the buffer chamber at the end of the corridor was just fifty meters ahead, a red warning light rotating on the door leaf. But Lin Yuan knew that by the time they reached it, the vanguard of the Cleansing Force would also reach the hive's intersection.

Chen Duo's left hand rose again, pointing forward, the silver network flickering at his fingertips as if guiding the way, or perhaps as a warning.

Lin Yuan quickened his pace. In the corridor behind them, the sound of combat boots on metal grates grew clearer, accompanied by the shriek of heavy weapons charging.