54: Chapter 54 The Twelve-Hour Scale of the Seeding Chamber

A metal shard was burning inside his pocket.

The heat penetrated three layers of coarse work clothes, searing into the skin at his waist. It wasn't a slow warmth; it was a relentless, bone-deep penetration with every passing minute.

Lin Yuan braced himself against the rusted ventilation duct wall on B-7, his fingertips registering vibrations in the same frequency as the metal shard.

THRONE-01's voiceprint scraped inside his skull: [Scan complete. B-7 level is an early ARK industrial maintenance zone, not marked on any standard maps. Vertical distance to the Core Zone: four hundred seventy-three meters. Horizontal offset unknown.]

"Unknown?"

[Structure distorted by blackstone force field. Survey protocols ineffective.] The system stuttered for half a second. [Warning. Metal shard temperature abnormal. Detecting low-frequency resonance homologous to THRONE-00. Recommend immediate establishment of a biological shielding field.]

Lin Yuan turned.

Chen Duo was curled in the corner of a maintenance conduit. The silver network had spread to his jaw, weaving intricate, circuit-board-like patterns across his neck. A faint golden light shone beneath his eyelids, like two small lamps slowly rotating within their sockets.

The most unsettling thing was his breathing. The rhythm of his chest's rise and fall was completely out of sync with Lin Yuan's heartbeat, creating a dual drumbeat of asynchronous pulses in the deathly silent passageway.

Two heartbeats.

Lin Yuan crouched down, his right hand hovering three centimeters above Chen Duo's chest. Two distinct pulses reached his fingertips. One was weak but regular. The other was deeper, heavier, like the distant operation of some massive machine, transmitted back into this gaunt body through a neural bridge.

That was the physiological signature of THRONE-00.

[Neural bridge depth at forty-one percent.] THRONE-01's voice suddenly flattened. [Chen Duo's consciousness is in a golden dormant state. Language centers are occupied by THRONE-00 memory streams. Communication attempts are not advised.]

Lin Yuan stared at a thin line of golden liquid seeping from the corner of Chen Duo's eye. It wasn't a tear. It was a mixture of liquid metal and tissue fluid, sliding down his cheek and hanging like a shimmering, bloody thread from his chin.

"He can sense Number Zero's location."

Lin Yuan stated it as a fact. This youth had an instinct to relinquish control in desperate situations to gain intelligence. That instinct was now flowing through the neural bridge like a hot copper wire, stabbing directly into Lin Yuan's perception.

[Confirmed. THRONE-00 and Number Zero exhibit genetic entanglement. Chen Duo, as a living STC extension, can receive the residual waves of this entanglement through his neural interface.] THRONE-01 displayed rare hesitation. [However, activating the metal shard's bidirectional resonance will expose our location. The Purge Main Force is reconstructing a search grid on the periphery of B-7. Estimated breakthrough in fifteen minutes.]

Lin Yuan retrieved the metal shard.

It glowed with a dull red light in the darkness, its surface STC codes writhing like maggots. It was a key, and also a tracker.

"Establish a forced military protocol," Lin Yuan's voice clashed like two steel plates. "I gain temporary tactical command. You receive a core protection commitment. Agree, and we begin the scan. Disagree, and I melt it now."

Silence lasted four seconds.

[Protocol established.] THRONE-01's voiceprint suddenly became ancient and heavy. [Synchronization rate reduced to seventy-one percent. Core protocol exposed: memory seal present. Decompressing... Decompression failure. Skipping.]

Lin Yuan pinched the edge of the metal shard, a needle-like sting piercing his skin. A bidirectional beacon—both key and trap. But he had no choice.

"Chen Duo," Lin Yuan called softly. "I'm activating it. Ninety seconds. If you can still hear me, give me a direction."

The youth's right hand slowly lifted, pointing towards a narrow fissure deep within the maintenance conduit. Fresh scratches marred the wall there—marks left by an STC cutting protocol, of the same origin as the weld marks on Gate 7.

Lin Yuan pressed the metal shard into the center of the fissure.

A hum detonated directly on his cerebral cortex. The shard's light shifted from dull red to blinding white, its temperature spiking instantly. The stench of scorched protein rose from his palm, but he didn't let go.

In that moment, the world split open.

Lin Yuan suddenly stood in a vast space. Not visually, but through a spatial perception directly implanted into his nerves. Boundless, viscous gold, thick as liquid metal, flooded his vision. It was a throne, forged from some unknown metal, its surface flowing with the same golden light as in Chen Duo's eyes.

THRONE-00's perspective.

Memory fragments flooded his consciousness. The Core Zone. The Sowing Pod. Number Zero stood before a colossal STC device a hundred times larger than a blackstone fragment. The device was operating, emitting a heartbeat-like pulse. Each pulse was accompanied by spatial distortion.

Twelve hours.

This number was branded directly onto his retinas. Twelve hours until sowing completion. The protocol of one alive, one dead for the twin containers must be fulfilled.

Lin Yuan tried to shift the perspective, but his body wouldn't obey. This was THRONE-00's memory; he could only watch. Number Zero turned. The face, identical to Chen Duo's, held no expression, only eyes that had turned completely gold. Number Zero raised a hand, holding another metal shard—a perfect quantum-entangled pair with the one in Lin Yuan's hand.

Resonance instantly peaked.

A sweet, metallic taste flooded Lin Yuan's throat. He spat a mouthful of blood onto the wall. The metal shard's temperature breached its critical point. The skin of his palm had fused to the metal surface, tearing away with a strip of flesh as he pulled it free. But the coordinates were already etched into his mind: Sowing Pod, Core Zone. Vertical depth: three hundred meters. Horizontal coordinates at a 7.5-degree angle from current position.

[Bidirectional link established!] THRONE-01's warning exploded. [THRONE-00 is conducting a reverse scan! Chen Duo experiencing a seven-second personality blank! The Purge Main Force has breached the B-7 perimeter defenses! Contact in thirteen minutes!]

Lin Yuan gritted his teeth, crushing one. The taste of blood cleared his dizziness. He looked at Chen Duo. The youth was convulsing violently, golden liquid seeping simultaneously from the corners of his eyes, nostrils, and ear canals. What had Chen Duo's body done in those seven seconds? An unfamiliar sensation came through the neural bridge, like someone planting sharp reefs in the shared river of memory.

"Barrier!" Lin Yuan roared, pressing his bloodied, mangled palm against Chen Duo's forehead. The silver network and golden light collided beneath his palm, emitting a blinding, welding-arc brilliance.

[Temporary biological barrier established. Duration unknown.] THRONE-01 reported with mechanical urgency. [Chen Duo's neural interface solidification countdown compressed to thirty-six hours. Dual heartbeat phenomenon intensifying. THRONE-00 attempting remote physiological control.]

An explosion sounded in the distance of the maintenance conduit. The hiss of plasma cutters burning through metal. The Purge Main Force was following the signal in, like sharks drawn to blood.

Lin Yuan dragged Chen Duo deeper. The youth's body was terrifyingly light, as if his bones were gradually being replaced by a lighter, yet tougher substance. His eyes were half-open, golden pupils diffused across the entire iris. His lips trembled, emitting intermittent, breathy sounds like binary code.

The conduit ended at a door sealed shut by blackstone welding. Lin Yuan inserted the bloodstained metal shard into the lock. The STC codes matched the keyhole perfectly. The door opened, revealing an industrial STC terminal inside.

The terminal was three times larger than the one in the Gate 7 chamber, its surface coated in thick dust, but a core indicator light still blinked at an extremely slow pace. Lin Yuan placed Chen Duo on a metal chair before the terminal. The moment the youth's head touched the chair back, the screen suddenly lit up.

[Identity Verification: Twin Container (Unstable State)]

[Access Level: Industrial-grade STC, Restricted Zone B-7]

[Available Fabrication Project: stormclaw Light Assault Vehicle (Damage: 60%, requires resources for repair)]

Lin Yuan's fingers flew across the control console. He had no resources, no time, but he had THRONE-01's temporary command authority and Chen Duo's permissions as a living key. The screen flashed with numerous technical schematics before finally settling on a wireframe diagram of a six-wheeled, tracked vehicle.

stormclaw. Classic Imperial Guard equipment. Can mount a heavy bolter or lascannon on top. Current status: engine damaged, suspension system inoperative, armor plating missing forty percent.

[Fabrication initiated. Estimated duration: eight minutes.] THRONE-01 reported. [Warning. Purge Main Force estimated to reach current position in eleven minutes. Vehicle repair requires additional resources. Current inventory: zero.]

Lin Yuan looked at Chen Duo. The youth's convulsions had stopped, but his breathing was even more bizarre.

Lin Yuan suddenly realized he could not only sense Chen Duo's presence, but also what Chen Duo was sensing. The neural data sharing was bidirectional. He could now feel the struggle between the two heartbeats within Chen Duo's body—one wanting to fall dormant, the other wanting to awaken and claim this vessel.

The metal shard in the door lock emitted a final, mournful whine, then shattered completely. The bidirectional beacon self-destructed after transmitting the coordinates. But the signal had been sent. The Purge Main Force was closing in. And Number Zero, in the Sowing Pod three hundred meters deep, had eleven hours and fifty-seven minutes left until final sowing completion.

Chen Duo's fingers suddenly clamped onto Lin Yuan's wrist with the force of a hydraulic press. The youth's lips parted, emitting a vague vibration of air. But the moment that vibration reached Lin Yuan's brain via the neural bridge, he understood its meaning.

"He is laughing."

A chill shot up Lin Yuan's spine. He looked at the terminal screen. Beside the stormclaw blueprint, a line of small text was flashing—information he had brought from THRONE-00's memory fragments, and also a warning transmitted by Chen Duo through the neural link.

[ARK is in reality the Emperor's laboratory. Its shelter function is a camouflage protocol. All entrants are experimental variables.]

The explosions were closer now, close enough to feel the walls tremble. Lin Yuan drew his lasgun, even though its power cell had drained to zero ten minutes prior. Chen Duo leaned back in the chair, golden pupils gazing at the ceiling where black mist was seeping from a ventilation shaft.

THRONE-00's remote control had not ceased. The metal shard was shattered, but the neural bridge remained. Chen Duo's chest rose and fell, the two heartbeats racing beneath his ribs—one growing weaker, the other growing stronger.

Lin Yuan raised the lasgun, aiming at the ventilation shaft. His other hand rested on the industrial terminal, feeling the vibrations of the stormclaw gradually taking shape within the fabrication chamber. Eight minutes. He needed to buy eight minutes between the Purge Main Force and THRONE-00's remote erosion.

And Chen Duo's thirty-six-hour countdown was ticking down to thirty-five hours and fifty-nine minutes.