77: Chapter 77 Concept Decompilation and Welded Spheres

Ice crystals coated the metal ladder, a grease-like slickness seeping between his fingers. Lin Yuan's knuckles turned white as he climbed down with his younger brother on his back. His brother's breathing was shallow, the protective fluid emitting a sickly sweet scent of decay, and his right hand spasmed, his knuckles knocking against Lin Yuan's collarbone time and again. In the upper right corner of his vision, the phantom image of the White House hovered; the hands of the bronze clock were stopped at 3:17, its transparency at twenty-five percent, the second hand trembling, frozen.

[Spatial Stability: 73%.]

The system prompts were grey and blurry. Promethium reserves at 3.8%, a red warning flashing, and the STC entered minimum power mode.

The shaft extended thirty meters upward and disappeared into a grey-blue haze below. At the edge of the Phase Interference Zone, light distorted, giving the space a melting texture. Camilla's voice came through with static noise: [Six Reaper Light Units at the upper entrance are cutting through the gate. There is only one way down.]

[Copy that.]

Lin Yuan's voice was hoarse as he continued downward. His brother's body heat seeped through the combat suit, terrifyingly low. Spasms caused by neural dendritic damage were transmitted through the spine, and a sudden sharp pain shot through Lin Yuan's right pinky finger. His brother's neural pain was being mapped onto his own sensory cortex through phase interference; the one-way Neural Resonance was deepening.

Fifteen meters down, the air became so thick it felt substantial. The Silver-wire Network stung beneath his skin, emitting a faint glow. The metal of the shaft walls was wavy, as if it had been melted by high heat and then instantly frozen. The phantom image of the White House solidified, the outline of the bronze clock becoming clear as a silent hum vibrated within his cranial cavity.

[You've come.]

The voice rang out directly inside his skull, like a cold slug crawling across his cerebral cortex. Lin Yuan's finger slipped, his nails scraping harshly against the metal ladder. Ten meters below, the grey-blue haze parted to either side.

The Mainframe's Physical Core hovered in the center of the shaft. It was a sphere three meters in diameter, fused from human brain tissue and liquid metal, its grey matter surface writhing slightly. Hundreds of neural conduits extended from the sphere, plugging into the shaft walls. An eye, stitched together from a mechanical prosthetic eye and a biological cornea, opened, its vertical slit pupil locking onto his younger brother.

[Original Seed.] The voice was a pure frequency, vibrating until his teeth felt sour. [Recovery priority: Maximum. Carrier integrity: Non-essential.]

[Refused.]

Lin Yuan continued downward, stopping five meters from the core. He had entered the heart of the Phase Interference Zone, and the spatial stability readings were jumping wildly: 73%, 68%, 64%. The air was like crumpled cellophane, light refracting and distorting. His brother's trembling intensified, his right hand spasming as he grabbed Lin Yuan's collar with a force that nearly choked him. Lin Yuan felt a sharp pain from his right fingertips to his elbow and tasted blood; their senses were merging.

[Forced Recovery Protocol initiated.]

The Mainframe's voice was piercing, and warm blood gushed from Lin Yuan's nose. The silver coolant on the sphere's surface boiled, and the neural conduits tightened. The sound of heavy machinery operating came from above the shaft, the grinding of gears sounding like breaking bones as a shadow covered the opening.

Lin Yuan stared at the Mainframe's core, at the flowing coolant. Space was unstable; there was a phase conflict between the STC and the Shadow Backup System. If this conflict could tear reality apart, it could also tear through neural links.

His left hand reached for the STC interface at his waist. There was no Promethium, but he only needed guidance. He would let the two hostile energies collide head-on to create a vacuum window.

[Conceptual Decompilation.]

He relaxed his neural firewall, exposing the STC template to the phase interference field. The White House shuddered, the hands of the bronze clock jumping to 3:17:01, and its transparency surged to forty percent, nearly obscuring his vision. The Mainframe's eye fluctuated, flashing red.

[Heretic Carrier, you are—]

Lin Yuan leapt sideways, his left hand grabbing a neural conduit on the Mainframe's surface. The Silver-wire Network erupted from his palm, piercing the biological interface to forcibly establish a bridge. The energy flows of the STC and the Shadow Backup System clashed, and spatial stability plummeted: 73%, 45%, 12%, 3%. Reality shattered like a broken mirror, fragments of the White House spinning as the light in the Mainframe's mechanical eye extinguished and reignited within 0.7 seconds.

Arcs of electricity erupted where the silver wires met the shadow conduits, and phase energy was annihilated. Lin Yuan's nerves felt as if they were being torn apart, but he gripped the conduit with all his might. The Mainframe's core shuddered violently, the neural conduits dimming one by one; the light in that eye went out completely, and the coolant froze into grey ice.

[Link interrupted. Error.]

0.7 seconds.

Lin Yuan turned, dropped, and kicked off, carrying his brother through a three-meter gap beneath the core and plunging into the depths. Space distorted, and the grey-blue haze was torn open, revealing the dark silhouette of the Abandoned City below.

A loud boom echoed from above, the shockwave of heavy machinery landing making the shaft shake. The metal ladder was crushed flat, fragments falling like rain. A massive shadow descended, blocking out all light. The Reaper Mother stood four meters tall, with six reverse-jointed mechanical legs. Its abdomen split open to reveal a honeycomb weapon bay, and a multiple-lens array locked onto Lin Yuan, emitting a red scanning beam.

Lin Yuan rolled through a damaged gate at the end of the shaft while holding his brother. In his vision, the Promethium reserves flashed: 2.1%, critical value. Dark spots began to appear at the edges of his sight.

The moment the gate closed, he saw the wreckage of THRONE-01 within the Phase Interference Zone writhing on its own. Its metal shell rose and fell like it was breathing, and dark red liquid metal seeped from the cracks.

The bronze clock fully materialized in his vision, its transparency at twenty-five percent, the second hand pointing to 3:17:15. His brother was in his arms, his right hand still trembling; Lin Yuan could clearly feel that pain.

Behind the gate, the darkness of the lower Abandoned City swallowed them. Above, the Reaper Mother's six mechanical legs began to move, the sound of metal scraping echoing through the shaft, drawing closer and closer.