69: Chapter 69 Neural Projection and Biological Keys

Lin Yuan's right hand pressed against the collapsed alloy load-bearing wall. The Silver-wire Network spread out from between his fingers, burrowing into the gaps in the metal like some kind of parasitic vine. The silver noise at the edge of his vision suddenly contracted, transforming into scrolling lines of prayer; they were the whispers of the Omnissiah, yet at this moment, they were no longer a blurry static.

"Third load-bearing plate on the left, bio-electric injection point, fatigue crack density seventy-four percent."

The voice exploded directly in his occipital cortex, carrying the pungent scent of a mixture of machine oil and ozone. Lin Yuan did not hesitate. Conventional scans showed this area of ruins was a dead end, but his assimilated perception told him that the metal was "crying," and stress was concentrated on that specific load-bearing point like a string tightened to its limit.

He channeled bio-electricity, and the silver wires on his right hand lit up with a faint blue glow. The current was imported into the alloy along the neural interface, and the momentary burning sensation made him grit his back teeth. Lin Yuan mentally counted the level of neural burning: level three, within the acceptable range. The degree of pollution was recorded.

The metal structure groaned. It was not a physical deformation, but a kind of resonance that transcended the five senses. He "heard" the skeleton of this facility, the loosening of bolts, the fatigue of steel beams, and the chemical corrosion deep within the concrete. The Sector-7 corridor had become a metal tomb after the Arbiter's self-destruction, but within this pile of dead matter, a faint "emotion" was flowing—it was a maintenance passage leading deeper, an umbilical cord forgotten by the blueprints.

"Path discovered." Lin Yuan withdrew his hand, the silver wires vanishing beneath his skin and leaving behind fine burn marks. "There is an unmarked maintenance well below, leading to the STC Core Zone."

A tremor came through Chen Duo's Blood Covenant link. It wasn't fear, but a deeper kind of resonance. Lin Yuan turned his head and saw his younger brother being held halfway in Camilla's arms. The boy's neck ring—that originally dim metal collar—was emitting a pulsing red light.

The frequency resonated with the silver wires on Lin Yuan's right hand.

"No," Camilla's voice had just left her mouth when the neck ring erupted with a blinding holographic projection.

There was no warning, no buffer. Memories of the White House were forcibly dragged out of Chen Duo's neural center, using the Blood Covenant as a conduit and the neck ring as a transmitter, unfolding within the collapsed corridor. The air became thick, photons condensed into solid form, and a building composed of pure white composite materials emerged out of thin air, occupying everyone's visual space.

It was the farm. The Seventh Gene Farm. A real existence in the literal sense.

In the holographic image, hundreds of incubation pods were lined up inside the White House. Beneath transparent lids, children floated in pale yellow nutrient solution, their skulls opened, and their exposed cerebral cortices connected to a central black machine via biological optical fibers. That machine had twelve mechanical arms, each precisely piercing the brain of a different child, extracting some kind of glowing substance.

Consciousness harvesting. The cruelty of the original covenant was presented in the most direct visual form.

Camilla's breath hitched. The muscles in her arms holding her brother stiffened instantly, as if suddenly injected with cement. Lin Yuan saw her pupils contract violently; it was pure physiological shock, a primal reaction that could not be faked. The warlord's fingers tightened unconsciously, leaving red marks on her brother's shoulder.

The projection continued to advance. The perspective zoomed in on the control console of the central machine. Standing there was a figure wearing an ancient technician's uniform, their back outlined by the holographic light with blurred edges. When that person turned around and revealed the ID tag on their chest, Chen Duo's body began to convulse violently.

THR-01-κ. The Twelfth.

"This is..." Camilla's voice was stuck in her throat, like sandpaper rubbing against a rusted iron pipe.

The projection switched to an even more terrifying scene. A child was taken from an incubation pod, his body still twitching, but his eyes were already hollow. A mechanical arm extracted his brain completely and placed it into a container labeled "Biological CPU-09." The neural tissue inside the container was still discharging, like a ball of imprisoned lightning.

Then the image froze on the last surviving incubation pod. The label on the pod was clearly visible: THR-09-Ω. The child inside had his eyes open, and his pupils were a rare pair of heterochromatic eyes—one blue and one gold. It was the younger brother.

The holographic projection flickered violently, like an old-world television with a bad signal. Lin Yuan realized that Chen Duo's nerves were overloading, and the Blood Covenant link was transmitting unbearable pain. He forcibly cut off a portion of the link's buffer, bearing the remaining impact himself.

The red light of the neck ring went out. The projection dissipated, leaving behind a deathly silence.

Camilla maintained her hugging posture, but something had shattered in the depths of her eyes. Lin Yuan observed this change: first was shock, her lips losing color and her knuckles turning white from excessive force; then was suppression, as she took a deep breath, her chest expanding to its limit before slowly releasing—this was a crisis control mechanism trained by the Anvil Core; finally, there was redefinition, as her gaze shifted from motherly concern to an evaluator's sharpness, repositioning the value of the boy in her arms.

She had not discarded him. She was re-evaluating him.

"THR-09-Ω." Camilla's voice was so low it was almost inaudible. Her fingers lightly brushed over her brother's nape, lingering on that metal collar. "You are the key. And the stock."

The younger brother did not respond. His aphasia was a permanent neural injury, and at this moment, he could only gaze at his sister with those heterochromatic eyes, his gaze a mixture of dependence and emptiness. He could project emotions through the neck ring, but he could not organize language.

THRONE-01 suddenly emitted a piercing sound of mechanical friction. Its optical sensors flickered frantically between red and blue, as if two hostile programs were fighting for control. Its mechanical torso trembled uncontrollably, and its hydraulic joints let out painful hisses.

"Protocol... conflict..." Its synthetic voice was intermittent, like a broken tape recorder. "Original harvesting directive... incompatible... with current subordination protocol..."

It was undergoing some kind of internal war. The farm projection had triggered a dormant original program in its underlying code, a harvesting protocol from the same source as THR-01-κ. Lin Yuan noticed a delay of a fraction of a second when its visual sensors swept over the boy; that was the mechanical instinct of identification and locking.

But it did not act. It only trembled.

"Stabilize your core," Lin Yuan commanded, while simultaneously using his body to block THRONE-01's view of the boy. "If you lose control now, I will initiate the destruction program."

This was a threat, and also a reminder. THRONE-01's coolant seeped from the gaps in its joints, forming a small puddle of glowing liquid on the ground. It forcibly shut down its visual sensors, entering a blindsight state until the protocol conflict temporarily subsided.

Lin Yuan did not press further. He maintained the mystery of the mechanical existence, only observing the symptoms.

"The passage." He turned to Camilla, his tone cold and hard. "The entrance to the maintenance well is sealed by an ancient seal; it requires a Biological Key."

Camilla looked up. Her expression had completed its transformation; she was no longer merely a sister, but a warlord holding a high-value asset. The way she looked at Lin Yuan had also changed, upgrading from functional dependence to the confirmation of a complicit relationship. They now shared the same forbidden knowledge, both understanding that the brother was not just family, but a living gene bank capable of replicating THR prototypes.

"He can open it?" Camilla asked, her voice returning to its usual calculating tone, though there was a nearly imperceptible tremor at the end of her words.

"The neck ring is a product of the farm, sharing the same origin as the seal." Lin Yuan walked toward the collapse, silver wires once again surging from his right hand. "But I need to clear the path first. The people from the Chamber of Commerce are blasting outside; we have ninety seconds."

He pressed his hand against the metal once more. This time, the Omnissiah's whispers were even clearer, carrying a kind of seductive pragmatism.

"Inject more bio-electricity, extend deeper into the cracks. You will be able to see more."

Lin Yuan did as told. The price was the neural burning upgrading to level five, the pain like a red-hot iron wire piercing through his right arm. But he gained a reward: the metal structure became transparent in his perception, and he "saw" the complete outline of the maintenance well, as well as the identification panel on the seal.

It was a biological interface, its shape perfectly matching the base of the younger brother's neck ring.

"Found it." Lin Yuan withdrew his hand, sweat dripping from his forehead. "But opening it requires him. The gene sequence of THR-09-Ω is the only key."

Camilla looked down at her brother. The boy was drawing circles in her palm with his finger; it was a secret language they had invented as children, meaning "scared." But now, Camilla knew the truth behind this action—it was an instinct trained by the farm, a neural reflex of a biological CPU seeking connection confirmation.

She gripped that hand tightly.

"Let's go." Camilla stood up and put her brother on her back. The action was no longer just protection, but a clear asset transfer. "You lead the way, I'll cover. THRONE-01, if you can still move, follow us. If you dare touch him—"

"Understood." The mechanical unit restarted its visual sensors, the blue light stabilizing, though red light still flickered in the depths. "Current priority: Protect THR-09-Ω... survival."

It used the word "survival" instead of "safety." The choice of this word exposed something, but no one delved into it at this moment.

Lin Yuan began clearing the passage. His assimilated power allowed him to perceive the fatigue limit of every piece of metal, like conducting a silent symphony. He guided Camilla to avoid unstable structures, the silver wires tracing blue trajectories in the darkness.

By the time they reached the maintenance well, the ancient seal was emitting a faint green light. The symbols on the seal were identical to the patterns on the brother's neck ring, ironclad evidence of the shared technology between the farm and the STC.

The younger brother slid down from Camilla's back and stood before the seal. His neck ring was automatically attracted to the identification panel, the metal collision making a crisp "click" sound.

The sound of the hydraulic system starting up came from deep within. The cover plate of the maintenance well was slowly sliding open, revealing the pitch-black shaft below. Cold air surged out from it, carrying a decaying scent that had not circulated for a thousand years.

Lin Yuan's system interface suddenly flickered. The blue STC interface briefly overlapped with the farm symbols, displaying a warning of a compatibility conflict. Two kinds of ancient technology converged at this moment like two mutually exclusive venomous snakes.

Down in the shaft, light was flashing. It wasn't emergency lights, but some kind of deeper, pulsing light source.

Camilla's hand was pressed on her brother's shoulder, her fingers tightening. The silver wires on Lin Yuan's right hand were poised to strike. THRONE-01's optical sensors once again alternated between red and blue.

The cover plate opened completely.