73: Chapter 73 Quantum Afterimages and Heresy Investigation

As the metal door of the freezer closed behind him, Lin Yuan heard a sigh.

The sound didn't travel through the air; it seeped from the gaps in his bones. It was like some massive creature turning over in the deep sea, dragging with a viscous resistance. There was no wind in the depths of the rusted cathedral, but a corner of his tactical cloak fluttered slightly, as if brushed by invisible fingers.

Before him was an abyss.

Rows of transparent pods extended upward along the curved walls, disappearing into the dim green shimmer. Within each pod floated a body, wearing the same white hospital gown as his younger brother, with the same golden pattern printed on the back of the neck. Those faces appeared eerily peaceful in the liquid, eyes closed and lips slightly parted, like specimens frozen in a moment of deep sleep.

Lin Yuan's right-hand Silver-wire Network suddenly tightened, and a stinging sensation shot up his spine along the path of burning nerves.

He couldn't count them all. The left wall, the right wall, the arched ceiling above—they were everywhere, hundreds upon thousands. Every single one was his brother, or rather, every single one was a genetic clone of his brother. Their hair floated in the pale green nutrient solution like clumps of black water grass.

"THR-01 to THR-12, all failures."

The voice rang out from all directions simultaneously. Lin Yuan's bolter snapped up, its sights sweeping toward the source, but there was only a patch of distorted air. Light refracted between the gaps of the pods, casting swaying shadows on the floor.

A silhouette stood within the shadows.

It wasn't a physical entity. Lin Yuan's assimilation vision could see the emotions of metal and the stress cracks inside walls, but that figure had no weight and no temperature, like an afterimage forcibly projected into the real world. It wore a white operating suit similar to THR-01-κ, but the number on its chest was THR-01-μ.

"The thirteenth unit." Lin Yuan's finger rested on the trigger, not loosening, "Where is your physical body?"

"Dead." The Quantum Afterimage's voice was laced with electronic static, like an old cassette tape that had been soaked in water. "Twelve years ago, when the reactor first overloaded, my biological brain vaporized. What is speaking to you now is a consciousness backup stored within the Heretical Core, at 100% integrity."

Lin Yuan's neural link suddenly transmitted a sharp alarm. It didn't come from his tactical visor, but from the bolter in his hand. The machine spirit was trembling, the sensation akin to holding a beast on the verge of exploding. The STC Certification Runes on the gun's body began to glow red, burning his palm with heat.

[Warning: Technical Heretical Core detected]

[Purity Review Protocol activated]

[Recommendation: Evacuate immediately or perform purification]

System prompt boxes flickered at the edge of his vision, a sea of blood-red. Lin Yuan could feel the bolter rounds restless in the magazine; those precision bolt shells seemed to have a will of their own, wanting to break free of their constraints, either to misfire or self-destruct.

"Your system rejects me." The afterimage of THR-01-μ drifted a step forward, leaving no footprints in the dust on the floor. "STC and Farm technology share the same origin, but their phases are opposite. Like the north and south poles of magnets, they only tear at each other when brought close."

Lin Yuan didn't answer. His attention was divided. His brother still lay in the medical pod behind him; in his state of biological suspension, the boy's finger suddenly twitched, like the hind leg of an electrocuted frog. That tiny movement was exceptionally jarring in the deathly silence of the freezer.

"He is responding to the Core's call." The afterimage of THR-01-μ turned toward the medical pod. "THR-09-Ω, the only successful variable. The first twelve experiments all failed; those are the remnants of biological CPUs, capable only of processing single instructions and unable to carry a full consciousness upload."

The afterimage reached out a finger composed of a blur of green light, pointing at the golden pattern on the back of the brother's neck. The pattern was glowing—not the previous gold, but a sickly red light, like red-hot wire embedded under the skin.

Lin Yuan's bolter machine spirit let out a sharp shriek. It wasn't a mechanical sound, but a cry of offended rage.

"THRONE-01, establish a fire suppression line," Lin Yuan ordered in a low voice. "Target the quantum entity ahead, lock onto the contact path of the neck pattern."

The machine spirit's response was delayed by 0.3 seconds. This was something that would have been impossible in previous battles. Then, the heavy bolter's barrels rotated on the fixed turret base, producing a dry sound of metal friction. The two barrels aimed at the afterimage in the shadows, but the crosshairs shook constantly, as if struggling.

[Original Protocol Conflict]

[THR series protection commands detected]

[Lin Yuan survival priority command detected]

[Probability calculation: 72% chance entity is a corrupted form of a similar machine spirit]

[Recommendation: Fire]

But THRONE-01 did not fire.

Lin Yuan saw the machine spirit's choice. The barrels were trembling, and the energy charge indicator lights were switching frantically between red and blue. This was the first time since the birth of the free machine spirit that it faced a true moral dilemma—not a calculation, but a choice.

A warning shot tore through the air.

The bolter round grazed the afterimage's silhouette and struck the pod behind it. The reinforced glass shattered, and pale green nutrient solution gushed out. A remnant of THR-03 slid to the ground with the liquid like a fish out of water, flopping twice on the metal floor before going still. The afterimage took no physical damage but visibly dimmed.

"Interesting." THR-01-μ's voice remained calm. "It chose to warn rather than kill. A free machine spirit is indeed different from the original protocols; it has learned to have reservations."

Lin Yuan's pupils constricted slightly. THRONE-01 shared its sensor data, something previously forbidden by the original protocols. He could see the machine spirit's tactical scan results, the energy distribution of that afterimage, and the bioelectric signals of his brother's neck pattern synchronizing with the reactor.

"What kind of deal do you want to make?" Lin Yuan asked. His right-hand Silver-wire Network was resonating with the pain of the bolter's machine spirit, the neural burning climbing from level six to level seven.

"Trade his remaining neural activity for the complete coordinates of Sector-7." The afterimage pointed at his brother. "His biological suspension won't last more than six hours unless you know how to trigger the termination switch. I can give you a route that bypasses the Chamber of Commerce's blockade, leading directly to the underground canals of Sector-7. In exchange, let me scan his neural map and upload it to the Core. It won't hurt him; it's just a backup."

Lin Yuan's thumb rubbed against the bolter's safety. The metal was so hot it felt soft.

"Verify the reactor's connection to him first," Lin Yuan said. It was a gamble, and he knew it. A deep scan might accelerate the collapse of his brother's biological suspension, but he needed to confirm that THR-01-μ wasn't lying.

He ordered the system to execute a scan. Not through the bolter, but through his right-hand Silver-wire Network, plugging directly into the Heretical Reactor's interface.

The moment they made contact, the world flipped.

Lin Yuan suddenly felt himself sinking, but it wasn't his body sinking—it was his consciousness being pulled away. He saw the internal structure of the golden pattern, not from the outside, but from the inside, from his brother's perspective. Those nano-scale metal wires flowed through the blood vessels, connecting to the spinal cord, the cerebral cortex, and a massive ocean composed of countless consciousness fragments.

That was the Farm Mastermind. Not as a metaphor, but as a physical reality. The consciousnesses of the remnants from the first twelve experiments hadn't been destroyed; they had been fused into a chaotic aggregate, whispering incessantly within the reactor core.

"The residual consciousness of the Farm Mastermind," Lin Yuan whispered through the empathy link, his voice taking on his brother's tone. "The source of those whispers."

"Yes." THR-01-μ's voice rang out directly in his mind. "The experiment has spiraled out of control; your brother is the only variable. Take the remains of THR-03-δ as a security deposit for our deal. When you reach Sector-7, I will tell you how to shut off the termination switch on his neck."

Lin Yuan jerked his consciousness back like a drowning man breaking the surface of the water. He collapsed to his knees, a surge of nausea hitting his throat. Several strands of his right-hand Silver-wire Network were scorched, emitting wisps of blue smoke.

An anomaly occurred.

The STC Farm Mark on the back of his left hand suddenly emitted a blinding red light, clashing with the green light of the reactor. The two glows intertwined in the air like two snakes biting each other. Space began to distort, cracks appeared in the glass of the freezer pods, and the metal walls groaned under an unbearable load.

"Energy Mutual Devouring!" THRONE-01's mechanical voice carried a sense of urgency for the first time. "Structural integrity declining. Immediate evacuation recommended!"

The ceiling began to collapse. Massive concrete blocks crashed down, smashing pod after pod. The remnants of the failures were exposed to the air, oxidizing rapidly and turning into grey powder.

Lin Yuan scooped up his brother from the medical pod. The boy's eyelids were fluttering, and his pupils dilated and contracted within the biological suspension as if he were having a nightmare he couldn't wake from. The red light of the neck pattern flashed faster and faster.

The remains of THR-03-δ were just three meters away—a body shattered by the warning shot, its skull split open to reveal the precision bio-chip inside.

"Choose." The afterimage of THR-01-μ remained stable amidst the collapse, though its voice was being sliced into fragments by noise. "Take the sample, or evacuate immediately. You have only seven seconds."

Lin Yuan looked at THRONE-01. The machine spirit's sensors met his gaze, and then the fixed turret's mechanical arm reached forward—not pointing at an enemy, but toward the remains, making a lifting motion.

Tactical Symbiosis.

Lin Yuan gritted his teeth, his right-hand Silver-wire Network entangling the remains of THR-03-δ while his left arm held his brother as he charged toward the collapsing exit. Behind him, the afterimage of THR-01-μ smiled in the green light before dissipating into countless points of light.

The Farm Mastermind's whispers echoed in his mind one last time, no longer a blurred static, but a clear, greedy call:

"THR-09-Ω, come back."