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Chapter 210 Core Laboratory

The metallic scraping sound behind the door didn't stop. Su Wanqing stared at the crack in the door, held her breath, and gripped the jade bracelet tightly in her hand.

She turned slightly, signaling Lu Zhao to go around to the other side, and the two quietly changed their angles using the blue light.

Su Wanqing whispered, "Get ready. If it rushes out, you go to the right side, and I'll go to the access control."

The commotion behind the door grew louder, and suddenly a cracked face of a "lurker" peeked out, breathing in the stagnant, foul air.

Su Wanqing put on her mask and controlled her breathing. Lu Zhao pressed his body against the wall and gripped his pistol tightly.

The second "lurker" moved slowly and blocked the end of the passage. There were also two other mutants that could barely move in the corner.

The passageway is narrow, making it inconvenient to turn around.

"We have no choice but to charge forward." Lu Zhao gritted his teeth, gripping the blood-soaked iron rod in his hand.

Su Wanqing raised her hand and made a countdown gesture. With a wave of her hand, the two of them pounced to the side almost simultaneously. One of the "lurkers" was a beat too slow and was pushed to the ground by them.

They scurried along the wall, quickly passing through the gaps to avoid the severed limbs on the ground.

In the last three meters, an unusually sturdy "lurker" approached Lu Zhao. He swung his stick to smash it, but his arm was grabbed instead.

Su Wanqing pressed herself against the door and pressed the jade bracelet on her wrist. The jade bracelet's dial flashed blue, and red identification lights suddenly lit up along the security gate.

The access control system beeped, and a line of red text appeared: "S-7 administrator privileges confirmed. Welcome in."

The door creaked open, accompanied by a gust of air, and slowly opened inward.

Su Wanqing pushed Lu Zhaoxian inside first, then turned around to close the door and press the safety latch.

There were sounds of scratching and banging outside, but after a few tries, the door was at least temporarily stabilized.

As soon as the two entered the laboratory, a gust of cold wind hit them, as if they had stepped into a cold storage.

The screen displayed a temperature of -5 degrees Celsius. The laboratory lighting was stable, and the floor was frost-free, but the air was filled with the smell of disinfectant and metal.

Lu Zhao's steps were heavy, his wound was wrapped in gauze, and he slowed his movements. He coughed twice and pulled his hand out of his pocket.

The central device is readily apparent. It resembles a silvery halo, surrounded by an arc-shaped support, with layers of glass covering its core.

A pale purple rhomboid crystal floats at the top, its entire surface shimmering with electrically charged patterns.

The crystal rotated slowly, emitting a steady glow. Below, a deep blue energy tube pierced straight into the core module.

The monitoring screen next to the control panel kept displaying numbers. Su Wanqing read a few lines and said in a low voice, "Power supply is complete, life support and cryogenic maintenance systems are all normal. The energy core output is at maximum."

The cabin is about one and a half times the height of a person and is encased in layers of glass and metal.

The interior is filled with a pale blue preservation fluid, and the overall transparency is very poor, with only a blurry human-shaped outline visible.

Lu Zhao pointed to the thin electrodes connected to the cabin, "This is similar to cryopreservation; the biological tissues should be in a physiological state where they cannot be revived."

Lu Zhao pulled over the terminal, clicked on the device label and maintenance record, and frowned: "The program has been running for eight years, which, according to server data, is much earlier than the virus outbreak."

Su Wanqing looked around. Apart from the main device and the monitoring screen, all that was left were information terminals, stabilizer tanks, and heavy backup power supplies.

She approached the sealed chamber and saw only extremely faint pulse lines on the screen, simulating brain waves and heartbeats.

She thought for a moment and asked, "Do you think it will die inside if the core is removed?"

Lu Zhao didn't rush to respond. He glanced at the words "core replacement" on the terminal and started a search.

Soon, a pop-up window on the host computer displayed a line of bright red text: "Warning: Removing the core will terminate the sample preservation protocol. After losing the power to sustain life, life activity will be irreversibly lost within 28 minutes."

He gritted his teeth. "The energy core and life support system are intertwined, and the crystal's energy supply far exceeds that of ordinary energy sources. Forcibly dismantling it would be tantamount to killing the people inside the cabin."

The sound of "lurkers" knocking and banging on the door could be heard from time to time, making the space feel even more oppressive.

Su Wanqing stared at the crystal, feeling a chill even when she swallowed.

The sealed chamber was connected by more than a dozen energy lines from bottom to top, making it impossible to remove without damage no matter how you looked at it.

Lu Zhao checked his backup power supply, then pressed his hand against the main unit. "Is there a backup plan?"

Su Wanqing brought the jade bracelet close to the control panel, trying to find a way to crack it through the auxiliary program. Suddenly, the jade bracelet's screen lit up, and blue light formed a semi-transparent data connection interface on the control panel, revealing a string of encrypted files that did not belong to the base system.

A message pops up at the top: "Nicholas Wayne's Personal Log".

She tapped on it, and a video appeared on the screen. In it, a disheveled researcher stood in front of the camera, speaking in a self-recorded manner: "If you can see this recording, it means the core preservation plan has been activated."

The consciousness transfer test was ultimately successful, but the stability of the carrier remains a problem, necessitating the activation of the backup plan… I have integrated the core prototype into the N-7 experimental subject. If all goes well, my consciousness will coexist with him… until S-7 is found and the final procedure is completed…”

At the end of the video, the researcher looked exhausted and said in a low voice, "Time is running out. Only they can finish the game."

After the logs finished loading, the jade bracelet automatically displayed a blurry experimental photo.

In the photo, "N-7 test subject" lies quietly on the medical pod bed, with delicate features and a facial contour that is extremely similar to Lin Che's.

Lu Zhao blinked slightly, comparing the text information on the screen. "N-7 is Lin Che?"

So 'Night' wasn't a mutated personality, but rather another person forcibly implanted?

He looked up, his voice tinged with disbelief.

Su Wanqing didn't speak; she pulled up the voiceprint comparison for "Nicholas Wayne" again.

The terminal displays a cold, hard result: "Voiceprint matching: 95%".

This was exactly the tone Lin Che used when he spoke to her in the past.

The metal sheeting outside the door was deformed even more severely, and there were scraping sounds and low rumbling noises.

Su Wanqing frowned and said in a low voice, "Should we take the core or not?"

Lu Zhao quickly swiped the terminal and brought up the full map of the life support system from the secondary control panel. He gestured and analyzed, "If we forcibly remove the core, nothing here can be saved within 28 minutes. That person will die right here. But if we don't remove it, the upper floor will explode, and we don't have any extra time."

Su Wanqing gazed at the blue light emanating from the jade bracelet, pondering for a moment. She turned to look at the figure inside the cabin.

"Wayne used himself as a test subject, was it to find the 'final program' you mentioned?"

Lu Zhao moved his wound and said in a low voice, "The experiment has nothing to do with the apocalyptic virus. Long before the disaster, these people had already figured out the path of 'consciousness transfer'."

The real purpose was to hide himself inside Lin Che's mind and synthesize himself when all conditions were right.

The lower half of the console displays the main index menu, with each item related to "core compatibility testing" and the S-7 and N-7 biosample fusion logs.

They fell silent, and all that could be heard was the hum of the air conditioning in the cabin and the slowly lit ECG monitor in the cockpit.

Su Wanqing stood up and reattached the jade bracelet to the terminal contact port. "Could we simulate a transfer first, or hypothesize a core alternative route to fool the system?"

Lu Zhao stared at the warning line and shook his head. "Insufficient energy level."

The entire cryogenic maintenance process must be performed using core-level output. Any other power supply or external power source will be immediately terminated by the host system as an anomaly. The system cannot bypass this.

He sighed softly; the gauze on his shoulder was soaked with sweat.

Su Wanqing used the jade bracelet to rescan the control panel, hoping to find any more hidden data.

Several fragmented audio clips reappeared on the jade bracelet screen: "N-7 experimental subject joint compatibility... backup plan... S-7 priority..."

Lu Zhao looked at the string of small characters at the bottom of the sealed chamber and read: "Life carrier number, S-7 project, backup sample storage."

Su Wanqing placed her hand on the coded nameplate; her fingertips felt a little cool.

The jade bracelet suddenly vibrated, and the blue interface became holographic, revealing a temporary key starting point: temporary access by administrators is supported.

She turned her head slowly and said, "Is the one in the life support system my backup? The experimental plan also left a backup plan." Her knuckles paused on the nameplate, and Su Wanqing looked back at the energy core.

The knocking outside the door became much more rapid, and the air felt so oppressive that it was hard to breathe.

The log footage repeatedly states at the end: "Only S-7 can determine the final program. The final program requires the activation of the entire core. N-7 is involved in the entire experiment..."

Su Wanqing retracted the energy interface of the jade bracelet, her voice calm: "Perhaps the only option is to sacrifice the 'me' inside, otherwise all our efforts will be in vain."

Lu Zhaojing paused for a few seconds, zoomed in on the terminal, and memorized the distribution map of the deep blue energy flow.

The banging outside the door didn't stop, and the data alerts kept popping up on the main screen.