Forgotten Photo Studio

Chapter 105 Rescue Signal
As Xu Yan manipulated the drill arm, he pushed the prosthetic body's performance to its limit. The hydraulic system in his legs emitted a roar that seemed on the verge of exploding, and sparks even flew from the friction between his feet and the ground.

Like a cheetah pouncing on its prey, he almost skimmed over the constantly trembling, seemingly about-to-collapse barrier of laws, and crashed into the passage.

click-

boom!
Behind them, the passage maintained by the judge finally succumbed to the pressure and shattered with a crash.

The mirror wall closed instantly, isolating most of the figures of the judge and the abyss fighting fiercely behind them, as well as the terrifying energy fluctuations. Only muffled loud noises and violent tremors could be heard.

However, the passageway is by no means safe!

The entire maintenance tunnel was twisting and expanding violently, like the intestines of a giant beast.

Twisted human face reliefs kept appearing on the wall, emitting silent wails;
The overhead pipes hung down and coiled like living snakes!
"Follow!"

A shadowy shriek echoes as its shadowy form weaves nimbly through obstacles.

The drill arm was even more violent. The heavy drill prosthetic on the left arm suddenly started up, no longer drilling, but like a battering ram, brutally smashing and breaking apart the hanging pipes and obstacles that suddenly appeared in front of it.

Sparks flew everywhere, and the alarm blared!
He had only one thought in his mind: Faster! Faster!

At the end of the passage, the alloy door engraved with burial runes was twisted like a melted candle under the erosion of the domain, and the runes on the door flickered with an extremely unstable light, as if they would be extinguished at any moment.

"There's no time to crack it!"

With a low growl, the drill arm slammed the drill bit of its left arm against the weakest point of the door lock structure. At the same time, the spiritual pressure blaster of the right prosthetic arm lit up with unprecedented power, the blinding light forcing even the shadowy figure to look away.

"Open it for me!!"

boom! ! ! !

It was not an explosion, but rather the collapse of extreme energy inwards followed by a sudden release.

The alloy door, along with the surrounding walls, instantly vaporized, leaving a large, irregular hole with molten edges, as if it had been devoured by an invisible behemoth.

A scorching air wave hits you in the face!

Xu Yan was the first to rush into the archives room behind it, which was filled with the smell of stale data and the bone-chilling low temperature of spiritual energy.

There's no time to catch your breath!

His scarlet electronic eyes scanned rapidly like searchlights:
Most of the file racks stacked to the ceiling were dilapidated and smelled burnt.
Most of the data spheres scattered on the ground had shattered, leaking an unknown liquid;

The air was filled with the lingering scent of "nothingness," like the burning of the soul, left behind after information had been forcibly erased.

This place seems to have undergone some kind of... cleanup?
His heart sank. Was he too late?

His gaze was fixed on the center of the room, where an old terminal screen was the only thing stubbornly flickering a faint light amidst the chaos.

The screen surface was covered with spiderweb-like cracks, and the displayed content was extremely unstable, filled with snowflakes and jumping garbled text.

He stepped forward, his metal fingers roughly wiping away the dust and scorch marks from the screen.

The displayed content was intermittent, with most areas covered by a huge [Data Corruption] warning.

However, in the corner of the screen, a fragmented line of text, as if displayed with the last of its strength, pierced his eyes like the dying words of a dying person:
[…Sealing Plan…Host: Xu Haoyu…]

[...blood ties...maintain...]

[...if the host dies...the offspring...continue...]

"Offspring...successor..."

Just three words, like three red-hot daggers, pierced deep into Xu Yan's consciousness! The metal shell of the drill arm trembled violently, and the bionic breathing system emitted rapid, unnatural gasps.

A surge of emotion, not from his prosthetic body but from his very soul's instincts, a mixture of the chill of betrayal, the despair of a predetermined fate, and a complex, unspoken feeling towards his father, burst forth like a flood, instantly shattering his psychological defenses.

It wasn't an accident... it never was.

He was chosen. It was destined from the very beginning of his bloodline.

He is... a "container" for perpetuation, a living cage waiting to be filled with "content"!
Rumble——! ! !
The sound of a structure completely disintegrating came from above the iron coffin area, like the mournful howl of a dying beast.

The gravity of the entire space began to spiral out of control, and debris and light floated erratically in the air.

Through the observation window at the entrance of the passage, Xu Yan witnessed a scene he would never forget:
His true form floated in the center of the mirrored space, the camera lens on his chest cracked into seven twisted fissures, like seven blasphemous eyes, radiating inhuman light of different frequencies, as if broadcasting an ancient and insane language to some indescribable dimension.

The judge stood on the opposite bank, his figure blurred and uncertain amidst the overlapping shadows of reality and rules.

He is the embodiment of power; the air stratifies with his breath, and the pulses of the magnetic field synchronize with him.

“Yuan.” His voice was directly imprinted on the spatial rules, “Your existence has exceeded what is permitted.”

The mirror surface trembled, and the mirroring of the entire iron coffin area intensified suddenly. The lightning array beneath the judge's feet shattered inch by inch, as if the foundation of the world was being pulled away.

at this time!

A faint yet exceptionally clear psionic energy fluctuation forcefully pierced through a crack in the domain, precisely projecting onto the Judge, as well as the Drill Arm and the Shadow Consciousness, which possessed temporary beacons.

It came from outside, from Manager Lin Lan's calm yet undeniably urgent voice:
[Signal acquired! The outer triple seal is being reinforced simultaneously! The city's psionic barrier has been activated, and emergency evacuation procedures are underway! All Gold and Silver-level combatants are expected to assemble within ten minutes! Repeat, hold out for ten minutes!]

This news was like a boulder thrown into stagnant water!

The shadowy spirit flickered, almost materializing—an instinctive reaction to seeing a glimmer of light in a desperate situation.

Xu Yan felt his heart leap into his throat as he drilled the arm!
ten minutes?
Reinforcements from outside are on their way!
By delaying Yuan Yue's attainment of C-rank, he could gain a clearer understanding of his own destiny.

But can I still hold on?

Or perhaps, I am just a gambler at the gambling table who has lost everything?
Who knows?

however--

"ten minutes?"

The abyss's thoughts, a mixture of countless echoes, carried an all-knowing, almost languid mockery that instantly overwhelmed that glimmer of hope.

"Jiang Yu, can you hear me? Your lovely colleagues are still calculating their hopes in 'minutes'."

Using Xu Yan's physical form, it even tilted its head slightly, its pure black eyes revealing a pure, inhuman pity.

"Unfortunately, you won't last another ten seconds. And I... I'm really looking forward to seeing what they'll find after they've finished gathering... your remains, or a... door to a 'new world' that's opened for them?"

It had already anticipated the external reactions and even incorporated them into its own script.

This composure is more chilling than any roar.

There was no surprise on the judge's face, only a resolute acceptance that everything had been settled.

Instead of being invigorated by the news from the outside world, the lightning around him retracted inward in a more resolute manner.

(End of this chapter)