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墨書 Inktalez
Chapter Two: The Hive Stomach
The cold storage of the morgue automatically activated twenty-two years after the power was cut off, the sound of the metal drawer sliding reminiscent of a dying person's last breath.
Lin Xia counted the rusted drawer numbers, and the plaque on drawer number seven was inscribed with "Temporary Storage" in oxidized blackened red paint. When she touched the brass handle, the entire cabinet suddenly folded like an accordion, revealing a downward spiral staircase. The steps were covered with a mycelium-like substance, leaving fluorescent green footprints with each step.
"This is the work of the Leningrad Architectural Institute from 1958," Shen Mo's pocket watch chain suddenly tightened, projecting a holographic blueprint. "Originally intended for a KGB safe house..."
His explanation was swallowed by darkness. Chen Dong's wolf-eyed flashlight illuminated scratch marks on the inner wall of the staircase, where deep grooves embedded with light blue fragments lay. Lu Chuan crouched down, using the tip of a scalpel to lift some powder, and the portable mass spectrometer emitted a beep: "Trifluoperazine, but the chlorine atom on the benzene ring has been replaced with a californium-252 isotope."
The iron door on the second basement level was sealed with a 1989 sticker, and the yellowing paper bore the words "Ω Zone Strictly Prohibited." Su Li's PD150 camera suddenly auto-focused; the night vision mode revealed a suffocating scene—rows of ceramic bathtubs arranged in a DNA double helix structure, each tub connected by spiderweb-like copper pipes, with a milky white film floating on the surface of the water, resembling peeled retinas.
"These are memory vesicles." Lu Chuan donned rubber gloves, his fingertips brushing against the frost at the copper pipe junctions. "In the 1980s, the Soviet Union was conducting consciousness upload experiments; these copper pipes are part of a superfluid helium delivery system." His lab coat suddenly billowed as if countless small creatures were scurrying beneath the fabric.
Chen Dong's tactical boots crushed the ice on the floor, and pale blue liquid seeped from the cracks. As he bent down to inspect it, his flashlight beam refracted into countless light cones, projecting fragments of an experimental log from 1987 onto the wall: "July 16th, Object ЖД-7 successfully solidified short-term memory in a Bose-Einstein condensate..."
"This is impossible!" Shen Mo's pocket watch glass frosted over. "A Bose-Einstein condensate requires an environment close to absolute zero unless..." His gaze suddenly froze on the surface of a copper pipe—those entwined metals were visibly becoming transparent, revealing a flowing silvery substance inside.
Su Li's Spirit Response Plate suddenly flew out of her backpack, and the Brass Pointer etched mathematical formulas onto the wall: ΔxΔp≥h/(4π)+η. When Lin Xia touched the η symbol in the formula with her Hairpin, an effect akin to gravitational lensing occurred in space; they saw another version of themselves sleeping in one of the bathtubs, with a Nerve Conduit inserted into their nape.
"This is a modified formula for Heisenberg's uncertainty principle!" Lu Chuan's pupils dilated sharply. "Someone is manipulating our observational behavior at a quantum level..." His voice was interrupted by a loud crash from above; Chen Dong's scream echoed through the hive structure, ultimately morphing into an inhuman shriek.
As everyone rushed back to the morgue, drawer number seven stood wide open, its interior filled with hexagonal ice crystals. Chen Dong's left hand was stiffly reaching toward the ceiling, clutching half of a 1991 psychiatric diagnosis certificate, with Lu Chuan's name filled in under patient name. The diagnosis conclusion bore a steel stamp reading "Morning Light Project Final Approval."
"This is the latest model of PTSD Therapy." Lu Chuan suddenly sliced open his forearm with a scalpel, revealing blood that shimmered in an eerie silver hue. "Look, the nanobots are repairing my Hippocampus." His lab coat ignited without a flame, exposing a restraint suit marked with the ЖД-7 designation beneath Ash, with the KGB eagle emblem stitched at the collar.
Shen Mo's pocket watch suddenly burst forth with bright light, projecting a holographic model of the East Annex. Suspended where the foundation should have been was a dodecahedral structure known as the Metal Capsule, its surface etched with cyberpunk-style Russian text: "Ziolkovsky-7 Quantum Memory Vault."
"Someone's coming." Su Li pointed toward the corridor, the creaking of an old cart piercing through the rain. Lin Xia's camera activated automatically, framing a nurse wearing a gas mask, pushing a cart laden with glass jars containing brain tissue. As the lens zoomed in, she noticed each jar was labeled with the names of those present.
Lu Chuan suddenly lunged at the cart, stabbing the nurse in the throat with his scalpel, but only blue sparks erupted—she was a highly advanced synthetic robot, with an old tape recorder hidden within her chest cavity. Su Li pulled out the tape that was playing, discovering it was labeled "Experiment Group 43 Memory Backup: 1992.3.17-2023.9.17."
"It’s time for memory dialysis." The synthetic voice of the Mechanical Nurse emanated from her abdomen, and glass Crystals in her eyes projected a holographic image: Director Zhou was at the Ω zone control panel adjusting equipment, while a star map behind him displayed a countdown to an abnormal eruption of Betelgeuse.
Shen Mo's pocket watch began to spin backward, revealing new coordinates on its face: Right Ascension 6h45m, Declination -16°42′. Lin Xia's Hairpin suddenly levitated, tracing out the constellation of Orion on the ground. When Betelgeuse aligned with Director Zhou's star map, the entire building tilted abruptly by 15 degrees.
"Gravitational anomaly!" Chen Dong's corpse suddenly sat up, and the diagnosis report in his hand floated toward the ventilation duct. As Lin Xia chased into the duct, she caught a familiar Lavender Scent, noticing Russian words carved into the wall with fingernails: Salvation. Her camera suddenly displayed a date from 1987, showing her younger self receiving an injection in the Ω zone.
As everyone struggled to crawl back to the surface, the torrential rain transformed into pale blue ice crystals. Each snowflake encased miniature film strips that revealed different memories upon landing: Shen Mo's father painting in the Dodecahedron Capsule room, Su Li screaming while strapped to an Electric Chair, and Lu Chuan mixing a Blue Potion, which matched the color of the snow falling at that moment.
The medical broadcast abruptly switched to Director Zhou's voice: "Congratulations to Experiment Group 43 for breaking the 7-hour survival limit; we are now entering memory reconstruction phase." All windows in the East Annex shattered simultaneously, releasing swarms of mechanical moths whose compound eyes flickered with faces of patients from 1992.
Lin Xia's Hairpin suddenly pierced into the ground, emitting blue light in a pattern resembling the Big Dipper. Amidst the hum of Quantum Tunneling effects, she saw another version of herself smiling before a dome mural; her camera transformed into an Iris Projector, injecting the entire galaxy into Dante’s oar.
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