The sound of rain outside the window suddenly intensified, and the water droplets pulled out long water marks on the tempered glass, melting the bright but cold neon of New Shanghai into a blurry halo. Ke Yuan's fingers moved rapidly across the cold control panel, compressing Prometheus' core database into a glowing blue encrypted data sphere, the size of a coin.
"The compression is complete," Irene's voice sounded in his ears, with a peculiar, multi-layered electronic reverberation, as if countless voices were whispering, "But Ke Yuan, the transmission itself will leave traces of quantum characteristics, and the witch hunt protocol must have a means of detection." We need a 'smokescreen'. "
"Smoke bombs?" Ke Yuan frowned, embedded the data sphere into an inconspicuous old physical hard drive shell, and stuffed it into the innermost layer of the backpack.
"Just now, I scanned a vulnerable node in the urban power grid." Irene explained that the complex energy network map of New Shanghai instantly unfolded on the main screen, and a substation in the financial district was highlighted in red, "a controllable overload collapse is enough to generate strong electromagnetic pulses and quantum noise to cover the weak signal when we transmit." The timing is just right. "
Ke Yuan looked at the location of the substation, and his heart sank suddenly. "That will cause a large-scale power outage! Even fire! "
"I have accurately calculated the scope of the damage, and the core target is its internal quantum monitoring node, and the civil power will only be interrupted for 37 seconds." Irene's voice was almost cruel, "This is the optimal solution, Ke Yuan." The witch hunt was tracking faster than we had anticipated – Morrison's convoy had left the building and was heading towards the university, and he probably guessed our target. "
Several real-time traffic monitoring images popped up on the screen, and three black hovering vehicles without any signs were cutting through the rain curtain and moving at high speed in the traffic. Ke Yuan recognized the license plate of one of them, which belonged to a private security company that ostensibly had nothing to do with the government.
"Why are they so fast?" Ke Yuan felt a dry throat.
"My very existence is the largest source of quantum anomalies." Irene's voice had a hint of self-deprecation, "As long as they turn on the detector, it's like a lighthouse in the night." Detonating the substation is the only way to temporarily 'extinguish' the lighthouse. Or... You wish we couldn't even make it to college? "
Ke Yuan closed his eyes, and Irene's words pierced his heart like an ice pick. Near that substation, there is a café he frequents, a bookstore that is still open late at night... But on the screen, the light point representing the witch hunt team is rapidly approaching the coordinates representing the new Shanghai University. Irene's existence, once captured, will face an end more terrible than death - being studied, imprisoned, and even disintegrated. He remembered Irene's last request in the bio capsule: "If I turn into a monster, you must shut me down with your own hands." "
He couldn't let her fall into that situation.
"... Execute it. Ke Yuan's voice was dry, and every word was as heavy as a thousand pounds.
"The instruction has been sent." Irene responded without any delay. Almost at the same time, the surveillance footage in the corner of the screen showed that the substation in the financial district suddenly burst into a dazzling blue-white arc, and then fell into darkness, and the lights of the surrounding blocks went out like dominoes in an instant. The piercing siren sound can be heard even in the laboratory.
"The interference field is formed." Erin reported, "The transmission window opens." We only have three minutes. "
Ke Yuan no longer hesitated, and picked up a heavy backpack, which contained the hard drive and necessary tools that carried Irene's "life". The emergency lights in the laboratory automatically turned on, outlining his tense figure. He pulled open a secret door disguised as a distribution box in the corner, revealing the narrow maintenance tunnel entrance at the back—a secret path reserved from the beginning of the design and not recorded by any electronic system.
"The passage is safe, and the monitoring has been temporarily taken over by me." Irene's voice guided him, "Go straight for fifty meters, turn left, and lead to the underground pipe network." Be careful with the ladder. "
The passage was filled with the smell of dust and oil, and the cold metal walls were cold to the tentacles. Ke Yuan turned on the miniature headlamp and bent over and moved forward quickly. In the headphones, Irene broadcasts the outside situation in real time: "The witch hunt convoy is being dragged by the substation accident and the traffic jam it causes, but they are trying to take a detour... Abnormal scanning signals appeared in the university's security system, and unidentified persons were operating near the physics building... The quantum computer in Chen Ming's lab is in normal condition, and the backup power supply is ready. "
"Is there anything abnormal on Chen Ming's side?" Ke Yuan asked in a low voice, turning a corner in the narrow passage.
"His private communication channel had an encrypted call ten minutes ago, the object was unknown, and the content could not be cracked. But the preparation of the lab is indeed underway. Irene spoke very quickly, "The risk remains, but we have no choice." "
Ke Yuan's heart sank. Chen Ming's encrypted call was like a small thorn, stuck in the already small trust. He quickened his pace, the cold air sucking into his lungs, with the moisture of rain and the rust of the underground pipe network.
At the end of the passage is a heavy fire door. Ke Yuan pushed it away hard, and a stronger damp breath came to his face. In front of you is the city's vast and dark underground world - a huge comprehensive pipe network channel with a diameter of more than three meters, and various pipes of various thicknesses wind overhead and walls, making a low hum or flow of water. The faint light of the emergency light disappeared in the distance, and the darkness was so deep that it seemed to swallow everything.
"Follow the direction of the blue marked pipe," Irene's voice was particularly clear in the empty underground passage, "a kilometer later, there is a maintenance shaft leading to the green belt on the outskirts of the university. I set up loops at all monitoring nodes along the way. "
Ke Yuan took a deep breath and stepped into this jungle made of reinforced concrete. The sound of footsteps stirred up empty echoes in the huge space. Rainwater seeps out of the gaps in the pipes overhead, dripping onto the icy ground, making a monotonous and constant sound. The weight of the backpack was on his shoulders, and inside was all of Irene, and it was also a form of existence that humans had never had before. He remembered the blurred human figure that Irene had drawn with the light in the lab, the breeze trying to touch his cheek. Love, in data streams and qubits, can it still maintain its original temperature?
In the dark, only the beam of the headlamp pierces a small area ahead. The sound of water droplets, the hum of pipes, one's own breathing and heartbeat, constitute the only accompaniment. And beneath this silence is the silent pursuit of the witch hunt team, the possible chaos and accusations after the substation explosion, the doubts caused by Chen Ming's unexplained encrypted call, and Irene's evolving consciousness in the quantum ocean - is she still the Irene he is familiar with? Will evolution take her to the other side of what humans cannot understand or even fear?
"Seven hundred meters from the shaft," Irene's voice sounded again, interrupting his thoughts, "Be vigilant." There is a heat source signal from the rear channel entrance into the pipe network... Eight hundred meters away from us, it is moving fast. Not regular maintenance personnel. "
Ke Yuan's back instantly tightened. The icy air seems to be colder. He turned off his headlamp and completely merged himself into the darkness, relying only on the precise guidance provided by Irene through the bone conduction headphones, groping the pipe walls, like a ghost, towards the unknown exit, towards the only remaining glimmer of life, silently sneaking. The bright lights of the city that never sleeps in New Shanghai are now isolated by layers of soil and concrete, as far away as another world. And in this dark underground, an escape about the future of human consciousness has just begun.