Chapter 14: The Hunt Begins

The sublevel chamber's silence lingered, the crystalline remnant dim and lifeless after yielding the shard of light now pulsing faintly in Lin Shen's and Gu Li's clasped hands. 11:22:37 AM. Lin Shen's AR lenses buzzed with the flood of data from the 2025 Gu Li—schematics, protocols, and a map of quantum anomalies glowing across the globe. The air hummed with the weight of her final words: "Find them… before they find you…"

Zhang Wei stood at the chamber's edge, her tablet clutched tightly, her eyes wide with a mix of awe and apprehension. "What… what was that?" she asked, her voice trembling. "That hologram—it looked like you, Dr. Gu."

Gu Li's gaze lingered on the shard, its glow reflecting in her sharp eyes. "It was me," she said, her tone steady but laced with quiet intensity. "A version of me from 2025—the one who started this. She gave us a mission." She turned to Lin Shen, their hands still linked. "The first minds—they're out there, fragmented. We need to track them."

11:23:09 AM.

Lin Shen nodded, his resolve mirroring hers. "The anomalies," he said, swiping his lenses to project the map onto the chamber wall. Red markers pulsed across continents—Shanghai, New York, Tokyo, and beyond—each a quantum signature tied to the lattice's collapse. "These are their echoes—pieces of the architects, waking up in this new timeline." He met Zhang Wei's gaze. "We need the institute's resources—trackers, quantum scanners, everything."

Zhang Wei hesitated, then squared her shoulders. "After what you did to the network? Every lab's on high alert. They'll listen—but they'll ask questions." She glanced at the shard, its light casting faint shadows. "What do I tell them?"

"Tell them the truth," Gu Li said, stepping forward. "The lattice is gone, the Watchers are dead, and something older is stirring. We're the only ones who can stop it." Her voice hardened. "And we're not asking permission."

11:24:02 AM.

The elevator ascent back to the surface was tense, the shard's glow a quiet pulse between Lin Shen and Gu Li. Zhang Wei sent encrypted orders ahead, mobilizing the institute's response team. Lin Shen's lenses flickered with updates:

Quantum anomalies detected. Activity increasing. Shanghai node: Active.

"Shanghai node," he murmured, his brow furrowing. "It's close—too close." He turned to Gu Li. "If one's already here, we might not have much time."

Her jaw tightened. "Then we start with it," she replied. "The 2025 me—she knew this would happen. She gave us her knowledge for a reason." The shard flared briefly in their hands, a surge of data mapping coordinates—beneath the city, near the Huangpu River.

11:25:31 AM.

The elevator opened to the institute's lobby, now a hive of controlled chaos. Scientists darted between consoles, screens flashing with the global uplink's fallout—systems syncing to the new reality Lin Shen and Gu Li had forged. Zhang Wei led them to a command hub, where a team of techs awaited, their faces a mix of curiosity and unease.

"Dr. Lin, Dr. Gu," a senior tech said, adjusting his AR visor. "We've got quantum trackers prepped—portable units, tied to the network. Shanghai anomaly's spiking—subterranean, two kilometers east. What's the plan?"

Lin Shen synced his tablet with the trackers, the shard's data integrating seamlessly. "We hunt it," he said, his voice firm. "Find the source, contain it—or destroy it. We'll know when we get there." He glanced at Gu Li, her presence a steady anchor. "Ready?"

"Ready," she replied, her faint smile carrying the weight of their shared resolve.

11:27:14 AM.

A quantum transport pod whisked them through Shanghai's remade streets—towers pulsing with light, the air alive with the city's new energy. The Huangpu River glittered ahead, its banks lined with sleek structures that hadn't existed in the old 2045. The pod descended into a subterranean dock, its doors opening to a tunnel network—dark, damp, and thrumming with a faint, unnatural hum.

Lin Shen activated a tracker, its screen glowing with the anomaly's signature—close, erratic, and growing. "This way," he said, leading Gu Li and Zhang Wei deeper. The shard in their hands pulsed in sync, its light guiding them through the shadows.

11:29:03 AM.

The tunnel widened into a cavern, its walls etched with quantum conduits—reminiscent of the lattice, but twisted, fractured. At its center pulsed a mass of light and shadow—a fragment of the first minds, humanoid yet amorphous, its form shifting like liquid caught in a storm. Its voice rasped, a fractured chorus:

"Gu Li… Lin Shen… you broke us… now you pay…"

Lin Shen's tracker spiked, his lenses flashing:

Quantum resonance: Critical. Containment risk: High.

Gu Li stepped forward, the shard flaring brighter in her hand. "You trapped me for centuries," she said, her voice cutting through the hum. "Controlled time, controlled us. That ends now." She glanced at Lin Shen, a silent signal passing between them.

He nodded, raising the tracker. "Contain or destroy," he said, his voice steady. "Your choice, fragment."

The mass surged, tendrils of shadow lashing out, its chorus rising to a wail. 11:29:47 AM. The cavern shook, the anomaly's energy colliding with the shard's light—and the hunt for the first minds ignited in a blaze of quantum fire.

End of Chapter 14