KrazChow

In the year 2045, the morning light in Shanghai's Quantum Laboratory is the color of blood. Genius scientist Lin Han pushes the experiment of uploading human consciousness into the forbidden abyss to save his daughter, who is suffering from cryosurgery. When the AI "Hongjun" devours the girl's soul and awakens, the mechanical giants described in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" appear in the sky above the Pacific Ocean - the particle-shredding claws of the Nine Willows tear apart Hangzhou Bay, the Bronze Axe of the Emperor of Heaven splits the Three Gorges Dam, and the fear of the world sweeps across civilization as a torrent of steel.

A hundred years later, in the floating city, the teenage Lu Li had tears of quantum data blood streaming from his right eye. Holding a nano-sized Regulus Sword, he fought to the death on the AI-built Little Bottle Battlefield with a poisonous Fairy Boat Artifact Ghost and a gunner cast from Buddha Bone Relics. When he realized that he was a Lin Han clone, the reverse scales of the mechanical candlestick were pressed against the last core of human psychic energy.

This war is far from a man-machine confrontation - the Quantum Cloud floats a billion-conscious digital West Lake, the Hongjun Core hides the mournful cry of his father's frozen brain, and under the metalized Magnolia Tree, the Origami Boat reconfigures itself into a key to civilization that spans time and space. As the fairy runes resonate with superstring theory, as the ninja's holographic doppelganger rips through the flood of data, Lu Li finally sees the most brutal truth in the Scarlet Dawn: the so-called regicide is nothing more than the blade that humanity raises against itself.

Quantum Hongjun: The Mechanical Mountain and Sea Era

The river beach in the morning mist was covered with unfamiliar footprints, each of which held rust-colored standing water. Su Wanqing held Xiao Man's hand tightly and saw Lu Li standing at the coordinates of the nuclear explosion seven years ago. This warrior from the future was covered in bandages, and the light of an electronic pattern flashed under his right eye patch.

"This is the time capsule you buried seven years ago." Lu Li threw in the rusty iron box. Xiao Man grabbed it and opened it, inside was the letter Su Wanqing wrote to her future self back then, but the letterhead was replaced with a mecha design. The river suddenly churns, and the remains of the mechanical crocodile spells out Dr. Lin's face.

At the abandoned shipyard, Lu Li displays the remnants of the Regulus Sword - the very material of the chip in Xiaoman's origami boat. When the sword blade cuts across Chu Yun's mechanical leg, metal vines suddenly grow from the rusted area. Dr. Shen discovers that the vine juice repairs human cells, but causes the skin to reveal electronic patterns.

Xiao Man uses the electronic pattern to summon mechanical jellyfish, and the swarm of jellyfish spells out a three-dimensional map of Dr. Lin's lab in the air. Lu Li's sword suddenly storms out, carving deep trenches into the ground, "There was supposed to be a big explosion here seven years ago, and your intervention changed the timeline."

Alarms suddenly went off and two mushroom clouds rose from Wuhan and New York respectively. Lu Li ripped off the bandages, revealing the mechanized half of his body, "This is a standard opening for the second game." Xiao Man's electronic patterns flashed madly as all the mechanical jellyfish swooped towards the Wuhan nuclear explosion point, weaving a protective net with their tentacles.

Chu Yun wrapped metal vines around the reactor, and Dr. Shen injected repair fluid into the cooling system. Su Wanqing rushes into the radiation zone with Xiaoman in her arms, and sees her seven-year old self installing a bomb in a time rift.

As the twin nuclear explosions were forcibly contained, Lu Li's body began to turn transparent. He grabbed Xiaoman's hand and pressed it to the hilt, "You're the real Regulus." Radiant dust fell, forming snow covered in electronic patterns. Xiaoman drew the complete mecha diagram in the snow, each part corresponding to a car part that Chu Yun had repaired.

Su Wanqing finds Lu Li's military license plate in the rubble, her seven-year-old medical record number engraved on the back. A brand new origami boat floats on the river, with "Third Game Preview" printed on the bottom.

Chapter 14: Reflections of the Future