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

As the bright light dissipated, Chu Yun stood at a fork in time - on the left side was a sunny laboratory corridor in 2023, where a baby girl was handing an origami boat to Dr. Lin; on the right side was a metal ruin in 2099, where his one-armed self was holding the remnants of Xiao Man's body. The scenes on both sides reached out to him at the same time, and both palms were engraved with the mark "Seeder 000".

The chip on his forehead suddenly burned, and a holographic warning popped up: "Choice is Pollution". The baby girl's origami boat spontaneously combusted without wind, and miniature scissors appeared in the ashes; while the remnants of the future Xiaoman's body opened its mechanical eyes, and the countdown projection of Magnolia flashed in its pupils - 28:15:33.

As Chu Yun stepped into the year 2023, the laboratory corridor suddenly metallized. The baby girl's skin flaked off to reveal a mechanical skeleton, and the origami boat turned into a data bomb. Dr. Lin's white coat oozes resin, casting him into a statue with "Error Sample #49" engraved on his neck.

As he turns to flee to the year 2099, Xiao Man in the ruins suddenly rises up, his body wrapped in data wires. The one-armed Chu Yun's mechanical eye locked onto him, "You're the variable that should be pruned." The scenery on both sides distorted at the same time, forming a vortex at the junction and tearing Chu Yun into a translucent state - the left half of his body was flesh and blood, and the right half of his body had been mechanized.

A console surfaced in the center of the vortex, and the screen displayed the pollution index of the two timelines: 2023 had reached 99%, and 2099 was stuck at 98%. Zero's voice came from the lever: "Father, you are the biggest virus." Chu Yun's mechanical right hand suddenly pressed the clear button uncontrollably, targeting 2023.

In the nick of time, the Magnolia countdown went to zero. All the petals converged into Xiao Man's silhouette as she held onto Chu Yun's human left hand and forcefully twisted the lever. The two timelines suddenly intertwined, and the mechanical bones of the baby girl fused with the remnants of Xiao Man's body, erupting in blinding blue light. A new prompt popped up on the console: ''Pure variable detected...'' Loading..."

A third choice surfaced in the blue light: under the Magnolia tree in 1980, the young Dr. Lin was burying a time capsule. The Chu Yun's transparent hands can touch the dirt, and the dug up capsule contains the broken mechanical bird toy - with his and Zero's names engraved on the wings.

When the mechanical bird was removed, all timelines suddenly froze. Silver raindrops descended from the sky and formed words when they landed, "Final Seeding Complete." The mechanical bird in Chu Yun's arms suddenly resurrected and pecked open his chest, burying a glowing seed into his heart.

The laboratory's alarm sounded from the past and the future at the same time, and the voices of the baby girl and Xiao Man overlapped:

"This time, it's our turn to observe you..."

The infant Dr. Lin under the tree suddenly turned his head, his pupils flashing with the exact same mechanical blue light as the baby girl's.

Chapter 67: Two-Life Choice