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Chapter 1064: Awakening Prisoner

The darkness lasted for three days.

When Zhao Wuji regained consciousness from the severe pain, the first thing he felt was cold—not the severe cold of Antarctica, but a metallic cold that seeped from deep in his bones. He tried to move his fingers and heard a subtle metallic sound from the friction of his joints. He opened his eyes and saw the uneven rock wall in his blurry vision, with the shadow of the campfire dancing on it, like some kind of ancient mural.

"Don't move." Lin Xiaoyu's voice came from the right, "Your body is still reorganizing."

He turned his head with difficulty and saw her sitting on a metal box covered with frost. Her left arm had been completely metalized, with blue lines like circuits flowing on the silver-white surface, and a few sparks of electricity bursting out from her fingertips from time to time. Even more amazing was her eyes - the originally pitch-black pupils now glowed with electromagnetic blue, like two weak lights in the dim cave.

"Where are we?" Zhao Wuji's voice was too hoarse to be human.

"The underground warehouse at McMurdo Station." Lin Xiaoyu tapped the box behind him with his metal fingers. The faded words "National Science Foundation" could be vaguely seen on it. "The explosion threw us seventy kilometers away. When you were unconscious, I found this abandoned scientific research station."

Zhao Wuji tried to sit up, but found his body unusually heavy. Looking down, he saw a faint metallic luster under his skin, similar to Zuo Xiaoyu's. Especially the position of the key pattern on his chest was now covered with a layer of translucent silver substance, like a scar condensed from liquid metal.

"Where's the ship? Where's Wilson?"

"It disappeared." Lin Xiaoyu's metal finger drew a holographic image in the air - a perfectly circular lake appeared on the Antarctic ice sheet, with a diameter of exactly three kilometers and edges as smooth as if cut by laser. "Everything is in that black hole, including..." She paused, "including the black matter."

Zhao Wuji suddenly grabbed her wrist. The moment he touched the metal skin, a strange memory flooded into his mind -

(The whispers beneath the ice were not an illusion.

Promethean civilization is not a sower, but a jailer.

They traveled across the stars not to spread fire, but to imprison a certain being.

The earth is the prison, the awakened are the chains, and the key is the jailer's deception.)

"Did you see it?" Lin Xiaoyu did not pull back her hand. "After our abilities mutated, data will be exchanged when we touch each other." She pointed to the silver scar on Zhao Wuji's chest. "This is the prototype of a new type of key. It is no longer a one-way contract."

Suddenly, there was a roar outside the cave. Zhao Wuji instinctively raised his hand, and the metal bracket on the top of the cave automatically twisted and deformed, forming a defensive barrier at the entrance. His ability had indeed mutated - he could not only manipulate metal, but also sense the existence of all metal elements within a radius of 100 meters, as if he had gained a new sense.

Lin Xiaoyu's electromagnetic induction caught the anomaly earlier: "It's not the super management bureau, it's an earthquake."

But the vibration was strange. It didn't come from underground, but like some giant footsteps, and every step made the ice groan as if it was about to break. Zhao Wuji climbed to the entrance of the cave and saw through the gap a scene he would never forget -

In the middle of the ice lake in the distance, the water surface was rising. It was not a wave, but some kind of hemispherical transparent dome, exactly 300 meters in diameter. Through the distorted water curtain, a vague human figure could be vaguely seen. It slowly stretched its limbs, and each movement caused ice tremors in a radius of several miles.

"It's awake." Lin Xiaoyu's metal arm trembled uncontrollably, "The imprisoned being."

The silver scar on Zhao Wuji's chest suddenly became hot. A new stream of information forced its way into his consciousness - this time it was not memory, but real-time data. He saw the being under the ice lake turn its head, and despite the distance of several kilometers and the water curtain barrier, it seemed to be looking directly at him.

There are no words. Only three images flash in sequence:

1. The metal network in the Earth's core spreads like nerves throughout the mantle;

2. Seven spaceships that crashed around the world in ancient times;

3. Diagram of Zhao Wuji and Lin Xiaoyu’s body structure after mutation, marked with “Key 2.0”.

"It's recruiting us?" Lin Xiaoyu shook her head in disbelief.

Zhao Wuji pressed the hot scar on his chest. His mutated abilities allowed him to sense more information—that being was neither a living being nor a machine, but some kind of quantum intelligence. It was divided into seven parts by the Prometheus civilization and imprisoned in spaceships on different continents. The explosion in Antarctica accidentally destroyed one of the seals.

The ice lake suddenly returned to calm. The figure sank into the water, but Zhao Wuji knew it had not left, it was just waiting. On the distant horizon, the Super Management Bureau's aircraft was flying close to the ice surface, with some kind of nuclear warhead hanging under its belly.

"72 hours." Zhao Wuji looked at his gradually metalized palm, "The countdown Wilson mentioned is not the start time at all. It is the deadline for the seal to become invalid."

Lin Xiaoyu's electromagnetic vision captured the words on the aircraft: "They brought quantum annihilation bombs to completely destroy the things in the lake."

Zhao Wuji thought of the metal network in the core of the earth. If that existence is really connected to the entire planet as shown in the picture, forcibly destroying it will only lead to more terrible consequences. He looked at his mutated hand and suddenly understood the true purpose of Key 2.0——

Not a lock, and not a key.

It's a translator. "We need to get closer to it." Zhao Wuji began to dismantle the metal boxes in the cave, "before the Super Management Bureau causes a bigger disaster."

Lin Xiaoyu's metal arm lit up with blue light and began to hack into the nearby communication frequency: "What will happen if all six sealing points are destroyed?"

Zhao Wuji did not answer. The silver scar on his chest was generating new lines. This time it was no longer a simple geometric figure, but a rotating projection of the Milky Way. The answer was obvious - the Prometheus civilization crossed the stars not to colonize the Earth, but to transform it into a cosmic prison. And now, the prisoners were waking up.

The ice field before dawn appeared a sickly blue.

Zhao Wuji was lying in a snow ditch 300 meters away from the ice lake, his metalized skin almost blending into the surrounding ice. The galaxy projection pattern on his chest was rotating at a slow speed, and every rotation brought a slight stinging pain - it was the resonance from the center of the earth. Three hours ago, the aircraft of the Super Management Bureau dropped the first quantum annihilation bomb on the lake, but the result was horrifying: the bomb was decomposed and reorganized by some force the moment it touched the water surface, turning into a huge metal flower, which now stood in the middle of the lake, and the same silver luster as that on Zhao Wuji's body flowed between the petals.

"The seventh attempt failed." Lin Xiaoyu's voice was transmitted directly to his auditory nerves through electromagnetic resonance. She was lurking behind the ice tower on the other side, her metal left arm connected to the iron ore vein in the frozen soil, monitoring the entire battlefield like a spider web. "Leng Feng just arrived at the East Side Command Center, and he brought..." Her voice suddenly twisted, "some kind of living weapon."

Zhao Wuji adjusted his visual focus. Three kilometers away, a team of soldiers wearing special protective clothing were unloading a cylindrical container from a transport plane. The surface of the container kept bulging and flattening, as if some struggling creature was trapped inside. When Leng Feng's mechanical finger pressed the switch, Zhao Wuji felt a sharp headache - the container contained a modified Lei Yan.

The former flame master was now a twisted experimental body. His skin was completely carbonized, and a magma-like light oozed out of the cracks. Six metal tubes were inserted from his spine, and the other end was connected to Leng Feng's armor. The most terrifying thing was his eyes: there were no pupils there, only two balls of dancing white flames.

"They used the black matter from Antarctica to transform him." Lin Xiaoyu's voice was filled with suppressed anger. "Those things are devouring his consciousness."

The ice lake suddenly shook. The water surface rose up to form countless sharp ice cones, as if some kind of defense mechanism was activated. Zhao Wuji knew that the existence had sensed the threat - quantum life forms are extremely sensitive to changes in consciousness. He tried to send a soothing signal with the galaxy pattern on his chest, but accidentally triggered a deeper connection.

Darkness enveloped the vision.

When Zhao Wuji "saw" again, he found himself suspended inside the earth. A crisscrossing metal network stretched in the hot mantle, like the synapses of some super nervous system. And at the core, curled up a huge figure made of pure energy - it was imprisoned by seven glowing chains, one of which had broken, the one at the South Pole.

(Image flashes:

The asteroid impact on Earth 6500 million years ago was not accidental;

The sinking of Atlantis was the second loosening of the seal;

The 1947 Roswell incident was an overhaul of Promethean civilization.)

The flood of information almost tore Zhao Wuji's consciousness apart. When he struggled back to reality, Leng Feng had already released Lei Yan.

The burning humanoid shells streaked across the ice, vaporizing the snow wherever they passed. The moment they touched the lake, the black matter in Lei Yan's body proliferated explosively, forming a giant net covering half of the lake. The lake water boiled, and for the first time, that quantum existence emitted a sound that could be received by the physical world - an ultra-low frequency vibration that could crystallize the air.

Zhao Wuji felt his metal skeleton trembling in resonance. He saw more metal structures emerging from under the ice. They were not the wreckage of a spacecraft, but some kind of communication device that grew directly from the center of the earth. Lin Xiaoyu's warning and the whisper from the center of the earth exploded at the same time:

"They're forcing it to fight back! This way they can locate the other six seal points!"

(Image appended:

Six red dots light up on the global map:

XZ Mt.Kailash

Bermuda Triangle Seabed

eye of sahara

Mayan Pyramids

Siberian Tunguska

Antarctica Dry Valleys

Zhao Wuji suddenly understood the real purpose of the Super Management Bureau. After Wilson's death, they no longer served the Prometheus civilization, but wanted to control the power of those seal points. Lei Yan was just a bait, and the existence in the lake

The ice surface vibrated violently under his feet. Zhao Wuji saw his metal skin peeling off, turning into countless silver particles flowing towards the center of the lake. This was not an attack, but a summoning - that existence recognized the holder of Key 2.0. He turned to look at Lin Xiaoyu, and her metal left arm also began to decompose.

"Do you want to trust it?" Lin Xiaoyu's right eye still retained a human pupil, filled with fear and determination.

There was no time to weigh the pros and cons. Leng Feng's armored forces had already deployed a fan-shaped encirclement. What they carried on their shoulders were not weapons, but some kind of receiving device similar to the Antarctic console. Zhao Wuji grabbed Lin Xiaoyu's hand and let the silver particles wrap around them.

Before he was completely covered by the silver cocoon, he saw two things:

1. Lei Yan suddenly turned his head and "looked" at them, a familiar golden light flashed in his eyes;

2. A metal pillar rose from the depths of the ice lake, with the top inlaid with the same galaxy pattern as the one on Zhao Wuji’s chest.

The whisper from the center of the earth became extremely clear at this moment:

"Find the other key holders. Before the seventh lock breaks."

The moment the silver cocoon completely closed, Zhao Wuji felt his body being broken down into elementary particles, speeding along the metal neural network of the earth. In his last glance, he saw Lei Yan break free from the control of the black matter and turn into a human-shaped torch to crash into Leng Feng's command vehicle.

The Antarctic sun rose at this moment, dyeing the exploding fireball blood red.