The Decaying Dream of America: I Assemble Corpses and Confront Madness

Chapter 121 Prologue to the Counterattack: The Gathering at the Edge of the Abyss

Ava traced lines on the table with her finger.

The three-dimensional architectural structure diagram instantly filled the center of the field of vision, with clear lines and distinct layers.

That was a vertical cross-section of the seven underground floors, with each floor marked with a different color to indicate the functional areas.

The fourth basement level houses the living area and basic laboratories, with spacious corridors and well-organized rooms.

On the fifth basement level, dense pipeline markings and high-pressure equipment symbols appear, labeled "Standby Generator Room" and "Circulating Water Treatment System".

The structure of the sixth basement level is the most complex. In the center is a huge circular experimental area, with eight channels radiating outwards. Each channel ends with an independent isolation chamber number.

Cabin A-07 is located on the southeast side, adjacent to the main control console and the neural signal amplifier array.

The seventh basement level has only a rough outline, labeled "Archived Storage" and "Waste Material Disposal," but the entrance passage is marked with a bold red line and noted "Biocontamination Isolation Door, Normally Closed."

Arthur took two steps closer, moving the light along the path of the ventilation ducts and cable shafts.

He had once hunted down fugitives in the sewer system of Emerald Dream City and had an instinctive understanding of the construction logic of such underground structures.

Evelyn was not involved in the discussion of these technical details.

Then, Ava brought up Lin Zheng's real-time physiological data panel again, zooming in on the brain functional imaging map to half a person's height. Evelyn focused on analyzing the pseudo-colored patches on the brain functional imaging map.

The pseudo-colored patches on the gray matter structure continued to flicker wildly, but her attention was focused on the white matter connective tissue between the hippocampus and the amygdala.

The signal strength curve there exhibits periodic spikes, and each time a peak occurs, Lin Zheng's eyelids in the monitoring screen involuntarily tremble.

"He's trying to establish new memory associations," Evelyn whispered.

"What?" Arthur turned his head.

"The hippocampus is responsible for memory encoding, and the amygdala processes emotions. When these two areas are forcibly activated synchronously, the brain will instinctively bind the current experience with past memories, even if they are completely illogical." Evelyn pushed up her glasses.

"Professor Finch's program instills in him fictional scenarios of hope, such as reuniting with his mother or returning to the warm kitchen of his hometown. But these scenarios are deliberately designed to be flawed—a wrong detail, a distorted line of dialogue, and then instantly switch to a blizzard or an empty room."

"So his brain was struggling, trying to find a reasonable explanation for these fragmented pieces, a narrative that could be sustained," Arthur said.

"Yes. But every attempt fails because the program doesn't allow success. So the activity of the connection bundle increases, like a circuit that repeatedly short-circuits, burns out, and then self-repairs. In the long run, it will either burn out completely, or—" Evelyn paused.

"What do you want?"

"Either a completely new, distorted neural pathway is formed. A pathway that directly welds false hope to real pain. At that time, any memory of warmth will automatically trigger a feeling of suffocation, and any thought of love will lead to despair."

The cold lights in the control center reflected a pale halo on the metal wall.

Ava then interjected.

"Based on data from the past 72 hours, sample 001's neuroplasticity index increased by 320 percent. In conventional medicine, this change usually occurs during the compensatory phase after severe brain injury, or in patients who have been using high-strength hallucinogens for a long time."

"But Lin Zheng did not suffer brain damage, nor did he take any medication," Evelyn said.

"So this is a forced reshaping." Ava tapped her finger in the air, bringing up a data table.

The table lists the coefficients of variation for Lin Zheng's various physiological indicators.

"Professor Finch is using his talent as a catalyst to accelerate this reshaping process. The emotional gap created by the 'difference in mental potential' provides the energy for the forced reconstruction of neural synapses."

Arthur's right hand unconsciously reached for his waist, where his revolver was hanging.

The cool touch of the metal gun handle brought him back to his senses.

"We need a window of time," he said.

Ava pulled up the security personnel's shift schedule.

The twelve armed security guards are divided into three shifts of four, and their patrol routes cover the main passages from the fourth to the sixth basement level.

There is a 15-minute overlap between shifts, during which monitoring is handled by a central AI. However, the AI's decision-making logic is based on detecting abnormal movement trajectories, which is ineffective against static latent activity.

"The weakest point is 3 a.m. every Wednesday," Ava highlighted on the timeline.

"Back then, there was a technician who would calibrate the pH sensor of the water circulation system alone on the fifth basement level, and the corridor monitoring would temporarily disable the biometric alarm because he had a Level 1 access card."

"Can you get your hands on the access card?" Arthur asked.

"The clone is ready. However, the chip inside the card has an anti-cloning counter. If it is used more than twice, it will be locked and an anomaly will be reported."

"So we only have one chance to enter the core area."

"The medical equipment supplier used by Finch Labs is Vesun Technologies," a company wholly owned by the Sterling family foundation. The control unit protocol is based on a modified Bluetooth 5.2, and the encryption layer uses a military-grade elliptic curve algorithm, but the key is updated every Friday at 5 PM via an internal network.

"When is the next update?" Arthur asked.

"tomorrow."

"In other words, we must act before 5 p.m. tomorrow, otherwise the encryption key will change and all remote access attempts will fail," Arthur concluded.

"Correct." Ava closed the document.

Where is the exit of the ventilation shaft?

"On the east side of Zone 7 of the Science and Technology Park, there is a ventilation tower disguised as an abandoned one. There are no fixed surveillance cameras within three meters around it, but a patrol car passes by every twenty minutes."

"What are the patrol car's routes and schedules?"

"It's already entered into the system." Ava pulled up another patrol record.

Records show that the patrol cars were contracted to a private security company, and the drivers would usually stop near the ventilation tower to smoke for about three to five minutes.

"Enough for one person to sneak in silently," Arthur said.

"But it's not enough for two people, nor enough to carry large equipment," Ava cautioned.

"So we're going in in batches. The Shadow's devices have to be miniaturized so they can fit in a backpack."

Ava had already begun sketching out the circuit diagram in her mind.

The core principle of the mental interference device is to use electromagnetic pulses of a specific frequency to interfere with the transmission of nerve electrical signals.

She needs to precisely simulate the inverse phase waveform of the abnormal harmonics in Lin Zheng's brainwaves in order to briefly interrupt the program control of "Utopia" without causing further damage.

This is like using a tuning fork to cancel the resonance of another tuning fork; the frequency and amplitude must be exactly the same.

"Ava".

"Um?"

"Does your father, Theodore Sterling, know what you're doing?"

The air in the control center seemed to freeze for a moment.

Ava's finger stopped in mid-air.

She didn't turn around, but just turned her head to the side and glanced at Arthur out of the corner of her eye.

My father believed that maintaining the stability of the covenant that founded the nation was the highest duty of the Sterling family. Any act that undermined this stability was a betrayal.

.

"Then what do you mean by what you're doing now?"

"A necessary venture capital investment." Ava turned back and continued operating the holographic interface.

"Just because Lin Zheng has potential?"

"Because he is a variable," Ava said calmly.

"In this meticulously calculated world, variables are the only thing that can disrupt the balance. Professor Finch wants to turn him into a more perfect calibrator, and I want to see what kind of new world he can calibrate if he survives."

"So you're still using him as a tool," Arthur said in a low voice.

"Everyone is a tool, Mr. Morgan. The difference is that some tools are used to maintain decay, while others are used to pry open cracks."

Ava stopped typing.

She looked up at Ava's back.

"You mentioned virtual programming before. What exactly is that?"

Ava remained silent for a few seconds.

Then she pulled up a video.

The scene depicts an empty room with a standard icosahedral geometric model suspended in the center.

The model rotated slowly, its surface reflecting a cold light.

Suddenly, one of the model's vertices caved inward without warning, and the entire structure collapsed into a writhing chaotic polyhedron within three breaths.

The timestamp in the bottom right corner of the video shows that the process lasted 4.7 seconds.

"This is a record from an out-of-control experiment that occurred three years ago at Miskatonic University," Ava said.

"The experiment aimed to attempt to directly interfere with the display using consciousness. They failed, but the failure proved one thing: when the observer's consciousness reaches a certain threshold, it is indeed possible to briefly edit the underlying code of local reality."

"Edit reality?" Evelyn's voice was dry.

"More accurately, it's about editing the projection of reality into a dream. Don't forget, the covenant of a nation is essentially a dream resulting from a transaction with some entity. Dreams have their own operating logic, just as programs have source code. 'Void programming' is a technique for directly reading and modifying that source code."

"Professor Finch is using this technique to torture Lin Zheng," Arthur said.

"Not entirely." Ava closed the video.

"Professor Finch used a simplified version; he could only write fixed scenario scripts," and then inject them into the subject's consciousness. True "void programming" requires a talent—a talent that allows one to intuitively understand the structure of dreams.

Lin Zheng might be the prototype of this talent.

"So he was chosen not only because he was a good calibrator, but also because he was a potential programmer."

Evelyn concludes.

"Someone who might write new dreams." Ava tapped her fingertips lightly on the table.

"A dangerous presence."

The planning process has entered a substantive stage.

Arthur began marking the specific time points for the actions.

"What about the evacuation route?" Evelyn asked.

"Going back to the ventilation shaft via the same route is too slow. There's an abandoned material transport pipe on the fifth basement level, 1.2 meters in diameter, that leads directly to the old drainage outlet on the west side of the science park," Arthur said, pointing to a gray dotted line on the model.

Where is the pipeline outlet?

"On the banks of the Emerald River, it's only 200 meters from the smuggling dock downstream. We can arrange for boats to pick us up in advance."

Who will prepare the boats?

"Me," Ava said.

She pulled up a map of the lower Emerald River and marked the location of an abandoned shipyard.

"There's a modified speedboat there, with a quiet engine, and a range sufficient to reach the estuary. Once out to sea, another cargo ship will pick you up and take you to a safe point on the high seas."

"It sounds like you've planned everything out," Arthur said.

"The foundation of risk management is redundancy design," Ava said without any change in tone.

"But what if we fail?"

"If it fails, Professor Finch will know someone tried to steal the sample. He will increase security and may initiate the 'Cognitive Baseline Reset' ahead of schedule, completely erasing Lin Zheng's personality. And you—"

Ava paused.

"You will be wanted, your photos will appear in every news feed, and you will be charged with terrorism and stealing state secrets. The Sterling family will use all their resources to ensure that you become three nameless bodies within forty-eight hours."

Only the faint hum of the equipment could be heard in the control center.

Arthur suddenly smiled.

It was a dry, emotionless smile.

"It sounds no different from usual."

Ava completed the circuit simulation of the interference device.

The screen displayed a frequency response curve, with the peak value perfectly aligned with the abnormal harmonics in Lin Zheng's brainwaves.

"Theoretically feasible. But the actual effect depends on the real-time state of Lin Zheng's brain. If his neural pathways have been reshaped too deeply, the interference may be ineffective or even exacerbate the chaos."

"Let's take a gamble," Arthur said.

"What are we betting on?"

"I bet he hasn't forgotten who he is."

Ava then turned around, facing the two of them directly for the first time.

Her gaze swept over Arthur and Evelyn in turn, finally landing on the surveillance window still playing in the corner of the holographic table.

Lin Zheng's lips stopped twitching, and his eyes closed slightly, as if he had fallen into a brief slumber.

However, the physiological data panel showed that his sanity score was slowly climbing, from 35.8 to 37.2.

"Mr. Morgan."

Arthur looked at Ava.

"In the serial disappearance case you investigated back then, were the victims last seen near the Rain Needle Technology Park?"

Arthur's back stiffened for a moment.

How did you know?

"Because it's the same group of people," Ava said softly.

"Professor Finch's early experiments needed fresh samples"—testing an early version of a utopian fantasy. They chose homeless people, drug addicts, and the homeless. These people disappeared, and no one followed through on the investigation.

"Except for me," Arthur said.

"Except for you. So you were transferred, and your file was sealed."

"Do you know who the killer is?"

"I know the project code name, I know the operating procedures, and I know where the bodies were ultimately sent. But I have no evidence, nor do I have the authority to stop it." Ava paused.

"Now you have it."

Arthur did not turn around.

His hand pressed on the sensor, the door slid open, and cold light from the corridor flooded in.

"See you at eight o'clock tonight," he said.

Then he went outside.

Evelyn followed behind him, paused at the doorway, and turned to look at Ava.

"Thank you for providing the information."

"You're welcome," Ava said.

"I'm just testing a hypothesis."

"What assumption?"

"The biggest flaw in the model, and the only point of reference that could potentially overturn it, is the assumption that even in a completely desperate environment, humanity would still make irrational, reckless choices for the sake of its fellow human beings. This is the foundation of a nation."

Evelyn remained silent for a few seconds.

"Do you see us as that fulcrum?"

"I think you guys are hammers." Ava's lips curled into that almost imperceptible smile again.

"Go break down that door, Dr. Reed. See what's behind it."

The door slowly closed.

The control center fell silent.

Ava walked to the holographic table and brought up another hidden interface.

The interface displays a complex network diagram, with nodes labeled with names, organizations, and resource flows.

The largest node in the center is labeled "Lin Zheng," and the connecting lines extend to "Finch Laboratory," "Sterling Family," and "National Pact Calibration Parameters."

She hovered her finger over the "Lin Zheng" node and gently swiped it.

The node splits into two phantoms.

One is labeled "Sample 001 - Current State", and the other is labeled "Sample 001 - Predicted Transformation Trajectory".

The predicted trajectory ends with a question mark.

Ava stared at the question mark and muttered to herself.

"Run, Lin Zheng. Run as far as you can."

"Then tell me what kind of new world you saw."

She closed the interface and turned to walk towards the row of cold incubation pods deep inside the control center.

A thin layer of frost had formed on the surface of the capsule, and inside, a blurry humanoid creature was submerged, its outline bearing a striking resemblance to Lin Zheng's experimental images.

Ava's fingers traced the glass dome of one of the hulls.

For the first time, a kind of pity appeared in her eyes, but it vanished in an instant.

"When the dream is truly reshaped, the Lin Zheng you know may just disappear."

Her voice echoed in the empty control center, like a prophecy, or a lament.

Then she pressed a button, and the liquid inside the incubation chamber began to circulate slowly, with bubbles rising from the bottom and bursting on the surface.

A new day is about to begin.

The gathering at the edge of the abyss is complete.