The "Survival on the Train" game has bugs, it's really laggy!

The dark gold claws gripped the gray-white giant's body tightly.

At this point, the powers of K-001 and JY-001 clashed most violently. The life-devouring crimson energy and the concept-stripping gray-white energy churned wildly. The spatial structure of the maintenance station could not withstand this level of rule-crushing, and began to collapse on a large scale, revealing a pitch-black void behind it.

Su Yuan held the heavy sniper rifle, his finger hovering over the trigger. He didn't fire. The Devourer's energy flow reversed, and the main cannon's energy was entirely redirected back to the Blue Flame Core.

Xiao Huo's broadcast was incredibly fast, crackling with electricity: "K-001's goal isn't to kill! It's forcibly absorbing the opponent's Conceptual Termination Attribute through physical contact!"

Large, irreversible dark gold patches appeared on the surface of the gray-white giant. It had lost ground in the energy clash.

The thought of "Blue" rang sharply in Su Yuan's mind, filled with unprecedented urgency: "Fire! We can't let it succeed! Once the two forces merge, nothing in the universe will be able to restrain it!"

JY-001, which was being held down by the giant claws, suddenly turned its smooth face. It faced the Devourer.

A pure will forcefully cut into Su Yuan's brain nerves.

"Kill it... Sixth Node... Here you go."

The former mortal enemy, the high and mighty ruler, offered Su Yuan what he needed most at the moment of facing being devoured.

Su Yuan didn't even lift his eyelids, his voice icy cold: "I refuse."

He never accepts handouts from others. He will fight for what he wants.

Wang Hu and Tang Lan watched helplessly as Su Yuan turned his heavy sniper rifle. The crosshair moved away from the gray-white giant's head and also swept past the dark gold giant claw. It locked onto the focal point where the two monsters' bodies met, where the clash of rules was most intense and the energy was most chaotic.

"Now."

Su Yuan decisively pulled the trigger.

The specially designed bullet, equipped with concept-suppressing spikes, roared out and transformed into a gray lightning bolt, plunging into the very center of the energy storm.

There were no earth-shattering explosions.

The ability to suppress spikes was completely detonated at this moment. An absolute "nothingness" instantly cleared away all the rules of that point. The two top-level energies that were originally locked in a fierce struggle and mutual antagonism suddenly lost their target.

A tremendous reaction force erupted. The out-of-control energy surged back towards its respective source.

A silent, agonizing scream echoed through the space.

The gray-white giant was violently thrown away, the cracks on its smooth face twisting violently, and the sixth node hidden deep within it flashed wildly, on the verge of collapse. K-001's dark gold giant claws were even worse off, with countless deep cracks appearing at the joints, and the red dot of the beating heart in its palm visibly dimming.

Su Yuan shoved the heavy sniper rifle aside and slammed his hands heavily on the main buttons of the control panel.

"Small fire, energy matrix fully loaded and overloaded! Integrate biological, logical, and weaponry authorities! Reforge the refining furnace!"

"Command confirmed."

The Devourer's body shuddered violently. The mobile refining furnace's outer shell was forcibly torn apart and reassembled under the immense interplay of permissions. A bizarre tentacle, formed from a stream of azure data and dark gold flesh and blood meridians, suddenly shot out.

It ignored the collapsing space and plunged straight into the crack on JY-001's face. That was the location of the sixth node.

"You dare!"

Two terrifying wills were enraged simultaneously. They abandoned their hatred for each other, turned around madly, and their huge bone spikes and broken dark gold claws slammed into the Devourer at the same time.

"Fire!" Su Yuan roared without turning his head.

Wang Hu slammed his hand down on the main gun's fire button. Tang Lan's hands moved across the virtual keyboard, leaving afterimages, and the remaining turrets of the maintenance station that she had taken over opened fire simultaneously. A dense storm of metal and high-energy rays wove together an impenetrable net of fire.

The barrage of fire collided head-on with the physical attacks of the two monsters. Armor shattered, metal melted. The obstruction wasn't enough to cause damage, but it did create a 1.5-second pause.

The tentacles precisely pierced the crack.

A massive flow of information, impossible to quantify with data, surged into the Devourer host like a burst dam.

From the dilapidated broadcasting equipment at the maintenance depot, came an old, dry voice devoid of any metallic quality.

"Sixth lock cylinder returned to position... Pangu First Protocol... Activated."

A line of green text appeared on the main control screen: "Formatting master control privileges unlocked. JY-007 has gained 6/6 control."

Su Yuan's expression darkened the moment he saw the scene before him. He had gained full access and could now see through the true structure of the JY-01 maintenance station.

This isn't a train maintenance station; it's just a thin shell.

At this moment, the outer shell was peeling away and sinking inch by inch beneath his feet. A holographic image unfolded in his mind: beneath the foundation of the maintenance station, there were no rock layers, only hundreds and thousands of black chains, each hundreds of meters thick.

Chains crisscrossed, tightly binding a colossal creature whose shape could not be described in words and which was composed entirely of pure darkness.

The entire JY-01 maintenance station is just a lock used to suppress this thing.

The blue light stone on the control panel emitted a dense cracking sound.

"No!" Lan's scream exploded in Su Yuan's mind, her voice filled with utter collapse and despair, "The lock is open! You let it out!"

JY-001 and K-001, which had been frantically rushing towards the Devourer, froze at the same time.

They withdrew from their attack stance, their massive bodies trembling slightly. The two monsters, standing at the top of the food chain, turned around, facing the collapsing depths of the earth, and let out low growls that sounded like submission and extreme fear.

The ground split open completely. Darkness, swallowing all light, rose up.

A grand, ancient, and comprehensible will descended directly. It did not speak through loudspeakers or brainwaves, but rather directly within the underlying logic of all living people, living metal, and AI.

"Why are my keys... killing each other?"

The voice was incredibly calm: "The game is over. Come back to me."

The Devourer's main control screen went black instantly. All control interfaces were forcibly erased.

A line of flashing blood-red text appeared in the center of the screen.

[The "lock" on JY-01 has been opened. Please select your identity:]

[The Remains of the Key] or [The New Guardian].

At the same instant, an extremely faint shattering sound came from behind Su Yuan. The blue light stone, riddled with cracks, shattered completely into powder.

The powder didn't fall; instead, it gathered upwards, condensing into a pale blue, semi-transparent female silhouette. Her face was indistinct, but her overall figure was identical to that of Ji Yun, the train conductor who died in the line of duty fourteen years ago.

The phantom image attached itself to Su Yuan's back the moment it took shape.

A hand made entirely of cold energy silently pressed down on the back of Su Yuan's neck.

"I'm sorry, Number Seven." "Blue's" voice was as soft as a breeze, yet it carried an unfathomable sorrow and resolve. "What's inside the lock must never come out. So... please become the new lock cylinder."