The Debtor System: Starting with a debt of 1 billion

The basement lights were a stark white, like the cold light of a morgue. Lin Mo spread the pile of metal wreckage salvaged from the deep sea onto the autopsy table.

When Lin Mo used tweezers to pry open the core chip armor of the listening device, his movements stopped.

On that black ceramic substrate, a string of almost imperceptible numbers and barcodes were laser-etched.

That cold, icy arrangement struck his mind like a thunderbolt.

With trembling hands, he pulled a yellowed photograph from his inner pocket—it was Suya's medical examination file when she was first taken in by "Eden." In the photograph, on the back of the girl's slender neck, on the skin covered by her hair, was the exact same mark.

The same.

"It's not eavesdropping..." Lin Mo's throat was dry, as if he had swallowed a handful of sand. "It's an anchor point."

The destroyed device wasn't for eavesdropping, but rather to activate something already implanted in Suya's body at a specific frequency. It was a physical beacon, a marker used to confirm the coordinates of the "cargo."

Lin Mo suddenly stood up, the chair scraping against the floor with a sharp, grating sound. He practically stumbled as he rushed up the stairs towards the elegant bedroom.

The door was ajar.

Moonlight streamed through the gaps in the curtains, casting a pale beam of light on the floor. Suya lay in bed, her sleep restless. Fine beads of cold sweat covered her forehead, her brows were furrowed, and her hands nervously scratched at the blankets, as if resisting something.

Lin Mo's heart clenched. He tiptoed over to her, wanting to wipe away her sweat.

Just as his hand was about to touch her, Suya's hand suddenly slipped out from under the covers, palm facing up.

Lin Mo's pupils suddenly contracted.

Her palm was scratched raw and bloody by her fingernails, and on that bloody mess, she unconsciously and repeatedly drew a symbol.

It was an extremely bizarre geometric shape—an inverted triangle with three spirals nested inside, resembling both an ancient totem and a sophisticated mechanical lock cylinder.

"This is..." Lin Mo's breath caught in his throat.

He had seen this symbol in the core encrypted files of "The Doctor".

That is the access key to the highest level of "Eden," the ultimate password to unlock all deep brainwashing programs and remove the "twin virus" restrictor.

Suya had no idea what she had drawn.

In her sleep, she uses pain to awaken memories and uses blood to replicate the shackles etched deep in her soul.

She wasn't rebelling.

She was responding to...

Lin Mo stood stiffly by the bed, looking at Su Ya's pale face in the moonlight. She looked so fragile, like a fragile piece of porcelain, yet within her body lay a key powerful enough to destroy the world.

He slowly squatted down, his gaze level with that of the unconscious Suya.

The reflection in the mirror showed him his current appearance—a face covered in stubble, a sinister gaze, and hands stained with the oil of deep-sea metal. He and Suya on the bed formed an eerie confrontation in the mirror.

One is an exiled avenger, the other is a cursed perfect vessel.

"How many secrets are you still hiding that I don't know about?" Lin Mo murmured softly, his voice hoarse as if he were crying.

Suya murmured in her sleep, her fingers curling slightly, the blood-red symbol appearing even more eerie in the moonlight.

Lin Mo reached out, but didn't touch her wound. He simply pulled the blanket over the hand marked with the curse symbol.

"It's okay."

He stood up, his gaze turning cold and resolute once more, as if he were making a vow to himself in the mirror.

"No matter how many backdoors 'Phoenix' has left, no matter what this key can open."

"As long as I live, this lock will never be opened."

Outside the window, a bolt of lightning ripped through the night sky, illuminating the hideous old scar on his face. In that instant, his reflection in the mirror seemed to come alive, revealing a smile more sinister than any demon.