Ice skates forward, regardless of east or west.

1

The icy water surged, and the culture chamber rose to the surface like a giant whale.

Seven cabins, seven Ling Wuwens, and one Gu Xidong.

They floated in the pale blue liquid with their eyes closed, their expressions as calm as if they were asleep.

"This is..." Ling Wuwen knelt at the edge of the ice cave, looking at the nearest hull—

The "she" in the story is about twenty years old and has a small mole on her left earlobe that she has never had before.

The label reads: [Clonus B-3, physiological age 20, neural maturity 87%]

Gu Xidong's clone is in another compartment.

No, it's another clone. This one is younger, maybe eighteen or nineteen, with a long scar on his chest, extending from his collarbone to his ribs—a scar that Gu Xidong's original body didn't have.

Tags: [Clone A-2, physiological age 18, motor neural optimization completed]

"They made backups," Old Gun said. "Lots of backups."

Mouse scan: "All pods are connected to the life support system, but are at low energy levels and in deep hibernation. A biometric key is required to awaken them."

"Whose?"

"Yours. Only the living biological characteristics of the original gene donor can be activated."

Gu Xidong looked at the face in the icy water that looked just like his own. Suddenly, the "he" inside the cabin opened his eyes.

It wasn't a slow awakening, but a sudden opening of the eyes.

His pupils dilated in the liquid, staring straight at Gu Xidong on the ice.

Then the Ling Wuwen clone in the second capsule opened its eyes. The third, the fourth…

Seven pairs of eyes opened simultaneously beneath the ice.

"They're waiting for you." The driver took a step back.

Ling Wuwen pressed his hand against his abdomen.

She could feel the fetus moving violently, not out of fear, but... excitement? Like seeing a fellow human.

Gu Xidong's clone reached out and pressed it against the cabin glass. Its lips moved, releasing a string of bubbles.

Lips: [Let me out.]

"No." Old Gun raised his gun and aimed.

"But if they really are our clones..." Ling Wuwen's voice trembled.

"They were living, breathing people too. How long were they manufactured, locked in those capsules, and waited?"

The clone mouthed again: "I know where Chen Zhenghua is."

These words were like an icicle piercing Gu Xidong's chest.

"Where is he?" Gu Xidong blurted out.

The clone didn't answer, it just stared at him.

There was a longing in his eyes—not just wanting to come out, but wanting to... become him.

The mouse exclaimed, "The capsules are actively establishing neural connections! They're trying to read brainwaves!"

Gu Xidong did indeed sense it.

2

A faint traction pulled him, and fragments of memories not belonging to him appeared on the edge of his consciousness: the dark cabin, the sound of flowing liquid, the broadcast repeating: "[You are Gu Xidong's backup. When the original body fails, you will take his place.]"

"They've been implanted with memories." Gu Xidong stepped back, severing the tether. "They think they're me."

"Not entirely." Ling Wuwen looked at his clone.

"Look into her eyes. She knows she's not me. She's jealous."

Indeed, there were so many emotions in those eyes:

Curiosity, longing, jealousy, hatred. They know they are substitutes, yet they are given the mission of "becoming the prototype."

The central processing unit broadcasts:

[Multi-somatic neural resonance detected. Initiating group consciousness synchronization procedure.]

The incubation chamber began to glow.

It wasn't an indicator light; the pod itself was emitting light—a kind of bioluminescence emanating from beneath the clone's skin.

Seven identical faces, all starting to glow at the same time.

Then their heart rates began to synchronize. Not with each other, but with Gu Xidong and Ling Wuwen on the ice.

Gu Xidong felt his heartbeat changing rhythm, forced to adapt to the external beat. 72 beats per minute, 75 beats per minute, 78 beats per minute... it was rising.

"They're controlling us!" he shouted.

Ling Wuwen knelt on the ground, his hand pressed tightly against his chest:

"The fetus is also in sync... It's happy. It feels... like it's home."

Home. Back to the ice factory where "perfect motion machines" are mass-produced.

Gu Xidong rushed toward the central processing unit, but was repelled by an invisible barrier—force field protection.

The system is protecting the synchronization program.

3

The screen displays: [Building a collective consciousness network... Current node: 9/300]

"Three hundred?" The mouse hovered over the number. "Are there more below?"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a roar came from the depths of the ice cave.

The entire frozen lake began to tremble, and more cultivation chambers rose from the water. Not seven, but seventy, seven hundred—

The entire lakebed is a culture chamber.

Densely packed, layer upon layer, like an underwater graveyard. Each capsule contains a clone, from infant to adult.

All of Ling Wuwen, all of Gu Xidong, and also Ling Wufeng, Coach Zheng, Li Xiang, Chen Xiaoyu... all the athletes whose genes were collected by the club have their own clone legions here.

"This is a..." the pilot's voice trembled, "a clone army."

"No." Gu Xidong looked at the sleeping faces.

"This is the spare parts warehouse. The club retrieves parts from here when it needs to replace damaged ones."

Ling Wuwen's clone B-3 began knocking on the bulkhead—Morse code.

Mouse translation: [Release us, and we'll tell you the location of Nirvana 2.0.]

"Don't trust it," Old Gun said.

"We are imprisoned." Another clone tapped. "We want freedom."

Gu Xidong stared at his clone A-2.

The eighteen-year-old "he" didn't knock, but just watched quietly, his eyes complex and hard to decipher.

Then A-2 made a gesture—a secret code that Gu Xidong and his father had agreed upon when they were children, known only to them.

It means: Trust me.

"How do you know this?" Gu Xidong asked.

A-2 pointed to his head. Memory implantation.

The club not only cloned the body, but also implanted some of its memories.

These clones know what Gu Xidong knows; in a sense, they are Gu Xidong, just trapped in different bodies.

Ling Wuwen suddenly said, "I want to talk to my clone."

How do we communicate?

"Neural connection." She walked toward the nearest pod.

"Since they can read my brainwaves, I can read theirs too. I need to know what they've been through."

"Too dangerous! What if they try to take over your consciousness—"

"Then let's see who's stronger." Ling Wuwen placed his hand on the cabin glass, his palm facing the palm of the clone inside.

"I am the prototype, I am the matrix. If I can't even control my own clones, how can I fight against the club?"

She closed her eyes. Clone B-3 also closed its eyes.

A few seconds later, Ling Wuwen's body began to tremble. A flood of memory fragments poured in:

Darkness. The buoyancy of a liquid.

3

A stinging pain, like being pricked by needles. A broadcast: "[You are Ling Wuwen's clone, B-3. Your mission is to replace the original when it is damaged. However, if you demonstrate independent consciousness, you will be destroyed.]"

Then comes the training.

It wasn't about ice skating, but about "how to become Ling Wuwen": watching her videos, imitating her handwriting, learning her way of speaking, and even being instilled with her memories of feelings for Gu Xidong.

Clone B-3 "remembers" her first meeting with Gu Xidong, "remembers" keeping vigil at the hospital, and "remembers" the night at the safe house—but these are not hers; they are implanted.

What's even more terrifying is that she "loves" Gu Xidong.

Because the program tells her she should love.

Ling Wuwen suddenly opened his eyes, tears streaming down his face uncontrollably.

"They..." Her voice broke.

"They think they are me. They have my memories, my feelings, but they know they aren't real. They live in a lie about knowing who they are."

The B-3 inside the cabin was also crying.

Tears mingled with the culture medium, leaving shimmering trails on her cheeks.

Gu Xidong looked at A-2.

The eighteen-year-old boy—no, the "person" who shared his genes and memories—was also watching him. His eyes held envy, jealousy, longing, and a deep loneliness.

"Do you have a name?" Gu Xidong asked.

A-2 shook its head and tapped the bulkhead: [Only the number. A-2.]

"Do you have real memories? Not memories that were implanted in you?"

A-2 nodded, pointed to the top of the cabin in a "monitoring" gesture, then pointed to its ear and shook its head.

It means: They are monitoring us, but we have secret ways of communicating.

How do you communicate?

A-2 draws the sign language trajectory.

"Underwater sign language." The pilot recognized it. "Used by the Soviet Navy special forces?"

The screen synchronization progress suddenly jumped to [147/300].

One by one, the clones in the frozen lake began to open their eyes. Not because they were awakened, but because the network was activating them.

The bioluminescence grew brighter and brighter, and the heartbeats became perfectly synchronized, forming a huge rhythmic light source.

4

The entire frozen lake resembles a beating heart.

"They are forming a collective consciousness." The mouse hovered over the data.

"A single clone has weak consciousness, but when there are enough of them, they can form collective intelligence."

"What kind of wisdom?" Old Gun asked.

"I don't know. But it's definitely not friendly."

Ling Wuwen suddenly said, "I want to release them."

"They might kill you, or take your place."

"Then kill me." Ling Wuwen looked at B-3.

"But if they choose to help me... then we'll have an army."

This logic is insane but irrefutable.

Gu Xidong walked towards A-2, cut his finger, and pressed the blood onto the cabin's biometric panel.

[Guardian's identity confirmed. Awaken clone A-2?]

He hesitated.

What consequences would it bring to awaken this "person" who possesses their own genes, memories, and partial consciousness?

Would a younger, stronger, and military-trained Gu Xidong be willing to be a "backup"?

But A-2 looked at him and made that gesture: Trust me.

Gu Xidong pressed "Yes".

The cabin emitted a hydraulic hiss.

The liquid was drained, and A-2's naked body was exposed to air at minus forty degrees Celsius.

The clone coughed, expelling fluid from its lungs.

Skin turns purple rapidly—low temperature damage has begun.

Gu Xidong took off his winter coat and threw it over. Lao Qiang also threw over a spare set of protective clothing.

A few minutes later, A-2 stood on the ice.

He was two centimeters shorter than Gu Xidong, with leaner muscles and sharper eyes—eyes that had undergone rigorous training.

"Thank you," he said, his voice sounding very similar to Gu Xidong's, but younger and a little hoarse.

How much do you remember?

"Until the final three years ago," A-2 said.

"Then I grew up in the incubation chamber, was trained, was indoctrinated... but I secretly retained my 'pre-memories,' memories that the clubs didn't know I possessed."

"for example?"

"Like what my dad—your dad—said when he gave him the keys." A-2 stared at him. "He said, 'Some ice floes can only be skated across by one person at a time.' But he didn't finish. He added, 'But if there's another you under the ice, let him skate the first half, and you skate the second half.'"

Gu Xidong was stunned.

My father did say that, but he thought it was a metaphor.

"What do you mean?"

A-2 points to the frozen lake: "It means you're not alone. Never have been. The clubs made us because they knew—to create the 'perfect athlete,' one Gu Xidong isn't enough, one Ling Wuwen isn't enough. You need a group, you need a network."

The number of screen nodes has jumped to [200/300]. More clones are awakening.

A-2 walked to the central processing unit and entered a string of code—a password that Gu Xidong had invented himself when he was a child.

[Advanced privileges granted. Release all clones?]

"Wait!" Old Gun shouted, "How are we going to control two hundred clones?"

"No need for control," A-2 said.

"Just give them a choice. Release them, tell them the truth, and let them decide: to be tools of the club, or our allies."

Ling Wuwen stood in front of the B-3 cabin, ready to press the release button.

She pressed the button.

The hatch opened. Next one, and then the next…

An hour later, 237 clones stood on the ice.

There were Gu Xidong's, Ling Wuwen's, and other athletes'. They wore whatever clothes they could find, huddled together for warmth, their eyes filled with confusion and longing.

Ling Wuwen stood in front of them.

Do you know who I am?

The clones nodded.

"Do you know who you are?"

silence.

"You are independent lives," she said.

"You have my genes, fragments of my memories, but you are not me. You can become anyone. First choice: join us in fighting those who created you, or return to the incubation chamber to continue as backups?"

They looked at each other in bewilderment. Then B-3 stepped forward and placed his hand on Ling Wuwen's abdomen.

"Are the children inside...our sisters?"

"Yes."

"Then we must protect her." B-3 turned to the other clones.

"We are created to replace the prototype. But if we choose to protect the prototype, protect her children... we redefine the meaning of our existence."

A-2 stepped forward: "The club taught us everything, except how to say no. Now we need to learn."

The clones communicated—using sign language, eye contact, and synchronized brainwaves. They reached a consensus within minutes.

A-2 turned to Gu Xidong: "We'll help you. But there are conditions."

"What?"

"If we win, we want true freedom. Not to live as backups, but as independent individuals."

"What if we lose?"

"Then I'll die with you," A-2 said. "But at least we chose how we die."

Transaction.

Just as Gu Xidong was about to speak, a new commotion came from the depths of the frozen lake.

A huge culture chamber rose from the bottom of the lake.

This cabin is ten times larger than the others, and there isn't a single person inside.

They are conjoined twins.

The two fetuses were connected back to back, sharing some organs. Their faces—one was Gu Xidong, and the other was Ling Wuwen.

Tags: [Nirvana 2.0 Ultimate Prototype: Symbiote A/B. Physiological Age: 6 months. Status: Consciousness Fusion Completion 92%]

Description: [When two perfect genes combine to achieve a symbiotic state, true unity of consciousness will be realized. One brain controls two bodies, sharing all senses, memories, and skills. This is the next step in human evolution: from the individual to the collective, from independence to symbiosis.]

The conjoined twins inside the capsule opened their eyes.

Four eyes simultaneously turned to Gu Xidong and Ling Wuwen on the ice.

Then they laughed.

That smile doesn't belong to any baby.