Chapter 538: Invasion

The mechanical limbs behind the blonde elf Luo curled up, and even her ears drooped slightly, making her look pretty dejected.

Yu Sheng watched her from the side, thought for a moment, and said, "Well, it's just a matter of dropping two nukes, and I don't think that thing is that big. If worst comes to worst, I'll open a door and send it back for you, and you can just give me the cost price later..."

But before he could finish, Luo shook her head gloomily. "No, the key isn't the nukes. It's their installation positions and the interlocking mechanisms. The core part of the lab is protected layer by layer by a complex set of force-field devices, capable of resisting considerable destructive force. The safety system's role is to trigger a chain reaction at key points in the protective fields to shut down the Zolda Blackstone's operation from the inside..."

"Do you understand? Those two fusion bombs are just two 'triggers.' Simply moving them back is useless. You have to reinstall them in the correct positions of the interlocking mechanism. But the safety system, from the start of its design, never considered the possibility that the triggers would vanish into thin air... It's almost impossible to reinstall the bombs without damaging the interlocking mechanism."

In the office, a few people exchanged glances. Ai Lin looked around and finally couldn't help but speak. "What a mess—I don't understand any of this! Is it really that troublesome to blow up a lab? Don't you have a ton of black tech? Just find something more powerful than a nuke and take out the whole space station directly! Why all this chain reaction and internal shutdown nonsense..."

"Of course not!" Luo interrupted Ai Lin hastily before she could finish. The latter clearly still had some psychological trauma from the 66.6-centimeter-tall dwarf, and didn't dare look directly at the little doll while speaking. "You don't understand. That lab... even the entire Blackstone Space Station—their function is not just to protect the Blackstone, but more to serve as its limiter."

Yu Sheng immediately frowned. "Limiter?"

"Yes. Or to put it another way, the entire Blackstone Space Station is actually a cage. Eighty percent of its structure is designed to prevent the Blackstone from escaping," Luo said quickly. "Remember what I said earlier? The Blackstone gives various feedback based on external stimuli—that thing is like some kind of living creature. In an 'awakened' state, it's quite active and has a very strong tendency to escape. That's why we need the chain reaction triggered by the 'triggers' to ensure we can correctly change the Blackstone's operating mode in an instant, forcing it back into a dormant state."

"If we don't do that, but simply and crudely destroy the station, the Zolda Blackstone, which is in an operating state, would directly contact the outside world. I... don't know what would happen then, but it definitely won't be anything good."

Yu Sheng listened for a while, and after barely keeping up with her explanation, he looked confused. "What the hell? A nuke explosion can put it to sleep?"

Luo's eyelid visibly twitched, and she looked at Yu Sheng with eyes full of resignation and sigh.

"Don't look at me like that," Yu Sheng quickly waved his hands upon seeing her reaction. "My college entrance exam scores were just average."

Bai Liqing, who was nearby, said thoughtfully, "But as far as I know, before you obtained that 'stone,' it circulated among scavenger settlements for a long time, even being the trigger for multiple warlord conflicts. What was its state back then..."

"Dormant," Luo sighed. "The Zolda Blackstone had been asleep for ages, which is why those barbaric, backward scavengers could fight over it and still live. In fact, it wasn't until three years ago that we first awakened it in a lab environment, and only then realized its escape impulse. But at that time, it was still manageable and didn't cause any trouble. Until about a year ago, the Blackstone's activity suddenly increased severalfold, as if it had fully woken up... Looking back now, the 'loss of control' probably started imperceptibly from then."

Yu Sheng's heart stirred at this. He subconsciously lowered his head.

Ai Lin also raised her head at the same time, her scarlet eyes meeting his.

"Carrying a picture frame is already heavy enough," the little doll began to mutter. "Now I still have to carry a pot on my back..."

Luo heard Ai Lin's mutterings and turned around in confusion. "What does that sentence mean?"

Yu Sheng waved his hand. After all, he wasn't familiar with her, so he didn't explain much and directly changed the subject. "I think you don't need to consider those two 'safety systems' anymore. They're useless. Even if you fixed the triggers, it wouldn't work."

Luo frowned. "Why do you say that?"

"Because the Blackstone's current active state has nothing to do with your activation three years ago," Yu Sheng sighed. "It's now agitated for another reason—the 'shutdown' procedure you set three years ago has already failed."

Luo turned her head in some confusion, her gaze falling on Bai Liqing.

"I suggest you believe what he says," Bai Liqing said expressionlessly. "He's the expert."

"Isn't this Hunter sir an expert in fighting the Dark Angels?" Luo's expression was puzzled.

But the next second, she suddenly realized something, and her puzzled expression turned to shock.

"Got it now?" Bai Liqing calmly stared into Luo's eyes, her tone tinged with a bit of helplessness and annoyance. "Will you still randomly pick up things and bring them back to study in the future?"

"I..."

Luo opened her mouth a few times, but in the end, she couldn't utter a single word.

After several seconds of silence, she finally turned to Yu Sheng. "Alright, Hunter sir, what's your suggestion?"

"I need to get close to that 'stone.' I'll need your cooperation," Yu Sheng said seriously. "Maybe I can find another way to calm it down—or figure out what it's 'thinking.' But let me warn you, I can't guarantee success. I'll have to try first."

"No problem," Luo nodded almost immediately. "As long as you can send me back to the space station, I'll immediately order the lab to open its doors to you... As for my 'disappearance' during this time, I'll use a suitable reason to dispel my subordinates' suspicions."

"No, it might not be that simple," Yu Sheng immediately waved his hand. Earlier, what he had seen in that "mirror space station" eroded by the power of doom—the mental bodies caught in webs and lost in delirious dreams—flashed through his mind. "Are you really sure that the researchers and security forces around the 'Blackstone' are still your subordinates?"

Luo was stunned for a moment, her expression changing. "What do you mean by that?"

"Recall your state just now," Yu Sheng shook his head. "When you heard someone question that the Blackstone was out of control and demand you shut down the research facility, what was your first reaction?"

Two seconds later, Luo's face visibly changed.

"That 'stone'... it can sense external threats to itself," Yu Sheng said slowly, deep in thought. "It contaminates and assimilates the minds around it, making you its protectors without you even realizing it. And it can do more than that—those two nukes that were teleported to the Borderlands were obviously not a coincidence."

Luo immediately realized. "You mean... it has already started trying to dismantle the restraints around itself!?"

"We're not facing a 'stone,' but a 'brain' that has already taken over that space station, capable of sensing threats and malice—and the way it judges and perceives threats is completely a mystery," Yu Sheng said, then unconsciously began pacing slowly in the office. "The researchers and security forces around the Blackstone, even the space station itself, will spare no effort to protect it, not to mention that the Blackstone itself may have all kinds of bizarre 'abilities'..."

Luo listened seriously beside him. After a moment of thought, she took a light breath. But just as she was about to say something, a piercing alarm suddenly interrupted her.

The alarm echoed through the Special Operations Bureau building!

Red light suddenly flooded the corridor outside the door. Several screens on the nearby desk instantly popped up with warning notifications. Bai Liqing's gaze sharpened, and in an instant, she was in front of one of the screens, connecting a constantly flashing call request. "What's the situation?"

"Director!" came an urgent voice from the speaker. "The spatial detectors have sensed multiple anomalous mass focal points forming on the second customs floor. Something is tearing through our spatial barrier!"

"Evacuate customs. Everyone retreat to the buffer zone and stand by. The security forces will be there immediately," Bai Liqing said rapidly. Then she looked up at Song Cheng, who was not far away. "Little Song, take people over there immediately—bring heavy firepower!"

"Yes, Director!"

Song Cheng quickly left. Bai Liqing then connected several other emergency communications, rapidly grasping the "invasion" situation occurring in the building with dizzying speed, and completed deployments for all affected floors and departments. Only then did Yu Sheng interject, "Where is that customs floor? I'll go over and help?"

"You've never been there. I'll take you," Bai Liqing said without ceremony, walking straight from behind the desk. As she walked, she turned to look at Luo. "You come too."

"If you don't mind a Black Dot scientist wandering and looking around your Special Operations Bureau building," Luo said casually. The legs under her long skirt immediately reorganized into flexible wheel-foot forms.

Ai Lin looked up at her upon hearing this, her little doll face full of suspicion. "What can you do over there? You can't even beat me."

Luo was choked up for a moment, but fortunately Bai Liqing next to her spoke up. "If any Black Dot soldiers run in, at least she can negotiate for us."

"Alright then—if those little Black Dot soldiers who run in can still listen to reason," Ai Lin shook her little head. Then she raised her hand and waved. More than a dozen mass-produced dolls immediately ran over and stood in a row behind her.

It must be said, it looked quite imposing—if you ignored the fact that these little things were only 66.6 centimeters tall.

"I still trust my 'army' more."

Ai Lin said smugly.