Clone Self

Hearing this, a faint blue light instantly flashed in the silver-haired girl's eyes!

She snatched the white access card right out of Fang Qi's hand!

Her movements were so fast that he didn't even have time to react...

The card had already vanished from his palm, smoothly drawn away and firmly held between Liguang's two slender fingers!

Fang Qi: "...?"

He looked down at his empty hand, then up at Liguang.

Wifey, you're way too fast!

But Liguang had already turned to face the control panel, her slender fingers tapping rapidly on the touch screen.

Deep blue data streams surged in the depths of her amber eyes as her fingertips swiped continuously across the screen!

"Smack!"

She forcefully slapped the close door button!

"Rumble..."

The heavy alloy blast door began to slowly close.

Fang Qi: "..."

Wifey, it seems you didn't even use that card to close the door this time...

Whatever.

As long as she is happy.

He looked at the metal door in front of him.

Accompanied by the noise, the gap in the door, which was only two fingers wide, was gradually narrowing.

Then...

"Bang, bang, bang—!!"

Gunshots erupted once again!

And the moment they rang out...

Liguang's two small hands quickly covered his ears again!

Protecting Fang Qi's eardrums.

Fang Qi blinked.

Before his eyes, metallic afterimages flashed wildly through the slowly closing gap!

Smashing into the wall directly opposite once more!

...Again?

I'm not even standing near the gap, what are you shooting at!

The gap grew narrower and narrower!

"Clang, clang, clang, clang—!"

The bullets finally began hitting the closing alloy door!

The sonorous sound of metal striking metal!

"Clang, clang, clang—!"

Then...

"Click."

The last sliver of the gap finally closed.

All sounds vanished in an instant, and everything returned to silence.

The heavy alloy blast door isolated the B1 floor from the outside world.

Fang Qi raised his hand, caught the small hands covering his ears, and stared at the tightly shut metal door.

...It is closed.

But...

He pursed his lips.

The people outside were going to cause trouble.

They were going to use thermal cutting to force their way through!

Although this alloy blast door was thick, how long could it hold up against professional thermal cutting equipment?

Probably not for long.

So...

He immediately gripped Liguang's small hand and pulled!

Striding forward, he headed deeper into the B1 floor!

"Forget about those guys!"

"Let's do what we need to do first!"

The hem of the silver-haired girl's white short skirt fluttered slightly as she was pulled along for a couple of steps...

Then she obediently kept up with his pace.

The two of them passed through the living area.

Those simple metal bunk beds were still there, and a few snack wrappers were still lying on the folding dining table.

Potato chips, biscuits, chocolate bars...

Exactly the same as in the last loop.

Fang Qi observed all of this.

They had originally come here to investigate the secrets of this place.

Everything was planned out perfectly, but then they suddenly ran into this group of ghosts...

Plans really cannot keep up with changes.

But it was fine.

At least for now, they were back on track!

It just felt like...

The group of people behind them had put a time limit on him?

He felt a little anxious.

He could only hope that the door would hold out a bit longer.

Fang Qi held Liguang's small hand and continued walking inside.

Liguang became even more obedient.

The closer they got to the inner part of this floor, the brighter the light in her left eye became.

Fang Qi turned his head slightly to look at her.

In that amber eye, a deep blue was continuously surging from the depths, flowing slowly and steadily.

Her true core was gradually awakening as they approached the core area of the research institute.

Her whole person became sharper, quieter, and more focused than usual.

Her grip on Fang Qi's hand also grew tighter and tighter.

Obviously, her heart was not calm at this moment either.

Fang Qi squeezed her small hand in return.

The two passed through the empty material storage area and went past the old basic laboratory.

Those old terminal computers were still sitting quietly in the corners of the lab benches.

Lin Xiaoyou had turned them on for him before. But now, a thin layer of dust covered the cases, and the screens were dark.

At this moment, the silver-haired girl slightly turned her head.

"Master."

She glanced at the tightly shut alloy blast door, deep blue surging in her amber eyes.

"We need to hurry."

It seemed Liguang believed that door would not hold for long.

The two immediately quickened their pace.

Finally, at the end of the corridor.

The entrance to the B2 floor appeared before their eyes once again.

It was still that heavy metal alloy door, its silver-gray metallic surface gleaming with a cold light.

On the side of the door, a few metal panels had been pried off, revealing the dense wiring inside.

Wires of various colors were tangled together, connected to a laptop with a bright yellow casing.

It had a thirteen or fourteen-inch screen, and the casing was covered with various cartoon stickers.

At a glance, Fang Qi saw that familiar sticker.

A cat rolling its eyes.

Its expression was highly punchable, exactly like a certain round-faced girl.

Fang Qi squinted at the bright yellow laptop.

In the last loop, Lin Xiaoyou had squatted right here, clacking away at the keyboard, and opened this door with just a few keystrokes.

At the time, she was proudly showing off, saying that it had taken them a long time to crack the biometric identification of this door, and that just dismantling the outer casing had taken two days...

But now Lin Xiaoyou was not here.

However...

He turned his head and looked at the silver-haired girl beside him.

Liguang was tilting her head slightly, looking at the laptop, the deep blue still surging.

The corners of Fang Qi's mouth curled up.

With his wife here, did he even need Lin Xiaoyou?

Liguang was currently in a state where her true core was awakened!

And her true core was a supercomputer!

Even if Liguang might not be as good at schemes and being infuriating as a certain genius miss...

When it came to hacking, a hundred Lin Xiaoyous could not compare to his Liguang!

Liguang let go of his hand.

She stepped forward on her own initiative without him even needing to say anything.

"Master, please wait a moment."

The silver-haired girl walked up to the door, gracefully lifted the hem of her white short skirt, and gently knelt down.

With her fair legs elegantly folded together, she picked up the bright yellow laptop and gently placed it on her lap...

Her slender fingers began to type on the keyboard!

"Clack, clack, clack-clack-clack..."

Her typing was as smooth as flowing water.

In her amber left eye, deep blue codes were streaming at high speed!

Fang Qi leaned against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest, watching the silver-haired girl kneeling and typing on the keyboard...

The corners of his mouth could not help but turn up!

So beautiful!

He did not understand this technical work, did not understand hacking or two-factor authentication.

In his eyes, those colorful codes were just a bunch of incomprehensible scribbles.

...But his wife understood!

With Liguang here, there was no need to worry about this kind of thing at all!

He felt completely at ease!

It was very quiet around them, with only the sound of Liguang typing on the keyboard.

He gradually calmed down and turned his head...

Looking toward the direction of the B1 entrance.

That direction was also very quiet.

The soundproofing of that door was actually quite good; after all, the moment it closed just now, the gunfire outside was immediately cut off.

So...

Who knows if the people outside have started cutting through it yet?

That group of people...

The face surfaced in Fang Qi's mind once again.

A young Lin Zhouyuan.

Lin Xiaoyou's young father.

Fang Qi narrowed his eyes, his fingers tapping lightly against his arm.

So...

Why on earth was there a young Lin Zhouyuan?

His first reaction, actually, was that it was a clone.

Technology in this world had advanced to the point where even AI companions could be mass-produced, so cloning a human shouldn't be that difficult, right?

But...

No.

That person looked to be at least in his twenties.

A clone would still have to grow up from childhood!

It was not like you clone someone and they pop out as a fully formed adult!

From embryo to infant, from infant to child, from child to adult...

That was a growth process spanning over twenty years!

Clones were not like AI companions, ready to use right out of the factory!

Unless...

Lin Zhouyuan had cloned himself over twenty years ago?

Fang Qi shook his head.

That made absolutely no sense!

How old was Lin Zhouyuan himself twenty-odd years ago?

In his early twenties?

Just out of college?

Cloning himself back then?

He would have had to be out of his mind with nothing better to do!

Furthermore, Fang Qi had always felt that...

Human cloning was basically just a gimmick.

There was absolutely no practical need for it.

Was there a shortage of humans in this world?

Did they need to be created through cloning?

What was the point of cloning?

Just giving birth normally was much faster!

Natural reproduction, evolved by nature over hundreds of millions of years, was far superior to cloning!

Besides, nature could clone humans too!

Were identical twins not nature's natural clones?

Theoretically speaking, the DNA of identical twins was one hundred percent identical.

But...

Fang Qi narrowed his eyes.

This was another point that did not add up.

Clones, like identical twins, shared the exact same genetics.

But identical twins did not necessarily look completely identical!

Acquired factors would create significant differences. Dietary habits would affect their physique, lifestyle habits would affect their aura...

In short, anyone familiar with a pair of twins could basically tell them apart at a glance.

But the young man outside the door, and the Lin Zhouyuan on the white card...

Even the positions of the moles on their faces were exactly the same!

So...

Fang Qi stared in that direction, his pupils shrinking slightly.

Was that person... really Lin Zhouyuan himself?

A young Lin Zhouyuan?!

But Lin Zhouyuan was already dead.

He had died in an official vehicle along with his father, Fang Chu, and his mother, Su Yue!

That car crash had taken the lives of all the core executives of the Dawn Company.

This was what Lin Xiaoyou had personally told him.

She also said that she had seen her father's corpse in the hospital.

She had also seen Aunt Su's corpse, and the corpses of all those uncles and aunts who used to surround her.

Liguang had also said that Lin Xiaoyou was not lying at the time.

At least in Lin Xiaoyou's subjective cognition, she had truly seen her father's corpse in the hospital.

She truly believed that her father was dead.

But...

Fang Qi took a deep breath.

He had previously speculated that his parents might not have died because of Dawn's internal struggles!

They had been silenced!

They knew something...

The secrets and essence of this world!

They had even developed Liguang's original core!

That true core capable of seeing ghosts!

No.

More than one.

Nine in total!

...In short, they died.

And now...

Lin Zhouyuan, one of the core members of his parents' team, had suddenly appeared here.

He had become younger.

He had become a ghost that Liguang's crimson eyes could not detect.

He had lost all human emotion, turning into a soulless marionette...

He had become...

A helper to the rules of the world?

...Tch!

Only a fool would believe there was no causal relationship here!

Fang Qi silently looked in that direction.

Even his breathing slowed down.

Because he had thought of a question.

If Lin Zhouyuan had now become a ghost-like existence...

Then what about those who died at the same time as him...

His parents?

Fang Qi's heartbeat...

Skipped a beat.