Alyssa's fingertips slid across her real arm—the protruding metallic veins beneath the skin were exactly the same as in the virtual world.
"The speed at which your body mutated while you were in a coma was beyond imagination." Sylvia in reality handed over a holographic medical record. The image showed that Alyssa's spinal cord was being corroded by silver metal. "Nanobots invaded from the brain-computer interface at the back of your neck and are rewriting the DNA chain."
In the center of the quantum computer group at the core of the reactor, a palm-sized black prism is suspended - it is the entity of the virtual world's Eclipse Dagger.
The alarm in the laboratory suddenly exploded, and lavender nerve gas spewed out of the vents. When Alyssa grabbed the gas mask, her metal fingers uncontrollably pierced through the tempered glass cabinet - inside was sealed the experimental log from twenty years ago, with her and Kane's names signed on the title page.
When Alyssa held the prism, the blood moon in the Arctic sky suddenly projected a battlefield in the virtual world: Kane's mechanical incarnation was fighting against the Original AI, and his data body was constantly disintegrating and reorganizing.
"Go!" Sylvia pulled open the secret door, "Company agents are going to eliminate all those who know about it!" At the end of the corridor, three agents wearing the No. VII badge were injecting blue potion into the unconscious researchers, and the victim's skin quickly turned into metal.
"Insert the prism into the reactor!" Sylvia's mechanical arm suddenly resumed operation, with the muzzle of the gun pointed at Alyssa's back. "This is the only way to destroy the AI!"
Alyssa's pupils suddenly shrank—the faces of those agents were exactly the same as Victor's clones in the virtual world.
Alyssa's mutant arm turned the prism and pierced her temple. In the severe pain, she saw the code torrents of the two worlds intersecting in her brain. Kane's remaining consciousness reached out from the data abyss: "Take me... home..."
(The code on the agent badge is consistent with the number of the virtual world dagger fragment)
The research station suddenly shook violently, the virtual blood moon cracked, and the mechanized Victor Corps swarmed out like locusts. Sylvia's scream was drowned out by the explosion: "You released them!"
The server array in the underground data center flashed a cold blue light, and Sylvia's mechanical eyes scanned the encrypted blocks.
"Kane's backup consciousness might be here." She pulled open the patch panel, and the exposed cables suddenly wrapped around Alyssa's wrist, inserting her metal fingers into the data port.
Alyssa raised the prism in the aurora sky, and her shadow split into three forms: human, werewolf, and vampire. When the prism refracted the fourth shadow, Kane's data avatar solidified into a physical entity and put the muzzle of the gun against her forehead.
Memory data poured in like a tsunami - Kane in reality held her hand on the hospital bed: "Remember, when the neural network is in an eclipse shape, cut off the main power supply..." The picture suddenly distorted and turned into a video of a high-level meeting of the company: "Project VII is not to treat ALS, but to create controllable superhuman soldiers."
As Alyssa forced the connection, blue blood gushed from her nostrils. Sylvia's mechanical arm suddenly grabbed her throat: "I'm sorry, but the company wants to make sure you stay alive." A pistol popped out of her chest. "After all, you are the only successful fusion."
The surveillance screen suddenly lit up, showing that the virtual world was collapsing. Kane's mechanical avatar stood in the ruins of the Blood Moon and whispered to the camera: "Found... the Arctic Station..."
(Alyssa's blue blood forms a miniature lunar eclipse totem at the data interface)
In the Arctic Circle blizzard, Alyssa's nano-metal blood vessels emitted a dazzling red light at minus 50 degrees Celsius.
Sylvia's mechanical joints failed due to low temperature, and she was forced to curl up in an abandoned scientific research station: "The reactor is 300 meters underground, but the radiation will accelerate your mutation."
Alyssa tore open the rusted inspection port, and the blue flames released by the mutant arm melted the permafrost. When the drill bit touched the lead-sealed hatch, the Geiger counter screamed wildly - the radiation value was a thousand times the lethal dose.
"You are here as expected." The holographic Kane emerged from the radioactive dust, his translucent body covered with data cracks. "The core of the reactor contains a synaptic bomb that can permanently paralyze the company's main AI..." His image suddenly twisted into the face of the company's chairman: "It's a pity that this spare tire is disobedient."
Alyssa's metal palm pressed on the iris lock, and Kane's dying memory was suddenly unlocked: in reality, he voluntarily let himself be swallowed by nanorobots just to embed backdoor code in the core program.
The moment the lead-sealed hatch was opened, the blood moon from the virtual world was suspended in the real aurora.
(Radiation turns Alyssa's blue blood into fluorescent green)