The alarm echoed through the underground station.
Loud.
Relentless.
Ancient speakers hidden somewhere within the walls screamed the warning repeatedly.
"Security Protocol Activated."
Red emergency lights flooded every corner of the station.
The architect's expression changed instantly.
For the first time—
he looked genuinely shocked.
"No..."
The single word escaped him before he could stop it.
Xiaoyu noticed immediately.
"You know what this is."
It wasn't a question.
The architect stared toward the darkness beyond the station.
Toward the tunnels buried even deeper underground.
His calmness was gone.
Replaced by something much rarer.
Fear.
Lu Shen stepped closer to Xiaoyu.
"What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything."
The computerized voice echoed again.
Clearer this time.
"Identity confirmed."
Silence.
Then—
"Welcome back, Xiaoyu."
The station trembled.
A deep mechanical vibration rolled beneath the floor.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Old train tracks rattled violently.
Somewhere below them, massive machinery had awakened after decades of silence.
The architect immediately moved toward the archive room.
Fast.
Desperate.
Lu Shen noticed.
And blocked his path.
The two men locked eyes.
Twenty years of hatred passing silently between them.
"Move."
The architect's voice had lost its patience.
"No."
The answer came immediately.
The architect smiled.
But there was no humor left.
"Then die."
Gunfire erupted.
Both men fired simultaneously.
The shots echoed across the station.
The architect disappeared behind a concrete pillar while Lu Shen pulled Xiaoyu back toward cover.
Sparks exploded from the walls.
More gunshots followed.
The battle had started again.
But now something else was happening.
Something bigger.
The station continued shaking.
And the alarm continued screaming.
"Protocol Seven initiated."
The words froze everyone.
Even the remaining armed men stopped shooting.
Nobody understood.
Except one person.
The architect.
And judging by his face—
he wished he didn't.
Xiaoyu looked toward him.
"What is Protocol Seven?"
Nobody answered.
Then another memory surfaced.
Not from the laboratory.
Not from the fire.
Something older.
Something deeper.
A room hidden underground.
Her father kneeling beside a large metal door.
Holding her shoulders gently.
His voice serious.
"If this ever activates..."
The memory sharpened.
"...run."
Xiaoyu's eyes widened.
The same warning.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Run.
The station shook harder.
Then suddenly—
a loud metallic boom echoed from somewhere beneath them.
A door.
Opening.
A very large door.
The computerized voice spoke once more.
"Core access granted."
The architect cursed.
Actually cursed.
The sight stunned everyone.
Because monsters weren't supposed to panic.
Yet he looked terrified.
"What is down there?" Xiaoyu asked.
The architect looked directly at her.
And for the first time—
he answered honestly.
"Your father."
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Xiaoyu stared at him.
"What?"
The architect laughed bitterly.
"Not literally."
His eyes shifted toward the darkness below.
"But everything he built."
The floor trembled again.
A hidden section of track suddenly split apart.
Ancient mechanisms groaned.
Then—
the center of the station opened.
A massive platform slowly rose from beneath the city.
Dust.
Steel.
Machinery.
And at its center—
a sealed chamber.
Covered in old security markings.
The entire station watched in silence.
Nobody fired.
Nobody moved.
The platform continued rising until it locked into place with a deafening metallic crash.
The alarm stopped.
Complete silence followed.
Then a single light illuminated the chamber.
Words appeared across its surface.
PROJECT ORIGIN
The architect closed his eyes.
As if seeing a ghost.
Lu Shen's expression hardened.
And Xiaoyu felt her heartbeat quicken.
Because somehow—
she already knew.
Whatever was inside that chamber...
was the real reason her father died.
The chamber door hissed.
Locks disengaged one by one.
Heavy metal bolts slid back into the walls.
The seal slowly opened.
Everyone stared.
Waiting.
The door finally parted.
Inside sat a single object.
Not a weapon.
Not a machine.
Not research.
A computer terminal.
Still powered.
Still running.
After twenty years.
The screen flickered to life.
A video automatically began playing.
The image appeared.
And Xiaoyu stopped breathing.
It was her father.
Not a recording from years ago.
Not a blurry message.
A clear video.
One he had deliberately left behind.
His eyes looked directly into the camera.
Directly at her.
And then he smiled.
"Hello, Xiaoyu."
Tears instantly filled her eyes.
The station disappeared.
The gunfire.
The architect.
The experiments.
None of it mattered.
Only him.
Her father.
The man she thought she had lost forever.
The video continued.
"If you're seeing this, then it means I failed to protect you from the truth."
His smile faded slightly.
"But it also means you survived long enough to find it."
The architect lowered his weapon.
Everyone listened.
Because everyone knew this was the final secret.
The one hidden beneath every other secret.
Xiaoyu's father looked into the camera one last time.
Then spoke seven words that froze the entire station.
"The experiments were never about you."
Silence.
Then he continued.
"They were about what was coming."
And before anyone could react—
the video switched to a satellite image of Earth.
Covered with hundreds of blinking red markers.
Locations.
Everywhere.
Across countries.
Across continents.
Across the world.
The architect's face went white.
Because whatever Xiaoyu's father had hidden...
was far bigger than any of them had imagined.