noffsinger Chapter 685 The Night of Liquidation
Chapter 685 The Night of Liquidation
Three hours after the ISA press conference ended, global public opinion surged like a tidal wave.
"The ethical bottom line of human consciousness engineering", "personality reshaping and free will", "the truth about Lin Chuyue's identity shocks the world"... related terms topped the trending lists of major social media platforms around the world.
Just when everyone thought the storm had finally passed, an encrypted video from an anonymous black market appeared silently in the ISA main server backend:
"Code name L4, activated."
In the video, a girl who looks remarkably like Lin Chuyue slowly opens her eyes, her gaze vacant, as if she were another "her" reflected in the mirror.
An alarm suddenly sounded at the ISA temporary headquarters.
Lin Chuyue pressed her left earpiece with one hand: "Locate the source."
Zhou Cheng looked up from the control panel: "The source of the signal is an abandoned mine in Wuying Mountain, Y Province."
"Show aerial footage."
The next second, satellite images popped up on the screen—
Inside the dark mountain, a metal-structured underground facility is faintly visible, covered by camouflage netting and equipped with medium-level anti-aircraft firepower.
Li Zhanchuan stood behind her, his gaze as cold as a knife: "They are provoking us."
Lin Chuyue said in a deep voice, "They are 'moving away'."
Gu Yanchuan suddenly walked into the command room, his expression solemn.
“ISA’s overseas branch – R-17 – has lost contact tonight.”
Zhou Cheng's pupils contracted: "Impossible, R-17 is our intelligence hub."
“That means someone got your information first.” Gu Yanchuan looked at Lin Chuyue. “They knew you would find out about Wuying Mountain.”
Lin Chuyue's gaze changed slightly: "...They led me there."
Li Zhanchuan's gaze turned icy: "You can no longer act alone."
“I won’t go alone,” she said calmly, “but I have to go. That laboratory is very likely holding people like me.”
Gu Yanchuan looked at her, his brows furrowed: "You want to confirm... whether you are truly unique?"
She didn't deny it.
**
Wuying Mountain.
At 1 a.m., an ISA special team quietly infiltrated the perimeter of the target area.
Lin Chuyue was dressed in night clothes, followed by Li Zhanchuan, Zhou Cheng and others.
Gu Yanchuan originally insisted on going with them, but was called back by the ISA Emergency Intelligence Department before departure—an anonymous tip claimed that there were "personality switchers" within ISA, possibly remnants of the Foundation.
All of this exuded an ominous aura.
The underground passage was chilling, with mottled and rusty walls, resembling an abandoned hell on earth.
"The heat sensor indicates that there is someone moving about 30 meters ahead," Zhou Cheng whispered a reminder.
Lin Chuyue raised her hand to signal to stop.
She slowly walked forward, turned a corner, and a heavy metal door slowly opened.
A cold light appeared.
She saw "her".
An identical Lin Chuyue sat inside a glass-sealed chamber, wearing a white lab coat, staring at her expressionlessly.
“L4,” the research assistant beside the hatch trembled, “has activated the basic language module, but the main consciousness has not yet been fully generated.”
Lin Chuyue walked slowly to the glass, her voice low:
"Who are you?"
The girl's eyes moved slowly, as if she were learning to express herself for the first time.
"I... am you."
“No.” Lin Chuyue shook her head. “You are the ‘me’ they created.”
"I am me."
The girl suddenly raised her hand and pressed it to her chest: "It hurts."
A subtle struggle flickered in her eyes, as if she were experiencing "feeling" for the first time.
Lin Chuyue said softly, "You're conscious now."
The research assistant shook his head in alarm: "Impossible, the L4 data lock hasn't been released yet!"
"She shouldn't have reacted emotionally!"
"Where does her pain come from?"
No one could answer.
But just as Lin Chuyue's gaze froze, the alarm in the experimental chamber suddenly blared—
L4 mental pathway disorder, 99% risk of going berserk.
"Everyone retreat!" Zhou Cheng roared.
The next second, "L4" suddenly crashed through the hatch, and a transparent wave of mental energy swept across everyone.
Her eyes widened, and she lunged at Lin Chuyue, screaming:
"You—are fake!"
boom--!
The two crashed heavily to the ground.
Lin Chuyue sensed the continuous energy and madness within her body, that uncontrollable split personality state, which was very similar to the hallucinations she had when she first woke up.
"You... are not me," Lin Chuyue said with difficulty. "I am myself."
"You were created by them."
“You don’t belong to them!” she shouted, her right hand swiftly pressing against the L4’s neck locking point—
This is the key control location of the personality implant chip.
A flash of lightning struck, and L4's body trembled violently, but stopped convulsing a few seconds later.
With her empty eyes wide open, she softly uttered a sentence:
"kill me."
Lin Chuyue looked at her, but her finger hesitated to press the stop button.
Li Zhanchuan rushed up from behind, pulled her away, and coldly said to the research assistant, "Shut down her consciousness source."
"But her spirit has grown on its own..."
"Then seal it!"
L4's eyes finally landed on Lin Chuyue's face, and that one glance... held no resentment, only weariness.
Lin Chuyue's eyes were moist when she turned around.
She realized:
She was not the only victim.
And "she" is just another version of herself who failed to become "Lin Chuyue".
**
Three days later, a complete purge began within ISA.
Gu Yanchuan stood in the ISA central intelligence control console, staring at an "internal control checklist".
At the top of the list, it was clearly written—
Number: A-01
Name: Gu Yanchuan
Risk label: Level 1 suspicion of personality substitution
He was taken aback, then his eyes turned cold.
He pressed the list into the shredder and walked out of the building.
At the end of the corridor, Lin Chuyue was about to leave.
He called out to her, "Chuyue."
Lin Chuyue stopped in her tracks.
"Regarding L4... I never imagined there would be a second you." Gu Yanchuan's tone was calm, but there was a hint of pain in his eyes. "But perhaps I shouldn't have gotten close to you at this time."
Lin Chuyue didn't turn around, her tone indifferent:
"You don't need to get close to me, as long as you are real."
“But I’m not sure if I’m still ‘me’,” Gu Yanchuan said softly. “I found a backup plan left by your father, and in it, there’s a name of a ‘backup host’…”
"it's me."
Lin Chuyue slowly turned around, looked at him, and after a long while said, "So, you're starting to doubt yourself?"
He gave a wry smile: "Perhaps I've had my suspicions for a while now."
“But I’m not here to talk about these things this time,” he said, taking a document from his pocket and handing it to her.
Behind the Wuying Mountain Laboratory lies a hidden node of the Foundation: the Mirror Pavilion.
"It is the source of personality cloning, and also the place where Shen Fang obtained Lin Yun's personality template back then."
Lin Chuyue took the documents and asked softly, "Do you want to come with me?"
Gu Yanchuan stared at her and gently shook his head.
"I'm not going this time."
"I need to find out if I am Gu Yanchuan."
She nodded and didn't ask any more questions.
The wind blew from the top of the ISA building, lifting the hem of Lin Chuyue's trench coat.
In the distance, the outline of the Mirror Pavilion is quietly emerging—
A deeper reckoning is on the horizon.
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End of this chapter
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Next chapter preview
Lin Chuyue infiltrates the Mirror Pavilion alone and discovers an ultimate plan involving personality experiments underway. Her mother's death will also reveal a hidden truth—this was never just a technological experiment, but a gamble on "immortality of the soul."