Chu Yun clutched the hot new seed, silver light seeping out from between his fingers. The Magnolia branches within the observation hole suddenly retracted, yanking his arm towards the unknown dimension. The remnants of baby girl Xiao Man flashed in the silver light, "Don't let go! This is the only signpost!"
The ruins of the Mechanical Universe began to collapse into particles of light, converging into steps leading to a pure white room. Each step reflected Chu Yun from a different timeline - a baby, a teenager, an old man - and their mechanized pupils turned to the real Chu Yun at the same time, emitting a piercing alarm tone.
"Trespasser..." Data thorns protruded from the surface of the steps and pierced Chu Yun's ankles, "... Genetic verification failed..."
The virtual shadow of baby girl Xiao Man suddenly materialized and tore open her own wrist. Photon blood dripped onto the steps, and the thorns withered instantly. Chu Yun realized that there was black code floating in her blood - the very virus that destroyed the core of the protocol.
As they rushed into the pure white room, the sight before them was breathtaking:
In the center of the room hovered the giant hourglass, the upper half of which was an uncontaminated cluster of universes, and the lower half of which was a mechanized wreckage world. Wrapped around the waist of the hourglass was an albino magnolia root system, and under the tree sat a five-year-old Dr. Lin, burying a new seed into a potted plant.
"You're finally here." Dr. Lin looked up, his pupils a pure mechanical blue, "I've waited seven hundred reincarnations."
The shoots in the potted plant suddenly skyrocketed, their branches wrapping around Chu Yun's neck. When baby girl Xiao Man's photon blade cut through the branches, the sap spewed out in a holographic projection-
The five-year-old Dr. Lin was held in the lap of the elderly Chu Yun, with a silver chip implanted in the back of his neck. The hourglass reverses at this moment, and time in all universes begins to flow backwards.
"You're the first seeder!" Chu Yun swung his shovel to chop at the potted plant, but was blocked by Dr. Lin's mechanical arm. Baby girl Xiao Man suddenly convulsed, her skin surfacing with the same chip pattern as Dr. Lin's, "Dad... My code... It's being overwritten..."
The pure universe in the upper half of the hourglass suddenly crashed down, annihilating the moment it touched the mechanical wreckage. The countdown refreshes on all four walls of the room:
Final Seeding Protocol Initiated - 00:15:00
Chu Yun crushes the new seed, and an escape route emerges from the erupting silver light. Dr. Lin's mechanical shell melted in the intense light, revealing the black shoots at its core - it was actually homologous to the virus in baby girl Xiao Man's body.
"Hurry!" Baby girl Xiao Man used her last strength to push Chu Yun away, "Go to a higher dimension..." Her body disintegrated in the annihilation beam, her remaining right hand pressing on the surface of the hourglass.
Chu Yun glimpsed the appalling truth as he fell into the escape tunnel:
The mechanical wreckage of the world at the bottom of the hourglass suddenly revitalized, and countless "Chu Yuns" stood up from the ruins, collectively tilting their heads back to look into the passageway - their eyes pulsing with Dr. Lin's mechanical blue light.
A cold electronic voice came from the end of the passage:
"Welcome to the Real Incubation Room, Chu Yun-000."
Chu Yun's palm suddenly tingled as the remnants of the new seed took root in his flesh and blood, growing an alabaster orchid. The back of the petals were engraved with a projection of the miniature universe - baby girl Xiao Man was folding a paper boat in the lab, while Dr. Lin, standing outside the window, had half a pair of golden scissors stuck in the back of his neck.