Echoes of Fate

As Lin Xiu's fingertips danced across the holographic keyboard, the laboratory's fluorescent tubes gave off a faint hum.

When he dragged the data package labeled Divine Sense—Level One Decoding Complete into the Oracle System interface, the nano-patterns on the back of his neck suddenly grew warm—his core was warning him that some unknown energy was approaching.

"Data import complete." The Oracle's mechanical voice had barely faded when the raw blueprint of the Mind Stone at the center of the holographic screen began to rotate.

The once-clear energy circuits rippled with static like a pond struck by a stone. Wave-like noise spread from the edges toward the center, finally condensing into a pitch-black rectangular block in the lower-right corner of the blueprint.

Lin Xiu's breath caught sharply.

He remembered scanning this blueprint with twelve encryption algorithms yesterday. That area had been blank then. "Oracle, force decryption." He gripped the edge of the console, his knuckles whitening. "Cross-reference it with Old Norse from the Asgardian Runes database."

The decryption bar leaped from 0 to 90 percent in three seconds, but the remaining 10 percent stayed stuck for a full seventeen seconds.

Lin Xiu could hear himself swallow. Then the screen suddenly erupted in blinding white light, and a string of silver-gray runes flowed from the luminous mass, clinging to the holographic display like living creatures.

"Balder shall be reborn in the mortal world, wield quantum power, and rewrite Ragnarok."

Lin Xiu's pupils contracted sharply.

He staggered half a step back and struck the lab bench. Even the dull pain in his elbow from hitting the metal edge did not make him frown—his entire attention was locked on that line of runes.

Balder—the name of Asgard's god of light. Before crossing into this world, Lin Xiu had combed through original translations of the Poetic Edda while researching the connection between Norse mythology and quantum physics.

But in the myths, Balder had long since died in Loki's scheme, an arrow of mistletoe piercing his chest.

"Oracle, confirm the source of these runes." His voice trembled, his fingertips hovering above the "Save" key. "Does it overlap with the Nanocore database?"

"Comparison complete." Fine electrical static mingled with the system voice. "This passage has a 92.3% match with Fragment No. 07 in the core memory zone. Immediate backup is recommended."

Lin Xiu practically lunged at the keyboard.

He brought up his private database and tapped the encryption program seven times in quick succession—this was the biometric lock he had set for his most classified files, requiring a simultaneous match of fingerprint, heartbeat frequency, and retinal scan.

When the "Encryption Complete" prompt lit up, a gust of cold air suddenly poured in through the laboratory vent, rustling the Proto-Armageddon Upgrade Plan on the desk. The words "Primordial Fragment" glimmered with a ghostly blue light beneath the lamps.

Just then, the Nanocore in his chest suddenly began to burn.

Lin Xiu looked down and saw silver patterns climbing from his collarbone toward his neck, as though electric currents were racing beneath his skin.

He was about to press the energy regulation button when every light in the laboratory suddenly went out. Only the holographic display remained, glowing an eerie green—at the positions of the blueprint and the core, two pale-blue energy spheres were drawing toward each other, colliding in showers of tiny sparks.

"Abnormal resonance detected!" The Oracle's alarm tore through the darkness. "Immediate severance of the neural link is recommended—"

Lin Xiu's temples throbbed violently.

He knew what this resonance meant: the Nanocore was actively absorbing the Mind Stone's energy. Such uncontrolled energy exchange could very likely trigger quantum collapse.

His finger had just touched the "Emergency Disconnect" key when a sharp pain flared at the back of his neck, as though an invisible hand had seized his consciousness.

"It's a psychic invasion!" Gritting his teeth, he tore off the neural-link helmet. The black cable struck the floor with a dull thud.

But that force was faster than him—the scene before his eyes began to warp. The laboratory's metal walls melted into flowing stardust, and he fell into a dark sea of stars. A figure clad in silver armor stood with his back to him, the patterns on that armor identical to those of Lin Xiu's Nano Armor.

"You are not the first..." The voice seemed to come from an impossibly distant place, yet it struck clearly against Lin Xiu's eardrums. "And you will not be the last."

The instant the warrior turned around, Lin Xiu stopped breathing.

That face... was unmistakably his own.

"Bang!"

A searing pain from the real world dragged him back.

Lin Xiu stumbled into the laboratory chair, knocking it over, and slammed his forehead hard against the console. Blood ran from his brow into his eyes.

He wiped his face and saw a dazzling blue glow emanating from the chest of his Nano Armor. The energy bar of the Anti-Mental Force Field was fluctuating madly across the holographic screen—what he had just seen was some kind of high-level psychic attack.

"External psychic fluctuations have been reduced to the safe threshold." The Oracle's voice returned to normal. "Checking the core energy level is recommended."

Lin Xiu tore off his shirt, soaked through with cold sweat, and looked at the Nanocore in his chest.

The silver patterns now resembled living snakes, spreading along his ribs toward his heart.

Trembling, he pressed the energy isolation key. The core's blue radiance abruptly contracted into a bean-sized point of light, and the patterns slowly retreated beneath his skin.

The night outside the laboratory suddenly brightened for an instant.

Lin Xiu looked up and saw a crack split through the clouds, golden light pouring down from the vast sky above—it was the distinctive radiance of Asgard's Rainbow Bridge.

"Heimdall," he murmured.

As the watcher, Asgard's all-seeing eyes could not possibly have missed the energy fluctuation from earlier.

Sure enough, three seconds later, the laboratory's metal door began to hum under the force of something striking it.

Lin Xiu grabbed the Vibranium dagger at his feet, but froze the instant his hand touched the doorknob—the presence outside was too powerful, beyond anything a human could possess.

"Lin Xiu Chen."

The voice came from overhead.

Lin Xiu looked up and saw a figure floating by the ceiling vent.

The man wore silver armor inlaid with gold and held a long-handled sword set with nine gemstones. His pupils shone with the light of a galaxy—it was Heimdall.

"Watcher of Asgard. I have a question." Heimdall's voice was like colliding glaciers. "Was the energy fluctuation just now connected to the Balder Core?"

Lin Xiu's back pressed against the icy wall.

He could feel the Nanocore beneath his skin growing faintly hot, an instinctive reaction to encountering a powerful energy source. "The Balder Core?" He deliberately furrowed his brow. "I'm just a student researching quantum physics."

"Lies." Heimdall aimed his sword at him, and the gemstone at its tip glowed red. "Your consciousness bears the residual fluctuations of the Oracle System. That is something only the Asgardian Forge Hall can create..."

"Heimdall!"

Another voice came from outside the door.

Lin Xiu turned his head and saw a female warrior in black leather armor running up from the stairwell.

Her blonde hair was bound with a silver ring, and two short-handled battle axes hung at her waist. It was Lena Thorson.

"By Odin's order." Lena spoke between breaths, her gaze sweeping over the nano-patterns on Lin Xiu's chest. "Observe, but do not interfere."

Heimdall's sword tip slowly lowered.

He stared into Lin Xiu's eyes for a full ten seconds. Only after Lin Xiu's heartbeat returned to normal did he sheath his sword. "Remember this, mortal." His voice softened slightly. "There are some fates you cannot bear."

A flash of golden light passed, and Heimdall vanished from the vent.

Lena gave Lin Xiu one more look. As she turned and went downstairs, her hand remained on the haft of her battle axe.

The laboratory fell silent again, with only the ticking clock on the wall breaking the stillness.

Lin Xiu took out his phone and checked the time—from the energy resonance to Heimdall's appearance, only seven minutes and seventeen seconds had passed.

He pulled over his lab coat, wiped the blood from his forehead, and sat back down before the console. His fingers rapidly typed across the keyboard. "Oracle, back up all abnormal data and tag it as 'fate variable.'"

As the "Backup Complete" notification appeared on the holographic screen, the laboratory's main control terminal suddenly beeped.

Lin Xiu frowned and looked over, discovering that the terminal's power light was flashing at an irregular frequency—it was the "danger level" alarm he had set, usually triggered only when core data was accessed by a third party.

He rose and walked toward the terminal. Just as his fingertips were about to touch the shutdown key, a line of blood-red text suddenly flashed across the screen: "Quantum entanglement topology map updating..."

Lin Xiu's hand hung in midair.

Moonlight streamed through the blinds outside the window, casting crisscrossing shadows across his face.

He stared at those words and suddenly smiled—there was no madness in that smile this time, only the calm of someone breaking the deadlock.

"Looks like the game has only just begun," he said softly, pressing the terminal's shutdown key.

In the darkness, the terminal's indicator light flashed one final time before going out completely. On the unfinished topology map displayed on the screen, a new blinking red dot had appeared beside the coordinates of New York—the coordinate note read: Balder Core.