Chapter 45: The Glass Womb第四十五章：玻璃子宫

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The pupil—fifty feet of solid black glass—snapped into a tight slit. It was looking right at me. I froze. Not just out of fear. Something deep in the rock was vibrating. A heavy, sickening baseline hum that I couldn't hear, but I could feel it tearing at my spleen. My artificial lungs choked on the pressure. Red warning banners vomited across my neural lace vision: STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY CRITICAL.

Then the damn thing blinked. A milky second eyelid scraped over the eyeball, wiping away centuries of dead fungus and toxic mud.

SMASH.

I jumped. A Pan-Asia meat-puppet had thrown itself against the cabin's reinforced glass. Its jaw was ripped clean off. A trail of mechanical intestines dangled from its gut. Another one hit the roof. Then three more. The dead suits were swarming the rig like roaches, pounding their metal fists into the windshield. Frosty spiderwebs cracked across the glass. Ten seconds tops, and they’d be inside.

I spun back to the main console. The audio log was done playing. The ancient DOS screen just sat there, blinking a single line of green text. [MANUAL OVERRIDE: INITIATE PLASMA PURGE? Y/N]

Yeah. Burn it all. I hammered the 'Y' key.

The rig screamed. Century-old turbines kicked over with a sound like tearing metal. A white-hot jet of raw plasma and coolant fired straight out of the boring-nozzles. Point blank. Right into that massive reptilian eye.

The whole cavern went completely berserk. The roar that followed popped my left eardrum instantly. Blood poured down my neck. The bedrock bucked under the rig. The creature thrashed in the dark, swatting our multi-ton drill like it was nothing. The cabin flipped sideways.

I didn't stick around. I kicked open the floor hatch and bailed.

I hit the mud hard and scrambled toward a split in the cavern wall. Behind me, the rig crumpled like a tin can. The ground was literally tearing itself apart. I threw myself headfirst into the rock fissure, sliding down a pitch-black chute of wet stone just as the ceiling caved in.

I kept sliding. Felt like hours. But eventually, the suffocating heat died down. The smell changed too. The rotting meat stench faded, replaced by something way worse. Bleach. Ozone. Cold surgical alcohol.

The chute spat me out. I bounced off a hard, flat floor and lay there groaning. My mag-lite flickered on. I wasn't in the dirt anymore. I was bleeding all over a perfectly clean, white hexagonal tile floor. Above me, clinical fluorescent tubes buzzed to life, snapping on one by one down a long, curving hallway.

A bunker. Pristine. No fungus anywhere.

I grabbed my knife and limped down the hall. My muddy boots squeaked on the tiles. Both sides of the corridor were packed with giant cylindrical glass tanks, glowing with a sick, pale blue light. Thick synthetic gel bubbled inside every single one of them.

I limped up to the closest tank and wiped away the condensation.

I couldn't breathe. Floating naked in the blue sludge was a guy. Same jawline. Same exact knife scars over the collarbone. It was me. Only his left temple was smooth bone—no chromium scrap plate bolted into it.

A little digital screen glowed at the base of the tank: BATCH 44 - DESIGNATION: FENG. STATUS: DEFECTIVE. QUEUED FOR TAPROOT HARVEST.

I backed away, my head spinning. This wasn't a research lab. It was a meat factory.

Then I heard it.

Hiss.

Fifty feet down the corridor, the pressure locks on Tank 46 popped open. The heavy glass door swung wide, dumping a tidal wave of blue gel all over the clean floor.

Out of the dark inside the pod, a pale, wet foot stepped out onto the tiles.

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那只五十英尺宽的黑色瞳孔猛地缩成一条细缝。它在盯着我。

我整个人都僵住了。不仅仅是因为害怕。岩层深处传来一种让人作呕的低频嗡嗡声。我听不到它，但能感觉到它在疯狂撕扯我的脾脏。人造肺被这股水压般的怪力憋得无法运转。我的视网膜接口上疯狂弹出红底白字的警告：【结构完整性极其危险】。

紧接着，那鬼东西眨眼了。一层惨白的瞬膜刮过眼球表面，把积攒了上百年的烂泥和真菌全刮了下来。

砰！

我吓了一跳。一具泛亚公司的尸偶狠狠砸在了驾驶舱的防弹玻璃上。它的下巴早就被扯烂了，一长串机械肠子挂在肚子外面。接着又是一具砸在车顶。然后是三个。这些死人像蟑螂一样爬满了盾构机，用铁拳狂砸挡风玻璃。玻璃上裂开了一片冰霜般的蜘蛛网。最多再撑十秒，它们就会钻进来。

我猛地转头看向主控制台。音频已经放完了，古老的DOS黑屏上只剩下一行闪烁的绿字：【手动覆盖：是否启动等离子排空？Y/N】

对。全他妈烧了吧。我一拳砸在“Y”键上。

盾构机发出一声惨叫。百年前的涡轮机强行点火，听起来像是在生撕金属。一道刺眼的超高温等离子体混合着冷却液，直接从前端的钻头喷嘴里轰了出去。零距离。正中那只巨大的爬行动物眼睛。

整个地下溶洞彻底疯了。那怪物的狂吼瞬间震破了我的左耳膜，血顺着脖子往下淌。基岩在疯狂颠簸。怪物在黑暗中剧烈翻滚，像拍苍蝇一样把我们这台几十吨重的机器拍飞了。驾驶舱直接侧翻。

我没傻等。一脚踹开底部的逃生舱门，直接跳了出去。

我重重摔在烂泥里，拼命爬向岩壁上的一道天然裂缝。就在我身后，盾构机被碾成了铁饼。大地正在撕裂。我头朝下死死挤进岩石缝隙，顺着一条漆黑湿滑的石头滑槽一路往下掉，紧接着我头顶的整个溶洞彻底坍塌了。

我一直在往下滑。感觉像过了几个小时。但渐渐地，那种让人窒息的闷热感消失了。气味也变了。腐肉的恶臭没了，取而代之的是一种更糟糕的味道。漂白剂。臭氧。还有冰冷的医用酒精味。

滑槽一口把我吐了出来。我砸在坚硬平坦的地面上，疼得直抽冷气。战术手电闪了两下。我不在泥坑里了。我正流着血，跪在一片一尘不染的白色六边形瓷砖上。头顶上，冷白色的无菌荧光灯一盏接一盏地亮起，照亮了一条深不见底的弧形走廊。

这是一个地下地堡。干净得要命。连一根真菌都没有。

我拔出刀，一瘸一拐地往前走。全是泥的军靴在瓷砖上蹭出刺耳的动静。走廊两侧立着一整排巨大的圆柱形玻璃罐，发着惨白发蓝的光。每个罐子里都在咕噜咕噜地冒着粘稠的合成凝胶。

我走到最近的一个罐子前，抹掉玻璃上的水汽。

我瞬间忘了该怎么喘气。蓝色的黏液里，光着身子泡着一个男人。一模一样的下颌线。锁骨上连刀疤的位置都分毫不差。那就是我。只不过他的左边太阳穴是平滑的骨头——上面没打那块用来修补的废钢板。

罐子底部亮着一块小屏幕：【批次 44 - 样本代号：FENG。状态：次品。等待送入主根脉（TAPROOT）进行收割。】

我连退了几步，脑子嗡嗡作响。这根本不是什么实验室。这是一个肉体加工厂。

突然，我听见了声音。

嗤——

走廊五十英尺外，46 号罐子的气压锁弹开了。沉重的玻璃门向外敞开，蓝色的凝胶像瀑布一样哗啦啦地泄在干净的地板上。

在罐子内部的阴影中，一只苍白、湿漉漉的脚，踩在了瓷砖上。

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Author's Note： ️ Author's Note / 原创声明

[EN] This chapter’s text is 100% human-authored. The original story was written in Chinese (my native language) and then manually translated and refined to break away from AI-generated stiffness. I am doing my best to preserve the authentic cyberpunk vibe and emotional tension in the English translation. (Note: The cover illustration was generated using AI tools strictly based on my original story prompts.) Thank you to the CCC community, the curators, and all my readers for supporting genuine human creators and following my journey!

Note: The English version is translated from my original Chinese text with the help of translation and AI grammar tools.

[CN] 本文正文为本人 100% 全手工原创。原版故事使用我的母语中文创作，并经过人工翻译与精心润色，以摆脱 AI 翻译的生硬感，尽最大努力在英文版中保留原汁原味的赛博朋克氛围与情感张力。(注：本文封面配图为作者根据本人小说情节，使用 AI 工具生成的概念视觉图。) 感谢 CCC 社区、各位策展人以及所有读者对真实人类创作者的持续支持与鼓励，感谢大家一路以来的陪伴