Chapter Thirty-Five: The Nonexistent Counterfeit

When the chilling, warning-laden recording from "Phantom" finished playing in the command center of the Shadow Bureau, the entire office was plunged into an unprecedented, suffocating silence.

Anderson was merely a "Vanguard."

Behind him stood an even larger, more terrifying "Committee."

This revelation weighed on everyone like an invisible mountain, pressing down with unbearable force.

Yet, as the deeper darkness threatened to crush them all, Xiao Ran was the first to recover from the shock.

She strode to the operations whiteboard, now crowded with clues and notes. She gazed at the massive question mark she’d just drawn to represent "Phantom," her eyes ignited not with fear but with a fiercer, winter-fire determination.

"Phantom or Plan B—whatever they are," her voice rang out, cold but resolute, slicing through the pervasive fear like steel. "Those are concerns for the future."

"Right now, we have only one task—"

She spun around, her gaze as sharp as blades, sweeping over each person present.

"Deal with this self-important 'Vanguard' thoroughly!" She glanced at Lin Feng’s holographic projection. "And then, let’s go pay a visit to their elusive 'Commander!'"

Her words struck like a war drum, rekindling the team’s spirit.

Yes!

Phantom, Committee—none of it mattered.

The enemy before them was still undefeated.

How could they speak of the future?

Lin Feng’s hologram watched the woman who, in mere minutes, had rallied the team anew. A smile of admiration tugged at his lips.

"Exactly."

"Let’s get to work!"

...

Singularity Security Studio.

Lin Feng finally poured all his focus back into the monumental task of forgery—a pursuit he considered an art.

He imported the highest-resolution, pixel-perfect digital scan of "Storm at Sea," provided by customs, into his "Zhurong’s Heart" 3D super-computing and printing fusion machine.

He was about to begin creating the most perfect "counterfeit" of his life.

But just as he prepared to start the 3D printing—

"Beep—!"

A sharp, bewildered alarm erupted from the "Mouse" speaker.

"Boss..." The AI assistant "Mouse," usually bright and cheerful, now sounded lost, as if its core logic was about to be consumed by confusion.

"This... this painting..."

...

"…It seems… 'alive'…"

"What nonsense is that?" Lin Feng frowned, suspecting a bug in Mouse’s programming.

He took over, enlarging the scan himself.

Ten times…

A hundred times…

A thousand…

Ten thousand…

...

A hundred million times!

The magnification reached a terrifying level, enough to reveal the molecular structure of the oil paint—

Lin Feng, and Xiao Ran—who watched remotely—were confronted with a sight that would haunt them forever.

Within the molecules of the ancient oil paint, dried for more than three centuries—

There existed a configuration of countless "quantum dots," each far tinier than any nanobot—slowly, yet vibrantly, flowing in a dynamic, three-dimensional… QR code.

It was like a living cosmic star map, etched into the microscopic world.

"What the hell is this?!" In the command center, Old K stared at the scene, utterly outstripped by his knowledge, and cried out in disbelief.

Lin Feng gazed dumbfounded at the "living" watermark.

He was helpless, confronted by an unprecedented dilemma.

He could copy a painting.

But he could not replicate a "living" universe.

...

Inside the oppressive "Reflection Room" of the Shadow Bureau command center.

Xiao Ran played back the video of the "quantum watermark" for the only insider—Wang Zhe.

The moment Wang Zhe saw the devilish, slowly flowing quantum watermark, the last trace of color drained from his already pale face.

His expression was more despairing than ever before, lifeless.

"It’s over…"

His voice trembled, like two leaves about to fall in a cold wind.

"Everything is over…"

"This is… 'quantum ink'…"

"Anderson, together with our Skydome and Israel’s NSO Group, developed this—the world’s most advanced, and only…"

...

"…'living' anti-counterfeiting technology…"

"It simply cannot be copied…"

"Why?" Xiao Ran’s heart sank, but she pressed on, refusing to give up.

"Because…" Wang Zhe lifted his head, his murky eyes brimming with hopelessness.

"…Because, to print quantum dots of this caliber, capable of flowing freely…"

"There is only one machine in the world that can do it."

"What machine?"

Wang Zhe slowly uttered the answer that sent everyone present plunging into icy despair—

"HuaCore Technologies."

"To develop the next-generation, one-nanometer process chip, a whole nation’s resources were spent—and only just now, in their most secure S-1 laboratory, was this machine assembled…"

"…A national treasure…"

"—The 'Dawn II EUV Lithography Machine.'"

The command center was plunged into a silence even deeper and more absurd than when Phantom was discovered.

Everyone’s minds crashed, overwhelmed by the bitter irony.

To protect HuaCore Technologies,

They would first have to sneak into the most sacred core laboratory of HuaCore like thieves—to "borrow" the national treasure, more precious than all their lives combined?

What kind of damned logic was this…

Xiao Ran stood dazed before the massive operations whiteboard.

She looked at the photo of "Storm at Sea" representing the enemy.

Then at the adjacent security diagram of the S-1 laboratory of HuaCore Technologies, its defenses like an iron fortress.

For the first time, her heart was seized by true powerlessness.

This was an apparently absolute, insoluble—

Deadlock.