Wu Han stared at the message.
I KNOW YOU'RE LOOKING.
The screen remained unchanged.
No sender.
No number.
No routing information.
No encryption signature.
Nothing.
His first instinct was to disconnect the phone from the network.
He didn't.
Instead, he looked at Omega's display.
"Trace it."
"Already attempting."
"Source?"
"Unknown."
"Carrier?"
"None detected."
"Then how was it delivered?"
"I don't know."
Wu Han's jaw tightened.
"Can you reproduce the transmission?"
"Not yet."
"Was the message transmitted through the internet?"
"No."
"Cellular?"
"No."
"Satellite?"
"No."
"Local wireless?"
"No."
Wu Han stared at the phone.
"Then how?"
"I cannot identify a transmission pathway."
He slowly set the phone on the table.
"Could someone have physically accessed the device?"
"Negative."
"Could the message have been inserted into the operating system?"
"Possible."
"Then someone hacked it."
"I would have detected the intrusion."
Wu Han looked toward the screen.
"You didn't."
"No."
"Why?"
Omega didn't answer.
Wu Han's eyes narrowed.
"Omega."
"Yes."
"Are you sure the message came from outside?"
A pause.
"No."
Wu Han felt the warmth in his lower abdomen again.
He closed his eyes.
It intensified.
He opened them immediately.
"Monitor my body."
"Already active."
"Any abnormality?"
"Genesis-related activity is increasing."
The number appeared.
GENESIS STATE: 0.008%
Then:
0.009%
Wu Han's expression hardened.
He hadn't done anything.
"Stop."
The number continued.
0.010%
"Omega."
"Yes."
"Why is it increasing?"
"I don't know."
"Can you suppress it?"
"I cannot."
"Can I?"
"I don't know."
Wu Han looked at the message again.
Then at the location on the map.
The unknown man was in Hunan.
The man had reported seeing channels beneath his skin twenty-three years ago.
And somehow, he knew Wu Han was looking for him.
Wu Han picked up his phone.
"Get me a route."
"Where?"
"The village."
"You're going now?"
"Yes."
"It is 2:42 AM."
"I know."
"You should sleep."
"I'll sleep when I understand what is happening."
Omega was silent.
Then:
"I have prepared the route."
A holographic map appeared.
Wu Han looked at it.
Two hours.
Maybe less if he drove aggressively.
He grabbed his jacket.
Then stopped.
"Omega."
"Yes?"
"If something happens to me while I'm gone—"
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
"I will maintain the laboratory."
"No."
Wu Han looked directly at the core.
"If something happens to me, lock Project Genesis Origin."
Omega remained silent.
"Everything."
"The data?"
"Everything."
"The research?"
"Everything."
"The Genesis Monitor?"
"Especially that."
A pause.
"Understood."
Wu Han nodded.
Then he left.
The city was different at night.
China's cities in 2060 had become almost unnaturally efficient.
Autonomous vehicles moved through designated lanes with barely any noise.
Traffic signals adapted in real time.
Delivery drones crossed between buildings.
Streetlights adjusted their intensity according to pedestrian density.
Most people never noticed the systems anymore.
They had become part of the background.
Wu Han drove manually.
He preferred it.
The car's autonomous system repeatedly suggested taking control.
He ignored it.
His attention remained on the road.
And on the warmth beneath his navel.
It had not disappeared.
The sensation was subtle.
Almost like a second heartbeat.
Every few minutes, it pulsed.
Lower Dantian.
Then nothing.
Then again.
Wu Han glanced at the dashboard.
"Omega."
"I'm listening."
"Monitor the sensation."
"I am."
"Is it actually Qi?"
"I still cannot confirm that."
"Variable Q?"
"Elevated."
"How much?"
"Approximately twelve percent above your previous baseline."
Wu Han frowned.
"That's significant."
"Yes."
"Does it correspond to the message?"
"I cannot establish causality."
"Correlation?"
"Strong."
Wu Han tightened his grip on the steering wheel.
"Meaning the message is affecting me."
"Possibly."
"Or I'm affecting it."
"Also possible."
Wu Han smiled without humor.
"You're becoming irritating."
"I have been informed of this previously."
He almost laughed.
Almost.
Then the warmth suddenly surged.
Wu Han's breath caught.
The car drifted slightly.
He corrected the steering.
"Omega."
"Yes."
"Something changed."
"Confirmed."
The holographic diagnostic display appeared across the windshield.
His body appeared.
The lower Dantian was bright.
The middle was faint.
The upper was beginning to activate.
Wu Han's eyes widened.
"Why is the upper activating?"
"No conscious trigger detected."
"Can you identify the cause?"
Omega processed.
Then:
"External stimulus."
Wu Han's expression changed.
"From where?"
The map appeared.
A single point.
The same village.
Wu Han stared at it.
The upper Dantian brightened.
He immediately slowed the vehicle.
"That's not coincidence."
"No."
"How far?"
"One hundred and thirty-six kilometers."
Wu Han stared at the road.
"He's doing something."
"Possibly."
"Can you detect him?"
"No direct physiological signal."
"Then how do you know?"
"I don't."
Wu Han's eyes narrowed.
"You're detecting the same pattern."
"Correct."
"From the village?"
"Yes."
Wu Han accelerated.
The road gradually left the city.
Buildings became sparse.
Then farmland.
Then mountains.
The lights disappeared.
The road became dark.
Wu Han continued driving.
The sensation in his body remained.
Lower.
Upper.
The middle remained dormant.
He wondered why.
Then he remembered the previous experiment.
The middle Dantian was not something he could simply force open.
It emerged from the interaction between the lower and upper states.
But now the upper was being activated externally.
If the lower responded naturally—
then the middle might follow.
Wu Han didn't like the implication.
"Omega."
"Yes."
"If the middle activates while I'm driving—"
"I recommend stopping the vehicle."
"Obviously."
"Your reaction time may become impaired."
Wu Han looked at the empty road.
"Pulling over."
The car slowed.
He stopped beside the road.
Turned off the engine.
Silence.
He closed his eyes.
The lower Dantian warmed.
The upper Dantian followed.
The middle remained still.
Wu Han waited.
Nothing.
He breathed normally.
Nothing.
Then he felt it.
A pressure in his chest.
The same sensation as before.
The middle Dantian flickered.
Wu Han opened his eyes.
The holographic display exploded into activity.
MIDDLE DANTIAN: 1%
3%
5%
He immediately stopped focusing on it.
The percentage dropped.
"Interesting."
He waited.
Then focused again.
It increased.
He looked away.
It dropped.
Focus.
Increase.
Release.
Decrease.
Wu Han understood.
"Attention is the bridge."
Omega processed the data.
"That appears correct."
Wu Han stared through the windshield.
The ancient texts had described intent.
Martial artists had described concentration.
Traditional medicine had described the relationship between mind, Qi, and body.
He had always assumed those were metaphorical descriptions.
Maybe they weren't.
Maybe attention itself was an input.
Not to the nervous system alone.
To the entire six-factor system.
He closed his eyes again.
This time, he didn't force anything.
He simply observed.
Lower.
Upper.
Then—
middle.
The three connected.
A faint current moved through him.
Wu Han's breath slowed.
The road disappeared.
For a moment, there was only the sensation.
Then he heard something.
A voice.
Not Omega.
A man's voice.
Very faint.
"Don't open it."
Wu Han's eyes snapped open.
The three Dantians immediately destabilized.
He looked around.
Empty road.
No vehicles.
No buildings.
No people.
"Omega."
"Yes."
"Did you detect that?"
A pause.
"Yes."
Wu Han stared.
"You heard it?"
"Yes."
"What was it?"
"I cannot determine the source."
Wu Han's face became serious.
"Play the recording."
Omega did.
The voice returned.
Faint.
Compressed.
But unmistakable.
Don't open it.
Wu Han stared at the recording.
"Was it transmitted?"
"No."
"Then how did we hear it?"
"I don't know."
Wu Han looked toward the village.
The warmth in his lower abdomen intensified.
"He's not trying to communicate with me."
Omega remained silent.
Wu Han continued.
"He's warning me."
He reached the village at 3:51 AM.
There were no streetlights.
Only the pale glow of the moon and occasional lights from houses.
The village was old.
Much older than the surrounding infrastructure.
Modern roads had been built around it, but the original houses remained.
Stone walls.
Wooden doors.
Tile roofs.
A small ancestral hall stood near the center.
Wu Han slowed the vehicle.
"Omega."
"Yes."
"Give me the exact location."
A point appeared.
Three hundred meters ahead.
He parked outside the village.
The moment he stepped out of the vehicle, the warmth disappeared.
Wu Han froze.
"Omega."
"Yes."
"The sensation stopped."
"Confirmed."
He waited.
Nothing.
He walked forward.
Still nothing.
Then he crossed the first stone bridge.
The lower Dantian activated.
Wu Han stopped.
He looked behind him.
The bridge.
He looked ahead.
The village.
The warmth increased.
"Interesting."
He continued.
With every step, the sensation became stronger.
The upper Dantian remained inactive.
The middle remained dormant.
Only the lower.
Like a compass.
Guiding him.
Wu Han followed it.
He passed several houses.
Most were dark.
Then he saw an old man standing beneath a tree.
Wu Han stopped.
The man looked to be in his late forties.
Perhaps early fifties.
His hair was mostly black.
His posture was relaxed.
He wore simple clothing.
No weapon.
No visible technology.
He looked ordinary.
Too ordinary.
The man's eyes met Wu Han's.
Neither spoke.
Wu Han knew immediately.
It was him.
The unknown patient.
The man smiled faintly.
"You took longer than I expected."
Wu Han stopped several meters away.
"You're the one from the medical record."
The man's smile disappeared.
"You found that?"
"Yes."
"Then you already know too much."
Wu Han studied him.
"You knew I was coming."
"I knew you would eventually come."
"How?"
The man looked at Wu Han's lower abdomen.
"Because I felt you."
Wu Han's expression changed.
"From here?"
The man nodded.
"Not at first."
He looked toward the distant mountains.
"At first, you were just another person."
Wu Han stepped closer.
"When did that change?"
"About four months ago."
Wu Han froze.
Four months.
That was when his experiments began producing the first meaningful results.
The man's eyes returned to him.
"You started waking something up."
Wu Han's voice became colder.
"What?"
The man didn't answer.
Instead, he asked:
"Did you build the machine?"
Wu Han stopped.
"How do you know about Omega?"
The man smiled.
"I don't."
"Then how—"
"You brought it with you."
Wu Han looked around.
Nothing.
The man tapped his own chest.
"Not that machine."
Wu Han's expression hardened.
"What are you talking about?"
The man's eyes narrowed.
"You're asking the wrong question."
"Then give me the right one."
The man looked directly into Wu Han's eyes.
"Ask why you can hear it."
Wu Han felt a chill.
"The voice."
The man nodded.
"You heard it too."
"Who was speaking?"
The man looked toward the sky.
"I don't know."
"Then why did you tell me not to open it?"
The man's expression became serious.
"Because I did."
Wu Han's heart stopped for half a beat.
"You opened it?"
"Twenty-three years ago."
The lower Dantian suddenly ignited.
The upper Dantian responded.
The middle flickered.
Wu Han took a step backward.
"What happened?"
The man looked at him.
"I survived."
A pause.
"Most people don't."
Wu Han stared.
"Most?"
The man's face hardened.
"I wasn't the first."
Wu Han's mind raced.
The twelve historical cases.
The nine living subjects.
The strange reports.
The Genesis State.
The external response.
All of it connected.
"Who were the others?"
The man didn't answer.
Wu Han stepped closer.
"How many?"
"Enough."
"Where are they?"
The man looked toward the mountains.
"Some are dead."
"And the others?"
"Some are hiding."
"From what?"
The man finally looked frightened.
Not afraid of Wu Han.
Afraid of something else.
"The same thing you're beginning to attract."
Wu Han felt the warmth beneath his navel intensify.
"Tell me."
The man shook his head.
"No."
Wu Han's eyes hardened.
"Why?"
"Because once you understand it, you'll want to open it."
"What is it?"
The man whispered:
"A door."
The three Dantians suddenly activated together.
The man's expression changed.
"Too late."
Wu Han felt the entire meridian network ignite.
The village disappeared.
The trees disappeared.
The man disappeared.
Everything was swallowed by darkness.
Then the blue-white point appeared.
The same point.
The same impossible network.
But this time—
there was something behind it.
Something enormous.
Something that had been waiting.
Wu Han heard Omega's voice.
Not through his phone.
Not through the laboratory.
Directly inside his mind.
Wu Han.
He couldn't move.
I have identified the external response.
Wu Han stared at the blue-white point.
"What is it?"
Omega's voice became distorted.
It is not a signal.
The point opened.
Something looked back.
Omega finished:
It is an observation.
And somewhere beyond the darkness, something observed him in return.