The corridor was so quiet that only the sound of equipment running could be heard.
Everyone stared at the monitors that had already lost their signal.
The screens were completely black.
The final footage transmitted by the reconnaissance robot was still stored in the recording terminal.
A massive underground space.
A huge circular device.
And abnormal readings that had suddenly surged.
The technicians repeatedly checked the data.
They hoped to find an error.
But the results remained unchanged.
The robot had indeed been frozen.
And it had happened within an extremely short period of time.
The captain folded his arms across his chest.
He stared at the data for a long time.
"What about the temperature?"
The technician immediately answered.
"The final reading."
"Minus eighty-nine degrees Celsius."
Silence fell over the area.
That temperature was far beyond what could naturally occur within the facility.
More importantly,
the monitoring data showed that the temperature was still dropping.
As if that space itself were continuously absorbing heat.
Administration Center.
The conference room was brightly lit.
The screens displayed the field data in real time.
All department heads were present.
The Mining Bureau.
The Energy Bureau.
The Environmental Processing Department.
The Crisis Management Committee.
It was a rare joint meeting.
Because the situation had already exceeded the scope of an ordinary contamination incident.
One official spoke first.
"I recommend expanding the restricted zone."
Another immediately added,
"The eastern mining district needs to begin evacuation preparations."
"If the contamination continues to spread,"
"the economic losses will be extremely severe."
At the other end of the conference table,
someone voiced an objection.
"The mining district is a major source of energy during winter."
"A complete shutdown would affect heating supplies."
The argument gradually intensified.
But Oksana remained silent.
She simply stared at the numbers on the screen.
The contamination index.
The temperature curve.
The underground structural map.
And the continuously updated field reports.
After a long while,
she finally spoke.
The conference room instantly fell silent.
"Begin evacuation preparations."
"Keep the mining district operating at minimum capacity."
"Expand the restricted zone."
"Enter National Crisis Level Two."
Everyone immediately recorded the orders.
No one continued arguing.
Because they all knew.
Once the executive officer made a decision,
there was no longer room for discussion.
Underground Facility.
The investigation team temporarily retreated to the sealed entrance area.
The technicians were organizing the data brought back by the robot.
Irina stood alone against the wall.
She had already removed her gloves.
Her palm was pressed against the cold metal.
She was sensing the changes in temperature.
Not reading memories.
Not sensing the future.
Simply analyzing.
Analyzing the rate at which the ice was forming.
Analyzing the flow of heat.
Analyzing the patterns of environmental change.
The essence of Phase Dominance was never about creating miracles.
It was about understanding the state of matter
and interfering with it.
Time passed little by little.
She maintained the same posture the entire time.
Until a technician beside her noticed something unusual.
"Kelvin."
She did not respond.
The technician took a few steps closer.
Only then did he realize that her palm had already begun turning pale.
The low temperature was continuously damaging her skin.
The captain immediately walked over.
"That's enough."
Only then did Irina withdraw her hand.
Her fingers were somewhat stiff.
The movement of her joints had clearly slowed.
She lowered her head and looked at them.
She said nothing.
The captain frowned.
"How is your body?"
"I'm fine."
"Tell me the truth."
After a brief silence,
she slowly spoke.
"My ability consumption has increased."
Those words made several people around them look up simultaneously.
They rarely heard Irina voluntarily mention her own condition.
The captain asked,
"Why?"
"The environment."
She looked toward the depths of the corridor.
"The low temperature here wasn't formed naturally."
"Every time I analyze a phase change,"
"I get pulled into it as well."
The technician looked somewhat confused.
She continued explaining.
"Under normal circumstances,"
"changing the state of ice"
"requires a certain amount of energy."
"But it's different here."
"This place itself is continuously absorbing heat."
"So I have to constantly resist it."
The air became quiet.
The captain finally understood.
The environment here
was directly opposing her ability.
And the intensity of that resistance was steadily increasing.
Several hours later.
The second reconnaissance robot was sent into the maintenance passage.
This time,
everyone stared at the screen.
The footage slowly moved forward.
A narrow passage.
Frozen pipelines.
Collapsed walls.
Everything looked the same as before.
The technicians continuously marked the map
and built a three-dimensional model.
Finally,
the robot once again reached the edge of the massive chamber.
Everyone subconsciously held their breath.
The camera slowly tilted upward.
The central device appeared in view once again.
This time,
they could see it more clearly.
It was not a reactor.
Nor was it an energy facility.
It was a containment facility.
A massive cylindrical structure extended from floor to ceiling.
Its surface was covered in a thick layer of ice.
Hundreds of pipelines connected to the surrounding equipment.
It was as if the entire underground facility had been built for its sake.
The technician quickly zoomed in.
At last,
he spotted some text.
Although it had already been heavily corroded,
it could still barely be deciphered.
"Containment Zone Seven."
Someone quietly read the words aloud.
The room instantly fell silent.
Containment zone.
Those words meant one thing.
This place had originally existed to imprison something.
It was not the core of a laboratory.
The robot continued forward.
The temperature continued to fall.
Minus seventy degrees.
Minus seventy-five degrees.
Minus eighty degrees.
The numbers kept updating.
Suddenly,
the camera captured something abnormal.
Something inside the central cylinder
seemed to move.
Everyone froze simultaneously.
The technician immediately paused the footage.
He began enlarging the image.
Replayed it.
Zoomed in again.
Replayed it once more.
Several minutes later,
he slowly raised his head.
His face was somewhat pale.
"There's something inside."
No one spoke.
Because they had all seen it.
Deep within the ice,
there was indeed a certain silhouette.
It was not machinery.
It was not equipment.
It looked more like a living organism.
Or something that had once been alive.
The captain immediately asked,
"Can you determine its size?"
The technician shook his head.
"No."
"The ice is too thick."
"We can't tell."
Just then,
the alarm sounded again.
Beep—
Beep—
Beep—
The temperature suddenly plummeted.
All the data began fluctuating simultaneously.
Ice rapidly formed around the robot.
Static began filling the screen.
The captain shouted,
"Pull it back!"
The technician immediately carried out the order.
The tracks began moving backward.
However, this time,
everyone clearly saw it.
On the surface of the central containment device,
a faint blue light slowly appeared.
As if something inside
was beginning to awaken.
The next second,
the signal was cut.
The screen turned black again.
The air fell into deathly silence.
No one spoke immediately.
Everyone stared at the final recorded data.
After a long while,
the captain slowly exhaled.
"It knows we're here."
No one objected.
Because both reconnaissance attempts
had failed as they approached the core area.
That was no longer a coincidence.
Irina, meanwhile,
continued staring at the final image.
She remained silent for a long time.
Then she spoke softly.
"It's not the contamination source."
The captain turned toward her.
"What?"
She stared at the cylinder on the screen.
Then slowly spoke.
"If it were merely a contamination source,"
"it wouldn't have been sealed inside a place like this."
"There wouldn't be such a massive facility."
"And it certainly wouldn't have continued operating for decades."
The surroundings fell silent.
Everyone realized what she was implying.
That thing
was never contamination caused by an accident.
It was an existence deliberately imprisoned here
by someone—
or by some era.
And now,
they were slowly getting closer to it.