The Night the Quantum Lab Collapsed

[Brain Storage]

[The world setting and timeline have been altered; this will become apparent later in the story.]

The cold white light in the laboratory, like frigid moonlight, reflected fragmented, flickering specks across the Vibranium walls, like stars scattered across the night sky.

The cuffs of Lin Xiu's white lab coat were stained with dark brown nanomaterial solution, a color like dried blood that gave off the faintly pungent smell of chemical reagents.

He leaned over the quantum collider's parameter display, his fingertips rapidly tapping out an urgent rhythm across the console, the crisp, dense sound like a hurried drumbeat.

As a third-year mechanical engineering graduate student at Huaqing University, he had been holed up in the underground laboratory beneath this abandoned Brooklyn factory for three months—the professor had said it contained Vibranium equipment left behind by Hydra, making it the perfect place to test his "crazy energy conversion model."

The laboratory was filled with the mixed scent of old metal and electronic components. The cold air touched his skin, making every hair on his body stand slightly on end.

"Lin, the field strength in Zone Four just spiked again." Eileen Wu's voice came from behind him, carrying a hint of tension and urgency as it echoed through the empty laboratory.

The ponytail of the Chinese-American assistant researcher was dusted with grime from the equipment's heat vents, warm dust carrying a faint burnt smell.

Her goggles were pushed up onto her forehead as she held an energy meter. "1.2 teslas, 0.3 higher than yesterday." The meter gave off a faint hum, as if announcing the experiment's abnormality.

Lin Xiu's fingers flew over the holographic keyboard like agile dancers. His pupils reflected the leaping stream of data, its flickering glow illuminating his slightly tense face.

"Adjust the phase angle of the magnetic confinement coils." His voice carried the unique calm of an experimenter, but his Adam's apple bobbed—this was already the seventh abnormal fluctuation tonight.

He could feel his heartbeat accelerating, every beat slamming against his chest.

Three months ago, he had read a paper in Nature Physics on energy capture from quantum entangled states. His professor had patted him on the shoulder and said, "You little madman, dare to use Vibranium as the medium?" That was how this insane plan to combine nanomaterials with quantum field resonance had come about.

According to quantum theory, microscopic particles in an entangled state were interconnected. If that connection was stimulated by a specific form of energy, it might break the conventional limitations of space-time. Perhaps that was the underlying principle of space-time jumps.

The instant Eileen pressed down the control lever, the instruments along the entire wall suddenly emitted a piercing buzz. It was like an alarm, sharp enough to make their ears ache.

A chill ran down Lin Xiu's neck. He saw the blue speck of light at the center of the collider begin to distort. Like water dropped into ink, it spread into a vortex at a visible speed, its blue glow flashing with eerie colors as though unknown danger lay hidden within.

"Shut down the main power!" he roared, turning to grab the emergency switch, only to be staggered by an unseen force—the floor was shaking, and the metal pipes let out dying wails, low and horrifying. Even the air was heating up, hot gusts rushing at him and making it hard to breathe.

"Lin! The reading has broken through the critical value!" Eileen's voice carried a sob. The red warning on the meter stabbed at his eyes, glaringly conspicuous in the darkness.

Cold sweat seeped into Lin Xiu's palms. He remembered the paper stating that the "collapse threshold" of a quantum entangled state was 1.8 teslas, but the numbers on the screen were now jumping wildly: 1.9... 2.1... 2.5!

The flickering digits were like the hands of a countdown, foretelling the arrival of danger.

"Get to the shelter!" He grabbed Eileen by the wrist and ran toward the corner, but after only two steps, the entire laboratory was swallowed by blinding white light, like lightning illuminating the dark space in an instant.

Lin Xiu felt as though a red-hot needle had pierced his temple. His consciousness was like a crumpled sheet of paper, spinning as it fell through the darkness.

When he opened his eyes again, the stabbing pain at the back of his neck remained.

The darkness in the laboratory was like thick ink, and he struggled to adjust to it.

Compared to the brightly lit experimental environment from before, filled with the sounds of operating machinery, the silence and darkness now filled him with immense fear and unease.

He could hear his own heavy breathing, unusually clear in the silent space.

Lin Xiu pushed himself up from the floor and found a tear across the front of his lab coat. The exposed skin beneath was an unnatural bluish purple—had he hit the corner of the Vibranium table when he fell?

His hand touched the torn lab coat, its fabric rough and cold.

He looked up at the electronic clock on the wall, and his pupils suddenly constricted: May 3, 2012, 23:47.

"Impossible." He staggered toward the console, trembling fingers sliding across the holographic screen.

The equipment was still running, except all the data had changed to English—three months ago, he had clearly switched the interface to Chinese.

Lin Xiu opened the laboratory log. The latest entry was timestamped "2012/05/03 22:00," signed by "Anthony E. Stark."

"Stark Industries?" he muttered, his back teeth grinding painfully together.

When he had arrived in New York three months ago, Stark Industries had just moved out of Brooklyn. The underground laboratory beneath this abandoned factory was not listed in any public records at all.

Even stranger, he reached for his arm—there was a coin-sized indentation there, with a faint metallic gleam visible beneath the skin. "My Nanocore..."

Three days ago, he had just completed the Nanocore's final calibration. That tiny metal piece, no bigger than a grain of rice, should have been sealed inside a liquid nitrogen container.

Yet now it was embedded in his forearm, faint blue light flowing over its surface as it trembled softly like a living thing. The dim blue glow illuminated his arm.

Lin Xiu held his breath. The moment his fingertips touched that patch of skin, a burning sensation suddenly shot from his arm to his heart, like flames consuming him with unbearable pain.

He curled up in agony, only to see silver streams flowing beneath his skin. Like a school of startled fish, they spread through his entire body along his blood vessels, shimmering with an entrancing luster.

"Hiss—" He sucked in a breath, feeling something drilling out through his pores.

When his vision cleared again, he froze. His arms were covered in a translucent silver film that felt like a second layer of skin. The bruise from the impact was fading at a visible speed.

Even stranger, he could "feel" the film—not through touch, but through some more direct connection, as if his nerve endings had extended into every molecule of the membrane.

"[Balder Armor · Basic Combat Form] activated."

When the mechanical voice exploded in his mind, Lin Xiu nearly knocked over the oscilloscope beside him.

He clapped his hands over his ears, only to realize the sound had not come from outside.

Pale blue data streams appeared at the edge of his vision, scrolling with "Energy: 37%," "Quantum Entanglement Range: 50 meters," and "Analyzable Energy Types: Electromagnetic/Thermal/Basic Biological Energy."

"This is... nanotech armor?" He raised his trembling hand, and the membrane rose and fell with the movement.

He tried clenching his fist. The film around his knuckles immediately thickened into sharp ridges. "Oracle System?" He remembered the laboratory log mentioning "Balder, the god of light in Asgardian mythology," and his throat tightened. "So that ancient rune discovered in Norway three months ago really was connected to nanotechnology?"

A high-frequency hum suddenly came from outside the window, like a shrill whistle tearing through the silent night.

Lin Xiu abruptly looked up. A black shadow swept past the laboratory's bulletproof glass, moving so quickly that it blurred his vision.

He narrowed his eyes and saw that it had six diamond-shaped rotors, its body covered in dark purple patterns. A red light on its nose slowly swept across his position—that was definitely not an aircraft Earth currently possessed.

"Chitauri..." He recalled scenes from the Avengers movie, cold sweat forming across his back.

The Battle of New York was supposed to happen in September 2012. It was only May now, so how could there be a reconnaissance drone?

His gaze swept across the Nanocore on the table, and he suddenly understood: the quantum experiment had triggered a space-time jump, and the energy fluctuation from the armor's activation had exposed his location.

The red light stopped over his chest.

Lin Xiu could hear his heart pounding violently. The film beneath his skin grew faintly warm as the data stream frantically flashed: "Danger Level: A."

He gritted his teeth and quietly circled behind the console, his fingertips rapidly tapping across the controls—he had to shut down every light source and electromagnetic signal, or the drone's targeting system would transmit the coordinates to its mothership.

When the last indicator light went out, the laboratory fell into total darkness.

The darkness was like an invisible giant hand, tightly wrapping around him and filling him with suffocating oppression and fear.

He could hear his heartbeat echoing in his chest, every beat filled with tension and unease.

Lin Xiu crouched against the wall. He could clearly hear the rotors' hum growing closer, like the call of death itself, driving his nerves to their limit.

He watched the shadow pass beyond the window and felt the membrane across his back automatically tighten into a protective layer. The Oracle System continued to scroll through his mind: "Detected extraterrestrial technology energy signature. Recommendation: maintain silence and await completion of analysis..."

The rotor noise stopped overhead.

Lin Xiu held his breath as a shadow fell across the glass. The red light flickered in the darkness like an eye poised to strike.

His fingers unconsciously clawed at the wall, blood seeping from beneath his nails—but that pain was nothing. His mind was racing wildly: the armor had only 37% energy remaining, the quantum entanglement range was 50 meters, and what kind of weapon system might the drone possess?

If he rushed out now, what were his chances?

More importantly—he looked down at his arm, where the blue light still faintly pulsed. "Balder Armor, Nanocore, space-time jump..." The fragments formed a vague picture in his mind, while the red light outside was engraving his existence onto this universe's list of dangers.

(In the darkness, the red light suddenly froze for an instant, then erupted with dazzling crimson light.

Lin Xiu's pupils shrank to black dots in the darkness. He heard the mechanical unlocking sound from beneath the drone, and the Oracle System's warning finally tore through his thoughts—)