Armor's First Battle and the Electromagnetic Trap

Darkness wrapped around Lin Xiu like thick ink. Cold sweat streamed down the back of his neck like tiny rivulets, soaking through his clothes long ago. The cicada-wing-thin membrane of the Nano Armor trembled faintly beneath his skin, bringing a strange tingling itch.

The Oracle System's data flow danced merrily across his retina like nimble blue sprites. Pale-blue characters flickered unsteadily like startled fireflies.

Working in tandem with the high-precision thermal sensors built into the Nano Armor and its own powerful data-processing module, the Oracle System accurately detected: "J-07 Scout thermal imaging scan detected. Current body temperature: 37.8°C. Infrared signature deviation: 12%. Recommendation: deploy Nanite Swarm across the epidermis to reduce thermal radiation."

His Adam's apple bobbed, producing a faint gulp. His right index finger lightly brushed over his left arm—the armor's control node—and the friction between fingertip and skin made a soft rustling sound.

Fine needle-like pain immediately spread beneath his skin. Countless Nanobots, like well-trained little soldiers, crawled swiftly along his blood vessels toward the surface, weaving a translucent film through the fibers of his clothes. The film shimmered with an unusual sheen in the dim light.

Lin Xiu could clearly feel his body temperature dropping, as though he had been wrapped in a layer of breathing icy silk. The coolness seeped from his skin into every inch of his flesh, and even the white mist from his breath had faded somewhat, hanging in the darkness like faint smoke.

The rotor noise suddenly rose in pitch, exploding beside his ears like a shrill alarm. J-07's shadow cast diamond-shaped patches of light across the bulletproof glass, like a sharp blade cutting through the darkness's silence.

The red dot no longer blinked. Instead, it remained fixed on the console where he had been hiding moments ago—clearly, the drone's electromagnetic scan had picked up the lingering signal from his final tap on the controls before shutting off the power.

"Damn it." Lin Xiu ground his molars together with a crisp crack, his nails digging deeply into his palms and sending a burning pain through them.

The Oracle System's alarm exploded in his mind, sharp and piercing like thunder before a storm: "Enemy weapon charging complete. Type identified: miniature tracking missile (standard Chitauri model, equipped with gravitational lock-on module). Evasion success rate: 19%." His pupils shrank to pinpoints in the darkness. From the corner of his eye, he spotted the dust-covered fluxgate sensors in the corner—equipment the laboratory had retired last year. Their coil windings still hung from the rack, and dust drifted faintly in his vision, carrying a stale odor.

"Electromagnetic pulse..." He suddenly straightened. The Nanite Swarm gathered at his cuff into a miniature interface with a faint buzz, rapidly connecting to the console's backup power supply.

His fingers flew across the keyboard, producing a rapid clatter. The Oracle System simultaneously retrieved the laboratory's equipment inventory: "Fluxgate sensors ×3, superconducting coils ×2, remaining capacitor energy: 32%. Can be assembled into an EMP device. Effective range: 20 meters. Probability of disabling J-07 electronic systems: 87%."

The instant he tore down a coil, the laboratory's metal door was slammed open with a deafening BANG, the sound echoing through the silent lab.

"Who?!" Lin Xiu instinctively turned sideways. The Nano Armor condensed around his left arm into a translucent shield whose surface glowed with Azure Core light, like the depths of the ocean.

Moonlight leaked through the doorway like a silver thread, revealing a figure in khaki work pants—Eileen Wu, a former assistant researcher at the Vibranium Laboratory.

Her ponytail was slightly disheveled, loose strands drifting in the moonlight. She still gripped half an uneaten energy bar in her right hand, clearly drawn here by the commotion.

"It's me!" Eileen raised both hands. Her flashlight beam swept across Lin Xiu's face, glaring like a searchlight.

"I heard rotor noise and thought someone was stealing equipment—why are you here?" Her gaze fell on the coil tucked in his arm, and her pupils abruptly contracted. "Wait, that thing on your arm... is that a nanobot?"

Lin Xiu's shield trembled faintly, emitting a low hum.

In 0.3 seconds, the Oracle System completed its information search on Eileen: former S.H.I.E.L.D. reserve member, skilled in mechanical engineering, reassigned three months ago due to laboratory restructuring.

Credibility assessment: 78%.

"Alien drone," he said briefly. "I need your help—how many underground levels do this laboratory's ventilation ducts lead to?"

Eileen's breathing caught, followed by a faint gasp.

She stared at the shadow streaking past outside the window, her throat moving. Then she suddenly crouched and pulled open the metal grate in the floor, metal scraping harshly against metal. "The drainage pipes are on level negative three. The access shaft is in the northeast corner." Her fingers tapped out a steady rhythm against the wall, clear as drumbeats. "The fluxgate sensors' grounding lines are still connected to the main capacitor. I can help you hook up the wires."

The rotor noise was already directly overhead, roaring like a bomber. Lin Xiu could hear the airflow pressing the metal ceiling into a series of cracking groans, as though it were about to tear the ceiling apart.

He shoved the coil into Eileen's arms. "Connect the wires to the sensor's negative terminal within thirty seconds, then hide beneath the grate."

"Understood." Eileen's voice suddenly steadied, as though she had become a different person.

She pulled open her work jacket pocket and took out a wire stripper, swiftly peeling away the insulation with a faint hiss.

Watching her profile, Lin Xiu suddenly remembered an entry in the laboratory logs—the girl who always spilled coffee on her lab reports had once repaired the Vibranium furnace's cooling system all by herself.

"Charging complete." The Oracle System's prompt made Lin Xiu's back tighten as a chill crawled up his spine.

He saw a dark-purple muzzle extend from J-07's underside. The tracking missile's hum vibrated through the air like a swarm of enraged bees.

The Nano Armor's energy bar began blinking with a faint red glow. The Basic Form shield could only hold for seven seconds.

Lin Xiu's voice echoed through the cramped laboratory, and the air seemed to freeze. At that critical moment, he shouted, "Eileen!"

The girl's hand pressed the wire precisely into the sensor port.

The instant the current surged through, the metal piping along the entire wall lit up blue, the glow resembling a dreamlike curtain of light, accompanied by a sizzling electric crackle.

Lin Xiu sprang upward. Thrusters formed across his back with a tremendous roar, carrying him straight toward the access shaft in the northeast corner.

BOOM—

The tracking missile exploded as it grazed his shield. The blast wave, like a roaring beast, overturned half the console, sending fragments flying in every direction.

Lin Xiu twisted in midair and saw J-07's red light begin flashing wildly—the EMP device had worked!

The drone's rotor speed plummeted. Its body careened crookedly into the ventilation duct before plunging headfirst into the open drainage shaft.

Ding—

The Oracle System's notification was clearer than the explosion: "Countermeasure procedure complete +1. Current form stability increased to 89%." Lin Xiu landed heavily on the ground. The armor's energy bar had only 12% remaining, flickering weakly.

He bent down and pulled up the still-trembling Eileen. Her palms were covered in red marks left by the wires, still hot to the touch.

"Thanks," he said.

With the drone's crash, the crisis seemed temporarily over, but a new mystery surfaced amid the wreckage... Eileen stared toward the shaft, where a dull metallic scraping sound came from below. "That thing... is dead?"

"For now." Lin Xiu pulled out his phone, though it had no signal, and switched on its flashlight to shine into the shaft.

J-07's wreckage was wedged at a bend in the pipe. A crack had split open its dark-purple shell, revealing an Azure Core glowing inside—the patterns were seventy percent similar to the Nanocore within his body.

The Oracle System suddenly buzzed, and a line of blood-red text appeared across his retina: "Homologous quantum entanglement signal detected. Recommendation: immediately dismantle target wreckage."

Lin Xiu's fingers hovered over the wreckage, then withdrew.

He could feel the Nano Armor heating up beneath his skin, as though a fire were burning inside him, as though something were urging him closer.

Eileen's flashlight swept across his face, revealing the blue light flickering in his eyes—the Oracle System's data flow.

"Who exactly are you?" Eileen asked softly.

Lin Xiu stared at the Azure Core in the wreckage and suddenly smiled. "A graduate student who got dragged into trouble." He crouched down and pulled laboratory-grade disassembly tools from his work pants pocket. "But now, it's time to deal with something even more troublesome."

The wind from the shaft suddenly picked up, blowing metal fragments across the back of his hand and bringing a stinging pain.

Lin Xiu stared at the Azure Core, hearing his heart pound like a drum—this was definitely no coincidence.

Ever since crossing over from the quantum experiment, every "accident" had seemed as though it were being pushed along by an invisible hand.

And that hand was now hiding within this pile of alien wreckage.

The instant his fingertips touched the wreckage's shell, the Oracle System's prompt sounded again, this time with a line of code he had never seen before:

"Balder Armor: End Fusion Form unlock progress—1%"