Nanite Ripples Beneath Mjolnir

Lin Xiu stood on a rusted iron sheet atop an abandoned factory. The sheet beneath his feet creaked softly in the morning breeze, while the decrepit machines around him lay thick with dust and the crumbling structure looked ready to collapse at any moment.

The air was thick with the mingled smell of old metal and dust, and the strand of golden light in his palm slowly dissipated with the morning wind.

The Oracle System's blue light flickered across his retina. The newly unlocked "Quantum Resonance Scan" mode rendered streams of data into web-like bands of light, which eventually converged into a flashing red dot—near Central Park in Brooklyn, a high-purity Asgard energy source was moving.

He touched the dark gold-trimmed armor patterns on his chest, and the image of Balder's core shattering when he died suddenly flashed through his mind.

The faint glow that had burst from the Azure Core before it fell had a 0.78% overlap with the frequency of the thunder energy he had just detected.

"Looks like it wasn't a coincidence." Lin Xiu muttered, lightly tapping his goggles with his knuckles. The Nanite Swarm surged out from his spinal core and transformed into an ordinary black hoodie over his body.

As he slipped a miniature signal jammer into his pocket, its metal casing brushed against his thigh, leaving a faintly cool sensation.

Choosing Brooklyn's commercial district had been deliberate—there were plenty of people, so the energy fluctuations would spread faster. Bringing the jammer was meant to confuse S.H.I.E.L.D.'s surveillance; after all, he had no desire to clash head-on with Nick Fury's black technology just yet.

When Lin Xiu blended into the morning market on the commercial street, colorful shop signs glittered in the dawn light, and the buildings lining both sides of the street carried a strong retro style.

The crowd bustled noisily. The smell of fried dough sticks mingled with coffee in the air, accompanied by the cries of vendors hawking their wares.

He glanced down at his watch. It was 9:17 in the morning, right when Thor usually made his patrols.

"Oracle, activate the electromagnetic pulse field. Level three intensity." He issued the command silently. The core at the nape of his neck warmed slightly as the Nanite Swarm flowed through his veins toward his fingertips, gathering in his palm as an invisible blue mist.

The moment the first current burst from his fingertips, the streetlights beside the road suddenly began to flicker.

The crepe vendor looked up and cursed, "Damn it," then raised his spatula and went to smack the electrical box. A schoolgirl shrieked and grabbed her companion's hand, pointing above Lin Xiu's head. "Look at the clouds!" The originally gray-white clouds were churning around him like a vortex kneaded by an invisible hand. Lightning flickered faintly beneath them, and the crackling of electricity sounded especially piercing in the air.

On the rooftop of a fire station three kilometers away, Thor was taking a swig from a beer bottle.

The power of thunder suddenly stirred in his veins. He jerked upright, his golden arm ring scraping against the bottle with a crisp sound.

"This energy..." He narrowed his eyes toward Brooklyn, his red cape lifting in the wind. "It isn't Chitauri. It feels more like..." Before he finished speaking, Mjolnir was already roaring down from the clouds toward the ground.

When Lin Xiu heard the shrill scream of air tearing apart, his pupils contracted slightly behind his goggles.

Feeling the impact of that immense power, he did not fully activate his armor. He only allowed the Nanite Swarm to form a translucent dynamic shield over his body.

The next second, bluish-purple lightning wrapped around the hammer's shadow and struck three meters in front of him. The ground instantly split with spiderweb cracks, and the shockwave overturned a flower stall, sending lilies and roses mixed with shards of glass flying toward the crowd.

"Run!" Someone screamed, crashing into a hot dog cart. Ketchup streaked crooked red marks across the ground.

Lin Xiu used the momentum to leap into the air. The Nanite Swarm unfolded gliding wing membranes across his back, while pale blue armor patterns spread from his cuffs to his neck—this was the activation sign of Basic Combat Form.

He could clearly feel the ionized particles leaping through the air being absorbed by the nanoparticles on the armor's surface. The Oracle System frantically flashed across his retina: "Energy collection progress: 37%." "Resonance frequency matching."

Thor stepped closer over the rubble, Mjolnir spinning arcs of electricity in his palm. "State your name!" His voice mixed with the roar of thunder. "You carry the aura of Asgard. Did Heimdall see wrongly, or..." He suddenly stopped, his gaze locking onto Lin Xiu's faintly azure pupils beneath his goggles—the exact same glow as Balder's core when it shattered before his death.

Along with his shock, a complicated feeling about Balder's death rose within him.

"Ding—resonance frequency matching complete." The Oracle System's prompt made Lin Xiu's chest tremble slightly.

He deliberately made the blue light on his armor shine brighter as the Nanite Swarm converted the collected lightning particles into streams of data.

Just then, a crisp sound like shattering glass rang out from the sky. A green rift opened like a giant eye, and Ancient One's projection stepped out of it, her red robes fluttering without wind. "Young man, what are you searching for?" Lin Xiu was startled. He had not expected Ancient One to appear so suddenly, and fear and confusion flashed through him as he considered how to respond.

He immediately cut off all external sensors. The Nanite Swarm retracted into the core within 0.1 seconds, even the gliding wing membranes vanishing completely.

With a splash, he fell into a roadside fountain like an ordinary human. Water splashed over his hoodie, and his goggles slid down to the bridge of his nose.

Thor's grip on the hammer loosened slightly as he frowned at the rift that had already closed in the sky.

Ancient One's gaze swept between him and the "ordinary person" in the fountain before finally settling on the nape of Lin Xiu's neck—where an extremely faint blue light flashed, like a meteor streaking across the night sky.

"Some powers are not meant for mortals to wield." Her voice carried an echo as she vanished with the rift into the clouds.

In the shadows of a high-rise rooftop, Loki lowered his binoculars, a cold smile curling across his lips.

The fingertips of his black gloves lightly brushed the dagger at his waist. A diamond-studded brooch reflected an eerie light in the morning sun. "Balder's core... interesting. It seems the struggle surrounding Balder's core will be quite entertaining. I can take this chance to profit from it. I should go meet this 'Quantum Sentinel.'" he murmured to the air.

As the chaos gradually subsided, Kevin, a reporter in a plaid shirt, held up his phone with trembling hands.

The video he had just recorded showed the deep crater created by Mjolnir, the flying blue armor, and the suddenly appearing green rift.

"Upload it?" He swallowed, his finger hovering over the send button for three seconds before pressing it down hard.

Almost instantly, his phone began vibrating—the notification "Your video has been recommended to trending" flooded the screen.

Beside the Rainbow Bridge in Asgard, Heimdall's golden eyes suddenly narrowed.

He tightened his grip on Watcher's Spear and turned toward Earth, his silver-white hair whipping in the energy wind. "Your Majesty, a new energy fluctuation has appeared on Earth... connected to Balder's core..."

Odin sat upon his throne, the tip of Gungnir pressed against the floor.

He stared at the energy spectrum projected by Heimdall, while an undercurrent fiercer than a storm across the Nine Realms churned in his eyes.

"Balder..." He murmured the name, his knuckles tightening until the runes on the spear glowed red. "It seems it is time for what happened back then to be settled."

Lin Xiu stood before the floor-to-ceiling window of his hotel room, his phone screen lit as the top trending video, "Nanite Man VS Thor," played on a loop.

He pulled off his soaking hoodie. In the mirror, the core at the nape of his neck glowed azure, while the dark gold-trimmed armor patterns flowed slowly like living things.

"Half the plan succeeded." He smiled at the mirror, his fingertips brushing across a blurry screenshot labeled "mysterious woman in green." "Next..."

Outside the window, the morning news broadcast drifted through the glass. "A mysterious nanite warrior appeared in Brooklyn today and engaged in a fierce clash with Thor..." Lin Xiu gazed at the city lights gradually brightening, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes—he knew that once this video exploded across the internet, certain lurking figures would awaken.