Midnight Ghost of Stark Tower

Lin Xiu's thumb hovered over his phone screen for three seconds.

In the top trending video, brilliant, dreamlike blue light burst from his armor when it was struck by Mjolnir. The blue glow looped across the screen like a mysterious spell.

The comments section seemed to explode beside his ears, filled with jubilant cries of "Iron Man's new suit?" and "A secret government weapon?"

He pulled off his hoodie, still dripping with water. Cold droplets fell onto his skin, bringing a faint chill.

The Nanocore at the back of his neck suddenly heated up, as though a blazing fire were burning there. Dark golden patterns crawled up his spine toward his collarbone like agile snakes, like neural pathways being activated.

"Quantum coupling coefficient: 0.87," he murmured to the mirror, his voice echoing through the silent room.

The quantum coupling coefficient was a key measure of the strength of interaction between two quantum systems. This value meant that the armor's connection to some unknown force was in a delicate state.

Half an hour earlier, he had used the Oracle System to analyze the footage Kevin uploaded. The energy fluctuation frequency of Thor's hammer perfectly overlapped with the Mind Stone resonance curve recorded by the Balder Armor at the seventh harmonic point—at the quantum scale, the odds of that were equivalent to "inevitable."

The laptop on the bedside table suddenly emitted a shrill beep. A holographic three-dimensional map of Stark Tower appeared, its dazzling light and shadows flickering before his eyes.

Lin Xiu bent down and took a metal case from the hidden compartment of his suitcase. The instant his fingers touched it, he felt a faint chill.

Inside lay ten Nanite Swarms as thin as hairs, each coated in Vibranium and glimmering faintly in the dim light.

"I have to move before S.H.I.E.L.D. gets involved." He pressed the swarm against his wrist. As nanoparticles traveled along his veins, an itchy sensation spread through his body. The core at the back of his neck flashed with ghostly blue light. "The old version of JARVIS has three vulnerabilities. Lina Holt will be working overtime in the R&D department of Zone B at ten tonight." Lin Xiu had observed such details about Lina because he knew that anyone could become a critical factor during an infiltration. By understanding her, he hoped to give himself better odds.

At 1:17 a.m., in the ventilation ducts of Stark Tower's Zone B, Lin Xiu's breath condensed into white mist that drifted slowly through the dark passage.

He moved along the icy metal wall, his fingertips numbed by the cold.

The feed from the miniature camera showed the red warning light in the central server room flashing thirty meters away, like a pair of watchful eyes.

The Nanite Swarm had already eaten through two layers of fireproof panels. He could hear his heartbeat pounding urgently against his eardrums—until that familiar string of beeps suddenly erupted, sharp enough to pierce his ears.

The infrared alarm had been triggered.

The vent grille suddenly became scorching hot under an electric current. Even through his gloves, Lin Xiu could feel the searing heat. He jerked his hand back as a red warning flashed across his goggles: Level-two defenses activated.

He pressed himself against the duct wall and listened to hurried footsteps below—a pair of white canvas shoes, their heels stained with coffee. That was Lina Holt's signature.

Three days earlier, when he hacked into Stark's intern roster, he had noticed the girl who always drank hot cocoa from a mug in the dead of night. Her keyboard rhythm matched that of a genius from the quantum computing lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"The system's gone crazy again." The girl's voice was nasal. She had probably pushed her round glasses back up her nose, and her voice rang especially clearly in the quiet surroundings.

Lin Xiu saw her upturned face: pale as paper, dark circles beneath her eyes. Her fingers flew over the console with rapid clattering sounds. "False infrared alarm... It happened in Zone B last time too. Could it be rats?" She bit her lower lip, her fingertip hovering over the "Force Shutdown" button for three seconds before she finally pressed it.

The instant the alarm stopped, Lin Xiu's Nanite Swarm drilled into the server room's door lock.

When he flipped down onto the floor, the blue glow from the core at the back of his neck was perfectly concealed by the high collar of his janitor uniform.

The server's cold airflow poured into his collar like an icy current. He found the main interface port, and the Oracle System unfolded a stream of data across his retina. "Data extraction initiated. Estimated time remaining: 4 minutes, 17 seconds."

The screen suddenly went black.

"Are you looking for me?"

The voice was like an ice spike soaked in honey. As it seeped from the speakers, goosebumps rose across Lin Xiu's neck.

Loki's face was reforming in the holographic projection—the green-and-gold horned helmet, the upturned smile at the corners of his eyes, overlapping with the figure Lin Xiu had spotted watching him through binoculars on the rooftop three days ago.

But this face was more transparent, like a sheet of paper soaked in water. Fine streams of data cracked across the corners of its mouth whenever it spoke.

"A remnant image of the Mind Stone." Lin Xiu's pupils contracted.

The Oracle System flashed frantically. "Mental intrusion detected. Immediate severance of neural link advised!" But he did not move—the phantom's fingertips swept over the holographic screen, and the scene of a laboratory suddenly unfolded around him.

He was back in the quantum laboratory on Blue Star.

Professor Zhang, his advisor, held up a cup of coffee and smiled. "Xiao Lin, have you finished the stability report on the nanomaterials you designed?" His smile was kind, his voice warm and familiar.

At the workstation by the window, his roommate Chen Mo was playing a game, his keyboard clattering noisily through the quiet laboratory.

Outside the window, the shadows of plane trees swayed in the breeze with a soft rustle, exactly like every ordinary late night in his memories.

"This is what's real." Phantom Loki's voice came from all directions. "You're nothing but dust blown off course by a Quantum Storm. Give up that ridiculous dream of becoming a 'Quantum Sentinel' and return here—"

Lin Xiu's breathing suddenly quickened.

He could smell the rich aroma of instant noodles from Chen Mo's desk, mixed with the fragrance of seasoning and stimulating his senses.

He could hear the soft clink of ice cubes in Professor Zhang's coffee cup, a crisp sound like a beautiful note.

Every detail was more real than anything in the Marvel universe.

But when he looked up, outside the laboratory window—where the city nightscape should have been—floated a ghostly blue orb. Star-river patterns flowed across its surface, its radiance dazzling and seemingly filled with boundless mysteries.

"The Mind Stone," he said quietly.

Cracks appeared in the phantom's smile.

Lin Xiu raised his hand. The blue glow from the core at the back of his neck surged, and dark golden armor patterns burst from his collar, gathering into a diamond-shaped energy source over his chest.

"Anti-Mental Force Field, activate."

Golden ripples spread from his chest like tangible waves.

The laboratory scene began to warp. Professor Zhang's face melted into data streams, and Chen Mo's game screen shattered into fragments.

Phantom Loki's scream was torn apart by the ripples. As his final words, "You'll regret this—" faded away, Lin Xiu crashed into the server console, his forehead throbbing with dull pain.

"Unauthorized intruder located: Zone B server room." JARVIS's mechanical voice exploded overhead, while the red alarm lights were so blinding he could barely keep his eyes open.

Lin Xiu yanked out the interface. The data packet had already been fully stored in the Oracle System.

As he rushed toward the ventilation shaft, the door was violently shoved open—Lina stood in the doorway holding an access card. Her face was even paler than before, and the mug in her hand was still steaming, vapor slowly rising through the cold air.

"The elevators are down, and there are guards in the fire escape." She shoved the access card into Lin Xiu's hand, her fingertips trembling with the tension in her heart. "This card can open the employee passage. It expires in three minutes."

"Why are you helping me?" The moment Lin Xiu took the card, he felt the coldness of her fingertips. His gaze held a trace of confusion and gratitude.

Lina pushed up her glasses, her eyes sweeping over the faint blue glow at the back of his neck. "Last week, I hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s encrypted files." She tugged at the corner of her mouth. "There was a photo inside. It had the same patterns as the ones on your neck."

The alarms were getting closer.

As Lin Xiu turned and sprinted into the passage, he heard Lina call after him, "If... if the system goes crazy again next time, can you tell me the truth?" His steps faltered slightly, but he ultimately did not turn back and only ran faster.

As he ran, the data he had just obtained kept flashing through Lin Xiu's mind. The Oracle System displayed a prompt across his retina: "Data analysis complete. Quantum entanglement equation between the Mind Stone and the Balder Core discovered." A quantum entanglement equation was a mathematical expression describing a special connection between two or more quantum systems. This connection meant that the Mind Stone and the Balder Core shared a mysterious link transcending space and time.

On the observation deck atop Stark Tower, the real Loki leaned against the glass curtain wall. The fingertips of his black gloves tapped the dagger at his waist with crisp clicks.

He watched the red emergency lights illuminate in the direction of the employee passage. A crushed-diamond brooch on his chest refracted a ghostly green glimmer in the darkness. "An Anti-Mental Force Field... It can break free from the Mind Stone's remnant image. This armor is more interesting than I imagined."

As he turned toward the shadows, police sirens sounded below, growing clearer as they approached.

In the underground laboratory of an abandoned factory in Brooklyn, Lin Xiu's black trench coat still dripped with night dew, each drop pattering against the floor.

He pulled away the waterproof tarp, revealing the Quantum Collider at the center. The Nanocore at the back of his neck cast a ghostly blue glow across the console, illuminating the darkness around it.

The Oracle System suddenly beeped. In the holographic projection, the Mind Stone's energy map and the Balder Core's structural model were merging. A line of quantum code appeared where they overlapped.

"This is... the key to connecting the Nine Realms?" he murmured. His fingers hovered over the console, trembling slightly with excitement. "Odin, Ancient One, Loki... This is what they've all been searching for."

The core's blue light suddenly surged, and the laboratory's quantum counter began jumping wildly with urgent sounds.

Lin Xiu stepped back half a pace and saw his reflection in the glass—dark golden armor patterns covered half his face, while the core's light reflected in his eyes, making him look like a warrior from some ancient prophecy.

"Looks like the real trouble is only just beginning." He smiled at the empty air and pressed the activation button.

Amid the Quantum Collider's hum, the cries of crows echoed in the distance like an omen.