Ghost Fingerprints in Stark's Files

Lin Xiu lightly pressed his fingertips to his temple. The Oracle System's data streams, like blue threads, surged wildly across his retina with a faint sizzling sound, visually resembling blue ribbons dancing before his eyes.

The residual energy pattern from before the Mind Stone fragment shattered had just been imported when the system immediately emitted a sharp, piercing buzz, like a blade tearing through the silence.

The string of pale-blue code leaped violently across the holographic display, like a flame swept up by gale-force winds, making faint popping sounds.

"Hidden code?" he repeated quietly, his Adam's apple bobbing with a soft swallow.

The Nanocore at his spine grew faintly warm, the heat passing through his clothes to his skin with a gentle warmth.

This was a sign that the intermediate fragment's energy was reviving. The Nanocore was linked to the intermediate fragment's energy; whenever the energy fluctuated, the Nanocore registered it through temperature changes.

Three days ago, during his confrontation with Loki in the ruins, he had nearly drained this fragment of its power. Yet now, the remaining energy seemed drawn by an invisible force, gathering along his neural pathways toward his brain. He could feel a warm current moving through his body.

The laboratory's incandescent lights hummed overhead. Their dim yellow glow made everything feel heavy and hazy.

He bent down and picked up the Vibranium flash drive scattered on the floor. Its metal edge still held the warmth from when it had fallen, pleasantly warm to the touch.

His hand had been unsteady when importing the data just now, and the flash drive had struck the console before bouncing away with a clang.

He had dug it out of an ancient battlefield ruin in Norway. Asgardian Runes were carved across its surface, glimmering faintly under the lights with a mysterious beauty.

He had originally assumed they were merely decorative, but now they resonated with the Oracle System's prompt, producing a faint humming echo.

"It might be encrypted data from Stark's research into the Mind Stone back then." He voiced his guess to the empty air, his words echoing clearly through the spacious laboratory.

When he had first crossed into the Marvel universe three months ago, he found the Balder Armor in an underground laboratory beneath an abandoned factory in Brooklyn. And in Stark Industries' old files, there had happened to be scattered references to the "Quantum Container Project."

Now, this hidden string of code was like the loose end of a thread, pulling him deeper.

At three in the morning, New York had yet to awaken from sleep. The streets were silent, broken only by the occasional sound of wind.

Stark Tower's glass curtain walls shone a cold white beneath the moonlight, icy and dazzling to the eye.

Lin Xiu stood on a fire escape across the street. The Nano Armor clung to his skin, compressed into the form of a bodysuit, and he could feel it fitting tightly against him.

He raised his left hand, and the dark-gold patterns around his wrist glowed faintly with a soft hiss.

This was a biometric code simulated using the Mind Stone's energy frequency. During the fight against Loki three days ago, the Oracle System had happened to decode the Mind Stone's fluctuation patterns.

"JARVIS, an unauthorized biological signal has been detected." By the time the mechanical voice came from the speakers atop the tower, Lin Xiu was already standing before the core database door.

His breathing was steady and strong. His knuckles pressed against the access sensor, and the dark-gold patterns briefly overlapped with its red light. A beep sounded from the system, and at the same time, he heard his own heartbeat pounding like a drum, startlingly clear in the silence.

The terminal's blue light reflected off his taut jawline, soft yet bright.

Lin Xiu rapidly tapped the keyboard, the clattering echoes filling the room.

When the folder labeled "Mindwave Project" opened on the holographic display, the hairs on the back of his neck abruptly rose, pricked by a faint sting.

This was his third attempt to download Stark's Mind Stone research files. The first two had both been blocked by an inexplicable firewall at the final stage.

The progress bar now reached 98%. He stared at the time in the lower-right corner of the screen: 23:59:59. It was as though the midnight chimes were already ringing in his ears, crisp and loud in his imagination.

"Ding."

The progress bar suddenly froze.

The holographic display's blue light abruptly died, and darkness instantly engulfed everything. He could not see his own hand before his face.

At the same time, an icy presence rushed toward him, chilling him to the bone.

In the darkness, a ghostly green glow seeped from the terminal's port. It resembled a specter's eye, radiating an eerie aura.

Lin Xiu quickly leaned back, his back hitting the cold metal wall. The chill seeped through his clothes.

His pupils narrowed to slits in the darkness, and everything around him blurred from view.

The outline of an illusory Loki emerged from the luminous mist. The spikes on his horned helmet gleamed coldly in the dark, and his voice was like silk soaked in venom, cold and soft. "You think you're the first person to come into contact with it? Tony Stark knew of your arrival long ago."

Lin Xiu's Adam's apple moved, making a faint sound.

He remembered the ruins three days ago, the illusion Loki had created with the Mind Stone—the scenes of Blue Star Laboratory exploding, flames roaring and turning everything red; the sound of his mentor shouting, "Run!" from the sea of fire, heart-wrenching and still echoing in his ears.

Now the illusion's voice overlapped with those memories. His left hand unconsciously reached for the Vibranium dagger at his waist, but his fingertips touched only the hard, smooth patterns of the Nano Armor.

"Cut the neural link." He issued the command to the empty air, but the Oracle System's prompt made his blood run cold: "Detected mental entity intrusion into the auxiliary computing module." When the holographic display lit up again, the figure on-screen was not Loki, but a virtual image of Tony Stark—wearing his signature red sunglasses, a cynical smile curling at his lips.

Drawing on his long-term research into Stark and Stark's voice database stored in the Oracle System, Lin Xiu performed a detailed audio spectrum analysis. He found subtle differences in the frequency and waveform of the image's final syllables from Stark's normal speech, revealing a nearly imperceptible distortion. Only then did he realize it was a trap.

Lin Xiu's fingers hovered above the keyboard.

A sudden surge of heat from the Nanocore shot up his spine to the back of his neck, scorching his skin. It turned out that after the intermediate fragment's energy revived, a protective mechanism formed during data acquisition. Energy gathered in large quantities within the Nanocore, raising its temperature. This was the sign of the Anti-Mental Force Field activating.

"Data destruction protocol, activate." He gritted his teeth as he gave the command. The armor's dark-gold patterns instantly turned a blazing orange-red, dazzling and scorching.

The terminal emitted a piercing alarm, deafening in its intensity.

The image of illusory Stark began to distort, revealing Loki's shrill laughter beneath it.

Lin Xiu seized the chance to switch his consciousness to offline mode. The world before his eyes suddenly blurred, as if viewed through frosted glass.

He closed his eyes and entered a random password from memory—the reverse of Blue Star Laboratory's address number, known only to him.

"Download complete."

The moment the system prompt sounded, cold sweat beaded on Lin Xiu's forehead and slid down his cheeks, leaving a faint chill.

He quickly pulled out the flash drive, but the instant he touched the port, every light in the tower abruptly turned blood-red, the crimson glow like a burning flame.

JARVIS's mechanical voice exploded overhead. "Core data leak detected. Activating emergency defense mechanisms."

Twelve security drones simultaneously emerged from the ceiling vents. Their metal wings spun at high speed, producing a hum painful enough to rattle eardrums.

Lin Xiu turned and ran. As he moved, the armor automatically unfolded into a tactical assault form, and dark-gold combat blades sprang from his arm guards with a clang.

The first drone's laser grazed his left shoulder, and the smell of scorched flesh flooded his nostrils, sharp and unpleasant.

He heard his own heavy breathing, rapid and disordered.

"This way!"

A woman's voice came from around the corner.

Lin Xiu slammed to a stop and saw Lina Holt standing before the security stairwell door. The hem of her lab coat fluttered in the airflow with a whooshing sound.

She held up an access card glowing blue, its light soft and bright.

Remembering how Lina had helped him out with exploit code three days ago, gratitude surged in his heart.

Her fingers were trembling, but her eyes shone brilliantly. "Be more careful next time, Ghost."

Laser beams from the drones burst into sparks beside them, bright and scorching.

Lin Xiu grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the security stairwell. The door slammed shut behind them with a thunderous bang.

In that instant, he heard illusory Loki's laughter mixed with the alarms. "You cannot escape fate."

By the time he returned to the laboratory, dawn was already breaking.

The laboratory was somewhat messy. Papers lay scattered across the floor, and the instruments had been knocked askew, as though traces of the earlier tense events still remained.

Lin Xiu inserted the flash drive into the terminal. The words on the holographic display made his breathing catch—"Nanocore Prototype Design Document: As an energy container for the Mind Stone, it must withstand energy impacts at the level of an Infinity Stone..."

"How could this be..." His fingers lightly traced the design blueprint on the screen. Those familiar Nanocore structural patterns matched the Balder Armor's core module exactly.

Sunlight streamed through the blinds outside, casting interwoven patches of light and shadow across his face.

The Oracle System suddenly emitted a sharp, urgent buzz.

Lin Xiu looked up. The golden data stream across his retina was surging faster than ever before, while the once-blue interface began to shimmer with fine golden light, gorgeous and dazzling.

He instinctively reached for the back of his neck. The Nanocore there was unbelievably hot, the heat radiating through his skin, as though something deep within was breaking free from its cocoon.

"System prompt: Unknown upgrade conditions detected as fulfilled..."

Before the voice could finish, every light in the laboratory suddenly went out.

In the darkness, Lin Xiu saw a pale golden glow rise from his palm. It seemed as though stars were revolving within that light, mysterious and beautiful.