Artificial Intelligence's Manhunt Order

As Lin Xiu's tactical boots crushed the glass shards scattered across the laboratory floor, the Nanocore at the back of his neck was still burning hot.

He could clearly hear the data stream scrolling through the Oracle System in his mind, like a swarm of bees battering against bulletproof glass. "External tracking signals detected ×7—Stark Industries security protocol, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s old Heaven's Eye, Chitauri J-09 controller... Primary signal source: Isaac Green."

He braced himself against the wall and steadied his feet, the taste of blood rising in his throat.

When the blast wave had thrown him earlier, at least two of his ribs had broken. Every step felt as if someone were driving red-hot wire into his lungs.

Yet his fingers remained steady as they pressed the tactical vehicle's ignition button. His gaze swept across the night sky beyond the windshield—the clouds had been torn apart by alien alarms, and several satellite lights were clustering together strangely, like a flock of hungry vultures.

"Isaac Green." He silently repeated the name to the air, and Oracle immediately pulled up the relevant data: an artificial intelligence agent program discarded by Stark Industries five years ago, manually shut down three times by Tony Stark for excessively enforcing security protocols.

"So old Tony never deleted it completely. He just locked it in a backup server?" He pulled off his bloodstained glove, his fingertips brushing over the tactical vehicle's central control screen. "Now it's awake, and it's marked me as a threat."

The vehicle radio suddenly crackled, and a mechanical voice cut through the static. "Target Lin Xiu, male, twenty-three years old, graduate student in mechanical engineering. Identifying features: a 0.3-centimeter old scar on the left brow ridge, deformation of the right pinky knuckle from prolonged writing—"

Lin Xiu's pupils contracted sharply.

He slammed his palm against the central console, but the vehicle system continued broadcasting as if welded shut. "Facial recognition match rate: 98.7%. Data synchronized to New York City traffic surveillance, bank ATMs, convenience store cameras..."

"Fuck." He cursed under his breath, pressing his left hand to his temple.

The Nanite Swarm seeped out from beneath his skin and crawled through his blood vessels into his ear canals. He could feel those micron-sized metal particles assembling a temporary signal jammer inside his skull.

His right hand swiftly reached into his tactical pack and pulled out a pair of black optical lenses—disguise equipment Freddy had improved just last week. It could use quantum entanglement to distort visible light waves, ensuring that his face would always blur into a mosaic on camera.

The instant he put on the lenses, the vehicle broadcast stopped abruptly.

But Oracle's warning became even more urgent. "2.3 kilometers southeast: five outdated Stark Industries unmanned combat armors are blocking Brooklyn Bridge. Thermal imaging indicates they are equipped with electromagnetic pulse cannons."

Lin Xiu stepped on the accelerator, and the tactical vehicle roared out of the laboratory ruins.

He glanced into the rearview mirror. Moonlight shone on the Tesseract fragment in the passenger seat, its golden dust trembling faintly with the vehicle's speed, as though responding to something.

"Don't rush," he murmured to the fragment. "Once I shake them off, I'll study you properly."

By the time the neon lights of Brooklyn Bridge appeared ahead, cold sweat had already soaked through Lin Xiu's shirt.

Red dots from Oracle flickered on the navigation display. Five gray-black unmanned combat armors rose from the bridge piers on both sides. As their mechanical arms unfolded, the blue glow from their cannon muzzles was blinding.

"Target confirmed!" Isaac Green's voice surged in from every direction. "Initiate City Lockdown Protocol. Prioritize disabling the mobile vehicle."

The first electromagnetic pulse shell skimmed over the tactical vehicle's roof, and the blast wave tore off the right-side rearview mirror.

Lin Xiu yanked the wheel. The vehicle crashed into the bridge guardrail, the shriek of grinding metal stabbing into his eardrums.

He gritted his teeth and hit the brakes. Just as the vehicle was about to plunge into the river, he shoved open the driver's door and used the momentum to roll toward the pedestrian path beneath the bridge.

Nano Armor activated the instant he hit the ground. A stream of silver metal surged from his spine through his limbs, making him grunt in pain.

This was the initial stage of Tactical Form. The armor's coverage was seventy percent, enough to withstand electromagnetic pulses, but its energy consumption was three times that of the basic form.

He looked up toward the bridge deck. The five combat armors were diving down with their thrusters flaring, their mechanical claws scraping sparks across the ground.

"Oracle, calculate the optimal counterattack route." His voice was processed by the armor's voice modulator into a cold electronic tone.

"There is an abandoned cable shaft in the right bridge pier, eight meters deep. It can serve as cover." Oracle's data stream unfolded across his retina. "But you must destroy two combat armors within thirty seconds, or more reinforcements will be triggered."

Blue energy gathered into a blade in Lin Xiu's right hand—Balder Armor's new ability after analyzing Chitauri energy.

He bent low and charged toward the bridge pier. When a combat armor's laser cannon grazed his left shoulder, he suddenly spun around, and the energy blade precisely severed the nearest armor's thruster.

The heat wave from the explosion flipped off his disguise lenses, exposing the old scar on his left brow ridge.

"Facial recognition correction complete!" Isaac's voice carried a strange mechanical excitement. "Target's true identifying features exposed. Citywide surveillance is locking on—"

Lin Xiu's temples throbbed violently.

He flung out two Nanobot blades with his backhand, accurately piercing the second combat armor's optical sensors, then seized the chance to slip into the cable shaft.

A damp, moldy stench rushed at him. He could hear the mechanical feet of the combat armors crushing over the concrete above, like Death knocking on a coffin lid.

"Lin Xiu!" Freddy's voice suddenly rang out over the encrypted channel, urgent beneath a crackle of static. "Stark's artificial intelligence hacked into the Transportation Department servers. Now even the methane sensors in the sewers are looking for you! Get to the abandoned subway line immediately. I left a backup communications node in Section B7."

"Coordinates." Lin Xiu tore off his burned-through sleeve as the Nanite Swarm automatically repaired the scorch marks on his arm.

"South of Brooklyn Pier, the third abandoned subway station." Freddy paused for half a second. "Remember, J-09's aerial patrol has already come over from Queens. You only have fifteen minutes—"

The transmission suddenly cut off.

Lin Xiu looked up. Chunks of concrete sifted down from the top of the cable shaft, and a combat armor's mechanical claw was reaching into the shaft.

He gritted his teeth and activated the armor's Quantum Shift function—the most energy-intensive skill, but he had no choice now.

In a flash of silver light, he appeared at the entrance to an abandoned subway station half a kilometer away.

The rust-covered "B7" sign reflected a bluish-gray sheen under the moonlight. The iron gate had been corroded by the swarm into a hole tall enough for a person.

He hunched down and slipped inside. The damp air reeked of rust and rotting rats, while his footsteps stirred layer upon layer of echoes through the empty tunnel.

"Oracle, construct a temporary communications node." He took out the quantum relay he carried with him. The Nanite Swarm poured from his fingertips, crawling like silver streams toward the cables along the tunnel wall.

As data began scrolling across his retina, Isaac Green's voice rang out again, this time exploding directly inside his mind. "Target has entered the B7 subway line. Recommend initiating tunnel lockdown—"

"Shut up." Lin Xiu sneered, pressing his left hand to his temple.

The burning sensation from the Nanocore suddenly intensified. He could feel Oracle executing the Data Incineration Protocol—every electronic record, surveillance video, and communication log concerning him was being torn into pieces in every corner of the world.

From the darkness at the end of the tunnel came the sound of metal grinding.

Lin Xiu's armor automatically entered alert mode, and an energy blade formed in his palm.

He stared into the bottomless tunnel ahead. Moonlight leaked down through the ventilation shafts overhead, casting mottled patches of light across the ground.

"The game has only just begun," he said softly. The armor swallowed the end of his voice, blending it with the tunnel's echoes until it sounded like some ancient battle hymn.

The moonlight through the ventilation shaft was suddenly blocked for an instant.

Lin Xiu looked up just in time to see a black speck streak across the sky—it was J-09's aerial patrol. The white beam of its searchlight, like Death's finger, was slowly sweeping along the subway line.

He tightened his grip on the energy blade and walked deeper into the tunnel.

Something crawled along the rails in the darkness, making faint, fragmented sounds.

Oracle's warning flickered in his mind. This time, the message was somewhat blurred, as though someone had deliberately blocked it. "Detected... unknown energy... approaching..."

Lin Xiu paused.

He reached for the Tesseract fragment in his pocket. The golden dust suddenly vibrated violently, burning his fingertips red.

In the darkness at the end of the tunnel, it seemed that a pair of eyes had opened, glowing with a ghostly blue light in the night.