Vibranium Secured, Shuri's Alertness

At Wakandan Royal Institute of Technology, even deep into the night, a few scattered laboratories still had their lights on. This nation's pursuit of knowledge seemed never-ending.

Like a ghost melting into the shadows, Lin Ye easily evaded the patrolling Royal Guard and the omnipresent intelligent surveillance systems. Within the range of his mind web, no electronic signal or life fluctuation could escape detection, allowing him to find safe routes one step ahead every time.

He soon arrived near the third laboratory building. It was a structure filled with sleek, streamlined design, its exterior covered in some kind of Vibranium composite material that could automatically adjust its transparency.

"The target materials vault is on the third underground level. There is an accessible route through the ventilation ducts, but the interior has multiple biometric checks and energy fluctuation scans," Remy warned.

"No need to make it that complicated." Lin Ye looked at the unmanned transport vehicle slowly entering the laboratory's underground loading area. "I'll just catch a ride."

The instant the transport vehicle passed through a security gate, Lin Ye's figure blurred. As if teleporting, he silently clung to the underside of the vehicle's chassis. The energy fluctuations around him perfectly mimicked the vehicle's materials, blocking all scans.

The transport vehicle drove underground without obstruction, passing through several checkpoints before finally stopping outside a high-tech warehouse. The warehouse doors opened to reveal neatly arranged shelves lined with Vibranium ingots, alloy blocks, and leftover scraps from processing, all in various shapes and gleaming with silver or purple luster.

"High-purity Vibranium samples detected. The quantity meets the requirements," Remy confirmed.

Two workers in technological uniforms stepped forward and began unloading the new shipment from the transport vehicle. Just as their attention focused on the cargo, and the warehouse surveillance experienced an extremely brief blind spot caused by a system self-check—

Whoosh!

Lin Ye moved! His speed erupted to its limit, yet he did not stir even the faintest breeze! Like an invisible gust sweeping past the shelves, his fingers precisely brushed over several inconspicuous Vibranium alloy blocks marked "Experimental Surplus—Grade A," along with a small packet of powdered Vibranium nanomaterial.

The instant they touched his hand, he directly stored them in the system space, completely cutting them off from all detection!

The entire process took place within one hundredth of a second. The two workers only felt as though their vision had flickered, like the illusion of a screen's refresh rate suddenly dropping. They rubbed their eyes in confusion but found nothing unusual. The warehouse inventory system had not even finished entering the manifest for the newly delivered goods.

After succeeding, Lin Ye did not linger. Still attached to the underside of the transport vehicle, he silently slipped away at a surveillance blind spot after it left the warehouse, then swiftly retreated along his original route like a drop of water merging into the sea.

No one noticed a thing.

However, just as Lin Ye left the laboratory area and prepared to find a weak point in the barrier to leave, an unexpected incident occurred.

Inside a private laboratory on the top floor of Wakandan Royal Institute of Technology.

The sixteen-year-old genius princess Shuri was staying up late, fine-tuning the nanotechnology for her newest Black Panther Suit. Suddenly, an extremely faint alert for an abnormal energy fluctuation popped up on the holographic display before her, one that the system had nearly filtered out automatically.

"Hm?" Shuri's beautiful brows furrowed as her fingers flew across the virtual keyboard. "There was a 0.0001% abnormal disturbance in the energy background readings of Underground Zone Three just now? The frequency pattern... I've never seen it before. It was like some highly condensed bioelectric field suddenly erupted and vanished?"

Her curiosity was immediately piqued. She had helped upgrade Wakanda's energy monitoring system, and it was extremely sensitive. Such a nearly negligible fluctuation would normally be classified as equipment error, but her intuition told her it was not that simple.

She pulled up every surveillance record from Underground Zone Three at that time and carefully reviewed them frame by frame. Finally, from an exceptionally tricky angle in the corridor outside the warehouse, she captured a single image that was nearly blurred into a transparent afterimage! Though she could not make out its exact form, it was definitely not a normal human figure or piece of equipment!

"Someone infiltrated?!" Shuri immediately became alert. "How is that possible? The barrier never sounded an alarm!"

She immediately set aside her work, opened all permissions, and began tracing the energy records of the entire institute and even the royal capital. Rather than alerting the Royal Guard right away, she wanted to find the clue herself first. It was the confidence and desire for challenge unique to a genius.

Lin Ye had already reached the southern border and was once again waiting for the barrier's fluctuation. He was very confident in his earlier operation and did not realize that a genius girl had already set her sights on him.

"Remy, confirm the haul."

"Confirmed. Acquired fifteen kilograms of Vibranium alloy, Grade A, and two hundred grams of Vibranium nanopowder. Both have purity levels exceeding 99.8%. They fully meet Dr. Banner's current research requirements, with a substantial surplus."

"Very good." Lin Ye nodded in satisfaction. This trip had been a complete success.

The barrier fluctuated right on schedule.

Just as Lin Ye became a phantom once more and passed through the barrier, leaving Wakanda the next second.

Princess Shuri's tracking reached the border as well! She had successfully traced the residual signs of that abnormal energy fluctuation back to the southern barrier!

"It disappeared?! It passed through the barrier and left?" Shuri stared at the energy signal on her screen as it vanished completely the instant the barrier fluctuated, her little mouth forming an O. "How is that possible? There was no authorization verification, and it triggered no alarms? How did he so precisely catch that 1.7-second gap?"

She immediately understood the severity of the situation. This was not merely a simple infiltration. The other party possessed a startling understanding of Wakanda's defensive systems and an incomprehensible ability to enter and leave undetected!

She did not hesitate any longer and immediately activated the emergency communication line directly connected to King T'Chaka and Prince Zuri.

"Father! There may be an unknown flaw in the border barrier! A highly skilled infiltrator just entered, stole materials from the institute, and escaped! I need to immediately inspect all barrier logs and the energy core!"

Having already returned to the Thunder Temple, Lin Ye naturally had no idea about the upheaval within Wakanda after his departure. After handing the Vibranium materials to the ecstatic Dr. Banner, he stopped paying attention to the matter. In his view, it had merely been a successful "resource collection."

Banner treated them like priceless treasures and immediately rushed back into the laboratory to begin attempting to create the core of the bionanobots capable of stabilizing gamma energy.

Several hours later.

Wakanda, royal palace council chamber.

King T'Chaka looked grimly at the analysis report his daughter Shuri had provided. Prince Zuri and Royal Guard commander Okoye stood nearby, their expressions equally serious.

"It has been confirmed that only some leftover experimental materials were lost, and their value was not high," Zuri spoke first. "But the nature of the intrusion itself is extremely serious! Shuri, are you certain the intruder completely evaded every defense?"

"Absolutely!" Shuri nodded firmly. "He knows our systems inside out and could even predict the barrier's periodic weakness. The way he entered and left... I cannot understand it. It was like some kind of... spatial jump or energy-based movement?"

Okoye tightened her grip on her Vibranium spear. "Your Majesty, we must heighten our guard, fully upgrade the barrier system, and track this person down! This is a grave provocation against Wakanda!"

King T'Chaka pondered for a long while before slowly saying, "Shuri, devote all your efforts to analyzing the energy signature left by the infiltrator and attempt to establish a tracking model. Okoye, strengthen internal patrols and the defenses of key areas. Shuri will be responsible for the barrier upgrade plan. Zuri, mobilize the external intelligence network and secretly investigate whether any organizations or individuals have recently sought to purchase or use Vibranium on the black market, especially in connection with this abnormal energy signature."

He paused, his voice lowering. "Keep this matter confidential for now. It must not be leaked. Until we understand the other party's intentions and identity, do not act rashly. Someone who can enter and leave our home at will... may be a threat far beyond anything we imagined."

The calm, precise machine that was Wakanda began to truly tense up and move into action for the first time because of Lin Ye's "borrowing."

And for the time being, Lin Ye knew nothing of it. He was enjoying the tranquility of the temple while considering his next possible target.

What he did not know was that the few "scraps" he had casually taken had already stirred considerable ripples in the darkness. Wakanda's gaze had begun turning outward in search of that mysterious "ghost thief."

The threads of fate quietly intertwined once again.

(End of Chapter Nineteen)