The observation network of Carina is like an invisible giant network, covering the Malibu area silently. Each "network cable" is composed of nano-scale spy machines and tampered satellite sensors. The data is like a trickle, continuously Droplet Ship is continuously imported into Kuiper Belt, and then refined and compressed, across the galaxy, and presented in the eccentric collection hall in front of the Collector Tanlia and Tivan.
Xiao Han's patience continued, but the ubiquitous and subtle sense of prying eyes, like the stubborn noise that could not be ignored in the background noise, continued to challenge his bottom line. He still basked in the sun every day, but his perception of the surrounding environment was in a subtle and more acute alert state. Any extra-ordinary energy fluctuations or abnormal mechanical operations would attract his subconscious attention - even though on the surface he was still as lazy as usual.
This change is extremely subtle, but Tony·Stark relied on their genius intuition and the dense environmental sensors around the villa to capture something strange.
"Friday, in the past 72 hours, has the background noise level of the background electromagnetic radiation around the villa fluctuated abnormally?" Tony asked while adjusting the hand energy conductor of the armor.
"Weak abnormal fluctuations that are consistently lower than three thousandths of a standard deviation have been detected, boss." Friday responded, "Spectrum analysis shows that it is an unnatural source, but the signal strength is extremely low, and the modulation method cannot be identified. It is similar to high-level random noise. The specific source cannot be located."
Tony frowned. "Advanced random noise? Is it a variant of 'Leviathan Echo'? Or something else?"
"The fluctuation characteristics are not directly related to 'Leviathan Echo'. Its technical characteristics... have no matching items in the database. It is speculated to be another unknown external intervention."
"Another one?" Tony put down his tools and walked to the monitor screen, looking at the almost flat energy curve that represented abnormal fluctuations. "Kree just left, who is here again? Did this ghost broadcast attract all the flies in the universe?"
He glanced at Xiao Han outside the window who seemed to be unaware, and felt a sense of powerlessness in his heart. The earth was like a piece of fresh meat thrown into a shark tank, but the only Guardians only cared about whether the water temperature around the piece of meat was suitable.
"Strengthen scanning and use all spectrum, including those theoretically impossible frequency bands." Tony ordered, "I don't believe we can't catch any tail!"
"We are trying, boss. But the other party's concealment skills are extremely good, and both conventional and unconventional scans have been evaded or absorbed."
Just when Tony was trying to capture the traces of the invisible peeper, Carina's observations made new progress. Through long-term, multi-angle energy monitoring, she successfully captured the fine change curve of Xiao Han's energy absorption rate when basking in the sun, as well as the almost undetectable Biological Force Field's weak adjustment mode around its body in response to different intensities of sunlight.
These data are extremely precious, and they are helping the Collector scientists build a more accurate "Superman" energy model.
"There is a super-linear relationship between energy absorption efficiency and stellar radiation intensity. Biological Force Field has the precise function of automatically adjusting energy intake and dissipation. No obvious upper limit has been detected." Carina calmly reported, "Its utilization rate of visible light and higher-frequency electromagnetic waves is close to 100%. It is speculated that its cell structure is some kind of perfect energy converter."
"Perfect! So perfect!" The Collector's voice came from the other end of the communication, with an obsessive fanaticism, "Continue! I need to know the limit of his energy output! Those Heat Vision, that kind of speed... Oh, and his adaptability to special environments! Low temperature? Vacuum? High gravity? We need data!"
This order caused Carina to fall into a brief silence. Obtaining such data means that some form of... active testing must be carried out. This undoubtedly greatly increases the risk of exposing and offending the target.
But the command of the Collector is absolute.
"Understood. Start the first phase of the 'Void Stalker' plan. Release the 'Environmental Disturbance Probe', target: seabed within a kilometer around the target individual. Mission: create a low-intensity, localized, natural camouflage micro-tremor in the earth's crust and observe the target's reaction. Release distance: maintain a safe distance and delay the trigger."
Another probe, only the size of a fingernail and irregularly shaped like a rock, was quietly released from Droplet Ship and fell towards the Earth's atmosphere at an extremely slow speed, as if it were floating naturally. Its trajectory was carefully calculated so that it would eventually fall under the Pacific Ocean seabed several kilometers away from the Malibu coastline, where it would lurk and wait for instructions.
This time, Xiao Han frowned visibly.
He sensed the newly falling object. Its energy signature was stronger than the nano-dust in the atmosphere, but it was also well disguised, simulating it as an ordinary meteorite. Its trajectory landed far away from the coast, and it did not seem to pose a direct threat.
However, this continuous and various spying methods have accumulated his impatience to the critical point.
These bugs are endless. First they peeped around the world, then stared at them, and now they are throwing things into the sea? What do they want to do? Hold an expo?
The displeasure in his heart was rising. The constant background buzz, coupled with this new, unknown falling object, was pushing that low-level annoyance into more definite annoyance.
He still made no move, but Super-Senses had firmly locked onto the "stone" slowly falling into the ocean, as well as all the nano-units that filled the surrounding space. As long as there was any movement in these things, he wouldn't mind doing a thorough "general cleaning".
Tony Over there, Friday suddenly sounded an alarm.
"Boss, a small object has been detected re-entering the atmosphere at an extremely slow speed. The impact point is expected to be in the sea five kilometers west of the coastline. The energy signature is weak, but structural analysis shows that there is a precise mechanical structure inside. It is an unnatural celestial body."
"What? Here it comes again?" Tony immediately rushed to the console, "Can you intercept it?"
"The object is too slow and too small for existing defense systems to effectively lock. Its fall did not pose a threat to aviation or shipping."
"Damn! They are testing! Again and again!" Tony felt furious, "Didn't that guy react yet?"
" Mr. Xiao Han's energy field was slightly disturbed, but no other reaction was seen."
Tony stared at the trajectory map on the screen, clenching and unclenching his fists. He felt a deep sense of frustration. The enemy was in the sky, and their methods were endless, but they could not even conduct effective reconnaissance and interception. They could only passively wait for the opponent to make a move, or hope that the sun-basking uncle would be in a good mood one day to take action.
"Notify Coast Guard to mark that area and temporarily prohibit ships from approaching." He finally could only give such a helpless order, "Continue to monitor that thing and see what it will do after it falls into the water!"
"Yes, boss."
The "Environmental Disturbance Probe" fell silently into the sea and sank to the seabed hundreds of meters deep, lurking like a real small stone without any movement.
Time passed by and the sea was calm as usual.
Tony's tense nerves relaxed a little. Maybe this was just another failed launch by the opponent? Or was it a dud?
However, at the moment when he was slightly distracted--
The probe buried deep under the seabed received instructions from a distant spacecraft.
No sound, no light.
Only an extremely precisely directed high-frequency vibration wave is released instantly and acts on the rock formations within a very small range around the probe.
Boom...
An extremely slight seafloor vibration that was almost imperceptible to humans occurred. The intensity was not even strong enough to trigger a tsunami warning, but it only made some sensitive fish in that area feel uneasy and quickly swam away.
But on land, especially with Xiao Han, who has extremely sensitive perception, this microtremor was like someone using an extremely thin needle to tap a gong in his ear.
Although the sound was extremely small, the sudden, unnatural, and targeted vibration instantly penetrated the barrier of the ocean and was clearly transmitted to his perception.
More importantly, the energy signature of this microtremor comes from the same source as the falling "stone" and the buzzing nano-dust in the atmosphere!
They are indeed a group! And they are actively making noise!
Xiao Han's patience finally ran out at this moment.
He sat up suddenly from the beach chair, and for the first time there was an obvious expression of displeasure on his face.
"It's not over, right?" He whispered, his voice cold.
He didn't look at the sky or the ocean.
But in his eyes, two extremely hot, laser-like red lights burst out without any warning - Heat Vision.
But the target of Heat Vision is not a satellite in the sky, nor a probe in the deep sea.
Instead, it was the countless nanoscale spy units that were invisible to the naked eye that filled the air around him!
Two tiny Heat Vision swept through the air at an unimaginable speed, and their energy was controlled exquisitely, targeting only the unique energy signature and mechanical structure of those nano-units.
In an instant, with the Malibu Villa as the center, all the nano-spy units from alien snoopers in the atmosphere with a radius of tens of kilometers were instantly heated to the vaporization point in the same microsecond!
There was no explosion, no fire.
Only an extremely brief ripple that was imperceptible to the naked eye seemed to appear in the air, like a mirage under high temperatures.
All invisible prying eyes were completely erased at this moment.
Immediately afterwards, Xiao Han's eyes turned towards the ocean.
His gaze seemed to penetrate the villa, the coastline and several kilometers of seawater, and was directly locked on the seabed probe that had just created a microtremor.
The same two tiny Heat Vision shot across space at an almost teleporting speed and accurately shot into the deep sea!
Tsk!
There was an extremely brief and slight squeaking sound from the deep sea.
The probe, which used advanced alien technology and could cause earthquakes in the earth's crust, and a small piece of seabed rock around it, were instantly vaporized and disappeared without a trace, leaving only a small, smooth crater.
After doing all this, the red light in Xiao Han's eyes went out.
He lay back on the chair as if nothing had happened.
The irritating and ubiquitous sense of prying eyes around me finally disappeared. The world became quiet.
In the laboratory, Tony and Friday were stunned.
"Just... what happened just now?" Tony asked stutteringly, "His eyes seemed to light up? Did the energy detector just explode for 0.001 seconds?"
"Two extremely short bursts of directional thermal energy with immeasurable energy intensity were detected." Friday's voice carried a rare "shock". "One occurred in the near-Earth atmosphere, covering a wide range, but the target was unknown. The other occurred in the sea area where the previous object fell, and the target has disappeared."
Tony opened his mouth wide and murmured after a while, "He... did he just... perform a global-scale atmospheric dust removal? By the way, he also vaporized the rat on the bottom of the sea?"
Kuiper Belt outside, Droplet Ship inside.
Carina All the monitoring screens in front of him turned into snowflakes at the same moment, and the connection with all nano-units and seabed probes was completely interrupted.
The last data screen transmitted back was two devastating red rays of light occupying the field of view of all sensors.
There was a deathly silence inside the spaceship.
A few seconds later, Carina's cold voice sounded again, without any fluctuations, but speaking slightly faster:
"Observation terminated. All remote units lost contact. The target used some kind of... long-range precision thermal attack, completely clearing all monitoring units. Its tolerance for hidden monitoring is zero. The attack method... is incomprehensible and cannot be defended."
She quickly started the engine.
"Mission failed. It is recommended to evacuate the current coordinates immediately. The target threat level is... infinite."
Droplet Ship quietly adjusted its direction without any hesitation, instantly entered the hyperspace jump state, and disappeared into the vast sea of stars.
The Collector's first close-range test ended with the loss of all reconnaissance units and a warning that "absolutely no direct prying" was received.
On Malibu Beach, Xiao Han is satisfied with the return to a peaceful environment.
I hope this cleanup will make those bugs hiding behind the scenes understand that silence is not a request, but a bottom line that cannot be crossed.