Impregnable

Ye Mo stared at the gray text on the main screen, his fingers hovering over the keyboard. The signal was still connected, and the Vibranium fragments against his palms felt hot, like someone gently pressing a branding iron against his skin. Just as he was about to speak, a metallic clanging sound came from the doorway.

Tony walked in, his robotic arm half-open, a screwdriver stuck in the joint. He tossed a tablet onto the control panel; the screen lit up with a bunch of waveforms. "Did you see that notification?"

Ye Mo nodded and zoomed in on the gray log. "98.6%, not an attack, but it doesn't seem like a false alarm either."

"My lab's quantum clock just skipped a frame," Tony tapped the tablet. "This has only happened twice before: once when a spatial rift opened, and once when Loki spied on a S.H.I.E.L.D.. meeting using a magic mirror. Now it's happening again, which means they not only see, they also remember."

The two exchanged a glance.

"We need to be more vigilant," Ye Mo said.

"It's not just about adding another layer." Tony pulled up the base's structural diagram. "Ordinary firewalls can't block high-dimensional signals, and the foundation can't withstand mental infiltration. Last time, Emma Frost's Mental Barrier was breached because the underlying protocol wasn't encrypted. This time, if we're going to fix it, we'll have to rebuild it from the ground up."

Ye Mo leaned back in his chair. "You take care of the hardware, I'll handle the software defense."

"Okay." Tony had already started making the connections. "Add an anti-oscillation Force Field to the outer perimeter, reinforce the pressure layers from the third to the seventh underground level, and deploy a ring of AI sentry drones. What about your end?"

"Combine Regenerative Phasing and Force Field Shield." Ye Mo closed his eyes, his consciousness sinking into the Gene Spiral Tower. "Let's see if we can create an automatically repairing energy membrane."

"Sounds like putting jeans on a fortress." Tony chuckled, his hands still moving.

Six hours later, the lights in the main control room switched to tactical blue.

Tony threw off his jacket, revealing oil stains on his shirt collar. "Anti-oscillation generator online, damping layer pressure test passed, drone swarm completes formation patrol. Now, anyone wanting to crawl in from underground will have to pass three Shockwave plus twelve moving radar points."

Ye Mo opened his eyes, and a holographic projection appeared before him. A semi-transparent film enveloped the entire base model, its edges shimmering faintly. "Living Crystal Shield prototype complete. Response delay 0.02 seconds. Damaged parts can self-reassemble within 1.3 seconds."

"It's faster than me changing my armor." Tony leaned closer to examine it. "Can this thing really withstand mental intrusion?"

"We'll find out once we try." Ye Mo accessed the residual spectrum of Telepathy and activated the consciousness barrier simulation program. Virtual enemies popped up on the screen. The first wave was a conventional hacking attack, which was directly blocked by the quantum firewall. The second wave was high-frequency interference, which triggered an alarm but failed to break through. The third wave was a mental wave spoofing, attempting to impersonate Emma Frost's identity code to enter.

The energy membrane rippled slightly, then contracted into a mesh structure, isolating false signals.

"It's done." Ye Mo breathed a sigh of relief.

Tony is already modifying the code. "I'm re-enhancing the AI warning algorithm, adding two-factor authentication, so even my armor will have to report its ID number when it gets close."

"Don't be too ruthless," Ye Mo laughed. "What if you get drunk and bang on the door?"

"That's perfect, let it spray you with foam." Tony didn't even look up. "I've already set up a penalty system—unauthorized intruders will be forced to listen to the High School Musical soundtrack for ten minutes."

A system notification suddenly sounded, "Defense upgrade successful. Gene Spiral Tower security level increased."

Ye Mo glanced at the data panel. The global defense protocol was activated, the impact resistance level was increased to 12 times the standard, and the response latency was less than 0.03 seconds. The research team automatically synchronized the new protection parameters, and the logistics robot began to replace the outer protective shell.

"Now we just wait for them to make their move," Ye Mo said.

"No," Tony shook his head, "We need to let them know we're ready now."

He turned on the broadcast channel, connected to all sentry units, and released an encrypted signal within a 300-meter radius of the base. The message was simple: a countdown, starting at 98.6 and decreasing every minute.

"What are you doing?" Ye Mo asked.

"Say hello," Tony grinned. "Tell that guy hiding behind the dimensions who's peeking—you saw 98.6, we saw it too. Want to go up to 99? Come on over. We're right here, waiting."

Ye Mo smiled. He pulled up the surveillance footage and saw a red dot lit up in the sensor area on the east side. That was a fake signal source powered by a backup battery, originally used to lure intruders, but now it had been reprogrammed into a signal reflector.

"You still have this?" he asked.

"Of course," Tony shrugged. "Making use of waste. Electricity's free anyway, let them flash a little longer."

The two remained silent for a few seconds. The defense network on the main screen was operating stably, and the energy membrane pulse frequency was synchronized with the base's heartbeat. The sound of transport robots sliding along rails could be heard in the distance, and the resource dispatch system was updating the inventory.

"When do you think they'll come back?" Ye Mo asked.

"I don't know." Tony stretched. "But I do know one thing—the next one won't just be a signal."

"So we need to add another lock."

"I thought of that already." Tony brought up a new interface. "I buried a miniature seismic source device under the foundation. Once it detects unnatural vibrations, it will trigger a local collapse, blocking the passage. I'll also record the whole process and edit a short video to send to the internal group later."

"You're sick in the head," Ye Mo cursed.

"Better safe than sorry," Tony retorted.

Just then, the main screen flashed. The gray log reappeared, but this time the content had changed:

[Enhanced cross-dimensional signal activity, current stability 98.7%]

The number jumped to 98.8.

Ye Mo immediately brought up the tracking program, only to find that the location of the signal source kept jumping around, as if it appeared in multiple locations at the same time.

"This is not a single source," he said.

"It's a mass text message." Tony squinted. "They're testing our reaction speed."

"Then let them test it to their heart's content." Ye Mo activated the preload protocol, lowering the defense threshold of the Living Crystal Shield by five percent, deliberately revealing a tiny vulnerability.

"Are you crazy?" Tony turned his head. "Let them in?"

"How will we know what they're up to if we don't let them slip through our fingers?" Ye Mo stared at the screen. "They'll only truly reveal themselves when they think they've found a weakness."

Tony paused for a few seconds, then suddenly laughed. "Well done, you're pretty good at playing the honest guy."

"The system told me to do it this way." Ye Mo shrugged. "What could I do?"

"Stop shifting the blame." Tony rolled his eyes. "You're clearly just trying to bait me."

As the two were talking, a bright light suddenly burst out from the fake signal area on the east side. It wasn't an explosion, but rather a vertical crack in space that closed in less than two seconds.

Surveillance footage shows that something crossed the defense line at that instant.

But no alarm was triggered.

Because it wasn't detected at all.

"It's in," Ye Mo said softly.

"How long?" Tony asked.

"0.4 seconds." Ye Mo pulled up the data stream. "That's too fast, almost twice as fast as last time."

"And it knows we've upgraded," Tony said, looking at the closed spatial pattern, "Otherwise it wouldn't have specifically chosen this spot to test it."

"But it didn't know we had a backup plan." Ye Mo activated the hidden module, reversing the Regenerative Phasing capability to form a closed-loop trap inside the energy membrane.

Any further attempts at penetration will automatically lock the trajectory.

"Now we can only wait," he said.

Tony sat back down at the console and continued optimizing the algorithm. Ye Mo stood in front of the main control panel, his gaze sweeping over the defense network in the holographic projection. Everything was operating normally, without any abnormal prompts.

But he knew that the flash just now was not the end.

This is the beginning.

He reached out and touched the Vibranium fragment. It was even hotter.

Tony suddenly looked up. "Have you noticed something?"

"What's up?"

"With each increase in signal strength, your abilities also grow stronger." Tony stared at him. "This is no coincidence."

Ye Mo did not answer.

He recalled the feeling of first encountering the Vibranium shard; the resonance was like something within him being awakened. Later, each time he faced a threat, the Gene Spiral Tower would unlock new functions.

It's as if the danger itself is the key.

"Perhaps," he said, "We're not building defenses."

"It's evolving."

Tony looked at him and slowly nodded. "Then you'd better hope we evolve faster than them."

The number on the main screen jumped to 98.9.

Ye Mo pressed the record button to save the latest data to the quarantine area. He prepared to write a briefing explaining the current situation.

The moment my fingers touched the keyboard, the holographic projection suddenly trembled.

It's not an alarm.

It's not a signal.

It was a string of characters that appeared out of thin air and arranged into a sentence:

"Your progress is impressive."