The number on the main screen remained at 98.9, and the sentence still hung in the air. "Your progress is impressive."
Ye Mo didn't move. His fingers touched the Vibranium fragment, which was now even hotter than before. He looked down at his palm; the metal was trembling slightly, as if an electric current was surging from within.
Tony was still typing away, the keyboard clicking away incessantly. Without even looking up, he said, "This guy's pretty polite. Should we send him a greeting card next time?"
Ye Mo didn't reply, but instead brought up the data stream of spatial penetration. The crack only existed for 0.4 seconds, but its trajectory was not a straight line, but a broken line, as if someone had deliberately bypassed the defense node. He dragged the data into the analysis module, superimposed the Vibranium Resonance frequency, and a pattern emerged—each time the signal increased by 0.1%, the penetration path would take an extra turn.
This is not a test.
It's being calibrated.
"They're not just casually looking around," Ye Mo said. "They're looking for the shortest route to break through."
Tony stopped typing and turned around. "So the loophole you left has been remembered?"
"It not only remembered," Ye Mo magnified the damaged area of the energy membrane, "But when it entered, it avoided the capture range of the Regenerative Phasing. This means the other party knows what capabilities we have."
The air suddenly felt heavy.
Tony frowned. "Then there's only one possibility—they've seen our combat logs."
"Or," another voice rang out. Emma Frost walked out of the passage, her steps light, but her gaze was steady as she stopped. "They can read memories."
Ye Mo looked up at her. Her face was a little pale, and her lips were almost bloodless, but she stood firm. He knew she had just recovered her Mental Barrier. She hadn't mentioned the last time it was broken, but he remembered.
"You mean," Tony looked at Emma Frost, "that there's a Telepathy on the other side?"
"They don't necessarily have to be Mutants." Emma Frost walked to the holographic platform, her fingertips tracing the projection. "Higher-dimensional beings can directly extract consciousness from the information layer. Once they've made contact, they can copy all the data."
Ye Mo nodded. "So now they might know every step we take."
"Then let's not play by the rules." Tony slammed his hand on the table and stood up. "If the three of us have a meeting to discuss how to fight, they'll definitely think we're going to stick to the old methods. Let's do the opposite."
"How do we counter it?" Ye Mo asked.
"Didn't you have a twenty-layer Gene Spiral Tower?" Tony chuckled. "You haven't even used all of the first one, have you? Show off something new, give them a surprise."
Ye Mo didn't speak; his consciousness had already sunk inside. Gene Spiral Tower, twenty layers of ability modules were neatly arranged, each layer sealing different combinations of Mutants ability fragments. He went through them from the first layer, finally stopping at the seventeenth layer—the [ Quantum Sensing + Danger Sense ] fusion technique, which could advance the warning time to three and a half seconds.
"I can extend the prediction timeline," he said, "But I need Emma Frost to send me real-time battlefield updates."
"No problem." Emma Frost closed her eyes, then opened them a few seconds later. "I've set up a temporary link; you can connect to my Perception Network at any time."
"Then you are the eyes," Ye Mo said. "I am the knife."
"I'll handle the disruption." Tony activated the armor's connection port. "High-frequency pulses, EMP jamming, drone swarm—anyone who dares to show their face will be disconnected from the network."
The three surrounded the holographic platform and activated the multi-dimensional threat simulation program. Ye Mo loaded seven composite combat scenarios, including mental intrusion + physical attack, cross-dimensional teleportation decapitation, and group illusion disruption. The AI began simulation, and the alarm sounded as soon as the first round was completed.
System notification: Collaborative response delay of 0.7 seconds; the Living Crystal Shield failed to cover the critical area in time.
"Here we go again." Tony stared at the data. "We're trying too hard to achieve everything at once, and now we've made things difficult for ourselves."
Ye Mo shook his head. "It's not a system problem. We're just fighting our own battles."
He exited the simulation and reset the role assignments.
" Tony, you're not support," he said. "You're the exoskeleton; all firepower is your responsibility."
" Emma Frost, you're not the early warning system." He turned to her, "You're the neural network; the entire battlefield's information flow must pass through you."
"And me," he pointed to himself, "Is my immune system. Wherever there's a problem, I replenish it."
A new mode is activated. This time, a tiered pressure approach is adopted, with the intensity increasing step by step. When the virtual enemy launches a dual attack of mental and physical attacks, Emma Frost locks onto the invasion path immediately, and her mental wave directly severs the imaginary enemy's information chain. Tony simultaneously releases interference pulses, and twelve drones form a blockade matrix. Ye Mo activates Regenerative Phasing, penetrating behind the enemy half a second before the enemy materializes, completing a decapitation counterattack.
System log: Collaboration efficiency improved by 63%, response latency reduced to 0.05 seconds.
"Yes." Emma Frost opened her eyes, her breathing slightly heavy, but her tone firm. "This fighting style will work."
Tony grinned. "Next time, let them know what the Trinity is all about."
Ye Mo didn't laugh. He turned off all external monitoring screens, leaving only the pulse light strips surrounding the main control room, flashing intermittently like a heartbeat.
"They want to scare us," he said, "Thinking we'll panic because we can't see the enemy."
He paused for a second.
But we are not afraid.
"Because we are ready."
Tony returned to the control panel and continued optimizing the algorithm. Emma Frost closed her eyes and meditated, rebuilding the last line of defense of her mental firewall. Ye Mo stood in the center, his consciousness sinking back into the Gene Spiral Tower, examining each of the twenty ability modules one by one. Each layer was vibrating, as if in response to the impending battle.
At that very moment, a notification sounded in my mind:
"Challenge prepared, Gene Spiral Tower's fighting spirit remains unwavering."
There was no cheering.
There was no celebration.
Only three pairs of eyes are simultaneously focused on the main screen. Defense level is at full capacity, personnel status is stable, and the overall alert level remains high (red).
Everything is ready.
Before the wind rises, the flag is already unfurled.
Ye Mo raised his right hand, and the Vibranium fragment in his palm suddenly turned red, with fine cracks appearing on its surface. Before he could react, a strong resonance came from inside the fragment, as if something was trying to crawl out from within.
Tony looked up abruptly. "What happened to that piece of junk you have?"
Emma Frost opened her eyes, her pupils instantly contracting. "It's... responding to something."
Ye Mo wanted to speak, but found his hand uncontrollably raised. The fragment was aimed at the main screen, and a beam of light shot out, directly hitting the defense diagram. A gap appeared in the originally complete energy membrane model, in the exact location of the vulnerability he had deliberately left earlier.
But this time, the edges of the gap began to twist, as if it were being slowly torn apart by something.
"It's not testing anymore," Ye Mo said in a low voice. "It's marking the entrance."
Tony immediately activated the tracking program. "Can I lock the signal source?"
"No need." Ye Mo stared at the crack. "Let it mark."
"This is the moment we've been waiting for."
Emma Frost stood up and walked to his side. The two of them stood side by side, watching the crack on the screen gradually widen. Her hands clenched quietly, her nails digging into her palms, but she didn't take a single step back.
Tony muttered as he modified the code, "Can you two stop striking those 'dying' poses all the time? It's giving me goosebumps."
Nobody paid him any attention.
Ye Mo took a deep breath, opened the communication channel, and connected with all the response team members.
"Attention all personnel," he said. "Level 1 alert remains in effect; no one is permitted to leave their post."
We won't hide.
"I won't run away."
"Wait for them to come in."
"Then close the door and beat the dog."
As soon as he finished speaking, the crack on the main screen suddenly stopped, its width freezing at three centimeters.
Immediately afterwards, a new message appeared:
"Countdown has started."