Thor rolled over on the bench, muttering something. Ye Mo amplified the audio and heard the sleep-talking clearly—"Tomorrow... I'll try... at the bakery... to see if I can get a job." He labeled this sentence and categorized it into the "Early Stages of Social Adaptation and Language Transition" case study.
Emma Frost leaned against the wall, her Mental Network maintaining coverage of the town within a two-kilometer radius. Her eyelid twitched. "He's calmed down," she said. "No panic, no anger. Just... a little tired."
"Normal." Ye Mo stared at the vital signs curve on the screen. "When a person transforms from a god into a human, the most frightening thing is not losing power, but losing purpose. Now he has purpose, even if it's just a bakery."
He had barely finished speaking when the gray fragment on the 15th floor of the Gene Spiral Tower suddenly trembled. It wasn't the regular pulsation of before; this time it was a short, sharp shudder, like being pricked by a needle.
Ye Mo's fingers paused.
"What's wrong?" Emma Frost noticed his pause.
"Something's not right." Ye Mo pulled up the system log and quickly searched through the data stream from the previous second. The temperature of the Vibranium fragment hadn't changed, and Thor's vital signs were normal, but the system recorded a 0.3-second energy fluctuation, the frequency of which wasn't in the known database.
"This isn't a local signal," he said. "It's not residual Mutants abilities, and it doesn't resemble Gamma Radiation or Vibranium Resonance."
Emma Frost closed her eyes, her Mental Network instantly expanding to its limit. Her brow furrowed. "I sensed... a fleeting afterimage. Like someone is watching, but doesn't want to be discovered."
"Who are you looking at?"
"It's not about Thor," she shook her head, "It's about watching 'us.' Someone is spying on us by following the surveillance signal in the opposite direction."
Ye Mo took off his glasses, wiped the lenses with his sleeve, and put them back on; his expression had changed. "The system notification just sounded, saying it detected a suspected case of cross-dimensional mental infiltration."
"You believe it?"
"I don't trust the system," Ye Mo typed, "But I trust the data. This fluctuation is projected from a higher dimension, with a distorted path and an obscuring mechanism. This isn't something an ordinary hacker could do."
He created a new encrypted folder, named it [X-157], and dragged the waveform into it. The system automatically labeled it: Source unknown, Strength rating B+, Repetition probability 47.8%.
"Set up passive monitoring," he said. "Once the same signal reappears, directly trigger a level three alarm."
Emma Frost sat cross-legged, placed her hands on her knees, and entered a deep meditative state. Her Mental Network began to construct a three-dimensional scanning model, pushing outwards in circles. Three minutes later, she opened her eyes.
"I found a trace," she said. "The direction is northeast, and the angle is almost vertical. It's not a location on Earth, more like... a line of sight coming from the sky."
"In the sky?" Ye Mo sneered. "You mean aliens are spying on us and monitoring us?"
"It's not an alien," Emma Frost shook her head. "It's a magical perception intrusion. The other party used some kind of shielding spell to cut off the path of retracing. But I'm certain of one thing—that gaze has been fixed on Thor for a long time."
Ye Mo was silent for a few seconds, then opened the remote connection and switched all the weather station's sensors to offline mode. He unplugged the main power supply, leaving only the backup battery for power, and all data was routed through a physically isolated channel.
"We won't let anyone see, and we won't let anyone know we've discovered it," he said. "This tactic is called playing blind."
He leaned back in his chair, his fingers lightly tapping the table. The system interface appeared in his mind, the gray fragment still slightly warm. He tried to overlay [ Quantum Sensing ] and [ Danger Sense ], and a blurry image flashed before his eyes: a mirror reflecting Thor's curled-up figure, with a man in a green and gold robe standing beside him, a smile on his lips.
The image flashed by.
"Damn it." Ye Mo sat up abruptly. "When did this system start showing slideshows?"
"What did you say?" Emma Frost asked.
"It's nothing," he waved his hand. "It's probably just visual overlap due to fatigue."
He wasn't telling the truth. He knew it wasn't an illusion. It was the system capturing a trace of magic and attempting to reconstruct the original scene. The problem was, the system shouldn't have this function. It was merely a power receiver, not responsible for decoding high-dimensional information.
unless...
"This thing is evolving too," he said softly.
Emma Frost didn't hear her clearly. "What did you say?"
"I said, we need to change our approach." Ye Mo stood up and walked to the window. It was still dark outside, the town was pitch black, only the gas station lights were still on. Thor was still asleep on the bench, breathing steadily.
"Previously, we thought the biggest risk was Hydra or the remnants of Stark Industries causing trouble," he said. "But now it seems a bigger player has entered the fray. He can not only locate Thor, but also trace him back using our surveillance footage, and even interfere with system feedback."
How will you handle this?
"Hide first." Ye Mo activated the communication jammer, cutting off all external frequencies. "Then we'll turn around and look for any gaps in his defenses."
He reconnected to the system and manually retrieved all data streams from the past twelve hours, comparing them frame by frame. Finally, he found an abnormal node in a discarded log: at 6:17 a. m., three hours after Thor fell asleep, the system briefly displayed an unregistered protocol for 0.07 seconds.
He zoomed in on that piece of code.
It was a string of green runes, which disappeared in a flash.
"Do you recognize this?" he asked Emma Frost.
She glanced at it and shook her head. "It's not a Telepathy symbol, nor is it any known language on Earth. But it has a... noble feel to it."
"A sense of nobility?"
"Like killing someone while dressed in a formal gown," she added.
Ye Mo almost burst out laughing. "You really know how to describe things."
He took a screenshot of the rune, saved it to the [X-157] folder, and labeled it "High-risk unknown signal source characteristics". Then he closed all windows, leaving only a countdown screen.
"Set a trap," he said. "Next time he comes, I won't stop him or hide from him. I'll let him look, let him look to his heart's content. But if he looks for even a second longer, he'll leave more traces."
Emma Frost opened her eyes. "You want to lure him into making a move?"
"It's not about leading him on," Ye Mo leaned back in his chair, "It's about waiting for him to make a mistake. Even the smartest person forgets they're on stage when they're watching a play."
The two fell silent. Only the low hum of the equipment running remained in the room. Emma Frost entered a low-power monitoring state, and her Mental Network, like a thin mist, gently enveloped the entire area.
Ye Mo stared at the screen, his fingers unconsciously tapping the armrest. He knew that the malice he had just witnessed was not accidental. It was a purposeful spying, tinged with murderous intent. The other party had seen Thor's weakness, and they had also seen their presence.
But who he didn't know was...
There's no need to know.
We'll meet sooner or later anyway.
In the secret chamber of Asgard, Loki stood before the Crystal mirror, his fingertips lightly tracing its surface. Reflected in the mirror was Ye Mo sitting before the monitor. A slight smile played on his lips.
"Interesting little bug," he whispered, "It even sensed my gaze."
He waved his hand, and the mirror vanished, replaced by a rising eerie green flame. From the flame came the sound of dragging chains, and heavy footsteps echoed in the darkness.
The Destroyer's silhouette slowly rose, its eye sockets blazing with crimson light.
Loki turned and walked deeper into the dungeon.
"Brother," he said softly, "Your trial should end."
At this moment, Ye Mo on Earth suddenly looked up at the ceiling.
He felt a chill creep up his spine.
It's not because of the cold.
It's because he knows that some things have already begun.
He hasn't prepared a name yet.