Thor's new friend, budding feelings

The light in the room flickered and then went out.

Ye Mo's fingers were still on the keyboard; the tremor from that moment was so slight, like a burp from an electric current. He didn't move, staring at the time in the lower right corner of the screen—3:17 AM.

Three minutes later, all sensor data was fed back.

The voltage curve showed a small spike that lasted less than two seconds. The brainwave monitoring module detected a faint afterimage, with a frequency similar to the rapid eye movement (REM) phase during dreaming. However, it was not an intrusion signal.

"The system didn't ring," he said softly, "Because it knows this isn't a threat."

Emma Frost leaned back in her chair, eyes closed, her Mental Network constantly active. "You're starting to trust its judgment?"

"I don't believe it." Ye Mo pressed Enter a few times. "I believe the data. Unstable voltage is unstable voltage, don't scare yourself."

He switched the scene. Thor's cabin was pitch black; his breathing was steady, and his heart rate was normal. Jane's lab was still lit; she was writing in her journal, her fingers occasionally pausing, as if she was thinking.

It drizzled a little before dawn.

At 6:42, Thor pushed open the door and came out, wearing the same old coat as yesterday, his hair a little messy from the wind. He walked towards the street corner; the bakery had just opened, and steam was escaping from the cracks in the glass door.

At the same time, Jane came from another road carrying a bag and two cups of coffee. She stood at the shop entrance looking at the menu for a while, then turned around and saw Thor.

The two stared at each other for a second.

Jane smiled and handed one of the cups over. "I bought it on the way."

Thor hesitated for a moment before reaching out to take it. His fingertips touched the rim of the cup slowly, as if afraid of burning himself. He nodded and said something, but his voice was too soft for the monitor to hear.

Ye Mo immediately activated the Telepathy Fragment to scan the emotional wavebands.

Thor's heart beat twelve beats faster than usual, and his adrenaline surged slightly. It wasn't tension or a fighting state; it was more like... a kind of anticipation.

Jane's cognitive pattern has also changed. Her thought process used to be linear: problem → hypothesis → verification → conclusion. But now, the line has veered off course and entered the subjective realm. She watched Thor take the cup, her lips twitched, she didn't say anything, but there was something more to her expression.

"It's not pity," Emma Frost opened her eyes, "It's empathy."

"I know." Ye Mo pulled up the comparison photos. "She wasn't pitying him; she was trying to understand him."

"But this kind of understanding is the easiest to exploit." Emma Frost sat up straight. "If Loki's goal is to destroy Thor's will, he won't just attack him directly. He'll make him believe that someone cares about him, and then take that person away."

Ye Mo didn't respond immediately. He played back the recording from last night.

In short. "Sometimes, data points to things that are inexplicable."

He said, "She wasn't blindly investing her emotions. She was approaching the truth in her own way."

But the truth can be fabricated.

"The process is the key." Ye Mo tapped the table. "She asked 'What do you think?' not 'Are you an alien?' As long as she's still using her brain, she hasn't fallen into the trap."

He opened the permissions panel and added a new module to the three-level alarm system: Emotional Resonance Threshold.

Rule set: When the emotional synchronization rate between the two parties reaches 85% or higher, accompanied by external energy pull, an early warning is triggered. Otherwise, no intervention is performed.

Encrypted log update:

[Jane Foster → Potential ally, not treated as a tool]

At 2 p. m., Thor appeared at the entrance of the observatory.

He was holding the book "Introduction to Basic Astronomy," its pages worn from repeated readings. Jane was adjusting her equipment when she looked up and saw him, somewhat surprised.

"I thought you were going to look at it for a few more days," she said.

"I've finished reading it." Thor handed over the book. "Thank you for lending it to me."

Jane took the book, opened it to the first page, and found a piece of paper tucked inside. Unfolding it, she saw a hand-drawn star map. The lines were very fine, but very clear, and the positions of some constellations were marked, with several names written next to them, none of which were from Earth.

"This is the night sky I remember." Thor pointed to one of the bright spots, "That's the direction of Asgard."

Jane stared at it for a long time. A breeze blew in from the window, ruffling the corner of the paper.

"The stars you see..." she whispered, "Are different from ours."

The two stood by the telescope, neither speaking. The sun slanted in, casting its light on her shoulders and his sleeves.

Ye Mo turned off the audio monitoring, leaving only the video feed.

"They don't need background music," Emma Frost said.

"I don't need to get involved." Ye Mo leaned back in his chair. "As long as she still asks him 'What do you think?' instead of 'What are you?', then it's not a flaw."

He didn't increase the gain, nor did he implant any tracking software. This time, he chose to keep the monitoring superficial.

In the evening, Thor returned to the cabin.

He sat on the edge of the bed, took off his coat, and pulled a convenience store receipt from his pocket. On the back was writing, something he'd written before leaving, "See you at the library tomorrow at 3 PM."

He stared at it for a while, then folded it and put it back inside the book to weigh it down.

Jane had already saved the experimental records. She turned off her computer, picked up the star chart, and looked at it against the light. Then she walked to the window and looked up at the sky. The clouds hadn't cleared yet, and she couldn't see a single star.

Ye Mo deleted some redundant data and kept the key segments in an encrypted archive.

He glanced at the two red dots on the screen, one still and the other moving slowly.

"How far do you think they'll go?" Emma Frost asked.

"I don't know," Ye Mo said, taking off his glasses and wiping them. "But I don't want them to stop right now."

"But you said before that any relationship could be a weakness."

"That's right." He put his glasses back on, "But if a person doesn't even have the courage to approach others, then he has already lost."

He brought up the interface of the Gene Spiral Tower; the gray fragments on the 15th layer were still vibrating slightly. The Vibranium Resonance frequency had increased by 0.2% compared to the morning.

External traction is still present, but very weak, as if it's being deliberately suppressed.

"They're waiting," Emma Frost said.

"Wait until we move," Ye Mo, staring at the curve, "But we won't move."

He stood up and stretched his wrists.

"What I'm most afraid of right now isn't Loki," he said, "but which idiot suddenly posts on social media with the title 'I found out God of Thunder is renting a house.'"

Emma Frost laughed. "Then you'll have to pray that nobody in town is livestreaming."

"I've hacked the entire town's WiFi." Ye Mo sat back in his chair. "Anyone who wants to upload a video will have to get past me first."

He tapped his finger lightly on the table.

Once, twice.

Then stop.

On the monitor screen, two red dots lit up silently.

One was inside the house, and the other was in the building.

Outside the window, the moon was once again obscured by clouds.

The lights inside the room flickered suddenly.