Ye Mo's finger hovered over the start button, and he could still hear Loki's voice.
"The door is never underground."
He didn't move or speak, but simply listened for an extra second. The voice was too steady, unlike the tone of someone fleeing for their life. A defeated man wouldn't speak with such a rhythm, as if he were sitting in the audience watching a play.
He turned to look at Emma Frost. Her brow was furrowed, and she was gently pressing her fingers to her temples, reading the hidden frequency in the signal.
"He's lying," Ye Mo said. "He said, 'I'm not there anymore,' but his signal waveform is still connected to the Earth's vein network; it hasn't been broken at all."
Tony took off his helmet and wiped his face. "So he did it on purpose so we could hear?"
"Yes." Ye Mo withdrew his hand. "He wanted us to think he was speaking from somewhere, but he had already shifted his consciousness link. This is psychological warfare, not location warfare."
Bruce stood in the corner, staring at the brainwave curves on the monitor. "Thirty-seven people in the eastern part of the city have simultaneously reported sleepwalking; some have walked to the riverbank and stood motionless. They are receiving instructions."
"Consensus pollution has begun." Emma Frost opened her eyes. "He's not trying to blow up the bridge; he's trying to make everyone believe that opening the door was the right choice. Once everyone believes it, reality will change."
"Then let's not let them continue to believe." Ye Mo brought up the interface of the thirteenth layer of the Gene Spiral Tower, activating the combined capabilities of Regenerative Phasing and Radar Sense. The screen flashed, and the ley line network three hundred meters underground began to appear.
Three red dots popped up.
"Found them," he said. "Three signal amplifiers, buried under an abandoned subway station, an old power plant, and a weather station, respectively. They amplify the fluctuations in consciousness like relay stations."
"I'll go to the physical end." Tony put his gloves back on. "The EMP virus has been loaded; once connected to the main control terminal, it will paralyze the power supply system."
"You have to go in silently," Ye Mo warned. "Once the energy trap is triggered, the entire chamber will self-destruct, causing a regional Mental Resonance collapse."
"I know," Tony grinned. "It's not like I'm a newbie hacker."
He turned and walked to the equipment cabinet, took out a set of lightweight servo armor components, removed the main thruster and high-energy reactor, and kept only the micro-joint drive module.
"That way it won't trigger a pressure sensor," he said as he assembled the machine. "It just takes a bit of a slow pace, like an old man taking a walk."
Ye Mo didn't laugh, but he felt relieved. He knew that when Tony joked, it meant he was already in battle mode.
"I'll cover Emma Frost," he said. "She needs to unleash the reverse information flow and withstand Loki's backlash."
Bruce nodded. "I'll monitor the energy fluctuations from the rear. If any unusual accumulation is detected, I'll issue an alert immediately."
"Move out when you're ready." Ye Mo pressed the communication button. "Operation plan remains unchanged. Everyone execute according to the original plan."
The base lights dimmed, and the equipment switched to silent mode.
Tony left through the side passage, his footsteps light. Ye Mo stared at the screen, watching his life signal slowly move. Emma Frost closed her eyes, her Mental Network unfolding like an invisible net covering the entire area.
Five minutes later, Tony arrived at the entrance to the secret room.
"Pressure plate spotted," he whispered. "They're going around it."
The scene shifts to his helmet's perspective, where a faint blue light surrounds the ground, clearly a sensor. He lies down and uses the servo arm to move his body little by little, avoiding each contact point.
"It's just like stealing a WiFi password," he muttered to himself.
Ye Mo almost burst out laughing, but he held it in. Now was not the time to relax.
Just as Tony was about to enter the control area, Emma Frost suddenly opened her eyes.
"There's a pull!" she said. " Loki has detected my Mental Network and is trying to infiltrate it!"
Ye Mo immediately switched his ability combination, activating Mind Projection and Steel Bone Body to form a double barrier around Emma Frost. A powerful impact crashed into him, causing him to stagger back two steps, and he tasted blood in his mouth.
"He's using Asgard illusion-coded attacks." Emma Frost gritted her teeth. "I can see his path, but he's too fast."
"Don't chase him," Ye Mo said. "Stay put. I'll handle the tracking."
He focused his mind and traced the reverse data flow back. An image of a dilapidated observation station appeared on the screen, located at 61 degrees north latitude, buried deep beneath the permafrost.
"Found it," he said. "It's an abandoned Asgard outpost; he used it as a remote control node."
" Tony," he said, connecting the channel, "Speed things up, we must disconnect before he finishes the ceremony."
"They're already inserting the virus," Tony's voice came through. "Give me thirty more seconds."
Just then, the monitor screen flickered.
A new screen pops up.
It's an illusion.
The sky split open, the earth sank into the sea, and countless people knelt before a gigantic gate, whispering prayers. From behind the gate, shadowy tentacles reached out and gently stroked the heads of those people, as if bestowing blessings.
"This is the end," Loki's voice rang out. "Resistance is futile. You will all eventually submit."
Bruce stared at the screen, his breathing becoming heavy. His arms began to tremble, and green veins appeared under his skin.
"Don't look!" Ye Mo shouted, "This is psychological trauma, not a real scene!"
Emma Frost forcibly maintained the connection, releasing a reverse information stream across the entire frequency band. "Behind the door, there is no salvation, only enslavement."
She incorporated a record of an alien civilization that Jane Foster had once documented—a planet ruled by "gods" where all inhabitants voluntarily sacrificed their consciousness, leaving only empty shells in the end.
The information flows out, like a seed falling into the soil.
But Loki's visions continued to grow stronger.
Bruce suddenly let out a low growl and fell to his knees. His eyes turned completely green, and his muscles bulged, but he didn't fully transform.
" Hulk... isn't out yet." He gritted his teeth, "But I can hold him off."
He used his primal will to dispel the illusionary ripples, buying Emma Frost a five-second window.
Emma Frost seized the opportunity and pushed out the last piece of reverse code.
"The seed of doubt has been sown," she said. "Now we'll see if anyone is willing to disbelieve."
Almost at the same moment, Tony completed the virus injection.
"EMP activated," he said. "Three seconds countdown."
"Three."
"Two."
"One."
The main control system lost power, and all equipment inside the sealed room shut down. The red dots in the ley line network disappeared one by one.
"Signal interrupted." Ye Mo looked at the screen. "All amplifiers have failed."
"But Loki isn't gone," Emma Frost said. "His consciousness is still struggling."
A countdown timer sounded from the observation station, the numbers starting from ten.
"He wants to escape via teleportation," Ye Mo deduced. "He'll use his last bit of energy to sever the link and escape."
"No," Tony gasped, "I still have work to finish."
He remotely controlled the remaining armor components, aimed at the observation station's main power pipe, and launched a final ramming attack.
boom!
The data stream was interrupted, Loki's figure flashed in the virtual image, then dissipated into fragments. The escape route was cut off, and the tracking marker was successfully implanted.
"He ran away," Ye Mo said, "But we know where he went."
The base was quiet.
Surveillance footage showed sleepwalkers waking up one after another throughout the city. Rubbing their eyes, they returned home, most only remembering having a strange dream. A few muttered to themselves, "I almost believed that voice."
Tony leaned against the wall, taking off his tattered armor gloves. "Don't make me do this slow-motion infiltration next time, it's exhausting."
Emma Frost closed her eyes to regulate her breathing, and her Mental Network slowly receded. Her face was somewhat pale, but the corners of her mouth were slightly upturned.
Bruce sat down and looked down at his hands. "I feel... more in control than before."
Ye Mo stood in front of the control panel and closed the Gene Spiral Tower interface. He watched as the data stream in the lower right corner of the screen returned to zero, confirming that all abnormal signals had disappeared.
The world returned to peace.
But he didn't move.
The system just popped up a new notification: "An unfamiliar energy fluctuation has been detected, originating from deep space, with a frequency that has 0.7% similarity to the early coding of the Hellfire Club."
He didn't tell anyone else.
He just stared at the fluctuating numbers, his finger hovering over the reactivation button.
Tony took a sip of his coffee, looked up at him, and asked, "What are you daydreaming about? Aren't you going to celebrate?"
Ye Mo glanced at him.
Then look towards the starry sky.
Blood dripped onto the edge of the control panel and slid down the metal seams.