Ye Mo leaned against the metal bulkhead, his breathing extremely low. The four-minute cooldown countdown was still ticking, and he could feel the grayish-white layer on his arm fading, as if fire was burning beneath his skin. The shockwave from the energy blast hitting his Steel Bone during that last hard-hitting session hadn't dissipated yet, and his shoulder was still numb.
He didn't move.
Three intersecting light grids descended in the passage ahead, and blue-purple energy beams swept back and forth at irregular frequencies, clearly controlled by an intelligent system. The escape route had been quietly sealed off by another set of conduits, and several new cracks appeared in the ground, like newly activated sensor lines.
A system notification popped into my head: [Environmental threat level increased; avoid direct contact recommended]
He almost laughed out loud. This was as polite as a "Caution: Slippery Floor" sign posted on the street. Now he was supposed to hide? Where could he hide? There were solid walls on either side, and the conveyor belt overhead was too far away to climb.
He looked down at his hands.
His palms were sweating, and his fingers were trembling slightly. It wasn't fear, but the sheer amount of energy he was expending. He had just used Regenerative Phasing, and Steel Bone was now in cooldown mode, leaving his usable abilities essentially paralyzed. But he couldn't stop. Tony's nuclear weapons program was in its final stages, and time was running out.
He stared at the three light bars, his mind racing.
The rhythm of these beams is off. It's not random, nor is it a fixed cycle. The first two seconds are three consecutive cuts, the third second suddenly becomes a long-wave sweep, and the fourth second returns to single shots. This pattern... seems familiar.
He suddenly remembered the day Loki opened the portal.
The wormhole over New York formed far too quickly that day. Normally, the Chitauri's technology would require at least thirty seconds to establish stable coordinates, but that time it was completed in less than ten seconds. At the time, he thought the other side had upgraded their equipment, but now he thinks it was more likely that someone had set up the access point in advance.
Just like now.
The monitoring nodes, grating frequencies, and even the opening and closing rhythm of the conduits inside the mothership all matched the energy fluctuations of the portal that day. This was no coincidence. The entire ship had been tampered with from the very beginning. Loki didn't even need to come in person; he had already planted a backdoor in this thing.
Ye Mo gritted his teeth.
No wonder the guards reacted so quickly. They didn't find him through the alarm; someone had directly accessed his location data behind the scenes. This ship is alive and being remotely controlled.
He took a step forward, hugging the wall.
The moment his feet left their original position, the black sphere above his head suddenly turned, and a red line opened in the slit. He froze instantly, holding his breath. Three seconds later, the red light receded, and the sphere returned to stillness.
He breathed a sigh of relief, his forehead covered in sweat.
He couldn't go any further. He'd be discovered sooner or later if he continued like this. He had to find a way to get around it.
He glanced back at the way he had come.
The temperature of the wall conduit we just passed was low, and the monitoring system didn't cover it. This shows that although the system is intelligent, it's not omniscient. It only monitors high-frequency areas, leaving low-energy-consumption areas as blind spots.
He slowly squatted down and rubbed the wall with the back of his hand.
It was cool, several degrees lower than other places. The energy flow here was very weak, probably due to abandoned power lines. He crept along the area, sideways against the wall, sliding forward little by little.
The grating has a large scanning range, but blind spots also exist. As long as he moves at a low speed and doesn't trigger the vibration sensor, he has a chance to pass through.
He moved to the bottom of the first light grid and bent down to crawl through.
Safety.
He passed the second test smoothly as well.
The third obstacle was the most difficult. The beam of light was only forty centimeters off the ground, and he had to lie down to get through it. He slowly lay down, his stomach touching the ground, and inching forward little by little.
Just as he was about to pass through, his left elbow accidentally bumped into a protruding screw.
"Drop--"
The alarm didn't sound, but all the spheres overhead turned towards him.
He knew it was all over.
He rolled to the side, raising his hand to protect his head.
The first beam of light grazed his shoulder, instantly scorching a large patch of his clothes. The second beam followed closely behind, and he pulled his legs and stomach in, barely managing to dodge it. However, the outside of his calf was still grazed, causing the flesh to immediately tear and blood to gush out.
He grunted and rolled into an abandoned maintenance bay.
The hatch was half-collapsed, and inside were piles of scrapped parts. He leaned against the corner, panting, his left hand pressing against his wound. Blood, hot, oozed from between his fingers. He quickly tore off a strip of cloth and tied it tightly.
The external grating is still scanning.
He dares not go out. Going out now would make him a target.
He looked up at the corner of the maintenance bay.
There was a circuit board there, the same one I'd seen before, with two words engraved on the back. "Don't believe it."
The handwriting is different. Last time it was written with a carving knife, this time it looks like it was scratched out with a fingernail, crooked and twisted, but with great force.
He crawled over and picked it up.
The board was very light, with burn marks on the edges. He turned it over and saw several lines of small writing on the back, written in human language, intermittently:
"They can't hear you... but you can... don't believe the system prompts... it's lying to you... Loki changed the frequency... find the original signal..."
He was stunned.
Who left it?
This person is neither Chitauri, nor a member of S.H.I.E.L.D.., nor Avengers. This person knows Loki's plans, knows the system has been tampered with, and even senses that the system notification sounds might be malfunctioning.
Was he trapped here, or did he infiltrate on his own initiative?
Ye Mo looked down at his wrist.
The system notification just went off once, alerting him to escalating environmental threats. It sounds normal, but what if the warning itself is a trap? What if it's deliberately leading him into a high-risk area?
He recalled the path he had just taken.
From the moment he broke through the shield, he took corresponding evasive or counter-attacking actions after each system notification. These actions, in turn, propelled him step by step into the deeper core area.
Is someone exploiting system prompts to use him as a pawn?
He shook his head and stuffed the circuit board into his pocket.
There's no time to verify its authenticity now. He has to move forward, but he can no longer rely on the system's judgment.
He rested against the bulkhead for a few minutes until his heartbeat calmed down.
The wound still hurt, but he could bear it. His Steel Bone powers were still cooling down, and he couldn't withstand any more attacks for a while. He had to find a way to get around the next line of defense.
He looked towards the other end of the maintenance bay.
There was a narrow passage leading to an old maintenance pipe. The pipe opening was so small that an adult could only crawl in. But the advantage was that this kind of old-fashioned structure was usually not connected to the main control system, so the probability of monitoring was low.
He dragged his injured leg and crawled over.
The pipe walls were greasy, and the air smelled foul. He moved forward inch by inch, his knees and elbows aching. After crawling about twenty meters, a fork in the road appeared ahead.
The left side slopes downwards, and the right side slopes upwards.
He chose the left side.
After descending fifteen meters, there was a metal door at the end of the pipe. The door wasn't locked; it opened with a gentle push.
He went into a small room.
Several old-fashioned terminals stood around, their screens black and keyboards covered in dust. A large display screen hung on the wall, showing complex circuit diagrams with a red dot in the center labeled "Master Control Node."
He walked over and tried pressing the power button.
The screen flickered and the login page appeared.
The username field is blank, and the password field is flashing.
Just as he was about to type, he suddenly noticed a small groove in the lower right corner of the keyboard, as if someone had pried it open. He leaned closer and discovered a line of extremely small characters hidden inside:
Initial Key: Asgard -Ω-7
He stared at the line of text for two seconds.
This isn't the Chitauri naming convention. This is Asgard's encryption format. Ω represents the highest authority, and 7 is the serial number. The entire mothership's control system actually uses Asgard's underlying protocol.
Loki did indeed make his move.
He sat down and entered the key.
The screen redirects, and a text appears:
Access granted. External magic signal interference detected, system self-check in progress... Skip security protocol? (Y/N)
His fingers remained on the keyboard.
Skip? This option is too unusual. Normal systems don't let users decide whether to skip security checks. Unless... this is a trap.
He remembered the message on the circuit board. "Don't trust the system prompts."
He didn't press Y.
Instead, they unplugged a data cable from the back of the computer.
The screen went black instantly.
One second later, another interface popped up automatically, with no title and only three lines of text:
The actual node is located in area B-7.
The signal source is from the old Bifrost frequency band.
You have 8 minutes and 32 seconds left.
His pupils contracted.
This interface has no icons, no menus; it's like an emergency program directly written into the hardware. This is the real warning.
He stood up and walked outside.
His leg injury made him unsteady on his feet, but he didn't stop. Sector B-7 was at the bottom of the mothership, close to the core reactor. He had to find the main control logic and cut off Loki's remote access before the nuclear missiles arrived.
He pushed open the door and walked into a dimly lit corridor.
The lights on the wall flickered, as if the electricity was unstable. The sound of machinery running came from afar, growing louder and louder. He walked forward, holding onto the wall, stepping on the metal seams with each step to minimize vibration.
After rounding a corner, he saw a heavy alloy door ahead, marked "B-7".
Two guards stood at the entrance.
They are not Chitauri. Their armor style is different, and their helmets have runic markings.
He crouched down and picked up a piece of broken metal from the ground.
Shine it up to the light.
His face was reflected in the metal plate, and a line of small words floated in the air:
You're not the first person to come in.