The Vibranium fragment lay quietly on the control panel, its surface devoid of light and heat, resembling an ordinary piece of metal. But Ye Mo knew something was amiss. The high-frequency vibration just now was neither accidental nor a system false alarm. It was as if it had been "awakened" by something.
He didn't move, his fingers still resting on the consciousness interface, his breathing steady. The previous test was stuck at 97%, the combination was almost complete. But at that moment, the fragment trembled, as if someone had knocked on the door from behind the wall.
He opened his eyes and pulled up the data logs for the past seventy-two hours. The temperature fluctuation curve was drawn up, with three peaks clearly marked at the following times: the first simulated Loki mental invasion, the second reverse tracking of residual memories, and the third attempt to activate the group defense module. All three occurred when he actively tested his " Mind Stone abilities".
This is not normal.
The warning device won't sound on its own unless there's a signal source. And what could make the Vibranium shards resonate would have to be at least an energy field of the same dimension. Loki has already been taken away, the seal has been activated, and theoretically, he shouldn't be able to release any magical fluctuations anymore. So whose signal is this?
He closed the log interface and opened three data channels. The first channel connected to the S.H.I.E.L.D.. public archives, searching for "unclassified energy readings"; the second channel connected to the Telepathy capture devices he had placed at five key nodes in the city; and the third channel directly connected to the memory rewind function of the X-Gene Resonance System, searching through all the battlefield details of the Battle of New York.
The screen refreshes simultaneously in three sections. On the left are sporadic reports: a brief energy distortion occurred at the Brooklyn substation at 2:17 AM, with a frequency of 0.8 Hz, lasting eleven seconds; a slight change in mental pressure was detected in the underground pipes of Queens, the source of which is unknown. On the right are waveforms transmitted from the sensors, with a lot of noise, but at 4:03 AM, a low-frequency fluctuation crossed the East River, its trajectory spreading in a ring. In the middle is a memory replay—he was Wall Phasing to save people when his consciousness field passively unfolded, capturing fragments of thought from those near death around him.
He aligned the three sets of data to the timeline.
The point of overlap occurred at 4:05 AM.
In that instant, the substation's distortion reached its peak, the East River's fluctuations completed their closed loop, and a phrase he couldn't quite make flashed through his memory. The system automatically marked it as "invalid information," but he extracted it manually.
Audio amplification, noise reduction, and removal of background electrical noise.
A whisper with three seconds left.
It wasn't Loki's voice, nor the language of the Chitauri. The tone was old, as if it had been squeezed out from a crack in the rock, with a slow rhythm.
He put on his headphones and listened to it repeatedly.
On the fifth attempt, he broke down the intonation into waveforms and input them into the language model for comparison.
The result showed no matching language, but the grammatical structure resembled a hybrid of ancient Norse runes and spells and some unknown civilization.
He then tried the Emotion Recognition module.
The output shows: no malice, no fear, no excitement. Only one state—observation.
It's like looking at cells under a microscope—you don't interfere or get close; you just record.
He sat up straight.
This kind of "observation" is neither surveillance nor reconnaissance. It's a higher level of existence. You wouldn't be interested in ants fighting unless you wanted to study their group behavior patterns. And now, someone is studying them.
He switched to the mental interface and opened the nineteenth level of the Gene Spiral Tower. Ability fragments were densely packed, most already named and categorized. He scrolled to the bottom and found a module that had never been activated. " Collective Consciousness Perception."
The original data source is labeled as. "During the later stages of the Battle of New York, inside a collapsed building, a resonance of consciousness triggered by multiple people in a near-death state."
He had always thought it was an emergency response, a battlefield byproduct automatically recorded by the system. But looking back now, there was an unusual pulse in that data. It didn't belong to any known individual, nor did it match the energy characteristics of Mutants or extraterrestrial life. It was like... an observer, glancing lightly through the crowd.
He pulled up the waveform of that pulse and compared it with the whisper he had just extracted.
Frequency matching accuracy: 87%.
The phase difference is less than 0.3.
It's almost certain that they're from the same source.
His finger hovered over the confirmation button, but he didn't press it.
If this force has always existed, why is it only reacting now? And why was it triggered precisely when he was testing his mental defenses?
He reopened the sand table simulation interface and built two models in the virtual space. One was Loki, labeled "Active Interference Source"; the other was an unknown entity, named " Observer A ". He put in the time points of the previous three fragment vibrations and then superimposed his own test content.
The results are in.
Each time he attempts to simulate a "manipulated" or "invaded" scenario, Observer A's energy trace increases.
It wasn't a response to Loki, it was a response to him.
It looked like he was practicing self-defense, and the others were taking notes.
His back felt a little cold.
This is no coincidence.
The other side wasn't after Loki, nor was it after the Avengers.
It was drawn to him because of his "ability to piece things together."
He turned off the sand table and pulled up the city map. The locations of the five sensors were marked with red dots: the East River, the substation, the subway hub, the abandoned communications tower, and the port warehouse. They were not on a line, nor did they form a circle. But if you drew radial lines with his base as the center, all these points would fall within the same sector area.
The opponent's activity range was perfectly positioned to cover all of his detection equipment.
Moreover, the location was precise, as if it were left intentionally.
It's not about hiding, it's about showing.
But it doesn't show itself, doesn't reveal its purpose, only leaving a faint sound, a ripple, waiting for you to discover it.
He stared at the screen, and one word popped into his head: fishing.
It's not about using bait to catch fish, it's about using questions to attract people.
It wanted him to realize its presence, but without telling him who it was.
He opened the communication log and turned to a blank page.
No messages were sent, and no calls were made.
I simply synchronized all the analysis results from earlier into a hidden folder, named: X-01 Preparation Log - Supplement.
Then he returned to the main console screen and played the whisper again.
This time, he didn't turn on noise cancellation, nor did he do any analysis.
Let it play as is.
"... the door is never closed, and the eyes are always open."
The Vibranium fragment trembled slightly the instant the sound faded.
It's neither cold nor hot.
It was a familiar tremor, like a heartbeat traveling along metal.
He reached out, picked it up, and placed it on his temple.
Close your eyes and activate the " Speech Residue Detection " + " Emotion Recognition " dual-module linkage.
A buzzing sound filled my mind, and a pale gray phantom appeared at the edge of my vision.
It is neither text nor image.
It is a string of flowing symbols, gliding from left to right like ripples on water.
He didn't have time to record it; it disappeared three seconds later.
System message: Parsing failed. It is recommended to add a memory Anchor.
He opened his eyes; his hands were still trembling.
It wasn't because he was tired, but because he knew what he had just seen.
That's not language; it's a projection of some kind of high-dimensional information.
It's like compressing a three-dimensional object into a two-dimensional image; it's still the same thing, just that you can't understand it anymore.
He looked down at the fragments, then back at the screen.
The waveform image freezes on the last frame, labeled. "Not Loki, not Chitauri, not a known civilization."
Below is a line of small text he just typed:
It is neither an enemy nor an ally. It is the examiner.
He sat there for a long time without moving.
It was already daylight outside, and the city was starting to function.
Supply trucks moved through the streets, and announcements from loudspeakers relayed instructions from volunteers.
Everything seems normal.
But he knew things were different now.
The previous opponents were all visible.
Loki can talk, Thanos can attack, and Klaue can shout.
They have goals, methods, and weaknesses.
But this one is different.
It neither acts nor speaks; it simply watches.
And it seems it has been waiting for him to take this step.
He put his hand back on the consciousness interface.
A new set of tests has started loading.
This time, instead of simulating defense, he reversed the process and constructed an "exposure scenario": deliberately releasing a false psychological fluctuation, disguised as a state of loss of control, to see if it would elicit a second response.
The pressure inside my brain increased, and I started sweating on my forehead.
He didn't wipe, nor did he stop.
Just as the assembly was about to be completed, the Vibranium fragment in his pocket suddenly became scalding hot.
He opened his eyes and stared at the screen.
The test progress bar is stuck at 42%.
Meanwhile, the new data transmitted back by the sensors is being updated at an alarming rate.
Five signals alarm simultaneously, with the same frequency and pointing to the same coordinate.
It is not any landmark in the city.
It was the spot where he was sitting at that moment.