Outside the door, the firelight flared up again.
Ye Mo didn't move, his arms crossed to protect his face, the stance unchanged, yet his Steel Bone joints emitted a faint "click," like rusty gears forcibly meshing. He stared at the approaching red light, and a sentence rolled down his throat. " Tony, over there—"
"Ninety-four percent!" Tony said without looking up, his fingers flying across the control panel. "Give me two more minutes, or this armor will be a walking oven!"
Ye Mo didn't respond. His right arm shield suddenly expanded outward by half an inch, blocking a fragment of an incendiary bomb that had entered through the side window. Mars splattered onto his face, burning a thin line, and a bead of blood slid down his cheekbone, drawing a red groove on his dusty skin.
He raised his hand and wiped his face; his palm was sticky, indistinguishable between blood, sweat, and wall plaster. The previous charge had been incredibly exhausting; the Regeneration speed of his Steel Bone couldn't keep up with the spread of the cracks. The metal layer on his left shoulder was peeling off like a walnut, with pieces sticking up and the reddish tissue underneath twitching slightly.
But he was still standing.
A muffled groan came from deep within the laboratory, followed by a short beep of an instrument alarm. Ye Mo's eyes twitched, and he glanced over—in a corner of the medical area, several researchers lay on the ground, some curled up with their arms wrapped around their arms, some groaning with their heads covered, and one lying on a stretcher, blood slowly seeping from the bandage wrapped around his abdomen.
They were injured in the previous explosion, but no one paid attention to them at the time. Now that the enemy has temporarily retreated, their injuries have all come back to haunt them.
Ye Mo took a breath, slid down against the wall, and pressed his back against the cold metal lab table. He closed his eyes, his consciousness sinking into the " Gene Spiral Tower." The twenty-layer structure floated silently, several layers glowing faintly—fragments of Mutants abilities he had recently encountered. As his fingertips touched a blurry stream of data, a voice suddenly echoed in his mind:
[High-density life form damage signals detected. Activate ' Group Healing ' ability. Combine?]
Ye Mo almost burst out laughing.
The system finally stopped being silent? And it even added a new feature?
His first reaction was that it was a hallucination. After all, the last system notification was half a year ago, and it never offered suggestions proactively. But now... He looked down at his still trembling hands, then glanced at the female researcher in the medical area who was about to faint. Blood was seeping from between her fingers, dripping onto the floor with a soft patter.
It's not a hallucination.
He gritted his teeth, concentrated, and searched through the Gene Spiral Tower. There weren't many fragments of healing abilities; he had only encountered similar fluctuations at the battle scenes of two Mutants before—one was an old man who could accelerate cell division, and the other was a girl who could make plants bloom instantly. Both pieces of data were very blurry, and piecing them together was like trying to glue broken glass back together.
But he had no choice.
"Let's give it a try." He muttered, pushing himself up with his hands and staggering a few steps to the center of the medical area. Palms up, eyes closed, he silently chanted in his mind: Give it your all!
At first, nothing happened.
Three seconds later, his palm suddenly felt warm, and a faint white light appeared, like the breathing light on a low-battery phone, flickering on and off. Sweat immediately broke out on his forehead; this thing was proving more difficult than he had expected.
"The range is too small," he said softly, switching to a diffused output. A ripple of light emanated from his palm, spreading out like water. The light circle swept over the first wounded man, whose twitching fingers suddenly stopped, and his breathing became more steady.
efficient!
Ye Mo had just breathed a sigh of relief when the white light suddenly trembled and almost went out. He quickly steadied his consciousness and regrouped his energy. This time, he didn't dare to spread it out too much at once, so he changed it to segmented pulses, releasing a wave every three seconds, covering three to four people.
A white light rippled outwards in concentric circles, like the scanning lines of an old-fashioned television set during startup. The wounded gradually quieted down, their wounds scabbed over at a visible speed, and some even opened their eyes.
" Mr. X?" a young male researcher murmured, his voice weak, "Was it you... who treated us?"
Ye Mo didn't reply, focusing entirely on maintaining his output. This ability was too unfamiliar; the chain would break if he was distracted even slightly, like trying to pick up tofu with chopsticks—it would easily break with the slightest pressure.
At that moment, Emma Frost entered through the side door, wearing a white lab coat and looking a little pale. She immediately noticed the light in Ye Mo's palm, paused, and then quickly stepped forward.
"Are you using your new ability?" She crouched down and put her hand on his shoulder.
Ye Mo nodded, his voice hoarse. "Don't touch me, I'm afraid I'll break."
Emma Frost immediately withdrew her hand, instead sitting cross-legged and closing her eyes to connect with a shallow Mind Stone connection. She didn't read thoughts, but only conveyed emotions—stability, security, and resilience.
But here's the problem.
Some of the wounded experienced intense negative emotions due to the excruciating pain, causing severe emotional fluctuations that disrupted her Sensor Net like signal interference. She frowned, her temples throbbed, and her eardrums buzzed.
"There's resistance." She gritted her teeth. "They're in pain, and they can't control their emotions."
"Then don't suppress it." Ye Mo took a deep breath. "Just send the thought 'you're still alive' to your mind, and ignore everything else."
Emma Frost nodded and adjusted her strategy. She no longer tried to suppress the panic, but instead, like sowing seeds, repeated over and over, "You're alive, you're alive, you're alive."
Gradually, the chaotic mental signals began to subside. A female researcher who had been convulsing before losing consciousness moved her lips and whispered, "Thank you... Mr. X."
Upon hearing the address, Ye Mo's heart skipped a beat, and the light in his palm nearly dissipated. He lowered his head to conceal it and increased the pulse frequency.
He knew Tony had given him this name privately, saying he was elusive and mysterious, like a secret investor. He never expected someone would actually call him that to his face.
He didn't want to be some Mr. X, but he didn't have time to explain now.
After the last wave of energy was released, the white light completely dissipated. Ye Mo's hands fell to his sides, his whole body exhausted, and his back slammed heavily against the experimental table. The surface of the Steel Bone had more cracks, and the Regeneration function was overloaded due to excessive use. A faint "buzzing" sound came from the joints, like a warning before the circuit burned out.
[ Group Healing ability has entered a cooldown period; estimated recovery time is unknown.]
The system notification flashed by quickly.
He grinned and muttered to himself, "Fine, one use and it's discarded, that's pretty environmentally friendly."
Looking up, all the wounded were breathing steadily and their vital signs were stable; the most seriously injured was already able to turn over on his own. The medical area fell silent, with only the ticking of the medical equipment.
Emma Frost opened her eyes, her face pale, but her gaze clear. She glanced at Ye Mo and said softly, "Are you crazy? Such a large area on your first try?"
"If I'm not crazy, who is?" Ye Mo smirked. "We can't let them die in this godforsaken place without even leaving a last word."
Emma Frost didn't reply, but silently got up, walked to a corner, sat down, and closed her eyes to regulate her breathing. She needed to recover her mental energy to be ready for the next round of support.
At the other end of the lab, Tony finally looked up from the control panel. He took off his goggles, rubbed his eyes, and his gaze swept over the medical area before settling on Ye Mo.
"Well done," he said.
Ye Mo leaned against the lab table, adjusted his cracked glasses, and chuckled, "Easier than blocking Rocket."
"That's because you didn't see how difficult things were on my end." Tony turned back to coding. "The core module is 96% loaded, the resistance chain waveform is basically stable, just the final encapsulation is needed. If you had died five minutes earlier, this armor would have had to be renamed ' Extremis Brotherhood Limited Edition'."
"Don't worry," Ye Mo breathed a sigh of relief, "I'd rather die after you, at least I can collect your corpse."
Neither of them laughed after they finished speaking.
The air was still for a few seconds. Sporadic explosions could still be heard in the distance, lights flickered, and sirens occasionally beeped, reminding us that the threat outside had not yet been eliminated.
But at this moment, there was a strange calm in the laboratory.
The wounded were asleep, Emma Frost was resting with her eyes closed, and Tony's keyboard clicked rhythmically and firmly. Ye Mo sat on the ground, his Steel Bone joints creaking, like an old machine barely functioning.
He looked down at his hands. That layer of white light, warm and soft, was unlike anything he had used before—the lightning, the Steel Bone, the Wall Phasing. It was... the light of salvation.
He wasn't used to it.
From childhood to adulthood, he was always an ordinary person who hid in the back row, copied answers during exams, and let his classmates go first when getting food in the cafeteria. After transmigrating, all he wanted was to survive, hiding whenever possible and getting by. But now, he's standing among a group of wounded people, using his hand to emit light and save lives, and is even being called " Mr. X ".
absurd.
But it's not that bad.
He flexed his wrists; the metallic scraping sound was exceptionally clear in the silence. Although his Steel Bone weren't fully repaired, although the system indicated an unknown cooldown time, and although countless Extremis Soldier were waiting to storm in—
But at least, the people here are still alive.
Tony suddenly clicked his tongue and stopped typing on the keyboard.
"What?" Ye Mo asked.
"The data encapsulation is stuck." Tony frowned. "The final verification failed; it seems a crucial parameter is missing."
Ye Mo tried to stand up, but the slightest movement caused him to wince in pain. His Steel Bone Regeneration system was overloaded, making even moving difficult.
Emma Frost opened her eyes, glanced at him, and then closed them again.
A brief silence fell over the laboratory.
In the distance, another muffled thud sounded, like a building collapsing. The lights flickered twice, then stabilized.
Ye Mo leaned against the lab table, his breathing heavy. He knew this was just a brief respite.
The crisis is still outside.
But at least now, they can still breathe.