The tissues inside the container turned towards them, as if they had spotted some prey.
Ye Mo didn't move, but his palms were already wet. It wasn't sweat, it was cold, creeping down his arm along the lines of his palm. He stared at the pulsating thing, the green liquid spinning faster and faster, a layer of fine foam rising to the surface, like water before it boiled. Tony's scanner was still beeping, beep, beep, beep, the frequency increasing.
"Vital signs have exceeded the threshold." Tony's voice was low. "It's about to explode."
Ye Mo opened his mouth as if to say something, but his throat was so dry that he couldn't make a sound. The Lightning Control had taken a heavy toll, and his head was now throbbing with pain, as if someone was hammering nails into it. His Steel Bone Transformation arm had mostly regressed, with only his fingertips remaining somewhat hard, feeling like frozen wire to the touch.
But then the system suddenly beeped.
[Can activate Ice Manipulation Ability to freeze virus-infected devices.]
The voice was flat and emotionless, as natural as an alarm clock ringing in the morning. But Ye Mo almost burst out laughing—this thing was usually like it was dead, but it knew to jump out and save the day when it mattered most.
Without much thought, he closed his eyes and drilled into the seventh level of the " Gene Spiral Tower." There, sealed was a gene chain he had snatched from the battlefield where Storm had fought. He had simply absorbed it casually without even trying it out. Now, looking at it, the name was quite straightforward: Cryogenic Manipulation - Beginner Fragment.
Okay, let's try anything, even if it's a long shot.
He raised both hands forward, like pushing an air cannon, palms facing the container. At first, he didn't feel anything, just felt like a fool, gesturing here. But three seconds later, a chill shot up from his spine, rushed down his shoulder blades into his arms, and a layer of frost instantly appeared on his skin, turning his fingertips white.
"Holy crap, it's really here?" he muttered under his breath.
The next second, he thrust out with both palms.
A blast of extremely cold air swept out with a "whoosh," like the white mist that billows out when you open the Fridge door in winter, but much more powerful. It formed a ring of frost that rolled outwards along the ground. When it hit the lab bench, the metal surface froze instantly; when it struck the electrical connector, the sparks were extinguished with a "sizzle"; and when it reached the central container, the glass outer wall cracked with a "crack," and a layer of ice, about an inch thick, quickly covered the entire surface.
The green liquid slowed its rotation.
The pulsation frequency of the tissue decreased from once every seven seconds to once every ten seconds, then to fifteen seconds... and finally almost stopped. The foam disappeared, the light dimmed, and the entire container seemed to have been paused, so quiet that you could hear the faint "creaking" sound of the ice layer contracting.
The equipment area also fell silent.
The alarm lights stopped flashing, the screen went completely black, and even the previously humming power supply units stopped. The pipes that had been crackling and Mars were now encased in ice, hanging silently on the wall. The temperature in the entire laboratory plummeted, and even breathing produced white vapor.
Tony looked down at the frost on his armor, then looked up at Ye Mo's hands, which were still radiating cold air. He paused for two seconds, then suddenly smiled, "Your ability... is crucial."
Ye Mo didn't reply, his arm went limp and he almost knelt down. That move just now looked cool, but it actually took half his life. His head was throbbing even more, his vision was blurring, and his ears were ringing. He leaned against the centrifuge to catch his breath, his left hand unconsciously touching the frozen container wall to confirm that the freezing effect was still in place.
"Don't praise me," he said breathlessly, "Praise can easily backfire."
Just as Tony was about to retort, the ventilation duct on the east side suddenly exploded with a "bang".
It didn't crack slowly; it exploded outright. The metal grilles were torn away like pieces of paper, and a wave of heat, accompanied by black smoke, rushed in, melting a ring of ice nearby. Then, a figure leaped from the gap, landing as lightly as a cat, radiating a scorching aura that distorted even the air itself.
Tony reacted extremely quickly, taking a step to the side and blocking Ye Mo's path. His armor automatically switched to defensive mode, the shoulder cannons slowly rose, and his mask glowed red as he scanned the opponent.
"Oh, finally decided to show your face?" He said casually, as if bumping into an old acquaintance at a bar. "Your stun gun crew won't last more than a few minutes."
The man didn't answer, but slowly removed his gloves, revealing his right hand—the skin was charred and cracked, the veins glowing red, like red-hot wires buried in the flesh. Then he removed his mask, revealing a face crisscrossed with scars, his right eye surrounded by creases left by burns, and a corner of his left ear missing.
Aldrich Killian.
He stood in the shadows in the southeast corner, holding a high-frequency vibrating gun in his hand, the muzzle flashing red light, steadily aimed at Ye Mo.
"Freeze?" he spoke, his voice hoarse like sandpaper grinding iron. "It's just a false alarm, delaying death." A slight twitch at the corner of his mouth, not quite a smile, "This virus was meant to be reborn in flames."
Ye Mo leaned against the equipment table, his right hand quietly sliding towards his outer thigh—the activation point for Lightning Control was still active, and the cooldown time had long passed; the question was whether he could strike before the gun fired. He stared into Killian's eyes, his throat dry, but his voice remained steady. "You've been waiting for this moment for a long time, haven't you? Watching us desperately save the day, and then you come out to reap the rewards?"
"Harvest?" Killian sneered. "I'm here to witness the birth of a new world." He took a step forward, and white smoke hissed up from the concrete beneath his feet, clearly from the evaporation of moisture caused by his overheated body. "You think turning off one machine can stop evolution? How naive."
Tony locked onto his target with his shoulder cannon, his tone still nonchalant. "Then tell me, what exactly does this 'evolution' look like? Just that green heart model inside? I suggest hiring a better designer next time."
"It's not a model," Killian said, his eyes darkening. "It's the starting point. The perfect vessel born from seven failed attempts. What you just froze wasn't just equipment—it's the future."
Ye Mo's head was throbbing, but he understood one thing: this guy wasn't afraid of them ruining the experiment at all. In fact, he might even... be hoping they would come.
His left hand was still pressed against the ice, and he could feel the mass of tissue inside, though motionless, still trembling slightly, like a frozen snake writhing in its dream. He suddenly realized—this frozen state wouldn't last much longer. The heat source was right in front of him, the temperature was rising steadily, and the edges of the ice had already begun to melt.
" Tony," he whispered.
"Um?"
"I'll make my move later, don't worry about me, shoot him first."
Do you have a plan?
"No, it's all about brute force."
Tony paused for a second, then said, "I like it."
Killian had clearly heard him, and his sneer deepened, "It's truly admirable that you two can still crack jokes before you die." He raised his concussion rifle, the muzzle flash turning a blinding orange. "Too bad, you won't get a chance to say a third one."
As soon as he finished speaking, the gun barrel was locked onto Ye Mo's brow.
The air was tense.
Ye Mo rubbed the activation point with his fingertips, his muscles tense, waiting for that moment of explosive release. He knew that once this weapon fired, its speed far exceeded the limits of human reaction, and the only way to survive was to interrupt the firing rhythm first—either through speed or through interference.
But just as he was about to exert his strength, he suddenly felt something strange in his left hand.
Inside the ice, the mass of tissue shuddered violently.
It wasn't throbbing, it was twitching, as if it had been stimulated by something. Then, a crack appeared on the ice surface, and green liquid seeped out, quickly solidifying into a gel at the low temperature, but still flowing slowly.
Ye Mo's pupils contracted.
This thing... isn't quite dead yet.
Moreover, it senses the outside world.
He suddenly remembered what Tony had said earlier—"It's waiting for us."
It's not about waiting for a signal.
It's about waiting for these two high-energy individuals to get close, acting as a trigger.
Now they've not only come, but they've also built an ice shell for it, essentially putting it in a high-pressure insulated box. With the external heat source approaching and the internal metabolism continuing, this combination of ice and heat might actually accelerate its activation process.
" Tony!" he roared, "Don't let it keep absorbing heat! Find a way to cool it down!"
"What did you say?" Tony turned around. "Wasn't it already frozen?"
"It can't freeze! It's adapting!"
Upon hearing this, Killian didn't panic; instead, he smiled, "You're right. It's adapting—and you're helping it complete its final tempering."
He raised his wrist, and the concussion gun was fully charged, its muzzle flashing brightly.
Without further hesitation, Ye Mo pushed off the ground with his right leg and lunged forward.
But just then, the overhead lights suddenly went out.
The emergency lights didn't turn on either.
The entire laboratory was plunged into darkness for a brief moment.
Only a faint green light shone through the cracks in the ice, casting flickering shadows on the three people's faces.
The red light scanning system of the Tony armor activated automatically, drawing two beams of light in the darkness. Killian's figure swayed in the light, his gun still steadily pointed at Ye Mo.
Ye Mo didn't move; his hand remained pressed against the ice.
He could feel the tremor growing stronger.
It was as if something was awakening from the depths.