The red light, like the flickering screen of an old graphics card overloaded, shone on the three people's faces. Ye Mo lay on the ground, the Steel Bone in his right leg still oozing black oil, dripping onto the bottom of the drain. The sound was so soft it was almost inaudible, but each drop felt like a tap on his own nerves. He didn't move or make a sound, but simply rested his left hand against the wall, the newly Regeneration skin on his fingertips tinged with gray, and gently rubbed the wall to confirm that the wall's pulsating rhythm hadn't changed.
Emma Frost leaned against him on the left, her breathing extremely shallow, her silver hair plastered to her forehead, and the wound under her nose had reopened a little, but she didn't even wipe it. Thor crouched at the back, Mjolnir held horizontally in front of him, the Hammerhead grounded, the current shrinking into a thin line, slowly crawling across the metal surface.
No one spoke.
Above you is a platform, with seven stone pillars forming a circle. In the center, a Red Fog mass slowly rotates, like a heart that has been dug out and is still alive. With each rotation, the air vibrates, and your head buzzes, as if someone is gently tapping the back of your head with a small hammer.
Ye Mo blinked, and his gaze lingered for only two seconds longer before the mist suddenly twisted slightly, and ripples of red light spread out, as if it had sensed something.
"Don't look directly at it," he whispered, his voice even lower than a whisper. "It will sense it."
Emma Frost closed her eyes, and Mental Scan quietly began. She didn't use her sight, but instead used her consciousness as a probe, scanning the circle of runes inch by inch. The runes were carved on the stone pillar; they weren't dead, they were alive—the lines would wriggle, pulsate like blood vessels, and the energy flow would change the direction of the main pulse every three minutes.
"The one in the southeast corner is the weakest," she telepathically transmitted, the information directly into their minds. "It has the most energy diversion and the least structural load. But the runes are interconnected; if one breaks, the other six will immediately fill the gap."
Thor squinted. "So, smashing one is equivalent to alerting the other six 'someone's coming'?"
"Almost." Ye Mo touched the remnant of the reflective film in his pocket, took out a small piece, and used the red light reflection to draw a rough model on the ground. "We won't force it. We'll destroy the supporting structure first, make it tilt, but not collapse."
"Which one?" Thor asked.
"Under that pillar in the southeast corner, there's a load-bearing beam." Ye Mo pointed to the ground with his fingertip. "It's the thinnest, buried shallowly, and right above the drainage ditch. I'll crawl in, use Regenerative Phasing to cut a section, and make it tilt unbalanced. As long as the vibration amplitude is controlled, the upper sensing wires won't be triggered."
Thor frowned. "What if the whole thing collapses? This place isn't like Tony's basement, where you can just call someone to fix it if it collapses."
"No." Ye Mo shook his head. "I've calculated it. This ship is alive; its structure has a self-repairing mechanism. It would rather deform locally than allow a large area of the core to collapse. It's like when someone injures their finger; you can't cut off the whole arm just to stop the bleeding."
Emma Frost opened her eyes. "The problem is, once the magic circle becomes unbalanced, the runes will automatically activate the defense protocol. I just sensed an energy accumulation reaction, like some kind of chain reaction mechanism."
"Then we'll race against time," Ye Mo said. "While I'm cutting the structure, you keep an eye on the guards' brainwaves and find the moment their attention is most relaxed. As soon as the device tilts, Thor immediately swings his hammer to smash the runes, interrupting the energy cycle. As long as the runes stop for even a second, I'll rush in and grab the Aether."
Thor scoffed, "Sounds like blowing up a bank vault and having to get out before the alarm goes off."
"Essentially the same." Ye Mo grinned, dried blood still clinging to his teeth. "The difference is we weren't wearing bulletproof vests, and we didn't have a getaway car."
"You're quite humorous," Emma Frost said softly, "At a time like this."
"I'm not being humorous, I'm just relieving stress." Ye Mo moved his left arm; the Regeneration was almost complete, but the neural interface was still a little numb. "If you don't believe me, why don't you try drilling through the wall later?"
"No," Emma Frost said, closing her eyes. "I'll handle the early warning."
Thor stared at the Red Fog: "You say 'race against time,' but how long will it take you to cut the structure? How long will it take me to swing the hammer? What if we can't connect properly?"
"The error cannot exceed 0.3 seconds," Ye Mo said. "So you have to wait for my signal. I'll flash the electric arc twice when I cut the last connection. Smash it when you see it."
"An electric arc?" Thor looked at his fingertips. "You can barely stand, how can you precisely control the output?"
"No," Ye Mo admitted, "But I can set the Lightning Control to the lowest setting beforehand, letting it maintain a stable output on its own. It's like a water heater; you set the temperature, plug it in, and it's good to go."
Thor was silent for a few seconds. "Your system... really is a general store."
"It'll do." Ye Mo carefully put the reflective film away. "It could be a lifesaver in a pinch."
The three fell silent again. The red light continued to flicker, and the guards stood motionless at the four corners, like four Obsidian statues. The metallic rust smell mixed with the high temperature in the air made their throats dry.
Ye Mo glanced down at his right leg. The oil seepage from the Steel Bone had slowed down a bit, but it wasn't a big problem. He tried to move his toes—they were useless. But it didn't matter; this job didn't require walking.
Time passed little by little.
Six and a half minutes.
There are six and a half minutes left before the next high-frequency fence shutdown.
Sufficient to make plans, but not enough to relax.
Thor's fingers unconsciously rubbed the hammer handle; the lightning energy had been compressed for too long, and his fingertips began to go numb. He noticed this, and gently flicked his hand, a wisp of electricity escaping before being quickly suppressed.
Emma Frost's Mental Barrier fluctuated by milliseconds, like a poorly connected Wi-Fi signal that flickered and then recovered. She immediately adjusted her breathing rhythm and lowered her metabolic rate to prevent her thought signals from leaking out.
Ye Mo then activated some pain feedback. The dull pain from the Steel Bone in his right leg felt like a saw, grinding against his nerves. But he didn't block it out; instead, he kept the pain conscious.
"Tell me," he suddenly spoke, his voice so soft it was as if he didn't want to wake someone, "If we fail, will Tony erect a monument for us?"
Emma Frost didn't even lift her eyelids. "You've been wanted three times already, and he's still managed to get you out every single time, hasn't he?"
"That was before," Ye Mo laughed. "This time is different. This time we're breaking into someone's lair and stealing their ancestral treasure. No matter how powerful Tony is, he can't save a dead man."
Thor scoffed. "At least one more thing should be added—'They could have lived longer.'"
"I think we should write, 'Three idiots are buried here. Cause of death: excessive curiosity,'" Ye Mo said. "And add a QR code so they can scan it to watch our final video."
Emma Frost smiled slightly, said nothing, but her tense shoulders relaxed a little.
The atmosphere eased a little.
But this ease comes and goes quickly. Six and a half minutes is too long, long enough for muscles to stiffen, for attention to wander, and for every tiny movement to become dangerous.
Ye Mo stared at the stone pillar in the southeast corner, running through the process in his mind: crawl into the wall, find the load-bearing beam, use Regenerative Phasing to slowly cut, control the vibration, flash the electric arc twice, wait for Thor to swing his hammer, and then—charge.
It cannot be wrong.
One wrong step, and the whole game is lost.
He raised his hand, his fingertips beginning to blur, his Healing Factor fully activated, ready to enter " Regenerative Phasing " mode at any moment. The wall's pulsation remained unchanged, the same as before.
Emma Frost closed her eyes, her mental energy sinking into the guardian's brainwaves to monitor their consciousness fluctuations. The four of them had brainwaves as regular as machines, without emotional fluctuations or lapses in concentration, as if they were being uniformly controlled by something.
Thor gripped his hammer tightly, compressing his lightning energy to its limit, waiting only for the command.
There are three minutes left.
Ye Mo took a deep breath and turned up the pain level. The dull pain in his right leg immediately became clear, like nails being driven into the bone. Relying on this pain, he fixed his attention on the pillar in the southeast corner.
We can't wait any longer.
The plan is set, the division of labor is clear, all that's missing is the right opportunity.
He slowly raised his hand, his fingertips already half-transparent, merging into the wall's surface like water vapor. He would simply wait for the next fault line to arrive before cutting into the wall and beginning the first stage of destruction.
Emma Frost noticed his movement and slightly tightened her Mental Barrier to protect his nerve signals.
Thor slightly raised the tip of his hammer, and lightning energy condensed into a point of blue light at the Hammerhead, ready to erupt at any moment.
The three held their breath.
A red light flashed.
The guards stood silent.
The Aether rotated slowly, like a heart that refused to sleep.
Ye Mo opened his eyes, his gaze fixed on the support pillar in the southeast corner, and his fingers slowly sank into the wall plaster.