The spaceship continued to drift forward, and the Earth outside the porthole appeared larger than before, its blue almost blinding. Ye Mo leaned back in the co-pilot's seat, his fingers unconsciously tapping the armrest, the questions he had just reviewed still lingering in his mind.
Emma Frost sat in front of the navigation console, lightly tapping the screen to review the combat data from earlier. Thor walked over from the rear cabin, carrying a can of juice he'd somehow found. He twisted it open, took a sip, and his eyebrows twitched from the sourness.
"You guys say we need to change our tactics," he said, crumpling the can and tossing it into the recycling bin, "But I don't think we have that much time to calculate things during a fight. The enemy won't wait for you to finish making a list before charging in."
Ye Mo raised his eyes. "I didn't ask you to make a PowerPoint presentation. I want to figure out when to make a move and how to coordinate to avoid fighting."
"I'm just worried you'll be too focused on the rhythm, and then you'll yell 'three, two, one, fire!' only to have the enemy explode two seconds early." Thor shrugged. "There are too many variables on the battlefield; relying on intuition is more reliable."
Emma Frost suddenly spoke up, "Actually, neither of you is entirely wrong." She turned around, her eyes calm. " Ye Mo's problem lies in relying on trial and error, but his approach is correct—the use of abilities must follow a pattern. Thor's intuition is indeed quick, but he overlooked one point: so-called 'feelings' are essentially rapid judgments based on accumulated information."
Thor scratched his head. "So you're on his side?"
"I mean," Emma Frost paused, "I can offer you a middle ground."
She raised her hand, and a mental image appeared in her palm—the moment before Malekith launched his resonance attack during the previous melee. In the image, the Dark Elves leader's eye twitched, his breathing rate changed by half a beat, and the energy fluctuation in his chest reached an abnormal peak 0.8 seconds earlier.
"That's his emotional reaction when he's preparing his ultimate move," Emma Frost said. "His anger spikes, his need for control intensifies, and his subconscious betrays his attack intentions. I broke his chain during the third wave of suppression because, in that instant, a memory of being belittled by his father in his childhood flashed through his mind, and his emotional outburst was so intense that it almost knocked me unconscious."
Ye Mo stared at the video. "So, you didn't rely on guessing, you relied on reading?"
"To be precise, it's 'prediction'." Emma Frost withdrew her hand. "Just as a doctor can diagnose a patient by listening to their heartbeat, I can identify an enemy's behavioral patterns through their mental fluctuations. This isn't magic; it's data analysis."
Thor was stunned. "So when you saw me kneeling in the rain, it was because he had that scene playing in his head?"
"Right."
"It's not that I'm embarrassed, it's that he secretly put it there?"
"His own memory is confused, polluting his battlefield awareness field."
Thor breathed a sigh of relief and slapped his thigh, "This is interesting! So this is how you play a fight? Does that mean you can know what the enemy will do next?"
"The premise is that the target is emotionally unstable." Emma Frost nodded. "This method has limited effectiveness against purely mechanical attacks or completely calm assassins. But it's most likely to expose weaknesses in someone as arrogant and obsessive as Malekith."
Ye Mo pondered for a moment, "So you're saying that information acquisition efficiency determines reaction speed?"
"That's right." Emma Frost looked at him. "When you risked ' Regenerative Phasing,' if you had known he was going to use Black Flame Erosion two seconds earlier, you could have activated the Self-Healing module in advance and wouldn't have almost burned yourself to a crisp."
Ye Mo touched his shoulder, where burn marks were still visible. "The problem is, I don't have your skills. I can't expect you to report the time every time, can I?"
"You can get information in different ways," Emma Frost said, "Like—perceiving rhythm."
She looked at Thor: "Why is there a delay in your lightning release? Is it really because the ground is slippery?"
Thor grinned. "Okay, I admit... part of it was because I didn't time the energy storage nodes well."
"Node?" Ye Mo raised an eyebrow.
"The lightning within the hammer pulsates." Thor summoned Mjolnir to his palm, gently stroking the handle. "It's not like a switch, where you just press it and electricity comes out. It's more like... a heartbeat. You have to feel its rhythm, and only when it hits its strongest beat can you unleash the most devastating blow."
As he spoke, he extended his hands to the two of them. "Want to give it a try?"
Ye Mo hesitated for a second, then reached out and placed his hand on the side of the hammer. Emma Frost followed suit.
At first there was nothing, but three seconds later, a low-frequency vibration came from inside the metal, like a steady heartbeat, one beat after another, slow and powerful.
"Did you feel it?" Thor asked. "Every vibration is a process of energy accumulation. If you act too quickly, you won't have enough power; if you act too late, the energy will backfire."
Ye Mo closed his eyes and pondered, "It's a bit like warming up an engine; you have to wait until the RPMs reach the redline before shifting gears."
"More or less," Thor chuckled. "So those two missed strikes weren't entirely accidental. One time I was in a rush, releasing the energy after the seventh strike; the other time I waited too long, the eighth strike went too far, and the energy was all over the place."
Emma Frost opened her eyes. "So your 'intuition' is actually muscle memory and rhythm control developed through long-term training?"
"You could say that," Thor said, putting away his hammer. "But I can't teach you the specifics of how to practice; you'll have to figure it out for yourselves."
Ye Mo sat up straight. "But what if we could combine your 'sense of rhythm' with Emma Frost's 'predictive logic'?"
"How so?" Emma Frost asked.
"Suppose you tell me in advance that the enemy is about to unleash a powerful attack, I'll know that the next few seconds are the critical window; at that moment, I'll combine that with Thor's rhythm model to deliver my ability's output at the highest point of his hammer strike—for example, detonating the Fire Core the instant his lightning burst spreads, creating a chain reaction of attacks."
Thor's eyes lit up. "That sounds pretty ruthless."
"The key is timing," Ye Mo gestured. "If your rhythm is eight beats per cycle, Emma Frost can give me the signal on the seventh and a half beat, I can start on the eighth beat, achieving a seamless transition."
Emma Frost for a moment. "I can compress the mental signal and only transmit the countdown and threat level. For example, 'Three seconds, high risk,' or 'Interrupt now.' This way, it won't overload and will also ensure the accuracy of the information."
"Then you need to practice," Thor said, pointing at her. "Don't end up yelling 'now' when you're not even ready yourself."
"Then you need to speed things up," Emma Frost replied casually. "Don't always say 'It'll be ready soon,' and then make me wait three seconds."
The two looked at each other and smiled simultaneously.
Ye Mo looked at them and suddenly said, "How about we simulate it now?"
"Here?" Thor looked around. "Not even a target."
"We don't need targets." Ye Mo closed his eyes. "We're just rehearsing the process. Emma Frost will be the commander, you'll be responsible for the rhythm output, and I'll handle the skill coordination. We won't lift a finger; it'll all be based on synchronized awareness."
Thor became interested. "Alright, let me see just how far you mortals can go in terms of mental collaboration."
Emma Frost didn't speak, but her fingertips lifted slightly, indicating she was getting into the zone.
Three seconds later, her voice rang in their minds, concise and clear. "A high-threat attack will occur in seven seconds."
Ye Mo immediately entered anticipation mode, focusing his attention on Thor.
Thor closed his eyes, placed his palms on the hammer handle, and began to feel the internal vibrations.
Five seconds.
The vibration frequency began to increase.
Four seconds.
The pace quickened, like a racing heartbeat.
Three seconds.
Ye Mo mobilized the Fire Core fragments within the Gene Spiral Tower, and preparations were complete.
Two seconds.
Thor frowned slightly, seemingly waiting for the perfect moment.
One second.
The vibration reached its peak--
"Now!"
Thor opened his eyes and growled, "Draw your hammer!"
At the same instant, Ye Mo activated the Fire Core detonation command he had envisioned, imagining the flames spreading along the trajectory of the lightning, creating a secondary explosion.
Emma Frost opened her eyes. "Stop."
The cabin returned to quiet.
The three looked at each other, but no one spoke.
A few seconds later, Thor grinned. "That last wave... went pretty smoothly."
"There was almost no delay." Emma Frost nodded. "From the signal being sent to your responses, the total time was 1.2 seconds, with an error margin of less than 0.3 seconds."
"What does this mean?" Thor asked.
"That means," Ye Mo said slowly, "That if we can solidify this process, we can reduce coordination errors by at least half in actual combat."
He paused, then said, "Next time, you don't need to worry about whether the ground is slippery or not. Just follow her instructions and smash it when the time comes. I don't need to rely on my skills on the spot; I just need to prepare a plan in advance."
Thor stroked his chin. "Sounds... a lot more interesting than me swinging the hammer alone."
Emma Frost scoffed, "At least no one will get struck by lightning again."
"That's a tactical decoy!"
"The crack you created was one you made yourself."
Ye Mo smiled and shook his head, "In short, this path is feasible. It's not a matter of choosing between scheming and intuition; we can combine the two."
He leaned back in his chair, took off his glasses, and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "From now on, in team battles, you'll be our metronome, Emma Frost will be the early warning system, and I'll be the unlucky guy responsible for starting the fire."
"Then what are you?" Thor asked Emma Frost.
"Logistics manager and psychologist," she said expressionlessly, "After all, someone has to prevent you two from arguing to the point of dismantling the spaceship."
The three of them burst out laughing at the same time.
As the laughter subsided, the spaceship gave a slight jolt, and the green light on the main control panel flashed: progress 91%, approximately six hours remaining to Earth.
Ye Mo didn't speak again, closing his eyes to organize every detail of the simulation. Emma Frost lowered her head to record the mental signal transmission parameters on the screen, while Thor reclined on the back cabin bench, one hand on Mjolnir, a smile on his lips, as if he had already dreamed of how to fight the next battle.
Outside the porthole, the Earth hung there silently, drawing ever closer.