The metallic scraping sound still echoed in his ear canal when Ye Mo's flame, which had just solidified, exploded at the opening.
Three dark figures surged out from the western pipe, their movements even more ferocious than the previous wave. They landed and immediately sprinted forward, their exoskeleton joints emitting a high-frequency hum, and the red lights on their chests flashing in the countdown phase. No one shouted, no one probed; they were purely there to exchange their lives.
" Emma Frost!" Ye Mo shouted the name as he lunged toward the nearest target—the assassin heading straight for the terminal. But the distance was too great, and his Regeneration abilities were still in the backlash phase, making his legs feel heavy, as if he were stepping on cement slurry.
The person was only four steps away from the control panel.
Bucky fired, the bullet hitting the exoskeleton's shoulder, jolting him to the side, but not stopping. Captain America swung his shield, lowering the arc, and struck the second man's knee. The man slid two meters on one knee, still reaching for Emma Frost's nape.
The third person crashed into Ye Mo at lightning speed.
Just as his fingertips were about to touch his chest, Ye Mo's mind went blank.
It wasn't a system notification sound; it was a deeper tremor, like the sudden snapping of gene chains.
He suddenly looked up, and his view changed.
The air felt like a stretched-out piece of chewing gum; the enemy's movements were a beat slower. It wasn't a visual illusion; the entire rhythm was sped up by 0.8 times. The frequency of the muscle twitches on the faces of the assassins rushing towards him was clearly visible, and the number of frames as beads of sweat rolled down their foreheads could be counted.
"Wait!" Ye Mo shouted in a low voice, as if his voice was being squeezed out from between his teeth.
This wasn't a command, it was an attempt. He didn't know what he was shouting, he just instinctively felt he should do it. The next second, he felt a tightness in his brain, as if a steel needle was pushing up his spine, and his temples throbbed wildly.
But it works.
The three assassins froze for a moment, like an old television screen freezing due to a poor signal. That brief pause, less than a second, was enough for everyone to react.
"Shield to the left! Emma Frost protect the brain! Bucky control the high ground! Natasha cut off the rear!" Captain America shouted crisply, not caring that his voice was cracking.
As soon as the words were spoken, actions followed.
Captain America's shield swept across, sending the assassins rushing towards Emma Frost flying and crashing against the wall with a dull thud. Emma Frost blinked, her mental energy surging down, instantly disrupting the three men—she didn't even dare to read minds anymore, purely creating a concussion-like mental shock. The three men's heads jerked, their movements faltering once more.
Bucky leaped onto the rubble, his mechanical arm locking onto the target's leg joint. He fired two shots, the bullets precisely severing the drive shaft. The man knelt, and the exoskeleton emitted a piercing alarm.
Black Widow rolled to the side, her dagger slipped from her hand, and her EMP head pierced the third person's back energy pack. The exoskeleton's power supply malfunctioned, the red lights flashed erratically, and the countdown stopped for a second before resuming.
The four worked together seamlessly, as if they had rehearsed a thousand times.
But as soon as his sense of time shifted, Ye Mo knelt down on the spot.
"Damn..." He knelt on one knee, pressed his left hand to his forehead, and a metallic smell rose in his nostrils. What he had just done wasn't just activating his abilities; it was more like plugging his brain into a high-speed reader like a USB drive, and now it was still smoking when he pulled it out.
The flames were extinguished, but the Regeneration backlash hadn't subsided. New and old wounds piled up together. A dull, jagged pain came from my ribs, and the skin on my left hand began to turn gray, cracking and oozing blood.
"How are you?" Captain America rushed over and helped him up.
"It's nothing." Ye Mo waved his hand, his voice hoarse like sandpaper grinding against a wall, "Just that next time someone wants me to be their alarm clock, they'd better charge it beforehand."
Captain America didn't laugh, but his gaze hardened. He knew this move was no simple feat; slowing down an enemy at that speed was no ordinary ability.
"Can we do it again?" he asked.
"One more time? I can't even convince my own legs to stay upright right now." Ye Mo gasped for breath. "I don't know how long it will take to cool down, but if I use it again now, I'm afraid I'll have a stroke on the spot."
"That's enough." Captain America patted him on the shoulder. "Once is enough."
Over there, Emma Frost leaned against the broken wall, her Diamond Form barely erect, her entire body as white as paper, her lips blue. The mental shock she had just experienced had almost completely drained her; she didn't even have the strength to lift a finger.
"I... can still hold on." She spoke softly, but her posture didn't falter.
Bucky leaped from the platform, the mechanical arm's cooling fan humming, the overheat warning just gone. He glanced at the three assassins; two were restrained, one was still struggling, the exoskeleton's power was unstable, and the red light flickered.
"The detonator wasn't removed," he said.
Black Widow had already reached the terminal. The screen restarted, and the progress bar was still loading, unchanged at 78%. She crouched down, a dagger pressed against the last assassin's neck, her voice as cold as ice. "Tell me the decryption code, or I'll slit your throat and let you watch yourself explode."
The man grinned, blood seeping from his teeth. " Hydra... eternal."
"Oh, a classic line." Ye Mo stood up, leaning against the wall, wiping away the blood from his nose. "Could you use a different line? Like, something more down-to-earth, like 'My mom's calling me home for dinner.'"
Nobody picked up on the joke.
The atmosphere was too tense.
Ye Mo knew this wasn't the right time to tell jokes, but he just couldn't help it. He tended to talk nonsense when he was nervous, a habit he'd developed since his transmigration.
He looked down at his left hand; the cracks were still spreading, and blood dripped from between his fingers. The Regeneration system was desperately trying to repair it, but the new flesh was being torn apart by some internal force as soon as it grew, as if his body was protesting overclocking.
"We have to stop them," he whispered. "The countdown is starting."
As soon as the words were spoken, the third assassin's exoskeleton suddenly burst into flames, the red light flashed three times, and the final countdown began: five, four, three—
"Smoke!" Ye Mo suddenly raised his hand, and a stream of low-heat fire shot out from his palm, not towards anyone, but sweeping along the ground towards the oil stains. The fire flared up, and thick smoke rose up, instantly obscuring vision.
Black Widow seized the opportunity to roll, her dagger slicing through the cable and cutting off the power supply. The explosive device malfunctioned, and the countdown stopped at "two".
On the other side, Bucky fired a finishing shot to destroy the detonator, and Captain America's shield struck the last assassin in the chest, pinning him to the wall. The man struggled twice, then went still.
The crisis has been temporarily averted.
The four people stood back to back in a fan-shaped formation, their breathing erratic, but their formation remained intact.
Ye Mo knelt on the edge of the fire line, the cracks on his left hand still unhealed, his head buzzing. He looked up at Emma Frost, who was leaning against the broken wall on the second floor, her Diamond Form still intact, but her eyes were already somewhat unfocused.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"I can hold on." Her voice was weak, but she didn't collapse.
Captain America stood in the center, shield slung back behind his back, his right arm scraped and bleeding, a hole burned in his sleeve. He glanced around, making sure no one was seriously injured, before speaking, "There won't be just these few. They'll come again, and faster."
"Let them come." Bucky reloaded, the robotic arm clicking to lock on. "This time I'll lead the charge."
"I don't object." Black Widow picked up the terminal; the screen was cracked, but the data was still running. "But I suggest we don't wait for them to crawl out next time."
"The problem is, we don't know where they'll come from." Ye Mo caught his breath and tried to stand up. "The L-7 signal is down; the mole might have changed channels. We're like fighting blindfolded now, relying entirely on our ears."
"Then listen to the time," Captain America said. "You guys get ready, I'll keep watch."
No one objected.
Ye Mo sat down against the wall, closed his eyes, and regulated his breathing. He could feel the 19th floor of the " Gene Spiral Tower " still vibrating slightly, and the fragment of "time perception + combat prediction" was like a light bulb that had just been turned on, its heat still lingering. He knew that this ability could still be used, but at a great cost.
Emma Frost caught her breath, maintaining her Diamond Form like an unyielding statue.
Black Widow crouched behind cover, her fingers sliding across the keyboard. The terminal progress bar finally moved: 79%.
On the high platform above the Bucky, gun barrels were pointed at the dark corridor, and wisps of smoke rose from the cooling vents of the robotic arms.
Captain America stood at the front line, his gaze unwavering.
Ye Mo opened his eyes and saw that the blood marks on his left hand were slowly healing, as if an invisible hand was tracing them back stroke by stroke.
He didn't say anything, he just put his hands in his pockets.
The wind rushed in through the broken window, causing the ash on the scorched earth to swirl. From deep within the pipes in the distance, came a very faint metallic scraping sound.