When Ye Mo opened his eyes, it was still dark. The light from the monitor screen reflected on his glasses, making them look like two reflective stickers. He moved his wrists, and the residual heat from his palms, which had been like burning iron, had mostly dissipated, leaving only a slightly numb sensation, as if he had been playing mobile games for ten hours straight last night.
Emma Frost was still leaning against the control panel, her shoulders pressed against the back of the chair, her eyes closed, her breathing so even it could be used as a metronome. She wasn't awake, but her Mental Network was still floating— Ye Mo could feel that thin stream of consciousness, like a static film covering the entire base. He knew that as soon as someone with an irregular heartbeat appeared within thirty meters, this girl would immediately spring to life.
"You've had your eyes open for three minutes," Emma Frost suddenly said, without opening her eyes. "Staring at the back of my head won't make any flowers grow."
"How could I dare?" Ye Mo took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I just wanted to make sure your Mental Network didn't suddenly disconnect. Last time you dozed off, even a mouse crawling into the armory triggered a level three alarm."
"That's because you mistook rats for Hydra agents." She finally opened her eyes, raising a hand to tidy her bangs. "The network's stable, the error is less than half a second. But you, how much of your Scanning Wave has been recovered?"
"About 70%." He put his glasses back on and stretched his neck. "After using the power-saving mode for so long, my brain feels a bit numb, like when I'm pulling an all-nighter to finish a paper."
The words had barely left his mouth when footsteps came from the entrance of the passage. Captain America, dressed in his training uniform with a towel draped over his shoulder and a water bottle in his hand, walked over and immediately sat up when he saw Ye Mo: "Awake?"
"Forced to operate." Ye Mo grinned. "The system says if I don't train, my abilities will degenerate into 'automatic shutdown'."
"There's no system." Captain America placed the water bottle on the table. "It's because you don't want to let your guard down."
Ye Mo shrugged and didn't reply. Of course he knew there was no system notification sound—that thing was just an excuse he used to shift the blame. But being thick-skinned made life easier. Who told him to stumble upon the plot point of Tony being kidnapped on his very first day after transmigrating? If he didn't act mysterious, he would have been dissected into experimental subjects long ago.
Captain America didn't say much, turned and walked to the center of the fighting area, clapped his hands twice. "Everyone's here, training resumes."
Hearing the commotion from the observation window above, Black Widow tightened the last screw, the gun clicked into place, and casually slung it over her shoulder before jumping off the platform. Bucky also emerged from the maintenance bay; the robotic arm interface flashed a green light, indicating the energy-saving mode had been disengaged. He wasn't fully awake yet, his eyes still somewhat vacant.
"How many hours did you two sleep last night?" Ye Mo asked as he walked over.
"Two hours." Black Widow smirked. "I've been dreaming about cleaning my gun."
"I dreamt I was cooking," Bucky rubbed his temples, "Serving spaghetti to a bunch of robots in uniforms."
"Psychological trauma." Ye Mo nodded. "I suggest adding a ketchup bomb to your dream next time."
"Shut up." Bucky raised his hand as if to punch him, but Captain America stopped him with a look.
"Today we'll practice blind control." Captain America stopped, hanging his shield back on his back. "Visual shielding, relying solely on hearing, anticipation, and teamwork. Five rounds of sparring, three minutes each. The goal isn't to win, but to avoid hitting your teammates."
Everyone nodded silently. This kind of training is the most grueling—you can't see, you have to rely entirely on your brain to remember the positions, rhythm, and breathing frequency. If you lose focus, you might bump into something, or even get injured.
The first round was Bucky versus Black Widow. The two stood still, put on their blindfolds, and the arena lights dimmed instantly. Ye Mo and Emma Frost retreated to the outside of the isolation zone and watched through the reinforced glass.
At first, things were relatively stable, with footwork staggered and punches and kicks probing. At the thirtieth second, Black Widow suddenly took a step back, her boot heel hitting the ground with a rebounding sound. Bucky immediately turned to the left and swept his leg across, just three centimeters away from grazing her side.
"Beautiful," Ye Mo said softly.
But by the second minute, the rhythm was disrupted. Black Widow changed her moves too quickly, her footwork was unpredictable, and Bucky's mechanical arm was delayed by half a second, unable to react in time, and directly collided with her Feint, the two of them twisting and falling to the ground.
"Did you do this on purpose?" Bucky removed his blindfold and stared at her.
"I didn't know you relied so much on auto-lock," Black Widow shrugged. "I thought you could predict it."
"I anticipated your predictions, but I didn't anticipate that you would even fake your breathing."
"Then practice until you can predict their movements." Captain America walked over. "Next round, change the combination."
Next, Ye Mo and Emma Frost tested the accuracy of their Telepathy. They stood in the target area thirty meters away, with a signal jamming curtain set up in the middle—simulating a real combat environment where enemy and friendly forces were mixed and signals were chaotic.
"You need to help me calibrate." Emma Frost stopped, closed her eyes, and said, "I can detect heartbeats now, but I can't tell which one is the imposter."
"Okay." Ye Mo activated the Scanning Wave, covering the entire field at low power. "I'll give you real-time feedback; you adjust the sensing frequency."
She nodded, her mental energy slowly spreading out. Ye Mo immediately sensed it—the third target from the left had a fast heartbeat, the second from the right a slow one, and the one in the middle... paused for two seconds before starting to beat again.
"The middle one is the problem," he said.
"I know," Emma Frost frowned slightly, "But its heartbeat waveform matches that of a real person, and its temperature is normal."
"That's a mannequin," Ye Mo sneered. "My Scanning Wave shows it's hollow inside; it's an inflatable model."
Emma Frost took a deep breath, focused her mental energy, and fine-tuned the frequency like tuning a radio. Three seconds later, she opened her eyes. "Found it. The brainwaves of a real heartbeat will have a 0.3-second subconscious fluctuation, while the fake one won't."
"Congratulations, you've unlocked 'Mind Reading Plus'." Ye Mo gave a thumbs up.
"Stop being so sarcastic." She glared at him, but her smile softened. "Next time, I can just spot the one faking it."
The two recorded the data and returned to the main control panel to synchronize the parameters. Ye Mo casually handed her a bottle of electrolyte drink. "Don't drink too much coffee; your headache yesterday was from overdosing."
How do you know everything?
"I'm thick-skinned, I can hear clearly."
Not far away, Captain America had already begun his third round of training. This time, he and Bucky were facing off against Black Widow. The three of them were blind-controlled and were required to coordinate to suppress the target. At first, it was still chaotic. Captain America gave the order, Bucky reacted a beat too slow, Black Widow's attack route was misjudged, and the three of them almost collided.
In the fifth round, the situation changed.
Captain America stopped shouting and instead guided her with his footsteps and breathing. Bucky began to anticipate Black Widow's third variation of her attack—before each move, her left shoulder would drop slightly for 0.2 seconds. Black Widow also learned to use the sound of Captain America's shield bouncing to determine his position.
In a pincer movement, Captain America feigned an attack, Black Widow circled behind, and Bucky's mechanical arm suddenly swept across half a second early, precisely blocking her retreat.
"It's done," Ye Mo whispered in the quarantine area.
"They've finally found their rhythm," Emma Frost whispered, leaning against the table.
After training, the five returned to the control room one after another. The lights were switched to night duty mode, casting a cool blue-white glow. No one spoke; only the low hum of the equipment and the sound of keyboard typing filled the room.
Ye Mo sat in the corner, closing his eyes to organize the ability test data from earlier. He opened the " Gene Spiral Tower " in his mind, looking through the ability fragments on the 20th floor— Regeneration, Wall Phasing, fire, perception... He tried to combine a low-power mode of " High-Speed Regeneration + slight Wall Phasing," naming it " Regenerative Phasing."
On his first attempt, his right hand became semi-transparent for three seconds, which startled him so much that he immediately stopped. On his second attempt, he adjusted the frequency and successfully dodged two attacks in the bullet simulator, but his vision went blurry and his head was buzzing.
"I can't try anymore." He mentally noted the parameters, "I'll wait until the status is at its maximum before trying again."
"What are you thinking about?" Emma Frost walked over and asked in a low voice.
"How can I make myself faster?" He opened his eyes. "Not with the system, but with my brain."
She nodded, said nothing more, and simply pushed the data panel beside her to him. "I've transferred the Telepathy calibration model to your terminal. You can try the practical simulation tomorrow."
"Thanks." He took it and casually saved it to an encrypted folder.
Captain America stood in front of the monitor, replaying the training footage from earlier, pausing on the frame where Bucky had successfully predicted the attack. He stared at it for three seconds, a barely perceptible smile playing on his lips.
Black Widow sat down against the wall, still wearing her headset, her eyes closed, but her fingers occasionally pressed the communication button to check if the channel was working. Her gun was on her lap, half disassembled and then reassembled, the movements as practiced as breathing.
Ye Mo looked at the group of people but didn't say anything.
He knew the enemy wouldn't give them a chance to breathe forever. The last wave of fighting had just ended, and the next wave might already be on its way. But he also knew that no one wanted to escape, and no one wanted to stop.
"From now on, we'll add one joint simulation exercise every day," he suddenly said. "We don't need to wait for the enemy to arrive before practicing coordination."
Captain America glanced back at him and nodded. "Agreed."
Bucky paused for a moment while wiping the robotic arm, then nodded. Black Widow didn't open her eyes, but raised her hand in agreement. Emma Frost, standing next to Ye Mo, softly said, "I'm always online."
No one uttered grand pronouncements like "for peace" or "to protect the world." They simply returned to their posts, like five nails firmly anchored in the base.
The lights dimmed, and the base returned to silence.
But something in the air has changed—it's no longer about passively waiting, but about being ready to rush in.
Ye Mo touched his palm; it was no longer hot.
But he knew the hype would eventually return.