The ventilation ducts overhead vibrated violently, metal bolts flying off one after another, debris mixed with dust hitting Ye Mo's shoulder. He was rushing towards the energy node on Ultron's side, his right leg's Steel Bone power output unstable, his foot slipped, and he was propelled forward half a step by inertia. In that instant, his body instinctively twisted, his left arm bracing against the ground as he rolled to the side, a burst of cold air erupting from his palm, spreading along the ground into a frost ring, barely blocking the crimson beam falling from the breach.
The light seemed to have weight, pressing down on the frost and causing it to crack open in a spiderweb pattern.
Ye Mo knelt on one knee, cold sweat trickling down his forehead and into the corner of his eye, stinging painfully. He didn't raise his hand to wipe it away, his gaze fixed on the cracked ventilation shaft—there was no one inside, no mechanical footsteps, only a low-frequency pulsation traveling down the building structure, making his palms numb. He recognized this feeling; when he had previously encountered a site with Mutants abilities, the unactivated fragments in the Gene Spiral Tower would also hum like this, but the fluctuation before him was deeper and heavier, as if it were crawling up from the depths of the earth.
"It's not a machine," he said softly, his voice drowned out by the crackling of power lines in the distance.
The greyish-white figure slowly descended.
Its feet landed silently, as if stepping on cotton. The newcomer's body was like a stone sculpture, its skin gleaming with a texture that blended metal and rock. A dark red gemstone, irregularly shaped, was embedded in the center of its forehead, its edges still clinging to undried silvery slime, as if it had just been pulled out of some kind of incubation chamber. Its eyes were closed, its posture upright, and the air around it distorted slightly, as if the surrounding space itself bowed to it.
Ye Mo paused for a moment.
He had seen similar things— Ultron's mechs, Hydra's cyborgs, even Ronan's assault boats—but none of them made the genetic fragments within him resonate on their own. The vibration wasn't like an alarm; it was more like... a response. Like two tuning forks on the same frequency, even through a wall, they would vibrate together.
"This guy..." He gritted his teeth and pushed himself up, his right leg Steel Bone making a soft "crack" sound, warning icons flashing incessantly in the corner of his vision, "Even the system isn't saying a word, but my damn body is shaking on its own first."
Vision stood motionless, silent, and not even breathing.
But the moment Ye Mo looked up and stared at it, the temperature in the entire space suddenly dropped by three degrees. It wasn't the kind of cold that comes from an air conditioner malfunction; it was the kind of chill that seeped into your bones. The data stream on Tony's armor mask suddenly paused for half a second, the arc of electricity wrapped around Thor's hammer weakened for a moment, and even the trajectory of the Vibranium Shield that Captain America threw in the distance deviated by a fraction of an inch.
Only Ye Mo noticed it.
He abruptly turned to look at Ultron —the AI core that had been flashing red light on its chest, ready to fight, was now silent, its cannon energy receding, as if waiting for something. It wasn't a tactical adjustment, nor a calculation delay; it was more like... a handover.
"Damn it." Ye Mo's throat tightened, his fingers clenched into fists. "You've given birth to a father?"
Before he could finish speaking, he pointed at Vision and shouted, "Everyone, hold your horses! That newcomer isn't an ordinary creation!"
The shout was almost a roar, exploding across the battlefield channel amidst static.
No one turned around.
Hawkeye's arrow tip made a slight adjustment, locking onto Ultron's head sensor; Black Widow's fingertip hovered over the trigger, staring at the backup wiring interface; Tony's thrusters hummed louder, and the armor fully activated. They listened to the instructions, but their minds were still running through the original combat procedures—frontal assault, flank suppression, core dismantling, a coordinated rhythm practiced countless times, which couldn't be stopped just because of a "pause".
Ye Mo grew anxious, bracing himself with his right leg and taking two steps forward. A chill surged into his palm once more. "Can't understand human language, huh? This thing isn't a program-generated puppet! There's something moving inside it—not code, but a nascent consciousness! It's even more sinister Ultron!"
This time, someone raised the issue.
Tony lifted his armored mask and glanced at him. "Where did you see 'consciousness'? It didn't even open its eyes."
"I don't need to see." Ye Mo took a breath, pressing his left hand on his Steel Bone joints to steady himself. "My bones are shaking, shaking like I'm seeing my own brother. When I encountered Telepathy Mutants before, at most I'd experience tinnitus and a headache, but this feeling... it's like someone is gently scraping my genetic chain with a needle."
He paused, then lowered his voice. "This thing's energy frequency is half like Professor Charles's Telepathy, and the other half... like the kind of thing that can bend reality. Who among you believes a machine can possess both of these properties simultaneously?"
There was a moment of silence.
It wasn't that I believed it, it was that I was stunned.
Logically illogical statements, when uttered by a man covered in cracks and limping, with a touch of neurotic certainty, are difficult to refute immediately. Especially Ye Mo —he never speaks nonsense, and every time he says "the system prompt tells me to do this," he always ends up being right. Even if it sounds absurd, the result is often reliable.
Tony's armor slowly turned towards Vision, and a scanning interface popped up on the wristband. "Vitality signs?"
"None." The AI responded, "Non-biological, non-mechanical, material analysis in progress... The main component is Vibranium Alloy, supplemented by an unknown organic polymer. Energy source location failed."
"Failure?" Tony frowned. "Even I can't detect the source?"
"It's not a failure," Ye Mo interjected, "It's that it wasn't 'launching' at all. It's like a black hole, only sucking in and never releasing. The low temperatures, spatial distortions, and equipment malfunctions we're experiencing are all side effects of its very existence."
He stared at the ruby Vision's forehead, his pupils contracting slightly. "It's not fully awake yet, but in its current state, it can already influence the laws of physics. If it really opens its eyes..."
Before he could finish speaking, Vision's eyes snapped open.
A crimson light, like a fountain of blood, gushed from his eyes, illuminating the entire ruins. In that instant, Ye Mo's mind went blank, as if a thousand steel wires snapped simultaneously. A closed module on the nineteenth floor of the Gene Spiral Tower shuddered violently, as if it were about to unlock itself. He staggered back a step, his Steel Bone right leg completely losing its strength, and he knelt on the ground with a thud.
But he didn't look down at his injury.
He stared intently into Vision's eyes—not lenses, not light bulbs, but real "eyes" with light flowing within them, like lava or Nebula, slowly rotating, unfathomable.
"Don't go near it!" he roared the last words, his voice hoarse. "It's not a weapon, it's... a variable!"
Vision stood still.
There was no attack, no declaration, not even a slight tilt of its head. But after it opened its eyes, the red light on Ultron's chest completely went out, all mechs ceased movement, and even the dust floating in the air seemed to freeze for a moment.
It's as if all "evil" has suddenly learned to be silent.
Ye Mo braced himself against the ground and slowly stood up. The alarm Steel Bone his right leg was still ringing, but he couldn't care less. He could feel his senses being compressed by some invisible force, as if he were standing on the crater of a volcano about to awaken, knowing the danger but unable to retreat.
Because he knew that that glance just now wasn't random.
That was a gaze.
Yes, confirmed.
It was something that, in the midst of chaos, saw the world clearly for the first time.
He was the only one who realized how terrible this was.
Vision's gaze was fixed on him.