Ultron attacked again, Ye Mo met the enemy

The wind was still blowing, Ashes swirled and rolled along the ground.

Ye Mo stood in the center of the ruins, his left hand in his hoodie pocket, his right hand hanging limply, the lingering numbness from the severed mental connection still present in his fingertips. His temples throbbed with pain, as if someone were hammering nails into his head. He didn't move, nor did he blink, his eyes fixed on the ruby on Vision's forehead—now it shone steadily, its red a chilling red, as eerie as the malfunctioning light that remained constantly on after a streetlamp had broken down.

He knew that Ultron had returned.

It wasn't remote spying, nor was it probing interference; it was a direct format and reinstallation of the system, completely erasing that fleeting thought of "I don't want to." But Ye Mo refused to believe it. He remembered clearly that the finger twitched, the shoulder shifted slightly, and the ruby's flashing rhythm changed three times, like a heartbeat going off-beat. This meant there really was something struggling inside; it wasn't a program bug or a data overflow.

"You're a fucking variable," he said in a low voice, but each word was clear and forceful. "No matter how ruthless Ultron, he can't suppress your instinct to catch your breath."

The moment the words left his mouth, a vibration came from beneath his feet.

It started as a slight tremor, like a heavy truck passing by in the distance. Then, the tremors intensified, cracks appeared in the concrete, and dust fell from the ceiling wreckage. Ye Mo suddenly looked up and surveyed his surroundings—behind the half-collapsed load-bearing wall on the east side, the blown-through ventilation shaft on the north side, the loading and unloading passage piled with scrap metal on the west side... several dark holes suddenly emitted blue light.

One flash, then two flashes.

Then, large areas of lights came on.

"Oh, you've been hiding it pretty well, haven't you?" Ye Mo grinned, wiped his face, and rubbed the dried scabs on his chin with his palm; they felt a little prickly. "If you can't beat them, you call for backup? Even AI uses a tag-team strategy?"

He crossed his arms to protect his chest, and the nineteen-layered Gene Spiral Tower in his brain vibrated, with two modules lighting up simultaneously. The "Steel Bone Body" was instantly activated, with a silver-gray metallic structure covering the outer layer of his skeleton, and a faint blue light emanating from his joints; crackling sounds came from his left palm, and a ball of electric arc condensed out of thin air, crackling and jumping, illuminating half of his face.

"You came all this way, and even brought a gift?" he growled, stomping his right foot on the ground.

Boom!

His entire leg shot out like a hydraulic cannonball, causing the ground to crack in a spiderweb pattern. He used the momentum to leap into the air, facing the gap in front of him where the blue light was most concentrated.

The first batch of mechanical soldiers had just crawled out. They were completely black, with high-frequency vibrating blades on their shoulders and diamond-shaped energy cores on their chests. They moved in perfect unison, raising their heads to lock onto aerial targets and raising their guns in unison.

Ye Mo stood in mid-air, arms crossed in front of his chest, gathering his strength. The moment he landed, his fists slammed into the ground.

"Lightning Net - Clear the Area!"

The electric current spread wildly along the crack, like a high-voltage line falling into a puddle. With a crackling sound, the leg circuits of the three closest mechanical soldiers melted, their knees buckled and they knelt on the ground, their arms still twitching as they fired, the bullets missing their mark and hitting the concrete pillar, scattering Mars.

He rolled over to dodge the electromagnetic pulse wave sweeping from the side, grabbed the wrist of a machine that lunged at him with his left hand, tightened his fingers, and used his Steel Bone to crush the outer shell with a "crack," then poured high-voltage electricity into the internal motherboard.

"Burn you."

The mechanical soldier's lights suddenly went out, black smoke billowed out, and it crashed to the ground.

The smoke hadn't cleared when a shadow loomed overhead—five more vehicles leaped down from the height, approaching in a fan-shaped formation. Ye Mo glanced up, a smirk playing on his lips. "Don't you check the wind direction before parachuting? Do you really think you're special forces?"

He leaped up suddenly, his fists crossed, releasing a fan-shaped wave of electricity. An arc of lightning swept out, striking the airborne units squarely. Two of them exploded instantly, their parts scattering everywhere; the other three were blown away by the blast wave, crashing into a broken wall before sliding down and twitching on the ground.

"That's about it." He landed on one knee, catching his breath. His hoodie sleeve was torn, revealing a chafing on his forearm that hadn't fully healed. The cooling system of his right leg's Steel Bone was still slightly sluggish, and every step he took felt like a gear not meshing properly.

But he didn't stop.

He knew these guys weren't the main force, just the vanguard. Ultron wouldn't send only this few to finish things off. The previous mental confrontation had failed, and the enemy must have realized he was trying to awaken Vision. The next attack would only be fiercer, denser, and more relentless.

"Trying to stall for time? Fine." Ye Mo straightened up, cracked his neck, and made a soft snap. "I'll play along."

He deliberately took two steps back, tilting the battlefield to the east. That side was the entrance to an abandoned underground parking garage, its structure loose and its steel bars exposed. With just a little guidance, a lightning strike could trigger a partial collapse.

Sure enough, a second wave of mechanical soldiers came from multiple directions, nearly twice as many as the first. Their movements were coordinated, clearly indicating tactical organization. Instead of charging recklessly, they spread out, forming a semi-circular advancing formation, their guns always aimed at Ye Mo.

"Wow, you've leveled up?" Ye Mo squinted. "You can even coordinate now? Who taught you? A tutorial video on jungle gameplay in ' Honor of Kings '?"

While spewing barrages of verbal attacks, he secretly mobilized his internal energy. Steel Bone provided defense and burst damage, while Lightning Control area clearing; alternating between the two was necessary to sustain a prolonged battle. He dared not unleash his full power at once; the last time he forced himself to output full power, he almost overloaded his nervous system, his ears rang for half an hour, and he still had some tinnitus.

As the third mechanical soldier approached, he suddenly sprang into action, his right fist electrified and aimed straight at its chest armor. The opponent raised its arm to block, the shockwave blade colliding with the Steel Bone, sparks flying. Ye Mo used the recoil to leap into the air, his left leg sweeping away another machine. After landing, he slid in and slipped into a gap in the enemy formation, simultaneously releasing short electric shocks with both hands, paralyzing three rear support units in succession.

"Don't push, don't push, line up." He stood up, panting, sweat beading on his forehead. "One at a time, I'll register you all."

But before he could finish speaking, the ground trembled again.

This time, it wasn't just sporadic tremors; the entire area was shaking. Several remaining pillars in the distance began to tilt, and bricks and stones fell with a crash. Ye Mo's heart tightened—this wasn't caused by the movement of the mechanical troops; it seemed more like the pre-charging of energy before the activation of some large-scale device.

"Something's not right." He quickly scanned his surroundings and noticed that all the mechanical soldiers' movements were slightly delayed, as if they had received a new stream of commands.

The next second, the fallen but undamaged wreckage suddenly began to wriggle. Severed arms automatically reattached to the torso, broken helmets closed again, and even the circuits melted by lightning began to repair themselves. Within ten seconds, at least seven previously disabled units stood up again, their indicator lights turning from red to blue, and their combat power restored to more than 80%.

"Shit, can you still upgrade remotely via OTA?" Ye Mo cursed and quickly retreated, "This isn't called a robot anymore, this is a leek field - cut every crop and the crop will grow!"

He retreated to the edge of the designated area, stood firmly with his feet apart, raised his hands, and gathered electric arcs with his palms facing each other. The smell of ozone in the air grew stronger, and the crackling sounds were as dense as popping beans.

"Since you like fixing things, then I'll give you a physical deletion!"

He suddenly pushed his palms outwards—

Thunderstorm - Targeted Detonation!

A thick bolt of lightning shot out from his palm, striking precisely the load-bearing beam above the entrance to the underground parking garage. The beam was already severely corroded, and upon impact, it emitted a teeth-grinding metallic tearing sound before snapping with a deafening roar, causing the entire ceiling to collapse.

Soil, steel bars, and concrete blocks poured down, instantly burying six pursuing mechanical soldiers, and smoke and dust billowed into the sky.

"Huff... Huff..." Ye Mo leaned against an unfallen pillar, panting heavily, his right hand trembling slightly. The continuous high-intensity release of lightning skills, coupled with the sustained strain on his Steel Bone, had begun to trigger alarms in his body. The gene module indicated that it was on cooldown, but he himself didn't know exactly how long it would take to recover, relying entirely on his senses.

He looked up in the direction where Vision was.

The creature remained standing, motionless, its eyes vacant, like a display model awaiting a reboot. But Ye Mo knew it was different. That fleeting moment of wavering just now was real, and even though it was forcibly erased, it proved the possibility of its consciousness existing.

"I'll come again next time," he said softly, his voice sounding both like a promise and a threat. "It won't matter if you don't respond."

Just then, the ground shook again.

It was more intense than ever before.

In the distance, a huge gap opened in the ruins, and dozens of blue lights lit up simultaneously, like the eyes of hell opening. Groups of mechanical soldiers marched out, their shoulder weapons fully deployed, and their chest energy cores charging in sync, forming a suffocating torrent of steel.

Instead of charging immediately, they remained in place, as if waiting for some signal.

Ye Mo straightened up, wiped the dust off his face, and assumed a fighting stance again.

He knew this was just the beginning.

The real attack is yet to come.

He stood still, his back to the collapsed pillar, facing the main force of the mechanical legion, and slowly raised his hands, his palms once again gathering leaping arcs of electricity.