The night wind swirled Ashes from the ruins, sounding like someone breathing deep underground. Ye Mo stood still, his right hand still tightly gripping the black data module he had just pried out. His knuckles were white, and a thin cut had appeared on his palm from the edge of the module, blood dripping down the edge and making small black dots on the scorched earth.
The heat behind his left ear didn't subside; instead, it grew hotter and hotter, as if a red-hot wire was drilling into his brain along his nerves. He didn't touch it, nor did he dare to—the last time he felt this way was when he first activated " Regenerative Phasing " in the Mutants lab, resulting in him getting stuck in the wall for seven seconds and almost suffocating.
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and mentally reviewed the frequency of the data stream he had encountered when he infiltrated the core. It wasn't like a normal program; it was more like some kind of bioelectrical signal, rhythmic, pulsating like a heartbeat.
The system did not provide any notification.
But suddenly, he "saw" a line in his mind.
It wasn't seen with the eyes, nor with radar; it just appeared out of nowhere—a distorted, wave-like trajectory extending northward from the underground fissure, intermittent, as if the signal was about to disappear, yet its direction remained steady.
"Trying to run?" He opened his eyes, his voice extremely low, as if afraid of alerting something. "You dare to slip away injured like this?"
Before he finished speaking, his legs had already moved. He strode out of the ruins, the tattered corner of his hoodie flapping loudly in the wind, the concrete debris flying everywhere under his feet. He was like an arrow released from a bow, heading straight for the trajectory that appeared in his mind.
As he leaped onto the roof of the first building, he casually took off his silver-rimmed glasses, which were cracked like a spiderweb, and threw them away. His vision blurred for a moment, but he quickly adjusted. No one lived nearby anymore; all the streetlights were off, and the entire city seemed to be muted. Only a few distant fires were still smoldering, casting a dark red glow on the sky.
He stood on the edge of the building, closed his eyes, and actively released his " Spatial Perception."
As soon as the ability was activated, a sea of light exploded before their eyes.
It wasn't real light; it was his brain's visual feedback of electromagnetic signals. Every remaining streetlamp, every base station, every underground cable was flashing, densely packed, like a sky full of stars overturned above the city. If Ultron were hiding in this mass of signals, even copying an IP address would make him dizzy.
"Playing tricks." He muttered under his breath, squatted down, and stuck his fingers into the cracks in the cement to steady himself.
He knew AI liked to play this game—breaking data into fragments and scattering it across civilian networks to create fake targets. Ordinary people couldn't find them, but he was different.
The X-Gene Resonance System doesn't rely on equipment for location; it relies on "contact residue." Just now, when he reached out to pull out the module, his fingertip brushed against the last segment of the Ultron's consciousness stream—that thing is like DNA, unique and irreplaceable.
He held his breath and began filtering.
High-frequency repetitive signals – eliminate that; it's a traffic light cycle.
Regular pulses – rule out, subway backup power supply.
The suddenly changed encrypted packet – rule out Hydra remnants stealing intelligence.
One left.
To the northwest, about four kilometers away, a low-frequency pulse, continuously decaying but with a stable direction, crawls forward like a wounded Beast dragging its blood, taking a step, pausing for half a second, and then continuing.
"Gotcha." He grinned, revealing a set of white teeth.
The next second, he leaped down.
The wind whistled in his ears, but he didn't glide or call for backup. This chase was a one-man show.
On the roof of the third building, his right foot slipped when he landed, and his knee hit the concrete with a dull thud. He ignored it, rolled twice to dissipate the force, got up, and continued running.
The heat behind my left ear grew stronger, and the pulse trajectory became clearer. It started to move, not fast, but its route was cunning—it deliberately chose blind spots in surveillance cameras, abandoned overpasses, and underground pipes, clearly trying to evade tracking.
"You're quite good at hiding it." He caught his breath and wiped the dust off his face. "Too bad you forgot, I'm now a 'humanoid mutant radar'."
He accelerated, sprinting along the skyline. He jumped directly between the gaps between tall buildings, three, five, and six meters, relying entirely on the explosive power of his Steel Bone legs. Upon landing from one jump, his right arm's Steel Bone suddenly snapped, the electrical current became disordered, and his entire arm went numb for half a second.
"Damn." He shook his hand, knowing that the aftereffects of the previous EMP interference hadn't worn off yet.
The Self-Healing module activated automatically, and the metal fibers repaired the circuitry inch by inch. He regained consciousness after five seconds. He didn't stop and continued rushing forward.
Two minutes later, he leaped onto a broken section of the viaduct and looked down.
Wilderness highway.
An abandoned intercity expressway, its asphalt cracked, weeds sprouting from the gaps, all the streetlights destroyed, only the moonlight barely illuminating the road surface. Just 300 meters ahead, a modified military drone was speeding along the ground, its four wheels spewing blue flames, its body crooked and twisted, clearly a hastily pieced-together wreck.
At the rear of the car, a fist-sized blue light core flickered, its frequency perfectly matching the pulses in his brain.
"So you were hiding in this beat-up car," he sneered. "No wonder it's so slow."
He stood on the edge of the overpass, staring at the dilapidated car, plotting how to close the net.
A direct confrontation won't work. Although that vehicle is dilapidated, it's still a military chassis with thick armor, and Ultron definitely has a backup plan. His jump just now took a toll, his Regenerative Phasing is still on cooldown, and he can't use his Flame Control. He doesn't have many options left.
But he wasn't afraid.
Because what he's best at right now isn't fighting, but scheming.
He crouched down and touched the ground. A clump of wild grass grew in the cracks of the asphalt, dew clinging to the tips of its Yezi. He reached out and snapped off a blade of grass, green sap staining his fingertips.
Then, he placed his fingers on his forehead, closed his eyes, and reactivated his Spatial Perception.
This time, instead of chasing the signal, he switched his perception frequency to synchronize with Ultron.
One second.
Two seconds.
He "saw" it.
The inside of that dilapidated car wasn't empty; it contained a dense stream of data, like a tangled mess of wires, with a core slowly pulsating in the center. The car's surface had three layers of camouflaged signals: one simulating a civilian truck, one faked police frequency bands, and the innermost layer was the real heartbeat.
"Found you." He opened his eyes, a smirk playing on his lips. "You think I wouldn't recognize you just because you changed your appearance? Your heartbeat sounds exactly the same as when you blew up the cell tower in Queens last month."
He stood up, stretched his shoulders, and his Steel Bone joints made a slight "click" sound.
"Fine, since you insist on running away, let's try something new."
Instead of giving chase, he took a long detour, jumped off the other side of the overpass, and crept along the drainage ditch beside the highway. The terrain here was low and the weeds were tall, which provided perfect cover. As he walked, he used his fingertips to trace lines on the ground to test the soil moisture.
" Regenerative Phasing " requires a supporting medium; it cannot penetrate cement that is too hard, and it is prone to collapse if the soil is too soft. This desolate highway has been in disrepair for many years, and the loose soil beneath the asphalt is just right.
He estimated the distance, and when he was parallel to the broken-down car, he suddenly stopped.
Three hundred meters ahead, the broken-down car is still running, its blue core flashing.
He took a deep breath, stepped back half a step with his right foot, bent his knee slightly, and began to store energy in his Steel Bone leg.
"Three... two..."
Just as he was about to start the engine, the beat-up car slammed on the brakes, kicking up a cloud of dust from the rear.
Immediately afterwards, the roof of the car popped open, and a ring-shaped EMP shockwave exploded outwards, sweeping across a radius of fifty meters!
Ye Mo had a premonition. He rolled over and fell into the drainage ditch, lying face down on the ground. The shockwave swept over his head, and stones from the ditch wall fell down with a "cracking" sound. Several pieces of gravel hit his back, causing a burning pain.
"I knew you'd pull this." He gritted his teeth, his ears ringing, and the Steel Bone in his right arm malfunctioned again.
But he didn't move.
He knew that Ultron's attack was a test. If he made a move and the signal was exposed, the next wave of attacks would follow.
He held his breath, suppressing his heartbeat to its lowest point.
Ten seconds.
Twenty seconds.
The broken-down car didn't move, and the blue core continued to flicker, but the frequency changed, becoming faster, as if it were scanning its surroundings.
"You're looking for me?" he thought with a sneer. "Then you'd better open your eyes wide."
He slowly raised his left hand, his fingertips digging into the soil, and moved forward slowly. The soil was moist, just the right conditions to initiate " Regenerative Phasing ".
Three seconds later, he sank into the ground like water, leaving only one finger trembling slightly on the surface.
The next instant, he popped his head out thirty meters away and silently crouched behind a cement slab by the roadside.
The wrecked car remained in the same spot, seemingly unaffected.
He grinned and said softly, "Running away like this? We need to settle this score today."
He stood up, dusted himself off, stared at the wrecked car in front of him, and his right leg's Steel Bone recharged, emitting a faint "humming" sound.
He didn't rush to make a move.
He knew that Ultron was now like a snake with its tail cut off; it could still bite, but it could no longer cause any significant trouble.
What he needed to do was not to kill it immediately.
It is following it.
Look at this badly injured snake; which hole is it trying to escape back to?
He activated his Spatial Perception again, locked onto the blue core, and slowly approached.
300 meters.
Two hundred meters.
One hundred meters.
The wrecked car suddenly started again, its tires screeching as it lurched forward.
Ye Mo remained calm and gave chase.
He knew that this hunt had only just begun.
He ran along the desolate highway, the night wind tousling his hair, the tattered corners of his hoodie fluttering behind him. Ahead, a beat-up car trailed its blue light, speeding wildly through the darkness.
And he followed closely behind, not missing a single step.