At 7:00 PM sharp, the conference room lights automatically switched to operational mode, dimming, and six curved screens popped up on the surrounding walls. Ye Mo was the last to enter, his hoodie pulled down to the back of his neck, holding a half-empty bottle of electrolyte drink in his hand, the bottle already warmed by the heat of his palm.
Tony was already seated on the left side of the long table, his fingers tracing a few lines in the air. An armored helmet projection hovered in front of him, loading the combat log in sync. "You're three minutes late," he said without looking up.
"I just took the gloves that got stuck in the Wall Phasing yesterday to be repaired." Ye Mo pulled out a chair and sat down. "That wall seems to hold a grudge."
Thor plopped down, making the table shake, and casually pulled a bottle of energy drink from the nearby refrigerator, unscrewing it. "I arrived ten minutes early, but no one let me in. Your gates are more troublesome than Asgard guards."
"Because you triggered an intrusion alarm by performing a war dance at the door." Black Widow sat on the right, not even lifting her eyelids, her fingertips swiping across the tablet to bring up a diagram of her combat trajectory.
Hawkeye leaned back in his chair, bow resting on the corner of the table, his shoes resting on the edge of another chair. "Shall we skip the opening remarks? I can already smell the debriefing—you know, that 'we won but almost got wiped out' smell."
Captain America walked in just as he heard this. He casually propped his shield up on the wall stand and said in a calm voice, "Let's get started. This meeting isn't for celebration; it's for coming back alive next time."
The lights dimmed a minute more, the main screen lit up, and the timeline began scrolling from 48 hours before the explosion of the Ultron base.
Ye Mo pointed, and his combat data stream popped up, a series of waveforms filling the upper left corner: energy output peak, neural load curve, Wall Phasing delay record, all clearly displayed.
"Let me tell you something first," he began. "We've been arguing the whole way. Let's not rely on words to determine who messed up at the crucial moment. I have the facts, and anyone who doesn't trust me can ask me."
Tony glanced at it and chuckled, "You really think you can use the system like a notary office?"
"Otherwise what?" Ye Mo shrugged. "I didn't say you guys were bad at fighting, I said your rhythm was off. Look here—" He zoomed in on some data, " Thor's landing and Hawkeye's third explosive arrow were 1.7 seconds apart, which should have been within 0.5 seconds according to the original plan. At that moment, Ultron had just completed his second charge."
Hawkeye leaned closer to the screen. "Wait, you mean it's because I was slow?"
"No, you were fooled by a fake target." Ye Mo switched perspectives and pulled up the replay of the telepathic clip. " Ultron used a clone to lure you in. The one emitting blue light on the left is actually a jamming signal. The real core is three meters behind the cover on the right rear."
Black Widow stared at the screen for two seconds. "I didn't receive any warning."
"Nobody received it." Ye Mo shrugged. "We don't have a real-time psychological interference reporting mechanism. Even if you know now, it might still be too late to react next time."
The meeting room fell silent for a few seconds.
Captain America tapped the table. "So the problem isn't individual performance, but rather a breakdown in information transmission. We need a unified signal source, capable of forcibly pushing critical intelligence even in highly jammed environments."
"Sound + visual + mental signals, three channels in parallel," Ye Mo added. "I've already tried low-power mental disturbance support; it won't cause brain damage, at most it'll feel like someone suddenly patted the back of your neck."
"It sounds like someone snapped their the Snap in my head." Thor scratched his head.
"More or less," Ye Mo nodded, "But much better than being struck by lightning."
Tony then accessed the armor logs and broke down the AI combat process into a logical tree diagram. "Another problem is the over-reliance on a single tactical path. For example, I wanted to use EMP to disable it, but Ultron had already anticipated my protocol vulnerability and hijacked the signal."
"Your armor is too smart; the enemy is evolving along with it." Captain America looked at the charts. "We need to learn to keep a backup plan."
"Therefore, I suggest establishing an emergency cooling-off rotation mechanism." Ye Mo pulled up the data from the day he left the training ground for comparison. "Like my last Wall Phasing test, if no one had stopped me, I might still be in the hospital with my life support removed. Individual over-limit combat is too risky; there should be a mandatory withdrawal rule."
"For example?" Black Widow asked.
"If vital signs fall below the safety threshold, or if the character cannot respond to calls for three consecutive seconds, they will be automatically marked as incapacitated, and teammates have the right to interrupt their actions," Ye Mo said. "Even if he is the protagonist, he is not exempt."
"Does that sound familiar to you?" Tony glanced at him sideways.
"I don't deny I'm thick-skinned," Ye Mo grinned, "But I'm even more afraid of dying."
The crowd chuckled softly, and the atmosphere eased slightly.
Over the next half hour, they broke down the battle into five phases, analyzing each person's action frame by frame. They ultimately identified three areas for improvement: first, establishing a real-time battlefield status sharing protocol; second, setting up an emergency rotation mechanism; and third, introducing a sudden interference simulation training module.
It was unanimously approved and listed as a key focus for the next stage of training.
Moving on to future planning, Tony first proposed upgrading the global surveillance network. " The Ultron can hide in civilian drones shows we have too many blind spots in our detection. I plan to deploy a new generation of quantum scanning arrays to cover all high-frequency communication bands."
"The technical aspects are fine," Ye Mo nodded, "But I suggest adding biosignal filtering. Some threats aren't driven by code, but by heartbeats."
"You mean someone like Vision?" Hawkeye asked.
"I'm talking about any non-standard life form," Ye Mo corrected. "Whether it's AI parasitism or alien consciousness projection, as long as it fluctuates, I can sense it."
Captain America turned to Thor: "Any unusual communications from Asgard?"
"My father sealed the Bifrost, but the watchtowers are still operational," Thor replied. "If a large fleet approaches, I will know immediately."
"Then keep communication channels open," Captain America said. "We need external intelligence support; we can't rely solely on Earth's internal systems."
Tony shook his head. "But we can't always rely on divine intervention. The ground team's adaptability needs to be improved significantly."
"Agreed," Black Widow chimed in. "Especially in night raids and urban combat scenarios, current coordination efficiency is only 67% of the ideal value."
"So I propose a structural model." Ye Mo opened a new page and introduced the "Three-Layer Response System": The first layer is daily monitoring, with dual scanning of technology and perception; the second layer is regional rapid response, with elite teams of no more than five people; the third layer is global joint mobilization, summoning all available combat forces.
"This framework is compatible with all parties' claims," Captain America nodded after reviewing it, "And the responsibilities are clearly defined."
The division of labor was quickly finalized: Tony was in charge of the technical infrastructure, Captain America coordinated tactical drills, Thor coordinated external communications, Black Widow and Hawkeye were in charge of intelligence screening and personnel deployment, and Ye Mo was responsible for "anomaly detection verification".
As the meeting drew to a close, everyone's status bar was updated, and the action plan was entered into the system.
"Alright." Captain America stood up. "The first round of joint simulations begins tomorrow morning at six. Get some rest tonight."
Thor stood up with a flourish. "I'm going to the gym for extra training! I haven't finished the thunderstorm resistance test we were talking about!"
"Is that training or generating electricity?" Hawkeye muttered as he packed his backpack.
Black Widow was the last to leave, glancing at Ye Mo before she went. "Don't secretly practice again."
"I understand." Ye Mo raised his hand as if swearing, "It won't exceed my minimum physical reserve."
Everyone had left, and only the lights in the conference room were slowly coming back on.
Tony didn't move, his finger still swiping in the air to check the data stream. He suddenly looked up. "Your psycho-sensing module, show me the raw waveform separately later."
Ye Mo took a sip of his warm drink and nodded. "Okay, let me filter out the lingering vibrations from today's Wall Phasing."
Tony stared at him for two seconds. "You really think everything's alright?"
"Of course." Ye Mo put down the bottle, the bottom tapping softly on the table. "I was just wondering why Ultron was still transmitting data before he died."
" S.H.I.E.L.D.. has confirmed that the main server chain has been broken," Tony said. "It's dead, and that's it."
"But machines don't give their final words." Ye Mo stared at the fleeting static in the corner of the screen, "Unless it's crying for help—to its next self."
Tony paused for a moment, then retrieved a segment of the unanalyzed signal.
Ye Mo stood up, walked to his side, and hovered his finger above the projection.
The two shadows fell on the floor, overlapping to form a vertical black line.