Two heroes join forces

The power was off, and the ventilation shaft was pitch black.

Ye Mo lay motionless on the ground. His eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, and his vision gradually returned. He could see the outline of the metal wall and a faint red light emanating from the access panel ahead. That was the indicator light for the backup system, which briefly lit up during the three-minute cooling interruption interval.

My left arm started burning again. The metallic spot felt like a hot iron plate was stuck to it, and the system notification sound was buzzing in my head:

[The conditions for absorbing the Ice Manipulation Ability fragments have been met. Should we fuse them immediately?]

He gritted his teeth, silently telling himself, "Shut up."

Now is not the time to escalate. The virus is still spreading, and Tony is about to start acting; he needs to finish what he's doing first.

He touched the Vibranium fragment in his pocket to make sure it was still there. He also clearly remembered where he had hidden the chip: the third compartment in the wall crack, near the junction box. This fragment was his only beacon, and also the key to accessing the data hub.

He crawled forward, moving quietly. He had to stop every thirty seconds to wait for the radar to scan past him. Water dripped from the cooling pipes above his head, each drop hitting his back and keeping him awake.

He climbed to the maintenance access panel near the main control room and stopped. Below was the location of Obadiah's station. On the other side of the glass, figures moved about, and the sounds were indistinct, but the live broadcast had already begun to be tested.

He opened an encrypted channel and sent a short message: "I'm in position, ready to infiltrate the data hub. You need to make your act convincing."

A reply came quickly through the earpiece, "Don't worry, I'll make them think I'm walking into a trap."

Ye Mo twitched the corner of his mouth. That sounded quite plausible.

He gently pried open the access panel, slid down sideways, and moved close to the wall. The central server rack was just ten meters away, but there was a biometric identification area in the middle; stepping on it would trigger an alarm.

He looked down at his right arm. The metallic layer beneath his skin was ready. He took a deep breath, and his arm began to soften, like molten tin slowly seeping out of his skin.

Regenerative Phasing startup.

He crouched down, letting his metallic arm slip through the floor cracks, bypassing the sensor area, and crawling towards the firewall interface on the back of the rack. A few seconds later, his palm touched the port, the Vibranium fragment inserted into the core slot, and the temporary bridging channel was successfully established.

Data streams flooded into consciousness instantly.

At the same time, the side display lit up. Tony stood under the spotlight, sporting his signature smile.

Let's see how Iron Man works.

The armor plates were fitted onto the body piece by piece, and the system began the authentication process.

Seven minutes to go, start.

Ye Mo closed his eyes and activated Thermal Vision. Thousands of data lines unfolded before him: blue represented normal access flow, red represented security monitoring, and a jet-black line was quietly climbing up from the neural interface module—that was the "Iron Chain" virus.

It disguises itself as a calibration program, infiltrating upwards along the privilege chain, with the goal of taking over the entire operating system.

"Found it," he thought to himself.

With his left hand, he traced the path of the virus's main process in the air and transmitted it to Tony via a bridged channel.

"Roger that." Tony's voice was calm. "We're forging the system logs to make it think we've successfully taken over... Now, cut it off."

Ye Mo took a deep breath and sank his consciousness into the data layer. With his right hand simulating administrator privileges, he located the core virus file and executed the deletion command.

The screen flickered, the black line twitched violently, and then disappeared.

The red warning box has disappeared.

"The virus is over," he said softly.

The presentation was still going on. Tony finished his demonstration, smiled, and waved goodbye. The audience applauded and cheered; nobody knew what had just happened.

A few minutes later, the door to the underground control room was pushed open.

Tony walked in, took off his gloves, and immediately saw Ye Mo pulling Vibranium fragment from the server rack and stuffing it into his pocket.

"You really went in?" he asked.

"Otherwise, why would you have time to come here?" Ye Mo raised his hand to push up his glasses. "By the way, next time don't make the authentication process more complicated than a coffee machine."

Tony smiled, walked over, and extended his hand. "Pleasure doing business with you, Mr. X."

Ye Mo was taken aback. This was the first time someone had called him that.

He raised his hand and gave Tony a high five.

"Remember to save me a seat next time."

No sooner had he finished speaking than a notification sound suddenly rang in his mind:

[Tony's trust has been detected; conditions for unlocking the second level of the Gene Spiral Tower have been met.]

He didn't say anything. This system is getting better and better at picking its own time.

Tony had already turned and walked towards the control panel, pulling up the backend logs. "JARVIS, replay all abnormal signals from the last ten minutes."

"Analyzing," a mechanical voice announced. "An encrypted command stream has been detected, originating from an internal test server. It has been flagged as high-risk."

"It really did start with an internal mole," Tony frowned. "Obadiah acted faster than I expected."

Ye Mo walked over and stared at the screen. "He didn't know the virus had failed, but he definitely sensed something was wrong. Look at this residual signal frequency; it's like he's preparing a backup plan."

"What's the meaning?"

"It means," Ye Mo pointed to the waveform diagram, "That he's looking for a new angle. This time it might not just be targeting the battle armor, but the entire factory system."

Tony paused for two seconds, then turned to look at him. "Where do you think he'll start?"

"The production line," Ye Mo said. "The spare components for the Mark III are all assembled there. If he can implant a hardware backdoor before it leaves the factory, it's harder to detect than a software attack."

Tony immediately pulled up a map of the factory. Production lines, energy supplies, and security checkpoints all lit up.

"If he was after the hardware, he should already be mobilizing personnel."

Ye Mo leaned closer to examine the surveillance footage. "Check the attendance records of the maintenance team in Zone B. If any unregistered personnel have entered, that's the key."

The system automatically filtered the data, and three minutes later, an abnormal record appeared.

"Two maintenance workers registered at B7 gate fifteen minutes ago, but facial recognition shows that one of them is not in the employee database."

Tony zoomed in on the image. The man was wearing a hat, walking steadily through the turnstile with his head down, but a small section of metallic reflection was visible through his right sleeve.

"That's an old Hydra communicator," Ye Mo said. "They've made their move."

Should we notify security?

"No," Ye Mo shook his head. "If we alert him now, he'll only move on. We have to wait for him to reveal his plan himself."

"Are you trying to play the long game?"

"I want him to think he's won," Ye Mo said, looking at the screen. "Once he's staked everything, we'll close the net."

Tony stared at him for a few seconds, then suddenly laughed, "You know what? You look honest enough, but you're a complete liar."

"Thank you for the compliment." Ye Mo smiled as well. "That's just how I am. I seem reasonable on the surface, but I'm scheming behind people's backs."

"Great." Tony patted him on the shoulder. "Let's have more of this kind of scheming in the future, and we'll work together."

He turned and walked towards the exit, saying as he went, "I'm going to prepare the emergency activation procedures for Mark IV. You keep an eye on the surveillance cameras and notify me immediately if there's anything unusual."

Ye Mo nodded and sat back down at the control panel.

The production line footage scrolled silently on the screen. Workers were busy, robotic arms were operating, and everything seemed normal.

But he knew the storm was just ahead.

He opened his personal terminal and brought up the Gene Spiral Tower interface. The second level was already unlocked, and several unnamed ability fragments floated inside.

He wasn't in a hurry to integrate. The most important thing now was to keep an eye on the man posing as a repairman.

The camera shifts to inside corridor B7. The man is squatting next to the electrical distribution box, holding a black device and connecting wires.

Ye Mo zoomed in on the image and saw the structure of the thing clearly.

It is a remote controller that can directly hijack automated assembly systems.

He noted down the frequency, preparing to act only after the other party had fully connected.

Just then, Tony's communicator rang again.

"I just got a list," he said. "All the technicians Obadiah has privately contacted in the last three months. One of them was fired by Stark Industries three years ago for unauthorized modifications to the armor control system."

What's your name?

"Carl Ryan was formerly a test engineer for the Mark II."

Ye Mo's pupils contracted.

He had seen that name before.

In the Project Lazarus files, there is an experimental subject with the number "KL-09" and the code name "Blacksmith".

KL is an abbreviation for Carl Ryan.

He immediately accessed the old database and entered the keywords.

Three seconds later, a human face popped up.

It was the repairman in the surveillance footage.

He looked up at the screen. The man had finished wiring and was taking a small silver box out of his toolbox, opening it to reveal a dense array of chips inside.

Those are miniature virus transmitters, capable of infecting all the equipment on an entire production line within thirty seconds.

Ye Mo pressed the communication button. "Tony, they're not trying to hijack a suit of armor."

"They want the entire factory."