The sound of keyboard typing was particularly jarring in the deathly silent room, like some kind of countdown.
Ye Mo stared intently at the fluctuating data stream on the screen, his gaze never leaving the monitor. The mental exhaustion from just a moment ago still throbbed faintly in the back of his head, as if a thin needle were churning inside. He ignored it, his fingers flying across the mechanical keyboard, transforming all the fragmented information he had previously perceived—the thickness of the lead plate, the frequency of the magic barrier, the resistance of the airflow—into visual coordinates.
The mental enhancement effect within the " Gene Spiral Tower " was slowly being released. Although there were no visual cues, he could feel the activity of his cerebral cortex increase several levels. This increase wasn't the kind of excitement from being injected with adrenaline, but rather a cold, almost machine-like calmness. His thoughts were no longer sluggish; the lines that had been blurred due to fatigue were now sharp as knives.
He closed his eyes, no longer relying on visual afterimages. His consciousness sank once more into that dark underground space.
This time, he didn't try to see each brick clearly, but instead "touched" the energy ripples in the space. Like the blind men and the elephant, except he was touching electromagnetic fields and residual magic. The walls were solid lead plates with extremely high density, providing strong shielding against conventional detection; however, at the seams of the lead plates, weak energy leakage formed invisible gaps. These gaps outlined the true contours of the walls in his mind, no longer the hazy feeling of looking through frosted glass like in the previous chapter, but a clear three-dimensional structural diagram.
The most crucial data is here.
Ye Mo reviewed the flashing frequency of the magic barrier that he had previously captured. It was a regular pulse; every forty-two seconds, the barrier's energy output would experience a tiny zero-point fluctuation. That was the moment the system restarted, and also the moment when the defense logic briefly broke down.
Forty-two seconds.
This is an extremely narrow time window. For an ordinary person, forty-two seconds wouldn't even be enough to blink twice. But for him, with his specific combination of abilities, it's enough.
He drew a line on the whiteboard, marking the first time window: T+00:42.
We have the static map, and we've found the dynamic vulnerabilities. But that's not enough. There are people locked up in the prison, and guards. Simple physical penetration can't solve the problem of people, especially those professionally trained mercenaries.
Ye Mo took a deep breath, adjusted his breathing rhythm, and focused his Telepathy abilities on the metal doorknob at the prison entrance. There, the warmth of the guards changing shifts lingered, along with a barely perceptible emotional fluctuation.
Anxiety, vigilance, and a touch of numbness towards this job.
This isn't the gaze of a fanatical believer; it's the mentality of a worker who's paid to do something. Their mental shield is strong; direct reading will bounce back, but their underlying emotions are clear. Loyalty is limited, and fear outweighs justice.
Based on this assessment, Ye Mo marked the blind spot on the map where the two guards would hand over their duties. That was the weakest point in their psychological defenses. When a person is in a handover situation, their attention will instinctively be distracted, and their sensitivity to the environment will decrease by 30%.
He then extended his perception deeper, touching upon the lingering despairing thoughts of a long-term prisoner. The negative emotion was so intense it was suffocating, like a probe that accidentally triggered the logic Circuit of the prison's backup power supply. Ye Mo keenly realized that if this intense mental interference could be amplified, it would be enough to induce equipment overload and create temporary chaos.
This is a risky move, but also a way out.
Now, all the puzzle pieces are complete.
Ye Mo opened his eyes, picked up a marker, and began to draw the final rescue route map on the whiteboard.
The route begins at an abandoned sewage outlet in the lower city and ends behind the core control room. In between, you need to pass through three magical barriers, bypass two rows of armed guards, and face a thick lead plate isolation wall.
Lead-lined walls are tough nuts to crack; conventional methods simply can't penetrate them.
Ye Mo re-examined the previous X-ray data, his gaze locking onto the lower part of the wall. There was a pipe there used to drain cooling water. The pipe was narrow, less than forty centimeters in diameter, and filled with a corrosive liquid. An ordinary person would be dissolved in less than ten minutes if they went in.
But for Ye Mo, who had already activated some of his physical enhancement abilities, this was not only a passage, but also the only shortcut. He could harden his skin in a short time to resist corrosion, and at the same time use a variant of his Wall Phasing ability to perform short-distance spatial displacement within the pipe walls to avoid obstacles in the pipe.
This is a winding, green route that stands out starkly against the densely packed red danger zones.
Node 1: Utilize the time window of T+00:42 to pass through the first magic barrier.
Node Two: In the blind spot of the guard handover, create minor psychological interference to induce an overload of the backup power supply and conceal the location.
Node 3: Infiltrate the cooling water pipes and use spatial displacement to break through the lead plate wall.
Node 4: Upon reaching the rear of the control room, cut off the main power supply and release the magical restraints.
Every step was meticulously planned and every time point was precise down to the second.
Ye Mo stood in front of the whiteboard, pen in hand, his knuckles white from the pressure. There was no hesitation in his eyes, nor the anger and repression from before. In their place was a calm as cold as ice.
This map was the only key he found in this enormous cage.
Risk level assessment: High.
Executability verified: Passed.
He knew that once he took this step, there was no turning back. He would either successfully rescue those people or become a new prisoner in this Black Box prison. But he didn't care. The bottom line based on "innocent people" was now completely solidified.
The light of hope was completely ignited at this moment.
Ye Mo put down his pen, turned and walked to the table, opening his laptop. The screen illuminated his young yet weathered face. He began writing a new script, not to hack into a server, but to record and analyze the abnormal energy fluctuations in the surrounding area over the next few days.
Data doesn't lie. As long as someone enters or leaves that prison, and as long as there's an energy leak, the data will leave a trace.
What he had to do was to read the enemy's pulse from these traces.
The wind outside the window has stopped.
The New York morning arrived quietly, carrying with it the calm before the storm.