The alarm lights went out, and the laboratory floor was once again bathed in white light. Ye Mo was still standing in front of the mainframe, holding the old chip he had just removed in his hand, his fingertips brushing against a scratch on the edge of the interface. He didn't speak, but simply gently inserted the chip into the read slot.
The screen flickered and a red warning box popped up: [Unauthorized firmware signature detected, associated device: MK Series armored core controller].
Tony, who was leaning back in his control chair and loosening his collar, sat bolt upright upon hearing the notification sound. "What does this mean? This crappy chip can connect to my armor?"
"It's not just about connections," Ye Mo stared at the data stream, "It's like a keyhole; someone used it as a springboard to stuff other things into your system."
Tony rolled over, rushed to the control panel, and brought up the holographic model of the armor. A blue light swept across the virtual body, the energy module flickered twice, and the left leg propulsion unit went gray.
"Damn it." He furiously pressed the Enter key. "I clearly turned off the remote wake-up protocol just now."
"It's not your problem." Ye Mo closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, his pupils glowed with a faint red light. Thermal Vision activated, and his gaze penetrated the armor shell, revealing a section of current in the internal energy Circuit that was erratically skewed, as if something had secretly pulled it off course.
"Here," he pointed to the right arm joint on the projection, "The heat buildup is abnormal; there's an extra process consuming power, but it's disguised as a self-check."
Tony leaned closer, his brow furrowing deeper. "This isn't a virus... it's a parasite. It doesn't delete files, it doesn't modify code, it just hides in the background consuming resources, waiting for you to unleash your ultimate attack—snap, power outage."
"Yes." Ye Mo nodded, "It's like someone cutting off half the fuel line while you're driving; you can't see it normally, but it stalls as soon as you accelerate."
Tony slammed his hand on the table. "We need to fix this quickly, or we'll be done for in the next battle."
"Don't panic." Ye Mo placed his hand on the control panel, a chill spreading through the metal connector, instantly suppressing the erratic data flow. "We'll handle it together."
Tony turned to look at him, his lips twitched, but he didn't smile.
The two remained silent for a few seconds, then the hum of the machine filled the gap.
"Who did you say did it?" Tony suddenly asked. "To be able to replace hardware without triggering an alarm, it's either someone inside, or..." He paused, "... it's that 'logistics support' we've been letting in."
Ye Mo didn't reply. He remembered that on the day of the press conference, there was a man wearing anti-detection earpiece standing in the corner who was later transferred to the support center. At the time, he only felt that the man looked familiar, but now that he thought about it, the man's figure and the insertion and removal marks on the chip in front of him were the same—both had the habitual movements of an old-school Stark employee.
"Let's not worry about who it is for now." Ye Mo withdrew his Thermal Vision, his eyes returning to normal. "The problem now is that this thing has more than one entry point. It uses dual-channel communication, one via the network and one via a physical line. Even if we clear the software side, the hardware backdoor is still there."
"Then let's dismantle them." Tony rolled up his sleeves. "Let's check them one by one."
"Too slow." Ye Mo shook his head. "How many spare armors do you have? More than twenty sets, I guess. Each set has more than a dozen modules, and any interface could be tampered with. By the time you finish checking, the enemy will have already launched their third attack."
"So you have an idea?"
"Yes." Ye Mo pointed to the abnormally hot spot in the projection, "Since it's running secretly, it needs to consume power. We'll trace its energy consumption path and find its main location."
"Sounds like fishing."
"It's just fishing," Ye Mo sneered. "But this time we won't use bait; we'll just follow the line straight to the fish's mouth."
Tony grinned, then quickly stopped. "Okay, you lead the investigation, and I'll cooperate. But there's one condition—"
"Explain."
"Don't tell anyone else about this until we find the mastermind. S.H.I.E.L.D.. has too many ears, and the Avengers aren't entirely innocent either. Right now, we can only trust ourselves."
Ye Mo glanced at him and nodded. "Deal."
Tony turned to connect the armor diagnostic system, while Ye Mo refocused and activated Thermal Vision again. This time, he no longer just looked at the surface temperature, but tracked every tiny energy fluctuation, trying to find the hidden thread in the complex Circuit.
On the screen, data cascaded down like a waterfall. At one moment, the right arm thruster trembled without warning, followed by a brief burst of blue light from the entire arm.
"Damn!" Tony quickly switched to the manual control interface. "It started up by itself!"
Ye Mo immediately locked onto that module and discovered that the internal current had suddenly surged, but the command source showed as empty.
"It's not remote control," he said, his voice deepening. "It's a pre-set trigger mechanism. It detects that the system is scanning for weaknesses and then automatically counterattacks."
"Pretty clever," Tony gritted his teeth. "Then let's try a different approach. I won't touch it, and you won't watch it either, letting it think it's safe before suddenly attacking?"
"Okay." Ye Mo narrowed his eyes, "But I need you to switch the armor to low-power standby mode and cut off all unnecessary power. This will reduce its operational space."
"Okay." Tony quickly typed the command, "I'll put it to sleep now, but keep basic monitoring on. Use this window to do a deep scan, and mark any abnormal paths you find immediately."
"Clear."
Tony pressed the confirm button. The armor in the holographic model slowly dimmed, leaving only the core processor and a few key nodes running.
Ye Mo took a deep breath and reactivated his Thermal Vision. This time, he slowed down, scanning each connection point bit by bit. Starting with the head sensor, passing through the chest reactor, and then to the joints of the limbs...
When he swept his hand over the inside of his left scapula, he discovered the problem.
There was an extremely thin auxiliary wire there, not part of the original design, and its color was slightly darker than the other wires. What's even stranger is that its temperature remained stable at around 37 degrees Celsius, like human body temperature.
"Wait." Ye Mo zoomed in on the area. "There's something wrong with this line."
Tony leaned closer. "Where did this come from? I haven't seen this on the blueprints."
"It's not from the factory." Ye Mo tapped the screen lightly with his fingertip. "It was added later, and it's been given an insulating camouflage. But it's been transmitting data continuously, even when the armor is in standby mode."
"So that means..." Tony's expression changed, "It wasn't asleep at all."
"Yes." Ye Mo's eyes turned cold. "It's been listening the whole time."
"Damn it." Tony grabbed the communicator. "I'm going to pull out all the armor and check them one by one."
"No." Ye Mo pressed down on his wrist. "If you move them now, you'll only alert the main control program behind them. If it has a linkage mechanism, the other armors will also activate their defenses."
"What should we do then?"
"We have to make it think we haven't found anything." Ye Mo stared at the wire. "Keep playing dumb and dig slowly."
"But it already knows we're investigating."
"Not necessarily." Ye Mo shook his head. "It only knows that the system is being scanned, but it doesn't know that we've located it. As long as we don't cut it off, it won't run away."
So you want to keep it as a pet?
"For now." Ye Mo withdrew his power, his eyes returning to normal. "Let it continue transmitting data; we'll trace the signal's destination in reverse. Wherever it sends it, we'll follow."
Tony paused for a few seconds, then slowly sat back down in his chair. "You really dare to gamble."
"It's not a gamble." Ye Mo picked up the old chip again and examined it under the light. "The fact that they went to so much trouble to bury the hardware shows they don't want to expose their identities. They're afraid we'll follow the trail. So as long as we remain silent, they'll continue using this line."
"Then we'll wait on the other side." Tony finally smiled. "Okay, whatever you say."
The two exchanged no more words and went about their respective tasks. Tony began organizing the armor's maintenance log, pretending to perform routine maintenance; Ye Mo, on the other hand, continued to set up a covert monitoring program in the background, preparing to secretly record every abnormal communication.
The laboratory returned to silence, with only the low-frequency hum of the machines.
Time ticked by, second by second.
Suddenly, one of the secondary screens on the main control panel flickered slightly.
Ye Mo caught it out of the corner of his eye and immediately turned his head.
On the screen, a hidden data stream is quietly being uploaded. The target address is encrypted layer by layer, but the starting point is clearly visible—it is that wire that feels like body heat.
Without making a sound, he quietly moved his right hand to the keyboard, preparing to activate the tracking protocol.
Tony noticed something was wrong and looked up at him.
Ye Mo raised his left hand and made a "pause" gesture.
Then he slowly placed his finger above the Enter key.
The next second, he was about to press the button.
But at that moment, the temperature of the wires on the left shoulder of the armor suddenly rose from 37 degrees to over 60 degrees.