The master's challenge

Just as Ye Mo was about to speak, his eyes suddenly caught sight of the white mist on the surveillance screen.

The wisp of white mist was still drifting, but a thin crack had appeared in the door, as if it had been slowly pushed open from the inside. He immediately raised his hand and placed it on the control panel, his Telepathy instantly spreading out like a net into the B-section storage room.

There was no heartbeat, no breathing, not even body temperature. But something was wrong in the air—a very subtle fluctuation of nerve signals, like a rapidly working brain recording something.

"Tony," Ye Mo said in a low voice, "Don't move."

Tony stopped typing and looked up at him.

"There's no one in the storage room, but someone is 'watching' us." Ye Mo squinted. "Not with their eyes, but with their brains, memorizing movements, rhythms, and combat data."

"Who's got so much free time?" Tony sneered, his finger already hovering over the armor activation button. "You'll have to pay royalties if you want to steal my skills."

The moment the words left his mouth, the ground exploded.

The concrete floor exploded into fragments as if bombarded by a cannonball, and a figure leaped out from the ground, landing with slightly bent knees, right hand forward, and left foot half a step back—exactly the same posture Tony used every time he landed in his armor.

"Holy crap." Ye Mo jumped back a step.

The man stood up straight, wearing a gray-black tactical exoskeleton, his face expressionless, his eyes as cold as a frozen lake. Without a word, he charged forward, throwing a standard hook with his right fist, followed by a burst of flame from his thrusters, and dodged three meters to the side, perfectly replicating the new evasion route Tony tested last week.

"Who gave you motion capture privileges!" Tony roared, his armor instantly activating, arm armor deploying, and flamethrowers aimed at the opponent's chest.

The man rolled to the side with movements so fluid they seemed inhuman. After landing, he swung an electromagnetic grappling hook, which slammed into the wall. Using the momentum, he launched himself into the air and kicked Tony in the face—a close-combat combo that Tony had only modified three days prior, one that hadn't even been revealed in his training log.

"Who the hell are you?" Tony was knocked back two steps, Mars flying from his armored shoulder.

Ye Mo didn't have time to answer. He raised his hand and conjured ice, and a thick wall rose from the ground, blocking the two of them. At the same time, he activated his Thermal Vision to see if this guy had an energy source in his body. He found that the other person's body temperature was normal, but his muscle reaction speed was ridiculously fast, as if his nervous system had been forcibly accelerated.

"He's not Mutants." Ye Mo frowned. "He doesn't have genetic abilities."

The man turned to look at him, a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth.

Then he raised his hand, and cold air gathered in his palm.

The air temperature plummeted, and an ice spike materialized out of thin air, shooting straight toward Ye Mo's face.

Ye Mo instinctively ducked to avoid it, but the ice spikes grazed his hat, flew past, and embedded themselves in the ceiling, exploding into fragments.

"You don't have the X-Gene... how can you Ice Manipulation Technique?" Ye Mo's eyes widened.

The man smiled again, "I'll understand after watching it once."

After saying that, he used both hands simultaneously, and three ice blades shot through the air in quick succession. The angles were tricky and the rhythm was precise, which was exactly the rapid-fire mode that Ye Mo often used.

Ye Mo rolled away awkwardly, leaning against the ice wall to catch his breath. This wasn't just imitating the movements; they had copied even the fighting habits.

"Don't let him succeed!" Tony roared, activating his armor at full power, his arms shooting out flames, drawing two arcs of fire in the air and forcing the man to retreat.

The man remained calm, performing a backflip to avoid the flames. The moment he landed, he pulled out a vibrating dagger—the same tool Ye Mo had used last month to cut the virus module, even the way he held it was exactly the same.

"You even watched me take apart parts?" Ye Mo gritted his teeth.

The man ignored him, turned to face Tony, and suddenly struck Tony's most classic opening pose: a single finger pointing to the sky, the thrusters humming in anticipation.

"Wait..." Tony's pupils contracted, "I haven't used this move in public yet!"

The next second, the person actually took to the air, with the trajectory, altitude, and acceleration all perfectly synchronized, like another Iron Man plunging down.

Tony took the punch head-on; the armor clanged with a metallic sound as he was thrown back five meters, crashing into half a wall.

"Damn!" Tony coughed. "Are you a videotape that's come to life?"

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Ye Mo circled around to the flank, slapped the ground with both hands, and the ground instantly froze, attempting to freeze the man's feet. However, the man had anticipated this, jumped up, twisted his waist in mid-air, and slid as he landed, just avoiding the ice surface. He even picked up a piece of ice from the ground and threw it at Ye Mo.

During flight, he rapidly rubbed the ice block with his fingers, and it transformed into a sharp ice needle that pierced straight into Ye Mo's throat.

Ye Mo tilted his head to dodge, but the ice needle pierced the wall near his neck, vibrating and buzzing.

"He's not simply copying," Ye Mo's heart sank. "He's refining my moves."

Tony crawled out of the rubble, his armor smoking. "Then tell me how to fight him? He's better at fighting himself than I am now!"

"Let's try a combination technique." Ye Mo thought quickly, "He can only learn what he's seen before; he can't do what he hasn't seen before."

"For example?" Tony asked.

"For example—" Ye Mo suddenly reached out and grabbed Tony's armored arm, "Are your thrusters still working?"

"Fuel at 60% remaining."

"Enough," Ye Mo sneered. "Let's try something he's never seen before."

Before he finished speaking, he activated his Ice Manipulation Technique, and the cold air spread along Tony's arm, condensing into a spiral of ice tubes at the thruster nozzle.

"What are you doing?" Tony exclaimed in surprise.

"Show him something new." Ye Mo grinned, "Cryogenic compression + overload injection, the physics class representative is online."

He stomped his foot on the ground, unleashing a burst of icy air that instantly thickened the ice tubes, creating a temporary pressurized chamber. Tony reacted immediately and activated the thrusters.

Boom!

The nozzle erupted with blue-white flames, mixed with ice shards and steam, at least 30% more powerful than usual. The shockwave sent the man flying, crashing through two walls and into the middle of the street.

"Feels good, doesn't it?" Ye Mo flicked his wrist.

"It was awesome, but you almost cracked my thrusters." Tony stretched his arms. "Next time, give me a heads-up."

"If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise." Ye Mo stared at the pothole in the street. "Besides... he hasn't fallen yet."

The man in the pit slowly stood up. His exoskeleton had several cracks, but his movements remained steady. He looked down at his hands, then looked up at the two men, a hint of excitement in his eyes.

"Not bad." He spoke for the first time, his voice hoarse, "You've finally made me break a sweat."

"You seem to be enjoying this?" Tony sneered. "Want me to hand you a bottle of water?"

The man ignored him and instead raised his hand, beginning to mimic the scene from before—first Ye Mo's freezing motion, then Tony's gesture of activating the thrusters, and finally even attempting to freeze the tube himself.

"He's learning a new combination." Ye Mo's heart tightened.

"Then don't let him learn it." Tony stepped forward. "This time, it's my turn to attack."

"Wait a minute." Ye Mo suddenly felt a jolt in his head.

A notification sound rang out:

[New enemy detected, Gene Spiral Tower unlocks ninth floor]

He paused for a moment, and the ninth floor of the tower deep within his consciousness slowly lit up, revealing a new ability analysis slot. It was empty, but it had already begun automatically scanning battlefield data.

"What's wrong?" Tony turned around.

"It's nothing." Ye Mo closed his eyes for a second, then opened them with a changed expression. "I just feel... our chance has come."

The man finished the simulation, raised his hand, and tried to release a cryogenic jet. Although he failed, he got the direction and timing pretty close.

"It seems you're not omnipotent after all." Ye Mo took a step forward. "You can only imitate, not create."

The man looked at him coldly. "Enough to beat you."

"Let's give it a try." Ye Mo braced himself with his hands on the ground, and the chill spread wildly, causing the entire street to freeze.

Tony also raised his arms, activating all of his armor's weapon systems.

The two men flanked each other from the left and right, their steps synchronized, their breathing in unison, as if they had rehearsed it a thousand times.

The man stood still, waiting for them to approach.

Ye Mo suddenly accelerated, gliding closer, and condensed an ice blade in his right hand, sweeping it horizontally. The man raised his arm to block, but Tony attacked from behind, spraying flames at his face.

He barely managed to roll over and dodge, and was about to counterattack the moment he landed, but Ye Mo had already anticipated this and buried three layers of thin ice on the ground in advance. He missed a step and lost his balance.

Tony seized the opportunity and landed a powerful punch on his chest.

Click.

A large crack appeared in the exoskeleton.

The man staggered backward, but instead of panicking, he smiled.

"Very good," he said. "I've got this rhythm."

He slammed his hand on the ground, unleashing a ring of interference pulses that shattered the surrounding ice and sent smoke billowing up.

Just as Ye Mo was about to give chase, he discovered that the person had already assumed their combined attack stance in the smoke.

Ice Manipulation with the left hand and breathing fire with the right, a two-pronged attack.

"You even want to copy this?" Ye Mo was furious.

"As long as you can copy it," the man replied coldly, moving both arms simultaneously.

Ice and fire clashed back at them.