Ye Mo landed, his boots thudding on the metal floor. Tony followed behind, his armor still on, wisps of smoke rising from his joints. Neither of them spoke, and they headed straight for the command center.
The corridor lights flickered; the fight had disrupted the power supply. Ye Mo's right hand was in his hoodie pocket, his fingertips touching the metal piece he'd retrieved from the scene—it was cold and the edges were a little sharp.
"Do you really think he'll come back?" Tony asked, his voice coming from inside his helmet, carrying a slightly electronic, distorted quality.
"It's not just a feeling," Ye Mo glanced at him, "It's certain. How could he leave before he finished copying his homework?"
Tony snorted, "Then tell me, what exactly is he? A robot? A clone? Or an experimental subject that escaped from some lab?"
"Neither." Ye Mo pushed open the door and walked into the command room. "He's human, and his brain is ridiculously sharp."
The large screen automatically lit up, and the battle footage had been uploaded simultaneously. Tony sat down at the control panel, pulled up the last video, and slowed it down tenfold. In the video, the Taskmaster copied Ye Mo's ice spike attack, raising his right hand with fluid movements.
"Stop." Ye Mo suddenly reached out. "Rewind three frames."
Tony did as instructed. The image froze at that moment— the Taskmaster's little finger twitched slightly, a fraction of a second slower than the others.
"Did you see that?" Ye Mo pointed to the screen, "When he exerted force, there was a delay in his neural signals. This isn't a mechanical malfunction; it's a sign that his brain couldn't process it."
Tony squinted. "You mean, he's 'memorizing actions'? Like reciting a test?"
"Pretty much." Ye Mo leaned back in his chair. "Look at the part where he dodged your flamethrower. A normal person would instinctively jump diagonally, but he moved sideways, like a pre-programmed path. It was too perfect, which made it look fake."
Tony tapped the table. "So he relies on seeing with his eyes, then memorizing with his brain, and then replicating it?"
"Yes." Ye Mo nodded, "But he only remembered the surface. I just scanned the residual energy waveform with the system. The ice spikes he released were seventeen degrees lower in temperature than mine, and their crystal structure was incomplete. He doesn't have the X-Gene, so he can't truly Ice Manipulation; he can only mimic its appearance."
Tony sat bolt upright. "So, the more complex the moves he learns, the bigger his weaknesses become?"
"That's right." Ye Mo opened his consciousness interface. The tenth layer of the Gene Spiral Tower was slowly rotating, and the new analysis slots had begun to work. "He can copy actions, but he can't copy the essence of the ability. It's like you can draw; you can copy exactly what's in the picture, but you don't understand how the light was applied or how the shadows were calculated."
Tony grinned. "Then let's give him something he can't understand."
"I'm already thinking about it." Ye Mo closed his eyes, Telepathy replaying the details of the battle just now. "He relies on observation, which means he has to see before he can learn. What if we create Feint? For example, we might assume a stance for Ice Manipulation, but then not use any skills. Would he just raise his hand for nothing?"
"Brilliant!" Tony slammed his hand on the table. "I can play along. We'll start with the classic pose, then suddenly wiggle our hips and jump twice, see if he follows suit."
"Square dancing is fine too." Ye Mo opened his eyes. "Let his database crash to the rhythm."
The two looked at each other and burst out laughing at the same time.
Tony immediately pulled up the armored AI's tactical analysis module. "I'll import all the data from this time and mark it as 'high mimicry threat.' In the future, when we encounter similar opponents, the system will automatically warn us, so we won't be fooled by superficial actions."
"Smart." Ye Mo nodded, "But don't expect the AI to recognize everything perfectly. This guy learns quickly; maybe next time it can optimize the dodge arc, making it look even more realistic."
"What should we do then?" Tony turned around. "We can't keep coming up with new tricks every time, can we?"
"No need to change." Ye Mo tapped his fingers lightly on the table. "We can just fight unpredictably. Humans have habitual movements when fighting, such as blinking before throwing a punch or shifting their center of gravity before jumping. But he doesn't. Every movement of his is like it's been measured with a ruler, perfectly precise. This 'perfection' is itself a flaw."
Tony pondered for a moment, "You mean... we can deliberately make mistakes?"
"Exactly." Ye Mo's lips curled up. "For example, if I'm going to cast an ice wall, but my hand slips and I only manage to condense half of it, he'll definitely copy that 'incorrect version.' When he uses it, that'll be his weakness."
"That's a cunning move." Tony gave a thumbs up. "I love it."
"And another thing," Ye Mo pulled up the Thermal Vision recording, "when he uses his ability, his nervous system is under extremely high strain. Look at this—" He zoomed in on a data stream, "Each time he copies a skill, the brain's thermal signals spike. If we stack multiple unconventional combinations in a short period of time, he might not be able to react."
Tony's eyes lit up. "Information overload? Make his brain freeze?"
"Pretty much." Ye Mo nodded. "Next time we clash, we won't aim for a decisive victory. We'll disrupt his rhythm first, forcing him to constantly learn and adjust. Once his system is overloaded, he'll naturally reveal his weaknesses."
Tony leaned back in his chair and took a sip of his now-cold coffee. "So now we're not afraid of him coming, we're afraid he won't come?"
"That's right." Ye Mo looked at the frozen image on the screen. "The more he learns, the more details he reveals. By the time he thinks he's mastered our tactics, he's already fallen into a trap."
Tony chuckled and shook his head, "If this guy went to the Olympics, wouldn't he win a ton of gold medals?"
"The technology is truly amazing," Ye Mo admitted, "But it's a pity it's being used in the wrong place. A genius turned thief, and in the end, he still got caught by his master."
"Speaking of the master..." Tony frowned, "Is someone behind him? Hydra? Hellfire? Or some other organization?"
"I don't know," Ye Mo shook his head, "But one thing is certain—he's not training alone. This level of motion capture and real-time feedback requires a lot of training space and data support. He definitely has resources behind him."
"Investigate." Tony immediately got to work. "I'll go through all the surveillance footage from abandoned factories and underground training grounds to see if any similar figures have appeared."
"No rush," Ye Mo stopped him. "If we act too hastily now, he'll become alert. Let's wait for him to try again and let him reveal more clues himself."
"Okay." Tony nodded. "Then we'll wait. Anyway, we don't need another class representative."
Ye Mo smiled and was about to speak when an abnormal data suddenly popped up on the battle footage on the screen.
"Wait." He leaned closer. "There's a signal fluctuation here, and the timing is exactly when he copied my Ice Shield."
Tony zoomed in and discovered a tiny discontinuity in the energy curve, lasting less than 0.2 seconds.
"What is this?" Tony asked.
"It's like some kind of interference." Ye Mo frowned. "It's not natural attenuation, it's more like... being blocked for a moment."
"Shield himself?" Tony was stunned. "He's shielding himself? Why?"
Ye Mo didn't answer. He stared at the fault line, a thought flashing through his mind.
If this person truly lives by memory and imitation, then wouldn't he... also need to "clear his cache"?
Just like a computer needs to be restarted after running for too long.
Just as he was about to delve deeper into the analysis, Tony's communicator suddenly rang.
" Mr. Stark, power has been restored to Area B, but there is still a risk of short circuit in the backup line for Area C."
"Got it," Tony replied, then turned to Ye Mo, "Want to go check it out on site?"
Ye Mo stood up. "Let's go. Let's test out our new idea while we're at it."
The two left the command center and headed towards the underground energy zone. The lights in the passageway were still flickering, and there was a faint smell of burning in the air.
Ye Mo walked ahead, his right hand always in his pocket, holding the metal piece. In his mind, the tenth layer of the Gene Spiral Tower was still operating, and new ability paths were being generated.
Just as they rounded the last bend, Ye Mo suddenly stopped.
There was a trail of wet footprints on the ground ahead.
It's neither mud nor water.
These are traces of melting ice.
The footprints were shallow and pointed deeper into the maintenance tunnel.
Tony saw it too.
He said softly, "It seems our class representative has already handed in their homework ahead of schedule."