Chapter 1034: The Shocking Commoner (Part 12)

Peter keenly sensed that Stark's emotions were problematic. He knew that now was not a good time to talk about things, but since the matter was already halfway through, he had no choice but to continue.

"I know that the defense system on the shuttle is very important. This is to ensure the safety of all passengers. Chief George's situation is more serious because his heart already had problems. Perhaps, after a period of hospitalization, he will be fine..."

"But I also saw the criminal who rushed onto the shuttle with explosives at the hospital. He was a bus driver on the verge of unemployment."

"He told me that the explosives were homemade and very weak, not enough to blow up the entire shuttle. And the reason he ran toward the front of the shuttle at high speed was just because he only wanted to blow up the control system and make the shuttle stop."

"He knew the shuttle had a fall protection device. He didn't want to kill anyone, just wanted to make these advanced gadgets stop working for a week or two, because he had to work for a full month to get his full salary."

Peter took a deep breath and said, "He said this wasn't his idea alone, just because he had no children, and his colleagues were all waiting to buy Christmas gifts for their children."

"He didn't want much, just those few hundred dollars of full salary..." Peter pursed his lips and said, "He was both bad and good, both smart and stupid, just like me."

"Do you think the smart system I designed isn't perfect enough?" Stark seemed to have drilled into a dead end. He said, "I considered every aspect as much as possible, so that everyone, including disadvantaged groups, could enjoy the same convenience."

"In the smart service hall, blind people don't need to operate anything; they just need to tell the smart service robot their purpose, and the robot will help them handle everything."

"Deaf and mute people have a specialized text communication system, covering hundreds of languages, and there are specialized sign language robots to serve them."

"Even a dog that wanders in, the smart service robot can help it handle a specialized transit credential to prevent the aerial smart transport line from not allowing its owner to bring it on board."

"Everyone can enjoy the convenience brought by the new era. What is wrong with this? I don't need rewards, I don't need fame, I don't need anyone to recognize my efforts. I just try my best to let everyone step into a beautiful and convenient future..."

Stark took a deep breath and said somewhat choked up, "When Howard was drunk as a mud, he liked to pull me and brag about the good of the last era, saying that the people of that era were different from us, saying they were noble, pure, hardworking, and diligent..."

"Yes, the typical representative he proposed was Steve." The muscles under Stark's iron armor trembled continuously, and his speech became faster: "He said that every American of that era was just like Steve. He said it was their efforts that brought about the glory of this country."

"He belittled us as worthless, saying that the glorious era would never return, but I must prove to him that every generation has its own glory, and humanity is always on the road of moving forward."

"I will prove that the era I am in, the era I represent, is much better than the era he misses, and what I can do is much more than what he could do."

But then, Stark fell silent again, and a decadent temperament radiated from him, as if his bold words just now had been blown away by the wind. After a moment of silence, he said: "But now it seems that the biggest gap between me and him is that what he did for me, I can never do for him."

"Tony..." Peter rarely called Stark by his name directly. He preferred to be a polite junior in front of elders like Stark, Shiler, or Steve, and never made overstepping jokes. This perhaps came from his uncle's teachings.

But Peter was by no means just their junior; he was also their comrade, qualified to have an equal dialogue with them. So he said, "I often think about whether the development of the era always has to be at the cost of ordinary people's sacrifice."

"The train of the era is moving too fast, and there are always people who can't get on. I know I might be too sentimental and unrealistic. I know I can't save everyone who is left behind by the era, but I always want to do so."

"Because if I hadn't become Spider-Man and was still just a poor kid from Midtown, perhaps my family and I would also be the batch of people left behind by the era."

Peter lowered his head, glanced at his hand, and said, "Last night, at the dinner table, my uncle said he was old and his learning ability wasn't as good as young people's. He hadn't learned the circuit layout of the elevators produced by the previous generation of Stark Industries before a new generation came out."

"He said that when he was young, his father, my grandfather, was also one of those left behind by the era. He said they weren't as lucky as those lucky ones who caught the wave of the era; otherwise, they could have created better living conditions for me..."

Peter's tone had always been very calm, much calmer than Stark's, as if he were talking about something unrelated to himself.

But Stark knew that if he were in Peter's position and heard his uncle say such things, he would probably cry.

He didn't even know when Peter had become so mature and rational, even able to repeat these things to him from an objective perspective after only one night of hearing them.

"I came here not to say that you didn't do well, not to say that you should consider it more perfectly and take care of ordinary people, because I know there is no such perfect person in this world."

"Constantly impacting the limits of humanity, exploring the end of knowledge, looking up at the stars and the sea for everyone, and pursuing the mysteries of the universe is enough to exhaust a person's whole life."

Peter turned his head to look at Stark and said, "You and Dr. Shiler, as well as other scientific researchers, do this, so I will go do something else, do the things you can't take care of, and maintain the happiness of ordinary people who are as ordinary as I am."

"Let this surging wave of the era not only be unable to shake the giant ships like you, but also not capsize those small boats, or I can try my best to save everyone who falls into the water."

"So, you can rest assured to move forward, ride the wind and waves, and sail to the distance. You don't need to worry too much during the acceleration process, and you don't need to feel guilty and sorry for the ordinary people who couldn't catch up with you after this era ends."

Stark's emotions finally collapsed completely. Under Peter's gaze, the engine of the iron armor roared, and Iron Man rushed into the sky instantly, breaking through upward at a speed far beyond what the engine could bear, until he reached above the atmosphere.

No one knew whether the stars in the vast and silent cosmic space really heard the wailing of iron, and no one knew that the person whose will had always been as strong as steel was actually someone's child and someone's father.

The image on the projection screen was fixed on a blue planet. Shiler sat up from the chair, rubbed his neck muscles that had finally relaxed a bit, and said to Jarvis: "... Jarvis, is there any cold beer left?"

Two minutes later, Stark, who was somewhat dazed from drunkenness, saw a fair hand carrying a pack of beer in a very rough way and slamming it onto the table.

He looked up, surprised that he didn't see Steve's face. Shiler looked into Stark's eyes and said, "Yesterday, I went to drink with Steve. He said your dad couldn't outdrink him either."

Stark's eyes widened instantly, and the previous drunkenness was swept away. He slapped the table and cursed: "Howard bragged about him every day!!! Every day!!! He spoke well of him every day!! Conversely..."

"And Steve is a modified human. How can he have the nerve to compete with an ordinary person in drinking capacity??!! Wait, don't tell me you couldn't outdrink him either??"

Shiler nodded and said, "I really couldn't outdrink him, so I'm planning to call him over now. With you, this comrade-in-arms, we will definitely be able to drink him under the table."

Stark immediately started rubbing his hands and said, "You wait a minute, Jarvis! Jarvis! Get me a cold towel... wait, clean up here first, ah, no, don't take away the cans, these all count as my battle record..."

At this time, Shiler had already dialed the phone and said to the other side: "Hello? Is this Steve? Tony Stark wants to invite you to drink..."

Stark immediately gestured opposite him, meaning "don't say it was me who said it." Shiler immediately changed his words and said: "I mean, I want to invite you to drink. We didn't drink to our heart's content yesterday, and you were drunk..."

"What? I was drunk? Don't talk nonsense. I am a cloud of mist. How can a cloud of mist be drunk? You must be hallucinating because your spirit is too tense. That's right, believe me, I am the most professional psychologist..."

"Yes, Tony and I are both here." Shiler rolled his eyes, glanced at Stark who was pretending not to care but whose eyes were always glancing this way, and tapped the table with his finger, saying: "Yes, Tony and I are on the same side, you'd better be careful..."

"How about this, for the sake of fairness, it's two-on-two. You can also bring a teammate..." Just as Shiler finished this sentence, Stark stared at him with wide eyes. Then, Shiler frowned and switched the phone to the other side, saying: "What? You say you can take us both down by yourself?"

Stark immediately slapped the table and turned his body to one side, appearing as if he were about to leave, with "See, I told you he's an arrogant maniac!" written on his face.

Then, Stark shifted the stool under his butt, appearing somewhat awkward. Shiler continued: "Of course, you can bring Bucky over. What? You say you are both modified humans, so isn't it a bit unfair to the ordinary Tony?"

Stark immediately showed a shocked expression, followed by boundless anger. He snatched the phone and said to the other side:

"Steve Rogers! You listen to me! Ordinary person??!!"

"If anxiety has already made you talk nonsense and hallucinate, you'd better hurry up and go to the psychiatric hospital to take your medicine! Stop participating in the drinking party of geniuses!"

"I don't care who you're bringing, listen, Stark will never lose to you! No matter which Stark it is!!!"

"Clack," hanging up the phone, Stark threw the phone onto the table. Shiler rolled his eyes and said: "I have to remind you, the two of us were drinking yesterday and neither of us cheated, which is why we both got drunk. If there is a real contest today, you might really..."

"Jarvis! Jarvis! Where is my life-support armor??!! Help me debug it, I want to put it on right now!" Stark stood up immediately and then turned back to Shiler and said: "You think physique is everything? You need to have a brain to be a person!"

About two hours later, the entire laboratory looked like it had been soaked in a vat of alcohol. Using "cans" to describe how much they had drunk was already a bit redundant; it was better to just use "tons."

Just as Steve said, Captain America and the Winter Soldier were both genetically modified humans. They belonged to the type who could get drunk if they wanted to, and if they didn't want to, they could metabolize the alcohol immediately just by taking a few deep breaths.

Shiler didn't even need to be mentioned; how much he could drink depended on how much the gray mist could drink, and as for how much the gray mist could drink, Jonathan Crane, the Scarecrow, had something to say.

And surprisingly, Stark, whose physique was just that of an ordinary person, didn't show any weakness either. His life-support armor had undergone several updates and upgrades, making it a piece of cake to help him metabolize alcohol.

Thus, the four men drank until the sky went dark in the laboratory of Stark Tower.

Jarvis and Ultron, the two most cutting-edge smart mechanical butlers, searched for alcohol inventory throughout New York, formulated the shortest alcohol-buying routes, and ensured supply, getting so tired their central processors were smoking.

Natasha, Barton, and Coulson all went into action, and the alcohol merchants in New York made a fortune, as did Nick.

Fortunately, although these people metabolized alcohol quickly, they couldn't metabolize it indefinitely. Or rather, metabolizing 99% would always leave 1%, and when this 1% accumulated, they would still get drunk.

Until the end, Steve and Bucky didn't even have the thought of metabolizing alcohol anymore, the gray mist was screeching and delirious in Shiler's brain, and Stark didn't even have the instinct to control the armor.

The four people were sprawled on both sides of the sofa, in a very disheveled state, and their mouths were not very clean.

"You... are no good!" Steve spoke first. He reached out his arm in a daze, pointing at Stark, and said: "Your dad... is no good either!"

"You're farting!" Stark retched and said: "You... are all farting! Today only... Stark... won!"

"I... can still... drink..." Bucky was already so tongue-tied he couldn't say a complete word, his mechanical arm lifting uncontrollably, grabbing toward the bottle beside him.

"Drinking empty bottles doesn't count!" Shiler straightened up immediately and knocked the bottle out of Bucky's hand. At this moment, neither of them noticed that it was an empty bottle that had been finished.

"This is my... first time getting drunk!" Steve said, also with a thick tongue: "We drank... maybe a few tons? Was it 100 tons? I drank at least... um... at least 60 tons by myself, I went to the bathroom more than 130 times, I counted very clearly..."

"You're farting!" Stark immediately retorted. He bit his tongue, let out a cry of pain, and then said: "You... went to the bathroom 20 more times than me! So... you should be... more than 140 times..."

"You are all scum!" Shiler said: "Only I didn't go to the bathroom even once... so... I won today..."

"That... that is true..." Steve leaned crookedly on the other side of the sofa and started vomiting. After vomiting, he wiped his mouth and said: "I admire you most for this... but... you don't have anything to be proud of either, you've drunk yourself into a cloud of mist!"

Shiler was indeed in the state of a gray mist now, because the gray mist had started to act crazy from the alcohol.

Stark suddenly started giggling, then pointed at the three of them with a trembling finger and said: "... Look at you! You have no image at all! Look at me... look at me!"

"Hiccup!" Steve hiccuped again and said: "You are... a big tycoon! We... we are all commoners..."

"I am also... a commoner..." Stark shook his upper body, picked up another bottle of alcohol, slammed it onto the table, clinked it, and then held it high.

At this time, the moonlight outside the window was very bright, just like every clear night.

And in the room where the light shone through, several hands were raised high. When the glasses clinked together, the moon in the sky also felt lonely because of this liveliness and vulgarity.

So, she flew over from the distant horizon, leaned to the window, and listened intently, but didn't hear their grand ideals and unrealistic fantasies.

She only heard four drunkards, even if incoherently, shouting loudly:

"To... the commoners!"

"To the commoners!"

Thus, the moonlight was also reluctant to leave, gently lowering her head, ordinarily matching every exhausted commoner.

Hiccup ===== CHAPTER 1035 =====