Chapter 1069: A Dull Daily Life Before Christmas (Part 1)

The winter atmosphere near Christmas finally emerged from the cold and silence, revealing a bit of the bustle of the mortal world. Outside the balcony, a shuttle fully loaded with passengers occasionally streaked by, adding a unique vitality to the morning.

Shiller was still living at Eddie's place. It wasn't that he didn't want to move back to his clinic, but rather that both of his residences in New York had met with trouble.

The Arkham Asylum air-rail station was almost finished, but Jarvis suddenly pulled the plug, causing the construction to halt urgently. Although it was soon taken over by subsequent automated engineering machinery, the promised noise-reduction devices hadn't been installed; even if it were to operate, it would be too loud for Shiller to get any proper rest.

The small clinic in Hell's Kitchen had also been blown up. Last time Eddie took Bob to get medicine, Bob had thrown a bomb he intended to use on a shuttle into the basement.

Later, Bob developed greedy intentions toward the expensive medicine in the clinic. In the middle of the night, he tried to break in to steal it, but because he was inexperienced and it was the middle of the night, he accidentally detonated the bomb while breaking into the basement, blowing himself half to death and causing the clinic's structure to collapse, making the entire ground floor uninhabitable.

Shiller had no choice but to continue staying at Eddie's. Fortunately, because Eddie had earned a lot of money as an editor and was willing to downsize his lifestyle, renting an apartment on the edge of Hell's Kitchen, he could rent a larger place for the same price.

The apartment Eddie was renting now had three bedrooms, two living rooms, and two large balconies. Although it was a relatively old-fashioned apartment building, in terms of sheer space, it was perfectly fine for him, Shiller, and Thor to live in.

A few days before Christmas, Shiller woke up at 5:30 AM, following his quite punctual biological clock. After waking up, he took his medicine first—not the painkillers he used to numb his brain, but some anti-anxiety medication.

Of course, due to the existence of the Gray Fog, Shiller had no physiological ailments, so these medications were just placebos; he took them whenever he remembered, and if he didn't, it didn't matter.

Shiller took his sleeping cap off his head, went to the bathroom, washed up simply, and then began rummaging through the refrigerator for ingredients to prepare breakfast.

Just then, the door was suddenly knocked. Listening to the urgent "thump-thump-thump" coming from outside, Shiller frowned.

He knew it couldn't be a courier or a newspaper delivery person. This neighborhood didn't have any door-to-door delivery services, and even if they did, they wouldn't knock in this manner—as if the person would start shooting the second you were a second late to open the door.

Shiller put down the lettuce he was holding, walked to the door, and opened it, only to find a bruised and battered Stark standing outside.

Shiller tilted his head, glanced at the air above him, rubbed his eyes, and then slammed the door shut with a "bang."

He opened the door again. Stark slowly retracted his hand, which had been about to knock again. Confirming this wasn't a hallucination, Shiller looked Stark up and down and found that his current state was not good.

First, Stark was wearing a special suit of armor. It was different from the nano-technology and compression-folding suits he had developed; it looked more like a primitive version of a combat suit—the kind where you had to step into it for the armor to close and function.

Moreover, even this primitive suit was incomplete. Stark was only wearing the chest piece and the left arm piece; the entire right arm piece and the left hand piece were missing, and the leg armor was only worn properly on one side, with the other side missing from the knee down.

Shiller opened his mouth. Before some more cutting remarks could escape, he saw the wounds on Stark's face and decided to purify his language slightly. He said, "Recently, have you been aiming to host a fashion show for all your mechs?"

Stark reached out with his hand that lacked a gauntlet and touched a wound on his face, sucking in a cold breath. Then, he looked at Shiller and gave a brilliant smile. Shiller looked back at him with a smile but showed no intention of moving aside, so Stark could only press two fingers together and say, "A tiny experimental error."

"What happened?" Eddie walked out, rubbing his eyes, one eye open and one closed, his eyebrows uneven. When Shiller turned to look at him, he happened to step aside, and Stark squeezed through the door with a "whoosh."

Eddie licked his lips and looked Stark up and down from head to toe. Venom's voice came from his mouth:

"Judging by the area of damage and the direction of the scratches on your suit, you must have just been flipped over by a large truck. Before I mock you, I must ask you a question: didn't your mother teach you not to knock so hard before confirming that no one is sleeping in the room?!!!!!!"

Watching the spit Venom sprayed, Stark stepped back in disgust, wiped the surface of his suit with his hand, gestured at himself, and looked at Shiller and Eddie with a surprised expression, saying, "Don't you notice anything special about this new suit?"

"Especially broken—does that count as special?" Shiller turned around, not looking at Stark, and walked back to the refrigerator to pick out ingredients for breakfast.

"This is a suit made of a molten steel and vibranium alloy. This is my first molten steel-vibranium alloy suit!" Stark raised his voice to introduce it. "In the past, no one had ever been able to smelt these two metals into an alloy, but I succeeded!"

Eddie touched his face and said, "Not to mention whether anyone had ever been able to do it in the past, are you sure... you succeeded?"

Stark looked down at his slightly disheveled image. He touched his nose and said, "This is a test version. The properties of this alloy are a bit harder to control than I imagined. Some parts of the components aren't perfectly fitted, and the coordination between them lacks a bit of synergy..."

"But it doesn't matter. This is exactly why I made it! I came here today hoping to invite you all to give a loud and nice name to this commemorative piece of material science's milestone progress!"

Just then, Thor, who had been woken up, walked out with his hands on his hips. He was shirtless, his body covered in smooth, chiseled muscle lines. He shook his golden hair, squinted, and looked at Stark, saying, "... Did you crash?"

Stark immediately jumped up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, shouting, "What do you mean crash?! This was just a tiny little error in the testing phase!!!"

"Fine, so it crashed." Thor walked to the kitchen island, took the cold beer Shiller handed him, opened the can, poured it into his mouth, wiped his mouth, and let out a satisfied sigh.

Stark stood there and sighed, looking down at his toes, where the shoe on the foot without the foot armor was already broken.

Stark coughed twice and said casually, "So, is this a station you've opened for friends? The great Stark has descended here; shouldn't you provide a little bit of help with maintenance and care?"

Eddie also walked to the cutting board. Shiller happened to bring over a plate of celery. The two leaned in together. Shiller glanced back at Stark and whispered, "Probably crashed halfway there. His image is too pathetic, so he doesn't have the face to go back and see his father..."

Eddie took a piece of celery, put it in his mouth, and bit into it, saying while chewing, "I think it's more likely he doesn't have the face to see Pepper..."

The two nodded together, while Stark stood at the door and shouted at them, "Don't think I can't hear you!... Can't you find me a pair of shoes before chatting?"

Thor, who was lounging on the sofa drinking beer, pointed to the shoe cabinet at the door and said, "Second layer from the bottom—slippers, shoe covers, and sneakers are all there."

Stark limped to the shoe cabinet, took out a pair of brand-new disposable slippers with his gauntleted hand, put them on, and walked swaggeringly to the sofa, sitting down next to Thor.

Thor rested his hands on the back of the sofa and turned to look at Stark, asking, "How is Jarvis?"

Stark rested his elbows on his knees, touched the stubble on his chin, and said, "I've decided to delete Jarvis's underlying protocol. What do you think?"

"I'm not human, so I don't have any opinions to express, but I think it's best not to let too many people know about this. Humans are far too suspicious; they wouldn't be willing to hand over so much important data to a robot with independent consciousness." Thor walked to the island, grabbed another cold beer, and handed it to Stark.

"I trust Jarvis." Stark opened the beer and took a sip, wincing at the cold, then said, "However, you have a point, so I don't intend to tell anyone except you all. You must help Jarvis keep this secret..."

Eddie placed the vegetable salad he had just made on the coffee table and patted Stark on the shoulder. Stark turned to look at him.

Eddie walked back and said, "Originally, I also felt that an intelligent life with independent consciousness wasn't that reliable, but thinking about it carefully, handing these materials over to Congress, the military, or private groups is even less reliable. It's better to hand them to Jarvis."

"Speaking of which, what's going on with this combat suit?" Thor reached out and patted Stark's armored arm, saying, "It looks a bit different. Compared to the suits you've worn before that are more convenient, this one looks heavier, sturdier, and seems to have some other functions..."

"You really have a good eye." Stark immediately became excited. Thor "pfft"-ed and said, "Don't treat the gods of Asgard like bumpkins who haven't seen the world. Asgard has already gone through the stages of technological development that you humans are experiencing."

"In fact, we have also developed similar individual armaments and achieved some results. The Destroyer was one of them. It's just that later we discovered that our individual physical qualities were too strong, and no matter what kind of armament it was, it would only drag down our agility, so we abandoned this path."

Stark snapped his fingers, took another sip of cold beer, and said, "You hit the nail on the head. This new suit is officially modeled after the Destroyer."

"Before, I was always pursuing armament speed, as well as the suit's lightness and flexibility. But now, I've discovered that I need a suit of heavy armor to strengthen my close-quarters combat ability, and it can also be used to control the opponent when necessary..."

"Thanks to nature's gift, the Destroyer suit gave me quite a bit of inspiration. In addition, the breakthrough in material science brought about by the successful smelting of molten steel and vibranium alloy is also a necessary factor for the successful development of this suit..."

"More importantly..." Stark became more and more excited as he spoke, his tone gradually becoming high-pitched: "Previous nano-suits and folding suits were more suitable for humans with combat experience, but this kind of suit is more suitable for autonomous combat..."

"And it's not just for combat. As long as it's equipped with a sufficiently intelligent AI, it can help humans complete many space tasks, allowing precious space personnel to be safer and exert greater roles..."

"So, you were wearing such an advanced, high-tech, epoch-making suit when you crashed into a truck?... And you didn't even win?" Thor asked.

"I told you!! This was just a test version!!!" Stark stood up and roared: "And these missing parts have an automatic homing function. They'll be back soon!"

"Whoosh—thwack! Bang!"

A black shadow smashed through the glass, drew a beautiful straight line in the air, and hit Stark's nose head-on.

The three turned their heads and fixed their eyes on the faceplate part that had just flown up and achieved a fatal blow.

Stark, with trembling arms, took the part stained with nosebleed off his face. In his blur, he saw Thor and Eddie's heads leaning in, while on Shiller's side, a mobile phone camera was extended.

With a "click," Shiller retracted the phone. Stark stared with wide eyes as he lay on the floor. Shiller walked over, squatted beside his head, shook the phone, and said:

"If you don't want the recipient of this text message to be Howard or Pepper, shouldn't you consider increasing the budget for your health and medical treatment for the next quarter?"

"SHILLER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The goddess girl turned her head to look into the distance, where there were the silver-clad spires of the Xiangong on the horizon, the cooking smoke rising from the training ground, and the backs of the pine trees standing on the earth like guards.