Chapter 224

On the day the Stark Industries Expo opened, New York was brilliantly clear, the streets of Midtown teemed with traffic, and East Central Station Road was completely jammed.

Service vehicles opened their trunks; TV crew members unloaded reflectors and camera stands, while near the front of the vehicles, the editor instructed the reporter holding the microphone on key points.

Along the roadside, several luxury car drivers impatiently honked to drive away influencers and bloggers blocking the road for filming; even coffee and hot dog stalls benefited from the crowd, their fronts packed with people—young men and women in fashionable clothes, holding food and drinks, chatting in small groups.

Not long after, the glass doors of Stark Tower opened, and everyone surged forward like soldiers responding to a command—the reporters reacted fastest, charging ahead with their long lenses; car owners, mindful of their status, slowly opened their doors, sipping coffee bought by their drivers, leaning against their vehicles to watch.

Young couples drawn by the spectacle squeezed inward; Peter shielded Gwen with his arm, and the two followed the crowd into Stark Tower. Gwen whispered to Peter: "You seem so familiar with this place—your internship must have been serious."

Peter glanced around and said: "Lucky for us, I brought my employee badge—we'll take the staff entrance."

He pulled Gwen away from the crowd toward the other side. Gwen worriedly asked: "But we don't even know the exact address—what floor is '90' on the invitation?"

"I don't know either, but we'll head to the 89th floor first—there's no mistake."

Others entering the tower lacked Peter's initiative. After reaching the lobby of Stark Tower, they discovered there were no guides—many complained about Stark's arrogance, but since they'd come this far, most simply followed the crowd into the elevators.

Stark Tower's capacity was excellent; even with so many people flooding in at once, everyone was efficiently transported to the top floor.

Floors 79 to 89 of Stark Tower were Stark's personal laboratories, normally closed to the public, and almost no one had ever entered or exited the 89th floor—yet when the crowd spilled out of the elevators, everyone froze.

Early 21st-century technology was already advanced, but nowhere near the level of alien technology displayed in Stark Tower. The moment they stepped out of the elevator, the entire corridor lit up, and an electronic voice spoke: "Hello, I am JARVIS, the butler of Stark Tower Headquarters. Welcome. Please follow the lighting cues to your designated exhibition locations…"

Then, lights flared, and a holographic arrow appeared in the corridor.

The crowd followed the guidance through the high-tech corridor, arriving at the side hall of the 89th floor, where three walls and half the ceiling were glass curtain walls.

The curtain walls were covered in honeycomb-like structures; as the crowd poured in, metal panels unfolded like fish scales, allowing bright but non-glaring sunlight to stream through the glass.

Peter, entering directly from the staff passage with Gwen, walked in as if it were routine; Gwen, however, was astonished: "Such vast glass curtain walls—can they really support the building's weight?"

Peter explained to Gwen: "It's Stark Industries' new technology—no official name yet, but I call it Resonance Glass. The larger the surface area, the greater the strength…"

The crowd flooded into the hall, only to find Stark wasn't there. As they wondered where the Expo's host had gone, a high-pitched humming sound came from above.

Then, a rapid, machine-gun-like clatter of armor panels echoed overhead. Shadows suddenly appeared above them. Everyone looked up—and gasped.

With a roaring wind, hundreds of drone frames flew in through openings at the glass curtain wall's corners. Sunlight glinted off the metallic armor, turning the entire hall into a blinding rain of diamonds, dazzling light so intense it forced eyes shut.

A louder jet roar followed as a massive aerial platform descended from the center of the hall. The instant it touched the ground, smoke billowed from its edges; all the drones landed, forming a protective ring around the platform, and Stark, dressed in a suit, rose from within.

The dense crowd stood motionless, stunned by his unimaginable entrance. Then Stark spread his arms and said: "You think this is all?"

He shook his head, slowly raised his gaze to the sky, and everyone followed his look. Instantly, armor encased his body—he lifted off the ground, flew out through the glass ceiling, and his voice echoed: "Prepare to deploy!"

As Stark's words faded, the crowd saw shadows gathering above them. The other half of the ceiling was now covered in metal, and countless metallic structures surged forward like ocean waves.

Support pillars rose layer by layer; walls grew like living things; armor plates spread, gears interlocked, structures overlapped—in an instant, a mechanical city, floating like an island, appeared above everyone's heads.

They watched in awe as Stark, hovering midair above the 89th floor of Stark Tower, unleashed a colossal mechanical city.

Then they saw the vast mechanical island begin to descend slowly; the drones flew out in all directions and hovered beneath the island, as if ready to catch it.

As this colossal structure loomed downward, everyone's faces twisted in terror—the descent, like a mountain crushing down, carried suffocating pressure.

I Have a Scroll of Ghost and God Records

In the center of the hall, Stark descended from the light-bridge elevator. As it touched the ground, his helmet retracted, his voice echoing through the hall:

"Welcome to—the Stark Industries Expo!"

As he spoke, the drones supporting the island below rapidly reshaped into pillars. With mechanical hums and jet roars, the mechanical island settled firmly atop Stark Tower.

Someone shouted first—but within seconds, deafening cheers erupted throughout the entire hall.

The crowd was utterly ecstatic. No matter their original motives for coming, they had all witnessed a miracle of human technology.

At that moment, Stark's earpiece carried Schiller's satisfied voice: "Worth every damn bulb I twisted."

Stark pressed his earpiece and replied: "Clearly, the least important part was you twisting bulbs."

In Stark Tower's monitoring room, everyone exhaled in relief. Steve glanced at the monitor showing Peter and Gwen's stunned expressions and said: "Peter's going to be heartbroken if he finds out we didn't bring him."

"He said he was waiting for his girlfriend and couldn't come early," Schiller said, setting down his coffee cup. "Let's go—the work's done. Time to tour the exhibit."

"You two go ahead," Rhodes said from behind them. "Stark told me someone might try to cause trouble—I'll check the evacuation routes again, make sure civilians aren't caught in the crossfire."

Natasha smoothed her hair and said to Schiller: "Stark knew someone was coming to sabotage him—and still made such a flashy entrance?"

"You should be worrying less about Stark's safety, and more about the safety of whoever's trying to sabotage him."

The two walked into the hall. Schiller spoke as they moved: "Stark Tower's security systems have been fully upgraded. I doubt those people can…"

After boarding the mechanical island, Peter and Gwen became silent machines of awe, uttering nothing but "Whoa" the entire time.

The mechanical island wasn't just for show. Once atop it, visitors were surrounded by a dazzling array of Stark Industries' new technologies and machines—mechanical wonders that shouldn't have existed in this era, leaving them spellbound.

Typically, industrial expos are comprehensive: even if Stark was the host, he'd invite other industrial conglomerates to exhibit. The host provides the venue and allocates space to each participant. Previous Stark Industries Expos followed this format.

But this Stark Industries Expo had no room for anyone else—it was purely and simply "Stark Industries" alone.

This began with the moment Stark used the magic reactor to ascend dimensions. At that instant, he gained higher-dimensional sensory perception—and the combat methods of the Iron Demons' mechanical army gave him profound insights.

Previously, Stark wasn't an extreme technological conservative, but due to his lack of security, he disliked anything uncontrollable.

But upgrading JARVIS's emotional capacity was his first step. The Vampire War made him realize the importance of scale and functionality. Later, the Iron Demons' perspective showed him that risk and uncontrollability were merely matters of insufficient technology—if he reached the state of "I am the swarm," there was no risk of AI uprising.

Having experienced this, Stark broke through his inner barriers. He stopped obsessing over single-pilot armor, realizing that instead of becoming a perfect mechanical individual, being the master of machines and the steel tide was far more practical.

Once he grasped this, Stark's inspiration exploded. Previously, his skills followed a single linear path—once he hit a bottleneck, progress stalled. Now, on that foundation, he'd grown a dense skill tree. When one line hit a wall, he simply branched off to another—his research efficiency skyrocketed.

Stark's greatest distinction from other geniuses was his boundless creativity. After upgrading his path into a skill tree, the exhibits at the Stark Industries Expo became extraordinarily rich. He needed no collaboration from competitors—his own inventions alone filled the entire grand industrial expo.

Had Schiller not grown tired of twisting bulbs, the mechanical island's scale would've been one-third larger—and Stark could've packed in even more.

Even the most critical reviewers had to admit: this was an unprecedented expo—not just because of its stunning opening, rich product lineup, and advanced technology, but most importantly, because it was entirely completed by Stark Industries alone, powerfully demonstrating the company's staggering financial strength and Stark's astonishing creativity.

"Well?" Stark squeezed out from the press crowd to meet Schiller on the island. "I told you it'd be a surprise. Those reporters are stunned—you can't believe it? Out of all those journalists, not one asked me about tabloid gossip. They're all just amazed at how I did it…"

"But…" Schiller glanced around and said, "Don't you feel something's missing from this show?"

"Missing?" Stark blinked. "All my exhibits are here. What's missing?"

"Your opponent," Schiller said, looking at Stark with exasperation.

Stark opened his mouth. "I forgot them. Right—Hammer Industries and that guy, Yin Fan Wanke? Weren't they supposed to show up and disrupt my expo?"