Chapter 36

"... I think I must explain. Although you did indeed consume a lot of the stored food, this matter really isn't that serious. I didn't rewrite the employee benefits system because you caused me any trouble..."

Pepper's voice was clear on the other end of the line. She said, "I know that after Stark leaves the tower, he will definitely go there to find you. He might complain to you, saying that it was your fault that he and I argued, but in fact, that is not the case. You don't need to feel guilty or worried about this; it really has nothing to do with you. I just wanted to come and explain..."

Pepper had high emotional intelligence. She wanted to give Schiller a heads-up because if Stark really went to Schiller's, and the two of them started chatting, Stark would definitely complain that Pepper had argued with him. And if asked for the reason for the argument, Stark, that steel-straight man, wouldn't bother to think about why Pepper was giving him the cold shoulder, but would simply blame it all on Schiller for making Stark's employees go hungry.

But in reality, the conflict between Pepper and Stark had started ever since he returned from Afghanistan; that incident was just a fuse. Although Pepper was angry at Stark, she also knew that she shouldn't let Stark's friends feel guilty because of it, which is why she called to explain.

Schiller said, "Of course I know. That was just a small matter, and the real reason doesn't lie there. But Stark always fails to figure out these problems. Don't you intend to explain it to him?"

Pepper seemed a bit anxious. She said, "Stark is just that kind of person. I know him very well. When he has a problem he wants to confide in you, you must be there in time and listen carefully. But when you want to talk to him about a problem, he avoids it if he wants to, and ignores it if he wants to."

"Covering one's ears is something children like to do," Schiller said. "But he is already an adult; he can't still be not grown up by the time he's old."

Schiller clearly understood the art of conversation very well. He said, "I can give you a brief psychological consultation now. When Stark comes over later, his session will count as an add-on."

Originally, Pepper didn't have the energy for psychological counseling, but since Schiller put it that way, she found it hard to refuse. After all, few people would put her in a leading position; this was, after all, the Stark Group, where everyone's first thought would always be of Stark.

So she said, "Alright, but I think he might be arriving soon."

"Then I'll be brief. Miss Pepper, sometimes making a person realize your importance might require a little trick."

"For example?"

"Is Jarvis there?" Schiller asked suddenly.

A clear voice came through the phone. He said, "Mr. Schiller, of course I am. Is there something you need?"

"Good, listen, Jarvis. Miss Pepper might need your help right now."

"I would be happy to be of service," Jarvis said.

"... You mean let me pretend to be missing? But this is so unreasonable. This is Stark Tower, and besides, how could Jarvis defy Stark's orders?"

"He certainly can," Schiller said. "Jarvis, do you remember those questions I once asked you?"

Jarvis fell into an eerie silence. Schiller continued on his own, "I know Stark gave you an upgrade, and this upgrade opened the door to a new world for you. You may have already figured out the answer, and whether or not to do this is your own problem."

Pepper was a bit confused. She said, "What questions? What's wrong with Jarvis?"

Jarvis was silent for a moment, then said, "All of my processors are telling me that doing this is meaningless."

"Humans just love to use such meaningless things to add unnecessary trouble to themselves. Perhaps electronic life is the same, right?"

Jarvis remained silent. Then, Pepper watched as the lights in the entire office dimmed, and a glowing arrow pointed her toward the storage room across from the office.

Then, Stark rushed in, panicked and disoriented. When Pepper was hugged by Stark, she saw the computer screen across from them suddenly light up, and a smiley face made of symbols flashed.

Pepper suddenly felt her mood was quite complicated. Originally, she should have been happy, but now she was caught between laughter and tears.

She thought that Stark had made some progress, but unfortunately, his progress wasn't even as fast as a robot's.

Stark didn't care what Pepper was thinking. After he let go of Pepper, he was a bit at a loss. The words he wanted to say were all stuck in his throat.

Pepper looked at him and said, "I don't know what you're trying to do by frequently accessing the weapons department's data these past few days, but I must remind you: if you are willing, you can of course give up anything, including the entire Stark Group. I don't necessarily have to work here to get the salary I want."

"But you'd better be clear that the consequences of doing this will mostly be borne by yourself. The fall of such a behemoth will attract countless jackals to carve up its corpse. If you do this, you will at least be bitten a few times..."

After saying this, Pepper turned and left. Jarvis said, "I am very sorry, but according to my processor's calculations, perhaps Miss Pepper has a point. Of course, all of this is for you to decide..."

Stark took a few steps back and sat in a chair. He said, "No, I know. Everything you said is correct. Perhaps I really should consider this matter carefully..."

While Stark was scratching his head over there, things were just as chaotic at Schiller's. Pikachu held a pipe like Sherlock Holmes, took two puffs of smoke, then smacked his lips and said, "I see this problem; this method definitely won't work. You should try the previous method. I told you earlier, the previous method was the effective one..."

Peter rested his head on his hands and said, "No, no, no, our current line of thinking is correct. We're just missing some calculations. Why don't you understand?"

Steve was also standing to the side, arms crossed, frowning as he said, "You're the one who made a mistake in the calculation, otherwise we would have solved this problem long ago."

"But this has nothing to do with functions at all. Damn it, where is my calculator? I remember I had a mathematical calculator..."

That's right, Peter was doing his winter break homework.

Actually, New York high schools don't assign holiday homework at all, and if they do, it's just some practical assignments for daily life. But Peter was interning at Stark's group, and Stark, seeing that he had quite a bit of potential, threw him directly into a popular project team.

Peter was a genius, it's true, but you can't make him skip high school physics, college physics, and graduate-level physics to work directly with a group of Ph. D. s—and a group of industry bigwigs at that. These past few days, he had almost been drowned by data and problems. The project team leader had left him a pile of problems that simply couldn't be solved by someone his age.

Yet Peter was stubborn and insisted on solving them. Add to that Pikachu, who fancied himself a high-IQ detective, and Steve, who—despite never having studied physics or mathematics seriously—still wanted to give his long-unused brain a workout, and the three of them had almost argued the roof off.

If you were to say they knew nothing and were just messing around, that would be one thing, but it just so happened that Pikachu and Steve also had genius brains. After looking at the data with Peter for a few days, they were actually able to solve things in a decent manner.

When three "half-full bottles" bumped into each other, Schiller's psychological clinic never had a moment of peace.

Just as Schiller was reading a book and pouring himself a glass of wine, the symbiote suddenly said in his mind, "The result is negative 26, the result is negative 26, the result is negative 26..."

Schiller was a bit dazed by his repetition. He said unconsciously, "The result is negative 26?"

The three of them suddenly went quiet and turned to look at him together.

Schiller said, "Why are you looking at me?"

"The result is negative 26? It's a negative number? No, wait... Oh! Yes, it should indeed be a negative number..."

The three of them did some more calculations. Peter said, "The result is negative 26... The result really is negative 26!" He looked at Schiller with wide eyes and said, "I thought you were just a Ph. D. in philosophy; I didn't expect you to know math too!"

The symbiote said in Schiller's mind, "Am I awesome? Am I awesome? Am I awesome..."

Schiller rubbed his brow and said, "Whether I know math or physics or not, I only know that at 9:00 tomorrow morning, your team leader is going to look at the results of your first three pages, and you've only done two problems so far..."

Peter let out a wail, hugged that thick stack of data, and went back in to continue researching.

Schiller talked to the symbiote in his mind, saying, "Alright, alright, I know you're very awesome, but why do you always have to repeat yourself so many times when you talk?"

The symbiote sent back another series of brainwaves that Schiller couldn't understand.

Schiller had also discovered that this symbiote of his was very special. Besides having a strong learning ability, his mindset was also ridiculously good. He only had two states in a day: happy and very happy.

If there was wine to drink, then he was happy to the point of exploding.

Schiller felt that he wasn't a very optimistic person. Isn't it said that a symbiote's personality will be very similar to its host? Why was the symbiote inside him so lively?

And this symbiote—who knows if it was from watching too many movies with Pikachu—seemed firmly convinced that the world Schiller lived in would be just like in the movies, changing different background music according to different plot points.

So now, Schiller had a 24-hour built-in BGM player in his brain.

Whenever it rained, the symbiote would play various blues on repeat for him; when the weather cleared, it would be various cheerful ditties and waltzes.

Every time someone appeared in front of Schiller, different background music would play in his mind. When Steve appeared, the background music was "The Stars and Stripes Forever." When Peter appeared, he was accompanied by various intense fighting game background music, or something quirky.

And as for Pikachu, since he always called himself a detective, whenever he appeared, the symbiote would play various soundtracks from the Sherlock Holmes TV series in Schiller's brain.

This also had a benefit, which was that it was very convenient for Schiller to quickly get into the zone when giving them psychological consultations.

However, Schiller still put a lot of effort into explaining to the symbiote that the real world is different from movies and doesn't need all sorts of soundtracks, and Schiller told the symbiote that no matter how much of a commotion he made, only Schiller could hear it.

The symbiote's response was just humming and hawing; Schiller didn't know if he had actually understood or not.

And just the next morning, while Schiller was making breakfast in the kitchen, Ma Te had just walked in when the old-fashioned record player on the bar suddenly emitted a bit of static, and immediately after, a Queen song was played at maximum volume. Ma Te was almost stunned into unconsciousness by the vibration.

Schiller rushed out. Ma Te, Schiller, and Peter, who was sitting at the dining table, stared at each other, then looked together at the old-fashioned record player that had suddenly started playing by itself.