Chapter 37: Advice Before Departure

Shiler walked over, picked up the old-fashioned record player, patted it, and said, "Hmm... it might be broken; these antiques are always a bit temperamental."

Daredevil couldn't see, but he was truly shaken by the music just now. He said, "I never knew such an antique could make such a huge racket..."

Peter said, "Looks like it's just like Steve—a guy who refuses to admit he's old."

Shiler viciously warned his symbiote in his mind: "If you turn the music up that loud again, you can forget about ever drinking alcohol!"

As a result, the symbiote chattered excitedly in his mind, and it took Shiler a long time to understand what it was saying.

The symbiote told him that until last night, it hadn't actually reached adulthood; it was just a juvenile symbiote.

Originally, symbiotes didn't distinguish between adult and juvenile, but this special symbiote, created specifically by the God of Symbiotes, was very different; it needed energy to nourish itself in order to grow.

Just last night, the symbiote discovered it had unlocked its gene bank—the code carved into the genes of every symbiote. This code allowed it to possess the abilities of other symbiotes, such as splitting and reproducing, infiltrating other objects to control them, and even mimicking and fabricating things out of thin air.

Shiler could clearly feel that the symbiote's speech had become much more coherent; it finally no longer sounded like the repeater it used to be.

The symbiote told him this was because the language of the symbiote race was hidden in its genetic code—the very language the God of Symbiotes used to curse, which it hadn't known before.

Hearing this, Shiler tried saying, "Nataru?"

Almost instantly, Shiler felt a brainwave in his mind, a mix of shock, anger, and grievance all tangled together; the symbiote seemed completely shocked.

After the symbiote's explanation, Shiler learned that their race's language was different from humans', and different from any language in the world.

The symbiote language was a directory-sequence language. Every syllable they uttered was actually a directory for a long segment of content, while the true content was carved into their gene bank, understandable only to the symbiote race.

The content carved into the gene bank wasn't text that humans could understand, but a code that required special organs to decipher. It was a very special encrypted language. Any race other than symbiotes could hear them speaking but couldn't understand what they were saying at all, because the content of their speech was actually the directory of their gene bank codes.

For example, the word "Nataru"—although it only had three syllables, if you substituted those three syllables into the sequence of the symbiote gene bank, it represented brainwaves lasting nearly several dozen minutes.

And the content represented by this syllable was the sum of all curse words in the symbiote language, far, far dirtier than any profanity existing in any language on Earth.

The symbiote said, "This word! Will get you beaten up!"

Shiler thought for a moment; clearly, useless knowledge had increased again.

Venom was currently either on Deadpool or in a petri dish at the Anquan Bureau, and other symbiotes hadn't appeared either. Even if they did, why would Shiler want to stand there and trade insults with them? He wasn't the God of Symbiotes.

When Steve came over at noon, he missed the mealtime. He saw the dejected Peter and asked, "You still haven't finished your homework? Wasn't pulling an all-nighter yesterday enough?"

"To hell with the all-nighter," Shiler said. He pointed a finger and said, "You'd better go ask those two controllers what kind of treatment they received yesterday. The sound of them mashing skills yesterday could be heard two streets away..."

"Don't say that; it makes you sound too much like an old antique," Pikachu said.

Steve waved his hand and said, "Alright, don't get sidetracked. Let's talk business. I might have to carry out a mission recently. Of course, it's nothing major. I want to take Peter with me; it'll be a good chance for him to get some exercise."

"You'll have to ask Stark about that. After all, Peter signed a contract with him first."

"That rich guy intends to keep Peter in those suffocating labs forever? What kind of person does he want to raise Peter into? A sissy just like him?" Steve said.

Shiler said, "It just so happens I'll be leaving for a while soon. Before that, I need to see Stark again, but I'm not sure if he'll agree to hand Peter over to you. After all, you know, you two don't have a good impression of each other..."

"You're leaving? Where are you going?" Steve asked.

Shiler shook his head and didn't speak. Finally, it was Luo De who said, "I think Peter should indeed go with the Captain. It's not that I'm biased, it's just that Peter seems to have never left the town he grew up in since he was a child. A boy shouldn't be like that."

"The place I'm going is the West. Come to think of it, it's been a long time since I was last there, but I remember the scenery is quite nice."

Peter was already moved. Luo De was right; because of his family's tight financial situation, Peter had never traveled since he was a child. The furthest he'd ever been was the suburbs of Niuyuecheng. And when it came to the West, what American boy didn't have a cowboy dream?

Seeing Peter looking at him with anticipation, Shiler raised both hands and said, "Fine, fine, I'll go convince Stark. But you'd better be careful. Fieldwork is different from doing experiments in a lab. Peter, if you get hurt, your aunt will definitely shed a liter of tears."

Peter covered his forehead; he had wanted to go and have a wild time.

Steve said, "You'd better not hold such high expectations. Don't think this is really a vacation, kid. If you don't do well, the first person to beat you up won't be the enemy, it will definitely be me."

"Who is your enemy?" Shiler said. "Of course, I only want to know things within my security clearance. Other than that, I have no interest."

Steve said, "Actually, they aren't hard to deal with. The Anquan Bureau discovered some secret spies in the West. Calling them spies might not be accurate; they should be called an assassin organization."

"They seem to call themselves ninjas, coming and going without a trace. I don't know who hired them. They killed a state legislator. Actually, this shouldn't have been a big deal, but it seems their leader has a bigger plot, and I just happen to need a warm-up activity."

Luo De stood up and said, "It's the Shouhe Society. Elektra told me their organization wanted to come here to find the dragon bones, but they haven't made any progress, so they've been taking jobs locally and have created many murder cases..."

"The Anquan Bureau might not be unaware of this. The fact that they haven't made any big moves means the situation should still be under control," Shiler said. "More importantly, if the Anquan Bureau wants to know the conspiracy behind them, they have to be patient."

Ma Te sat back down. He knew that the Anquan Bureau had been keeping an eye on him and his girlfriend, Elektra, for a long time. Just because they weren't taking action now didn't mean they wouldn't in the future. After all, Elektra was an assassin for the Hand and was also employed by Kingpin; Ma Te had to find a way to get her out.

Shiler patted him on the shoulder and said, "I know what you're worried about. You're upright and don't fear shadows, but your girlfriend might not be. You can't bear to let her be a spy to save her own life because that's equally dangerous, but I can give you a suggestion."

"Although I don't know what dragon bones are, they must be something good, otherwise the Shouhe Society wouldn't be trying every possible way to find them. You say, would Jin Bing like such a good thing?"

Luo De quickly understood what he meant. Although they were both bad guys, they might not necessarily get together, especially when their interests conflicted. Perhaps Elektra could find an opportunity to get out of it.

After Steve left, Shiler was picked up by a private car to Stark Tower. Stark was holed up in his lab again, desperately tinkering with those mechs. Seeing this, Shiler shook his head and said, "If this goes on, the one who turns into a vampire won't be me, it'll be you."

Stark twisted a wrench hard and said, "You don't know what the Army guys came to tell me yesterday. Ha, they want my mechs. Guess what they want to do with them?"

Shiler didn't answer him. Stark was silent for a while, then stood up. He threw the wrench away, looked at his mechs, and said, "You're right. Just because the enemy wants something, I shouldn't give it up. Now they want to turn my mechs into war machines, so I should dismantle them?"

Stark said to himself, "Even if I dismantle all the mechs, what will I get? Will the world be at peace? Will there be no more wars?... They'll just change their methods, and the result will be that the people who should have been saved because of me will no longer have a chance."

"I know you don't want to give them to them. You must have flatly refused them, and then they'll immediately show an attitude of taking a step back. They'll say, 'Alright then, we don't want your mechs, just give us some ordinary weapons.' Right?"

Stark pursed his lips. He knew Shiler was right; this was the old trick of that bunch of people.

"Do I really only have the choice of the Anquan Bureau?" Stark said.

He walked over from the side of the lab bench, pulled up a chair, sat down, and leaned back on the chair, looking somewhat exhausted. He said, "What makes me feel most tired is that you know every path is a trap, yet you still have to choose one."

"I don't know if Howard knew things would turn out like this when he established the Anquan Bureau. But I think he must have known, because he was very smart, as smart as you, Stark. But he still chose to do it."

"You also hope more that I lean towards the Anquan Bureau? If I choose the Anquan Bureau now, it will indeed save me a lot of trouble. As long as the Anquan Bureau doesn't let go, no one can take my mechs away from me. But I always feel this decision will bring me even bigger trouble."

"Do you have a third path?" Shiler asked.

"I don't think I do, but you don't have to be so direct."

"You indeed don't have a third path, but you have another choice, which is not to choose."

"But..."

Before Stark could retort, Shiler said:

"You've fallen into a circular logic, always feeling you must truly choose a side, but that's not the case. You can keep dragging it out and not choose. If one side blames you, then give them some hints, like the other side offered better conditions and you're already tempted..."

Shiler said, "Haven't you realized this is a complete buyer's market? Who you choose isn't because of who puts more pressure on you, but only because of who offers better conditions."

"And who can offer conditions that would tempt the world's richest man, Stark? I think as an unprecedented billionaire and scientific genius, your asking price being a little high shouldn't be questioned by anyone, right?"

Stark showed a very complex and conflicted expression. He said, "You mean... I should act like a woman stringing two boyfriends along at the same time, pretending to follow whoever performs better, but in reality, not following anyone, just taking their favors for granted."

"I have to say, Stark, this damn metaphor of yours perfectly reflects your damn character," Shiler said.

Stark spread his hands, unashamed and proud, and said, "Who is the guy who understands women's hearts best? It's me, the charming Stark."

Shiler said, "Jarvis, the surveillance in Pepper's office yesterday should be working, right? I can't wait to see the heroic posture of this Mr. Stark who understands women's hearts best."

"Damn it... Jarvis, you weren't broken yesterday? You still had the camera on?? Hey, don't, don't call up the screen. Alright, I admit, there are some women I don't understand, and the one I understand least is Pepper."

Jarvis beeped twice and said, "Miss Pepper has been connected for twenty-three minutes."

Stark jumped straight up from the chair.

"Just kidding, sir," Jarvis said. Shiler continued, "Who is the guy who understands women's hearts best? It's Jarvis!" ===== CHAPTER 38 =====