Chapter 48: Off-Site Technical Guidance

Shiler and Stark stood together in front of a damaged Mark II armor.

Stark said, "Listen, the problem now is that the braking system here is completely destroyed. Before we modify it, we need to fix it first."

As he spoke, he picked up a wrench, stepped forward, and began tapping and tinkering with the armor.

Shiler stood behind him, saying to the Symbiote in his mind, "No, absolutely not. You cannot eat his brain."

"But his head looks delicious, really delicious. It smells so good."

"However..."

Shiler put his hands on his hips, covered his forehead with one hand, reorganized his thoughts, and said, "You cannot just eat people's brains, because..."

Shiler paused for a long time, thinking, *Fine, even though this species looks bizarre, their tastes are surprisingly consistent. *

"If we eat his brain, we can make one ourselves," the Symbiote said.

"No!"

"Fine..."

Stark remained completely oblivious. He tinkered for a long time, then tapped the railing next to him with his wrench, moved to a different spot, and continued tinkering while saying, "Magic armor? That sounds really good. I think it's a form of special atomic force. What do you think is its best application form? Oscillation? Or extreme compression?"

Shiler asked in his mind, "... What is the best application form? Oscillation or extreme compression?"

"It is decomposition and reconstruction," the Symbiote said.

"It is decomposition and reconstruction," Shiler said.

As he spoke, he pressed his hand directly onto the joint that hadn't been fixed yet. A large area of parts there flickered, and when they returned to their original positions, they were brand new.

Stark stood up, eyes wide, arms crossed, and said, "This so-called magic you speak of looks much stronger than the weightlessness spell you demonstrated."

"I'm amazing, I'm amazing, I'm amazing, I'm amazing..." The Symbiote began screeching in Shiler's mind again.

Shiler said, "Fine, fine, fine, you're amazing."

He had to admit that the Symbiote was still a bit more useful than magic. After all, his current magical ability was only at a low level; it was fine for bluffing, but when it came to the real deal, he still had to rely on the Symbiote.

"Shrink the armor, it can be very small," the Symbiote said in Shiler's mind.

"Shrink the armor," Shiler said.

"I have certainly considered this. My Mark V, and subsequent versions, were originally intended to be compressed into a suitcase. It's just that it hasn't been fully developed yet, so I can't carry it around at will for the time being."

"I think the suitcase plan is a bit conservative."

"It can be even smaller?"

"Of course."

"How small do you think it can be compressed?"

Shiler asked the Symbiote in his mind, "How small do you think it can be compressed?"

"A bottle of Fear Toxin."

"Can it be compressed as small as a little bottle of Fear Toxin?" Shiler asked.

"I want to drink it," the Symbiote said.

Shiler rolled his eyes in annoyance; it was even trying to bargain now.

After the Symbiote happily finished a bottle of wine, it said, "A cigarette, it can be compressed as small as a cigarette."

After Shiler told Stark, Stark seemed somewhat excited, pacing around the room. He said, "This is indeed atomic-level structure and reorganization. If you put it that way, perhaps it could be even smaller than a cigarette, perhaps even reaching the nanometer scale..."

"Can it be even smaller than a cigarette?" Shiler asked in his mind.

"Yes, but it will explode when it unfolds," the Symbiote said.

So Shiler said to Stark, "Actually, it can be made even smaller, but I cannot guarantee that the unfolding process will be safe."

Stark said, "In any case, let's begin. Let's create a technology that transcends the era, and then I'll dump all those old versions of the armor to the military and let them handle the trash for me. It'll even save me on electronic waste disposal fees; Pepper will be happy."

"The benefits of being able to arm yourself at any time are truly too many!" Stark clenched one hand into a fist, pounded it into his other palm, and said, "And I could even stuff a complete Jarvis into a mobile phone. A phone with such a powerful intelligent butler—can you believe it?"

Shiler said, "... God bless Jarvis."

After a while, Stark lowered the somewhat dilapidated Mark II from the rack. Before he could see clearly, a flash of gray mist passed by, and the Mark II disappeared.

Then Shiler reappeared, holding a metal-like cigarette in his hand, and handed it to Stark. Stark asked, "That's it?"

"What else did you want?"

"Shouldn't there be some kind of spell... I mean, like some ritual, or a magic wand..."

"No need, that's too low-end," Shiler said.

Stark blinked; he suddenly had infinitely beautiful expectations for magic.

However, later on, this expectation nearly drove Strange crazy. He was just a mage; how could Iron Man treat him like an omnipotent God? No matter what happened, Iron Man always had that "Let's leave it to omnipotent magic" attitude!

Hearing that the Sorcerer Supreme still needed to prepare to cast spells, Stark called Strange a "low-end mage," which angered Strange so much he almost snapped his staff.

Regardless of how much Shiler's performance would cause Strange to break down when dealing with Iron Man in the future, for now, he had pleasantly surprised Stark. He asked, "How do I turn it into armor? How do I put it on?"

Shiler asked in his mind, "How does he turn it into armor? How does he put it on?"

The Symbiote let out a drunken hiccup and said, "Think about it in your head."

Shiler said, "Think about it in your head."

Stark froze for a moment, then hesitated as he recalled the original way the Mark II was armed in his mind.

Almost instantly, the Mark II was worn on his body. This change had no process; it was almost atomic-level reorganization.

Stark said, "What is the principle behind this?"

Shiler asked in his mind, "What is the principle behind this?"

The Symbiote said, "Thought perturbation."

Shiler said to Stark, "Thought perturbation."

"Are you talking about brain waves or something? Or bioelectricity?"

The Symbiote in Shiler's mind was a bit tipsy and didn't seem able to answer questions anymore, so Shiler said, "Please don't use science to explain magic; it's enough that it works."

Stark was itching to start researching immediately, so he turned on Shiler like a different person and said, "Alright, alright, I know. Your magical magic—you just wait, sooner or later I will use it better than you."

Then he showed him the door.

Shiler was practically ushered out of Stark Tower, but he wasn't angry. Stark was always like this; once the addiction to experimentation hit, he ignored everything else.

As soon as he returned to the clinic, he saw Steve waiting for him. Steve greeted him and said, "Nick asked me to run an errand. He wants to see you. I think it might be something related to Stark."

Then Shiler shouted at the air, "10 million dollars an hour, how about that? Director Nick?"

"You're asking for the moon," a voice suddenly came from the phone hanging at Steve's waist.

Shiler shrugged and said, "Fine, I was originally going to write you an invoice for 100 million."

The other side was silent for a moment, then said, "Include a 50 million late fee invoice..."

"Deal," Shiler said.

Not long after, Shiler arrived at the S. H. I. E. L. D. International Reception Center again. Nick, wearing an eye patch, shook hands with Shiler, and then the two sat down face-to-face. Coulson poured them both coffee; for Shiler, it was an espresso.

Shiler downed the coffee in one gulp, but Nick picked up his cup and drank slowly. Shiler spoke first, "Shall we talk business first, or write the invoice first?"

"Let's write the invoice first," Nick said.

After a while, Nick asked him, "I know Stark gave the armor technology to the military, but that's not important. We don't want those armors."

"What you want is the man himself."

"S. H. I. E. L. D. was founded by his father."

"If you bring this up to him now, you'll never get him to join in this lifetime."

"Also, if you want him to join, go talk to him yourselves. Don't come looking for me; it's useless. I'm just a psychologist, not his father."

"We aren't asking you to persuade Stark; we know he doesn't listen to persuasion. What do you think of our concept? A team composed of people with special abilities?"

"It's not bad in itself, but it depends on who they work for."

"Isn't it for S. H. I. E. L. D.?"

"Then who does S. H. I. E. L. D. work for?"

Nick frowned and decisively bypassed the topic. He said, "Alright, we want to invite you to join..."

"You said it yourself, it's a team composed of people with special abilities. I'm just an ordinary person; my long jump has never exceeded 3 meters."

Nick opened his mouth; he felt Shiler was treating him like a fool.

"Listen, we don't care how you disappear and suddenly reappear hundreds of meters away, nor do we care where that yellow-haired rat with a Canadian accent came from, and we can ignore your terrifyingly accurate psychological analysis, but a certain neurologist told us personally that you threatened him with a floating ballpoint pen..."

Shiler said to the Symbiote in his mind, "In the future, you cannot eat other people's brains at will, except for Strange's."

Shiler said, "Do you believe there is magic in this world?"

"Certain scientific forces have created these people with special abilities, so I also believe there will be other forces that create other people. Are you one of them?"

"No, I'm just an ordinary person, but I think I can trade a piece of intelligence for my own freedom."

"About what? Magic?"

"That's right. I believe you should have the authority to mobilize satellites. Go check where a certain missing network in New York is actually connected."

Nick frowned, but Shiler didn't say anything more to him.

The wireless network of the New York Sanctum should still rely on the modern network system, not some magical network; it's just that they used magic to cover up the path to access this network.

If Nick were determined to investigate, he would definitely find some clues.

The reason Shiler didn't flatly refuse was that in the various major events to come, he would have to rely on the Avengers to save the world. He wouldn't go out and struggle to deal with those enemies himself, trading punches with things like Lizardmen or Red Hulk.

At most, for the sake of his own safety, he would provide a little help, so he still had to maintain contact with these superheroes so that he could act as a fresh and refined... troublemaker in future events. ===== CHAPTER 49 =====