Chapter 49: Evil Has Its Rewards

The weather in New York began to turn cold. The morning mist clung to the window glass, leaving a layer of hazy white, casting the newly lit streetlights into a circle of dim yellow light.

Shiler held a cup of coffee, sitting at the desk in Stark's lab. Stark walked over with a large stack of data and said, "We have to modify joint No. 5 again, then do a control group experiment with joint No. 13. Also, the data for the outer armor of arm No. 7 is problematic. I'll have to readjust it in a bit..."

Shiler said, "Can't you rest for a while? Aren't you tired?"

Stark, while spreading out the data on the table to organize it, said, "You've asked me this question at least 20 times in one night, starting from 7:00 PM yesterday and asking until 7:00 AM today."

"That's because you've been dragging me to do experiments since 7:00 PM yesterday. I haven't even had time to drink a cup of coffee."

"Then what are you doing now? It's been 3 minutes, you're done, right? We have two more sets of unfolding experiments to do, and we must finish them before 8:00 AM today."

Shiler slumped onto the table.

Peter walked out from behind the glass door of the lab, holding two documents. He said, "Mr. Stark, the external bracket for the leg bone of No. 5 seems to have a problem. In the third set of data Jarvis just gave me, the bone support structure seems to have a tendency toward instability, and the bracket also has a risk of shattering. Although Jarvis suggests we change the material, if we use a keel that is too hard, the flexibility and agility will be weakened..."

Stark took the data from Peter, looked at it, and said, "This isn't a big problem."

He reached out and pointed to the design drawing to show Peter. "We'll add a cushioning system to this joint in a bit, and then move this down two centimeters..."

Peter touched his chin, thinking. Stark reached out and pulled Shiler up, saying, "Usually it only takes you 3 seconds to drink a cup of strong coffee, but now you've been drinking for nearly 5 minutes. Hurry up and get to work."

"My magical ability needs to recover..."

"I remember someone saying that was a low-end operation?"

Shiler covered his eyes and said, "Can't you just bring over a complete set of armor, and then I'll cast magic on it once, and then you can take it and use it directly? Why do you have to take it apart into one part after another to do experiments?"

Stark said somewhat speechlessly, "Why do I sometimes feel like you understand these things, but sometimes feel like you're a mechanical idiot?"

He spread the design drawing on the table and pointed to the pattern on it, saying, "See? Once you use magic to help me solve the shrinking and unfolding problem of the Mark IV, I can focus the design on its performance and functions. But once I improve the performance and function of a certain part, I have to re-test whether it can shrink and unfold, or whether the function after unfolding is the same as I expected."

"So I have to conduct a large number of modular experiments to test whether a certain function achieves its effect as I expected when shrunk and unfolded individually."

"So which part didn't achieve your effect?" Shiler asked.

"What if it's the next one?" Stark said.

*These damn rigorous science students. * Shiler slumped onto the table again.

Peter said, "I agree with Mr. Stark. The manufacturing of this kind of armor is not a joke. Once you fly to an altitude of tens of thousands of meters and a certain part has a problem, that would be too dangerous."

"Not only that." Stark said while organizing the design drawings, "The effects of low-power operation and high-power or even overclocked operation are different. You must ensure that it has the most perfect performance possible at every level of energy efficiency output."

Then Stark pulled Shiler's arm and dragged him back to the experimental bench. Peter handed over a part, Shiler decomposed and reorganized it, then Stark took it to test, Peter handed over another part, Shiler decomposed and reorganized them again, and then took them to test.

Peter and Stark were doing experiments, but Shiler felt like he was just screwing in light bulbs on an assembly line.

The Symbiote kept repeating in his mind: "Their heads are so fragrant, really so fragrant, I want to eat them so much. Can I eat one of them? Just eat one, and then eat the other next time. I want to eat the blue-eyed one first..."

Shiler discovered that the Symbiote seemed to be able to detect human brain waves. When a person's brain began to run at high speed, it would detect a pheromone released in their brain. The faster the person's brain activity, the more fragrant they smelled.

Unfortunately, for the Symbiote, the brains of super geniuses like Peter and Stark were like walking, super-invincible, fragrant fried chicken, which it simply couldn't refuse.

Somehow, the Symbiote also learned to repeatedly play the sound of swallowing saliva in Shiler's mind, which made him hungry too.

Shiler screwed in the last light bulb handed to him and said, "Let's go eat something. Aren't you hungry?"

Stark threw him two compressed biscuits and said, "Thanks to S. H. I. E. L. D.'s new gadget, I can work for 40 hours straight now."

Shiler took a deep breath and said, "Then aren't you sleepy? And you, Peter, you should have been awake for almost two days, right?"

"The reason I asked this kid to come over is that he is much more energetic than others."

Peter also shrugged and said, "Since I gained my abilities, I only need to sleep for a very short while to stay energetic. I just slept for 15 minutes in the lounge, and I feel pretty good now."

"Rather, you're a mage, why do you feel sleepy? Don't you have any refreshing magic?"

Shiler didn't actually feel physically sleepy. With the Symbiote, he could even go without eating, drinking, or sleeping. But anyone who had been screwing in light bulbs here for more than 20 hours would feel mentally exhausted.

Shiler didn't understand their armor design at all, but every time Stark walked out from behind the glass door to excitedly show his new ideas, Shiler had to act as a cheerleader and applaud him. If he didn't do this, Stark would rush back into the glass door, and after a series of clanging explosions, come out with new ideas.

Stark said, "How can you be so indifferent to such a great cause? This is a milestone in human scientific history! Perhaps also in magic! We have combined the products of human technology with a new magical power for the first time. Aren't you looking forward to the results they produce?"

"I'm more concerned about another question," Shiler said. "Do you plan to call this series of armor Mark as well? I think it should have a new name."

"A new name? How about the S-series? Your name and the first letter of my surname."

"Peter will be sad; he also participated in the manufacturing."

Stark scratched his head. Peter said, "I don't care about that, but compared to the name, I think the new armor should have a cooler appearance, the kind that is completely different from the Mark series."

"I think you can design it to be blue," Shiler said. "It matches magic well, and it can also be distinguished from your Mark series."

"Then let's hurry up. As soon as we finish testing all the parts, we can start assembling it, and then we can soon paint it a beautiful color. I think blue and silver look good together."

"Also," Stark looked at Shiler and said, "I think this armor should have some magical attack capability."

"But I'm sorry, the magic I learned doesn't have any attack capability," Shiler said.

"Then what about that weightlessness spell? I think being able to float objects is not bad either."

"You can consider magnetism," Shiler betrayed Magneto without any psychological burden. He said, "Perhaps magnetism is stronger than you think."

By the time Seeing Natasha came over, the three of them hadn't slept for more than 50 hours. Shiler and Peter, because they had superpowers, looked normal on the outside, but Stark had huge panda eyes. Seeing Natasha said, "We were almost going to issue a missing persons report for you. You've been gone for almost three whole days."

"But we have an excellent result!" Stark said.

Immediately after, Seeing Natasha saw Stark take out a cigarette. The female agent smiled and said, "It seems you are still as unromantic as ever. I haven't smoked since I joined S. H. I. E. L. D."

"Is it a bit late for you to start health preservation now?" Shiler asked her.

"Health preservation? I'm not doing it for health preservation! Have you ever seen a Russian who practices health preservation? That damn smoke alarm in the S. H. I. E. L. D. office goes off more than 20 times a day. I quit smoking because I couldn't stand the noise."

"Hey, look here! What are you chatting about? Look at me, look at my results!" Stark said.

He threw the cigarette up, and in an instant, a suit of armor composed of silver and dark blue appeared on his body.

This armor was indeed slightly different from the styling of the Mark series. It appeared thinner, smoother, and fit Stark's body shape better. Moreover, it didn't make any of the mechanical sounds that other armors made during the arming process and movement. Rather than calling it armor, it was more like a uniquely styled bodysuit.

Shiler stood up and said, "Originally, when you wore the armor, you were 10 centimeters taller than me, but now you're only 3 centimeters taller."

"Is that the point?!"

"Of course, because when you don't wear the armor, you're one centimeter shorter than me."

"It's two centimeters shorter, sir," Peter said. "You still have to subtract the shoes."

Stark took a deep breath. He jumped lightly, and the armor floated in the air without the big commotion as before. Stark said, "Thank you for giving me inspiration. I also think jet propulsion is a bit beneath me, but this magnetic levitation system is still a bit immature. I need to improve it further."

Shiler hurriedly asked Seeing Natasha, "Does Nick Fury have something to do with me? I can go over and write him another invoice, any amount is fine."

Seeing Natasha said, "Alright, there is something. It seems to be related to the group of ninjas that the Captain and Peter dealt with before."

"So, you came to find Peter, then Shiler..." Stark said.

"No, no, no, I've collected a lot of money from S. H. I. E. L. D. I think it's necessary to give them all a basic psychological and emotional test. You know, this is very important for some field agents; it can prevent them from going crazy due to anxiety."

"No charge this time?"

"Of course!" ===== CHAPTER 50 =====