Chapter 557

In front of the floor-to-ceiling window of Stark Tower, Stark was standing in front of a table fiddling with some models.

Those models looked like his Iron Man suit, but they were different, because through the gaps in the armor, one could see that there was a structure inside, not hollow like the suit.

And clearly, these things were not just made by Stark, because one could see traces of technological iteration on them.

Looking from left to right, the model on the far left looked more like the Iron Man suit, with the basic structure being about the same, just filled with internal components.

The next one was a bit like the Iron Monger, and after that, there were ones with tentacles added, and then the further back it went, the lighter and thinner it appeared, the structure became simpler, and the form became more fluid.

A hand picked up the one on the far right. Stark looked at it, carefully examining his recent results. He took a deep breath, a hesitant expression appearing on his face, but in the end, he took out his phone himself and called Peter, asking, "Peter, are you free right now?"

"Oh, I'm hanging out with Gwen at a party. What's up?"

"No, nothing..." Stark lowered his head, just about to hang up, but a shout came from the other end of the phone: "Hey! Guys, I have something to do, I have to go first. You guys play first."

After saying that, Peter's voice came from that side: "I'm coming over right away, Mr. Stark. Oh, by the way..."

Peter suddenly raised his voice and shouted, "Jarvis!

Help me open that glass on the south side of the building!

! I almost crashed into it last time!

!"

Not until Jarvis's "beep" sound came did Peter hang up the phone. Not long after, Peter, wearing his Spider-Man suit, arrived in the lab.

Seeing the table full of models, Peter immediately became excited. He walked forward and said, "Whoa, what is this? I haven't seen this in the lab. Is it a new suit?"

"How come they have so many versions? Is it a new mechanical legion? An exoskeleton for the Avengers to strengthen themselves? Or..."

"Stop." Stark was left with a headache from his shouting. He looked at Peter and asked, "You're already a senior in high school. Have you chosen a university?"

"New York University." Peter shrugged and said, "Any further, my aunt and uncle would be sad to death."

"And, with you, Dr. Connors, Dr. Banner, and Dr. Schiller, it doesn't seem to make any difference where I go to school." Peter said completely unconcerned.

"You chose New York University just to take care of your aunt and uncle's emotions?" Stark turned to look at Peter and asked.

"Not entirely." Peter picked up a model and began to fiddle with it. While fiddling, he said, "I grew up in New York. Everything here is very familiar. My friends, classmates, teachers, and girlfriend are all here. If I left, I'd be a bit reluctant."

"I thought you would be more ambitious." Stark also began to fiddle with the model in his hand and said, "After all, many prestigious schools are also East Coast universities, not far from here."

Peter seemed to remember something, paused, and then said, "About a month ago, Dr. Connors mentioned in a phone call that I should go to Harvard's lab with him to do experiments."

"On the phone, he mentioned that he and Dr. Banner had an argument about whether I should go to Harvard or MIT. They could both write me recommendation letters, but their opinions were different."

"When Dr. Connors called me, Dr. Banner happened to be there. The two of them started arguing again, and their voices were a bit loud. My aunt was cooking in the kitchen next door; she heard it, and then told my uncle."

"What did they say? Were they very reluctant to let you go?"

"They were overjoyed. I had never seen Uncle Ben that happy. He never drank in the past because electrical work requires caution to ensure safety. But that night, he drank a whole bottle of champagne and got himself drunk."

"Aunt May didn't mind him being drunk at all, and didn't even nag him. They said they were going to take me to the restaurant I liked most when I was little to eat and celebrate that I was about to become a student at a prestigious school."

Stark pursed his lips, the expression on his face somewhat moved, seemingly resonating with Peter's aunt and uncle on certain emotions.

"But later, when I told them I didn't plan to go and only planned to go to New York University..." Peter sighed and said, "Their expressions were very complicated. It wasn't completely happy, nor was it completely angry."

"They both wanted you to go to the best university, but were reluctant to let you go. Upon learning that you made this decision, they felt it was a pity for you, but were also happy that they could see you often in the future." Stark concluded.

Peter nodded, put down the model, looked at Stark, and said, "But some things are just like that. There's no way to be perfect, but it's already good enough now."

Stark hesitated, seemingly having made a decision. He put the model in his hand on the table and then said to Peter, "In the next few days, I might be very busy. I have fully opened the permissions of the building to you. Whatever experiment you want to do, just go to the lab yourself."

"Um, okay, but why will you be very busy?" Peter stared at Stark and said, "Is there going to be a new suit? Can I try it?"

Stark said, "No, it's not my new suit, but a new friend, or rather... an old friend."

After Stark left, Peter's phone vibrated. After opening it, he discovered that it was a message sent from Stark's number. On it was a smiley face composed of symbols.

Peter had seen this smiley face. He knew this should have been sent by Jarvis. He was in the building's lab, so he directly looked up and shouted, "Jarvis, what's wrong?"

And at this moment, he lowered his head to look at the table full of models, then looked up at the ceiling, suddenly realizing something. He opened his mouth wide and said, "Wait, could this be a body prepared for you? Oh my god, that's great! You finally have a body!"

"Thank you."

Jarvis's calm voice sounded, but immediately after, he heard Peter say, "We can finally play games together! You should be able to help me adjust to infinite lives, right? That way Pikachu can't mock me for using up all my lives."

Jarvis "beeped" twice, seemingly somewhat speechless. Peter leaned against the experimental table and said happily, "Should have been like this long ago. I've known you for so long, and I haven't even shaken hands with you. You are no different from us, so of course you should have a body..."

Jarvis didn't answer, but the lights in the room gradually dimmed. Peter had long discovered that the lights inside Stark Tower indicated Jarvis's mood. And at this moment, the soft light shrouded Peter like a curtain, as if someone had draped a piece of clothing over him.

Three days later, Schiller received a call from Strange. On the other end of the phone, Strange said furiously, "You hurry up and come over! Stark is crazy! He actually asked me to..."

Schiller hung up the phone and said to Cull Obsidian, who was sitting opposite him, "Sorry, today's treatment can only end early. I have something urgent and need to go over immediately."

"No problem, Doctor." The tall Cull Obsidian opposite said in a muffled voice.

Although he was very burly, looking somewhat funny sitting on that tiny chair, and his face was also very ferocious, his tone was very kind, even carrying some respect.

Schiller put away the medical record book in front of him, then turned and left. Cull Obsidian even stood up to see him to the door. Schiller waved at him, then left.

After Schiller left, Cull Obsidian didn't leave, but turned and sat back in his seat, resting his elbows on the table, covering his face with both hands.

His dark face revealed a painful expression. In his mind, he recalled the patient attitude Schiller had when giving him psychological treatment, as well as the pleasure of having many of his puzzled questions answered.

Cull Obsidian's home planet was a planet on the edge of the Dark Quadrant. And the reason the Dark Quadrant was called the Dark Quadrant was because there wasn't a single star in the prime of its life here; all the stars were heading toward the end of their lives.

There wasn't enough sunlight, but it could still nurture life, only the form of life was somewhat special. Cull Obsidian was born on a veritable dark dwarf planet.

When Thanos descended there, everyone there was driven by him to other planets to mine. Because they couldn't adapt to the climate and sunlight, more than half of the tens of millions of compatriots died.

In order to allow his own race to survive, the strongest Cull Obsidian swore allegiance to Thanos. Only in this way could he let Thanos show mercy and distribute his clansmen to places that weren't so harsh.

What made Cull Obsidian feel even more painful was that he wasn't truly loyal to Thanos. He always remembered that Thanos had caused so many of his clansmen to die. However, among his compatriots, there were those who were much more loyal than him, and some had even completely pledged allegiance to Thanos, becoming the whip in his hand to enslave their own compatriots.

Thanos was very smart. He knew how to crush a civilization without destroying them, yet still make them usable for himself: splitting their classes, divide and conquer, setting examples, killing the chicken to scare the monkey...

The civilization on Cull Obsidian's home planet was a very closed civilization and had never experienced such a catastrophe, so it just fell apart like this.

Bai Meng Shu

Cull Obsidian felt very painful because of this, but had no way to deal with it, until he came to Earth because of a mission that was likely a suicide mission.

The psychological treatment from Schiller alleviated his pain. Schiller answered a great many questions for him, for example, why did those people pledge allegiance to Thanos to harm their own compatriots? Why couldn't he do it? And why did he feel painful because of this?

But as these questions were answered, more questions arose. What exactly should he do? How exactly should he eliminate the enemy and save his compatriots? How to unlock the dead end and let his own civilization be reborn?

He hadn't had time to ask these questions, or rather, didn't want to ask, because he didn't hold any hope that he could get an answer at all.

In his view, Schiller was just a psychologist, a fragile human, and the difference between him and the powerful and cruel Thanos was more than just heaven and earth. No one would ever link them together.

Cull Obsidian took a deep breath and stood up. Just before he was about to turn and leave, his peripheral vision caught a glimpse of another book under the medical record book Schiller hadn't taken away. At this moment, a corner of it was exposed.

Cull Obsidian was somewhat curious. He reached out, but hesitated, feeling that he shouldn't touch the doctor's things casually.

But he thought, he was just looking, he would absolutely not break it. So, he carefully picked up the medical record book and placed it to the side.

At this moment, he discovered that the cover of the book under the medical record was blank, without any text.

Cull Obsidian somewhat curiously used his finger to flip open the cover. The first sentence on the first page inside was written:

"A specter is haunting Europe—the specter of communism..."