Chapter 557

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

Those models looked like his iron 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 suit, with the basic structure about the same, just filled with internal components.

The next one was a bit like the Iron Monger, then there were ones with tentacles added, and then the further back, the lighter and thinner they looked, the simpler the structure, and the more fluid the form.

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

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

"No, nothing..." Stark lowered his head and was about to hang up, but Peter's 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 speaking, Peter's voice came from that side: "I'll be there right away, Mr. Stark. Oh, right..."

Peter suddenly raised his voice and shouted: "Jarvis!

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

! I almost crashed into it last time!

!"

It wasn't until Jarvis's "beep" sound came that Peter hung up the phone. Not long after, Peter, wearing the Spider-Man suit, arrived in the laboratory.

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

"Why are there so many versions? Is it a new mechanical legion? An exoskeleton for the Avengers to strengthen themselves? Or..."

"Stop." Stark had 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."

"Besides, 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 indifferently.

"Did you choose 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 started fiddling 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 would be a bit reluctant."

"I thought you would be more enterprising." Stark also started fiddling with the model in his hand and said, "After all, many famous schools are also East Coast universities, not far from here."

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

"On the phone, he mentioned that he and Dr. Banner had a fight over 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 so happy. He never drank before because electrical work requires extreme caution to ensure safety. But that night, he drank a whole bottle of champagne and got himself drunk."

"Aunt May didn't mind him getting drunk at all, and didn't even nag him. They said they would take me to the restaurant I liked most when I was a child to celebrate that I was about to become a student at a famous school."

Stark pursed his lips, his expression moved, seemingly resonating with Peter's aunt and uncle in some emotions.

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

"They both want you to go to the best university, but they are reluctant to let you go. After learning that you made this decision, they feel sorry for you, but are happy that they can see you often in the future." Stark summarized.

Peter nodded, put down the model, looked at Stark, and said, "But some things are just like this. It can't be perfect, but it's 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, "For the next few days, I might be very busy. I've opened all 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 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 found that a message had been sent from Stark's number. On it was a smiley face made of symbols.

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

And at this moment, he looked down at the models on the table again, looked up at the ceiling, and suddenly realized 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 next, 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 a bit speechless. Peter leaned on the laboratory bench and said happily: "It should have been like this a long time 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 in a rage: "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."

"It's okay, doctor." The tall Cull Obsidian opposite him said in a buzzing voice.

Although he was very burly, sitting on that small chair looked a bit funny, and his face was also very ferocious, but his tone was very kind, even with some respect.

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

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

His dark face showed a painful expression. His mind recalled the patient attitude Schiller had when giving him psychological treatment, and the pleasure of having many of his confusing 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 its prime there; all the stars were heading toward the end of their lives.

There wasn't enough sunlight, but it could also nurture life, only the form of life was a bit 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 race to survive, the strongest Cull Obsidian swore allegiance to Thanos. Only then could he let Thanos show mercy and distribute his people 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 the deaths of so many of his compatriots. However, some of his compatriots were much more loyal than him, and had even completely pledged allegiance to Thanos, becoming the whip in his hand to enslave their compatriots.

Thanos was very clever. He knew how to crush a civilization without destroying them, and yet make them work for him: splitting their classes, divide and rule, setting up examples, killing the chicken to warn the monkey...

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

"Hundred Alliance Book"

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 might have been a suicide mission.

The psychological treatment from Schiller alleviated his pain. Schiller answered many questions for him, such as: 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 should he do? How should he eliminate the enemy and save his compatriots? How to solve the dead end and let his civilization be reborn?

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

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 connect 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 that Schiller hadn't taken away, which was now revealing a corner.

Cull Obsidian was a bit curious. He reached out, but hesitated, feeling that he shouldn't move the doctor's things at will.

But he thought, he was just looking, and would never break it. So, he carefully picked up the medical record book and placed it aside.

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

Cull Obsidian curiously flipped open the cover with his finger. The first sentence on the first page inside was written:

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