Chapter 564

"You still remember that you stood Loki up, right?"

Stark nodded very stiffly and said, "But I didn't mean to. Jarvis told me the news too suddenly, and I still had to order a cake and notify the other members of the Avengers..."

"No need to explain." Shiler stretched out a hand and said, "I'm just asking you, did you stand her up or not?"

"What does me standing her up have to do with this?" Stark pointed his finger at the little girl. His highly intelligent brain hadn't been this muddled in a long time.

"Loki is very angry; she's about to go crazy." Shiler placed the little girl on the tabletop, reached out to wrap his arms around her to keep her from running off, and then said very seriously, "You also know that Thor dotes on his sister very much. He lent his weapon, Mjolnir, to Loki for self-defense."

"Previously, Thor became the God of Light. He fused the first bolt of thunder in the universe into Mjolnir, enhancing the power of this divine artifact. At the same time, the first bolt of thunder often signifies rebirth, which gave Mjolnir's thunder the ability to ignite the fire of life."

Stark's gaze fell upon the little girl. Only then did he gradually recover from his shock and begin to observe her carefully.

She was very young, seemingly unable to walk yet, and looked beautiful and cute, like a doll, but it was hard to shake the feeling that she was a young Loki.

At the same time, what made Stark feel somewhat puzzled was that the little girl had some sharp spikes on her shoulders, neck, and ankles, making her look less like a human and more like some kind of exotic beast. Moreover, her eyes were slit-pupiled, and when she grinned, she revealed a mouthful of sharp teeth.

The characteristics of Doomsday were well-manifested in her; except for not being as bulky and brutal, she had all the traits she should have.

When looking at the little girl more closely, Stark finally focused his gaze on the reactor on her chest. He was puzzled for a moment and said, "Wait, this isn't the latest version of the reactor... This... isn't this the one you took to use as a lobby lightbulb?"

"That's where the problem lies." Shiler said very innocently, "Previously, I obtained a monster egg, but the soul of the monster inside had already vanished, so it couldn't hatch. So, I put it in the basement of my sanitarium."

"I installed your reactor in the center of my lobby, but who would have thought that when Loki came looking for you with her hammer to settle a score, the landing point of the Bifrost was closer to my sanitarium? She mistook this lightbulb for your armor and swung Mjolnir at it."

"But who would have thought that after the lightbulb hanging from the ceiling was struck down, it smashed through the floor of my sanitarium and crashed directly into that egg."

"And even more coincidentally, Mjolnir possesses the rebirth power of the universe's first bolt of thunder. The egg that had lost its soul was reignited with the flame of a soul, and thus, it hatched."

"However, your reactor crashed into its embryo. Perhaps this new life didn't know how to handle this lightbulb, so in the end, she turned it into a part of her body."

"Since the one who reignited the soul flame was Loki, she looks somewhat like Loki, and because your reactor coincidentally crashed into her body, so..."

Shiler reached out and pointed at the little girl, signaling to Stark that this was the situation.

"Wait! What did you say before you called me here? You want to give her to me?? Damn it, stop joking. I'm not even married yet, how can I raise a child?!"

"It doesn't matter. If you don't want her, I'll take her for a flight over New York. Anyway, over 90% of New York citizens recognize your reactor. Tomorrow's headline will be: Iron Man irresponsibly produces an illegitimate daughter and heartlessly abandons her to wander the streets..."

"I..." Stark was choked up. He said, "But they should know, how could a daughter born to me naturally have a reactor??"

"Fairy Wood Romance"

"You can go explain that problem to those reporters and media..."

As he spoke, Shiler was about to leave with the little girl. Stark hurried over to stop him and said, "No! Don't! Wait! You can't damage my reputation like this!... Fine, I know I don't have much of a reputation, but it still can't be like this..."

Shiler shoved the little girl directly into Stark's arms. Stark held the child in a fluster, but he actually didn't know how to hold a child at all. When he held the little girl, it was like holding a mechanical part.

After fiddling for a long time without adjusting his posture, Stark simply held the little girl by her armpits with both hands. He first straightened his arms to hold the little girl as far away as possible, then pulled his head back hard, even squeezing out a double chin, and then squinted his eyes to look at the little girl.

Suddenly, he leaned his neck forward again, widened his eyes, and observed her carefully, looking just like he was observing a toy he had just acquired.

"You don't need to worry too much about the details, because the matter is already irreversible. Do you have a way to stuff her back in? Anyway, I don't."

Stark turned his head to glare at Shiler again. Shiler shrugged and said, "From an ethical standpoint, you should indeed be her parent, because previously, the soul in that egg had already vanished, which means the embryo originally in the egg was already dead."

"The software equipment that resurrected this embryo was the bolt of thunder Loki struck down; she reignited the soul flame of this embryo. And the hardware equipment is your Arc Reactor. Although I don't know why she absorbed this lightbulb, perhaps this is the fate between you as father and daughter..."

Hearing the word "father and daughter," Stark curled his lip. He pulled the corners of his mouth down hard, making his mouth form an inverted U-shape that only appears in cartoons, and then continued to stare intently at the little girl.

"What kind of egg was that, anyway?" Stark asked.

"If I said I didn't know, would you believe me?" Just as Shiler finished speaking, Stark kept staring at him, so Shiler could only continue, "I can only tell you that it was originally a very, very powerful monster, but for some reason, it died in the egg. So, her physical body is still that monster, but the soul has gained a new rebirth."

Stark put the little girl down and covered his forehead with a headache. He said, "If I had known this would happen, I shouldn't have given you that Arc Reactor..."

"But the culprit of this matter is still you. If you hadn't stood Loki up, would she have struck you? If she hadn't struck you, would she have struck the wrong person?"

"No, I'm not referring to the birth of this child, but that the Arc Reactor I gave you isn't the latest version; it has many problems." Stark stared at the reactor on the little girl's chest and said, "Besides, she's still just a child. Don't you think this reactor is a bit too big for her?"

"Mechanical implantation in carbon-based organisms has to consider many problems, and subsequent maintenance is also a troublesome matter. Even if she isn't a human, such a forced combination of a reactor and a physical body will definitely lead to problems."

Considering that Shiler really only knew how to screw in lightbulbs, Stark had to explain this matter in a bit more detail. He said, "After obtaining the material known as Molten Steel, I discovered that it combines very well with the physical bodies of carbon-based organisms. Many structures that were previously impossible to realize due to weight, density, or safety can now be made with it."

"So, after obtaining this material, I fully upgraded the Arc Reactor. Although the overall appearance looks similar, the interior is vastly different."

"And the one on her body is the old version of the Arc Reactor, which is made entirely of Vibranium alloy. Because it has too many flaws, it has already been phased out by me. If you hadn't said you were just taking it to use as a lightbulb, I wouldn't have given this thing to anyone."

Shiler also leaned down and looked at the thing on the little girl's chest.

This Arc Reactor isn't actually large; the one on the chest of the Iron Man suit looks big because Stark added many external mechanical structural parts, which, to put it bluntly, was just to look cool. The part that is truly useful can be held in one hand.

This size is nothing for an ordinary adult; if it can be successfully implanted, it basically doesn't affect daily activities.

But this little girl who turned from Doomsday is even smaller than Aisha, who turned from the Parallax entity. Perhaps it's because the Parallax entity that turned into Aisha was already an adult, while Doomsday was still in the egg. So, this little girl who turned from Doomsday is about the age of just learning to walk, even younger than Aisha.

In this case, the fist-sized Arc Reactor takes up a very large proportion of her body. Her entire chest cavity is that Arc Reactor, and judging from the way it's combined, it's clearly not very scientific.

Shiler also didn't expect that the Doomsday embryo would actually fuse with the Arc Reactor on the shell. The process he told Stark also has a certain rationality, because Shiler suspects that it might have been that bolt of thunder that struck this Arc Reactor from the outside into the eggshell.

And Doomsday, in the process of hatching, might not have known how to handle this foreign object, so it combined it into its own body, which also conforms to Doomsday's characteristic of infinite evolution.

Stark frowned deeply and said, "Regardless, this combination method isn't very feasible. Even if it is feasible, it's best to change it to the latest version. Otherwise, once this technology is phased out, I won't have the parts to maintain it."

"So, you've agreed to adopt her?"

"Uh..." Stark was choked up. His expression changed several times, and a complex look appeared on his face. He reached out and pinched the bridge of his nose, saying, "No, I'm not prepared at all. I know I will have a daughter in the future, but not now. It's too early now, I simply..."

"But right now, only you can adopt her. She inherited the Arc Reactor on your chest. As you said, it might need improvement and maintenance. This isn't something that can be finished in one or two times..."

"If you're sure you can't, I'll go find Loki and have her take this child back to Asgard."

"No." Stark refused subconsciously. And after the refusal, he was stunned for a moment, and then instinctively spoke his thoughts:

"Asgard is not a good place at all. The education there is a mess. Thor is reckless, Loki is starved for love, Odin is still that kind of patriarchal father, and Queen Frigga might also be a doting mother. No..."

Subsequently, he took a deep breath and said, "Fine, this is a mess I caused, I'll clean it up myself."

He was silent for a moment, then muttered to himself in a low voice, "Stark... of course you can. You won't become a rotten person like him. You will do better than him. You will definitely teach a more excellent child..."

"In fact, you don't need to have too much pressure. This child's talent might be even better than you imagine." Shiler lifted her up again and then gently shook her up and down. The little girl seemed very happy; she raised her hands high and wailed loudly.

Then, Stark saw that her eyes and hands both lit up with a brilliant glow—

That was the radiance of magic.