Chapter 1066: Morning Chitchat Radio in New York (Part 1) (Patreon)

In DC World With Marvel Chat Group : Table of Content/Chapter List

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As the winter atmosphere approached Christmas, a lively scene emerged from the cold and silence. Outside the balcony, shuttles loaded with passengers occasionally zoomed by, adding a unique vitality to the morning.

Schiller still resided at Eddie's home, not because he didn't want to move back to his own clinic but because both of his residences in New York had encountered problems.

The Arkham Sanatorium's spatial train station, which was almost completed, faced an unexpected shutdown by JARVIS, causing the project to come to an abrupt halt. Although automated engineering machinery quickly took over, the promised soundproofing was not installed. Even if it started running, the noise would prevent Schiller from getting proper rest.

The small clinic in Hell's Kitchen was also blown up. During Eddie's last visit with Bob to retrieve medication, Bob casually tossed the bomb he intended to use to sabotage the shuttle into the basement.

Later, Bob harbored malicious intentions toward the expensive drugs in the small clinic. In the middle of the night, he attempted to break into the clinic to steal medicine. Due to lack of experience and the late hour, when he broke into the basement, he accidentally triggered the bomb, injuring himself and causing the clinic's structure to collapse, rendering the ground floor uninhabitable.

Schiller had no choice but to continue staying at Eddie's place. Fortunately, Eddie, as the chief editor, earned a decent amount of money and was willing to compromise on expenses. Renting a house on the outskirts of Hell's Kitchen, they could get a larger space for the same price.

The house Eddie currently rented had three bedrooms, two living rooms, and two large terraces. Although it belonged to a relatively old-style apartment building, in terms of space, there was no issue accommodating Schiller, Eddie, and Thor.

A few days before Christmas, Schiller, following his fairly precise biological clock, got out of bed at 5:30 in the morning. After getting up, he took medication right away. Not the painkillers he used before to numb his brain, but certain anti-anxiety medications.

Of course, due to the presence of Grey Mist, Schiller had no physiological abnormalities. Therefore, these medications served as placebos. He took them whenever he remembered and skipped them when he didn't.

Schiller took off his sleep cap from the overhead, went to the bathroom for a quick wash, and then started searching for ingredients in the refrigerator to prepare breakfast.

At that moment, the door was suddenly knocked. Hearing the urgent knocking sound from outside, Schiller furrowed his brow.

He knew it couldn't be a delivery person or someone delivering newspapers. This neighborhood had no delivery services, and even if there were, they wouldn't knock on the door in such a manner, as if ready to shoot if you didn't open the door one second later.

Schiller put down the lettuce he was holding and walked to the door. Opening it, he found a battered Stark standing outside.

Schiller tilted his head, looked at the air overhead, rubbed his eyes, then closed the door with a "bang."

Opening the door again, Stark slowly withdrew his hand, which had been ready to continue banging on the door. After confirming it wasn't an illusion, Schiller assessed Stark's condition and realized he wasn't doing well.

Firstly, Stark was wearing a unique combat suit. It differed from the nanotechnology and compression-folding technology combat suits he had previously researched, resembling the primitive version that needed manual closure for it to work.

Moreover, even this primitive combat suit was incomplete. Stark only wore chest armor and the left arm armor, while the entire right arm and left hand armor were missing. The leg armor only had one piece, neatly worn, while the other disappeared below the knee.

Schiller opened his mouth, about to utter some more sarcastic remarks, but seeing the wounds on Stark's face, he purified his language slightly before speaking, "Recently, are you planning a fashion show for all your Mech armors?"

Stark extended the hand without the armor, touched the wound on his face, took a sharp breath, and then looked at Schiller with a brilliant yet somewhat rotten smile. Schiller smiled back, showing no intention of stepping aside, so Stark had to extend two fingers, pinching them together, and said, "A little experiment gone wrong."

"What happened?" Eddie rubbed his eyes and walked out, one eye open and the other closed. His eyebrows raised and lowered alternately. When Schiller looked at him, he happened to turn aside, allowing Stark to slip into the room with a "whoosh."

Eddie licked his lips, surveyed Stark's disheveled appearance from head to toe, and Venom's voice came out from his mouth, "From the area and direction of damage to your combat suit, it seems you were just hit by a big truck. Before mocking you, I have to ask you a question: didn't your mother teach you not to knock on the door so forcefully before making sure no one is sleeping in the room?!"

Seeing Venom's spit, Stark took a few steps back with some disdain, wiped the surface of his combat suit with his hand, and then gestured on his body with a surprised look, saying to Schiller and Eddie, "Have you guys not noticed anything special about this new combat suit?"

"Especially broken, does that count as something special?" Schiller turned around, not looking at Stark, and went back to the refrigerator to start choosing ingredients for cooking.

"This is made of Molten Steel and Vibranium alloy, my first Molten Steel Vibranium alloy combat suit! In the past, no one has been able to alloy these two metals, but I succeeded!" Stark raised his voice to introduce, "Previously, no one has been able to alloy these two metals, but I succeeded!"

Eddie touched his face and said, "Ignoring whether anyone has done it before, are you sure... you succeeded?"

"This is a test version. The properties of this alloy are more difficult to control than I imagined, and some parts of the components don't fit well, lacking coordination between them," Stark admitted. "But it doesn't matter; this is why I made it! I came here today to invite you to commemorate this milestone achievement in material science and give it a resounding and pleasant name!"

At this point, Thor, awakened by the commotion, walked out with his hands on his hips. He was bare-chested, with muscles that flowed smoothly like carved lines. Shaking his golden hair, he squinted at Stark and said, "...Did you crash?"

Stark immediately jumped like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, exclaiming, "What do you mean 'crash'?!! It's just a small mistake in the testing phase!"

"Okay, it's a crash." Thor walked to the kitchen island, took the ice-cold beer that Schiller handed him, opened the can, poured two sips into his mouth, wiped his mouth, and let out a satisfied sigh.

Stark stood still, sighed, looked down at his toe, where there was no foot armor on one foot, and his shoe was already torn.

Coughing twice, Stark casually said, "So, is this a rest stop you guys have opened for friends? The great Stark has arrived here. Shouldn't you provide a bit of maintenance and assistance?"

Eddie also walked to the cutting board, and Schiller happened to bring over a plate of celery. The two huddled together, and Schiller turned to look at Stark, whispering, "He probably crashed mid-flight, looks too disheveled to face his dad..."

Eddie took a piece of celery, bit into it, and said while chewing, "I think he's more likely embarrassed to face Pepper..."

Both nodded in agreement, while Stark stood at the doorway shouting at them, "Don't think I can't hear you!... Can't you find me a pair of shoes before discussing?"

Thor, lounging on the sofa with a beer, pointed to the shoe cabinet by the door, saying, "Second to last shelf, slippers, shoe covers, and sneakers are all there."

Stark limped to the shoe cabinet, used the hand covered with the armor to pull out a brand new pair of disposable slippers. After changing into them, he swaggered to the sofa and sat next to Thor.

Thor's hands rested on the back of the sofa, turning his head to look at Stark, asking, "How's JARVIS?"

With his elbow on his knee, Stark touched the stubble on his chin and said, "I've decided to delete JARVIS's underlying protocols. What do you guys think?"

"I'm not human, so I have no opinions to express, but I think it's best not to let too many people know about this. Humans are too suspicious; they wouldn't be willing to entrust so much important data to a robot with independent consciousness," Thor said, walking to the island, grabbing another cold beer, and handing it to Stark.

"I trust JARVIS," Stark opened the beer, took a sip, winced at the cold, and then said, "But what you said makes sense, so I don't plan to tell anyone other than you guys. You also need to help JARVIS keep it a secret..."

Eddie placed the freshly made vegetable salad on the coffee table, patted Stark's shoulder, and Stark turned to look at him.

While walking back, Eddie said, "Originally, I also thought that intelligent life with independent consciousness might not be that reliable, but thinking about it carefully, entrusting these materials to Congress, the military, or private groups is even less reliable than giving them to JARVIS."

"Speaking of which, what's the story with this combat suit?" Thor reached out and patted Stark's arm, attached to the armor, saying, "It looks a bit different, more convenient than some of your previous ones. It seems heavier, more sturdy, and seems to have some other functions..."

"You do have a good eye." Stark became happy, and Thor sneered, saying, "Don't treat the gods of Asgard as ignorant bumpkins. We've been through these stages of human science and technology development long ago."

"In fact, we've also developed similar individual armor and achieved some results. The Destroyer is one of them, but later, we found that our individual qualities were too strong. No matter what armor we wore, it only hindered our agility, so we gave up on that path."

Stark snapped his fingers, took another sip of beer, and said, "You hit the nail on the head. This new combat suit is directly inspired by the Destroyer."

"Before, I was always pursuing the speed and lightweight flexibility of combat suits, but now I realize I need a heavy armor set to enhance my close combat abilities. It can also be used for control when necessary."

"Thanks to the Gifts of Nature, the breakthrough in materials science brought about by the successful refining of Molten Steel and Vibranium alloy was also a necessary factor in the successful development of this combat suit..."

"More importantly..." Stark became more excited as he spoke, and his tone gradually became higher, "Previously, the Nanotech armor and folding combat suits were more suitable for humans with combat experience, but this combat suit is more suitable for autonomous operations..."

"And not just combat, as long as it carries a sufficiently intelligent AI, it can perform many space-related tasks for humans, making valuable astronauts safer and more effective..."

"So, wearing such an advanced, high-tech, futuristic armor, you collided with a truck?... And haven't crashed before?" Thor asked.

"I already said it!! It's just a test version!!!" Stark stood up and shouted, "And these missing parts have automatic navigation function, they'll be back soon!"

"Swoosh—Snap! Bang!"

A shadow broke through the glass, traced an elegant line in the air, and directly hit Stark's nose.

The three turned their heads, focusing on the face mask piece that had just taken flight and delivered a fatal blow.

Meanwhile, Stark, with trembling arms, took the piece stained with nosebleed from his face. In his blurred vision, he saw Thor and Eddie leaning in, while Schiller extended a mobile phone camera.

With a "click," Schiller retracted the mobile phone, and Stark, lying on the ground, widened his eyes. Schiller walked over, crouched next to his head, shook the mobile phone, and said:

"If you don't want the recipient of this message to be Howard or Pepper, maybe you should consider increasing the budget for your health and medical care next quarter?"

"Schiller!!!!!"

[Read at www.patreon.com/shanefreak, and thanks for the invaluable support!]

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Next Chapter>>Chapter 1067: Morning Chat at New York Radio Station (Part 1)