If you want to help me financially, you can do it on
https://ko-fi.com/neverluckysmile
T'Challa clearly had other things to attend to, but before leaving, Arthur asked,
"Where's your sister?"
"After she heard about the structure of the base," T'Challa shrugged, "she realized… you're missing a medical department."
He continued, "Tony wants her to join the tech division, of course. But my friend, you know Wakanda's technology… So, until our esteemed King gives formal approval, we can't share certain technologies. However, Shuri thinks that if she's only using the tech, it shouldn't be a big problem."
"There couldn't be a better idea!" Arthur's eyes lit up. "Where's the new medical wing?"
"Sublevel 5."
After bidding farewell to the ever-busy T'Challa, Arthur continued wandering the base with Brock.
"That was the prince of Wakanda," he explained casually.
"Another alien world?" Brock raised an eyebrow. "I figured someone like him would at least look different from us, like Venom, maybe?"
"No, he's from Earth," Arthur replied. "From a country far beyond your imagination."
"Honestly, nothing really surprises me anymore," Brock said, shrugging. "In just a few days, I've seen more crazy stuff than I thought possible. My mental threshold is climbing fast."
"That's good news," Arthur nodded with satisfaction. "Because if you join us, crazy things like this will keep happening."
Brock fell silent.
Arthur didn't push. He led Brock through the base room by room, each filled with different kinds of experiments, some of which even Arthur didn't understand himself. In a way, it was a good chance for Arthur to better understand the extent of his own facility.
Finally, the two arrived at the lowest level's "main hall."
This was where the spaceship from the Dark World was kept. It had been under study for some time, though some researchers had apparently gotten sidetracked, trying to figure out how to make money from alien tech.
But now that they had some preliminary results, they were finally returning to the core research.
When Arthur and Brock arrived, Tony was on-site, directing a few Mark Series units to disassemble parts of the alien ship.
"Wait, you guys gave Mark Series this kind of weird functionality now?" Arthur watched in surprise as the Mark Series unit in midair deployed not weapon barrels, but a bizarre array of mechanical arms.
It felt like he'd just crossed over into another universe.
"Of course." Tony held a device and tapped rapidly on its surface.
Hearing Arthur's voice, he looked up and grinned: "We added multi-functional robotic arms to Mark Series, it's even more useful than we imagined! Sure, Mark Series with guns can fight. But Mark Series with swords? Now that's terrifying. Plus, the cost per unit is actually a lot lower now."
Getting up from his lounge chair, Tony glanced at Brock. "What's this, a tour?"
"Where's Banner?" Arthur looked around, but the giant green rage monster was nowhere in sight.
"You know how Hulk gets a bit mischievous… So right now, he's probably back in his room, continuing his early childhood manners lessons."
"…Actually, I've always been curious, when Hulk is out, how does Banner manage to correct his behavior?"
Tony paused, clearly caught off guard by the question. He thought long and hard… but still came up empty, his expression dazed.
Meanwhile, Brock had been dazed the entire time.
Whether it was the strange secrets of Camp Lehigh, or his personal experience with Venom, or now this, the massive warship from the Dark World loomed before him, overwhelming and surreal.
It was so massive, so absurd, so utterly impossible, that Brock was completely and utterly speechless.
"What… exactly is this?"
It took Brock quite a while to speak, his voice dry and strained.
"A warship… that almost made it to Earth once," Arthur replied. "And we only recently got our hands on it."
"And what kind of people were its original owners?"
"They belonged to a race called the Dark Elves. They've existed for a very long time," Arthur said, shrugging. "But now, they're extinct. I personally killed the last Dark Elf."
"You cruel old man."
"..." Arthur shot Tony a helpless glare.
"How long has it been since you went home? Be careful, or a certain clever little lady might make you pay."
"Hey, I go home every night to sleep!" Tony fired back.
"…So why would I know that?" Arthur looked genuinely confused.
Tony paused, caught off guard. "You know I didn't mean it that way…"
"I think…" Brock, watching the two of them about to start bickering again, quickly rubbed his face and interrupted: "I think I need a minute to process all this."
"Go ahead." Arthur turned to Tony and said, "You go ahead and keep rotting away here. But before I go, I'd still like to hear what you've gotten out of all this."
"Plenty!" Tony grabbed the device he'd been using earlier and opened a holographic control interface.
Immediately, over thirty files appeared in midair. With a wave of his hand, he dismissed most of them, then enlarged one file.
It was a 3D model, a scaled-down design of the warship.
Arthur looked at it, then glanced at Tony.
"So?"
"It's a unique spacecraft," Tony explained. "It draws energy directly from darkness, allowing for true invisibility. It can navigate freely through space, even pass through wormholes, making real interstellar travel possible."
"The framework is based on Dark Elf tech. As for its weapon systems, I've integrated Mark Series-based armaments and left modular support for Dark Elf and even Kree technology. If we uncover anything new, I'll retrofit it accordingly."
"The operating system is user-friendly, so we don't need to worry about piloting issues.
And it can support a smart AI, enabling full automation, navigation, target locking, combat execution, everything."
Tony grinned. "Yes, you're not mistaken. With the right AI, it could be a fully autonomous warship in the truest sense."
"Now for the best part: the manufacturing cost isn't outrageously high, as long as we don't insist on using alien materials for everything. You know… so far, we haven't secured even a single scrap from space."
It was definitely a long-winded report.
Arthur listened in silence, then finally nodded slowly. "Well done. But when it comes to the AI… we need to be cautious. I trust your abilities, but you must understand that very ability also makes you incredibly dangerous."
Tony raised an eyebrow.
"I still don't get where your paranoia about AI comes from. But since you haven't been wrong yet, I'll play it safe. As carefully as possible."