The morning sun had just risen.
Location: the balcony of Villa No. 10880, Malibu.
Beneath the parasol sat two wicker chairs — crafted from Pure Bodhi and Forget-Worry Vine. Their function: to dispel melancholy, resentment, and hatred, to clear one's heart and forget one's troubles.
In an immortal cultivation world, such chairs would be precious artifacts that help cultivators resist inner demons and aid meditation.In Mu Yang's hands, however, they were nothing more than mood-stabilizing gadgets.
The difference was much like calling a luxury car "just a grocery cart" in someone else's eyes.
Sitting on the wicker chairs with tea in hand, Mu Yang and White Yasha stared blankly at the fog-shrouded sea. Their pupils were unfocused, their minds adrift.
Unlike the two of them, Tony Stark was buried in work.
Though the COS competition's award ceremony had been delegated to Pepper, he still had a mountain of other affairs to handle — from entering the energy sector and selecting a site for a giant arc reactor, to finalizing the new Stark Industries headquarters design.Each required his personal approval, keeping him spinning like a top.
Ethan and his two companions wanted to help, but they simply lacked the ability. No matter how hard they looked, they couldn't find a single task they were actually qualified to handle.
Oddly enough… it all felt perfectly normal.
They didn't find it strange or discouraging either.
After all, two of them were relics from seventy years ago, completely out of sync with modern society, and the third was a scientist with a few eccentric skill sets.
Since they couldn't help Tony Stark, they couldn't bear to waste their time — or as they'd put it, "live uselessly."So, after some discussion, they decided to form a team… and grind for gold in Hell.
By noon, Kayaba Akihiko returned to the villa, looking a bit dazed — the kind of look gamers have after being utterly destroyed and forced to question their life choices.
He hadn't rushed blindly into Hell. He'd spent several days carefully gathering intel from Ethan's group, crafting a detailed strategy and preparing meticulously.
But reality has a way of mocking preparation — plans always fall behind change.
First hunt: he ran into a hundred-meter-tall blue samurai slicing at a volcano. Lava spewed, the ground split apart.He wasn't strong enough to ignore magma, so he fled.
Second hunt: he encountered a forest springing up in seconds — trees tearing through the earth, grinding stone to dust, flowers blooming and releasing clouds of toxic pollen.He wasn't immune to poison either, so he fled again.
Third hunt: an old man casually picked up a rock and tossed it into the distance — the speed and impact rivaled a battleship's main gun. The explosion's shockwave spread for dozens of miles.Feeling the chaotic wind buffet his face, Kayaba wisely decided to get out before he became collateral damage.
Everywhere he went, veteran players were casually wiping out monsters with area-of-effect skills — mountains crumbling, the earth splitting open.
At that moment, Kayaba realized his strategy was useless.
A newbie shouldn't be thinking about beating monsters —he should be thinking about how to avoid getting nuked by the pros' map-wide attacks.
Sharing a map with top-tier players? Completely absurd.
After a full morning of running for his life, Kayaba had barely managed to kill a few stray monsters. His earnings were pitiful.
By dusk, Ethan's group returned. Hearing Kayaba's complaints, they patted their chests confidently.
"Team up with us next time — we'll make sure you strike it rich."
The newbie nodded. The veterans were ready to roll.
Outside the camp, the usual elite players were farming.
Whitebeard and Uchiha Madara sought more power; Garp was grinding for revival coins…
Instead of heading out the front gate, Ethan's group led Kayaba along the camp's outer wall to the back.
The front gate was a battlefield dominated by big-shots.The area behind the camp, though — that was paradise for mid- and low-level adventurers.
By nightfall, Kayaba had earned over ten or twenty thousand gold.
Debt-free days were within reach. A fully paid home was right on the horizon!
Clenching his fist, eyes shining bright, he was burning with the light of dreams.
The next day, at noon—
Tony and Pepper were still buried in their work.Mu Yang and White Yasha were still sipping tea, gazing at the sea.
Ethan's group, meanwhile, were searching everywhere for Kayaba to take him grinding again.
"What are you doing?"
They froze at the sight before them.
Kayaba Akihiko lay sprawled on the sofa like a dead fish, all the spark drained from him.
He'd been lively and full of energy yesterday — and now he looked like a salted fish who'd lost his will to live.
"I suddenly realized something…" he muttered weakly, his head tilted, eyes lifeless.
"What is it?"
The trio leaned in curiously. What could possibly have hit him this hard?
"…Buying a house is hard."
His dull eyes stared into nothingness as he spoke.
Earning twenty thousand gold overnight meant he could make a million in fifty days — not that difficult in theory.And since Mu Yang wasn't charging daily interest, Kayaba decided to finish building the outer shell of his floating castle before paying off his debt.
He poured the entire twenty thousand into Aincrad.
The result: ten measly bricks on the castle's outer wall.
Each brick cost two thousand gold.
The sheer terror of real estate prices left him breathless.
Thus, a young man lost his dream and turned into a salted fish.
"…Yeah," Ethan's trio nodded, legs weak. "That really is hard."
They were just as stunned by the price, unsure how to console him — all they could do was pour him a bit of motivational "chicken soup."
"It's hard, sure, but don't give up! Perseverance is victory!"
"Right! Believe in your luck! Think about it — you even stumbled upon the Dimensional Store once. Maybe someday you'll pick up a billion-credit treasure off the street!"
"Yeah, Bucky's right!"
Colonel Rhode entered the villa just in time to see Ethan's group trying to drown Kayaba in pep talk. He stopped short, blinking.
Without interrupting, he tiptoed over to Tony and whispered,"What… are they doing?"
"Who knows," Tony muttered, not even looking up.He stood and walked toward the lab. "Come with me, Rhode."
They entered the lab one after another. Tony gestured toward a silver-white suit of armor in the corner.
"That's a gift for you," he said. "Consider it… compensation."(And silently added in his heart: From now on, my professional scapegoat.)
Rhode's eyes widened. "You're not joking?"
Tony ignored the unnecessary question and patted the armor's left arm. "So, which weapons do you want installed?"
Without hesitation, Rhode grinned. "All of them, of course. If it can be armed, arm it!"
"Good."
Tony smirked and glanced sideways at the gleaming silver armor.
The Mobile War Fortress was about to be born.
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