Tony was furious at Mobius's blunt mockery. He forced down his fear for the moment, and the pride that belonged to Tony Stark made him crane his neck and snap back, "A shoddy toy? Ma'am, that's the Mark III. It's the crystallization of my genius! A revolutionary single-soldier combat platform! You don't understand its value at all!"
"Value?" Mobius sounded like she'd heard something hilarious. She let out a bell-like laugh—one that somehow grated on Tony's nerves. "A metal shell that someone has to climb into, that moves sluggishly, has flimsy defenses, and wastes energy at an embarrassing rate? And you call that a 'crystallization of genius'? Among the many 'armaments' I've seen, it doesn't even qualify to make my observation list. It can't even compare to some of Vill-V's cute little trash-tier 'genius' inventions."
She raised a slender finger and pointed at the damaged armor on Tony's body from a distance. "Look at this pitiful linkage structure. This primitive energy conduction method. And this… tsk, tsk—maintenance so atrocious that a little damage practically totals the whole thing. The technology of your era is so crude it's laughable."
Tony's face flushed red with anger. "Crude? Do you have any idea how many cutting-edge technologies are in this? Gold-titanium alloy! A miniature arc reactor! JARVIS-level artificial intelligence! You—"
"Gold-titanium alloy? The strength is acceptable, the weight is excessive, and its resistance to energy and special attacks is almost zero." Mobius cut him off, her tone carrying a faint pity. "A miniature reactor? Energy density is passable, but the output format is rough, the waste is severe. Artificial intelligence? Just a data processor shackled to fixed programs."
With every sentence, Tony's expression grew uglier—because the criticisms were cruel, yet they hit the exact pain points he'd been turning over in his mind.
"Then what's your brilliant idea?!" Tony practically roared.
Mobius lazily leaned back against Tsuda Takao, speaking as casually as if she were discussing the day's weather. "Brilliant idea? For example… a universal material that can self-repair, freely change shape, conduct energy perfectly, and even bear consciousness and the soul. We call it… Soulium."
"Self-repair? Changing shape? Bearing consciousness?" Tony froze. Those concepts sounded like pure fantasy. "That's impossible! With the physical laws we currently have—"
"Physical laws?" Mobius snorted. "Little lab rat, your understanding of 'laws' is still skin-deep. Soulium is, in essence, a cluster of nano-scale units with specific functions—nanorobots. They respond to commands, change their own structural arrangement, and achieve form shifts from solid to fluid, while efficiently transmitting energy and information. As for bearing consciousness…"
She paused. Tony's eyes had flared at the words "nanorobots," and when she mentioned "bearing consciousness," shock and clearly forming ideas flickered across his face. Mobius knew the bait was already in the water.
"Human consciousness is, to a large extent, nothing more than a collection of complex electrical and chemical signals in the brain. And Soulium can serve as the most perfect 'wetware' carrier—fully copying, transferring, and storing those signals that represent 'you.' A body made of Soulium is, in a sense, mechanical ascension: the eternity of consciousness."
Tony went completely still.
As a top-tier scientist and engineer, he understood in an instant the terrifying possibilities embedded in her words. If an armor suit were made from such a material, it wouldn't be armor worn on the body—it would be part of the body. It could change shape at will, adapt to any environment, self-repair after damage, and even… if it truly could bear consciousness, what would that mean?
Near immortality.
He thought about his suit's limitations, the helplessness of watching it fail under battlefield damage, the stronger enemies he might face in the future… If—if he could have technology like this…
His expression shifted from rage to shock, then to a hunger and fanaticism he could no longer suppress. He stared at Mobius, and his gaze changed completely. The fear and anger from before were replaced by an almost pilgrim-like thirst for knowledge.
"Y-you… you really have this kind of technology?" Tony's voice trembled slightly.
Mobius admired the change in his face, like savoring a successful experiment. She smiled faintly and didn't answer directly. Instead, she said to Tsuda Takao, "Looks like this slightly smarter little lab rat has finally realized what a crude starting line he's standing on, my dear."
Tsuda Takao looked at Tony—who seemed ready to lunge forward and beg for instruction—then at Mobius, whose expression said "everything is under control." He could only smile helplessly.
He knew it: Tony's tech tree was about to be forcibly yanked to a height even Tony himself could hardly imagine—by this top-tier scientist from the Honkai world. And the appearance of the concept called "Soulium" would undoubtedly bring earthshaking change to this Marvel Universe.
A nanotech armor suit? That might be nothing more than Soulium's most basic application.
(End of Chapter)
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