Human relationships
After Tony's press conference, he vanished from the public eye. Few knew where he went or what he was doing.
All eyes were focused on the Stark Industries Group.
Based on current information, Tony's previous statement wasn't just a joke; he truly intended to shut down the weapons division and was already taking action to that effect.
The restructuring of the organizational framework and massive personnel transfers undoubtedly triggered a magnitude twelve earthquake within the Stark Industries Group.
Judging by the drop in the group's stock price and the reports from major news media, it was clear that no one favored Tony's decision.
Even if he was Tony Stark, the genius in everyone's eyes.
Well, 'genius' was a thing of the past; now he was a world-renowned madman.
Many began to speculate and suspect that Tony had suffered indescribable torture during his kidnapping and imprisonment, to the point where something had gone wrong with his brain. Otherwise, how could he make such a decision?
Tony had never revealed the company's future development direction to the outside world, sitting idly by as negative public opinion fermented.
However, Pepper knew that Tony had been privately buying up scattered shares on the market at low prices during this time; he was clearly doing this on purpose.
Watching the disparagement and mockery of Tony on the news reports, Pepper's mood was not very good.
She understood Tony's flamboyant and conceited personality and was somewhat worried that the negative voices from the outside world would affect him.
In fact, in recent days, Tony had indeed rarely appeared, and no one knew what he was tinkering with in his workshop.
The trip to the Middle East had too much of an impact on Tony, changing his personality to a certain extent. The guy was actually able to endure loneliness and hadn't gone out to carouse until now, which was simply incredible.
It even made Pepper believe a little that Tony might have truly suffered unspeakable torture during his days of imprisonment.
But she could only bury this question deep in her heart; it was impossible to ask it directly.
“Pepper, come down for a moment...”
Tony's phone call came, calling for Pepper.
After these days of hard work, he had finally completed the production of the second-generation Arc Reactor and could replace the crude first-generation one in his chest.
Pepper looked at Tony lying on the chair, and after a deep interaction with him, a faint sense of ambiguity fermented between the two.
However, the first to get a little nervous and instinctively avoid eye contact was Tony, the playboy. At this moment, he suddenly realized his love for Pepper in his heart.
If you asked Tony to pick up girls, he was an expert, but to ask him to love someone?
This was somewhat touching upon Tony's blind spot of knowledge.
Facing something he wasn't good at, his instinct was to avoid it.
And now was not the time for this. Besides dealing with Obadiah, he also had to start developing his Mark II.
To be honest, the days of imprisonment had indeed left Tony with a certain psychological shadow. Although he didn't show it, he felt more insecure internally than in the past.
Though he never mentioned it to outsiders, staying inside a tin can did indeed give Tony a comfortable sense of being protected.
On the other side, Chen Nuo appeared much more leisurely.
How could Obadiah truly satisfy Tony's request to shut down the weapons division? He was merely using this pretext to eliminate dissidents and shift all the resulting turmoil onto Tony's head.
These internal company struggles didn't affect Chen Nuo yet. After all, in the eyes of both parties, he was one of their own.
It was just that the smart weapons factory, which had been built with great difficulty, currently had to be temporarily suspended.
Obadiah couldn't yet blatantly defy Tony's wishes.
Stark Industries Group was, after all, a Stark family business. If he couldn't win the support of the vast majority of shareholders, it would be difficult to shake Tony's position in the company.
As of now, many directors still held confidence in Tony, thinking he was just fooling around and would recover after a while.
After all, no matter how nonsensical something happened to Tony, it wouldn't seem too far-fetched.
Obadiah needed to fan the fire ignited by Tony even hotter, until it finally burned Tony himself.
“Boss, aren't you worried at all?”
Martin looked at Chen Nuo, who still had the mind to build toys for himself, and couldn't help but lean in to ask.
“Worried about what?”
Chen Nuo didn't even look up, continuing to debug his creation.
“Stark is going to close the weapons division. What do we do? I don't want to be fired.”
Martin pulled up a chair and sat next to Chen Nuo, his dark face full of worry.
How long had it been since he'd started living the good life by latching onto a big shot? How could he be about to become unemployed in the blink of an eye? A newcomer like him, who hadn't even been employed for a full year, couldn't expect much in the way of severance pay.
Even some other colleagues had already started secretly looking for their next jobs.
When hearts were scattered, the team became difficult to lead.
Fortunately, the smart factory was already built. With Skippy to assist him, he didn't need these workhorses' help.
But since the little black guy had proactively mentioned this to him, and considering he'd put in quite a bit of effort in the past, Chen Nuo offered a word of comfort.
“What's the panic? If we can't make weapons, we can make something else.”
“Boss, what ideas do you have?”
Martin knew Chen Nuo had left a back path for himself and leaned in with a fawning smile; it seemed the worried face from just now was an act.
“We can make smart toilets. Believe me, that's definitely more promising than smart weapons. Whose house can do without a toilet?”
Chen Nuo said with a straight face.
“...”
Martin's expression froze, not knowing how to respond for a moment.
But after thinking it over carefully, he felt what Chen Nuo said really made sense.
“Don't worry. Even if the weapons division really closes, other groups will take over our projects. You won't lose your job. Come and give me a hand.”
Chen Nuo didn't want to continue this topic. Stark Industries Group wasn't his family's; why should he worry so much for Tony?
“You're right, Boss.”
Martin nodded in deep agreement and reached out to take the mechanical part Chen Nuo handed over. His whole body suddenly lunged forward, nearly falling to the ground.
“What is this thing? Why is it so heavy!”
Martin gasped for several breaths before barely managing to hold the mechanical part in his arms. He was incredibly shocked; Chen Nuo had held it so easily just now that he thought it had no weight.
Truly, appearances could be deceiving. It seemed Chen Nuo had been lifting weights behind his back quite often.
“Take a guess.”
Chen Nuo didn't answer.
This square mechanical part was actually his improved gravity control module, mainly used for kinetic assistance. It could be directly installed onto the exoskeleton frame he had designed.
It was like building blocks; it could be spliced and assembled at will.
It was mainly designed with reference to the Cyberskeleton, then integrated with some concepts and ingenuity from the titan.
The final product certainly couldn't fly like Stark's Mark armor, but by relying on the gravity control module combined with the kinetic module, it could achieve high-speed movement on the ground.
In the future, Chen Nuo could design other modules, such as Vortex Shields, energy protection fields, and so on, to be equipped.
Of course, this also required more time.
“Then I'd better not guess.”
Martin was a sensible person. After helping move the items to the weapon testing room, he slipped away.
It was already past off-work hours, and he had an appointment to go drinking with a girl.
As for the thing Chen Nuo was hammering out?
It was normal for a technical expert to tinker with something novel when they had nothing to do.
“Bao, prepare to start the test.”
Chen Nuo called Skippy by her nickname. The mechanical arms in the room immediately began to move, flexibly connecting various lines and devices. Subsequently, various data points were fed back onto his computer.
“Starting test...”
“...”
“...”
The test results met Chen Nuo's expectations.
There was no obvious conflict of rules between the Marvel Universe and the Cyberpunk world; various technologies could be used almost directly.
Now that the exoskeleton frame was built and the kinetic and gravity modules had passed testing, all that was missing was an energy core to give the exoskeleton armor basic combat capabilities.
At that time, one only needed to look at David equipped with the 'Cyberman' implant to know it was enough to dominate a small-scale war.
However, Chen Nuo did not yet have the ability to replicate titan battery technology, and Cyberpunk's new energy technology also relied on large-scale cultivation of genetically modified high-sugar wheat and refining facilities to be realized.
In this current marvel era, it seemed only Tony's Arc Reactor could meet Chen Nuo's requirements.
This was a bit difficult, but not impossible.
Chen Nuo spoke to the camera overhead.
“Bao, store the gravity control module in Warehouse No. 1.”
“Okay.”
A drone controlled by Skippy flew over and transferred the gravity control module to a warehouse hidden beneath the factory floor.
After the smart weapons production line was set up, Chen Nuo had used it to manufacture several industrial robots and secretly opened up a space underground.
From its layout and structure, it looked like a small Hive.
It was stable and hidden, yet quite aesthetically pleasing.
The entire underground structure was designed by Skippy This talkative Artificial Retard had a bit of OCD; most AIs possessed similar traits.
With Skippy monitoring the whole situation, no one could notice any of this happening. Not even a single flaw could be seen on the books.
Cyberpunk's AI technology was still a bit too overpowered for marvel's New York at this timeline. Unless Tony had Jarvis invest a massive amount of computing power, perhaps some flaws could be found.
Just as Chen Nuo was about to head underground to further debug the assembly of the gravity control module and the exoskeleton main frame, a phone call from Pepper interrupted his actions.
“Nuo, do you have time now...”
“I understand. I'm coming over now.”
Chen Nuo hung up the phone. He wasn't quite sure what Pepper wanted from him at this time, but it was certainly related to Tony. This guy had been low-key for so many days; it was time for him to make a move.
“Bao, archive all test records. I need to go out. Bring the car around.”
“Okay.”
Chen Nuo had long since installed smart devices in his car.
It was just a matter of replicating Cyberpunk's technical achievements; it didn't take him too much time.
Chen Nuo drove to the bar Pepper had specified and walked into a private booth. Tony was already sitting inside waiting.
“Come to think of it, this is our first meeting.”
Tony motioned for Chen Nuo to sit, poured him a glass of wine, and continued.
“The smart pistol you designed is very good.”
“It's an honor to be praised by Tony. Unfortunately, the company is about to close the weapons division. I'll have to find another home for my Skippy.”
Chen Nuo took the glass and had a sip. It tasted like money.
“No, no, no. I will indeed close the weapons division, but that doesn't mean your Skippy won't have a place to go. I will establish a new AI department to change people's lives.”
Tony said as he put his arm around Chen Nuo and lightly patted his shoulder, painting a delicious picture of the future.
“For example, making smart toilets?”
“...Why does it have to be toilets? Phones, refrigerators, TVs—all sorts of furniture can actually have AI implanted.”
“I was just speaking offhandedly.”
“Of course, the smart toilet idea sounds good too.”
Tony stroked his chin, somewhat curious about what kind of sparks AI and toilets could create. He would definitely have to try it out himself when the time came.
But for now, he had another urgent matter.
“Before that, there's something I need you to help me with.”
“Go ahead.”
“I need you to go to my office, hack into the main computer, and get all the recent shipping manifests, as well as everything related to Obadiah.”
“Why me?”
Chen Nuo glanced at Pepper next to him. Wouldn't it be easier for her to do this kind of thing?
As Tony's secretary, Pepper had the access clearance.
But clearly, Tony didn't want Pepper to take this risk, especially when there were other options.
Similarly, this was also a test.
Without Obadiah, Tony needed to foster a new supporting force within the group. Chen Nuo had the potential.
“I believe in your ability, and you are also one of the few people I can trust right now.”
Tony said seriously, his sincere gaze seemingly piercing into one's heart. For someone like him to say such words, it was quite impactful.
If it were Pepper, she definitely wouldn't be able to resist.
Don't think Tony was a simple-minded person. In fact, when he did things, he could be quite unscrupulous. Systems and rules were things he was most happy to apply to others.
“I can help, but you'll owe me a favor.”
“Fine, one more debt won't weigh me down.”
Tony shrugged. He already owed Chen Nuo his life; one more favor was nothing. He took a USB-like device out of his pocket, placed it on the table, and continued.
“This is a bypass chip. The stuff is probably in the executive files, or maybe on a ghost drive.”
Seeing Chen Nuo take the chip, he added another sentence.
“As fast as possible. Obadiah has been making big moves lately. I feel like he's about to lose his patience.”
“Understood.”
Chen Nuo stood up and left.