Chapter 55

This place is in such a dilapidated state, already run-down and weathered, further ravaged by a major battle, and being by the seaside, standing here feels chilly. Using this as a lab is really bare-bones.

If a collaboration with Osborn Corporation is possible, of course, these instruments should be moved over there.

Even if there's a slight chance that the collaboration doesn't work out, this place is no longer viable after this major battle.

Spider-Man agreed to Mark's request and left to find Harry.

Meanwhile, Mark took advantage of helping to dismantle things to secretly inspect this equipment.

It must be said that Doctor Octopus is truly an extraordinary genius.

Even in the future, conducting nuclear fusion research requires a vast facility and the efforts of countless personnel.

Yet, in this comparatively backward era, Doctor Octopus, single-handedly, managed to create a small-scale nuclear fusion device.

In fact, if Doctor Octopus took this thing to seek investments, there would be plenty of people lining up with money to invest—even if it had already failed once.

But as long as it succeeds, it would be something that makes money faster than a printing press!

Infinite energy!

Capable of impacting every facet of life.

To give a simple example, the annual electricity consumption of the city for 20 years is roughly 157.6 billion kilowatt-hours, which amounts to about 430 million kilowatt-hours per day.

Doctor Octopus's nuclear fusion device can generate about one million kilowatt-hours of electricity per second.

Just running this device for 7 minutes and 10 seconds would fulfill the city's daily electricity needs!

What a terrifying energy source this is!

And the price of tritium, at $30,000 per gram, is not much at all.

The profits involved are self-evident.

Its only drawback at the moment is the inability to resolve the immense gravitational force that arises when containing the enormous energy.

As long as this issue can be solved, it will be humanity's stepping stone into a new era!

For others, perhaps, this might be quite challenging.

The original Doctor Octopus could only hold his regrets and despair as his research went to the depths of the sea.

But Mark can traverse various worlds.

Isn't the Arc Reactor that Iron Man uses essentially a similar device to a cold fusion reactor?

By then, it's best to establish a good relationship with the MCU Spider-Man and then find an opportunity to borrow the Arc Reactor for research. Iron Man shouldn't mind, right?

As for Mark's "stealing knowledge" behavior, Doctor Octopus didn't mind. In fact, if Mark asked him questions about the equipment, he might even respond enthusiastically.

Mark speculated that this might partly be due to the influence of the nanometal.

When the two of them were almost finished dismantling, Spider-Man returned with Harry Osborn.

However, this time, Harry Osborn wasn't in his Green Goblin armor; he arrived in a small car. Even Spider-Man changed back into his regular attire.

They also brought a few large trucks with them.

The two of them entered first and explained the situation.

For the sake of Osborn Corporation's continuation, Harry Osborn decided to temporarily reconcile with Doctor Octopus. He also hired Doctor Octopus as the Chief Research Scientist of Osborn Corporation's scientific laboratory.

Peter also joined in.

However, considering his hidden identity issue and to avoid affecting his ongoing role as the "friendly neighborhood Spider-Man," Peter was given the position of a researcher.

Harry Osborn only required him to come to the lab in his spare time to carry out research, utilizing his intelligence and brainstorming with Doctor Octopus.

Lastly, there was Mark.

Mark's identity was more complicated than their Spider-Man's, but after learning about his true origins, Harry hired him as the scientific consultant of the Osborn Laboratory.

Osborn Corporation wouldn't provide him with a salary, but they allowed him to share in the research results.

The four of them quickly finalized their collaboration agreement.

Then, the people Harry Osborn brought loaded Doctor Octopus's equipment onto the trucks. After some concealment efforts, they successfully delivered Doctor Octopus to the Osborn Corporation building.

Upon arrival, Doctor Octopus, who had been scribbling calculations and sketches along the way, couldn't hold back his excitement about the nanometal. He immediately dove into the laboratory.

Mark, Spider-Man, and Harry Osborn followed suit.

The Osborn Corporation was grand in scale. Although it had declined due to mismanagement, they still had a wide array of cutting-edge equipment.

The high-precision lithography machine Doctor Octopus had mentioned soon appeared before them.

Afterward, Doctor Octopus got straight to work.

Not long after, he produced a chip the size of a fingernail.

This was the so-called smart chip he had mentioned.

After combining the chip with the original central control device, a brand-new nanometal suit equipped with an intelligent system was born!

Of course, Doctor Octopus's expertise in artificial intelligence was clearly not on par with Iron Man's.

His artificial intelligence was merely auxiliary in nature. It could perform some minor operations based on the operator's intentions, far from the level of Jarvis.

But for Mark, this was already sufficient. After all, he just needed to use the suit more comfortably and freely.

Of course, while Doctor Octopus was busy improving his suit, Mark didn't sit idly by. Apart from initially observing Doctor Octopus's work attentively, Mark and the others engaged in casual conversation as they couldn't quite comprehend the technical details.

Mark also took the opportunity to mention some ideas for civilian devices from the future, such as smaller LCD screens compared to the bulky TV computers of this era, smartphones, and smart homes.

These inventions wouldn't be difficult for the Osborn Corporation, which possessed military technology, to develop, and the profits would be substantial.

Harry Osborn readily agreed, perhaps because his corporation's decline had left him eager for new opportunities. He noted down all of Mark's casually mentioned ideas and planned to analyze their feasibility one by one later.

That evening, at Harry Osborn's enthusiastic invitation, Mark enjoyed a sumptuous dinner.

Early the next morning, Mark took his leave. Then, in the presence of Doctor Octopus, Spider-Man, and Harry Osborn, he activated his abilities.

[Quantum Travel]!

Witnessing Mark traverse parallel universes and depart from their location left Doctor Octopus and the others undoubtedly astonished.

This was precisely Mark's intention.

He wanted to ease their concerns.

Spider-Man's state of mind wasn't a worry; being Spider-Man, his mental fortitude exceeded even his physical strength.

However, Doctor Octopus and Harry Osborn, who hadn't yet been healed completely, needed a touch of both extra anticipation and pressure.

The scene before them shifted from blurry to clear, then back to blurry.

Familiar surroundings appeared before Mark.

This was the scene within the microcosmic quantum world during his interdimensional travels.

It was the irregular fluctuations of these quantum states on the microscale that gave rise to the different trajectories of macroscopic parallel universes!

With limited abilities, Mark couldn't remain in this state for an extended period. Soon, he located the variables unique to his original universe and converted his body into a quantum stream for transmission.

°°°

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