Chapter 3179: "Romantic" Wedding Season (63)

Another day dawned, and everyone got up early because there was an important task at hand—today, the ladies were going to try on their wedding dresses.

In fact, the groom's attire and the groomsmen's outfits were just an afterthought; the wedding dress was the biggest hassle in terms of styling.

A suit, from head to toe, alongside accessories, would barely make it past ten items, but a wedding dress, just in terms of its components, could easily exceed fifty pieces.

If the wedding dress were a one-piece, it wouldn't be so bad, but in order to follow tradition and to achieve a better effect, all the brides had chosen separate, on-site fixed wedding dresses.

That is to say, when the wedding dress arrived, it was still in parts and needed to be assembled on the bride on-site.

Aside from underwear, first came the silk lining, then the waist padding, the waistband for fixing the bone structure of the skirt, the boning that was secured at the waist to support the skirt, the heavy fabric that displayed the texture of the dress, layered tulle for a sense of dimension, light tulle for an airy feel, decorative lace, and ribbons to shape the lace...

The hair had to be styled first. One's own volume of hair was not enough; hair extensions were needed and, for a beautiful hairstyle, sometimes even hairpieces or fake buns, then began the trial of the veil.

The veil wasn't simply thrown over the head and done; first was the large veil, the trailing one, which was very heavy and had to be fixed in the hair in a very peculiar way without tilting, lest it got pulled more and more askew.

Then came the small veil, which adorned the top or side of the head. This required a professional to shape some tulle and secure it—often requiring multiple adjustments.

Do you think that was the end of it? Actually, that was just the beginning; there was an even more daunting task—selecting and donning jewelry.

Usually, many Hollywood stars getting married would wear whatever the designer designed, and the jewelry would naturally match.

But things were different with Stark. No one's status outweighed his. He demanded both freedom and aesthetics, insisting on choosing the wedding dress in all its varieties himself, as well as the jewelry, while the designers still had to ensure it all looked good together.

Whenever Shiller, who was helping at the side, felt like he was drowning in a sea of tulle and pearls, he would look at the designers' indescribable faces and felt a bit better about his own situation.

The ladies had their sense of aesthetics but given the room to choose, they certainly took their time to pick and choose; trying one thing, then another, swapping pieces, giving compliments to one another.

The extent to which this process stimulated them was such that Carter, who looked pale and struggled to walk just a few days ago, managed to pick for four hours straight here—adrenaline must have cursed Nataru to get going.

And all the men couldn't leave because the ladies needed opinions, not perfunctory praise, but sincere feedback.

But in truth, at least in Shiller's view, the jewelry could roughly be categorized as looking like glass or like pearls, and at most there were colored glass and pearls, some with more glass and pearls, some with less—beyond that, he really couldn't tell the difference.

He could only sit there, watching the ladies enter a mysterious space and come out "unchanged," asking him which one looked better than the last.

Greed really wanted to call Morbid over.

Later, when he could no longer tolerate it and Pepper walked out of the fitting room again, fixing her gaze on him, he asked directly, "How much is the necklace you're wearing worth?"

"I don't know," Pepper said, glancing down briefly, estimating in her mind, and then said, "The pearls are a bit small, I guess around ninety thousand US dollars."

Eddie sprayed out a mouthful of water.

Pepper only wore a thin strand of pearls around her neck, not some extravagant and dazzling piece of jewelry. Could that thing really be worth ninety thousand US dollars?

"And the one before that?" Shiller asked.

"Oh, that one definitely isn't as cheap. I bet it has to be over a million, at least?"

Eddie nearly choked on his own saliva again. Was this the kind of necklace I'm supposed to evaluate?

"The last one looked better," Shiller said.

Pepper rolled her eyes and said, "I asked you to look at the design, not the price."

"I like the ones with higher prices," Shiller sincerely said.

As for why it was Shiller and Eddie who stayed, it was only because their good habit of not smoking seemed a bit inconvenient here.

After waiting a while, Stark finally returned. He looked at Pepper and let out a surprised exclamation of admiration, and the two of them huddled together, sickeningly sweet, studying the pearl necklace on her neck.

Soon Steve and Matt also returned, and Shiller and Eddie could finally take a break.

The two made their way to the balcony and found the balcony's guard, Nick, blissfully smoking.

"See, that's the benefit of not having a wife," Nick said, exhaling a plume of smoke. "I absolutely can't tell the difference between those necklaces."

"But you'd better show some respect for them," Eddie couldn't help saying, "The paperwork you strain over to get reimbursed might not even be worth one of those pearls."

Nick laughed and said, "That's definitely not because the pearls are too expensive, but because I'm claiming too little."

Eddie was truly at a loss for words.

Shiller picked up his phone; Ultron had been live texting him updates on the situation in the Andromeda Galaxy.

Soon, a message came in.

"Apocalypse seems to be trying to invade the cameras, should I stop him?"

Invasion of the cameras? Shiller thought, figuring that Apocalypse probably wanted to use the cameras to observe the inside of the Andromeda Galaxy. He wasn't too dumb, after all.

"Block him," Shiller said. "Although I think Dr. Beast will certainly block him too, you can also lend them a hand."

After a few seconds of pause, Ultron sent a message saying, "The method of invasion is unfamiliar, definitely not Earth technology."

"He has one of the Three Great Empires behind him, can you block him? Or should I call Jarvis?"

"No need for that, it's a piece of cake," Ultron's text read, dripping with disdain. He added, "Even good technology depends on who's using it, and this guy seems to be using an anti-aircraft gun to chop vegetables."

There was no response from Ultron for a while, so Shiller set down his phone and looked into the distance to relax his eyes—he had seen so many wedding dresses that he was almost getting snow blindness.

About two minutes later, Ultron sent another message. "Good thing you had me handle it. The mutants' technology couldn't completely block it, but I helped them out. Now the Andromeda Galaxy's network has been completely sealed off."

"Will he show up?"

"I don't know, I just saw some mutants heading over there... oh, it looks like their powers are out of control."

Shiller immediately guessed Professor X's intention. Tapping the back of his phone, he thought that Apocalypse was indeed an old adversary of the X-Men and Professor X had him thoroughly figured out.

The two mutants Professor X chose to play the part of those with out-of-control powers were Sunspot and Quicksilver, for no other reason than that if these two lost control, the spectacle was grand and it was easier to tell that their powers were out of control.

Sunspot wasn't actually one of the X-Men; he was a student in Matt's youth heroes training class and a prospective member of The Avengers. The Avengers initially didn't know he was a mutant, assuming he was just a superpowered young man, but he was later taken to the Andromeda Galaxy by Professor X for key training.

Upon arrival, Sunspot began absorbing the energy of the star, then started using Sunspot bursts. His body turned pitch black, but radiated an incredibly brilliant light.

Quicksilver was not to be outdone, constantly releasing huge shockwaves. After absorbing the energy of the star, he could even shatter a planet directly.

It wasn't often that the two were commanded to create chaos, and knowing that many mutants were watching, they performed to the best of their abilities. It wasn't long before the star was nearly drained.

Professor X sat calmly in his office, silently counting down in his head, "Three, two, one..."

"Professor X, are you alright?" A deep voice with a hint of mirth sounded in his ear.

Magneto immediately looked over. Not because he heard the voice, but because he noticed a change in Professor X's expression.

"I'm fine," Professor X said.

"Really? Do you know what happened to your students at the edge of the Andromeda Galaxy? Their powers have started to get out of control..."

"What?!" Professor X's tone was panicked, but his expression remained serene. If you looked closely, you could see a cold storm in his clear blue eyes.

Apocalypse, hiding behind a planet not far from the Andromeda Galaxy, let out a boisterous laugh. He was genuinely happy—it had been many years, and he finally scored one over Professor X and Magneto, two colluding mutant leaders!

Apocalypse had a gray-black complexion with a strong and tall stature, currently wearing silver armor, but was emitting a sneering laugh that didn't match his imposing figure.

"Hahaha...argh!!!"

The laughter cut off abruptly, followed by sharp screams.

"Aaaaaahhhhhh!!!!"

Apocalypse clutched his head and screamed in agony. At that instant, a black wormhole opened beside him, and Magneto flew out.

"Got you."

An electromagnetic field trapped the tall figure, and Magneto, holding Apocalypse, passed through the wormhole back to the office where Professor X was wearing Cerebro.

Apocalypse and Nathaniel were unlike any other; this guy was one of the oldest mutants. Although he had never beaten the two mutant leaders, he had indeed caused them some trouble.

And with the people of the New Skrull Empire about to be drawn here, he was key, so the loss was unacceptable. Hence, Professor X directly used Cerebro to ensure he'd be thoroughly brainwashed.

But soon, he stopped and frowned. Magneto looked at him and asked, "What's wrong?"

"The Skrulls are craftier than I thought. They must have guessed I could control Apocalypse by force. They placed an alarm device in his mind—once his psychic battlefield is attacked, the alarm will be triggered."

"What do we do now?"

Professor X pondered and said, "Go get David for me, I have an idea."