The Legendary Mechanic in Marvel Universe - Chapter 153

Chapter 153 Steam’s New Toy

TL: Kyous

It had been a month since the disappearance of Norman Osborn. To reduce the panic among the citizens, this matter had been suppressed forcefully on the surface as a new mayor was elected right away.

Nonetheless, the current age was still incomparable to the Internet Age where everyone could express their opinion online. The main methods of spreading information among the citizens were still newspapers, news channels, and word of mouth.

As long as someone was pressuring or bribing the news agency and TV stations in the dark, sweeping some matters under the carpet was still simple. Furthermore, the truth was easily distorted with words spread from the mouth only.

After a month of digestion, the initial news of the assault on the mayor was retold into another heroic tale of Spider-man.

However, behind the scene, the search for Norman’s whereabouts hadn’t halted for even a second. Two parties were still persevering in searching for Norman’s tracks. 

On one hand, it was Oscorp with Norman’s son, Harry Osborn, leading. Even though the old butler, Bernard, had constantly hinted to Harry that Norman might have met his maker and hoped Harry would immediately take over as Oscorp’s chairman, focusing on future development.

On the contrary, Harry was still unable to accept the loss of his father and was continuously spending fortunes and manpower to search for Norman. It was until Alexander Pierce, S.H.I.E.L.D. ‘s king snake contacted him and shed some light on the truth, which made him finally give up the search, and instead, cooperated with H.Y.D.R.A. 2.0 in secret just like his father did.

On the other hand, it was the NYPD. With Commissioner O’Neal spearheading, they had a rough time as of late. The disappearance of the mayor was an enormous issue yet the police weren’t able to close the case. With the pressure from the higher-ups, everything was imaginable.

Fortunately, he had long locked onto the culprit’s identity, thus avoiding being dismissed from his position. However, the criminal, Otto Octavius’s whereabouts were unknown and the mayor was nowhere to be found. Hence, he deemed Spider-man as the key to solving the case.

But the odd thing was, the “Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man” who used to swing by several times once a week, was gone for almost a month. This made O’Neal very restless. Every day, alone in his office, he would point at the wall and curse at the meddlesome S.H.I.E.L.D. agents from that day. He believed the reason Spider-man didn’t reveal himself was due to the agents attacking him.

Yet unbeknownst to him, a certain Spider-man was on the verge of becoming a henpecked husband!

Anyhow, all of these stirred in the dark and Leo was ignorant of them. Furthermore, these matters were irrelevant to him as he couldn’t be bothered about them. The only relevant matter to Leo was because Otto had El Tech Company’s shares. Thus, the NYPD dispatched someone to investigate.

Since most of the involved parties went missing, there weren’t any reliable leads within the NYPD. When they discovered the lead about El Tech Company, O’Neal personally led the squad and aggressively rushed over to flip the company inside out.

Thankfully, Attorney Matt was on the case. Donning a pair of sunglasses and a guiding stick akin to the dog beating staff, he alone blocked dozens of NYPD officers at El Tech Company’s entrance. What followed was his eloquent and articulate speech, instantly making O’Neal speechless. In the end, O’Neal ran away with his tail tucked in between his legs.

Matt’s expression during that time was similar to Leo’s flying for the first time, overflowing with radiance.

When Matt was battering the officers, Leo was silently watching from not far. Then, it suddenly dawned on him that he was unaware that he had countless talented individuals under his wing. Each of them possessed their own greatness.

On top of that, each of them was a resounding character in the Marvel Universe.

At that moment, Leo’s lips were curling up high. He believed he must pull as many superheroes under his wing as possible. By then, it would be an unstoppable force! Just thinking about it, made him over the moon.

In a blink of an eye, a month flew by. Norman and Otto’s location were still unknown. Gradually, indifferent people forget about this matter while heedful people let it go.

Leo was one of those indifferent people. He had long cast aside the matter with Norman’s death and now was in his lab, crossing his legs while happily reading the books Fury had given him.

The author of the books was Howard and the contents covered a wide range. Including the basics of mathematical theory, arithmetic, possibilities of quantum communication, deduction of various new elements, and even debates regarding nanotechnology.

He had gone through the books a couple of times. Each reading was rewarding and he even felt the Mechanical Force within him was acting up due to the contents, becoming more vigorous. As expected, learning from various places was better than fumbling behind closed doors.

Closing the books, Leo pondered for a moment before summoning Steam, “Steam, do you want to see a bigger world?”

“Buzz! Yes!” Steam’s spherical head was bobbly, apparently very happy.

“Alright, come over. Open your core vault, I’ll install the networking module for you.”

“Buzzzz!” A hole suddenly popped open in Steam’s stomach. As Leo operated, he had prepared a small module before and stuffed it into Steam’s stomach. By having this stuff, Steam was able to access the Internet through a wired connection from now on.

Frankly, Leo already intended to let Steam access the Internet, but he was afraid Steam’s intelligence was still immature, thus shelving it for the moment. But now Steam was smart enough and he was prepared to open up the Internet access to Steam, letting it be self-learning.

“Steam, due to our company releasing El Gen chips, the development of computation and network were rapid this year. There are a ton of publishers who uploaded their latest thesis onto the network. Now that I’ve granted you Internet access, I want you at the same time to take note of newly published theses while you’re learning. For now, set the search keywords to energy, communication, and material, these three keywords. Remember to give me a weekly report.” Leo prepared some homework for Steam which was also helpful for its intelligence.

Steam closed its stomach and gyrated in happiness, “Buzzzzz! Affirmative, master! Steam will get the work done!”

Having said that, Steam revved toward the computer, before carefully extending a plug from its mechanical arm and inserting it into the network port on the wall next to the computer. In an instant, its eyes flashed with colorful lights, as though discovering a brand new marvelous world.

Watching Steam’s reaction, a smile appeared on Leo’s face. Steam was much more intelligent than he imagined and its studying prowess was extremely remarkable. In the future, for certain, it would grow into an artificial intelligence far greater than Iron Man’s J.A.R.V.I.S.

Perhaps it might even grow into a mechanical lifeform. After all, Ultron and Vision from the Marvel Universe were categorized as mechanical lifeforms. Even Nebula, a cyborg, could be counted as one. If fate allowed Steam to encounter them, there might be a great probability to awaken its spark of life, becoming, in some sense, a living being.

Nevertheless, for Leo’s current objectives, he planned to let Steam slowly control everything on the net. By then, there would no longer be any secrets hideable from him.

Seeing Steam happily playing, Leo smiled before turning to his bedroom for sleeping. As the Arc Reactor had yet to complete, he was tired every day. So, he needed a regular amount of sleep. Two hours of sleep a day was essential.

After Leo went to bed, Steam was the only one in the lab. Steam, who just received the new function, was akin to a child who received a new toy, unwilling to let it off its hands. For Steam, visiting every site was equivalent to discovering a new world. Every learned knowledge made part of its “life” even more fulfilling.