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A huge, round stone was brought into the laboratory. Following the same procedure, Crossbones Rumlow shot the large stone.
He initially thought it was just an ordinary stone, until several seconds passed and the stone showed no changes.
"This stone's material is unusual. First, take some samples to study its properties. Send the rest to headquarters."
After arranging the follow-up for the strange stone, Crossbones Rumlow had someone bring up another item—a giant bronze armor, which Crossbones Rumlow believed was the most likely item to possess mysterious power.
"I hope you don't disappoint me."
He raised his energy gun and pulled the trigger. As Crossbones Rumlow expected, the giant bronze armor was unaffected. Like the strange large stone, no obvious changes could be seen.
"Continue the research here..."
After giving his orders, Crossbones Rumlow picked up the communication device used by Agents. A new mission had arrived, not a HYDRA mission, but an internal S.H.I.E.L.D. mission.
"Broadway?"
As the Captain of a S.H.I.E.L.D. combat team, Crossbones Rumlow received double pay, as he not only had to complete HYDRA's missions but also regularly carry out S.H.I.E.L.D.'s missions.
While reviewing the mission details, he notified his team members. Soon, the team was assembled, and the entire squad quickly headed towards Broadway in Manhattan, New York.
---
Lionel leisurely returned to his apartment. This time, his harvest was excellent; two powerful Entries completely exceeded his expectations.
"Oh, whose arrogant voice is that?"
Lionel opened the door. Sure enough, a prominent man with a small mustache sat on the sofa in the living room, with a very mechanical iron suit standing beside it.
"Why is the famous Iron Man here? Is he here to repay my life-saving grace by giving me all of Stark Industries?"
Tony Stark saw his Master return. He first took a sip of the green liquid in his cup before speaking:
"You really are asking for a lot, Beast Tamer. I've been waiting for you for half an hour. If it weren't for the beauty accompanying me, you wouldn't get anything today."
"Is that so? You're the one taking advantage."
Lionel hung his jacket on the hanger, walked to the living room, and placed Annabelle on the coffee table in front of Tony Stark, so Tony Stark could clearly see Annabelle's face.
"I didn't expect you, Beast Tamer, to be a little princess. Your taste is truly terrible. If you like it, I'll send you a Barbie set later."
Tony Stark, who glimpsed the Annabelle doll, couldn't control his mouth, and he never intended to.
"Hiss!"
Tony Stark suddenly shivered. He felt as if the ambient temperature had dropped by ten degrees or so, making it chilly.
Lionel teased, "Mr. Stark, if you feel a bit cold, I can find you a blanket. You should take care of your body; being too weak won't do."
Hearing this, Tony Stark straightened his body, which had instinctively contracted earlier, and calmly said, "Not cold. How could I be cold?"
Lionel merely chuckled. Speaking ill of Annabelle, he should be careful of getting tripped up.
He turned his head and asked Makima, who was quietly sitting on the sofa:
"What did this playboy do while I was out?"
Makima handed a folder from the table to Lionel and said:
"Mr. Stark has given you 1% of Stark Industries' shares as a token of gratitude for saving his life earlier."
"Oh!" Lionel took the share transfer agreement, looked at it, and said with surprise, "So generous, Stark, you're really something. This must be worth at least seven or eight hundred million U.S. dollars, right?"
"Your information is outdated. Based on the company's current market value, it's worth 1.3 billion U.S. dollars, and the stock is still steadily rising. I'm going to enter the new energy industry later, and it will at least triple or quadruple."
Tony Stark tapped the Arc Reactor on his chest and said proudly:
"This thing will crush all other energy sources."
"Of course, none of this matters. You saved my life, and you saved Pepper's life."
Lionel didn't stand on ceremony and directly accepted the shares. Then he raised a crucial question:
"Then you'd better develop your company quickly. I'm afraid you won't live to see that time."
He had noticed earlier that the green liquid Tony Stark was drinking was probably chlorophyll juice. He must have already realized that using the Arc Reactor would cause palladium poisoning.
Tony Stark's initially smug face immediately froze. He took another sip of the chlorophyll juice in his cup, then sighed:
"You noticed? That's right, you might understand my body even better than I do. How did you do it? Did you keep a cat in my Villa all this time? No, if it were a cat, I would definitely have found it. Is it ants?"
Lionel said, "I don't have a habit of peeping. It's other means. You're drinking chlorophyll juice, right? What's the extent of the palladium poisoning now?"
"It's not light. For now, I can only rely on drinking this stuff to alleviate it." Tony Stark shook the unpalatable chlorophyll juice. He didn't specify how severe the poisoning was.
After a moment of silence, Lionel suddenly said mysteriously:
"What if I told you I have a solution?"
"What did you say?" Tony Stark suddenly sat up straight, staring intently at Lionel, his tone somewhat suspicious:
"I've tried every element; there's no substitute. How will you do it? With wondrous magic or alien high-tech?"
Lionel smiled and then shouted to the side:
"Kuro, come here for a moment."
No one, nor any cat, responded. Kuro didn't want to bother with Lionel.
Tony Stark looked at Lionel strangely.
Lionel maintained his smile and looked at Makima. That cat really needed to be taught a lesson.
"Kuro, come quickly!" Makima called Kuro for Lionel.
"Meow! Miss Makima, I'm here!"
A black Kuro flashed, and Kuro appeared on Makima's lap.
Tony Stark moved away when he saw Kuro. He still couldn't forget the experience of that cat knocking him into a wall.
Makima stroked Kuro's cat head and said, "Lionel is also your Master; you must listen to him."
"Understood." Kuro was immersed in Makima's petting.
Suddenly, he was picked up from Makima's arms and brought before Lionel.
"Hey, don't carry King like this!" Kuro struggled.
Lionel looked at Kuro and said, "Give me some of the Space Stone's energy you've hidden."
"Ah!" Kuro hesitated, then opened his mouth and spat out a blue energy block the size of a red bean.
"I can only give you this much! I risked my life for this!"
"Can you be any stingier?" Lionel was speechless.
"This is all there is, no more!" Kuro refused to give any more.