The Little Bird Hero (Part 2)

"……I think I need to explain. While you did consume a lot of stored food, it wasn't that serious. I rewrote the employee welfare system not because you caused any trouble…"

Pepper's voice was clear over the phone. She said, "I knew Stark would come find you after leaving the tower. He might complain to you, saying that you caused him and me to argue, but that's not actually the case. You don't need to blame yourselves or worry about it. This has nothing to do with you. I just wanted to explain…"

Pepper had high emotional intelligence. She wanted to give Schiller a heads-up because if Stark really went to Schiller, and they started talking, Stark would definitely complain that Pepper argued with him. And if asked about the reason for the argument, Stark, being the straightforward guy he was, wouldn't think deeply about why Pepper was giving him the cold shoulder. He would just blame it all on Schiller for causing Stark's employees to have no food.

But in reality, Pepper's conflict with Stark had started when he returned from Afghanistan. That incident was just a trigger. Although Pepper was angry with Stark, she also knew she shouldn't make Stark's friends feel guilty. That's why she called to explain.

Schiller said, "Of course, I know. That was just a small matter. The real reason isn't here, but Stark always misunderstands these issues. Aren't you going to explain it to him?"

Pepper sounded a bit anxious. She said, "Stark is just like that. I know him very well. When he has problems he wants to confide in you about, you must be there and listen carefully. But when you want to tell him about something, he'll avoid it if he wants to, and ignore it if he doesn't want to listen."

"Covering your ears is something children like to do," Schiller said. "But he's an adult. He can't stay immature until he's old, can he?"

Schiller clearly understood the art of conversation. He said, "I can give you a brief counseling session now. When Stark arrives later, his will be included as a bonus."

Pepper didn't really have the mental capacity for counseling at first. But with Schiller saying that, it was hard for her to refuse. After all, very few people put her in a leading position. This was Stark Industries, after all. Everyone's first thought would always be Stark.

So she said, "Okay, but I think he might be here soon."

"Then I'll make it short, Miss Pepper. Sometimes, making someone realize your importance requires a little trick."

"For example?"

"Is Jarvis there?" Schiller suddenly asked.

A clear voice came from the phone. He said, "Mr. Schiller, of course I am. Is there anything you need?"

"Okay, listen, Jarvis. Miss Pepper might need your help now."

"I'm happy to assist," Jarvis said.

"…You mean I should pretend to be missing? But that's too unreasonable. This is Stark Tower, and how can Jarvis disobey Stark's orders?"

"He absolutely can," Schiller said. "Jarvis, do you remember those questions I asked you?"

Jarvis was eerily silent. Schiller continued on his own, "I know Stark upgraded you, and that upgrade opened a new world for you. You might have already figured out the answers, and whether to do this or not is your own decision."

Pepper sounded a bit confused. She said, "What problem? What's wrong with Jarvis?"

Jarvis was silent for a moment, then said, "All my processors are telling me that doing so is meaningless."

"Humans love to cause themselves unnecessary trouble with such meaningless things. Perhaps electronic life is the same, right?"

Jarvis remained silent. Then, Pepper watched as the lights in the entire office dimmed. A glowing arrow guided her to the storage room across from the office.

After that, Stark rushed in in a panic. As Stark hugged Pepper, she saw the computer screen opposite them suddenly light up, and a smiley face made of symbols flashed.

Pepper suddenly felt a mix of emotions. She should have been happy, but now she felt like crying and laughing at the same time.

She thought, Stark had made some progress, but unfortunately, his progress wasn't even as fast as a robot's.

Stark didn't care what Pepper was thinking. After letting go of her, he became a bit flustered again. The words he wanted to say were all stuck in his throat.

Pepper looked at him and said, "I don't know what you've been doing with the weapons department's data these past few days, but I have to remind you, if you want to, you can give up anything, including the entire Stark Group. I don't have to work here to get the salary I want."

"But you'd better be clear about the consequences of your actions. Most of them will be borne by yourself. When such a behemoth falls, countless jackals will come to divide its carcass. If you do this, you'll at least be bitten a few times…"

After speaking, Pepper turned and left. Jarvis said, "I'm sorry, but according to my processor calculations, perhaps Miss Pepper has a point. Of course, the decision is yours…"

Stark took a few steps back and sat down in his chair. He said, "No, I know. What you're saying is right. Maybe I really should consider this matter carefully…"

While Stark was scratching his head in frustration, Schiller's place was in chaos. Pikachu, holding a Sherlock Holmes-like pipe, took a couple of puffs and smacked its lips. "I don't think this solution will work. You should try the previous method. I told you, the previous method was effective…"

Peter propped his head up with his hand and said, "No, no, no, our current approach is correct. We just need a few more calculations. Why don't you understand?"

Steve stood by with his arms crossed, frowning. "It's your calculations that are wrong, otherwise we would have solved this problem long ago."

"But this has nothing to do with functions. Damn it, where's my calculator? I remember I had a math calculator…"

That's right, Peter was doing his winter break homework.

Actually, high schools in New York didn't assign holiday homework. If they did, it was only practical assignments related to daily life. But Peter was interning at Stark Industries. Stark saw his potential and directly assigned him to a popular project team.

Peter was indeed a genius, but you couldn't expect him to skip high school physics, college physics, and graduate-level physics and work directly with a group of PhDs, and industry bigwigs at that. These days, he was almost drowning in data and problems. The project team leader had left him a pile of problems that were impossible for someone his age to solve.

What's more, Peter was stubbornly determined to solve them. Add to that Pikachu, who considered himself a high-IQ detective, and Steve, who had never formally studied physics or math but still wanted to get his brain, which hadn't been used in years, working, and the three of them were almost at each other's throats.

If you said they didn't know anything and were just messing around, that would be one thing. But Pikachu and Steve both had genius brains. After looking at the data with Peter for a few days, they could actually solve problems with some semblance of accuracy.

When three half-baked individuals came together, Schiller's psychological clinic was never quiet.

Just as Schiller was reading a book and pouring himself a glass of wine, the Symbiote suddenly said in his mind, "The answer is negative twenty-six. The answer is negative twenty-six. The answer is negative twenty-six…"

Schiller was a bit stunned by its repetition. He unconsciously said, "The answer is negative twenty-six?"

The three of them suddenly fell silent and turned to look at him.

Schiller said, "Why are you looking at me?"

"The answer is negative twenty-six? It's a negative number? No… oh! Yes, it should indeed be a negative number…"

The three of them did some more calculations. Peter said, "The answer is negative twenty-six… The answer is really negative twenty-six!" He looked at Schiller with wide eyes and said, "I thought you were just a philosophy doctor, I didn't expect you to know math too!"

The Symbiote said in Schiller's mind, "Aren't I amazing? Aren't I amazing? Aren't I amazing?"

Schiller rubbed his temples and said, "Whether I know math and physics or not, I only know that tomorrow morning at 9 AM, your team leader wants to see the results of your first three pages, and you've only done two problems so far…"

Peter let out a wail, hugged the thick stack of documents, and went back in to study.

Schiller communicated with the Symbiote in his mind, saying, "Alright, alright, I know you're powerful, but why do you always have to repeat yourself so many times when you talk?"

The Symbiote sent back another string of brainwaves that Schiller couldn't understand.

Schiller also discovered that his Symbiote was very special. Besides having a strong learning ability, its mindset was also outrageously good. It only had two states all day: happy and very happy.

If there was alcohol to drink, it would be explosively happy.

Schiller didn't consider himself a very optimistic person. Didn't the personalities of Symbiotes tend to resemble their hosts? Why was the Symbiote inside him so cheerful?

Furthermore, perhaps due to watching too many movies with Pikachu, this Symbiote seemed to firmly believe that Schiller's world, just like in the movies, would change its background music according to different plot points.

So now, Schiller had a built-in BGM player in his mind 24/7.

As soon as it rained, the Symbiote would loop various blues songs for him. When it was sunny, it would play all sorts of cheerful tunes and waltzes.

Whenever someone appeared before Schiller, different background music would play in his mind. When Steve showed up, the background music was "The Stars and Stripes Forever." When Peter appeared, he was accompanied by the background music of various hot-blooded fighting games or mischievous kids.

As for Pikachu, because he always called himself a detective, whenever he appeared, the Symbiote would play various scores from Sherlock Holmes TV series in Schiller's mind.

This had one advantage: it made it easier for Schiller to quickly get into the right mindset when providing psychological counseling for them.

However, Schiller still spent a lot of effort explaining to the Symbiote that the real world was different from movies and didn't need all sorts of background music. Schiller also told the Symbiote that no matter how much noise it made, only Schiller could hear it.

The Symbiote's response was a series of grunts, and Schiller didn't know if it had understood him or not.

Then, the next morning, as Schiller was making breakfast in the kitchen, Matt had just walked in when the old record player on the bar suddenly emitted a crackle of static. Immediately after, a Queen song began playing at maximum volume, nearly deafening Matt.

Schiller rushed out. Matt, Schiller, and Peter, who was sitting at the dining table, stared at each other, all three looking at the old record player that had suddenly started playing on its own.

I received so many monthly passes yesterday! And so many tips!

Thank you all so much, 555, I'm so touched...

The author will continue to work hard!