Building a Secret Laboratory

"The formula for Pym Particles, and their application—many thanks for that, Dr. Hank Pym." After days of staking it out, Shen Fei finally got the result he wanted and punched the air in excitement.

"As for the Ant-Man suit and the Wasp suit, I'll pass." Dr. Pym's basement held two suits, and Shen Fei had initially wanted to take one. But after considering the consequences, he gave up on that idea.

It wasn't because it would affect Ant-Man's appearance—if Dr. Pym could build one Ant-Man suit, he could build two. Stealing one wouldn't change that. What Shen Fei worried about was S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra. If he stole the Ant-Man suit now, Pym would definitely report it to S.H.I.E.L.D. Such an important suit vanishing would set both S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra on a full-scale hunt. Unless Shen Fei never used it, they'd inevitably find traces. Since he wouldn't use it, there was no point in stealing it.

"Next up are the instruments." To use high-tech, you need high-tech instruments. Shen Fei's current savings made him wealthy by ordinary standards. But compared to the top tier, he was still far behind—his entire net worth probably couldn't cover a single day of Tony Stark's spending. As for those instruments, the cheapest ones started at hundreds of thousands. A full set would cost at least a few hundred million, and that was just the initial investment. Add in experimental expenses, and it became an astronomical figure. Without money, high-tech was simply out of reach. Truly, the poor rely on mutation, the rich on technology.

So for Shen Fei, getting these instruments and materials without stealing was impossible. No, he should say borrowing—borrowing for the future of humanity.

"First up, Hammer Industries." Justin Hammer's arms company was very well-known within the U.S. military. Unlike Stark Group, which focused on high-end weapons, Hammer Industries mainly produced standard-issue, conventional arms. Stark might look down on Hammer Industries, but others envied it. Justin Hammer was a billionaire—even Oscorp might not necessarily outdo Hammer Industries. Conventional weapons might lack high tech, but they made up for it in volume. No matter how rich the U.S. military was, they couldn't equip every ordinary soldier with high-tech gear—that would blow the defense budget sky-high. If Justin Hammer hadn't courted disaster by picking a fight with Stark and getting involved with that Whiplash, he'd still be a billionaire.

Although Hammer Industries mainly produced conventional weapons, that didn't mean they didn't need a weapons research lab. Conventional weapons also needed upgrades, and Justin wanted to break into the ranks of top-tier arms dealers. So his weapons research lab's instruments were still quite advanced. What defined a top-tier arms dealer? Companies that produced satellites, missiles, aircraft carriers, warships, fighter jets—those were the elite arms firms.

"Looks like I'll have to start my own company to make money later." Relying solely on borrowing wouldn't work; this was just a stopgap for Shen Fei. Earning his own money was the real solution. It wasn't like he had no options now.

"Looks like I'll need to come back again." After checking out Hammer Industries' arsenal, Shen Fei left. Dr. Pym had a tank keychain on him—Shen Fei definitely wanted to snag two of those. Ideally, he'd get his hands on a S.H.I.E.L.D. Quinjet, which could take off and land vertically.

"Next up, Oscorp." After hauling the instruments and materials he'd borrowed from Hammer Industries home, Shen Fei headed to Norman Osborn's place. Oscorp mainly focused on biotechnology, always researching ways to create super-soldiers. In fact, that was the goal of every biotech company and lab, including Umbrella Corporation. Unfortunately, none had succeeded so far. Biological viruses could enhance some people, but those were isolated cases—not universally applicable.

"Next up, Stark Group." The best lab at Stark Group was definitely the one in Tony's villa. Of course, Shen Fei wasn't going to borrow from there right now. The place he planned to borrow from was Stark Group's tower in New York.

"If someone came to check this place now, they'd catch me red-handed." Looking at the basement piled high with experimental instruments, Shen Fei couldn't help but laugh. Besides the instruments, he'd also grabbed some weapons from Hammer Industries: a rocket launcher, a Gatling gun, two Desert Eagles, and plenty of ammo. Thanks to his Portal ability, Shen Fei could haul everything back in a single day.

"Now it's time to make Pym Particles." What impressed Shen Fei most about Pym Particles wasn't Ant-Man shrinking and growing, but the ability to shrink a building and just carry it away.

"Finally succeeded." Using materials borrowed from all over, combined with the Op-Op Fruit's abilities and the instruments, Shen Fei quickly produced Pym Particles.

"How adorable." Looking at the two tiny Desert Eagles, Shen Fei immediately shrank the rocket launcher and Gatling gun too.

"Incredible." Inside the Mirror Dimension, watching the toy villa he'd built with his own hands turn into a real villa, Shen Fei marveled again at the wonder of Pym Particles. He'd initially planned to find a real building outside, shrink it, and bring it back. But then he realized that if he could shrink a building, he could enlarge a model—that way, no news would break about a building suddenly disappearing. Ordinary people might not care, but Dr. Pym definitely would.

Thanks to the Op-Op Fruit, Shen Fei already had a unique talent for making figurines. Now it was even easier. To ensure the enlarged house was sturdy, he researched modern construction methods for the model building, then used the Op-Op Fruit to cut and assemble alloy parts. The result was a very solid model building. It had four floors, enough for now. If he needed more later, he could expand it using the Op-Op Fruit's abilities.

"So, Stark, if you don't make an Arc Reactor, I'm in trouble here." After some experimentation, Shen Fei quickly moved all the instruments into the model house. Everything was ready—except for the power source.

"Still need a supercomputer. Looks like I'll have to borrow again." Using the model as a lab, enlarging it in the Mirror Dimension, and traveling back and forth through Portals—this gave Shen Fei an extremely secret lab. When he needed time, he could just carry the lab into the Mirror Dimension and enlarge it. In this setup, unless it was the Ancient One, Doctor Strange, or Kaecilius after absorbing dark power, no one else could ever find the lab. And even if an experiment went wrong and got out of control, Shen Fei could simply use a Portal to leave, causing no harm to reality. The only loss would be the lab itself.

Of course, besides the lab, Shen Fei hadn't slacked off on magic either. He still hoped that one day he could use the Mirror Dimension's abilities in real space. Controlling, moving, and folding real-world buildings as easily as those in the Mirror Dimension was the highest level of mirror magic. Unfortunately, achieving that required immense power. The Ancient One could do it, Kaecilius after absorbing dark power could too. Doctor Strange's capabilities were unclear, but within the Holy Temple, he could manage it.