Improvements to the Green Goblin Glider

"What's gotten you up so early today?"

Heli slowly came down the stairs, still in her pajamas, her eyes bleary and her face exhausted.

Harry had indeed risen early, because inspiration had suddenly struck him.

"I got up to design something new."

Whoosh!

The violent whistle of something tearing through the air jolted Heli fully awake. Harry was standing on something that looked like a skateboard, flying back and forth through the underground laboratory with incredible agility!

"What is that? Some kind of aircraft?"

"My father's invention—the Personal Flight Vehicle." Harry slowly landed on the platform. "It was his proudest invention, but its performance was too extreme, so the Military ultimately rejected it."

For ordinary people, the machine's performance was indeed terrifyingly powerful. No ordinary person could possibly fight under such conditions. It was an individual weapon, not a fighter jet, yet it was fully capable of supersonic flight.

Whether an ordinary person standing on the vehicle could even withstand the pressure of flying at supersonic speeds was another question entirely.

But for Harry, it still fell a little short.

Harry had improved the materials used in the vehicle and tried adding a new Electric Propulsion System. He had been working on the concept for a long time without ever completing the design, until this morning, when a new idea suddenly came to him—and it worked. The vehicle was now more agile and faster.

Honestly, it shocked him, and delighted him as well. The feeling was as refreshing and exhilarating as breaking through to a new realm in a fantasy world.

If one examined the technology closely, they would find it was anything but simple. Before this, he had always relied on the system to acquire technology, while the knowledge he had learned seemed little more than decoration. But inventing the electric propulsion system had greatly boosted his confidence.

"You mean that project whose performance exceeded what the human body could endure, so it was eventually abandoned?" Heli had clearly heard of it before. She said angrily, "That's too dangerous, Harry!"

"Am I not fine? Don't be angry." Harry wrapped an arm around the beautiful woman, in an excellent mood.

"No." Heli shoved Harry away. "You need to understand that you own the Osborn Group! You should be responsible for your own safety!"

"Are you worried about me, or the Osborn Group?"

"Of course I'm worried about you!"

The two stared at each other for a while. Then Harry scooped Heli into his arms and, amid her cry of surprise, carried her back into his bedroom.

"Let me go! I still have to go back to work!"

After a bout of passion, half the day had already passed.

"So, do you still want to go back to work?" Harry asked as he stroked Heli.

"...I need to rest. I want to take the day off. Can you approve it, Mr. Chairman?"

"Of course."

Harry enjoyed this kind of life immensely. It was a life he could never have enjoyed even if he had worked for thousands of years in his previous life.

Sometimes, he thought that being a small-time rich man like this would be nice. But it was only a thought. The world was too dangerous, and he could not stop moving forward.

Ring, ring. The phone rang.

"Son, have you seen the news?" It was his father, Norman. "Stark is coming back."

Upon hearing that, Harry turned on the television.

"Tony Stark, who had previously gone missing, has recently been found by the Military and is currently receiving temporary treatment locally."

"It is understood that the Military discovered fighting at a militant camp, promptly dispatched armored units, and rescued the billionaire."

"From what I know, he'll return home next week, shortly after the power plant is completed." Norman could now be considered a politician, so Harry had no reason to doubt the information.

In fact, according to the latest polls, Norman would undoubtedly be elected New York State Senator.

"I understand, Father."

Stark was coming home.

Unfortunately for him, Harry had already seized the initiative in the energy industry Stark would enter after changing careers.

The prospect of his monopoly being broken did not feel great, but fortunately, the Osborn Group had already become a shareholder in Stark Industries, and Harry intended to increase their stake even further.

It could not be helped. Some things were simply blatant cheats—the stress-relief system on the Mark armor, the human-machine interface, artificial intelligence, its unscientific appearance somehow achieving magical levels of protection... all of it was difficult to explain using the science Harry had once known.

Since he could not suppress him, he might as well find a way to siphon some profit from him.

Besides, Stark was a superhero at heart. He and Harry were not in conflict.

"Did you know Stark would come back? We're going to make quite a bit from his return this time." Heli had naturally heard the news as well.

She was referring to stocks. From her perspective, it was hard not to suspect that Harry knew some inside information.

"Do I look like someone who speculates in stocks? I'm an industrialist. Besides, I knew nothing about his kidnapping. I just thought the timing was right. Buying into Stark at a low price will be beneficial in the long run."

Harry spoke as he got dressed.

"Besides, the Osborn Group's value is about to skyrocket. Compared to Stark Industries, what we make can be called honest money. We don't need the scraps earned by arms dealers."

As far as Harry knew, Stark Industries was profiting from both sides. The most outrageous part was that they had not even removed the Stark Industries name from the equipment they sold to hostile armed groups...

Heli rolled her eyes but did not refute him.

"I'm going back to my experiments. You can keep resting."

At the workbench, Harry continued fine-tuning the electric propulsion system.

Harry had not chosen to abandon the original chemical propulsion system. Instead, he had opted to combine the two for two reasons:

First, pure electric propulsion produced considerably less power than the original chemical propulsion. Given its own weight, he still could not discard Norman's design.

Second, the energy problem.

The Flying Vehicle used a Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator—the Exoskeleton and Power Armor used the same technology, though with higher output and performance.

The battery's performance was certainly formidable, but it could only sustain the Flying Vehicle at full output for forty hours.

Harry needed better energy. So did the Osborn Group.

With that in mind, Harry called Doctor Otto.

"Doctor, congratulations on the Fusion Power Station's impending completion. I've been so busy these past few days that I haven't had the chance to congratulate you."

"Thank you, Harry. Your contribution helped make this technology a success as well. You'll be attending the Completion Ceremony in four days, won't you?"

"Of course. I'll definitely be there for something this important." As Harry spoke on the phone, he rolled the existing blueprints into a bundle.

Every time he did that, Harry cursed his own stupidity inwardly.

He had always wanted an artificial intelligence like Jarvis, but regrettably, he could not create one.

"Doctor, do you have time right now? I'd like to discuss the future direction of our research with you."

"Miniaturization? Am I right?" Doctor Otto had clearly arrived at the same conclusion as Harry. "I've also been thinking about how to shrink the Reactor. Should I come over now?"

Harry thought for a moment and turned Doctor Otto down.

"I should come to you instead. Your equipment is more complete."

Before leaving, Harry looked at the drawings on the table, then at his bedroom. After hesitating, he hid several of the blueprints.