The Strange Competitive Urge Between Men

As Tony's words fell, the machine tools in the underground garage began operating under JARVIS's control. In less than three minutes,

A Black Gun with no serial number, no traceable records, and three magazines of ammunition—a weapon that did not exist anywhere in the world—was placed intact before Sherlock, leaving him dumbfounded.

Sherlock now had a basic understanding of Tony's industrial capabilities. In terms of design, 3D holographic modeling combined with JARVIS's assistance in making adjustments was practically unbeatable.

As for manufacturing, the industrial machines concealed beneath the ground became a miniature super factory when mobilized by JARVIS.

If Tony's equipment represented modern civilization, then the equipment Sherlock used at home to assist with Alchemy could at most be considered technology from the early Industrial Revolution.

Sherlock had not been jealous of Tony's immense wealth, his mansion and beautiful women, or even his garage full of luxury cars. But looking at Tony's "private super factory," Sherlock was truly envious beyond recognition.

Of course, envy was envy. A man's pride would not let Sherlock admit defeat, so he immediately displayed his own Alchemy.

He took out a capsule, pressed it, and casually tossed it into an open space. The next second, the Raptor Tony found so familiar appeared before him. Sherlock calmly picked up the Black Gun Tony had just made, placed it in the vehicle, and pointed at his Raptor as he spoke to Tony.

"Excellent. Now you can modify my beloved car!"

Little did he know that after Sherlock's display, the stunned expression gradually shifted from Sherlock's face to Tony's.

The reason was simple: Tony could not even begin to compare with Sherlock's Spatial Capsule in terms of spatial application.

If Sherlock had just felt as though he was still in the early Industrial Revolution compared to Tony, then it was Tony's turn to feel that way now.

Both men had a fire burning in their hearts, and they quickly began working on their own tasks.

Tony gave Sherlock access to JARVIS, then ran off to begin heavily modifying Sherlock's Raptor.

Sherlock did not remain idle either. After gaining access to JARVIS, he immediately had it bring out machines capable of micron-level precision and began modifying them.

For a time, the two worked feverishly in the garage. For Tony, modifying Sherlock's Raptor was as easy as sending a professor to kindergarten.

As for Sherlock, using Alchemy to modify industrial mother machines and give them the ability to inscribe magic arrays was merely routine work.

Driven by some inexplicable competition, the two even completed their respective tasks in less than a day.

Sherlock's eyes widened as he looked at his completely transformed Raptor 6×6007 Baja Edition. He touched it here and examined it there like someone who had never seen the world, because, in Tony's words, this vehicle could handle either a Baja race or a head-on collision with a tank on the battlefield.

Its off-road capabilities went without saying. Its defensive and offensive capabilities alone had far exceeded Sherlock's expectations. Tony even bluntly stated that, given more time, he could make the vehicle waterproof as well.

Tony was equally dumbfounded as he watched the machines in his super factory turn all sorts of colors and even acquire certain occult properties.

After JARVIS ran diagnostics, it bluntly informed Tony that the private factory's precision and production capacity had both doubled through a process it could not comprehend.

Most importantly, JARVIS could not identify the mysterious properties attached to those machines. It could only classify them as unknown.

When Sherlock demonstrated those so-called mysterious properties, Tony nearly stared his eyes out. Anyone would be shocked to see a machine take in a pile of useless iron blocks and produce gleaming gold.

Tony even refused to give up and had JARVIS conduct atomic-level testing. After confirming that it truly was gold, his entire worldview seemed to shatter.

Of course, that was not what surprised Tony the most. What shocked him most was the "Welding Attribute" of Sherlock's Alchemy.

Simply put, it was a joining technique used while transformation remained incomplete.

Taking a half-transformed iron block as an example, Tony was astonished to discover that the atoms of the gold and iron had not permeated one another. On the contrary, the boundary between them was perfectly distinct: iron was iron, and gold was gold.

Yet under such circumstances, the two could still be tightly joined together without the slightest trace of welding, appearing as a single whole. Tony's worldview practically shattered into pieces.

In Tony's words, even welding technology thousands of years in the future could not achieve such a state. Making two completely different substances remain perfectly distinct while joining them without any welding marks was simply impossible.

Sherlock merely said it was no big deal.

After this contest, both sides were thoroughly shocked by the trick the other had revealed.

After a simple dinner and some rest, the two gathered in the garage again early the next morning and tacitly began the second round of their competition.

This time, their contest was no longer limited to a fixed subject. They began working in the fields they were each best at.

With Tony's machines, Sherlock began frantically producing Alchemy products he had designed long ago but had been unable to create due to precision limitations.

Tony, meanwhile, devoted himself entirely to researching his Mark II Armor.

Sometimes they discussed and verified certain matters together, or casually helped each other solve minor problems. Most of the time, however, they worked on their own projects.

With the two of them so busy, nearly a month passed in the blink of an eye.

The two hid away in Tony's mansion, living on takeout and work every day. If John Wick and his wife had not wanted to go home after enjoying a month of decadent capitalist living, Pepper would have nearly forgotten that the two men had vanished without a trace.

After caring for Doro for a month and growing deeply attached to Doro, Pepper finally remembered Tony and Sherlock. When she returned to Tony's mansion once more and pushed open its front door,

Pepper was instantly stunned by the sight before her. She even instinctively pulled out her phone and hovered over the emergency call button, ready to call the police at the first sign of trouble.