Mechanical Frenzy: Stark's Flesh Cybernetics Factory
The holographic glass door, which was originally full of futuristic technology, is now completely sealed off by a thick layer of dark red rust that resembles the internal organs of some kind of organism.
Jiang Li did not slow down.
In the "Ghost) " state, his body, like a phantom, pierced directly through the disgusting dark red rust and stepped into the interior of Stark Tower.
As soon as you enter, an extremely pungent odor hits you.
It wasn't the scent of perfume found in upscale office buildings, but rather a strong smell of engine oil, ozone, and a nauseating... bloody odor.
Jiang Li stopped and looked up.
The once-grand first-floor reception hall has now been transformed into a Hell "Flesh Cybernetics" chemical factory!
The hall's original marble floor and walls were now covered with thick, black pipes. These pipes pulsated and undulated as if they were alive, and inside their translucent walls flowed not coolant, but viscous blood.
"Help... help me..."
A faint scream came from the reception desk on the left.
Jiang Li turned his head to look.
A female receptionist in business attire was pinned to the wall by several black metal tentacles. In front of her, a rusty Mark Armor helmet floated.
The helmet was not connected to any torso; its base sprouted more than a dozen sharp, spider-like mechanical limbs.
This isn't armor. This is a man-eating cyber parasite!
Amid the receptionist's desperate screams, the rusty helmet lunged forward, its dozen or so mechanical legs brutally piercing her neck and cheeks before slamming down onto her head!
Click! Click!
The sounds of bones shattering and flesh tearing rang out in rapid succession.
The gears inside the helmet began to grind wildly, and the receptionist's body convulsed violently. Her screams abruptly ceased within seconds.
Then, a bizarre scene unfolded.
The receptionist's once supple body began to harden and peel rapidly, covered in large patches of reddish-brown rust. A row of sharp metal barbs protruded from her spine, and the flesh of her arms was forcibly torn apart, from which grew two rusty mechanical cannon barrels, streaked with blood!
Just moments ago, he was a living, breathing human being, but in the blink of an eye, he was forcibly "assimilated" by this rusty helmet and turned into a mutilated mechanical monster flowing with black blood!
"Treat humans as hosts, and flesh and blood as nutrients for the growth of the armor."
Jiang Li stared coldly at the newly born, still dripping blood monster on the wall.
He finally understood why the rusty Iron Man outside didn't need laser weapons. In this ERROR-404 universe, Stark Industries ' "charity" meant forcibly Upgrade all of humanity into these painless, mindless machines of flesh and blood!
Humans are not the pilots of the armors. Humans are the armors' batteries and sustenance.
"Bite--"
Just then, the elevator doors in the center of the lobby slowly opened.
Several men in white lab coats, who should have been Stark Industries researchers, came out pushing several heavy handcarts.
The cart was piled high with all sorts of Mark Armor remains: arms, chest plates, and leg thrusters.
These researchers also had no faces. Their faces were welded shut by a red-glowing iron plate, leaving only a tube connecting them to the back of their heads.
They mechanically walked to the center of the hall.
There, a huge pool of blood, tens of meters in diameter, was unearthed!
Dark red nutrient solution churned in the pool of blood, and thousands of fragments of Mark Armor floated in it like insect eggs.
The faceless researchers dumped the armor fragments from the cart into the blood pool.
Thump.
The war pieces fell into the water, and the blood pool immediately began to boil.
The rusty armor pieces submerged inside seemed like piranhas that had smelled blood, writhing and piecing themselves back together frantically. In just a few minutes, more than a dozen brand-new, rusty Iron Man Armor, exuding a pungent, bloody stench, slowly crawled out of the blood pool!
"A highly efficient production line. Feed the armor with living people, then use the armor to assimilate even more living people."
Jiang Li, with an unlit cigarette dangling from his lips, strode towards the depths of the hall.
"Tony Stark has truly mastered the art of cyberpunk in this universe."
Although his footsteps did not cause any physical vibration, they still triggered some kind of invisible alarm in this extremely quiet carnage factory.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Beside the pool of blood, a dozen or so rusty armored figures that had just crawled out turned their heads at the same time.
The two deep black holes on the mask locked onto Jiang Li.
[Upgrade carbon-based life form detected.]
[Initiation of the Forced Armor Parasitism Protocol.]
A piercing, synthesized mechanical voice echoed through the hall.
The thrusters on the backs of more than a dozen rusty armored vehicles spewed out dark red poisonous flames, and with extremely violent speed, they pounced on Jiang Li like a dozen giant metal wasps!
A sharp, rusty mechanical arm popped out, attempting to pierce Jiang Li's limbs and forcibly drag him into the churning pool of blood for assimilation!
"Roll."
Jiang Li didn't even glance at them, and his steps didn't pause for a moment.
Whoosh--! Whoosh--!
More than a dozen rusty armored vehicles crashed into Jiang Li from all directions.
But the moment they touched Jiang Li's trench coat...
No collision.
All the mechanical claws, the propulsion system's poisonous flames, and even the armor itself, all passed right through Jiang Li's body! It was as if they had passed through a void of air.
Boom!
Due to excessive force, several suits of armor collided directly behind Jiang Li, producing a piercing, twisting sound.
"Untargetable state. Any attack based on the 'parasitic rules' of your universe is just a bunch of gibberish to me."
Jiang Li sneered and walked straight through the group of rusty armored soldiers who had been thrown into a heap.
He looked up at the huge holographic screen at the far end of the hall.
The screen was originally black, but the moment Jiang Li approached, it suddenly lit up, emitting a piercing static noise.
The snowflakes have dispersed.
A gigantic face, pieced together from countless rusty gears and reddish-brown cables, barely recognizable as a human figure, appeared on the screen.
"Tony Stark." Jiang Li recognized the outline of that face at a glance.
[Who are you?]
The monster on the screen emitted a monotone, electronic voice, causing the loudspeakers throughout the entire building to vibrate.
[You are not in my database. You are not bound by the Evolution Protocol.]
Jiang Li stopped, his left hand in his pocket, and his right hand casually tapping the side of his thigh.
"Me? I'm here to collect a debt."
[Arrogant carbon-based lifeform. Flesh and blood are weak; only steel is Eternity. You think you can challenge Stark Industries by using some unknown trick to evade parasites?]
Tony Stark's voice on the screen turned shrill, and the walls around the hall suddenly cracked open.
Hundreds of rusty Iron Man, like a swarm of insects, emerged from the passageways in the wall and surrounded Jiang Li.
[There are ten thousand evolved battle suits in this building. Even if you don't have a physical form, I will use a gravitational field to compress you into a single point.]
Accept the Upgrade. Become a part of me!
"Upgrade?"
They were faced with hundreds upon hundreds of mechanical monsters that reeked of blood.
He raised his left hand. On his wrist, the [Multiversal Energy Core] emitted a blinding green light.
"You dare call it Upgrade using just a few scrap metal sheets?"
"I'll take pity on you today and teach you a lesson, you frog in a well..."
Jiang Li slammed his finger heavily on the center of the watch face!
"What truly constitutes a cyberpunk Upgrade!"