New Guest at the Villa and a "Friendly" Test

The desert sun blazed like a furnace, and Xiao Han's "sunbathing" atop the dune lasted a full three days. During that time, Tony Stark, the surviving Colonel Rhodes, and the American soldiers went through the most agonizing, incomprehensible wait of their lives.

They did not dare leave, because outside lay dozens of ice sculptures radiating the chill of death and a battlefield in utter ruin. Nor did they dare approach the dune. The young man lounging beneath the vicious sunlight atop it was like an insurmountable statue of a god, emanating a suffocating pressure.

Tony had tried to have JARVIS analyze him, but every sensor malfunctioned or overloaded upon entering a certain range of Xiao Han. The only conclusions were "unknown high-energy reaction" and "abnormal physical parameters."

S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Quinjet arrived cautiously several hours after the attack, hovering at an extremely high altitude without daring to land. Nick Fury held a brief, probing conversation with Tony through an encrypted channel.

Tony could hear the unprecedented gravity and wariness in Fury's voice, but the pride of a genius and his curiosity toward the unknown gave him a subtle rebellious urge against Fury's warning that Xiao Han was "extremely dangerous."

Three days later, when Xiao Han felt that the gains from the desert sunlight had begun to level off, he finally sat up lazily and put away that magical lounge chair. Under Tony and Rhodes's binoculars, it seemed to vanish into thin air.

He stretched, and his bones cracked explosively, the sound carrying clearly across the silent desert.

He floated down from the dune and landed beside Tony's only remaining functional Humvee. The window rolled down, revealing Tony's face—tired, yet still sharp-eyed and full of curiosity.

"Had enough sun?" Tony took the initiative, his tone carrying the complicated relief of surviving disaster and excitement forcibly held down. "Ready to leave? Where to? Going somewhere else to 'recharge'?"

Xiao Han raised a brow at Tony's eyes, which practically screamed, "I have countless questions," and a teasing smile curled his lips. "What is it, Bearded Uncle? Want to invite me over to your place? I heard your house is by the California coast. Nice view, probably decent sunlight too."

Tony froze. The thought had indeed crossed his mind, but he had not expected the other party to bring it up so directly. He glanced at the tense-faced Rhodes beside him, then at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Quinjet circling in the distant sky, countless calculations of pros and cons flashing through his mind.

In the end, curiosity about this unknown power and the thought that it would be better to keep this guy under his nose than let him wander around outside won out.

"10880 Malibu." Tony gave his home address, a signature, slightly provocative smile appearing on his face. "I've got the best private theater in the world, a wine cellar, and... a laboratory big enough.

"As long as you don't use my roof as a beach or freeze my limited-edition sports cars into ice sculptures, you're welcome to come 'visit' anytime." He deliberately emphasized the word "visit."

"Deal." Xiao Han snapped his fingers, his smile brilliant. "But I'm reserving the roof. The sunniest spot is mine."

Colonel Rhodes opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but Tony stopped him with a look.

"JARVIS, notify Pepper. We have a... special guest moving in. Prepare everything to the highest standard." Tony gave the order to the air as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world.

Xiao Han nodded in satisfaction and slowly rose into the air. "I've memorized the address. You can take your time cleaning up this mess. I'll go... scout the place first." Before his words had even faded, his figure abruptly accelerated into a blurred white streak and vanished into the blue sky, leaving only a dull sonic boom echoing through the desert.

Tony watched that trail disappear over the horizon, let out a long breath, and leaned back in his seat. An unprecedented light gleamed in his eyes. "Rhodey, get ready. Our world... is about to change completely."

A few days later, Malibu, Stark's seaside villa.

Pepper Potts looked at the young man in cheap sportswear, barefoot and sprawled carelessly across Tony's custom-made Italian sofa worth millions of dollars. He was eating a mountain of donuts that Happy had just bought while watching "SpongeBob SquarePants" on Tony's giant television. She felt that her professionalism was facing an unprecedented challenge.

"Tony..." Pepper lowered her voice and pulled Tony, who was calibrating a set of complex sensors, aside. "Are you sure... he's the one in the desert who... saved you, and then... froze dozens of terrorists?

"She simply could not connect the carefree "big boy" laughing at the television with the "humanoid natural disaster" described in the intelligence reports.

"The real deal, Pepper." Tony's eyes were unusually bright, carrying the fervor of a scientist discovering a new continent. "And he's... more interesting than the reports described.

"He pointed at the mountain of donut wrappers piled on the coffee table before Xiao Han. "See that? He ate all three dozen donuts Happy bought! According to Happy, it only took him a few minutes! His metabolic rate... is practically a black hole!"

Just then, "SpongeBob SquarePants" was interrupted by an emergency news bulletin. "...It has been reported that three minutes ago, a Boeing 747 departing from Los Angeles International Airport lost power over the Pacific Ocean due to engine failure and is now plummeting rapidly! There are 327 passengers and crew aboard! The situation is extremely critical!"

Pepper and Tony's expressions changed instantly.

Yet Xiao Han merely cast a lazy glance at the screen from the sofa, then... picked up the remote, changed the channel, and continued watching his cartoon.

"Hey!" Tony could not hold back any longer. "Didn't you see the news? There are more than three hundred people on that plane! You..."

Without turning around, Xiao Han stuffed half a donut into his mouth and said indistinctly, "I saw it. So?"

"So?" Tony raised his voice. "You can save them! Just like you saved me in the desert! It would take no effort at all for you!"

Xiao Han finally turned around, swallowed the donut, wiped his mouth with a napkin, and looked calmly at Tony. There was an unfamiliar indifference in his eyes that made Tony uneasy. "Tony, we need to talk about the definition of 'no effort at all.'"

He stood and walked to the huge floor-to-ceiling window, gazing out over the vast blue Pacific Ocean. "I saved you because you were right there at my 'sunbathing' spot, and that rocket was too loud. It ruined my mood. I just did it while I was at it.

"He turned around and leaned against the glass, sunlight outlining him in gold from behind. "As for that plane? It's crashing into the Pacific hundreds of kilometers away. I can't hear it from here, and it won't block my sunlight.

"Why should I waste my sunbathing time flying all that way to save a bunch of strangers who have absolutely nothing to do with me?"

Those naked, almost cruelly selfish words made Pepper suck in a sharp breath. The urgency and confusion on Tony's face froze instantly as well.

"You... you have that kind of power..." Tony's voice was filled with incredulous anger and confusion.

"Having power means I have to be a savior?" Xiao Han cut him off, a mocking curve appearing on his lips. "Who says so? Fury? Or you people who call yourselves superhero trainees?

"The power is mine. I'll use it however I want. Sunbathing makes me stronger and makes me happy, so I sunbathe. Saving you improved my mood at the time, so I saved you. As for everyone else?" He shrugged, his tone casual. "What the hell do I care whether they live or die?"

The living room fell into dead silence. Only SpongeBob's carefree laughter continued to echo from the television, sounding especially grating.

Tony stared into Xiao Han's calm, unreadable black eyes, and for the first time, he clearly understood how... inhuman this seemingly lazy, casual young man was at his core.

He possessed power, yet had none of the restraints of society or morality. His logic was simple and pure: everything centered on his own feelings. That frightened Tony even more than Fury's warning of "extreme danger," filling him with a deep chill and... helplessness.

"So," Xiao Han broke the silence, that unfathomable lazy smile returning to his face as if his cold declaration had never happened, "didn't you want to 'test' my abilities?

"While I'm still in a decent mood and the sunlight is good, come on, Bearded Uncle. Let's see what your pile of scrap metal can actually measure."

He pointed at the high-tech equipment Tony had been calibrating, linked to countless sensors and blinking with every kind of indicator light.

Tony took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the turmoil in his heart. He knew reasoning with the being before him was futile. Perhaps through this "test," he could understand him more deeply and find some way to... communicate with or restrain him? Even if only in theory.

"Fine!" Fighting spirit reignited in Tony's eyes. "JARVIS! Activate the Friendly Neighbor Protocol! Set every sensor to maximum power! Record all data!"

"Sir, I must remind you that the target's energy response vastly exceeds the sensors' design limits. Forced recording may result in..." JARVIS's voice carried a rare trace of hesitation.

"Execute the order, JARVIS!" Tony said decisively.

"Yes, Sir."

In an instant, every light in the villa's underground laboratory lit up. Complex mechanical arms began moving, aiming at Xiao Han in the living room. Invisible detection beams, energy scans, gravitational field monitoring... every detection method Tony could think of, including methods still only theoretical, surged toward Xiao Han like a tide.

Xiao Han simply stood there with both hands in his sweatpants pockets, an interested expression on his face as the detection beams swept over him. He even cooperatively raised one hand and lightly flicked a rapidly spinning diamond probe that was trying to measure the toughness of his skin!

Ding—!

A crisp, ear-piercing metallic ring sounded!

The expensive diamond probe, along with the high-strength alloy arm supporting it, was instantly sent flying! Like a cannonball, it slammed into the laboratory's blast-proof wall, leaving a deep dent as fragments scattered everywhere!

Tony's eye twitched violently. JARVIS immediately reported, "Diamond probe destroyed. Sensor Array Arm Seven is completely scrapped. Preliminary estimate of the target's physical defense... cannot be quantified. It far exceeds any known material."

"Continue!" Tony gritted out.

A high-energy laser beam shot down from the ceiling, targeting Xiao Han's chest. This was a weapon Tony used to test new armor's defenses, powerful enough to melt through half a meter of steel plating in an instant.

The laser struck Xiao Han's gray T-shirt with perfect accuracy.

There was no burning smell and no smoke.

The laser beam vanished soundlessly as if sinking into mud, unable to stir even the slightest ripple. It was as though that ordinary cotton T-shirt had absorbed it completely!

"Energy absorption rate... 100%! Absorption mechanism cannot be analyzed!" JARVIS's voice carried obvious "shock."

Xiao Han looked down at his chest, then looked up at Tony with an innocent expression. "That's it? It's not even as warm as a heat pack. Tony, did Pepper cut your lab budget too tightly?"

The veins on Tony's forehead throbbed. He slapped the control console. "Gravity field generator! Maximum power! Crush him to the floor!"

Buzzz—!

An invisible, terrifying gravitational force capable of crushing a main battle tank into a sheet of metal instantly enveloped the entire living room! Even the air seemed to become thick and heavy! Pepper cried out, feeling as if her body had been filled with lead, nearly unable to remain standing.

Yet Xiao Han, standing at the center of the gravity field, did not even have a hair out of place. He leisurely hopped in place as though testing the springiness of a new pair of shoes.

"Gravity?" Xiao Han felt it out and pursed his lips. "Hmm... I can feel it a little. Like wearing a thicker down jacket? Tony, isn't this Friendly Neighbor Protocol a little misleading? It's not strong enough."

Tony looked at the utterly motionless gravity readings on the screen—they had already maxed out—then at Xiao Han in the living room with that "that's it?" expression. A powerful sense of defeat welled up inside him. The scientific weapons he had always been proud of were nothing more than children's toys before this man!

At that moment, Xiao Han seemed to have grown bored. His gaze shifted to a precision magnetic field generator beside Tony, spinning at high speed as it tried to analyze the structure of his Biological Force Field.

"That thing is kind of noisy." Xiao Han frowned.

Before the words had faded, the precision instrument suddenly emitted a shrill screech. A few tiny electrical sparks burst from within it, and then... it shut down completely, releasing a wisp of smoke.

"Magnetic field generator... overloaded and burned out. The target appears to have... actively interfered with its internal magnetic field." JARVIS's report was tinged with helplessness.

Tony was completely speechless. The test he had carefully prepared was a joke before Xiao Han. The other party did not even need to deliberately do anything. His mere existence was enough to make Tony's equipment collapse!

"All right, testing's over." Xiao Han clapped his hands as if dusting away nonexistent dirt, that lazy smile returning to his face. "The conclusion is: this pile of stuff is useless against me. But..." His tone shifted as he walked up to Tony and looked at his face, full of frustration yet unwillingness to admit defeat. "Since your roof really does get nice sunlight, I'll give you a little 'friendly advice.'"

Tony immediately perked up his ears.

"That little thing in your chest," Xiao Han pointed at the reactor in Tony's chest, "palladium? Tsk, tsk. Slow suicide, Bearded Uncle. It doesn't smell good either, like a rotten blueberry pie." He wrinkled his nose as if he could truly smell something.

Tony's expression changed instantly! Palladium poisoning was his highest-level secret! Even Pepper did not know the specific details!

"You... how do you know?" Tony's voice trembled almost imperceptibly.

"I also know you're looking for a replacement element." Xiao Han smiled mysteriously, his eyes carrying the playful look of someone who saw through everything. "Stop wasting your time looking through the periodic table. Your old man left you some 'homework' in the model from the 1974 Stark Expo. Go find it. The answer is right under your nose."

After saying that, Xiao Han ignored Tony, who had frozen on the spot, and Pepper, who looked utterly bewildered. He yawned and turned toward the stairs leading to the rooftop terrace.

"Ah, the sunlight's perfect. Time to go 'recharge' on the roof. Don't call me for dinner. Just save me some donuts."

Only after Xiao Han disappeared up the stairs did Tony suddenly snap out of it. He rushed to the control console, his fingers trembling with excitement. "JARVIS! Pull up every record from the 1974 Stark Expo immediately! The model! Structural diagrams for every model! Now!"

"Sir, are you certain..."

"Execute the order!" Tony roared, unprecedented light bursting from his eyes! The palladium poisoning that had plagued him, tortured him, and nearly driven him to desperation—

Had actually... actually had its key exposed by this mysterious, powerful "tenant," who treated human lives like dirt, in such an almost childish manner?!

Pepper looked at Tony, consumed by fervor, then toward the stairway. The shock in her heart was beyond measure. Who exactly was this young man? He seemed to know everything, yet he was indifferent to everything.

He had saved Tony, yet regarded hundreds of lives as nothing. He possessed godlike power, yet only cared about sunlight on the roof and donuts...

And at that very moment, on the villa's vast rooftop terrace with its magnificent view.

Xiao Han was already lying comfortably in his magical beach chair, basking in California's warm sunlight. His eyes were closed, and a faint smile rested on his lips.

Spoiling things felt good for a moment. Spoiling things forever felt good forever.

Still, judging by Tony's shocked expression, this "rent" had been well worth it, hadn't it?

He comfortably rolled over, letting the sunlight spread evenly across his back.

Hmm... hopefully tonight's donuts would be chocolate flavored.