Los Angeles, Malibu Beach.
After Tony Stark returned, he only appeared before the reporters once, announcing that Stark Industries would no longer manufacture weapons.
Then he shut himself away in his lab, refusing to see anyone except Pepper Potts, who came by for her daily check-in.
He devoted himself entirely to developing the armor he had envisioned.
He had brought back the blueprints he designed in Afghanistan and entered them into the computer.
At that moment, a three-dimensional projection stood before Tony, showing the Mark I he had built in the cave with the resources available.
"JARVIS, remove the shell, keep the core technology unchanged, and fit the newly designed shell over it."
"Yes, sir!"
As JARVIS spoke, the three-dimensional projection in front of Tony began to rotate.
The outer armor sections scattered and vanished.
Then images of more armor components appeared out of thin air.
One by one, they fitted themselves into place around the central Arc Reactor in orderly succession.
The preliminary model of the Mark II was complete.
"What do you think, JARVIS?"
Tony reached out to rotate the projection, examining it carefully from every angle.
"I must say, sir, this creation of yours is ahead of its time!"
"I'm always ahead of my time. JARVIS, place the orders for me. I need them to deliver the first batch of materials as soon as possible."
Having settled the armor's preliminary appearance,
Tony Stark picked up an emitter from the table.
In his conception, this emitter could serve both as a propulsion system and as a laser cannon for conventional weaponry.
"Looks like I need to replace the reactor right away. This one's running too slowly to keep up with the armor's consumption."
Muttering with his head lowered, Tony picked up a brand-new Arc Reactor from the table.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Qin! Mr. Stark is in the lab. I'll let him know you're here right away!"
Tony had previously given Qin Xiao access to the house, but that did not include the underground lab.
Previously, only Pepper Potts and Rhodey had both the passcode and JARVIS's authorization to enter.
But now, there was one more.
"Mr. Qin, Mr. Stark says you can go straight down. You will have access to the basement from now on. The door code is 106!" (This code is real. I specifically checked the scene in Iron Man 1 where Pepper Potts enters the basement.)
When Qin Xiao entered the basement, he happened to see Pepper Potts reaching into Tony Stark's chest.
And pulling a dripping copper wire out of it.
He had to admit, it looked quite disgusting and horrifying.
There was a hole in his chest, and someone else was reaching inside him.
"Oh, damn, what am I looking at? Is this some new position for you two?"
"Tony, did you spend so much time getting inside women that now it's a woman's turn to get inside you?"
"Hey!!! Qin, I don't remember you being such a smooth talker!"
Pepper Potts had looked terrified while doing this, but Qin Xiao's teasing immediately helped her recover.
"That's because you don't know him well enough, Pepper. You'll find out. Compared to him, I'm as honest as a cow on your uncle's farm!"
Tony had Pepper Potts insert the wire from the new reactor's base into his chest, then walked toward Qin Xiao.
"Tony, are you planning to stay like this forever? I mean, aren't you going to find a doctor to treat you properly and take out the shrapnel or something?"
Qin Xiao pointed at Tony's chest.
"Honestly, that little night-light in your chest is pretty cool, but that's a huge lump of stuff to have shoved inside your body."
At the mention of the reactor in his chest, Tony grew unusually serious.
"I'm not taking it out. This thing saved me, and I don't just mean my life. It determined what kind of person I should be from now on. I need to keep it as a reminder."
"Tony, what should I do with this old one?"
Pepper Potts was still Tony's personal assistant. Seeing that Qin Xiao had come to see Tony, she was getting ready to leave the basement and asked in passing what she should do with the old reactor.
"Destroy it. Burn it. You know I have plenty of qualities, but nostalgia definitely isn't one of them!"
"Okay!"
Pepper Potts took the reactor upstairs.
Qin Xiao knew she would seal the old one inside a transparent case and give it to Tony as a gift.
And when Obadiah stole the reactor from Tony's chest, this old one would save Tony's life at the critical moment.
But now that this world had Qin Xiao in it, that scene could probably be avoided.
Besides, Qin Xiao had come this time precisely to resolve this matter.
"Hey, Tony, don't you have anything you want to ask me? About Afghanistan!"
Once he saw Pepper Potts go upstairs, Qin Xiao spoke first.
Even setting aside the system and the missions, the two of them had known each other for so long.
On a personal level, they really had become friends.
Apart from the secrets of the system and his transmigration, Qin Xiao did not intend to hide everything from Tony. That would create a rift between them.
"A guy came to see me a couple of days ago. He was from some intelligence agency with a ridiculously long name. What was it called again? Anyway, he was an agent with a truly remarkable receding hairline."
Tony gestured at his forehead, describing his visitor's appearance.
"He told me everything about you. Your parents' deaths, where your serum came from, how you met that sexy agent chick, and so on."
"He also said you only joined them to save me. But I'm not thanking you, because you lied to me. Your abilities come from super-soldier serum, not some Chinese kung fu. Damn it, I even paid you over a month's salary."
Tony took two bottles of beer out of the fridge and handed one to Qin Xiao.
Tony Stark-you could not expect to hear a thank-you from him easily.
But Qin Xiao knew that although he was talking about being deceived, his eyes were full of gratitude.
Otherwise, why would he have even given him the basement code today?
"All right, you didn't exactly lose out. You also won a few million dollars at the casino, all thanks to me. Was that all the agent with the remarkable hairline told you?"
As Qin Xiao spoke, the image of the good-natured Agent Coulson appeared in his mind.
"Hmm?"
Tony took a sip of beer and asked in puzzlement.
"Is there something else you've been lying to me about, you bastard?"
"No, nothing like that. Looks like he definitely didn't explain how I found that hidden cave the US military couldn't find in over a month."
"Oh?"
Tony seemed to have thought of something.
He raised his head slightly, signaling for Qin Xiao to continue.
Yesterday, someone asked whether I had a backlog and how many chapters I'd be updating! I've been working hard to build up a backlog these past few days. The regular schedule is three chapters a day. Once the story reaches 100,000 characters and the site gives it a recommendation, I'll do my best to release a burst of extra chapters! Here's the first chapter, with more at noon and tonight!