A time traveler arrives in the Multiverse with an ability that turns confident assumptions into reality. If he believes an ordinary object should perform an impossible task, the rules of the world may simply adjust to make it happen. A bicycle can rise into the sky, common equipment can behave far beyond its normal limits, and even the human body can ignore expectations that should be absolute. The power sounds convenient, but every new idea raises a larger question: if reality keeps obeying what he thinks is “scientific,” how long will it be before no one—including him—can tell where logic ends and imagination begins?
Chapter 37: 036: The Materials Wholesaler
Just as Alice was enjoying her brand-new campus life, the events in Wakanda finally came to a close. Wakanda opened up access to some of its domestic technology to other nations and made vibranium resources available on the market. Although the price remained relatively high, at least it was no longer nearly as difficult to obtain. Meanwhile, the United Nations returned Wakanda’s prince, T’Challa, and lifted the economic and resource embargo against Wakanda. Major media outlets also began to restore Wakanda’s reputation in the public eye, so that the country was no longer universally vilified on the international stage. Even so, many people still harbored no fondness for Wakanda. “After all that hassle, we still can’t buy any, can we!” Kraft slammed his fist down on the table. His reason for exposing Wakanda wasn’t just that he couldn’t stand it—more crucially, he wanted a way to purchase vibranium from there. Although Wakanda had now opened up vibranium sales, these were limited to specific countries and major conglomerates—he simply couldn’t get a foot in the door. Not even Martin was qualified to purchase vibranium through official channels; the only private entities in the United States likely authorized to participate in vibranium trade were probably Stark Industries and the Osborne Group. However, just because vibranium couldn’t be obtained through official channels didn’t mean other avenues were off the table. With Wakanda’s information now public, hordes of mercenaries and smuggling rings had flooded into Africa. Coupled with local opportunists, it was possible—for a price—to secure not only vibranium but even small portions of Wakandan technology on the black market. This is precisely why Kraft decided to leak the information—once the floodgates open, many things will be beyond Wakanda’s control. Realizing he couldn’t go through official channels, Kraft resorted to Plan B—seeking help from Martin Lee. With “Mr. Negative,” a major underworld figure, on his side, he wasn’t worried about getting caught in a gang-on-gang conflict. “Just 10 grams is enough?” As for Kraft’s request, Martin Lee naturally agreed without hesitation. Having come to understand his adopted son’s research capabilities, there was no way he would stand in the way of Kraft’s research; if anything, he felt Kraft was asking for too little. “What can you possibly discover with just 10 grams of metal? I’ll do my best to get you more!” Martin Lee said, making a grand promise. Although a single gram of vibranium costs $10,000, was Martin Lee the kind of man who was short on money? Even Kraft himself had more than enough money to buy vibranium. Kraft said nothing. Silently, he pulled a pistol-shaped flashlight from his backpack and pulled the trigger, aiming it at the little black cat, Beya, standing nearby. Bathed in the flashlight’s beam, Beya—less than half a meter away—was instantly magnified into a giant cat several times larger than a lion, crushing the surrounding furniture into a chaotic mess. “Meow?” Beya, who had been peacefully lying on the sofa grooming herself, stared in utter bewilderment as everything around her rapidly shrank; she even forgot to retract the tongue she’d stuck out to lick her fur. “Wow! Bro, I want that too!” When Quinn saw Beya grow, his first reaction was that his only advantage—his size—was gone. He placed both front paws on Kraft’s legs and wagged his tail frantically. “Go on, go on. You want everything.” Kraft pushed Quinn’s doggy head away, then pressed the flashlight button again and pulled the trigger on Beya once more. Just as she was curiously looking at the furniture shrinking all around her, her big paws itching to pounce, Beya suddenly shrank back to her original size. Martin Lee’s mouth hung open, and he couldn’t close it for a long time. “How… did you do that?!” “Same as before—I’m not really sure myself,” Kraft shrugged. “Anyway, I figured it should work, so I just went ahead and did it.” He never would have imagined that Dr. Tekkan Senbei—that short, stocky, sleazy-looking figure from his dream—could actually create such an outrageous gadget! This completely defied the physical law of conservation of energy, because whatever was illuminated by this capriciously shifting flashlight was merely enlarged in appearance—the size of the molecules inside, their arrangement, and everything else remained exactly the same as before. In other words, it was as if a massive amount of identical, stable matter had been created out of thin air—and… There’s no time limit! What’s even less scientific is that when he shines the light, it only enlarges the target he intends to enlarge; other objects illuminated by the beam show absolutely no reaction as long as Kraft has no intention of enlarging them. In short, it worked far better than Dwarf Tech’s Shrinking Ray Gun and World Amplifier. After acquiring this versatile flashlight, Kraft’s first thought was that it would save him a lot of time and money on manufacturing materials in the future. “Well… in that case, 10 grams really is enough…” Martin Lee swallowed hard; he’d grown somewhat accustomed to being stunned time and again by Kraft’s inventions. “I’ll get you some vibranium as soon as I can.” “But…” After regaining his composure, Martin pointed helplessly at the wrecked living room. “Couldn’t you have used something smaller as an example?” “Hahaha… I just thought using a living creature to demonstrate would be more impressive, don’t you think?” Kraft gave a dry laugh and scratched the back of his head. “Yeah, it was definitely impressive,” Martin Lee nodded in agreement. “So remember to clean up the living room.” “Uh… I know…” Kraft replied dejectedly and began tidying up the living room that Beya had messed up, but thankfully, with Alice’s help, the two of them finished cleaning up in no time. Martin Lee—or rather, the Demon Gang—was highly efficient; the 10 grams of Vibranium were delivered to Kraft in no time. With the ability to transform objects into flashlights at will, Kraft didn’t have to worry about consumption as long as he had even a small amount of raw material. So, after testing the properties of vibranium, he replaced all his gear as well as the materials on Alice and Harlow’s bodies. Of course, not all metals were suitable for conversion into vibranium, but using vibranium as the raw material and drawing on the technology from his dreams, Kraft managed to create quite a few alloys with unique properties. This not only strengthened his own gear but also unlocked numerous engineering blueprints that had previously been stalled due to material constraints. Just as Kraft was engrossed in experimenting with vibranium, a major event unfolded in the outside world. Mr. Tony Stark—the head of Stark Industries, a renowned scientist, billionaire, arms manufacturer, playboy, and media darling—was the victim of a terrorist attack while demonstrating weapons in the Middle East and is currently missing. The media, which had been feasting on the aftermath of the Wakanda incident, suddenly found a new hot topic. Now, outside Stark Tower, seven out of every ten people are reporters, and the other two are security guards maintaining order. “He’s missing?” Kraft clicked his tongue in slight regret. Although he didn’t particularly like Tony Stark as a person, he did admire his achievements in scientific research. Moreover, ever since he’d sent Angela and Haro over to give that AI named JARVIS a good thrashing, Stark had been upgrading JARVIS from time to time, only to have it go online and pick fights with Angela. However, when it comes to artificial intelligence at the level of Angela and JARVIS, so-called “upgrades” essentially boil down to increasing processing power and speed. Stark, being a wealthy man, has no idea how much hardware he’s poured into JARVIS; after several online battles, Kraft was forced to add two more Umbrella-version supercomputers as backup for Angela. But Kraft’s side wasn’t left empty-handed either. While hardware upgrades increase processing power and speed, the clash between the two AIs allowed them to optimize their behavioral logic—at the very least, Angela is now far more dynamic than she was at the beginning. This is why Kraft accepted Stark’s challenge in the first place—and why he now feels a sense of regret. As for Tony Stark’s current disappearance in the Middle East, Kraft had no interest in rescuing him—and it wasn’t his place to worry about such matters anyway. At most, he felt a bit of regret that Angela might have one less opponent in the future.
