Seeing Tony look troubled, Lucas asked, "Is there a problem?"
Tony still frowned deeply. He picked up the coffee nearby and took sip after sip.
"With Earth's industrial level, fully mastering this technology will take a very long time. A very long time."
Tony paused on "very long time" and then repeated it.
"But every sub-branch of this technology can form an industrial chain. This can greatly boost the industrial and technological level of the entire Earth, allowing it to re-enter the fast lane of technological development."
"This isn't just about economic benefits. Through this technological leap, Earth might truly gain the ability to venture into the Universe and possess its own super technology even if it was given by someone else."
"Instead of just relying on a few of us superheroes." Tony voiced his personal desire.
After more than three months of research, Tony deeply understood the impact of the documentation Ikor had given Lucas.
It was no exaggeration to say that any modern civilization that obtained and successfully deciphered this documentation could step onto the fast track of development, stand out from mediocre civilizations, and become a god-tier civilization, one that countless ordinary civilizations yearned for but could neither reach nor understand.
However...
Lucas understood Tony's sense of responsibility toward Earth civilization, but he did not share it.
His roots were not here.
Lucas shook his head.
With a wave of his hand, endless brilliant light surged out, completely enveloping the entire laboratory and isolating it from external information exchange.
Meeting the puzzled gazes of Tony and Bruce, Lucas slowly spoke, revealing Ikor's warning and the speculation he shared with Strange.
"A Multiverse crisis?!"
"Almost every Universe involved, and even the entire Multiverse possibly facing extinction?!"
Faced with this sudden and shocking news, Tony and Bruce were startled, their expressions becoming solemn, yet tinged with doubt.
"It's just speculation, but..."
Lucas glanced at the two of them, shrugging, "You've all heard of Murphy's Law, right? If anything can go wrong, no matter how small the probability, it will happen."
Tony complained, "Lucas, do you really understand Murphy's Law? Didn't you miss two prerequisites? A probability greater than zero and a sufficiently long period of time?"
But complaints aside, Tony also realized the seriousness of the situation.
A crisis about to sweep the Multiverse was imminent, yet they didn't know the cause.
Someone told them the answer was just outside the door in front of them, but the door was locked.
They had the method to make the key, but not the materials, and needed to find a hardware factory for help. The price was sharing the key's manufacturing method and jointly owning it with the factory afterward.
Compared to the key that would open the door and lead them outside, the answer outside the door was clearly more important.
Tony said in a deep voice, "I need to personally assess Nidavellir's industrial level before I can estimate the approximate time. But even if materials and processes are not an issue, manufacturing this ship will take at least three—no! Five years."
Lucas nodded seriously. "Alright, I'm counting on you, Tony."
He then waved his hand, retracting the brilliant light enveloping the laboratory, and prepared to leave.
He turned and took a step, and golden-yellow sparks flashed, engulfing half of his body while the other half remained stationary.
Tony had quickly stepped forward and grabbed Lucas.
Helplessly, Lucas withdrew his foot. He looked at Tony and asked, "Is there anything else?"
Tony explained, "I just remembered, with the help of the Reality Stone, maybe I could build this ship by myself."
Lucas raised an eyebrow. "Reality Stone?"
He had almost forgotten that these useless rocks were artifacts in the hands of others.
Casually tracing the void, golden-yellow sparks flashed, and a small portal opened. After fumbling around, Lucas took out a piece of metal inlaid with six stones emitting various colors of light.
Tony cast his gaze upon it.
Judging by its shape, the metal piece looked like the chest plate of a human-sized mech.
"What is this?"
"The Infinity Stones, all six Infinity Stones."
Lucas reached out and brushed the chest plate, applying a layer of film to all six Infinity Stones before tossing it to Tony.
"Here you go, Tony. Not just the Reality Stone, the other five are here too."
"Are you serious?" Tony took the chest plate, skeptical.
Then, his mental power surged in, activating the power of the blue gem within. In an instant, a blue halo surged out, engulfing Tony, and then quickly receded.
When the blue halo vanished, Tony disappeared from the spot.
After a moment, another blue halo appeared, and Tony reappeared. The reappeared Tony was wearing a glove, and a blue gem was embedded in the glove.
The shape and size of this blue gem were different from the one embedded in the chest plate. But having just tested it, Tony was absolutely certain that both possessed the same power.
They were both the Space Stone!
"Why are there two sets of Infinity Stones? Didn't they say there are only six Infinity Stones in one Universe?"
"Could it be..."
Tony looked at Lucas in astonishment, only to see him nod slightly.
"That's right, it's exactly as you guessed."
Looking at Lucas, Tony loudly reprimanded him, "Which Universe's Infinity Stones did you take? Did you forget? Ancient One said that the six Infinity Stones are a crucial power source for maintaining a Universe's operation, and losing even one could lead to the demise of that Universe's reality."
Lucas explained, "It was Ultron."
"Sorcerer Lucas, what about me?" A deep, human-like voice rang out.
Lucas heard it, gave a wry smile, and shook his head, adding, "It was Infinite Ultron, the Ultron from another Universe's reality."
"Infinite Ultron?"
Tony instantly understood, but repeated the name anyway.
Seeing that Tony still seemed confused, Lucas opened the portal again, signaling Tony to look through.
On the other side of the portal was Lucas Bookstore's seventh-floor residence.
Tony had been to the bookstore many times, but he had never been up to the seventh floor. It seemed only Coulson had been up there a few years ago when he was looking for Lucas.
The layout of Lucas Bookstore's seventh-floor residence was unremarkable. Although he and Gwen occasionally decorated their little home, there were still many areas they hadn't gotten to.
Although Lucas's residence seemed simple compared to the mansion of a billionaire like Tony, as a bookstore, its floor area exceeded the minimum standard of 800 square meters, approaching 1557 square meters. Such a space was a bit too vast for two people.
However...
Looking at the cobblestone path paved with six-colored Infinity Stones embedded in the ceiling, the walls, and a certain spot on the floor, Tony fell silent.
He wondered if selling Avengers Tower, which he was currently standing in, lock, stock, and barrel, would be enough to buy just one of those Infinity Stones.
"Any other questions?" Lucas asked.
"No."
Tony replied, then fell silent, simply walking aside to busy himself with something unknown.
Seeing this, Lucas took the opportunity to step through the portal and return to the bookstore.
The Infinity Stones were more of a nuisance than a benefit to him at this point. If he hadn't been worried that carelessly discarding them would cause a terrible disaster in some reality across the Multiverse, he wouldn't have bothered collecting them when he destroyed Infinite Ultron and his Ultron Legion.
However, Lucas's thoughts quietly changed at this moment. A cobblestone path paved with Infinity Stones seemed quite nice.
...
"Two years."
This was the answer Tony gave the next day, and it was the answer Lucas now relayed to Strange.
After Tony's experiments, it was confirmed that the Reality Stone could be used to manufacture most of the ship's components.
However, there were a few core components or more accurately, the materials for those core components that even the Reality Stone could not create from nothing.
Strangely, according to the documentation provided by Ikor, these materials could be manufactured within the Universe. In fact, several of them only required very conventional environments to be completed.
It was as if this was exploiting some kind of bug in the Marvel world.
And bugs, without...
"Two years?" Strange nodded.
This timeframe was acceptable to him.
"Fine, I'll work for you for two more years then."
"What do you mean, 'work for me'? Earth-404 doesn't belong to me alone."
Lucas complained, then slipped away, unwilling to further provoke Strange, who was about to face two years of arduous work.
Returning to the bookstore, and spending another fifteen minutes sending the Creator away, Lucas collapsed onto the sofa.
In two years, would the great crisis involving the entire Marvel world finally be revealed?
What a long wait...
(End of Chapter)
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