MD-Chapter 302 Time on Fast Forward

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"No, thanks!"

Stephen's reply was sharp and dismissive as he turned to leave.

"No?" Arthur materialized directly in front of him and asked. "Why?"

"...No reason. What kind of magic did you just use?" Stephen stared at Arthur, then glanced back to confirm it wasn't an illusion, frowning. "Does Kamar-Taj teach this kind of magic?"

"Of course... not!" Arthur replied. "To be precise, I'm not a student of Kamar-Taj."

"Oh, goodbye then." Stephen nodded, sidestepping Arthur and walking away.

Arthur stood there with a bewildered expression on his face. When he turned around, the Ancient One appeared beside him. "He has a lot on his mind. He's probably not interested in you."

"Such a cold junior brother. How are we supposed to get along in the future?" Arthur felt a touch of helplessness. "I was hoping to recruit him to my team."

"What secret were you planning to tell him earlier?" the Ancient One inquired.

"The tricks and shortcuts to practicing magic," Arthur said with a wink and a smile. "But he wasn't willing to listen."

"Practicing magic has no tricks or shortcuts," the Ancient One replied with a gentle smile. "It seems he was right not to listen."

"That's not necessarily true."

At that moment, Arthur suddenly frowned, an inexplicable sense of unease washing over him. But this feeling was difficult to pinpoint.

The Ancient One also frowned and sighed softly. "It has already begun..."

"What has begun?" Arthur was puzzled.

"The countdown."

The Ancient One glanced at Arthur and then smiled. "You need to hurry up too."

---

The Ancient One's words seemed to carry a weight. From that day on, Arthur truly felt like time was speeding up, as if it were flying by!

Looking at the current situation, to say that everything was in disarray would be an exaggeration, but it was indeed a prime opportunity to expand his influence.

With SHIELD holding the line on the official front, and the team backed by two major financial powerhouses— Stark Industries and Oscorp— plus Arthur himself as a minor investor, they had both the resources and the manpower.

If they didn't seize this moment to grow, when would they?

Harry's team was quite impressive. Camp Lehigh was eventually purchased at a reasonable price. Tony and Harry joined forces to completely renovate the facility.

To the public, it was announced as the first joint project factory between Stark Industries and Oscorp. In reality, only the surface level served as a cover. Beneath the surface, three additional expansive levels were constructed, divided into countless rooms and research laboratories for other purposes.

However, for now, only the logistics department was stationed there permanently. This logistics department was the result of discussions between Tony, Arthur, and Harry. It was composed of highly skilled individuals who had passed rigorous evaluations before they were allowed to join.

But this was just the tip of the iceberg for this base. Arthur's contribution to this base was a Helicarrier!

The source of this Helicarrier was SHIELD. Of course, Fury wouldn't simply hand over a Helicarrier— that wasn't his style. In fact, Arthur had to expend considerable effort to achieve this.

The origin of this Helicarrier was closely linked to Alexander Pierce. Project Insight, spearheaded by Pierce, was built around these three Helicarriers. Utilizing the Zola algorithm to identify potential threats to Hydra, the Helicarriers could eliminate millions of people in an instant.

After the project failed, Arthur set his sights on these three Helicarriers. After much persuasion, Fury agreed to give him one, while the other two remained with SHIELD.

To be honest, Arthur believed the other two Helicarriers would be of little use to SHIELD. But Fury's condition for handing over the other two was for Arthur to disclose all his team's information and share intelligence with SHIELD. This was a condition Arthur couldn't accept.

'Who knew what hidden dangers still lurked within SHIELD? Arthur wasn't about to let his hard-earned intelligence fall into their hands.'

Once everything started to take shape, Tony began planning to expand their network. The teleportation array diagrams Arthur provided were studied by Tony, who managed to find a way to replace magical energy with conventional energy. 

After some conversion, utilizing the Arc Reactor as the energy source, he created a batch of new-tech teleportation arrays!

However, compared to the ones Arthur had casually drawn, Tony's versions were much larger. A metal platform, with an Arc Reactor beneath and four metal pillars above. Once activated, the array illuminated in dazzling colors, but it also consumed a significant amount of energy.

Tony, however, didn't care about this. He considered it a small step for "Advanced technology" but a giant leap for mankind.

Although Arthur scoffed at Tony's so-called "giant leap for mankind," the success of the teleportation array sparked more ideas in his mind. 

If conventional energy could be converted into magical energy, and magical formulas could be transformed into regular formulas, then all magical attack methods could potentially be realized through modern technology!

However, if this were proposed, it might alter the course of human history. Arthur was hesitant, but Tony shared the same idea. After discussing it, they decided to shelve the matter for now. They could conduct exploratory experiments, but fully realized their vision was not something that could be achieved in the short term.

These endeavors consumed a significant portion of Arthur's time. In his spare moments, he also had to build rapport with Hulk. During his free time, he would teach this giant, volatile "baby" some basic common sense and knowledge.

Although Hulk was volatile, he wasn't entirely unwilling to listen. After patiently hearing Arthur out, even if he sometimes lost control, he generally understood what he could and couldn't do.

Everything seemed to be progressing smoothly, and things were heading in a positive direction. But whenever Arthur recalled that day at Kamar-Taj and the Ancient One's words, he couldn't shake a sense of foreboding. He felt that the Ancient One's words hinted at something imminent.

But what exactly was it?

Arthur looked up at the night sky, which remained calm and unchanging. "Tomorrow, I'll visit Kamar-Taj again!"

(End of Chapter)