A Familiar Excuse

Pepper saw this and awkwardly turned her head away, unable to bear watching Tony.

Tony had originally planned to show off a little in front of Harvey. After all, this was a technological achievement he was proud of.

Whether it was powerful or not aside, at least it looked cool and felt incredibly stylish to wear.

Wasn’t there an old saying? Every man understood the romance of powered armor and mechs. Harvey was a man too, so he surely understood.

But instead of looking cool, he had only earned a strange look from Harvey. Tony wished he could dig a hole and crawl into it.

Seeing Tony’s attempt to show off fail, Harvey suppressed his laughter and simply watched him.

"Jarvis Two, armor deployment!"

Tony could only suppress his embarrassment and shout again.

"At your command, Mr. Tony."

Only after Tony directly called Jarvis Two did the AI respond.

The roar of thrusters sounded one after another as pieces of armor rapidly flew out from the underground laboratory and attached themselves to Tony’s body.

In just a few seconds, Tony transformed into the cool, gold-and-red armored figure of Iron Man.

"It’s a newly replaced AI, so it isn’t that smart yet."

After putting on the armor, Tony turned around and saw the amusement in Harvey’s eyes, immediately finding himself an excuse.

"Although there was a little accident, I have to admit that the way you shouted just now was still pretty cool."

"But this is how you transform."

Hearing that excuse, Harvey held back his laughter and spoke.

As soon as he finished speaking, Harvey rose to his feet. Purple-gold armor manifested over his body, a golden mask appeared on his face, a white battle robe draped over him, and his black pupils turned into imposing golden eyes.

"…"

Seeing Harvey transform in an instant, Tony was left speechless. It felt like he had picked the wrong person to show off in front of.

"How did you do that? Can you teach me?"

Seeing how cool it looked, Tony asked eagerly.

"I’ll teach you once you truly master Void Power."

Harvey replied.

"Fine."

Hearing about Void Power, Tony recalled the purple energy Harvey had released before and understood.

Now that he had evolved more than fifty times, his evolution had slowed considerably. He had joined the Void for over half a year, yet he had only evolved eighty-one times.

His physical strength had become extremely formidable, but the Void Power he could release was only around a dozen centimeters in size. It was clearly not ready to be shown off.

"Let’s go. We’ll head to the underground laboratory, grab the equipment, and leave."

Knowing he could not learn it for now, Tony did not dwell on it. There would be plenty of time in the future.

More importantly, he was already thinking about how to make a stylish entrance when he met the other members again.

Harvey had no idea how much Tony wanted to show off. He merely arrived at the underground laboratory, raised his hand, and released Void Power to envelop both the gravity device and Tony.

Then a Void Black Hole appeared beneath Harvey’s feet, and the two vanished.

The next second, they appeared on the Moon.

"…"

Standing inside the purple energy barrier, Tony looked at the blue planet in the distance and the white ground beneath his feet, his eyes filled with amazement.

As a scientist specializing in weapons technology, who did not dream of stepping into space?

Now that he had truly done so, Tony felt nothing but excitement and yearning for the universe.

Then, a Void Black Hole roughly a thousand meters wide appeared beneath Tony’s feet once more, and the two vanished again in an instant.

"How far did we travel?"

Tony only felt the scenery before and around him suddenly change. Looking at the unfamiliar black-red planet in the distance, he asked in shock.

"More than tens of thousands of light-years. We’re almost there."

Harvey answered casually.

Hearing that they had crossed tens of thousands of light-years in an instant, Tony had yet to process it when the scenery before him changed again, and he found himself directly inside a house.

Then the purple energy barrier surrounding Tony disappeared, while several large crates containing the gravity device landed steadily on the floor.

"…We’re here already?"

Tony realized he could breathe. Looking out the window, he found himself in a villa nestled in the woods and asked, still unable to process it.

"Yes, we’re here."

Harvey nodded slightly.

"Tens of thousands of light-years in under ten seconds?"

Tony exclaimed in disbelief.

"This is one type of Void magic. Crossing tens of thousands of light-years is nothing special."

Harvey said calmly.

"That isn’t anything special?"

Tony was stunned by Harvey’s casual tone.

He knew Harvey was powerful. After all, Harvey had said that provoking Ancient One and Odin would merely be troublesome, so Harvey was surely one of the major figures in the universe.

But even knowing that Harvey’s status and strength were extraordinary, every time Tony saw Harvey truly act, he realized that his previous understanding had been far too limited.

"By the standards of current cosmic civilizations, they may not be able to cross tens of thousands of light-years in ten seconds, but traveling that far in a few days is still possible."

"So there’s no need to be too surprised. Once you’ve seen all kinds of technology, there will be plenty more things to astonish you."

Seeing Tony’s shocked expression, Harvey spoke.

"Remember what I told you before coming here."

Then Harvey noticed something and said quietly.

Hearing that soft reminder, Tony was wondering why Harvey had said it when—

A beautiful blonde figure hurried down the stairs.

"Mr. Kassadin, welcome back."

When Sonia saw Harvey, a smile appeared on her face.

"Yes. Prepare something for me to drink."

Harvey nodded slightly and spoke.

"Yes, I’ll bring it to you shortly."

Sonia noticed that besides Mr. Kassadin, there was another person in armor. Though she was curious, she immediately nodded at the instruction and quickly left.

"…Mr. Kassadin, is that your girlfriend?"

After seeing the beautiful young woman with her outstanding figure and elegant temperament leave, Tony’s gossiping instincts were instantly ignited.

"No. She is my butler, Sonia."

"When it comes to constructing your laboratory and acquiring the various materials you need, you can speak to Sonia about it."

Harvey glanced at Tony and replied casually.

"I don’t believe that. If she’s just a female butler, why didn’t you hire a few on Earth?"

Tony did not believe him at all and asked in return.

Harvey was also a famous young billionaire on Earth, and he was young and unmarried.

Even if he were married, Tony doubted Harvey was the sort of man who could be tied down by just one wife.

As long as Harvey wanted to, never mind hiring one female butler—hiring eight or ten personal female secretaries would not be a problem either.

"Think whatever you want."

Seeing that Tony did not believe him, Harvey could not be bothered to explain further.

"What a familiar excuse."

"But with your status and strength, what are you afraid of?"

"No one can control what you do anyway, right?"

Seeing that Harvey could not be bothered to explain, Tony spoke nostalgically at first.

His goal was to lead Harvey into continuing the previous topic with him.

"I didn’t bring you here to gossip."

Seeing Tony act like an experienced insider, Harvey said helplessly.

Today was another ten-thousand-word day. The first update was here.