Materials Wholesaler

While Alice enjoyed her new campus life, the Wakanda incident finally came to an end as well.

Wakanda opened up some of its technology to other countries and put Vibranium resources on the market. The prices were still relatively steep, but at least it was no longer so difficult to buy.

Meanwhile, the United Nations returned Wakanda’s prince, T’Challa, and lifted the economic and resource blockade against Wakanda. Major media outlets also began repairing Wakanda’s public image, so its international reputation was no longer quite so universally reviled. Even so, many people still held no goodwill toward Wakanda.

"After all that fuss, I still can’t buy any!"

Kraft slammed his fist onto the table. Aside from being unable to stand Wakanda’s actions, the more important reason he had exposed them was to gain a channel for purchasing Vibranium.

Although Wakanda had opened Vibranium sales, they were aimed at nations and major corporations. He had no way to get involved. Even Martin lacked the qualifications to purchase Vibranium through legitimate channels. The only private forces in America qualified to participate in Vibranium trading were probably Stark Industries and the Osborn Group.

But failing to obtain Vibranium through legitimate channels did not mean other channels were impossible. Since Wakanda’s information had been exposed, large numbers of mercenaries and smuggling groups had flooded into Africa. Together with local ambitious elements, not only Vibranium but even small amounts of Wakandan technology could be acquired through the black market if one was willing to pay.

That was why Kraft had exposed the matter in the first place. Once the breach was opened, many things would no longer be under Wakanda’s control.

Once he realized legitimate channels were impossible, Kraft went with plan B—asking Martin Lee for help. With Mr. Negative, an underworld boss, stepping in, he did not need to worry about getting ripped off by criminals.

"Just ten grams is enough?"

Martin Lee readily agreed to Kraft’s request. After learning about his adopted son’s research abilities, there was no way he would obstruct Kraft’s work. If anything, he thought Kraft was asking for too little.

"What can you research with ten grams of metal? I’ll try to get you more!"

Martin Lee declared confidently. Although a single gram of Vibranium cost ten thousand dollars, was Martin Lee someone short on money? Even Kraft himself had enough money to buy Vibranium.

Kraft said nothing. He quietly took a pistol-shaped flashlight from his backpack, then pulled the trigger at Bea, the little black cat nearby.

Under the flashlight’s beam, Bea, who had been less than half a meter long, rapidly grew into a giant cat several times larger than a lion, scattering the surrounding furniture in every direction.

"Meow?"

Bea, who had been peacefully lying on the sofa grooming herself, stared dumbly at everything around her rapidly shrinking. She even forgot to pull back the tongue she had extended to lick her fur.

"That’s amazing! Big bro, I want one too!"

When Quinn saw Bea grow larger, his first thought was that even his only advantage—his size—was gone. He planted both front paws on Kraft’s leg and wagged his tail frantically.

"Shoo, shoo. Why do you want everything?"

Kraft pushed Quinn’s dog head away, then pressed the flashlight again and pulled the trigger at Bea once more.

Bea, who had been curiously eyeing the shrunken furniture around her with her huge paws itching to move, instantly shrank back to her original size.

Martin Lee’s mouth hung wide open for a long time.

"How… did you do that?!"

"Like I said, I’m not really sure either." Kraft shrugged. "Anyway, I figured it should work if I did it this way, so I made it."

He had never expected Doctor Senbei Norimaki, that short, fat, sleazy-looking man from his dream, to create such an absurd gadget!

It completely ignored the physical law of conservation of energy. Anything hit by the Transformation Flashlight was merely enlarged in appearance; the size and arrangement of its internal molecules remained exactly the same. In other words, it created a huge amount of identical, stable matter out of thin air, and…

There was no time limit!

Even less scientific was the fact that when he shone the light, it enlarged only the target he wanted to enlarge. Other objects illuminated by the beam would not react at all unless Kraft intended to enlarge them.

In short, it was far more useful than Gnome Tech’s Shrink Ray Gun and World Enlarger.

After obtaining the Transformation Flashlight, Kraft’s first thought was that he could save a great deal of time and money on manufacturing materials in the future.

"Okay… in that case, ten grams really is enough…"

Martin Lee swallowed. Kraft’s inventions had shocked him again and again, and he was starting to get used to it.

"I’ll get the Vibranium for you as soon as possible."

"But…" After calming down, Martin helplessly pointed at the wrecked living room. "Couldn’t you have used something smaller as an example?"

"Ahaha… I just thought using a living creature would make it more impressive."

Kraft gave an awkward laugh and scratched the back of his head.

"Mm, it certainly was impressive." Martin Lee nodded in agreement. "So remember to clean up the living room."

"Uh… got it…"

Kraft answered dejectedly and began tidying up the living room Bea had wrecked. Fortunately, with Alice’s help, the two quickly finished cleaning.

Martin Lee—or rather, the Demon Gang—worked efficiently. The ten grams of Vibranium soon arrived in Kraft’s hands.

With the Transformation Flashlight, Kraft no longer had to worry about consumption as long as he had even a tiny amount of raw material. So after testing Vibranium’s properties, he replaced the materials in all his equipment, as well as the materials on Alice and Haro.

Of course, not every metal was suitable for replacement with Vibranium. But using Vibranium as raw material and dream technology as support, Kraft created quite a few alloys with special properties. They not only strengthened his equipment, but also unlocked many engineering blueprints that had been stalled due to material limitations.

Just as Kraft was absorbed in tinkering with Vibranium, a major event occurred in the outside world.

The owner of Stark Industries, the famous scientist, billionaire, arms manufacturer, playboy, and media darling, Mr. Tony Stark, was attacked by terrorists while demonstrating weapons in the Middle East. His current whereabouts were unknown.

The media, which had been picking over the scraps of the Wakanda incident, suddenly found a new hot topic. Outside Stark Tower, seven out of every ten people were reporters, while another two were security guards maintaining order.

"Missing?"

Kraft clicked his tongue regretfully. He did not particularly like Tony Stark as a person, but he greatly admired his achievements in scientific research.

Besides, ever since he had sent Angela and Haro over to bully that artificial intelligence called Jarvis, Stark would upgrade Jarvis from time to time, then seek out Angela online for a fight.

But once artificial intelligences reached the level of Angela and Jarvis, so-called upgrades basically just meant increasing processing capacity and processing speed.

Who knew how much hardware that rich man Stark had thrown at Jarvis? After several cyber wars, Kraft had been forced to add two more Umbrella-version supercomputers as backup for Angela.

Still, Kraft’s side had gained something as well. Hardware upgrades increased processing capacity and speed, but clashes between the two artificial intelligences allowed them to optimize their own behavioral logic. At the very least, Angela was much more lively now than she had been at the beginning.

That was why Kraft had accepted Stark’s provocation before, and why he felt regretful now.

As for Tony Stark’s disappearance in the Middle East, Kraft had no interest in rescuing him. Besides, it was not his place to worry about such a matter. At most, he merely regretted that Angela might have one less opponent in the future.