Arthur felt like a diligent farmer toiling away on a barren piece of land, tirelessly working the soil.
Of course, what he was "tilling" was a bit unusual: short metal tubes, beams of light shooting skyward, and those light beams interacting with each other in midair.
Between the beams of light, layers of thin membranes stretched out, glowing with a faint yellow hue that surprisingly instilled a strong sense of safety.
Since setting out in the morning, Arthur had been busy for nearly forty-eight hours. Everything was finally nearing completion, though his back felt like it might break from the strain.
To be honest, he was now somewhat envious of Tony's use of the Šumer drones.
The best method would have been to bring over a large number of Šumers to scan and measure the entire comet, then divide it into fixed points based on the metal tubes' maximum range, simply placing the devices accordingly.
If that method had been used, it would have taken only a few hours to plant these metal tubes all over the small comet.
But Arthur had chosen the most labor-intensive approach.
Fortunately, it was almost done. Arthur didn't know where his seemingly godlike perseverance came from.
After placing the last metal tube, the light beams connected to form a continuous light curtain, completely enveloping the entire comet.
Under the light, the Symbiotes slept peacefully as usual. Arthur watched for a moment before suddenly remembering he still had one more metal tube left in his Disassemble space. He pulled it out and casually tossed it onto the ground.
"Well, that's about it here."
Arthur rubbed his neck. Though as a superhero, he possessed physical resilience far beyond ordinary people, such long hours of work still made him feel like his spine might give out.
"Next time, I'll have to make Tony handle the easier parts. Making these so small is really inconvenient to install... No, next time I'll organize a Šumer battalion. Whether for war or construction, they'd be top-notch."
Muttering to himself, Arthur found the teleportation array, stepped through it, and returned to Camp Lehigh.
After a thorough round of decontamination, Arthur confirmed that all radiation had been removed from his body, then gathered his team and stepped onto another teleportation array.
...
...
The Symbiote matter was temporarily settled here. What would happen in the upcoming experiments would have to be arranged later.
One very important matter had already been delayed too long and needed urgent attention.
With the light of the Bifrost shining, Arthur appeared in Asgard's Bifrost Hall, accompanied by T'Challa.
This time, Arthur specifically brought T'Challa along. T'Challa had stayed at Camp Lehigh for a long time and was completely unaware of anything beyond Earth. Until now, Arthur's words had been mere hearsay without further proof or firsthand experience.
But upon truly arriving in Asgard, the Wakandan prince was completely stunned.
During his time at Camp Lehigh, T'Challa had heard that Arthur had visited Asgard once and had even brought Brock along. But he never had much impression of the place. Now, arriving here, he was very surprised to discover that the guardian of this realm was also a Black man!
Heimdall glanced at T'Challa, then looked over at Arthur.
"Better wait here a moment," Arthur said, glancing at T'Challa before speaking to Heimdall. "Maybe you two can have a chat?"
Heimdall, cold and aloof, simply closed his eyes without a word.
T'Challa, as a prince, felt he should maintain his composure and said, "Very cool, I like it."
"…Glad you like it," Arthur replied, speechless, then led T'Challa to find Coulson, noticing that the man had clearly gained quite a bit of weight since being in Asgard.
Once Coulson understood Arthur's intentions, he was overjoyed, he probably would have run over and hugged Arthur if he could.
He had really had enough of the place; every day was just eat and sleep, sleep and eat. Whenever he moved even a bit, they told him it wasn't good for his health, so he kept accumulating weight!
"You know, the science here is obviously very different from Earth's!" Coulson complained to Arthur, then greeted T'Challa, and the three of them set off together back to the Bifrost Hall.
"To Xandar."
"Understood." Heimdall nodded and immediately set the Bifrost coordinates. With a blink of light and a flash of rainbow colors, T'Challa couldn't help but ask, "What exactly is the principle behind this?"
"This is basically Asgard's foundation. They won't tell anyone," Arthur said, patting T'Challa on the shoulder. "Come on, I'll take you to the new world."
With Arthur stepping onto the Bifrost, aided by the rainbow light, the two instantly arrived on the planet Xandar.
The people on Xandar were obviously quite experienced, none showed much interest in the Bifrost descending from the sky. They just glanced briefly and went about their business.
Whether it was because they'd seen it many times before or were just pretending to be worldly-wise, curious but too shy to ask, no one paid it much attention.
Of course, the most curious was still T'Challa!
He had just seen a Black man in Asgard and felt a warm kinship, thinking he could probably get along well with him. But now... he suddenly realized that skin color and ethnicity might just be something pleasant and comfortable.
At least for now, all kinds of people existed here, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet... You name it.
Overall, while their shapes were not that different from humans, the color differences were striking.
Of course, some were very different. He even saw a huge figure made entirely of stone, carrying an axe and a large sickle on his back, walking across the plaza with a domineering glare... though he didn't walk far before being caught.
The charge? His fallen debris had damaged the cleanliness of the plaza.
He was taken away to be given a bath!
Amid the giant's angry shouts of "I won't take a bath!" T'Challa withdrew his stunned gaze, straightened his chin, and looked at Arthur.
"Tell me, what exactly was that I just saw?"
Coulson, who also considered himself quite experienced, was still a bit dizzy from it all...
"That's normal... hmm, looks like we've caught some attention," Arthur said to both of them. "Our ride has arrived."
(End of chapter)
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