Morning sunlight sliced through the blinds, casting alternating stripes of light and shadow on the expensive Persian rug.
Tony Stark's hangover headache hadn't fully subsided, but his spirits were unusually high. Clutching a mug of black coffee, he paced back and forth in the living room, his eyes darting to the top of the second-floor staircase like a Persian cat waiting to be fed.
"Is he up yet?" Tony finally broke the silence, asking Pepper, who was preparing breakfast.
"Tony, it's only seven-thirty. It's the day after Christmas. Can't you let the kid sleep in a little?" Pepper said with a sigh, placing a slice of bread into the toaster. "Besides, you promised last night that you'd wait until morning for him to give you your present."
"'This morning' is now," Tony retorted. "My curiosity has been stewing all night. It's a precious thing, and it can't wait any longer. J.A.R.V.I.S., go wake the kid up with some heavy metal."
"Sir, I believe using the Prelude from Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major as a wake-up call would be more conducive to maintaining Master Paul's cognitive stability for the day," J.A.R.V.I.S.'s calm voice replied.
Tony nearly spat out his coffee. "J.A.R.V.I.S., did he bribe you too?"
"I am merely proceeding based on data analysis, sir."
Just then, Paul came down the stairs, yawning. He was wearing a loose set of pajamas, his hair was a bit messy, and his face was paler than usual, with faint dark circles under his eyes.
"Morning, Pepper. Morning, Dad." He pulled out a chair, sat down, and expertly poured himself a glass of milk.
Pepper's gaze lingered on his face with concern. "Paul, did you not sleep well last night? You look exhausted."
"It's nothing. Just had a long dream," Paul replied nonchalantly, but the fingers holding the milk glass were imperceptibly tense.
The sudden dizziness and fatigue from the previous night had evolved into a bizarre and fantastical dream after he fell asleep. Countless streams of data and code washed over his consciousness like a waterfall. The memories of Hiro Hamada intertwined with those of his past life, leaving him with a sense of spiritual exhaustion upon waking, as if his soul had been hollowed out.
The backlash from his "brain overclocking" had come sooner and more violently than he had anticipated.
"Since you're up, stop dawdling!" Tony rubbed his hands together, his face a mask of impatience. "Where's the gift? The one that's supposed to make me 'faster.' Hurry up and let me see it!"
Seeing his eager expression, a faint smile appeared on Paul's pale face. "Follow me. It's in the garage."
The underground garage of the Malibu mansion was Tony Stark's sanctuary. Rows of priceless supercars were parked here, and deeper inside was the private lab he was so proud of.
But today, the center of the garage was occupied by three strangely shaped devices.
On the far left was a sleek, all-black host unit, about half a meter tall. Its surface was seamless, with no ports, only a single, ring-shaped blue indicator light that pulsed slowly, as if breathing.
In the middle was a futuristic white stasis pod. Through its semi-transparent lid, the complex network of life support system tubes was visible.
On the far right was a seemingly unremarkable metal headset, connected by a thin data cable to the black host unit.
"What is this? A new home theater system?" Tony circled the three devices, his face full of confusion. "A stasis pod... You don't expect me to watch movies while I sleep, do you? That's not a great idea."
Pepper also looked on curiously, sensing the advanced technology contained within these objects, but unable to guess their purpose.
Paul didn't answer directly. Instead, he picked up the metal headset and handed it to Tony.
"This is called the 'Synaptic Link Interface Terminal,'" Paul's voice was calm, yet carried an undeniable confidence. "The one in the middle is the 'Nutrition and Physiological Cycle Maintenance Stasis Pod.' And that host unit is the core of it all."
He paused, looking at Tony's growing confusion, and said, word by word:
"Together, I call them—the Virtual Reality System."
"Virtual Reality?"
Tony's pupils contracted sharply.
The term wasn't foreign to him. Stark Industries' R&D department had similar projects, but those things were, at best, high-resolution 3D games plagued by latency, motion sickness, and poor interactivity—a far cry from true "reality."
But Paul's expression now was as if he were stating an established fact.
"Lie down in it," Paul said, pointing to the stasis pod. "Then put this on."
Tony's Adam's apple bobbed. He didn't ask any more questions. A kind of genius intuition told him that what was in front of him might just shatter his understanding of the world. He took off his jacket, took a deep breath, and did as he was told, lying down in the stasis pod.
A cool, soft gel-like material conformed to his body. The lid closed silently, completely sealing off the light and sound of the outside world.
He put on the headset.
The next second, the world changed.
There was no boot-up screen, no loading bar.
His consciousness felt as if it were gently lifted by an invisible hand, instantly traversing dimensions.
When he "opened" his eyes again, he found himself standing in front of his most familiar workbench. The faint smell of machine oil and welding hung in the air. In the corner, Dum-E was staring blankly at a pile of scrap metal with a fire extinguisher. On the workbench, the blueprints for the Mark II's gauntlet, which he had left half-finished, were still spread out.
Everything was flawlessly real.
He instinctively raised his hand. The texture of his skin under the light, the curve of his fingernails, even a blue vein on the back of his hand—it was all identical to his own.
"My God..." Tony muttered.
He tentatively reached out, trying to grab a wrench on the table.
The moment his fingertips were about to touch the wrench, the cool, hard, worn metallic sensation was transmitted clearly to his nerve endings.
This... This isn't an illusion!
He snatched the wrench and slammed it against the workbench.
*CLANG!*
The crisp sound of metal on metal echoed through the workshop, sending sparks flying. He could even feel the slight vibration travel up his arm.
"This is impossible..." Tony was utterly stunned. He looked around; every detail, every play of light and shadow, was indistinguishable from the real world. He could even see the scorched hole in the distant wall from his last failed experiment.
"Welcome to the 'Singularity Lab,' Dad," Paul's voice echoed in his ear, ethereal and clear. "In here, you can access all the material and equipment models from the Stark Industries database to conduct cost-free, risk-free virtual experiments."
As Paul finished speaking, a semi-transparent interface materialized before Tony's eyes.
With a thought, he tried searching for "Arc Reactor" on the interface.
Instantly, countless related schematics, material parameters, and simulation data flooded his view like a waterfall. He casually selected the core components for the second-generation reactor, and as soon as the thought formed, a pile of virtual palladium, coils, and energy conduits materialized on the workbench.
Tony's breathing began to quicken.
What did this mean?
It meant he no longer had to worry about expensive material waste or fear catastrophic explosions from failed experiments. He could test all the crazy ideas in his head with reckless abandon!
This was an inventor's paradise!
"This is what you meant by 'faster'?" Tony's voice was hoarse with excitement. "This... this isn't just fast. This is a miracle!"
"No," Paul's voice echoed again, tinged with a smile. "The real 'fast' is just beginning."
"See the time-flow regulator in the bottom-right corner of your interface?"
Tony's gaze was immediately drawn to it. He saw a button labeled "1x."
"Try setting it to 10x."
Tony's finger trembled as he reached out and lightly tapped the virtual button.
The world around him didn't change.
But when he looked down at his own hands assembling the reactor core, he was horrified to find that his movements were as fast as a phantom blur!
The precision welding that should have taken ten minutes was finished in the blink of an eye!
"This... this is..."
"The time flow in the virtual world is set to ten times that of the real world. For every ten minutes you spend in here, only one minute passes outside," Paul explained. "The stasis pod will provide your body with nutrition and maintain stable physiological functions during extended virtual sessions."
A jolt went through Tony. An even crazier idea flooded his mind.
He looked up at the time regulator.
Next to 10x, there were options for 100x... and even... 1000x!
His heart began to pound wildly, threatening to burst from his chest.
A thousand-fold time acceleration!
What did this mean?
It meant he could spend an entire year researching in here, and only a little over eight hours would pass in the real world!
Decades of his accumulated research could be surpassed in just a few days in here! The bottlenecks of human technology would become like a thin piece of paper before him, easily pierced!
The iteration of the Iron Man armor, the upgrade of the Arc Reactor, entirely new energy systems... everything would be born from his hands at an unprecedented speed!
At this moment, Tony Stark, the genius standing at the pinnacle of global technology, felt like a caveman seeing fire for the first time.
He was completely floored by his son's Christmas gift.
After an unknown amount of time, the lid of the stasis pod slowly opened.
Tony sat up as if boneless, his eyes staring blankly into the distance. Pepper rushed forward to support him.
"Tony? Are you okay?"
Tony didn't answer. He just stared intently at Paul, his eyes a mixture of shock, fervor, and a hint of... fear.
He finally understood what Paul had meant last night when he called it "Pandora's Box."
If this thing were ever revealed to the world, it wouldn't just trigger a technological revolution, but a civilizational leap—a storm powerful enough to upend the entire world order!
"Name your price."
After a long moment, Tony finally forced the words through gritted teeth. He grabbed Paul's shoulders, his eyes bloodshot. "This system, how much? I'll buy it! Stark Industries will buy it! No, I'll buy it with my personal funds!"
He couldn't let this fall into anyone's hands, not even the board of Stark Industries.
He had to have it for himself!
Looking at the borderline-maniacal Tony, Paul just shook his head calmly.
He pulled free from Tony's grasp, walked over to the black host unit, and gently caressed its smooth surface.
"Dad, calm down."
Paul turned to face the bewildered gazes of Tony and Pepper, that enigmatic smile returning to his pale face.
"This is just the appetizer."
"I still have... something even more incredible to show you."