“All right, I’ll drop by your pce this afternoon. You go on back for now—I have some business at the company,” Aaron said, ruffling Kate’s hair so thoroughly it turned into a bird’s nest.

  With Kate filing her arms in protest, Aaron got into the car with Felicia and drove off.

  He wasn’t worried about Kate’s safety. She was now accompanied 24/7 by two armed female bodyguards—both former special-forces soldiers—thanks to her family’s security company connections.

  “Felicia, your driving skills are really coming along,” Aaron remarked with admiration.

  “Mmm? It’s all thanks to your personal instruction, Boss. I’ll keep practicing!” Felicia replied, busy working the automatic transmission. The car was top-of-the-line, but the gearshift still had to be operated manually, which annoyed her. It was also so rge that she had to grip it with both hands to feel in control.

  The engine had some real power—once it got going, it felt like they were about to take off. Whenever the road wasn’t perfectly smooth, they were practically bouncing in their seats the whole time. Felicia was torn between excitement and nerves, wondering if she was really qualified to handle such a vehicle.

  Meanwhile, Aaron was casually steering with one hand while using his other hand to pat Felicia’s head, reminding her to focus. They zipped along the highway in a bze, hardly ever leaving it.

  Arriving at Oscorp, Felicia first straightened Aaron’s clothes, then tidied up her own light makeup—particurly her lips, which had gotten smudged while they were stuck in traffic. She’d been so rushed that she accidentally smeared her makeup, and her lips were slightly swollen from knocking into something.

  “Boss, everything you asked for is done,” Norman reported. He was careful not to stare at Felicia’s slightly unusual appearance. His face looked tense but excited.

  “They already agreed that once we produce an anti-aging serum, they’re ready to invest heavily!” he added.

  Aaron nodded. “The items I requested—are they ready?”

  “All inside. Let me take you there!” Norman said, leading the way. As they walked, he added, “Boss, Dr. Octavius and Dr. Connors have settled into their bs and are in the final stages of setup. They can begin experimentation anytime.”

  “Dr. Connors seems especially eager—he’s hoping to see you soon.”

  “Tell him I’ll give him what he wants a bit ter,” Aaron answered calmly.

  Norman nodded, unable to hide his grin.

  Despite all the fear and specution in the outside world—loudmouthed individuals talking about how Oscorp was sinking—within the company, morale was steady. All because of a single image shared in their internal work group chat: Professor Connors, completely fine and healthy. He was even fshing a thumbs-up at the camera. At first gnce, it seemed unremarkable—until you remembered Dr. Connors had always been missing his right arm. People knew he was left-handed primarily because he had no choice. Yet in this photo, he was showing off his right hand—and looking genuinely thrilled, with no sign of any prosthetic or Photoshop trickery.

  Though Aaron hadn’t made any official announcements, everyone strongly suspected he was no less a genius than Tony Stark—having independently developed a limb-regeneration formu, with Dr. Connors as living proof!

  Once mass production of such a serum began, Oscorp would rocket to stardom, and every rumor or smear would be instantly discredited.

  The greater their current pressure, the higher they’d soar in the future.

  Norman, for one, was ecstatic: A super healing formu, a limb-regeneration formu, and an upcoming anti-aging formu—all the promises Aaron had made him were about to be fulfilled far sooner than expected. It was almost too fast, making Norman regret that Oscorp hadn’t built itself up even more, so there would be more top-tier biologists avaible to reverse-engineer the formus. Still, no matter—time was on their side.

  With respectful greetings from the employees, Aaron, Felicia, and Norman reached a private storage room. Felicia and Norman instinctively took up positions outside the door like statuesque guards, scanning the surroundings to keep any prying eyes away.

  Aaron entered alone, finding the floor piled high with items. He nodded in satisfaction:

  1. Doctor Octopus’s signature four-armed mechanical harness

  2. A box containing ten vials of the incomplete Goblin Serum

  3. The test high-end desktop computer and a top-tier ptop

  4. Two transparent tanks—each containing ten live electric eels, turtles, and cms

  5. Ten transparent bio-culture containers, each housing a living naked mole-rat and several test tubes of water

  6. Several boxes of telescopes with various functions, from basic models to sor scopes and space-viewing scopes—essentially anything that could be procured quickly. (Larger, heavier ones—like massive astronomical observatories—would take more time and custom orders, but Oscorp had the resources to obtain them eventually.)

  7. A small green insect only a few centimeters long—a green leaf sea slug (more accurately a green sea slug, Elysia chlorotica). This creature is notable for devouring algae, extracting chloropsts to perform photosynthesis, letting it survive on sunlight alone for extended periods. Not only does it store the algae’s chlorophyll, it also “steals” some of the algae’s genes, producing a protein necessary for operating those chloropsts. Essentially, it’s like a tiny version of the Primordial Furnace—it “steals” genes from other life-forms, albeit only one or two kinds.

  Aaron had learned of it by chance and asked Norman to get a few for experimental purposes. And now, it was time for the fun part.

  Aaron systematically absorbed the smaller items first, one by one. Streams of shimmering lights flowed into his body.

  Bleam