"Alright, let's test those functions you mentioned." Stark took the halo and said.
At this moment, Bruce Banner walked in. As he turned to close the door, he said, "Tony, the data you wanted may not be ready until next week... Oh, you're all here. What are you guys doing here? And why are so many lights on in the lab?"
Banner looked around the whole lab, which was much brighter than usual. He smile and said, "I wish my lab had such conditions. One of the ceiling lights in my lab is broken and it's still not fixed."
"Don't worry, Dr. Banner, I'll help you fix it later." Shiller turned his head and said. Stark snorted and rolled his eyes, saying, "Don't tell me you think you can fix the lab's ceiling light by just changing a light bulb?"
Shiller gave him a sideway glance but said nothing. Banner approached them, pointed at the halo in Stark's hand, and asked, "What is this? Some new invention of yours?"
"It's the crystallization of this psychologist's delusions... Never mind, Bruce, you came at the right time. Let's test this peculiar halo to see what properties it has."
Once the two physics geniuses got together, there was no room for Strange or Shiller to speak. Very soon, they started a series of tests and successfully identified the uniqueness of the halo.
First, there was the lighting function. Stark discovered that the light from the halo did not obey the laws of physics. It could not be refracted, but it could appear anywhere.
However, this light does not have a distinct source. It simply illuminates within approximately a 50 meter radius, much like the brightening of a photograph. Within this visual range, all objects become brighter.
No structure could obstruct it. In the area covered by the light, there were no shadows, everything was illuminated.
As for the magnification and minimization function, there's not much to say. It's just that the process of magnification and minimization is rather slow and can't be used as weapons due to its slow expansion.
The weight changes with the zoom, but there is no way to test the density. Also, the limit of its reduction exceeds the microscopic limit observed by humans, so it cannot be determined how small it can be.
As for the recall function, it was indeed as Xijis Strange said – it was a simple anti-theft function. No matter where the halo was, Shiller could always call it back, ignoring space and environment. However, the only return point was his head.
Stark conducted further tests and then found that the halo could only stay on the top of Shiller's head. If anyone else held the halo, it wouldn't automatically float above their head. This was something only Shiller could do.
The most crucial feature was the hardness. At present, none of the known metals possessed by Stark Laboratory could harm it.
Vibranium, Adamant Alloy, Molten Steel and other rare and expensive metals, after collision tests, showed no signs of greater hardness than it.
Stark fixed the halo onto a machine. The machine attached the halo from inside and then started rotating at high speed.
The halo slowly approached a piece of Adamant Alloy, and then cut through it like slicing through butter.
Shiller nodded in satisfaction and said: "At least, it can be used as a knife, can't it?"
Stark and Banner shook their heads together and sighed. Shiller looked at them and Banner explained, "We have more efficient ways to cut similar metals, and in this age of efficiency, if this material cannot be mass-produced, it's meaningless."
Shiller sighed and said: "Alright, so that's that."
"Wait, can't it be used as a weapon?" Strange asked.
"That's the strange thing about it. In some ways, it doesn't follow the laws of physics, but in others, it adheres to them too much." After Stark removed the halo, he threw it out.
The halo fell on the ground, making a "clang" sound. After rolling a few times on the ground, it stopped. Stark said, "See, the damage it can cause depends heavily on the force used to throw it."
"During flight, it doesn't have its own acceleration. Even if we could provide it an acceleration, why would we do such a thing? Being harder doesn't always make a missile better..."
"To put it simply, this is a brick harder than anything else." Banner summarized very accurately.
After being confirmed by several experts, the halo indeed didn't have any particularly special properties. Shiller guessed that these attributes might be due to some religious imagery or the action of crossing worlds.
When everyone was about to leave, Shiller turned to Banner and said, "Let's go, Dr. Banner. I'm more concerned about the lights in your lab. Of course, I also care about your mental state. How is your other personality doing?"
"I was just thinking of talking to you about this. He's been changing recently, but I don't know how to describe it..."
"Don't worry, we can talk about it slowly in your lab."
Shiller and Banner drove to Banner's lab. As soon as they entered the lab, Shiller noticed that the lighting was indeed a little dim. One of the ceiling lights fixed on the ceiling was not lit.
Shiller transformed into gray mist and flew up to repair the ceiling light, meanwhile asking Banner about his mental condition. However, while being in the state of gray mist, the halo was still floating above his head, which he had not yet fully adapted to.
Shiller made the gray mist ascended, it didn't cause any damage to the ceiling, but the extremely hard halo got embedded into the ceiling.
With a "crack" sound, Shiller opened a hole in the ceiling, and the ceiling light he was repairing, along with three other lights around him, instantly went out.
Looking at the now darker lab, Shiller rubbed his hands and said, "Sorry, Dr. Banner, your lights might not... But it's okay..."
As he spoke, he reached out, took off the halo from top of his head, gave it to Banner, and said, "Since these lights were broken due to this halo, let it take care of the illumination for tonight."
With that, Shiller snapped his fingers. Immediately, the lab was brightly lit.
After Shiller left the room, Banner looked at the halo he was holding, shook his head in confusion.