Disney's Hollywood Studios in Orlando is the smallest of the four parks, but it can still be referred to as a concentrated essence, hosting many popular film IP projects, and most of them are quite exciting, thus it's extremely popular among the young.
Walking through the boulevard, one can see a huge Mickey's Magic Hat, radiating vibrant blue and purple hues and adorned with stars, the moon, and the classic Mickey glove icon.
The structure of the four parks in Disney World is roughly the same, with a main road leading to four or five areas. The Main Street, U.S.A. in Magic Kingdom is replaced with a boulevard in Hollywood Studio.
Because Steve and Shiller's team had to wait for Black Panther T'Challa, they didn't rush inside at the opening time but rather spent some time watching a show under Mickey's Magic Hat Stage.
Another distinguishing feature of Hollywood Park is that many of the shows are performed by aspiring comedians, and there are even impromptu performances by the visitors.
The Magic Hat Stage was conducting a rehearsal for the official show in the evening, and although the performers were already dressed up, the lack of lighting and music made it less engaging.
Luckily, T'Challa arrived quickly, but to everyone's surprise, he was accompanied by the mutant Storm Ororo from the teleportation portal.
Steve immediately patted T'Challa's arm and smiled, "I heard you two got engaged recently? When are you planning to hold the wedding?"
T'Challa also smiled heartily, and Ororo stepped forward and said somewhat helplessly: "I told you the moment we announced our engagement, everyone would be asking this question, non-stop, repeatedly."
"In reality, we have to wait for a while." T'Challa calmly replied, "The process of the Wakandan Royal Family wedding is very complicated because we have to coordinate the time availability of all tribal chiefs, and during the wedding ceremony, we also have to worship the Panther God, which is a complex and lengthy process..."
"Furthermore, the Monroe family has a lot of taboos regarding weddings." Ororo added, "I have to be mindful of my relatives' opinions to avoid offending the gods on both sides with certain acts."
Steve shook his head and said: "I thought the Catholic wedding was complicated enough. Carter told me that he fell asleep three times in the church during his cousin's wedding ceremony."
"I've had that experience too." T'Challa held back a smile, "But African wedding ceremonies, though complicated, are usually lively and often involve guest participation, so it won't be too boring."
"So it won't be too long now, right?" Shiller also asked.
Both T'Challa and Ororo responded with a smile, then they said: "As soon as we've set a date, we'll send you the invitations. Just give them to Nick, okay?"
"He'll go nuts." Steve and his group started to explore the park as he was saying: "Nick only gave us such a long vacation because Disney is covering all the expenses."
"I guess I'll have to prepare some more gifts then."
"More than the gifts, he probably hopes the gift boxes will be made of Vibranium," Shiller shook his head slightly. "Ever since the price of Vibranium started to sky-rocket, his eyes become strange when he looks at Steve's shield."
Steve gave a low chuckle, patting the wrapped shield in his hand, and said, "Don't think we don't know, Nick bought a heap of Vibranium when the price was the lowest. He is not willing to sell now only because he thinks the price will rise further."
T'Challa was beaming talking about this topic. Ever since the infusion of molten steel impacted the international price of Vibranium, it in turn affected Wakanda's international status. S.H.I.E.L.D., SWORD, Stark Group, the Wakandan Royal Family, and even the mutants, took a number of measures to coordinate properly.
Initially, many civil companies assumed that the large-scale extraction of molten steel would replace Vibranium entirely. However, S.H.I.E.L.D., Stark Group and the Mutants made an agreement to control the amount of molten steel being mined and tightened the conditions of molten steel procurement for civil use.
Meanwhile, Wakanda also relaxed its Vibranium export restrictions slightly, and made direct agreements with the high-demand companies to supply them with steady raw materials.
Most of these civil companies found that though Vibranium is expensive, it is easier to procure with stable supplies, making it more conducive for extended production lines and causing the international price of Vibranium to rise slightly.
Then came the cultural propagation. Vibranium, similar to gold, is an extraterrestrial material that Earth itself cannot produce.
The physical strength of Vibranium significantly surpasses that of gold, and it is chemically stable as well, making it necessary for the production of various precision equipment. With significantly higher industrial value than gold, although it lacks the brilliance of well-cut diamonds, Vibranium is rarer and harder to find.
The turning point came when Asgard made the Divine King's Crown. S.H.I.E.L.D., SWORD, along with Asgard, propagated that the ruler of the Nine Major Kingdoms, intending to collect nine dazzling gemstones from the kingdoms, had decided to use Vibranium to make the Divine King's Crown.
This sparked a major discussion among the public, with everyone pondering which metal could represent Earth. Ultimately, the Cosmological Twelve-Type Planetary Mineral Distribution Overview released by Stark Group made the general public, who had never left the surface of Earth, realize that diamonds are not rare.
Generally, on most planets, the more valuable resources are not produced by the planet itself, but are instead one-off extraterrestrial objects that become coveted precious metals, and even become the planet's currency, like gold.
The place where Earth is exceptionally fortunate is that vibranium seems to be a free metal in the universe, not originating from any particular planet. Stark speculates that vibranium likely comes from the core of a planet that has vanished due to a collision or explosion, since only the pressure of an entire planet could forge such a dense material.
The sound-absorbing characteristic of vibranium might be a special property developed after the dense core was subjected to some kind of cosmic radiation. It is an accidental coincidence, a low probability within a low probability.
As such, the call for vibranium progressively grew louder. On one hand, it greatly stimulated mankind's feeling of superiority. After all, amidst the vast universe, this material just happened to fall onto Earth and is absent elsewhere. It is far more astonishing than steel mined on a planet.
On the other hand, if vibranium is also considered rare in the universe, then it wouldn't be shameful to present it. If diamonds and gold were presented, wouldn't aliens from other planets which produce these two minerals feel as if the Divine King was wearing their floor tiles on his head?
Therefore, vibranium naturally became the ninth gemstone on Thor's crown. Then people realized that this metal, which was originally used only for industrial materials, actually radiated an unique beauty after being forged by the dwarfs.
For a time, the fame of vibranium grew exponentially in the collector's circle.
Also, because not everyone has the technology to forge this metal, it is chased after those wealthy people who pursue rarities. Wakanda set up a vibranium jewelry production center overnight. Both T'Challa and Ororo wore a full set of vibranium jewelry at all recent important events.
"We are planning to collaborate with the dwarfs soon." As T'Challa and Steve walked inside, they said, "Their forging technology is indeed surprising, making us marvel even more at the boundlessness of the universe and the wonder of life."
"Another reason we cannot set a date for our wedding is that we hope to use this opportunity to show the beauty of vibranium to the world."
"No longer stingy about exports truth?" Shiller joked with a smile.
T'Challa shook his head and said: "The policy of maintaining a bit of precious resources, like my father did, and believing that Wakanda's position could not be shaken long term, cannot last. The gifts bestowed upon us by heaven should bring us greater benefits, rather than being used by those vibranium traders."
"It's hard to imagine how you persuaded your father." Steve sighed and said: "Howard once told me that the most difficult part of making this shield was not the design or the forging, but getting such a large chunk of vibranium, which was nearly impossible."
T'Challa looked down at Steve's shield and said: "Forgive me for being straightforward, but Wakanda could not have possibly exported such a large piece of vibranium during that era. This should be the work of vibranium traders."
Hearing their conversation, Shiller paused. He turned his head to look at Steve and said: "Did Howard tell you this shield was made of vibranium?"
Both T'Challa and Steve were stunned for a moment before Steve nodded and said: "When he gave me this shield, I asked about the material, and he told me it was made of vibranium."
"After using it, I found that this shield has many powerful functions. For instance, it can completely eliminate the impact of falling, can absorb an enormous amount of kinetic energy - with no upper limit found so far - and can absorb sound waves. Aren't these characteristics of vibranium?"
T'Challa also nodded and said: "Also known as Sound-Absorbing Steel, the property of vibranium is very special. The electrons in the material do not move at all, causing the molecules to be at zero Kelvin, lacking movement at the molecular scale. Therefore, vibranium doesn't transfer force physically, so it can almost completely absorb kinetic energy and never wear out. "
Shiller actually knew that Captain America's shield was made of a vibranium alloy and that the raw materials did not come from Howard Stark, but were instead from Dr. McLaren, a materials scientist. He accidentally mixed many materials to create a mysterious alloy in the lab while resting.
The properties of this mysterious alloy are even more peculiar. It makes vibranium more flexible and turns it into a super elastic alloy. This alloy should be the original Adamantium.
However, Shiller did not say this outright, because if a real Star Wars-themed battle were about to happen, T'Challa, who has the most frequent contact with vibranium, would certainly notice that the properties of Captain America's shield are not entirely consistent with vibranium.
As they are very eager to hype up vibranium, once they discover that the alloy of vibranium has superior properties to vibranium itself, the value of vibranium will undoubtedly skyrocket further.
More importantly, if they can have a superior vibranium alloy material, then vibranium has an advantage that molten steel does not, and thus would not be replaced by molten steel.
Shiller guessed that Howard chose to conceal the original Adamantium at the time because he didn't want to encourage Wakanda's price-gouging habits. The old king of that era was determined to be a resource-dependent country. If they realized that vibranium alloys were more valuable, the price of vibranium would surely soar.
However, T'Challa seems to be planning an active transformation to keep up with the pace of cosmic development. Perhaps deeper development of the material properties of vibranium would be more beneficial than detrimental to human industry.